Beginner's Guide to Pokémon Go

Welcome to the Beginner's Guide to Pokémon Go! Are you lost and have any questions concerning Pokémon Go? Or do you not understand a mechanic or aspect of the game? Well, you have come to the right place! Here I will be explaining the things you should know about Pokémon Go and revealing some helpful tricks and tips to help you with your in-game experience! I hope you will have a better understanding of this cool and fun game, and I hope you enjoy!

Things you should know about Pokémon Go

As expected, Pokémon Go has entirely different and at the same time similar mechanics to other Pokémon games. There are many features that might be confusing you, so understand them to avoid meeting some rough edges while you play.

Combat Power

Combat Power, or CP, is the mechanic that determines a Pokémon's hitting power or strength, as you can put it. Once you find a Pokémon, it will display its CP above it; if the CP of the Pokémon is above the level of your current highest-CP Pokémon, then it will display "??? CP". CP is one of the most important Pokémon Go mechanics, as it determines a Pokémon's worth and usefulness. At every level, you will have a CP cap, meaning that the higher leveled you are, the higher-CP Pokémon you can find in the wild. Upon evolution, a Pokémon's CP increases, some Pokémon's increase randomly, while some have specific CP multipliers. For example, Magikarp has an approximated evolution multiplier of 10-12x, so a Magikarp at 133 CP will evolve into a Gyarados with approximately 1343-1569 CP. You can also boost a Pokémon's CP by using some Stardust and the Pokémon's Candy, which will increase its CP by a certain amount. Like mentioned earlier, Pokémon with higher CP are most likely to defeat Pokémon with lower CP, as they hit harder and have more HP. Though important, CP alone cannot win you the battle, as there are other supporting mechanics that make your Pokémon powerful or weak. weak, such as STAB multipliers and type resistances. CP also depends on your Pokémon's height, weight, and species.

Pokémon stats

Your Pokémon, aside from having a CP, also have an Attack, a Defense, and a Stamina stat. A Pokémon's base Attack, similarly to the normal Pokémon games, determines the average amount of damage it can deal in a battle, and it is influenced by the CP. The base Defense is also similar to in the main series games, as it determines how much damage a Pokémon takes from an attack. Stamina might seem unfamiliar but can be understood easily. Stamina is the blue bar below a Pokémon's HP bar in a battle; when the Pokémon attacks or dodges a move, its Stamina bar charges up a little, and when it is fully charged it release its special or secondary move (explained below). The Stamina bar comes in different shapes, such as four small bars or one long bar.

Moves and battling

In Pokémon Go, your Pokémon also have moves, but the mechanics are quite different from what you know from the regular Pokémon games. Your Pokémon has two moves: in the first slot there are the standard, or first, moves; these moves don't require Stamina to be used. These moves can be used anytime you want while battling an enemy Pokémon at a gym. Just tap the screen to use this standard move, and it will deal damage. Secondary moves, or "Special moves", are the second move a Pokémon can have. Unlike the standard move, to use this special move you have to charge your Pokémon's Stamina bar. Basically you have to keep on using your standard move to fill up the Stamina bar, and once it's ready, if it fills either a square or the whole bar, press down on your screen for a while and it will unleash your Pokémon's special move, which does significantly more damage than its standard move. While battling you can also swipe your screen to make your Pokémon dodge enemy attacks; this way you can avoid taking damage and conserve the use of Potions. For details on which moves a Pokémon learns, you can access this from a chart Serebii has made on the different standard and special moves in Pokémon Go here. There are indeed Gen 6 STAB mechanics in Pokémon Go battling, meaning there are Fairy-, Dark-, and Steel-type moves in Pokémon Go. Compared to in the main games, the STAB and resistance multipliers are quite low, since the STAB multiplier and the super effective multiplier are approximated as 1.25x and the resistance and immunity multiplier are approximated as 0.8x, but nevertheless they aren't really that important in a battle. DPS (Damage Per Second) is also really important in Pokémon Go battling, but it isn't implemented in the normal Pokémon games. As explained in the Stats section, each move has a cooldown; for example, if a Pokémon uses a move, then it has to wait a certain amount of time to use it again, which adds kind of a momentum or combination in battling, so you'll have to be strategic and carefully determine when you should attack or dodge. Pokémon battling has never been as strategic as in Pokémon Go, but hey! Being different in other games is fun! You just gotta work your way through it. Also the correct way to dodge involves calculating the DPS of your move, and try also to predict the attacks of the other Pokémon to dodge at the right moment. It can be noted that one of the best moments to dodge is when you see the yellow flash on the battling screen. Pokémon Go battling is up to strategy and timing so you better watch out and time your attacks/dodges nicely.

Catching and Poké Balls

The Poké Ball and Pokémon catching mechanics are pretty different in Pokémon Go, so there is much to learn here! When you find a Pokémon it will enter the camera catching screen, which includes the Pokémon, a white circle around it, and another green, orange, or red circle inside the white one that indicates how difficult it is to catch the Pokémon. Here you have to flick or swipe your screen to throw the Poké Ball, and if it lands in the circle it will shake like in the original games and the Pokémon might have been caught, but keep in mind that it might also escape the Poké Ball and you'll have to try again. If you land a "nice", "good", or "excellent" throw, which means you have to land the Poké Ball in the colored circle ("nice" is if you land it in the green, "good" for orange and "excellent" for red) the catch rate is much higher and you'll probably catch the Pokémon. There are notable strategies to land "good" and "perfect" throws that will be listed below in the "Tips and Tricks" section, so you can read there for more information about catching techniques. You can use Poké Balls, Great Balls, and Ultra Balls, which will be unlocked at different levels, and like in the normal Pokémon games, their catch rates vary, with an Ultra Ball having the highest catch rate. It has been indeed confirmed Master Balls are 100% in the game, but they aren't released yet, so keep your eyes peeled, since you might find one when it really is released! It can be noted that a higher-CP Pokémon has a higher catch rate, since you wouldn't want the same catch rate for low-CP Pokémon and high-CP Pokémon, would you? That can make the game surprisingly easy or very hard. Each Pokémon also has an individual flee rate, so it can be determined which Pokémon are more likely to flee. Poké Balls are items you can get at PokéStops, but these are better explained in a paragraph below.

Items

Items, which are nearly in every Pokémon game, are important in their own way, and Pokémon Go is no exception. Here I will be explaining all of the items available in the game, and most notably nearly all of the items that can be found at PokéStops.

Razz Berries

Razz Berries are items you can find at PokéStops or by levelling up (Razz Berries are unlocked at level 8). When used, a Razz Berry can increase the catch rate of the Pokémon you are trying to catch by feeding it to them. As always, it's a one-time use item, but it will most likely secure you the capture of that Pokémon, so save it for rare occasions!

Potions and Poké Balls

Potions and Poké Balls are items that work nearly the same as in the normal Pokémon games. Potions work just as you might imagine; they heal your Pokémon after defending a Gym (explained below). Potions heal for 20 points, Super Potions heal for 50, and Hyper Potion heals for 200. Of course there's also the Max Potion, which heals all HP. There are no status healers because as of now, as there are no status conditions in Pokémon Go, so there's no need for Antidotes and similar items.

Lucky Eggs

Lucky Eggs work nearly the same in Pokémon Go as they do in normal Pokémon games. Instead of giving an experience boost to the Pokémon they are given to, when used, the Lucky Egg will double the experience you receive from anything you do. You can find Lucky Eggs by levelling up, receiving the first one at level 9. Lucky Eggs are best used when hatching Eggs or evolving Pokémon, since these are the actions that give you the most experience.

Eggs

Eggs are also a way of getting Pokémon. Functioning nearly like Eggs in the normal Pokémon games, Eggs vary from 2 km and 5 km to 10 km, meaning you have to travel these distances on foot in order to hatch them. The higher the distance needed to be walked, the rarer the Pokémon will be, meaning you can find pretty high-CP rare Pokémon, or you can just get unlucky and get a Weedle, it's all about Chance(sey).

Incense

Incense are items that you can use if you want to get Pokémon to come to our location. When the Incense is used, for 30 minutes Pokémon will be near you, meaning you will be able to catch a lot of Pokémon. When the Incense is activated, a purple mist will be around you as you walk and will draw Pokémon to you.

Lure Module

Lure Module(s) is an item that works similar to Incense, but instead you can only use it at PokéStops; the good thing is that Pokémon come flocking, and so do players! Lure Modules also work for other nearby players, who will come to the PokéStop to join the feast. Basically you can do someone else a favor by using a Lure Module and help them catch Pokémon; aren't you a nice guy? Like the Incense, they are active for 30 minutes.

Safety Note: Recently, worldwide there have been safety issues concerning sinister people using Lure Modules to lure in players to their location, so be very wary of the time when you spot a lure module being used; be careful and stay safe!

Revives and Max Revives

Revives and Max Revives work exactly the same like they do in normal Pokémon games. Revives revive fainted Pokémon to half health and Max Revives revive fainted Pokémon to full health, isn't that simple?

Incubators

Incubators, like the name suggests, are items to incubate and hatch Eggs. At the start of the game you only get one Incubator, and you can hold the maximum of nine eggs, so you'll need to purchase them with PokéCoins, but you can get them from leveling up too. The first Incubator you get has infinite uses, but the later ones you purchase or obtain only have three.

PokéCoins

PokéCoins are the currency of the Pokémon Go universe, and there are two ways to get them: defending Gyms or buying them with real-life money. Don't blame me if you run out of money; spend responsibly! Aside from that, PokéCoins can be used to buy all of the items listed above!

Level-up items

Some items are only available once you reach a certain level; for example, Great Balls can only be unlocked at level 12, and Ultra Balls, Max Revives, and Max Potions are unlocked at level 30. As you've noticed, different grades of these items are unlocked at higher levels because their abilities are greater than that of the item grade below them. The same applies to the shop, where you can only buy them once you unlocked them.

Cameras

Cameras are for taking selfies with your Pokémon! Just kidding, in Pokémon Go you do indeed get a camera, but unfortunately you can't snap selfies; you can take a picture of the Pokémon when you're catching it, in case it's rare, to brag about or maybe if it's cute and memorable. The camera, not really important, but a cool secondary item!

Bag and Pokémon inventory expansion

When your bag has 350 items, you can use PokéCoins to buy an expansion, which will give you 50 additional slots. The same applies to your Pokémon; when you have captured 250, you will need an expansion (again, these are sold in packs of 50 slots). The price in PokéCoins for the inventory expansion is noted below.

PokéStops

Thank god we've finished the item section that took a heck of a lot of time to wri... oh I forgot I'm still writing in this article, whoops! Anyways let's ignore that and go on about the topic of PokéStops, shall we? They are just like Poké Marts, but instead you get the items in bubbles, yes! There is no need to purchase anything with precious coins if you find a PokéStop, because you enter a cool animation that shows its location, and then bubbles come out and you can tap them to collect the items that are inside them; but if you don't want to waste time you can just tap to skip the animation and collect your loot. You can also use Lure Modules near PokéStops to attract other people to the PokéStop you're at, isn't that nifty advertising? Haha. Also it is most noted that you can find PokéStops in places like cities, parks, and landmarks. PokéStops have the same finding mechanic as portals in another Niantic game called Ingress. PokéStops in Pokémon Go and Portals in Ingress are both usually found at structures or buildings like parks, churches, memorials, and statues. Of course you'll have to spin the coin with the picture of the place of the PokéStop, which is kinda cool, right? It's like "spin the wheel to get your prize", but better, since you get more than one prize. Before you spin them, PokéStop look like a blue tower with a blue Poké Ball on top of them, but once you spin the coin it will turn purple and you'll have to wait another five minutes to spin it again. Square PokéStops are the ones you can't reach from your current location location, so you'll have to move closer to them to get your items.

Gyms and teams

Just like in nearly all Pokémon games, there must be a challenge or a battling aspect. Well, in Pokémon Go we have gyms, all so simple right? Wrong. Gyms are more complicated in Pokémon Go than you think they are. Luckily you have me, so you will understand it just fine! At level 5, you will be able to participate in Gym battles and you will pick between three teams: Team Instinct (Yellow), Valor (Red), and Mystic (Blue). They are nothing but something you have to pick; there are no advantages to each team, but the only thing they seem to bring is team competitiveness. When you decide to take on a Gym, you'll have to fight the Pokémon that are in there. Once you defeat them all, you become the Gym leader and can leave a Pokémon there to defend the Gym for your own team, and for the time period you defend that Gym, you receive PokéCoins each day, for your duties, of course. When someone else defeats your Gym, your Pokémon will be returned to you in poor condition, so you better heal them up, and you can always re-claim the Gym for the glory of your team! Depending on the Gym's prestige level, players can deposit a certain number of Pokémon to defend the Gym if it is claimed by their team. The Gym will display the highest-CP Pokémon deposited by a player for opposing teams to battle. If you choose to train your Pokémon at a Gym, it will increase the Gym's prestige while also giving you experience, PokéCoins, and other items like Stardust. The more you increase the Gym's prestige level, the more Pokémon you can deposit to defend the Gym. You can claim the items that you got from defending once every 21 hours, and you conquer a Gym after another in below than this time, you will not receive items, so conquer and gain wisely! Also you can leave a maximum of ten of your Pokémon at different gyms.

Where to find Pokémon

Where do you find Pokémon? Well, there are the easy methods that I explained earlier involving Modules and Incense where Pokémon come flocking to you, but if you are a real player, you will go out there and find Pokémon! To all couch potatoes of the world, you will actually have to stand up and leave your house to find Pokémon! Unless you use a fake GPS system, which is bannable, so don't do it, it's not cool to cheat! Some areas might have particular Pokémon spawning or you just find them everywhere. Some types of Pokémon can be found in specific places, so Water-types can be found near water, obviously; it's pretty simple. You can also you can click "Nearby Pokémon" to see which Pokémon are in your area. Easy, right? Pokémon are likely to be found near roads, cities, and villages, but they might not spawn around rural areas and oceans. There are also region-exclusive Pokémon, such as Tauros for North America, Mr. Mime for Europe, Farfetch'd for Asia, and Kangaskhan for Australia.

Evolution and transferring Pokémon

Evolution is the last topic you need to know about. You can evolve Pokémon using a certain number of their Candy, so if you want to evolve Pidgey, you'll need some Pidgey Candies, which you can obtain by catching many Pidgey, hatching them from Eggs, or transferring them to the Professor. Catching them gives you three Candies, hatching one give you a not-fixed number of Candies, while transferring a Pidgey to the professor will reward you with one Candy only. Note that transferring a Pokémon also removes it from your inventory. Not all Pokémon require the same number of candies to evolve; for example, Rattata requires 25 candies to evolve into Raticate, Krabby needs 50 to become a Kingler, but Pidgey will only ask for 12 to turn into a Pidgeotto. Also, this brings the topic of Eeveelutions! The available Eeveelutions in this game are only the first generation's: Jolteon, Flareon, and Vaporeon. It's completely random and up to chance which Eeveelution you will get, a 33% chance, to be exact. But there is a notable tip for this in the Tips and Tricks section! Upon evolution, your Pokémon's CP will rise a lot! Pokémon that usually need to be traded to evolve have higher Candy cost to evolve instead, and so do powerful three-stage evolutions. Here are some examples of candy requirements!

25 Eevee Candies = or or
25 Dratini Candies = 100 Dratini Candies =
12 Caterpie Candies = 50 Caterpie Candies =
25 Gastly Candies = 100 Gastly Candies =
400 Magikarp Candies =

Tips and tricks

Ok, now that we've covered most of the things you need to know, here are some cool tips and tricks that'll help you even further with your Pokémon Go experience!

Note: You might have to be at a specific level and higher to perform some of these or get the right items.

Fast leveling

There are many notable ways of getting a lot of fast experience to boost your level, but this one is so far the most efficient. I wouldn't call myself a good technique namer, but let's call this technique: Evolution XP Booster. So, the items you need are: Lucky Egg(s), a lot of Pokémon that evolve with very few Candies, such as Caterpie, Pidgey, and Weedle (12 Candies needed to evolve), and of course many of their Candies. Now that you got all the items you'd first want to use the Lucky Egg to start the double the experience gain and then rapidly evolve all your Pokémon and get a massive experience boost thanks to your Lucky Egg. This technique is really helpful because it allows you to reach higher levels quickly, which directly improves your gameplay because you'll be able to find wild Pokémon with a high CP. So gather up these items and start farming! Note that you can also use this technique in an area with a lot of PokéStops or where there are frequent Pokémon spawns so that you can capitalize on the experience gained by visiting PokéStops or catching Pokémon. Also note that the experience received from evolving Pidgey to Pidgeotto and Pidgeotto to Pidgeot is the same, so don't bother evolving Pidgeotto when using this method because you are wasting Candies.

Name that Eevee

Like I mentioned earlier, you can't know what you'll get when you evolve an Eevee, right? Well, you can get your desired evolution by giving Eevee the right nickname! Here are the names to give to your Eevee depending on which evolution you want: Rainer is for Vaporeon, Pyro is for Flareon, and Sparky is for Jolteon. Pokémon Go also has its own collection of easter eggs and trivia. Pyro, Rainer, and Sparky are the names of the trainers who have one of Eevee's evolutions each in the 40th Pokémon Anime episode: The Battling Eevee Brothers (Japanese Name: Four Eevee Brothers). Recently it has been discovered that to get your desired Eeveelution you have to give the nicknames in some sort of evolution order, so if you want to get Vaporeon you'd have to first evolve two Eevee, one into Flareon with Pyro and one into Jolteon using Sparky, in that order.

Eggs! What to expect!

This isn't really a tip or a trick, but it's more informative. Here is a list of the Pokémon you can get from 2km/5km/10km Eggs; you'll see that the higher the km range, the rarer Pokémon hatched. Also there is a chart showing Egg Hatching Speed that calculates the pace and speed of the Egg hatch registering and how long you have to walk at what speed; credits go to Silph Road Co. for the egg speed chart. (Credits go to Taiyo4D for gathering the list of Pokémon in an Egg).

2 kilometer	5 kilometer	10 kilometer

The late Pokémon

As you can see above, these are pretty much all of the Pokémon you can obtain either in the wilderness or by hatching Eggs. But these next Pokémon cannot be obtained with any method as of now, but they are still in the code of the game. Pokémon Go is based off the Gen 1 Pokédex, so the unavailable Pokémon are probably known by Pokémon fans (151 minus the ones that can be found). But I'll list them anyways: Ditto, Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, Mew, and Mewtwo.

PokéCoin Expenses

If you don't find a PokéStop or can't really go out, then here is a nifty last resort tip; you can always buy items at the store on your screen with PokéCoins, the currency of Pokémon Go. Here I will be listing the prices for each item so you know what to save up or what you can afford. Remember! PokéCoins can be obtained from defending Gyms or paying real money, which is not easy both ways, so spend responsibly!

Note: Also remember your inventory space! Don't buy a lot of things you can easily find at PokéStops unless it is urgent!

Poké Balls: 20 Poké Balls = 100 PC, 100 Pokéballs = 460 PC, 200 Pokéballs = 800PC
Incense: 1 Incense = 80 PC, 8 Incense = 500PC, 25 Incense = 1250PC
Lucky Eggs: 1 Lucky Egg = 80PC, 8 Lucky Eggs = 500PC, 25 Lucky Eggs = 1250PC
Lure Module: 1 Lure Module = 100PC, 8 Lure Modules = 680 PC
Incubators: 1 Egg Incubator is 150 PokéCoins
Inventory Upgrade: Bag Inventory Expansion and Pokémon Inventory Expansion = 200PC for every 50 slots

Special starter Pikachu

Here is a cool thing to know! You know when you get starters at the start of the game, right? Well, if you run away from your starters more than five times, you get a Pikachu instead; this is an easter egg too! Just as Ash in the anime comes too late for the starters and he gets a Pikachu. Isn't that nifty? Also this gives you an Electric-type early, which can be taken advantage of because Raichu, its evolution, has many coverage options in its movepool! It should also be noted that Pikachu is quite rare in most areas, so this will also help you complete your Pokédex more easily.

Pokémon spawn points

Here is a cool trick! People have realized that Pokémon spawning points exist, which are basically places where Pokémon of the same species can be found frequently. This is helpful when you want to get the Candy of a specific Pokémon so you can go there to farm them, but spawn points can randomly stop, and no more frequent spawns will happen there; it's all dependent on luck! Some examples can be that frequent Water-type Pokémon like Magikarp can be found around lakes, so you would want to farm those for Gyarados! Also, in river banks and creeks you might find a very lucky Dratini spawn point, or in dry areas and canyons people have claimed to have found fossil Pokémon like Omanyte, Kabuto, and Aerodactyl. These spawn points are subject to change, but if you spot one, then you're really lucky, since you can farm those Candies at least for some time! Use this opportunity and use the spawn points while they're still there.

Conclusion

Now you have a good understanding of the "General Things You Should Know" about Pokémon Go and you also know how to perform these awesome and helpful Tips and Tricks! Hopefully, you can use this knowledge to help your general understanding of Pokémon Go and its mechanics and items to further enhance your gameplay or help other people with their questions! I hope you learned a lot and have fun and be safe playing Pokémon Go!

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