Playing Pokemon Go

This is just a simple post about my experiences so far, playing Pokemon Go.

I started playing the game back on November 14th of last year. It wasn't ever on my radar of games that I wanted to play, but I got coaxed into playing. For a total of four weeks in December and January, I couldn't log in so I had effectively stopped playing for roughly a month. Add onto that the fact that it's next to impossible to play in the rain, I was slowed down and was already four months behind others who'd started the day the game went live.

I know that people spend lots of money on the game, and by lots, I mean some folks higher than me have spent hundreds of dollars to get where they are. Then there are the cheaters who've used various tools to track the rare Pokemon monsters, etc. I represent none of those people. I'm just a person who assiduously plays the game. I haven't put a dime into the game and I don't cheat.

Though I'm roughly 5 months behind others, I'm already well into level 30. I've figured out that I can speed up my points if I just walk by myself for the sole purpose of playing the game. Up to now, I've almost entirely played while just walking the dog or going to the grocery store five blocks away.

Here's the one thing that helps the most: Living right next to a pokestop. I just sit here by my computer while working, watching a movie, etc., and every few minutes spin the pokestop wheel and top off my bag of items. Right now I have 244 Ultra Balls, most of them coming from just sitting around and spinning then tossing the excess items I don't use often.

Here's the second thing that helps the most: Living in downtown means that I can walk down the street for just a 1/4 mile and I'll hit a dozen monsters. There are certain spots where multiple pokestops means multiple monsters. One favorite cross street is NW 10th and NW Davis. Knowing where these stops are helps to speed up your point gains.

Here's the third thing that helps out the most: Don't pooh-pooh the Pidgey, Caterpie and Weedle. These three only require 12 candies to evolve and every time you evolve one you gain 500XP. If you use a Pinap to catch each one of them, you've basically set yourself up to gain an extra 500XP for every two Pidgeys, Caterpies and Wheedles you catch. Of course, you need to balance this with saving your candies for a future Pokemon event where you can earn double XP (as they did during Easter week).

Finally, once you've figured out where the monsters spawn and where the pokestops are, you can save your battery by turning your phone off in-between those spots. It's also one of my favorite tricks to kickstart the GPS whenever the game stalls and has me stuck a block away from where I'm actually at.

At my current pace, it'll take me another 2 years(!) to reach level 40. We'll see. I'm certain that I'll be able to speed up that process by 30~40% if I make certain changes in my tactics and methods. Right now, the minimum expectation is that I'll hit level 31 by the end of June, but I'm targeting 2 weeks.