Beginners Tips for Pokémon GO

1. Collect the Pikachu at the start - ONE chance (Tip #5) 

2. Do not waste your Stardust at the begining of your game. You will need them to evolve the higher CP pokemons later. So dont evolve/power-up early on. With each level up, you will be capturing pokemon of higher CP automatically.

3. Collect ALL kinds of Pokémon along the way, even if you are repeated by getting them. The most collected Pokémon, which you think is a waste right now, will evolve the most as you are collecting the specific Pokémon candy as well.

4. At the end of level 4, you will get to chose a team - Red, Blue and Yellow. It is still not clear which team is the most efficient/quick, but it helps if all your friends join the same color team.

5. Check out the Pokémon Evolution chart here. This chart details out every Pokémon and its evolution path.

6. Here is the Pokémon rarity chart maintained by Reddit users.

7. Pokéstops refresh every 5 minutes. So if you have some time, choose a place that is between 2, 3 or more Pokéstops and keep rolling!

8. There are some real-time interactive maps (like Google Maps) available that shows you where Pokémons are being discovered (1, 2, 3, 4). They are not reliable enough.

Getting Started with your First Pokémon

Quick Tips:

[Jump to All you wanted to know about "Pokémon Go"]

1. Pokémon GO is not yet launched in many countries like India. You can still join it by downloading the APK here and installing it in Android Phones. It is a 58+ MB download, so be patient. For iOS, the processes is slighly more elaborate as explained here.

2. Once installed, create a new Trainer Profile in the app and play the game.

3. The developers of the game disallow GPS spoofing (fake/mock your real GPS location). In the beginning, you may get a message like "Failed to detect location" even if your GPS is turned on and set to "High Accuracy". For Android phones, go to Settings. Scroll down to About Phone/Device. If developer options is not enabled (it is not enabled by default), tap on Build number 7 times and developer options will be enabled. Now, go back to Settings, and go to Developer Options, there will be many options but you need to disable the Mock Location option.

4. Alert: The app is still full of bugs. The most common being the "Freezing" of the Pokéball. You will have to live with the frustration as of now till the developers fix them. Also at times, there is "Server Overload" due to the games' increasing popularity. The developers are said to having tough time adding server capacities. If in case the game freezes, the best bet is to wait for a few minutes and then close the game completely. Start all over again, mostly likely the Pokemon is actually captured and would appear in your PokéDex and your Journal. There are many tricks suggested by players to solve the problem, but none of them are foolproof.

5. You will get ONE chance to capture the cutest Pokemon of all, Pikachu. After logging in, you will immediately be greeted with 3 Pokémons. DO NOT capture them. Walk away, in any direction. After a distance, the same 3 Pokemon will appear. Again, DO NOT capture them. Walk away. This would continue for 3 more times. On the 4th/5th instance, Pikachu would appear. Capture it and enjoy!!

All you wanted to know about "Pokémon Go"

So whats new and trending... Pokémon GO! That's the famous anime series now in the augmented real world. Is it possible for a new app to take over the heavyweights like WhatsApp, Instagram, Tinder, Snapchat and Facebook? Yes, but in couple of weeks time? Pokémon GO has surpassed the likes in terms of Daily Usage on Mobiles, proving the "openess" of the social media space. Though the app is still full of bugs (read crummy product), its not a fad anymore... it has become a "global phenomena". 

[Jump to Getting Started with your First Pokémon]
[Jump to Beginners Tips for Pokémon GO]

The Game
Pokémon GO is a
- free-to-play
- location-based
- augmented reality
- mobile
- game
developed for iOS and Android devices. It was first released on 6th of July 2016. Making use of GPS and the camera of compatible devices, the game allows players to capture, battle, and train virtual creatures, called Pokémon, who appear on device screens as though in the real world. It is a "freemium" game - a free game with in-app purchases of additional game-play items. An optional companion Bluetooth wearable device, the Pokémon GO Plus, is planned for future release and will alert users when Pokémon are nearby.

The Backing
Pokémon GO launched for iOS and Android on July 6. The app was developed by mobile app developer Niantic but distributed by Nintendo’s Pokémon arm. Nintendo owns about 1/3rd of the partnership. Since the launch of the game, its market valuation soared to more than $40 billion, passing Sony - quickly becoming one of the most valuable gaming companies in the world.

The Effect
First things first, Pokemon makes you walk. So its good. In order to go higher in the game, players have to walk in the real world. But on the other hand with more attention towards the mobile devices, teen are falling off cliffs, getting hit by cars, light poles and what not. There is even a robbery and a death reportedly caused due to Pokemon GO play.

With hordes of people getting addicted to this game every minute across the world, there are people leaving their full time jobs to become trainers for the Pokémon trainers. Not to mention, a few companies have sprung up to encash the Pokemon movement.

On the lighter side, most churches, temples, mosques have now becomes Pokemon Stops or Gyms, where you need to come again and again to collect goodies required to take the game forward. That's one way to bring people closer to god :)

Business Openings
Tremendous opportunities are opening up for global as well as local businesses. Your "nearby" restaurant is now a PokéStop where you can spend time as well as grow your XPs. McDonald is planning to sponsor all their outlets as PokéGyms. Businesses have started offering free "real world" merchandise promote time spent on the "virtual" game play in their premises.