Pokemon GO isn’t out in the UK just yet, but that hasn’t stopped pretty much everyone with a phone from getting it anyway.
Nintendo are known for making gamers figure stuff out on their own, and there are loads of things that you can do in Pokemon GO that aren’t included in the tutorial.
Check out our top ten Pokemon GO tips that you might not know about:
1. You can get Pikachu as your starting Pokemon!
It might sound like we completely made this up, but trust us, it’s a thing! When Professor Willow first shows up with Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle, just ignore them. Walk away and they’ll spawn next to you, but if you keep doing this over and over, on your fourth time Pikachu will appear!
Congratulations, you just became Ash Ketchum.
2. Footsteps = distance
As you’re walking around, you’ll notice the ‘nearby’ menu in the bottom right hand corner of your screen. Tap this to open it up, and you’ll see a grid of Pokemon with footprints underneath them.
These footprints show how far away each Pokemon is from your location. As you get closer, each footstep will disappear until there are none left, which means the Pokemon is right next to you!
Extra tip: If you tap on a Pokemon with no footprints under it while you’re in the ‘nearby’ menu, it’s apparently more likely to appear in front of you.
3. You can get coins for free!
The items in the store unfortunately cost gold, and gold is only bought with real life money. Unless you’re a Pokemon gym master, that is.
If one of your Pokemon is assigned to a gym, you can go to the store and tap the ‘defence bonus’ shield in the top right hand corner. You can do this once a day for a bonus of 10 coins and 500 stardust for each Pokemon you've stationed at a gym.
4. Wait until the ring is at its smallest
When catching Pokemon, timing is everything.
As you go to throw your Pokeball, you’ll notice a coloured ring around the Pokemon you’re facing. Green rings mean the Pokemon will be relatively easy to capture, while orange and red rings are much more difficult.
If you wait until the ring is at its smallest when you throw your ball, you’re almost guaranteed to make sure the Pokemon doesn’t just jump back out!
5. You get more XP for curve balls
These are risky, but if you can pull them off right, you’ll be flying up the levels in no time.
To throw a curve ball, you’ll need to hold your finger on the Pokeball and start spinning it in a circular motion until it starts to sparkle. Flick away, and if it hits your target, you just caught a Pokemon and got a load of extra XP in the process.
6. There’s a battery saver mode
If there’s anything that Pokemon GO is ridiculously good at, it’s draining your battery.
Apparently the developers are working on a fix for this, but for now, the built-in battery saver mode helps. At least a little bit.
Flick it on in the settings and your screen will turn itself off if you turn your phone upside down. This means if you put your phone in your pocket while you’re wandering around, your battery will take less of a battering.
You don’t need to see the screen to know if a Pokemon is nearby, as your phone will vibrate and make a noise when you’re next to one.
7. Catch duplicate Pokemon to make your most powerful ones evolve
The ‘transfer’ option at the bottom of each Pokemon’s stats screen lets you send that Pokemon to Professor Willow in return for one of that Pokemon’s candy.
Say if you had a Charmander with a combat power of 17 and a Charmander with a combat power of 58, transfer the weakling and pump its candy into the 58 pointer to force it to evolve into a more impressive Charmeleon. If you have enough candy, that is.
8. You can unleash your Pokemon’s special move for a devastating attack
If you’re battling in a gym, sometimes your standard attacks just won’t cut it.
Underneath your Pokemon’s HP, you’ll see some blue bars that start to fill up as you deal damage to your opponent. Once they’re full, you can hold down on your Pokemon to make them unleash their most powerful move!
9. You don’t have to walk around to catch Pokemon
Thanks to the way the world of Pokemon GO is populated, if you’re in a decent location (and you're lazy af), you can just sit back and wait for the Pokemon to come to you.
This is amplified if you use incense, which can be burned to attract Pokemon for 30 mins. Be careful though, incense keeps on burning even when you leave the game, so once you’ve lit one, you’d better make the most of it!
10. You can name your Pokemon
If you check out your Pokemon’s stats screen, you can click the pencil next to their name to change it.
That means you can call your Snorlax ‘DJ Khaled’, and shout “Another one!” every time you attack with it. That’s what we did, anyway.
Love Pokemon more than JME does? That’s probably not possible, but you might want to check out our series of ‘UK grime x Pokemon’ illustrations anyhow.
