Pokemon Hotspot: River Greenway Bluffton Indiana

Walking the River Greenway in Bluffton Indiana with my mom, brother, and a friend, This is what we came across. I live in a more rural area than most people so to most this probably isn't a whole lot, but to me, this was like winning the lottery. If you live around the area then this spot is differentially worth checking out. There aren't any Pokestops (yet) so I would come with a good 100 Pokeballs per hour you plan on walking... yes I went through over 100 Pokeballs within an hour. 

I started from the beginning of the trail, which you can get to by turning east on the first road past Hardees, I walked for about 30 minutes and turned back around after reaching a red bridge. Walking that distance helped me hatch 5 2k eggs and 3 5k eggs within the hour. I also put 2 incenses up which I was lucky enough to get a Dratini off of. 

Everton Indiana Pokestops

Connersville Indiana Pokestops

Lynn Indiana Pokestops

Pokemon Evolution Chart

Pokemon Evolution Chart Here is something I found a while back. It was something I was planning on doing a post over but it seems as if someone already beat me to it. All credit goes to Ericdrowell. This post is good for those who are wanting to know how many candies it would take to get their favorite Pokemon.

Maximizing Leveling

There are a few different methods when it comes to leveling up fast (power leveling), and what level you should start using the Lucky egg. Some people say you should start with the lucky egg, some say you should only use it when you have enough Candies to get you to level 20, others say to just use it when you get it. Well if this helps you any, the only one of those I disapprove, is using whenever you get one. You get a lucky egg for hitting level 9 and one for hitting level 10. You can use one to get to level 15 and the other to get to level 20. But what if the evolving method isn't enough?

What you get experience from:

• Gyms, depends on how many Pokemon you defeat 
• Pokestops, 50
• New Pokemon entries, 600
• Evolving, 500
• Curveballs, 10
• Accuracy, nice 10, great 50, excellent 100 
• Eggs, 100 per kilometer 
• Wild Pokemon, 100

I'm not good with getting accurate throws so I'm not sure of any tips on how to get them every time, though throwing a curve ball isn't a bad option for that 10 extra experience. To toss a curve ball, just pick up the ball and spin your finger. It will take some time to master, but it's not that bad once you get the hang of it.

Entering new Pokemon in the Pokedex is what makes starting with a lucky egg so good. Every Pokemon is new at that point, but I would walk or look for Pokemon in a known hotspot that has several different Pokemon. You get 600 experience from new Pokemon, but with a lucky egg, it's 1200 experience. Levels from 1-10 don't take a whole lot of experience, but in reality, I only see someone getting to level 5 with purely catching new Pokemon, this is where stops come in. Yes, Pokestop only grant 50 experience however when there are a lot together the experience adds up fast. Depending on how lucky you are with your nearby stops, I can see people easily hitting level 10 starting off with a lucky egg. 

Saving enough candies to hit level 20 however, in my opinion, is the best option. It saves you on a dollar and the first 10 levels are easy enough as they are. I've seen and done it myself, people use incenses and lures when using the lucky egg evolving method, but I don't recommend doing that. Encountering a Pokemon only wastes the duration of the lucky egg because you only get 200 experience for capturing Pokemon. Instead, locate yourself to a place that enough stops close enough the will refresh in time to start your route over again. They may only give 100 experience with a lucky egg on, but that only take a few seconds to encounter. While you are walking to the next stop, go ahead and start evolving away. In no time you should be getting levels left and right, depending on what level you already are of course.

Markle Indiana Pokestops

Catch Pokemon and Save Poke Balls

Many of my friends wonder how I'm up to par with them, yet I have a large sum of Poke Balls, even though I live out in the middle of nowhere that has 1 Pokestop. It's simple actually, I do go to town often to walk around and hit up the Pokestops there, but that isn't how or why I have so many Poke Balls filling up my; what I thought to be plenty, inventory storage. I often find myself struggling to find the item I need to delete just so I can continue to spin. It's difficult actually because I have a few revives and potions maybe 20-30 in total, so it wouldn't be wise to get rid of any more of those. Meaning I'm left with getting rid of either the starting Poke Balls or Razz Berries, which I have 100 of. I doubt I need that many Berries but you never know what you will come across. 

So this is what to do if you want to stress over a full inventory or rest relaxed knowing that you are stocked up on Poke Balls from here on out. 

Look at the Pokemon's CP, if it is below 100 then most of the time you can just catch it with 1 normal Poke Ball without throwing any Razz Berries in for the rescue. If it is between 100-200 expect to through 2-3 normal Poke Balls without a Razz Berry, and if it is above 200 CP then you should feed the Pokemon a Razz Berry unless you are feeling risky. Note how I say how many Poke Balls it should take to catch the Pokemon, this is because; unless it is a rare Pokemon, I will run from the encounter and be on my merry way. 

When it comes to rarer Pokemon I will normally feed it a Razz Berry then throw as many Poke Balls as it takes to catch it, but that's only if I need the candies for an evolution I have yet to register in my Pokedex. The reason you should be catching every Pokemon you come across is because you've gotta catch'em all, duh; but no the reason is you need to save candies for evolutions for faster leveling.

Bluffton Indiana Pokestops

UI Tips and Tricks

This will be a fairly short post as I don't know if there are more UI shortcuts or not. I only know of 2, let me know if there are more! 

So for the first one, when you click the Pokeball to go to your menu options, instead of clicking on the button you want, you can just tap and hold/slide your finger across to the button you want. Rather or not it's faster, it's all up to the users preference. Personally, I like being able to slide and choose the option I want, but others may not like it.

The second UI shortcut is a simple double tap when you're on the map. What this will do then is allow you to slide up and down to zoom in and out; easy zoom out for shotgun. You hold on the second tap. I found this out trying to quickly tap a Pokemon so I could hopefully get it. Instead the map zoomed out -.-

This isn't much of a short cut, and many may already know, but to easily move the camera around so you can see if anything pops up on the sides or behind you, just move your finger up and down to adjust the camera. When I first started I kept moving my finger in a circular motion, making it hard and frustrating to see things.

Wabash Indiana Pokestops

Increased Rare Spawn in Large Groups

Rumor has it, when playing Pokemon Go in a large group, rarer Pokemon spawn a bit more frequent. Skepticism between players grew, but I believe I can confirm this theory. I have sat at these 2 Pokestops several times for a few hours each time. The normal amount of rares I came across with lures is maybe 2 or 3. Well there was a group of maybe 20-25 people setting there just the other night. Everything but the Onix and Pikachu I caught while I was there; about 2 hours.      

Warren Indiana Pokestops

Wabash Indiana, Paradise Springs Pokestops

 A 45-minute drive for me; a friend and I decided we would head into Wabash with my mom; while she took care of my grandma, my friend and I were dropped off at the River Springs Park, and walked around for a good two hours, give or take. We had seen a Meowth there as well but so it be told our games wouldn't load. 

 There was a total of 7 stops at the park, but we made a small route that hit 6 of the 7. Along with the 7 stops there are 2 gyms as well. Walking the 2 hours got us both around 12,000 experience, and roughly 150-200 pokeballs (we were stalking up on Pidgeys and Weedles. This would be a good spot for a group of friends to set up lures on the 6 stops, and go to town hatching eggs, gathering pokeballs, decent experience gain, and a load of fun.

IPFW Campus Pokestops

Getting Missed Pokeballs Back

This is a nice little tip I learned from someone I work with. If you miss the Pokemon you are trying to catch; the ball has to completely miss, you have a "chance" of getting the ball back if you tap on the ball fast enough; tapping repeatedly until you can throw again normally helps. I put parentheses around chance because I'm unsure if this is just a glitch, or if it was meant to be in the game. Anyways while testing this I noticed I don't get the ball back everytime, maybe the game isn't registering that I tapped the ball, or maybe it is meant to be a chance.

Could this just simply be a glitch? I noticed when I do get the ball back, it doesn't show my ball count under the right side of the ball. It could be that you are tapping and the game isn't sure of what to do so you get a "free" ball. Let me know what you think, is this just a glitch or is there really a chance to save a wasted ball?

Gyms, Gym Rewards and What to Buy with Pokecions

Gyms are used mainly to battle and collect the in-game currency, though it could be a nice hang out to chat with opposing teams as well. Maybe teams will create truces and allow one another to take  the gyms at the daily reward cooldown. 

What if you don't want to share a gym? What are gym levels? Well depending on the level of the gym, you can have that many Pokemon in it at once. If your team owns a gym then you are able to level it up by fighting your own Pokemon. Now you can only have one Pokemon in a gym, but others on the same team can place one of their Pokemon if the gym isn't already full. I'm unsure of the level cap, but be kind and do a few fights to help level your gym. It will make it easier for those who may not have a whole lot of time. Owning and making sure your team owns a gym will be less stressful when it comes time to collect your daily reward, those I prefer sharing because right now it's easy to reclaim a gym. 

What rewards do you get? Unfortunately, I don't have a screenshot of this but for each gym you have a Pokemon in you get 500 Stardust and 10 Pokecoins. Here is what I think you should use your coins for.

Many people will probably use their coins to buy Pokeballs, Incense, Lucky Eggs, and Lures. Well hold off on those, if you really want one it will only cost a dollar to get 100 coins which you can get those listed for 100 coins or less. I would also recommend holding off on buying the incubator, mostly because it's only 3 uses and Eggs are very plentiful. What you really need to save up for is Bag and Pokemon storage upgrades.

 I believe the first one or two should be the Pokemon Upgrade, then focus a bit more on bag upgrades. The reason why is because once the game is out longer, the more Pokemon you will find and want to keep. Also, trading will be introduced in the game eventually so saving those rare Pokemon may come in handy. You will most definitely need bag upgrades because everything you get from Pokestop except for eggs is an item and counts towards your 350 inventory space. Mine has already been close to getting full, and the more I don't battle and use my potions and revives the less space becomes available, which is less space for Pokeballs. 

Tracking Techniques

After playing the game for about 2-3 days straight; learning how to encounter Pokemon in your nearby box from, not only experience but also from bypassers. Now let's start with the basics. When a Pokemon is near it will show up in the box on your bottom right corner of the game. It will only show 3 Pokemon at once unless you tap the box then there will be a total of 9 Pokemon. Starting out there will be several silhouettes of Pokemon you have not yet countered, once you do and if you catch it, the silhouette will then fill with colors of the Pokemon.

Tracking a Rare find. With the game still being fairly new, there are still several tips to learn! Did you know that if there is a specific Pokemon that pops up near you that you wish to find over the others; you can easily go into the full nearby tab and click the icon of the Pokemon you want. Not only is it easier to track how far it is from you, but it is also easier to see if you are heading in the right direction... you can see the direction??? Well kinda sorta, if you are getting closer to the Pokemon you are tracking then there will be a small outline flash from the nearby box. I tried to screenshot that, but it's simple to fast to capture. To untrack a Pokemon, just tap it's icon once again. 

Now if you happen to be lucky like me and live a good distance from a town, then this may be very helpful. Instead of walking away from the town, try walking towards it. Pokemon spawn much more in town and walking the short distance I need to get to town; I've noticed Pokemon stop spawning the further away I get. Another theory that I won't be able to crack myself, but I believe that it has something to do with Pokestops and gyms. Everytime I'm near either I see more Pokemon. Is it possible that the game is programmed to have Pokemon be more commonly found near the 2 stops in the game?

Please, however, if you track Pokemon this way, pay attention! It is much easier to lose sight and concentration of your surroundings. Trust me, the game is more enjoyable knowing that the wielder of the device is safe. 

Hello Pokemon Fans!

     Aware that many probably already know about Pokemon Go's release, I'm however a bit late to the party. I just got the game yesterday and I'm pleased with how the game runs so far. I've always enjoyed walking, but I've always dreamt of a way to make walking just a tad more enjoyable. Yeah, I like scenery, but seeing the same thing over and over gets a bit redundant. With this game: Pokemon Go, I am motivated to get out more and see what lurks in the virtual world around my home, and even further. Thinking I was unlucky for living out in the middle of nowhere, I, fortunately, have not only a gym but also a Pokestop, only down the road.
 
     My plans for this blog is to help others locate new gyms Pokestops, and maybe Pokemon not available around them. Who knows, maybe where I live, is close enough for some people to take over my Gym (My brothers >:( ), he ended up getting to it before me and wouldn't you know the game glitches out as his Pokemon only had maybe 1 Hit point left. I still have a bit of thinking on how I'm going to go about locations, but Pictures will more than likely be implemented. There may or may not be pictures of Pokemon, unless it's an unbelievable find. I'm still learning more about the game so some posts may be misleading or wrong, please do keep that in mind.