# Pokemon Go Now Available for iPhone and Droid **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [July 7, 2016, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pokemon-go-now-available-for-iphone-and-droid/759288 "2016-07-07T04:29:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2016, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pokemon-go-now-available-for-iphone-and-droid/759288/221 "2016-07-22T17:07:14Z")
Anecdotal, but I noticed a big jump in catch-resistance across the board when I hit level 10. It was very rare for things to break free of the ball once hit, and I don’t believe I saw a single mon run away before 10. Since, both have become quite common, even with relatively low-CP targets. I suspect that, in addition to the CP-based difficulty curve, there’s a “training wheels” effect that gets removed at or around level 10. (Which is consistent both with **Jophiel** ’s comment and with general game tutorial practices.) ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2016, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pokemon-go-now-available-for-iphone-and-droid/759288/222 "2016-07-22T17:16:05Z")
I only hit 10 yesterday but I started noticing common breakouts and run-offs around level 8. I think that was also about the time that higher CP “common” Pokemon became more common. So I was seeing a 140 CP Weedle or 210 CP Eevee but they’d consistently break loose and often poof. ---
**Author:** ![GunnarFranz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/da6949/32.png) [@GunnarFranz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GunnarFranz)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2016, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pokemon-go-now-available-for-iphone-and-droid/759288/223 "2016-07-22T18:27:16Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Well, you can FIND higher CP ones. But you also get low CP critters that are still stupidly hard to catch which isn’t an issue at low levels. > > That is, of course, how they get you: Make it super easy and rewarding at low levels then ramp up the difficulty once you’re invested so you’ll start spending money on Pokeballs so you can catch a 35CP Rattata I think that the algorithm for catch rate makes pokemon that are typically level 10 much more difficult to catch at level 35 for example. You can certainly get lower level CP pokemon at higher levels for (a real) example: 4 people find a dragonite. 2 of those people are level 19. two are 22. level 19 trainer’s wild dragonite’s are both level 1400 level 22 trainer’s wild dragonite are both level 168 on the same spawn trainers of the same level will always see the same cp pokemon, this means the algorithm adjusts across the board and supports this theory. also, anecdotally, at level 23 I have no problem catching level 10s, at least no more so than when I was a level 1. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2016, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pokemon-go-now-available-for-iphone-and-droid/759288/224 "2016-07-23T01:13:55Z")
Ugh. If I had a nickel for every time my dumb ass means to evolve a pokemon, but out of sheer habit I end up transferring it and losing it, I’d have at least a quarter. I’ve missed out on at least 2 evolutions because of it! ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pokemon-go-now-available-for-iphone-and-droid/759288/225 "2016-07-24T14:58:22Z")
> [@Alan\_Smithee](#): > > Well that’s dumb. More advanced Pokemon should be harder to catch, but surely Pidgies should, if anything, get easier. How does the opposite make sense? As a pure game mechanic it makes perfect sense. As a model of a “real life” Pokémon universe and a skill level of a trainer that should be increasing, it makes no sense. But in the main line series of games, you begin your journey with a single Level 5 Pokémon and the wild Pokémon that leap from the grass to menace you are levels 2-4. By the time you have attained your eighth gym badge the wild Pokémon are 35ish. What phenomenon of nature could account for this? Are the grounds near Sunyshore City more dangerous to that degree than the grounds around Oreburgh? No. But as a game mechanic, it makes perfect sense. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pokemon-go-now-available-for-iphone-and-droid/759288/226 "2016-07-25T12:37:42Z")
This “getting harder to catch the pokemon as you level up” is really pissing me off. I probably threw no less than 20 great balls at someone and missed every single time because of the damn curve-effect. In other news, I moved apartments and I literally live next-door to a gym. I can fight it from my bed. The problem with that is there are never wild pokemon at a gym. So I’m back to not being able to hunt where I live. Grrrrr ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pokemon-go-now-available-for-iphone-and-droid/759288/227 "2016-07-25T17:59:36Z")
> [@Sir\_T-Cups](#): > > This “getting harder to catch the pokemon as you level up” is really pissing me off. I probably threw no less than 20 great balls at someone and missed every single time because of the damn curve-effect. I’ve begun to suspect that it’s better to deliberately curve every ball, if you can. At least that way, you know it’s going to curve, rather than being random. You can more reliably curve throws with great balls or after using a berry, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Deser2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dfb087/32.png) [@Deser2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deser2)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pokemon-go-now-available-for-iphone-and-droid/759288/228 "2016-07-25T20:52:02Z")
Not sure if it actually works or I’m just getting lucky but I’ve found that if, after getting that artificial curve nonsense, you throw your ball with a high, straight, arc to it (think I basketball shot or pitch shot from just off the green in golf) you can avoid the curve. Additionally, I’ve now tested the Evee Evolution/Naming trick for all three evolutions and all have worked. I’m now the proud owner of a 1300+ Vaporean. And I also just had a 1200+ Aerodactyl (or whatever it’s called) hatch from a 10km egg. I now have 6 or 7 decent pokemons in the 1100+ range mostly just from evolutions. To those who aren’t participating much in the gym battles, I would hold off on evolving anything until you have a base creature with 400-500CP - especially those with mutliple Evos. You’ll save yourself a ton of candy since you’ll start off after the evo with a 900 - 1200 CP evolution instead of a 500CP one. ---
**Author:** ![Macca26](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/13edae/32.png) [@Macca26](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Macca26)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pokemon-go-now-available-for-iphone-and-droid/759288/229 "2016-07-25T21:08:47Z")
Stardust really is my main limiting factor. I have a steady stream of candy and a variety of pokemon, no worries there. But getting my top evolutions to max out their CP cap is costing a TON of stardust that I just don’t have. I understand why they won’t let me just buy it though, because that would be essentially all I’d need to “pay to win”. So it’s definitely as **Deser2** says: wait for a nice high base CP pokemon so you can have a strong evolution without wasting resources later. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pokemon-go-now-available-for-iphone-and-droid/759288/230 "2016-07-25T23:01:57Z")
Speaking of buying stuff, their store is a little odd to me. I thought that maybe, as you leveled up and unlocked items, that would be reflected in the store but nope. But I have zero interest in spending real money on stock Pokeballs at level 15 that are just going to wildly careen away from my critters and have almost no chance of holding that 370 CP Goldeen I’m trying to catch. I would have thought they’d try and sell me Great Balls, even if at a higher price (I’m set on GBs right now anyway, just think it’s weird). Of course, it’s hard to justify spending any money on it while all the glitches remain (broken tracking, game freeze on capture, etc). ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pokemon-go-now-available-for-iphone-and-droid/759288/231 "2016-07-26T06:38:31Z")
Something I haven’t been able to find out searching online, and maybe **Bricker** or someone can help: How do the Pokemon’s health meters work during battle? It seems to show two types of damage. One type causes the health meter to grow shorter, and the other type causes a portion of it to change color. The entire bar changes color as it gets shorter, which makes it harder to describe, so at first the bar is mostly green with some damage showing up as yellow. When the Pokemon is weakened, the main portion of the bar is red and the damage is orange. If I deplete the red portion, the Pokemon faints/loses even if more than half of the full bar is still orange. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2016, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pokemon-go-now-available-for-iphone-and-droid/759288/232 "2016-07-29T15:03:54Z")
How they choose the Pokestops is just weird. I have two within a minute of each other at work. However, I work in a mental health facility for young people, and we generally don’t encourage the kids to go wandering about, and certainly not with a cell phone. I wonder who suggested it to them? Still haven’t picked a team. I hear Yellow is the least popular and I kinda wanna support the underdog, but at the same time meeting a team might be cool. ---
**Author:** ![Macca26](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/13edae/32.png) [@Macca26](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Macca26)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2016, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pokemon-go-now-available-for-iphone-and-droid/759288/233 "2016-07-29T15:17:07Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > How they choose the Pokestops is just weird. I have two within a minute of each other at work. However, I work in a mental health facility for young people, and we generally don’t encourage the kids to go wandering about, and certainly not with a cell phone. I wonder who suggested it to them? > > Still haven’t picked a team. I hear Yellow is the least popular and I kinda wanna support the underdog, but at the same time meeting a team might be cool. As far as I know, any person playing Niantic’s previous game, Ingress, had a time period in which they could submit any publicly accessible spot for consideration as part of the game. Basically letting the people populate their game for them. Someone wanted an Ingress game spot there, submitted it, Niantic accepted it, and then the info got ported over to Pokemon Go. Pokemon Go uses the same location information as Ingress. So it has nothing to do with Pokemon Go, and it’s not recent. Currently Niantic is not accepting any additions or removals of game locations. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2016, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pokemon-go-now-available-for-iphone-and-droid/759288/234 "2016-07-29T15:47:19Z")
I like the businesses that manage to become “Locations of Interest”-slash-Pokestops because the actual Pokestop is a nondescript bench or picture of a chef holding a pizza or some other nonsense. Although I’ve come across at least one commercial business (a gaming shop) that was a Pokestop without it actually being the building’s door or flower pots. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2016, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pokemon-go-now-available-for-iphone-and-droid/759288/235 "2016-07-29T15:48:29Z")
Also, I’m leveling up for not doing anything it seems. Not complaining, but I caught maybe 3 new Pokemon, and jumped from 5 to 6. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2016, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pokemon-go-now-available-for-iphone-and-droid/759288/236 "2016-07-29T16:31:13Z")
In the “are you playing” thread I said no way and I hope this game goes away fast. Since then I have caved and downloaded the game. My kid likes pokemon, so what the heck. I’ll admit, it’s more fun than I thought it would be. But I still have no idea how combat at a gym works. However, there is a pokestop right outside my office window and I can fill up on goodies without leaving my desk all day. > [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > Still haven’t picked a team. I hear Yellow is the least popular and I kinda wanna support the underdog, but at the same time meeting a team might be cool. This is precisely why my son and I picked Team Instinct (yellow). We heard they were the underdog. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2016, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pokemon-go-now-available-for-iphone-and-droid/759288/237 "2016-08-03T16:04:40Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > Also, I’m leveling up for not doing anything it seems. Not complaining, but I caught maybe 3 new Pokemon, and jumped from 5 to 6. You get 50 XP when you collect items at a Pokestop and each Pokemon you catch gives you 100 XP. > [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](#): > > In the “are you playing” thread I said no way and I hope this game goes away fast. Since then I have caved and downloaded the game. My kid likes pokemon, so what the heck. I’ll admit, it’s more fun than I thought it would be. But I still have no idea how combat at a gym works. However, there is a pokestop right outside my office window and I can fill up on goodies without leaving my desk all day. > > This is precisely why my son and I picked Team Instinct (yellow). We heard they were the underdog. Gym combat is not too difficult. Depending on which team holds the gym, you can do one of two things. If its your own color, you can either put one of your Pokemon in there as a defender (if there are free slots), or “train” with the Pokemon in the gym. When you are a defender, you lose your Pokemon temporarily, that is, you can’t use it for battling until it is defeated at the gym. As a defender, other teams get to fight your Pokemon if they challenge it. Also, if you have a defending Pokemon, immediately go to the Store and look to the upper right, there should be a shield icon there. Click on that to get a free 10 coins (that you otherwise have to spend real money for) and 500 stardust. You can do this only once every 21 hours. If you don’t have a defender in the friendly gym, you can help “train” it. Challenge the gym like normal, but instead of using 6 Pokemon, you get to choose 1 Pokemon and use it to battle the weakest Pokemon in that gym. If you win, the gym gains “prestige”, which helps to increase its gym level. Higher gym levels gives that team more slots to put Pokemon defenders in there. For an opposing gym, you can fight it. Challenge the gym and make a group of 6 Pokemon. You will fight whatever defenders in there from weakest to strongest. When one of the defenders lose, you move on to the next weakest and so on. When one of your Pokemon lose, another is automatically switched out. The gym battles favor attackers. When your Pokemon lose, you get to change out to a fresh one. Any HP lost by the defending Pokemon is still lost, so you basically have 6 Pokemon gang up against 1 defender. If you beat any Pokemon in that gym, you gain XP and that gym loses prestige. You can revive your Pokemon, heal them up, and challenge them again. Take out the weakest one over and over until the gym prestige drops enough so that it has less defenders. That way, if you have enough patience, you can totally take out a high ranked gym by yourself by just beating the weakest Pokemon over and over again until it loses prestige and drops in level. Fighting is done by tapping the screen. Each Pokemon has 2 moves, a standard (fast) move and a special move. Spam standard moves as fast as you can by repeated tapping your Pokemon. Some moves are faster, some moves do more damage to specific types of Pokemon, so memorizing weaknesses is a good idea. The Special Move bar is filled up by your continued attacking. Some special moves are one long bar. Some are multiple smaller squares. When a long bar fills up, hold your finger on your Pokemon and you’ll see a quick charge delay fill up and then your Pokemon will unleash that move. For the small, multiple squares, each square can be held down for a special move; 4 filled up squares means you can use your special move 4 times, or just fill it up once to quickly use your special. Since a human (you) are controlling the attacker, you can vary the speed of your attacks and what attacks you use. You can also swipe left and right to dodge, though I’m not sure if you can only dodge the special moves or can dodge normal moves too. The defender is automatically controlled by the computer so its predictable and slow. It will attack once a second, or once every half second, I think, and when its special move bar fills up it will automatically use it ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2016, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pokemon-go-now-available-for-iphone-and-droid/759288/238 "2016-08-03T19:49:37Z")
> [@Macca26](#): > > Currently Niantic is not accepting any additions or removals of game locations. Is that true? Because there was a stop not that far from my house that was on an old unused railroad bridge. I never tried it but it looked like you had to go out onto the bridge to hit the stop. It looked dangerous. A couple of days ago I noticed the stop doesn’t exist anymore. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2016, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pokemon-go-now-available-for-iphone-and-droid/759288/239 "2016-08-03T20:09:45Z")
> [@Balance](#): > > Anecdotal, but I noticed a big jump in catch-resistance across the board when I hit level 10. It was very rare for things to break free of the ball once hit, and I don’t believe I saw a single mon run away before 10. Since, both have become quite common, even with relatively low-CP targets. IDK if this is normal, but I just had this kick in at level 8. Tried to catch a couple in the 100-300 CP range and they escaped 10 times in a row before I just gave up (I used razzberries as well, though not sure if I’m doing it correctly) ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2016, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pokemon-go-now-available-for-iphone-and-droid/759288/240 "2016-08-03T20:12:00Z")
Somebody explain what “flicking a pokestop” means? I saw somebody talking about it on a video and said that if you flick a pokestop you get free pokeballs. But I don’t get anything when I click on the pokestop on the map. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pokemon-go-now-available-for-iphone-and-droid/759288.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pokemon-go-now-available-for-iphone-and-droid/759288.md?page=13)