To those that were asking about Tracking and how it works, I came across this article in Forbes that addresses is. I haven’t tested this myself as I haven’t had the time to spend walking around NYC focusing that heavily on it but if anyone here wants to test it out and let us know the results that’d be awesome.
Also, anyone who has them may want to prioritize incubation of the 10km eggs and not bother with the 5km and 2km unless that’s all you have. I walk a ton each day (total of 5 miles to and from work) and have hatched a bunch. From the 2km I’ve only gotten Rattatas/Pidgies/Worms. From the 5km I’ve mostly gotten Ekanes (which are everywhere near me). So far I’ve hatched 2 10km eggs and got an Electabuzz and a Onyx. Doesn’t really seem to be worth taking up incubator space with the lesser-distance eggs.
Fixed spawn locations definitely seem to exist. There’s a point just outside my condo where a common low-level Forest type pokemon appears routinely every hour, at 5 minutes before the hour. Usually a Pidgey, Weedle, Spearow, or Ratatta, but after a day of heavy rain I caught a Horsea. There may be some weather effects on what type of Pokemon appear. These fixed spawn locations cause a Pokemon to appear that lasts 15 minutes and does not move from the location. There may be other types of spawns, that move around or last longer than 15 minutes, in addition to these. Incense and Lures appear to create Pokemon completely outside the normal fixed spawn sites.
My daughter is geocaching with her boyfriend. Geocaching! That’s so three weeks ago.
I called them losers and if they want to be totally retro they should get a compass and a map and go orienteering. He’s dweeby enough to get into it. I like the kid.
I’ve had good luck tracking down Pokemon that were three “steps” away, using basically the technique described in the Forbes article Deser2 linked to. Does anyone else find it odd that the best Pokemon journalism is coming from Forbes?
Here’s my question about gyms: when you lower an an enemy gym’s prestige points enough to remove one of the Pokemon there, which one gets eliminated? My hunch is that it goes according to the order they were placed at the gym, but I don’t know if it’s most recent or least recent. I’m pretty sure it’s not by order of CP (which is the order you encounter them in when you battle the gym).
I captured two gyms this afternoon, but by the time I got home, they were already reverted. Unfortunately, it hadn’t been enough time since I found an open gym yesterday, and I couldn’t get my bonus. Now that enough time has passed, I’m going to go out and try again. Hopefully they aren’t stronger than they were.
Internet tip: “Forbes” doesn’t really mean much. Forbes has a very loosely curated set of bloggers. It’s not like anybody can make an account like it’s Wordpress or something, but if you’ve maintained a blog or have been a journalist for other sites you can apply and from what I’ve heard it’s not exactly difficult to get a blog on Forbes, especially if you’re persistent.
Anyway, I’m still not sure about this game. I keep the app open in battery save made on my way to work (~45 minute walk), and I encounter barely any Pokemon. Maybe 1-2, it seems like Pokemon only hang out around big centers with either lots of people or pokestops. Like, I can wander around the neighborhoods around town and get NOTHING, and there are very few Pokestops on my route. However, at my apartment, downtown, and at my work (which is a University campus) suddenly Pokemon are buzzing my phone left and right. It really sucks that I can’t really take a walk in my normal spots and get Pokemon to show up.
And yes, I’ve tried restarting the app, the little Pokemon tracker shows, at best, one Pokemon with 3 footprints when I’m on my route.
It’s also kinda disheartening that all the gyms have these 1750 CP Pokemon protecting them and my highest is… 145. Again, if I was really invested in this game I could drive downtown, find a place to park, and play it religiously to level up everything, but I like taking walks in the woods around my apartment and in the nice pretty neighborhoods around me, which appear to have almost no Pokemon.
Remember, though, that you only have to defeat the weakest defender to gain XP and lower the gym’s prestige. If you defeat the lowest ranked Pokemon a few times in a row, you will likely get to claim the gym for your team and reap the bonus. And you get six Pokemon to do it with. CP145 is pretty low, but you don’t need much more than that. The gym system is very skewed toward the challenger. I’ve discovered the importance of learning the Pokemon types as well. That can help you defeat a much stronger Pokemon.
Yeah, but we’re talking a floor of like 1500 CP for defenders in all the gyms I’ve been to. I’m in a university town during the summer, people are bored and dedicated. I know the type chart, but it doesn’t really help much when I’m running Pidgeys, Caterpies, and Eevees. I’m hoping I can evolve my Eevee at some point, or at least get a Pidgey up to a Pidgeot (Butterfry doesn’t seem like it’s going to be strong against anything I’ve seen).
All I know is I’m super jealous of the Snorlaxes and Aerodactyls I’ve been seeing.
But then, just as we turned our head away and resumed our course forward, some angelic neighbor shouted out, as if from our own brain, “Stop catching Pokémon! IT’S NOT WORTH IT.” Thank you for recognizing the latest phone-based tech craze for what it is: another path away from a world that needs our attention so badly. Is the game really bringing people together, as the hype insists, or is it driving us further apart?
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Perhaps I misinterpret, but this strikes me as a rather sneering and cynical way to look at it. Or maybe they’re absolutely right; it make no sense to actually spit have fun with all the suffering going on in the world that needs to be addressed. People need to be working, worried, and/or fearful 24/7 until every single person on the planet is happy. Anything less is unacceptable.
There’s an egg chart out for what pokemon can be found in what eggs and all the eggs are worth it. Want to know which eggs the starters are in? The 2km ones.
When you fight a gym, the lowest ranked pokemon gets knocked out. The gyms are not based on when pokemon are added, they are automatically shuffled so that the weakest one there is the first one you fight and the strongest one there is the last one you fight. This also means that the strongest one there has to be fought every time until you knock out the gym entirely.
The Forbes model is to “hire” essentially anyone and not pay them unless their articles are getting a million-thousand clicks (otherwise you’re being paid in “visibility”). Which is why 99% of what comes out of Forbes these days is clickbait trash.
Anyway, I’ve been quietly reading piles of Pokemon-related Facebook postings and Tweets while remaining unattached from the game itself but my wife saw a column about a child on the autism spectrum having something to relate to with other kids and wanted to see if our ASD son was interested. He delighted at us catching a Bulbasaur in our front room (my older son used to watch the cartoon a decade ago so I’m familiar with the basics) and we’ll go out roaming this weekend. I downloaded it to my phone as well and caught my initial “gimme” Squirtle. Beyond that, the game doesn’t seem to come with much instruction. I’m sure I’ll figure it out – it’s got elementary school kids playing it, right? I’ll roam around over lunch and see if anything happens although I work in the sticks which I understand won’t help me much.
Ok, thanks. I think I know where my confusion came from. I knocked out a rival gym by battling the lowest ranked pokemon twice, so I assumed that in that case the higher pokemon had been kicked out. At the time, though, I didn’t understand multiple people fighting at a gym. I think that while I was defeating the lowest ranked pokemon, someone else was battling the gym leader and defeating it. I got "credit"in seeing a very large drop in gym prestige on my screen in the battle results, and I got to place a Pokemon in the open gym immediately after, so I thought I had taken over the gym myself by fighting only the lower pokemon.
ETA: Is there any way to see the record of a Pokemon you placed at a gym after it’s been returned to you?
While you can’t use Golduck while he’s guarding a gym, he won’t be gone forever. He’ll magically find his way back home to you, fainted, after someone kicks him out of a gym.
Anecdote for today: I saw someone taking down a red gym so I sat there and waited for it to vacate, then tapped it and filled it with a pokemon before my rival could heal up their pokemon to put it in the gym. I did it five times in a row before I had to go back to work. If I could’ve kept sitting there they never would’ve taken that gym
Why not? A museum is meant to have visitors. If it attracts some people who otherwise wouldn’t have come, who actually stop to look at the museum’s exhibits, that’s a win. Yes, there will be some who just come for the game and don’t pay any attention to what’s there. But it’s still a net increase in people who do look at what’s there. Which again, is the point of there being a museum in the first place.
I’m sure there are a ton of spawning sites and Pokestops inn that area. I doubt anyone is going in specifically to play Pokemon Go. More likely, people are already there to see the exhibits (or were dragged there by parents or teachers to see the exhibits) and can’t resist the temptation to look for Pokemon while they’re there. I kind of can’t blame them; do so much depressing history will have many people craving any hint of levity and escape while there. But it distracts them from the message of the museum and inevitably distracts those around them as well.
