How To: Pokémon Go (Part 1)

Pokémon Go is the current topic all over from the news to just common conversations, but what is it and what's the hype all about?

Now, I grew up in the time where the Pokémon games were brand new and played one from every generation (some times two!), so I'm totally biased on this topic, but still. Let's chat about it.

This game was created by the same people that made Ingress, Niantic, Inc. Ingress is quite similar to Pokémon Go, as it is an augmented reality game where you are required to walk around to do better in the game.

The basics of Pokémon Go are simple: you walk around to find Pokémon, gyms and PokéStops. In the process, you gain experience. You can also earn medals by collecting certain numbers of Pokémon, as well as a number of certain types of Pokémon (water, grass, bug, electric, etc.). The more you level, the stronger your Pokémon should become and then you can start taking gyms and such. I personally have no interest in taking gyms and just play for fun catching what I can and trying to get my Pokémon as strong as I can, which is another more casual way you can play this game.

For this game, only the first generation Pokémon are available (so Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Pidgey, Weedle, etc.--the first 151 in the Pokédex), but a lot of them are more difficult to find and to catch. There's no guide for this game out officially, but it seems there is a ranking of Pokémon rarities in the game, which I've put in the teen display here at the library for reference. The most basic Pokémon are everywhere and will be pretty easy to both catch and level up.

The most important part of this game is how to actually catch the Pokémon. It's quite simple. When walking around, you'll want to occasionally check your app (do not check it while walking!!!) to see if there are any appearing on your map. If there are, you simply click on that Pokémon and it'll open up on your screen to catch. You use Pokéballs to catch them and will just drag your finger on the Pokéball towards that Pokémon. Remember: you don't have unlimited Pokéballs so use them wisely! You can pick up more at a PokéStop, which I will talk about in another part of this blog series.

Another important aspect of this game is how you level up your "team," so to speak, or those currently kept in your Pokémon inventory (for lack of a better word). If you want to level or evolve your team, you will need to catch multiples of that Pokémon. Once you have caught some, you will want to send your lower levels of whoever you are leveling or trying to evolve back to Professor Oak. In order to do that, you will tap on whichever you'd like to send back, then scroll down to the bottom of that specific Pokémon's page and click Transfer. It'll inform you that, once you transfer, that specific Pokémon will be gone forever. Once gone, that Pokémon will give you candy for whatever Pokémon it was and you use those to level up and evolve.