Last week I share my thoughts and tips for staying safe with Pokémon GO. After playing for a month now I am going to share my favourite tips and tricks that I have learned and used in my quest to catch them all.
Eevee Evolution Trick
When Pokémon GO first came out there were rumors going around that you could control your Eevee evolution. Some say it worked some say it didn’t. However at San Diego Comic Con Niantic CEO John Hanke verified that this was, in fact, a hidden easter egg within the game. The catch… it only works once per name, after that it is always going to be random.
So how does it work? Go into your Pokémon list and select the Eevee you want to evolve. Then change its name based on what you want the Eevee to evolve into according to the following;
To evolve a Flareon: Change Eevee’s name to Pyro
To evolve a Vaporen: Change Eevee’s name to Rainer
To evolve a Jolteon: Change Eevee’s name to Sparky
*Please note that the server is only synced with your phone roughly once every 60 seconds. After renaming your Eevee exit the game and then boot it up again to make sure the name change went through before you do your evolution*
Lucky Egg Mass Evolve
Notice those lucky eggs you get when you level that give you double experience? The eager beaver may use them as soon as they get them. DON’T. To get the most use out of your lucky egg save them until you are ready to evolve a bunch of Pokémon AKA mass evolve. Your best best is to keep catching all those pesky caterpies, pidgeys, and rattatas. Then once you have enough of them AND enough candy to evolve a crap ton of them that is when you use that lucky egg. Each evolution is 500xp so the lucky egg makes it 1000xp per evolution.
How do you know if you have all the characters and candy you need to maximize that lucky egg? I use a site called PidgeyCalc. I can enter in all my Pokémon and their candy to find out how many to evolve and if I have enough to maximize my lucky egg. If I don’t have enough PidgeyCalc will let me know how many more I need before using my lucky egg.
Don’t Waste Stardust
Stardust is the currency you need to power up your Pokémon. Though it may seem like you have a lot it takes a lot of stardust per power up as your Pokémon gets stronger. That stardust can disappear quickly and you are left waiting to get more. You can not buy it or find it at a Pokéstop. You only get it from defending gyms or catching Pokémon. You don’t want to find yourself with an awesome Pokémon and no stardust to level him.
Capture The Hard To Catch Pokémon
Sometimes Pokémon don’t like to stay in the ball. It can get aggravating and you may want to give up. There are tools to help you catch them.
- Turn off AR. Not only is AR a battery killer it also makes it harder to aim for the Pokémon. If you turn it off you don’t need to aim your phone and keep it still to catch them. The Pokémon will stay in the middle of your screen no matter which way you are facing.
- Use a razzberry. You get them from Pokéstops and they increase the chance of the Pokémon staying inside the ball.
- Use higher balls. As you level up you get access to great balls and ultra balls. These will help capture the hard to catch Pokémon.
Also, note the colour of the target area around the Pokémon when you hold down on the Pokéball. Green means easy to catch, yellow.orange is more difficult and red means difficult so get ready to waste quite a few Pokéballs to get the catch. The target area will change colour as you change the type of Pokéball you use. So a Pokémon that has a red ring with a regular Pokéball could have a green ring when using an ultra ball.
I hope these 3 tips help you getting out there and playing Pokémon GO. It is a great way to get out there as a family and explore your own cities while having a little fun. Nothing beats trying to “Catch Em All”.
Have you checked out Pokémon GO yet? What was your favourite catch? Any tips or tricks you have learned?