Pokémon GO tips and tricks that you need to know

Pokemon GO’s success has seen Nintendo Co’s market value surge by billion in just over a week

Pokémon GO has launched in 26 countries as of today, and is already running on millions of devices across the globe through proxy-downloading. Very few of us have have been able to stop ourselves from wandering outdoors looking for Pokémon to capture. But there are a few tricks that you can use to make your Pokémon journey a little easier.

Here are some tips for you and tricks you can use during your Pokémon GO playtime.

1. How to get Pikachu as your starter Pokémon

Initially when you start Pokémon GO, you will find Bulbasaur, Squirtle and Charmander around you to start your journey. But if you want Pikachu to be your first Pokémon, here’s a trick. Do not engage with any of these three Pokémons.

Pikachus are not too rare, and if you have started your quest, one will show up soon enough

In fact, you need to walk away from them until they disappear and re-appear on your screen. Sorry Bulbasaur, next time. After you do this four or five times, Pikachu will appear next to them. This might take some patience, as the game tries to keep the Pokémon on your screen, so don’t give up quite easily. If you’re stuck inside a building trying to set up the game, forget about Pikachu appearing.  You’ll have to go outside and do this.

2. Find and catch Pokémon in their usual habitat

Pokémon GO is designed in such a way that Pokémon appear near their natural habitats. So, you will find most water Pokémon near an actual water body, like a pond or a lake. Grass Pokémon will be in high density near wooded areas. Makes you wonder if you need to hang around a power grid to catch a Pikachu!

Watch Video: For those who still don’t know what is Pokemon Go

3. How to conserve battery while playing

Love Pokémon, but phone’s battery always low to catch ’em all? Features like the GPS tracker and the camera use a lot of your phone’s precious battery. However, you might not have noticed that the game has a power saver feature that will save you precious battery.

Pokémon GO power saver option will help you save a lot of battery

When you click on the Pokéball, a settings menu will show on the top right. Click on the settings wheel and select low power mode. Now, when you go hunting and point your phone downwards, the screen will darken. Turning off your AR camera will also help conserve your battery.

If neither of these tricks seems enough, maybe it is time to invest in a power bank.

4. Transfer duplicate Pokémon to get more candy, and to evolve a similar one

As Pokémon are transferred to Professor Willow, you get a candy in return

You can catch a lot of the same breed of Pokémon without feeling bad. You can transfer these Pokémon to Professor Willow to get a candy for that particular Pokémon. These candies can be used to evolve them to a more powerful Pokémon.

5. Increase your experience with a spin Pokéball throw

Throwing a curve ball is one way to catch these monsters. Swerve the Pokéball by holding on to it, and then move it in circles before throwing it. This move will get you bonus throw points.

6. Revisit Pokéstops multiple times

Poké stops can be anything, ranging from a shopping mall to a gym

If you have been to a Pokéstop, you know that you do not get more than one spin. If you cannot find another Pokéstop nearby, but still need the Poké Balls and eggs, just wait five minutes. You will be able to make another spin to get more goodies after the five minutes cool off period is over.

7. Use get Razz Berries and Master Balls to increase capturing chances

These items will be available to you when you visit Pokéstops, and your level is high enough. When you encounter a strong Pokémon that will be difficult to capture, feed it Razz Berries, which will make them like you – hence easier to catch. You can also use higher-level Poké Balls that will lower the Pokémon’ chances of escaping.

8. Find Pokémon on crowdsourced apps

People are flooding the streets trying to catch ’em all, but the good Pokémon are always a step ahead. No more, thanks to apps like Pokémapper, PoGOMaps and Poké Radar! These apps will let you locate Pokéstops, Pokégyms and of course – Pokémon. Using Poke Radar on our iPhone, we were able to find a lot of powerful and rare Pokémon around.

Using Poké Radar on our iPhone, we were able to find a lot of powerful and rare Pokémons around

However, before you use any of these apps, you need to understand that these maps are probably not updated frequently. It is also too early to say which app is the best to find the little virtual creatures.

9. Get Better Gear From landmark PokéStops

PokéStops are littered all over the city. A mall entry, a metro station, or a park could be a PokéStop, but to get the best rewards – you need to travel to a PokéStop that is placed at a heritage site, or a national landmark.

10. Recover Missed Poké Balls

This is one of the things we did not know for the longest time. After wasting 30 something Poké Balls, we realised that you can pick up the Poké Balls as long as you can see them on the screen. Wasting Poké Balls is now a thing of the past!

Correction – We initially thought that you could pick up Poké Balls, but it turns out you can’t. Some claim that it works for them now and then, but we could not recover any after throwing 10.

11. Force Eevee to evolve

A Reddit thread has claimed that if you have an Eevee, you can force it to evolve into one of its many forms. If you nickname your Eevee as either Pyro, Sparky or Rainer, the Eevee Brother from the original anime, you will convert your Eevee to a Jolteon, Vaporeon or Flareon. The thread claims a 100 per cent success rate with this trick, but we cannot confirm it, as we do not have an Eevee yet.