Pokemon GO has come a long way since its launch in 2016. Niantic has added myriads of new features, game modes and quality-of-life improvements to make the game much more fun to play.
But in order to be the best Pokemon GO trainer among your friends, you need to know the ins and outs of the game.
Not only that, there are some cool and effective strategies you can try to enhance your Pokemon GO experience.
We’ve got a list of 10 Pokemon GO tips and tricks to help you save your time, enjoy the game and become a master of the game. Let’s dive into this!
10 Best Pokemon GO Secret Tips and Tricks
No matter how long you’ve been playing the game, there’s always something new to come across. Experienced players might be familiar with most of these tricks, but if you’re a beginner just starting out the game or are returning to the game after a long time, stick around!
Use these 10 Pokemon GO tips and tricks to progress much faster and make the most out of the game.
1. Use Curveball to gain more XP
You might have heard about or seen your friends throwing curveballs at Pokemon, but did you know it has more to it besides being a fancy looking trick.
Curveball increases the XP gained upon catching a Pokemon. Not only that, it increases your chances of capturing the Pokemon by a small amount as well.
To throw a curveball, all you need to do is spin the ball by moving it in a circular motion, once it’s set in motion, you release it and it will magically curve towards the Pokemon and capture it.
Now there’s a catch: The ball will curve in the direction of the initial spin, so if you’ve spun it clockwise then the ball will bend to the right, and if it’s anti-clockwise, it’ll bend to the left.
So, in order for the ball to land in the centre, you have to throw in the opposite direction. You can master the curveball throw with this guide on Eurogamer.
2. Turn Off AR for Better Capture
As much fun as AR mode can be, it’s a wise thing to have it turned off. Not only will it save your phone’s battery, but it makes it much easier to capture Pokemon.
The Pokemon will stay at one location when you have the AR mode disabled, and it’ll be easier to throw balls at it without having to worry about changing the camera angle.
You can switch modes while catching a Pokemon from the toggle on the top-right corner of the screen. Although the Pokemon now won’t leave your phone’s screen, it may occasionally jump or perform attacks, but it’s still better than getting into an awkward situation in case you point your phone’s camera towards a stranger.
3. Attract Pokemon with Lure
A Lure is an item you can use to attract all the nearby Pokemon around a Pokestop. Incenses have the same feature, however, unlike them, lures can only be attached to a Pokestop and are effective for everyone nearby.
When you see pink petals falling on the Pokestop on your game map, it means that someone has activated a lure there.
Besides normal Lures, they come in three advanced modules – Glacial, Magnetic and Mossy Lure, which are also required when evolving to a certain species of Pokemon like Glaceon, Leafeon, Magnezone and Probopass.
Typically, lures are active for 30 minutes per use but watch out for special events and community days, where they might have a boosted duration.
4. Use Berries to slow down the Pokemon
If a Pokemon is continuously jumping and gyrating, it can be quite challenging to hit it with a Pokeball. In that case, you can use certain berries to slow down the Pokemon’s movement to make it easier to catch. This is one of the OG Pokemon GO catching tips and most seasoned players already know about this.
Nanab berries are there to simply calm down the Pokemon and have no secondary effect. These are the most useful while catching common Pokemon that are being elusive.
Besides that, Razz Berries, Silver Pinap Berries and Golden Razz Berries also have the same function, however, they also increase the chances of catching the Pokemon, with Golden Razz being the most effective.
5. Check The Pokemon Stats
If you’re planning to take your Pokemon to a PvP or PvE battle, you should know that their performance is subject to their Base stats, Combat Power (CP) and Individual Values (IVs).
Now, the base stats are fixed for all Pokemon, and the CP is clearly displayed when you view the Pokemon in your collection. It’s the IVs that are the most tricky for a Pokemon GO player. For PvE, the optimal IVs would be always 100%.
PvP IVs are rather complex! The general rule of thumb is – If the Pokemon maxes out under the league CP limit, then 100% IVs are vital. But if the Pokemon’s CP goes beyond the league CP limit, then you should have lower Attack IV to allow it to level up more, thus increasing the total stat product.
Luckily, Niantic made it easy to check IVs for each Pokemon recently. To check the IVs, select the Pokemon from your collection, click on the menu icon on the bottom right and tap on the Appraise option. You’ll see three bars corresponding to Attack, Defence and Stamina. Each bar goes from 0 to 15 and you’ll be able to know the IVs by looking at how much the bar is filled.
6. Change your Pokemon’s attack
If you scroll down a little bit when viewing a Pokemon, you might notice two or three moves being shown. These are the moves your Pokemon can use in raids, gym battles or PvP battles. But wait, don’t take it to battle yet!
Certain moves are better than others, and the Pokemon performs significantly better when equipped with a proper move set. It’s important to have the optimal moves on every Pokemon you’re going to be using in battles, but how do you know that?
In order to change moves, you need to use the items called “Fast TM” for quick moves, and “Charged TM” for special moves. These TMs (Technical Machines) can be obtained upon beating raid bosses, winning GO battle league matches etc. To learn more about fast and charged TMs, how to use them as well as the best Pokemon to use them upon, check this guide on Fast & Charged TM.
7. Enable Adventure Sync
Niantic recently introduced a mechanic called “Adventure Sync” in Pokemon GO. Conventionally, users had to keep the app open and walk around so that the game registers the movement and distance covered.
Adventure Sync integrated with Google Fit or Apple Health and tracks the data from these apps, so you no longer have to keep Pokemon GO open.
To enable Adventure Sync, from the Pokemon GO home screen, tap menu (Pokeball icon) and go to Settings. There you’ll find the Adventure Sync option; simply enable it and you’re done! Besides registering distance, Adventure Sync also rewards you with items, eggs etc. at 5, 20 and 50 kms checkpoints each week.
8. Complete Research Tasks
Are you wondering how to find good Pokemon in Pokemon GO? Then Research tasks are your answer.
Research tasks are one of the best ways to collect additional rewards, items as well as exclusive Pokemon encounters.
There are different types of research in Pokemon GO: Field Research that are obtained by spinning Pokestops, Research Breakthrough obtained upon completing a certain number of Field Research tasks and Special Research which are a set of multiple story-based questlines.
Although Field Research rewards are common items like berries, Pokeballs and certain Pokemon encounters, Special Research can give you lucrative rewards like rare items and special Pokemon encounters that often come with an exclusive move.
Majority of these tasks are relatively simple and quick to complete, and you will find yourself progressing at a much faster rate if you do them all.
9. Throw Away some Potions
Has it ever happened to you that you just defeated a raid boss and didn’t receive as many items as your friends did, only to find that your bag was full? Chances are that you have hundreds of potions lying in your bag that are never going to be used. Just get rid of them, especially the regular ones.
Now you won’t be reminded that your bag is full every time you try to spin a Pokestop or open a gift from a friend. It’s better to keep a few hyper and max potions than 200 regular and super potions. This will also allow you to carry more important items like incenses, Pokeballs, rare candies etc.
10. Eevee evolution
You might already know that Eevee has multiple evolutions and Pokemon GO currently has every single one apart from the Gen 6 Fairy-type evolution Sylveon. You might also be scratching your head trying to figure out a way to get a particular one yourself.
Well, if you simply evolve your Eevee like any other Pokemon, it will randomly go into either of these evolutions. But here’s a Pokemon GO Evolution trick that lets you get your favorite eeveelution, but keep in mind that it only works once per evolution.
Rename your Eevee to one of the following names to target the evolution next to it:
- Linnea – Leafeon
- Rea – Glaceon
- Sakura – Espeon
- Tamao – Umbreon
- Rainer – Vaporeon
- Sparky – Jolteon
- Pyro – Flareon
Conclusion
So, these were some great and useful Pokemon GO tricks you can try right now. There are dozens of more cool tricks out there, but this will be enough to get you started.
Niantic has been continually updating Pokemon GO to cater to the needs of Pokemon lovers, and there are a lot more ways to enjoy the game now.
Hopefully you’ve learned something new about the game today. Did you already know all of the ones we mentioned? Tell us what are your favorite Pokemon GO tricks?
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