Pokemon GO Discussion Thread for Non-Haters

[JerryGreenwood]

@Banana - I think your gym needs to have an open slot (an unfilled circle) next to the crown for you to join in protecting it. If there are no slots, your gym needs more prestige and a new slot will appear. I think it's level increases if your team wins battles. I think this was the site I read, but if it's not in there, it's still a good site to read.

https://www.vg247.com/201...ips-for-taking-down-gyms/

[JerryGreenwood]

I guess not too many people here are playing this anymore. Just wanna throw out that the music is really, really good. The main theme, the tune when you get a new pokemon, the battle song, the gym music. I'm not sure if any of these songs are recycled from older Pokemon games, but Junichi Masuda (who composed the older games as well) has done great work with this game.

[singlebanana]

Funny you say that. I was just thinking yesterday about how I never get tired of the music. I have the game on and walk to it every day and it's never grated on me like some music does. I'm still playing. Hatched a Magnemite yesterday, which my kids flipped out about.

I think a lot of the loss is due to repeatedly catching the same 4-5 Pokémon. I think they need to switch up the more Commons soon so that people can work on evolving other species. Some of them are a bit too rare and evolution s too slow moving.

[The Last Zinja]

I've been playing this and the amount of Pidgies and Ratattas I have caught is disturbing. The music is pretty good. I'm lucky to have a gym right next to my house.

[JerryGreenwood]

I don't mind Weedles, Ratattas and Pidgies anymore because I need Stardust badly. I'm also saving up the candies like some of you mentioned earlier so I can pop a Lucky Egg and do a few evolutions for easy EXP.

I agree somewhat about some Pokemon not showing up in their natural habitat, like Geodudes near rock quarries. But I basically live on a peninsula, a bay 1 mile north of me, a canal a 1/2 mile east of me, and the Atlantic Ocean about 5 miles south of me. I am catching Water pokemon like nobody's business. The canal a 1/2 mile from my house is my local Pokestop/Gym hotspot that I visit daily. When I am there my sightings are usually Staryus, Goldeens, Poliwags, Magikarps, Crabbys, etc.

[Shadow Kisuragi]

I have a rock/clay quarry 1/2 mile, a lake 1/4 mile, a forest right behind my house...   And, nothing of interest can be caught. I looked at the map before it was taken down, and there were only 3 Pokemon in my area, all commons and in front of a particular person's house. It doesn't help when you don't have much GPS data to go off.

[JerryGreenwood]

Quick question about Pokemon types and their weaknesses...

I just got an Omanlyte from a 10K egg. It is Rock/Water. Electric deals X2 damage to Water and normal damage to Rock. So is an Electric attack dealing 2X damage to Omanlyte or normal damage or something in between?

[Izret101]

Not sure if go uses the same calculations but here is a breakdown
http://pokemondb.net/type/dual

[shaggy]

Sadly, I have an Amazon phone so I cannot partake in the fun.

[tactical_nuke]

Quick question about Pokemon types and their weaknesses...

I just got an Omanlyte from a 10K egg. It is Rock/Wter. Electric deals X2 damage to Water and normal damage to Rock. So is an Electric attack dealing 2X damage to Omanlyte or normal damage or something in between?

2X. Normal damage match ups basically don't modify the damage taken. If it's x2 or x.5 then it does. Also there is a same type attack bonus or STAB. If the Pokemon's typing and attack typing match, it adds %50 more base damage.

[JerryGreenwood]

@Izret - Go does not use the same breakdown (not the same as Blue at least). I printed a cheatsheet from this site https://www.vg247.com/201...and-weaknesses-explained/ but it seems to freeze a lot so beware.

@Fleebitten - I didn't mean Normal damage, I meant regular damage. But yes, I found out the hard way that having a dual-type Pokemon seems to be a bad thing.  In my Omanyte's case (Rock/Water), an Electric attack will deal x2 to Omanyte because it's Water, even though Electric would deal regular damage to Rock. It ignores the Rock in this case.

So, a Ground attack deals X2 to Poison and X1/2 to Grass. If you have a Vileplume/Gloom/Oddish (Poison/Grass type), a Ground attack will deal X2 to it, not X1/2.

[MaterialHandlerMike]

I turned the music off on Day 1.

[singlebanana]

Well, I just got back from the beach where I spent a week.  I was hoping for some good Pokémon hunting and especially excited about coming across more of the water/sea creatures like Horseas, Crabbys, Staryus, etc.  Unfortunately, I didn't find this to be the case at all and mostly got more of the same common Pokémon that I'm finding at home.... However, on returning to work today, a co-worker went to a different beach and had good luck finding Magnemites, so many that he was able to evolve one. Kind of odd, but the beach he went to is far more touristy, and the one my family vacations at is much more quiet. Perhaps that's the reason. Who knows?  I'm not sure that the logic I'm using concerning Pokémon locations (and heard that the creators used) is actually valid. It's quite a shame, since it would make the game far more interesting and compel people to head to certain locals in search of certain ones. Oh well...

On a brighter note, I was able to catch quite a few new Pokémon on my trip even though I didn't spend a considerable about playing (beach time > Pokémon, for me). Here's a short list:

Tentacool - I missed this Pokémon on my first day playing this game and finally captured one while we were having breakfast at a restaurant on a local pier.  It was the only one I had seen and not caught in my Pokedex, so I was really happy to have it. Of course, when I got home this Saturday, I caught another one on my couch...figures.

Vulpix - My son got a slinter in his toe on the boardwalk and had to be carried to our house to get it out. While on the way, he spotted a Vulpix, which I figured was probably near a local Pokestop. I dropped him off and duel wielded 2 phones to catch it for both of us. Made him feel a little better.

Seaking (evolved) - Heading to pick up food one night with my daughter, I hatched a 5K egg with a Goldeen. Hatched eggs even with more common Pokémon are pretty great since they usually give you about 25 candies for that species as well. That was enough to finally evolve my Seaking.

Arbok (evolved) - Another egg hatched from walking along the beach. Was able to evolve my Ekans, which was nice. Love the look of this Pokémon; my son loves its action.

Tauros - Was finally able to track down this NA only Pokémon. Had gone out with my daughter to pick up food and my son refused to go. Turned my phone on after picking up the food and it popped up immediately in the parking lot! Showed my son when I got home and made him cry. Take that kid! 

[Shadow Kisuragi]

It collects GPS usage, so the touristy beach likely had more GPS data to go off and therefore more Pokemon options to generate. I've mentioned it before, but we don't have a large number of people where I live, so I get basically nothing except for the shopping centers.

[JerryGreenwood]

Good stuff, Banana & Son!

My town is small as well. I don't know what it's like in a city, but I'd say a Pokemon will spawn once every 10-15 minutes for me. Aside from the commoners, I'm still catching 90% water Pokemon.....Tentacools (so many that Tentacruel is my strongest Pokemon), Slowpokes, Poliwags, Psyducks, Magikarps, etc. I have NEVER seen a fire or rock Pokemon in the wild.

Call it an excuse to play this game, but there is no denying that I am outdoors more and getting more exercise because of it. I'm taking my dogs for longer walks, I've started long boarding again and because of it I am feeling tiny underutilized muscles in my back and legs come back to life.

I did not listen to the Pokemon Go playcast, so I hope I'm not redundant, but I have figured out a few tips recently...
- It's all about the eggs. If you've saved up enough "10 cents" from Gym raids, I'd spend the 150 on Egg Incubators. You get roughly 10-30 candy from a 5k or 10k egg. You're simply not finding that candy in the wild faster than you can hatch an egg, especially from the rarer ones.
- Move set > CP/HP. If you want a strong Pokemon, I believe his move set is far more important than his HP or CP. In general, for the secondary move, the moves that are one long bar are the best. 4 or 5 small blue bars are the worst. Ever fight a Vaporeon and he kills you with one hit? That's because he used Hydro Pump (a one long bar move).
- Lucky Egg + evolutions are the best XP gainer. Last week, I had about 180 Weedle candy, 140 Pidgey, and some other evolves to do. I got over 40,000 XP with one egg.
- Sites like Silph Road and Rankedboost have some good info. Silph Road has a great tool (IV rater) to let you know how strong your Pokemon REALLY is. Rankedboost seems to have the best handle on which attacks and Pokemon are best, with many hidden stats included.