Catching & Leveling Up
What is This?
This page is full of information specifically for #PokemonGO to progress efficiently without wasting time or Stardust. Below is information on how to Increase your Trainer Level, Catching Good / Powerful Pokémon, and Do IVs Matter.
Trainer Level
Trainer level determines Pokémon CP caps (Trainer Level+10), access to XL Candy, and overall efficiency. Early levels go fast, but poor habits can cause XP gains to come to a grinding halt after level ~30.
Some Key takeaways to maximize XP gains are:
- Excellent Throws are the most consistent source of daily XP gains.
Lucky Eggsshould be planned around mass XP events, not used randomly.- Leveling up friendship with other trainers provide large spikes XP.
- Save/stack
Seasonal PassandSpecial Researchto claim them all at once. - Save/stack
Field Reseachcapture rewards to create a backlog of pokemon to catch.
Saving/Stockpiling capture rewards from your Field Research is known as a Research Stack.
You can save up to a maximum of 100 encounters this way, but if you exceed the limit the game will delete earlier encounters WITHOUT NOTIFING YOU.
- Keep phone on when you're idling at your desk to catch whatever spawns
- Use your
daily adventureincense while walking aroute - Participate in community day and other Pokemon Go Events
- Make sure to encounter your four daily Rocket Balloons
Catching Good / Powerful Pokémon
A Pokemon's rarity doesn't directly translate to it's usefulness. Strong Pokémon are defined by base stats, IVs, role in raids, and movesets. Making sure you spend your time catching meta-relevant species over collection filler raises your account's overall power; But also gives you the XP needed to keep progressing your Trainer Level while conserving Stardust for later. You can also see the Attacking Gyms, Defending Gyms, Dynamax Battles, Mega Evolutions, or Raiding pages for info on pokemon for those use cases.
Farming XL Candy
When you power up a pokemon you'll use regular candy from levels 1-40. However, you'll need XL Candy from levels 41-50. This article by PoGo Hub covers the ways you can obtain XL Candy.
Do IVs Matter?
When speaking about Raiding or Attacking Gyms IVs matter much less than most players think, especially during the later levels. Without going too deep, the higher the CP of a Pokemon, the less they matter. However, when speaking about PoGO PvP they actually matter quite a bit.
Using Online Maps
You can use various online maps to help track Raids, Pokestops, and Nests to make sure you're maximizing your playtime. Below are various online tools you can use:
Wayfarer Map
While the Wayfarer Map is the offical map, it leaves room for improvement. Thankfully, community members have made plugins you can download. You'll need to install Tampermonkey then you can install the Wayfarer Tools Plugin & Tntnnbltn Add-on to improve you're overall experience.
Third Party Tools
Alternatively you can use some community created tools to track the same information.
More Pokemon Content
This page is full of information specifically for #PokemonGO, you can also see the Pokemon Resources page or other pages tagged with #Pokemon for additional information.