Pokemon Go

[Dusky]

Pokemon Go is live!  I found a Goldeen on the clearance shelf at Walmart, lol.

[Deleted]

I downloaded it yesterday, but then you have to run the app all the time? So that's a battery drainer. And you actually have to be out and about. I tried walking down the block but it wanted me to go like a mile away in the neighborhood to get some and it started raining these big fat cold raindrops and I didn't have a jacket. I guess the concept is cute but I never really "got" Pokemon as I'm slightly too old I guess. I'll probably end up deleting it.

[anastasia517]

It keeps saying servers are down for me. The only stuff that shows up when I am in are the basic house squares and roads too, which is disappointing. I did catch a Rattata in addition to my stater though.

I was the target audience when Pokemon first came out. It was one of the things that 75%+ of people in my grade were obsessed with. When it works I will be all over it.

[PatBenatar]

I love Pokémon so I'm excited about this, but it's barely working. I did catch a Pokémon at my desk today LOL.

Hopefully they'll work out the kinks in time.

[Dusky]

The server crashes are definitely an issue. My workplace is a pokestop and my coworkers are all nerds, so excitement has been running pretty high for us.

[anastasia517]

DH mentioned that our local library is a Pokestop, but of course the game was down when I was there earlier today. It has been running pretty well tonight so I am getting there. 16 kinds of Pokemon down, only... a lot to go.

[dr.girlfriend]

Tumblr is full of jokes about the servers being down. Here's my favorite:

POKEMON SERVERS BE LIKE:





Apparently there is an option in the settings to prolong battery life that might help? Otherwise, it seems it drains about 1% per minute! =:-O DS is super into Pokemon so I might have to figure this out. Is it just an iPhone app?

[dr.girlfriend]

Jul 9, 2016 10:24:10 GMT -5 dr.girlfriend said:

Tumblr is full of jokes about the servers being down. Here's my favorite:

POKEMON SERVERS BE LIKE:





Apparently there is an option in the settings to prolong battery life that might help? Otherwise, it seems it drains about 1% per minute! =:-O DS is super into Pokemon so I might have to figure this out. Is it just an iPhone app?

I downloaded it, but I guess they aren't registering new accounts right now because of the server overloads.  Womp womp.
Save

[snippet17]

Jul 9, 2016 10:24:10 GMT -5 dr.girlfriend said:

Tumblr is full of jokes about the servers being down. Here's my favorite:

POKEMON SERVERS BE LIKE:





Apparently there is an option in the settings to prolong battery life that might help? Otherwise, it seems it drains about 1% per minute! =:-O DS is super into Pokemon so I might have to figure this out. Is it just an iPhone app?

Not sure if its just for iphones but I know I cannot download in on mu android but I am not sure if its due to my phone being two years old.

[GilliC]

I'm kind of jealous. Hopefully they'll fix the server issues and then role it out to the rest of the world.

We were talking at lunch today about maybe using our US accounts to download it, but I hate switching iTunes accounts for app updates.

[dr.girlfriend]

I got it to work this weekend...it's pretty fun! DS was super excited to catch the first Pokemon in our house, but then got a little frustrated that it took so long to find another, lol. I think now that his expectations are adjusted it will be better, and it's a good way to get him out of the house and walking around the neighborhood! I haven't noticed that it's so hard on the battery, although we really just run it while we're out walking and then turn it off right afterwards. We are out in the 'burbs so I didn't think there would be that many Pokestops out here but there are quite a lot!

[Deleted]

I finally had lots of fun with it yesterday. Apparently they love when I go grocery shopping - finally got like 5 at Fred Meyer (gosh it's cute making the birds perch on the end of the shopping cart for a picture). Got home and H hadn't left yet for TJs, so I went with him and caught like 3 more in store, store had a pokestop, 3 more in the parking lot and one at pizza. Although there was a horrid server glitch...three times it said "nice" and acted like I had caught this clefairy but then I'd turn around and he was in a new place. 20 balls and it never actually caught it. Had to be a glitch. H caught it, apparently it was CP 115 It also encouraged us to go on a walk last night as the park half a block away is a pokestop and then half a mile away on another street was another one so we walked over there to get more balls as well.

Got to work this morning...the sign in front of my office is a pokestop, woo! I wish I worked at SBUX HQ, so many people there and they keep dropping lures. But I should earn my paycheck and not just go camp out on their steps.

I finally hit level 5 last night so need to pick a team and learn how to battle. Valor holds all the gyms near my house so I kind of wanted to go Mystic to make for some good competition, but then my Twitter crew is split between V & M.

[pirate]

It's hard to Pokemon with a baby! You'd think it would be easy but it's so hot i feel like she can't hang outside for too long, so long walks to catch Pokemon aren't really happening. I caught a bunch at the grocery store at least...thank goodness somebody put down a lure at the restaurant next door I suck at battles though.

[dr.girlfriend]

I keep having this issue where I throw the Pokeball, catch something, and then the screen freezes up. It looks like sometimes if I force-quit the thing I caught is in my Pokedex, and other times it's not. Is there any way to actually quit the game from the screen, aside from tapping the home key and swiping up? It seems like there should be some official way to exit out of the game that I'm just not seeing.

[GilliC]

A friend texted me today asking if I wanted to go for a walk this evening, so I logged into my US account and downloaded it.

The only pokestop anywhere near my office is right outside our building, so I can access it from the coffee machine. There are four in the courtyard around my apartment, and one of them can be reached from our flat, so I've been stocking up on pokeballs.

The three closest gyms are a park, an illegal squat, and our favorite bar! I thought the gyms were supposed to be places like parks and libraries! Not bars and drug dens! Haha!

I'm astonished how many people here are playing, since it hasn't been released to the local App Store! I'm also astonished that a Norwegian came up to me at the park gym to ask which team I'm on. Norwegians never talk to strangers if they can help it! (Also, he asked in Norwegian and I understood him, so yay for that!!)

[Deleted]

Jul 12, 2016 14:09:14 GMT -5 dr.girlfriend said:

I keep having this issue where I throw the Pokeball, catch something, and then the screen freezes up. It looks like sometimes if I force-quit the thing I caught is in my Pokedex, and other times it's not. Is there any way to actually quit the game from the screen, aside from tapping the home key and swiping up? It seems like there should be some official way to exit out of the game that I'm just not seeing.

I haven't found any other way. I've blessedly only had a few freezes when i've caught something and both were in my pokedex, just not in my journal. They released an update today, fixes the creepy Google access to a normal profile/email only, and supposedly helps with the app crashes.

[dr.girlfriend]

Jul 12, 2016 15:20:18 GMT -5 GilliC said:

The three closest gyms are a park, an illegal squat, and our favorite bar! I thought the gyms were supposed to be places like parks and libraries! Not bars and drug dens! Haha!

CNET had an answer for this one...

Why did they strategically place gyms at my local bars?

The developer of Pokemon Go -- Niantic -- made a previous game called Ingress that was also about finding cool stuff hiding in the real world. Ingress players submitted all sorts of real-world locations to be landmarks in the game, and Pokemon Go uses some of those same landmarks.

Your local Ingress players were probably epic trolls.

But also: Pokemon pub crawls.
Save

[dr.girlfriend]

So, what Pokémon are around you guys? Around here it's a lot of Pidgeys, Rattatas, and then a few Spearows and Zubats. The Spearows are so frustrating, you can bonk them right on the head and they still won't go in the ball, and then if you finally get them they break free half the time. I haven't really figured out the gym battle stuff, I've mostly been collecting/evolving.

[Deleted]

Pidgeys and rattatas are the city vermin Next I see zubats and drowzees the most.

Right now I'm SUUPER annoyed with the 3step bug. It's crippling the game for me as I don't really do battles, I just like to have the reason to go outside, get walking in, and collect stuff.

Also, I don't know if it's a consequence of leveling up but I'm now 11 and even using raspberries, I'm having a crap time with the mons staying IN their balls! Even with a "great" throw, they won't stay caught and often eventually poof off after 3 or 4 tries. I'm annoyed that I missed out on 2 almost 500 level golbat's yesterday because of this (and I haven't caught any yet) but this is even happening with level 80 and stuff.

[dr.girlfriend]

Jul 21, 2016 13:05:23 GMT -5 @ksta said:

Pidgeys and rattatas are the city vermin Next I see zubats and drowzees the most.

Right now I'm SUUPER annoyed with the 3step bug. It's crippling the game for me as I don't really do battles, I just like to have the reason to go outside, get walking in, and collect stuff.

Also, I don't know if it's a consequence of leveling up but I'm now 11 and even using raspberries, I'm having a crap time with the mons staying IN their balls! Even with a "great" throw, they won't stay caught and often eventually poof off after 3 or 4 tries. I'm annoyed that I missed out on 2 almost 500 level golbat's yesterday because of this (and I haven't caught any yet) but this is even happening with level 80 and stuff.

Starting at Level 12 you get "Great Balls" in addition to regular Pokeballs, which are supposedly better at keeping high-level Pokemons in. I've had some break out even with Great Balls, though, so who knows...plus I can't figure out if you choose when to use them or if they just show up randomly. It might be after you miss twice / have a breakout with regular balls it automatically shifts to a Great Ball.

I haven't figured out how to fight at a gym yet, so my bag was all full up with healing potions and I couldn't get any Pokeballs from stops! I finally ditched like 50 potions today. :-P

[dr.girlfriend]

Jul 21, 2016 13:05:23 GMT -5 @ksta said:

Pidgeys and rattatas are the city vermin Next I see zubats and drowzees the most.

Right now I'm SUUPER annoyed with the 3step bug. It's crippling the game for me as I don't really do battles, I just like to have the reason to go outside, get walking in, and collect stuff.

Also, I don't know if it's a consequence of leveling up but I'm now 11 and even using raspberries, I'm having a crap time with the mons staying IN their balls! Even with a "great" throw, they won't stay caught and often eventually poof off after 3 or 4 tries. I'm annoyed that I missed out on 2 almost 500 level golbat's yesterday because of this (and I haven't caught any yet) but this is even happening with level 80 and stuff.

Yeah, it's definitely all pidgeys and rattatas here, with a few zubats and spearows.  A few new ones will pop up every once in awhile, though!  New ones I got today are tentacool, goldeen, weepinbell, and dratini.  I'm spoiled, though, since I work at a children's hospital people are always dropping lures nearby, although usually I can't get close enough to take advantage of them since I'm stuck in my office.  I do win points with some of my patients by being able to tell them where all the Pokestops are, though!

[Deleted]

dr.girlfriend Yeah, I keep ditching potions as I was over 80 of regular and revives and I don't really battle. My game shop is a gym owned by my team (go mystic!) so I was trying to learn just training last time I was there for tabletop.

I saw a snorlax silhouette on my radar this morning while stopped at a stoplight! But I had to get to work rather than hunt it down, which is too time-consuming now thanks to the three step bug. I've seen the tentacool silhouette a few times but haven't actually seen the bugger himself.

My favs are my one precious vulpix, my pikachu I *just* caught on Tuesday, my little Tauros.

I love that people are dropping lures at hospitals for kids <3

[dr.girlfriend]

Jul 21, 2016 14:01:16 GMT -5 @ksta said:

dr.girlfriend Yeah, I keep ditching potions as I was over 80 of regular and revives and I don't really battle. My game shop is a gym owned by my team (go mystic!) so I was trying to learn just training last time I was there for tabletop.

I saw a snorlax silhouette on my radar this morning while stopped at a stoplight! But I had to get to work rather than hunt it down, which is too time-consuming now thanks to the three step bug. I've seen the tentacool silhouette a few times but haven't actually seen the bugger himself.

My favs are my one precious vulpix, my pikachu I *just* caught on Tuesday, my little Tauros.

I love that people are dropping lures at hospitals for kids <3

DS just hatched a Snorlax from an egg today, so there's hope!  I finally caught a Pikachu, but I've heard he's in some of the 2k eggs too.  I caught a tentacool in the middle of a meeting at work, lol.  I was trying to be covert but I think my coworker who also plays busted me.  I have the 3-step bug so I can't hunt anything, which is a little irritating, but I don't really have time to get out and hunt anyway.  My son is obsessed with getting enough Magicarp to evolve it into that sea-dragon thingie (it needs 400 candy!) and the worst is that I saw a bunch of Magicarp today and didn't have any Pokeballs to catch them with!  I wish I had figured out to ditch potions earlier.
Save

[GilliC]

Jul 22, 2016 15:13:49 GMT -5 dr.girlfriend said:

Jul 21, 2016 14:01:16 GMT -5 @ksta said:

dr.girlfriend Yeah, I keep ditching potions as I was over 80 of regular and revives and I don't really battle. My game shop is a gym owned by my team (go mystic!) so I was trying to learn just training last time I was there for tabletop.

I saw a snorlax silhouette on my radar this morning while stopped at a stoplight! But I had to get to work rather than hunt it down, which is too time-consuming now thanks to the three step bug. I've seen the tentacool silhouette a few times but haven't actually seen the bugger himself.

My favs are my one precious vulpix, my pikachu I *just* caught on Tuesday, my little Tauros.

I love that people are dropping lures at hospitals for kids <3

DS just hatched a Snorlax from an egg today, so there's hope!  I finally caught a Pikachu, but I've heard he's in some of the 2k eggs too.  I caught a tentacool in the middle of a meeting at work, lol.  I was trying to be covert but I think my coworker who also plays busted me.  I have the 3-step bug so I can't hunt anything, which is a little irritating, but I don't really have time to get out and hunt anyway.  My son is obsessed with getting enough Magicarp to evolve it into that sea-dragon thingie (it needs 400 candy!) and the worst is that I saw a bunch of Magicarp today and didn't have any Pokeballs to catch them with!  I wish I had figured out to ditch potions earlier.
Save

I can confirm that you can hatch a Pikachu from a 2K egg, because my SO is super lucky with eggs! (He also lucked into another one, because the game froze when he first joined, and it ended up triggering that "Run away from the starting choices" trick, and he started with Pikachu instead.)

[GilliC]

Jul 21, 2016 13:05:23 GMT -5 @ksta said:

Also, I don't know if it's a consequence of leveling up but I'm now 11 and even using raspberries, I'm having a crap time with the mons staying IN their balls! Even with a "great" throw, they won't stay caught and often eventually poof off after 3 or 4 tries. I'm annoyed that I missed out on 2 almost 500 level golbat's yesterday because of this (and I haven't caught any yet) but this is even happening with level 80 and stuff.

FYI - When you hit Level 20, everything suddenly gets crazy! Most Pidgeys and Rattatas I run into are 250+ CP, and almost nothing stays in the first ball even with a Razz Berry and a Great throw.

However, since everything you encounter is suddenly much stronger, I think it's worth waiting on some of the evolutions until you hit 20. I hoarded a bunch of candy and then used a Lucky Egg right before an evolution spree, and I was able to make it most of the way through Level 19 in that half hour. But then when I hit 20, everything was sooooo much stronger, and I was kicking myself that now I had a bunch of weaker evolved things, when if I'd just waited one level, they would have been pretty awesome.

Of course this only really matters because I'm a gym rat and too weak to compete well. Mostly I just take over whatever weak gyms I can find and then immediately collect the 10 coins. There is no way I'm going to be able to stay in a gym in my city for 20+ hours!

[GilliC]

What I've learned about gyms...

They make a big deal about "training," but the other teams' gyms are by far easier, more satisfying, and give you much more XP! The only downside is that you need the Revive's after the battle, but that's not a huge deal.


Your team's gyms:

At your own gym, you get to choose one Pokemon to fight with*, and you use it to battle all of the 'Mon that are already in the gym. I can't recall if you get a few XP for fighting even if you lose, but it's incredibly low. Less than hitting a Pokestop.  You also increase the gym's prestige, which really only benefits the players who already have Pokemon in the gym. Training at a gym where you have something stationed will make the gym stronger and therefore help you stay in it longer.

The easiest way to get into a gym is to find one that has an empty space. e.g. if a Level 3 gym only has 2 Pokemon in it, you can just add one of your own as the third. When you do have a Pokemon in a gym, the little shield in the top right of the Shop screen will show how many Pokemon you have stationed in gyms. When you tap it, you get Pokecoins for every stationed Pokemon (typically 10 and maybe some Stardust). You can collect rewards once every 20 hours. Allegedly, if you can stay in a gym for most of a day, you get far more rewards, but I can't stay in a gym for that long. Since I get knocked out quickly and am unlikely to get into more than one gym at the same time, I just collect the reward as soon as I put something in.

While you have a Pokemon stationed at a gym, you won't be able to fight with it, and it will show a symbol next to it on your Pokemon list. Once it's knocked out of the gym, it will be down to 0/1 HP, and you'll need to use some Revive/Potion to bring it back to normal.

Other teams' gyms:

When you battle another team's gym, you choose 6 Pokemon* for your team. You get to use all six to battle however many things are stationed in the gym. So if there are only two things in the gym, you get to use six Pokemon to try to defeat them. For every one you defeat, you get (I think) 100 XP. This is much more than training. Additionally, the more you defeat, the lower that gym's prestige becomes. Gym Prestige goes down much faster than it goes up during training. This means that if you revive all of your Pokemon and try a few times, it's not that hard to bring down a gym. Especially if you have two people fighting it at the same time. Once the gym's Prestige hits 0, it becomes neutral, and the first person to stick a new Pokemon in it claims it for their team. Unfortunately, this may not be you if there are other people around and you're not fast enough! Once you get a few strong-ish Pokemon, you have a good shot at bringing down enemy gyms singlehandedly, and then you can station your own Pokemon, collect your Pokecoins, and move on.


*If you tap an auto-selected Pokemon before the battle, you can choose a different one.

[GilliC]

In southern Norway:

Very common - Caterpie, Pidgey, Rattata, Spearow, Zubat, Drowzee, Magikarp
Quite Common - Nidoran, Poliwag, Bellsprout, Gastly, Krabby, Goldeen
Fairly Common - Paras, Meowth, Psyduck, Staryu, Jynx, Eevee
Things we've only seen a few times - Charmander, Machop, Onix
Things we've never seen here at all - Diglett, Doduo, Voltorb, Rhyhorn, Chansey, Tangela, Kabuto
(or any or the region-specific, including Mr.Mime, which is supposed to be in Europe)

ETA - We've now seen a Tangela and a Mr.Mime in local gyms.

[dr.girlfriend]

BTW, this worked for me!

Change the nickname on your Eevee before you evolve it to create whichever evolution you prefer:

Sparky = Jolteon
Pyro = Flareon
Rainer = Vaporeon

[Deleted]

Jul 27, 2016 18:00:27 GMT -5 dr.girlfriend said:

BTW, this worked for me!

Change the nickname on your Eevee before you evolve it to create whichever evolution you prefer:

Sparky = Jolteon
Pyro = Flareon
Rainer = Vaporeon

My husband and me as well.

Dudes, I only evolve my best rated whatever, but I swear I get jacked on the next stage's CP.

[dr.girlfriend]

Jul 28, 2016 12:33:39 GMT -5 @ksta said:

Jul 27, 2016 18:00:27 GMT -5 dr.girlfriend said:

BTW, this worked for me!

Change the nickname on your Eevee before you evolve it to create whichever evolution you prefer:

Sparky = Jolteon
Pyro = Flareon
Rainer = Vaporeon

My husband and me as well.

Dudes, I only evolve my best rated whatever, but I swear I get jacked on the next stage's CP.

I keep encouraging DS to save his candy for when we're at a higher level, but he's 7 so of course he blows it all!