Top 10 Tips for Playing Pokemon Go

July 6, 2016 - a day that some will remember as the day Pokémon Go was released and the Pokémon franchise truly went mainstream.

While some say the game has lost momentum, others continue to push forward, making it a central part of their lifestyle. Players are walking marathon distances weekly, exploring new parts of their cities, and forming friendships with the unlikeliest of companions.

Though many cheats have been introduced by savvy players - most of which can get you banned - there are plenty of legitimate tips for those who prefer to play fairly.

Here is a list of some of the best tips for making your gameplay more effective, fun, and Poké-profitable.
The Top Ten
Don't power up your Pokémon until after you evolve them

While the order of evolving or powering them up won't affect the resulting CP, there's a definite reason to evolve first. Let's say you evolve your Pikachu into a Raichu and have some candy left to power it up into a formidable battler.

If the Raichu has a weak moveset, you will probably be wasting your candy to improve the CP of a creature that'll get its butt kicked in the gym. You're better off evolving another Pikachu and hoping it gets a strong moveset, then powering it up to the max.

I play this game, and I had a CP 870 Vaporeon. Now I powered it up, and it's 1250 or something.

Level up faster by hosting a "Pidgey Party"

Collect all those annoyingly common Pidgeys, Caterpies, and Weedles and transfer them until you have hundreds of candies. Collect these specifically because they only take 12 candies to evolve into their next form.

Once you have a few hundred, or more, candies, start keeping those creatures in your backpack until you are filled up. Crack open a Lucky Egg and start rapid-fire evolving those collected Pokemon, collecting 1000 XP each, until your time runs out. You can evolve about 60 Pokemon during the 30-minute window. Select your Pidgey, evolve once, transfer for the candy, select the next Pidgey... Repeat.

Practice your curveballs

Catching a Pokemon with a curveball lands you an extra 10 XP. Since you collect 100 XP per creature (at a minimum), it's basically a collect 10 and get one free situation.

Throw your Poké Ball into the center of the catching circle

While it's a good strategy to throw your Pokeball when the catching circle is smaller, it's more important to land your ball inside that circle rather than bouncing it off the Pokemon's head.

Hit inside a large circle and you'll get a "nice." Medium circles give you a "great," and small circles land you an "excellent." All of these give you additional XP for the capture.

Catch everything - within reason

While it's important for your XP to capture everything you come across, don't waste your Pokeballs trying to capture an evolved form of a common creature. Unless you are swimming in Pokeballs and you don't mind wasting some (100 stardust is 100 stardust), conserve those balls for rares and collecting those common types.

Hatch all your 2.0 km eggs first

Since you have an infinite incubator, always have an egg inside it to hatch. Unless all you have are 5km and 10km eggs, keep cycling through your 2km eggs to free up space for the bigger and better eggs.

Throw away extra potions and revives

Unless you make a habit of battling at every gym, get rid of all your potions and revives to make room for Pokeballs and Razz Berries. Since you can only collect every 21 hours anyway, stock up on potions and revives just before it's time to battle but dump them the rest of the time.

Unless you battle a ton, you'll likely use way more balls and berries than potions. Make some room in your limited bag space.

Notice and research Pokémon "nests"

Always seem to be finding the same Pokemon at the same couple of places at the same times of day? That's what is called a "nest." You can research where others have found spawn points and when certain types hatch so you can improve your chances of catching something rare.

Where I live, there was a Pinsir nest at one Pokestop. Now they changed it to a Nidoran male, I think.

Research your Pokémon's IVs

Each Pokemon has Individual Values (IVs) that determine how strong it can get. If you have two of the same Pokemon with similar strengths, use an online IV calculator to determine which one is actually your better catch. Dump the other (unless you have enough candy to keep them both) and focus on the one with the higher IVs.

Choose your battles carefully

While it can be fun to battle down a popular gym in the heat of a crowd, doing so will only give you a small window of time to place a Pokemon defender and collect your coins. Then you're sitting there waiting for 21 hours to collect one gym again.

Instead, look for your own team's gyms and try to add a defender to the pile. Then look for a couple of quiet gyms close together that you can battle down in a short enough time to collect on multiple gyms before they get taken by an enemy team.

True this. Do not do something you will instantly regret the next minute.

The Newcomers

? Spend money to level up faster
? Save Candies for Generation 2 Pokémon
The Contenders
Rename your Eevee before evolving to get the evolution you want
Go to a location with a lot of people near water
At the beginning of the game, when the three starters appear, walk away from them three times to encounter Pikachu as your first Pokémon
Don't evolve Pokémon until you have a Lucky Egg
BAdd New Item