If you haven't heard about it already, Pokemon Go is the newest mobile fad that has taken the world by storm. While still new and relatively undeveloped, it has become one of the most used and popular apps on the market. Even though news about the app can be found just about anywhere these days, there are still some things most people don't know. Here are 30 awesome facts you probably haven't heard about Pokemon Go. Enjoy!
3/30. Chances are, after you've visited a handful of PokStops (the blue floating cubes) around the world, you'll end up with a number of 'Eggs', to be hatched by walking two, five or 10 kilometres. What's inside them first appeared to be random, but is actually tiered, with greater distanced eggs having a higher chance of rewarding you with a rarer and more powerful Pokmon. The game seems to have an element of randomness, so although a 10km trek can occasionally result in a bog-standard Eevee, you may also end up with something like an Electabuzz in a shorter distanced egg.
4/30. Many landmarks and monuments have been turned into PokStops, but as you look over the game world, you'll spy a number of them are randomly covered in pink petals. These 'petals' are actually tiny love hearts, and they come from a 'Lure Module' being dropped at the Stop in question. Dropping a module lets all PoGo players in the surrounding area know that they have a far higher chance of catching Pokmon, should they venture across to its vicinity, so if you're in need of a few hundred extra friends, drop a module and wait for them to show up.
5/30. The world first learned of Pokmon Go from the Pokmon games first-ever Super Bowl ad in January 2016. It was designed to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the original Pokmon games for the Nintendo Game Boy.
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6/30. You can run, you can jog, you can even sprint - just don't speed up past 25mph, as that's the cut-off point in terms of how fast the game can track you. This mostly comes down to Niantic's servers needing to keep track of you at all times, and some relative balancing in terms of how frequently you can acquire the creatures themselves. If you could hop in your car and do laps around the block to hatch the most powerful monsters in minutes, and that just wouldn't fair.
7/30. Pokmon isnt actually owned by Nintendo itself the copyright is technically jointly owned by The Pokmon Company, a joint venture between Nintendo, original game developer Game Freak, and toy-maker Creatures. It was actually The Pokmon Company, not Nintendo, who spearheaded Pokmon Go.
8/30. Pokmon Go is the newest reason for the entire population to stare down at their phones. To put into perspective the enormity that is Pokmon Go, you just have to look at the numbers.Five percent of all Android users in the US have downloaded the app, which is more than the amount of people that use the dating app Tinder. And 60% of those that downloaded it use it every day, which means is more than Twitter. The app is also used an average of 43 minutes a day, which is more than WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, and Snapchat.
9/30. Since Pokmon Gos release, many beneficial uses have been uncovered. For one thing, it helps players get exercise. The app is allowing many people to be more social than ever before and is bringing Pokmon back in a big way. But theres one use for Pokmon Go that no one expected: its ability to solve missing persons cases and scare the crap out of teenagers. When one player in Wyoming was searching the nearby river for water Pokmon she stumbled across something unlike the other 50 Pokmon that she had found earlier. Thats because rather than a Pokmon she found a dead body, lying face down in the water just a few feet from where she was walking.
10/30. For players who caught all 151 Pokmon in Google Maps in 2014, Google had a sweet bonus: A set of custom-made Pokmon Master business cards.
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11/30. The roots of Pokmon Go trace back to 1995, and the launch of Meridian 59. This was the first three-dimensional online roleplaying game, setting the tone for World of Warcraft almost a decade later. It was also the first game made under the leadership of John Hanke, who would go on to form Pokmon Go developer Niantic.
12/30. You can now take an uber to catch Pokemon. In the wake of the global "Pokemon Go" obsession, all sorts of business ventures have popped up seeking to capitalize on the game's success. It is now possible for committed players to hire a driver specifically to take them from Pokestop to Pokestop, canvassing cities such as New York and Portland, for about $25 an hour. If you feel your game needs work, hire a high level real-life Pokemon trainer. You can relax at home, and let them walk around and catch those pesky pokes for you for a mere $20 an hour.
13/30. With the wave of intellectual property nostalgia that is sweeping our blockbusters, why hasn't there been a major motion Pokmon film? Well, as it turns out Hollywood has always had plans to get into the Pokmon business. Word is that Legendary Pictures is working on getting the rights in order to make a live-action Pokemon film that would have a similar feel to "Angry Birds" or "Pixels." And while this sounds like an exciting prospect in the world of video-games-turned-movies, who knows if by the time the film is made the worlds population wont be too consumed in one big Pokmon hunt to care.
14/30. One of the more go aspects of Pokmon GO is the fact that you have to walk around to hatch incubated eggs that will turn into Pokmon that probably are not in your area. The game tracks your movement using GPS, not a pedometer, so walking on a treadmill does nothing to hatch eggs.
15/30. You may wonder what the point of holding gyms is other than bragging rights, but there is actually a tangible benefit to it. For every gym you either lead or support you will get a daily package of a pretty significant amount of currency. Ingress players have said that turnover happens often, and not to get attached to your gym because you will be losing it all time. Thats most of the fun of the competitive aspect of games like this.
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16/30. If you download the game map you can extend your battery life. There's a lot of disagreement going on about this particular trick. On the one hand, a bunch of players have experienced better battery life, whilst on the other, an actual Google technician stated the 'hack' didn't work. So, the theory goes that Pokmon GO actually uses Google Maps' API (the offline guts of the app itself) to form the base of the game world. To make the most of battery life, many users are saying to pop into Google Maps' settings, hit 'offline areas', tap the plus symbol and add/download your own location. From here, the game should then use the offline map to process all data other than GPS tracking, saving your battery and hopefully extending how long you can play.
17/30. You may have noticed little prompts popping up stating you've 'Captured 3 Water Pokmon' or walked a certain distance, so if you're looking for optional things to do and track in between capturing and battling Pokmon, hop into your profile menu from the main gameplay screen, and then scroll down to see the list of optional medals. As the app runs less smoothly in densely populated areas, many of the scrolling options rarely work the first time you place your finger on the screen. Always be sure to explore the app in full, as Niantic have really dropped the ball when it comes to explaining all these features.
18/30. 'Pinch n' zoom' has been the norm for years on all smartphones, but Pokmon GO takes things one step further - or back, depending on what you make of this weird inclusion. You may have noticed that tapping on the game screen in random places causes a small blue disc to emanate from said area. So, if you tap and then quickly tap and hold again, moving your finger up and down will zoom the camera in and out.
19/30. You can tap Pokmon to hear their soundbites. Niantic are reportedly working on a fix to make it so the Pokmon themselves don't sound like they're communicating through a wall of foam. As it stands though, they'll yell at you when being caught and again during gym battles, but you can see what your team sound like at any time. Head into the Pokmon viewer and tap on the creature itself to hear their iconic noise, and you can also hold your finger down on them to rotate. Now you can fully admire your Charizard in all its splendour.
20/30. Pokmon Go isnt actually the first time you could play with Nintendo characters in so-called augmented reality. The Nintendo 3DS and its successors have a little-used augmented reality feature that lets you aim its camera at special cards, and have 3D characters appear on the screen, kind of like Pokmon Go.
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21/30. Although Pokmon Go hasnt been out very long up to this point, crazed Pokmon hunters are jonesing for more creatures to catch. And while its yet to be confirmed that anyone has caught em all, with 151 original Pokmon out there and capturable, according to the Pokmon Go Pokdex. But fear not, because its been reported that game developer Niantic is working on adding more Pokmon to the game. In the meantime, Niantic has confirmed that trading is definitely coming in a future update in order to really capture the original essence of the Pokmon of our youths. But with 721 official Pokmon created since Pokmons debut in 1995, theres a lot more characters that fans are going to want to see on Pokmon Go in the near future.
22/30. A Pokestop may be coming to a McDonald's near you, Gizmodo reports. If Reddit rumours prove true, a not-so-distant McDonald's sponsorship would mean you could be fighting most of your Pokemon gym battles under the golden arches with a mouth full of french fries.
23/30. Anyone whos ever played a video game will attest to the fact that no game is complete without a rare quest to find a hidden Easter Egg. And perhaps Pokmon Gos Easter Egg is the holy grail of the game, as some users have found hints in the games code alluding to Legendary Pokmon waiting to be captured. Just like the original Pokmon games, searches for its rarest creatures look to be among the most rewarding experiences. Though no one has located them yet, Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, and Mewtwo and Mew are among those listed in the files for the game.
24/30. Almost nothing tracks when the app is closed. This is one aspect of Pokmon GO that really seems to be a problem, and a huge cause of battery woes. The game will not alert you when Pokmon or PokStops are near unless the app is open. It will not count your steps. It will pretty much not do anything except drain the timer of your consumables. So you will literally have to be that guy or girl walking around with your phone in hand, or at least paying really close attention to sounds via headphones or buzzes while you have the app open in your pocket.
25/30. The gym system is a little confusing at first. As it turns out, you have to lower the gym rep all the way to zero in order to make it neutral and then you can station one of your Pokmon there. This involves beating a gym two, three or more times, unless you have some team members around to back you up. If you can heal after each fight, this is actually pretty easy to do depending on your CP levels, but the system is not terribly well explained in the game itself.
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26/30. You can evolve non-primary duplicates for XP. You quickly learn that you will be shoving lots of extra Pokmon into the meat grinder for candy, once you start amassing a lot of low level duplicates. Once you have a max evolution version of a Pokmon, it seems like youd want to just upgrade that and not look back. But, for some of the most common Pokmon near you, they can be a bonus source of significant XP. Say you evolved your Rattata into a Raticate but you keep finding eight zillion Rattatas. Well, save a few, and use all that candy (and zero stardust) to evolve them for 500 XP a pop. There are probably only a handful of Pokmon that you will find this often, but this is a great use of extra candy which costs you nothing of significance and will really help with levelling.
27/30. It seems that everyone is capitalizing on the success of Pokmon Go, from restaurants to churches and even criminals. Police have reported that criminals armed with a handgun in Missouri have been luring players to them using the app in an attempt to rob them. Although the suspects were caught and charged with felony robbery and are probably not great people, no one is talking about how they must have been expert Pokmon Go players, considering the level they would have needed to attain in order to track and lure their victims to a secluded place. According to police the robbers added a beacon to a Pokstop in an empty parking lot and were able to lure four Pokmon Go players to them at 2am.
28/30. You get daily bonuses by stationing Pokmon at gyms under your team's colour. Stroll up to one, and if it's the same colour as what you're signed up to, battle for the option to raise the gym's 'Prestige' - whereas if an opposing colour is stationed, you'll have to beat the guarding Pokmon before going any further. Once the gym is grey again, turn it your team's colour by placing a Pokmon there - now jump into the Shop menu and look to the top right. You'll have a number in the centre of the shield icon, which dictates how many Pokmon are assigned to gyms. Each is worth 10 gold coins and 500 Stardust. You can put up to 10 out in the wild for the rest of us to fight, and the bonuses will roll in once every 21 hours, depending on if they've been defeated and returned to your roster or not.
29/30. Going forward, Niantic should be looking into populating rural areas just as much as cityscapes and general suburbia, but as it stands if you're out in the sticks, there may only a handful of PokStops to activate. To remedy that, know they reset every five minutes, meaning you can do a quick walk around the block - catching Pokmon as you go - only to return and nab another set of items. There's no limit to how much you can cash in (other than your own sanity), so do yourself a favour - get a bit of exercise in by inventing new routes to and from your places of business, and trigger these Stops as much as possible.
30/30. There are some points on the map designated as gyms, that are far harder to reach than others. There are some gyms you literally couldn't get to without paying a fee, which was great, because the Pokmon who were stationed there had a CP level of around 700. You could tell, whoever these people were, they'd coughed up the cash to get into the area and stationed their Pokmon, knowing only those who also wanted to pay cash to take back a fictional gym would ever take it back. Next time you're rationing off which Pokmon will be guarding what, survey the environment and think: Which gym poses an actual challenge to seek out? It can only lead to more regular daily bonuses in the end.
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