Pokemon Go

[MToolen]

Less stagnant gyms, TMs, and the ultra-rare Pokemon chance are all great incentives for me to get back in gyms.

Also, did anybody here bite on the big event tickets? I was at a doctor's appointment with my wife when tickets went on sale. Took a look at her belly (34 weeks along, but it'll be here before we know it) and decided against it. Tickets for all events sold out in less than half an hour, so no time to rethink that I guess.

[Poryhedron]

I don't realistically have a way to get to Chicago, so I didn't even bother considering it.

Incidentally, there are now reports coming in that Niantic may be increasing the number of Gyms by converting some Pokéstops into Gyms, so I guess it's just as well that Gyms will now be able to function as Pokéstops so we don't lose any.

[Poryhedron]

So, something amazing happened today. I mentioned earlier that Niantic is turning more Pokéstops into Gyms, right? Well, they're doing something else too.

I live about twenty minutes-drive from a city that's chock full'o Pokéstops and Gyms, but my house itself is in a more rural region where Pokéstops, let alone Gyms, can be hard to come by. When I haven't been out all day, and I need to go out to make sure I don't miss my daily bonuses, it's about a five-minute drive to the nearest Pokéstop, and there is nothing else of interest around that Pokéstop.

But today, I went to that Pokéstop, and was gobsmacked by two things: first, that Pokéstop has been upgraded to a Gym, and second, there is a new Pokéstop right near it. I have no idea why, given that Gyms function as Pokéstops now, but there it was.

So folks who lack the advantage of living in a city, keep an eye out. You might plausibly be seeing new Pokéstops and Gyms soon.

[Blademaster]

Can confirm. There used to only be 2 or 3 Gyms in the heart of town; now there's at least 6.

[Magmar]

There are gyms EVERYWHERE here in Chicago.
Caught a rando Arcanine today and got Bayleef in a raid battle also have enough points to evolve Wartortle to Blastoise, but holding off as I've got a far better Squirtle to evolve!

I did not get my hands on a ticket might lurk nearby though since I live right there ha

[Poryhedron]

I very rarely encounter anyone else playing the game when I am, so I have yet to experience having any teammates in a raid battle. Fortunately, I've found some raid bosses can be easily handled alone, depending on species and CP. I encountered a Raid Magikarp with a CP somewhere around 1,200, and later a Raid Croconaw that was around CP 5,800; both fell to just my Jolteon. The CP 12,000-ish Muk, though, took my whole team down both times I tried fighting it, though I came close to beating it the first time.

[midnightangel]

I get Pokemon where I live at and work at. I just caught Pikachu with Ash's hat last night at work.
Also seen raid battles at home and at work...... Not ready for that but I play Go frequently.

If anyone remembers me I'm still here......

[Poryhedron]

Exciting new information has been revealed about Pokémon GO Fest in Chicago; no matter where you live, you'll want to read this, because it affects trainers all over the world!

Pokémon GO Fest's main event takes place in Grant Park, Chicago, on July 22nd. Over the course of the day will be three blocks of time called Challenge Windows. They start at 11 AM, Noon, and 3 PM (times are in Chicago's time zone, Central Daylight Time) and last for half an hour each. During the Challenge Windows, Trainers in Grant Park will race to catch as many pokémon as they can...but trainers all over the world will also race to catch as many pokémon as they can!

PHASE 1
Trainers in Grant Park will have six different Types of Pokémon to catch: Normal-types, Grass-types, Fire-types, Water-types, Electric-types, and Rock-types. Catching the different types earns progress in unlocking six different Bonuses that will be made available to trainers all over the world! (Assuming the Grant Park trainers catch enough of them!) Each bonus will come in Bronze, Silver, and Gold ranks just like the Achievement Badges in the game, so the more pokémon of a type the Grant Park Trainers catch, the more powerful the type's bonus will be!

Normal-types: Wild Pokémon will appear more frequently!
Grass-types: Earn increased amounts of Stardust!
Fire-types: Earn increased amounts of Candy!
Water-types: Earn increased amounts of XP!
Electric-types: Eggs will hatch faster!
Rock-types: Buddies will find Candy faster!

Meanwhile, Trainers all over the world must also catch as many pokémon as they can during the Challenge Windows. If we catch enough, we unlock bonuses to the DURATION of the bonuses being unlocked by the Grant Park trainers! It's not made clear what the duration will be if Trainers worldwide fail to hit the Bronze level; maybe that sort of failure will result in a duration of 0 hours and we just don't get the bonuses. But if we hit Bronze rank, we'll add 24 hours to the duration of the bonuses the Grant Park Trainers unlocked, and the Silver Rank adds 48 hours. If worldwide trainers manage to catch enough pokémon to hit the Gold rank, something extra-special will happen...

PHASE 2
Phase 2 only happens at all if trainers worldwide catch enough pokémon to trigger it. If this happens, the Grant Park Trainers will be presented with a special Mystery Challenge. The Challenge will begin at 6 PM Chicago time and run for a full hour; the only clue we have as to what sort of challenge it will be is that Niantic put a picture of the three Team Leaders next to this information. That might not even mean anything. Anyway, if the Grant Park Trainers can complete this Mystery Challenge, they'll unlock "a major global reward" which, if I'm interpreting this right, might apply worldwide for the next two days? Mysteries abound!

Grant Park Trainers, we'll all be counting on you, and we'll do our best to help you along!


Not sure when 11 AM, noon, and 3 PM Chicago time are?
Here's my favorite web site for keeping track of time zones: http://www.worldtimezone.com/
It even helpfully has Chicago labelled in the USA's green band.

[Magmar]

Oh my gosh, hopefully I can get there! Still haven't gotten a ticket, but like, I'm IN the bloody city. I've gotta be able to do this somehow.

Anyways, let's see what's changed since Rando Arcanine on Sunday as I'm procrastinating homework XD... Got Chikorita by Buckingham fountain! Umm, got Blastoise now, and there was a random metric fucktonne of Totodile by Lake Shore Drive earlier this week. Hatched my first Chansey AT LAST, an Exeggcute (now have enough for Exeggutor), and a Rhyhorn (so I finally have Rhydon). Also caught Quagsire on my way to work today... didn't realize I hadn't evolved a Wooper yet, and hatched Mareep!

I do spend $5 a week on four incubators and use them for hatching 10KM eggs. It's my non weights exercise, so I enjoy walking around and hatching the eggs. Try to do 3KM during work at lunch and the remainder after work. Sometimes walk up to 15KM after work, haha... and I'm still chubby LOL

Oh, also finally evolved a Magneton. Yas!

I realized earlier today I still have not seen a Vulpix. I've also only ever caught two Charmander. Fire Pokemon are RARE in Chicago, and I couldn't find them in Rhode Island either. Hopefully work will get me back to the Cali desert in September so I can see what I can find, but they always have me going to literal rural desert with no Pokemon anywhere (or bathrooms, ugh, it's a hell of a drive). I'll be in St. Louis in August, Maryland in August, and Kansas City next week so we'll see what I find. Another two I still have never seen in the wild are Scyther and Pinsir. Also Lickitung, but I'm guessing that one's hatch only, since there's never been a nest of them anywhere.

I've also only ever gotten the one hatched Tyrogue, so Hitmonlee, Hitmonchan, and Hitmontop are no-nos. I'd walk around with Tyrogue, but I'm walking with Ivysaur, as I've only ever hatched one Bulbasaur (never saw one live...) and I've literally had to walk it all the way to Ivysaur.

For what it's worth I've attached a screenshot of Go from where I live. In my living room I can access both of those Pokestops also off to the right is the lake shore where I can get lots of Water types and Squirtle spawn like crazy hehe.

[Poryhedron]

So the true nature of the Phase-2 Mystery Challenge has been revealed.

If trainers worldwide catch enough pokémon to reach the Gold rank...Grant park trainers will experience the world's first Legendary Raid.

And if the Grant Park Trainers can defeat the Legend, it will start appearing in Raid Battles worldwide.

[Blademaster]

Legendary birds, yay.

Now where's my fucking Doduo and Onix, Niantic?

[Magmar]

No legendary birds appeared around the city? Maybe they did at the park. IDK. I was too busy today to make my way down there but still contributed by catching 'em all between errands.

[Poryhedron]

There was only one Legend actually scheduled to appear in Grant Park: Lugia. Due to the severe technical issues surrounding this event, I'm not sure if Lugia ever actually appeared, but as part of their apology for screwing it all up, Niantic is choosing to pretend everybody succeeded at everything. All official attendees have been granted a Lugia as if they'd caught it, and Lugia appearances in Raid battles worldwide have been unlocked, to occur soon if they haven't started already.

Also, there was apparently a contest between the three Teams to see which team could capture the most pokémon. Predictably, it went the same way as the Grass event in May: the team with the most members, Team Mystic, caught the most pokémon and won the competition. Therefore, Articuno will also be appearing in Legendary Raids in the next couple days; with Zapdos and Moltres to be released some time later.

[Katie]

Magmar: Come to DFW! We have Bulbasaurs, Scythers, and Pinsirs coming out of our ears.

These raids are fun. I have been raiding with a few local groups, meeting a bunch of fun people. I went ahead and bought an Ultra Box to get a ton of premium raid passes, and have done 12 legendary raids so far. Caught 3 Articunos and 1 Lugia. I'm level 35 and my Pokedex is up to 233. Just need Hitmontop, Unown, need to make a trip down to south Texas to get Corsola/Heracross, and who knows when I'll get off North America to go finding the other regionals.

Can't wait for Zapdos/Moltres.

[Poryhedron]

You won't have to wait long. It's just been announced that Articuno will only be appearing until the end of the month; Moltres will appear throughout the first week of August, and then Zapdos will appear during the second week of August.

[Katie]

I saw that! EXCITE! It's pretty funny they released the birds in this order, because you probably don't want to use Cuno against Tres, nor Cuno/Tres against Dos.

My team has some glaring holes in it, and I've been low on stardust for weeks. The doubling event is nice for that, just catching anything and everything, but then it just turns into me being constantly out of pokeballs.

[Magmar]

Ahh Katie! I was just down there in May!

I keep seeing Articuno around but don't have any friends here who play Pokemon Go to catch it lol they all kinda fell off the wagon last year. I admittedly did too and just got into it again last month.

Finally got Scyther and Pinsir! Also, my first Vulpix. FINALLY. My Pokedex is around 190 now. I've only ever found two Charmanders--there is a huge lack of Fire Pokemon in Chicago. I was able to find several Slugmas in Kansas City on Sunday/Monday.

[Katie]

Check out thesilphroad.com/atlas to find nests. That is how I finished most of my pokedex. The nest locations stay the same, but every other Wednesday it switches to a random other species. I see one Charmander nest in Chicago!

[ChobiChibi]

Know dem Pinser feels. I hatched my first one recently.

I caught Lugia and Articuno Got less than a week to get Moltres (weddings will do that to ya), then I'll be in the US for Zapdos. Other half determined to get Zapdos as he's Instinct.

[Magmar]

Thanks for the tips Katie, and Becki, CONGRATS on your wedding xx welcome to the US, we're horrible I know..

Go update: I've got Hitmonchan now but still don't have Hitmonlee. There's a little Sandshrew nest near my apartment; if I didn't randomly find a Sandslash a year ago, I'd never have one! I've only got, like, 25 Sandshrew candies. I finally have Vulpix as well, and I hatched Smoochum. Still walking the Ivysaur around and have around 60 candies. Considering only 7 of those candies are from the one Bulbasaur I caught and the one I hatched and evolved, this is quite an achievement of walking Didn't manage to catch any of the birds; I did quite a few lunchtime battles at work but every time I just couldn't catch the bird once it was beaten. Maybe I'll get lucky and catch Zapdos and Lugia tomorrow, but it'll have to happen at lunch. I'm in the final week of my first PhD level course.

I've had some lousy egg karma lately, hatching mostly Com-Mons with poor stats. Never used to care, but lately I've been doing better at gym battles now that my Pokemon are approaching 3000 CP, and I'm starting to watch that and care. Finally got a King's Rock and evolved a Politoed! Also now have got a Porygon2--well, two of them. I keep finding Porygons and hatching them.

Beach nest has changed from Omanyte to Geodude and now to Misdreavus, of all the random Pokemon. I'm trying to catch a load of them because Mismagius may one day be a thing and when new Gens come out, Gen 1 and 2 Pokemon will by necessity become rarer. I wound up with several Golems which are raking in the CP at the local gyms.

Wish list: Regional Pokemon; birds and dogs; Ninetales; Dodrio; Venusaur; Charmeleon and Charizard; Togetic; Unown (can you catch that?); fully-evolved Gen 2 starters; Blissey (I've got 48 Chansey candy though); Kabutops; Tangela; Scizor and Steelix; Slowking; Sunflora; Lickitung; Machamp; Alakazam; Bellossom. Probably a few more, but phone's on the charger and I can't be arsed to grab it. (I have the Metal Coats and Sun Stones I need, but Grass-types are just not common around here.)

[Poryhedron]

It is possible to catch Unown. There was an Unown R stationed as a Gym Defender near me last week. It's the rarest non-Legend in the game, though. What's really maddening is that there's also an Achievement Badge for collecting the 28 Unown formes. Good luck making any progress at all on that one!

There are plenty of Grass-types in my area, but Rock-types and Fighting-types are very rare, and Ground-types were very rare before the Gen-2 update. Here's what I'm still lacking: all regional species except Tauros, Muk, Chansey and Blissey, Moltres (I caught Articuno and Zapdos but couldn't get Moltres), Meganium, Feraligatr, Ampharos, Unown, Girafarig, Hitmontop, Miltank, Pupitar, Tyranitar, and Lugia. Of course, I'm also missing the following pokémon that just aren't in the game yet: Mewtwo, Mew, Delibird, Smeargle, Raikou, Entei, Suicune, Ho-Oh, and Celebi. Just like Ditto and Transform, we'll get Smeargle whenever they figure out how to handle Sketch in this game, and Delibird is expected to be released in the next Christmas event assuming they have Present worked out by then.

Oh, one other thing...at some point, I forget when, the Pokédex started tracking whether you've owned both Genders of a species. Pokémon you caught before this update happened don't count, even if you still own them. So in addition to the above species that I don't have at all, I'm also lacking data for male Ivysaur, Sandshrew, Sandslash, Scyther, Lapras, Dragonair, Forretress, and Granbull; and females of Ivysaur, Venusaur, Charmeleon, Charizard, Vileplume, Dugtrio, Primeape, Alakazam, the entire Machop line, Doduo, Dodrio, Marowak, Tangela, Gyarados, Jolteon, Omastar, Kabutops, Aerodactyl, Snorlax, Dragonite, Bayleef, Typhlosion, Mareep, Flaaffy, Scizor, Steelix, Magcargo, Stantler, Elekid, and Larvitar. Also, since pokémon caught before the update don't count for gender data, I have Pinsir's basic dex data but lack gender data for both males and females. Go figure.

[Magmar]

Hey Poryhedron, ahh that makes sense! That's why Sandslash is blacked out on the Sandshrew screen, despite my having a Sandslash already.

I can find some Rock types, but Ground are really tricky--except freakin' Swinub. Swinub EVERYWHERE.

[Katie]

We don't have any Swinub! I got enough from the Fire/Ice even to evolve a handful of Piloswines but I want more to complete my gold Ice Badge.

I finally got my Hitmontop, and I'll be going to San Antonio over Labor Day so I will grab a Corsola while there. We will probably continue driving 2 hours south to get Heracross while we are so close. Unown will be my last blank spot in the Pokedex, at least as far as the western hemisphere is concerned. There is a tracker map that finds rare spawns in my area and it seems to find Unowns in the area every few days, but they charge $5 a month subscription... noooope. Free2play only way!

[Magmar]

Quick update:
Up to 210 caught now! Things are looking up! I finally have Togetic at last--this was a welcome boon. I've now walked over 300 KM with my Ivysaur (nee Bulbasaur) and it's so close to evolving. A couple others that I am very close to include Arbok and Bellossom. I hope you got that Corsola, Katie!

[Poryhedron]

I'm enjoying the new Super Incubators, but I have a feeling the alleged "special 2k Eggs" that were advertised for this event were glitched. I didn't get anything out of a 2k egg that doesn't normally come out of them, and I got an unusually large number of 10k eggs during this event. Still, this event got me my first-ever Chansey and Miltank, so I'm pleased anyway.

My Pokédex is now at 226 Caught / 239 Seen. Pokémon I'm still lacking, that I could theoretically get without a very long trip, are Muk, Feraligatr, Ampharos, Unown, Girafarig, Hitmontop, Blissey, and Pupitar and Tyranitar. I have Grimer, Croconaw, Flaaffy, Chansey and Larvitar that I could be walking with, but the battlers I need to train to handle high-level Raids have to take precedence for now (I wish Larvitar were one of those, since Mewtwo is coming, but the one Larvitar I've ever gotten has crud IVs.) I sadly failed to catch Raikou, but I've still got hope I'll do better with Entei!

[ChobiChibi]

How's everyone's legendary situation going? I've got everything so far bar Mewtwo, I think raid passes only just came out in the UK for it. Hoping to get whatever this month's legendary dog is later in the month

My hubby released his Entei... He only keeps things with good IV's, and his Entei didn't, so he accidentally released it XD

[Poryhedron]

How's everyone's legendary situation going? I've got everything so far bar Mewtwo, I think raid passes only just came out in the UK for it. Hoping to get whatever this month's legendary dog is later in the month

I haven't been doing well at all. I've only ever caught two Legends, a single Articuno and a single Zapdos, and both times I was utterly riding the coat-tails of the other trainers present. I was just lucky they were strong enough to finish off the Legend before it could finish killing me. I'm hopeful for Entei, but I'm not hopeful for Mewtwo. That's just not a realistic goal for me yet.

My hubby released his Entei... He only keeps things with good IV's, and his Entei didn't, so he accidentally released it XD

He must have pretty high standards for IVs. I'm convinced at this point that captured Raid bosses follow the same rules as pokémon hatched from Eggs; always received at Level 20, and with no IVs lower than 10, when the maximum possible is 15.

[ChobiChibi]

He only takes things that are best of the best (or whatever Spark says, I can't remember). So Entei was not that, so he got rid by force of habit. He seems to get lucky with IV's. He's got 3 near-perfect Tyranitars.

There's a Suicune raid near where I'm staying right now, but I don't have the time or anyone with me to go take it down

[Magmar]

I have caught no legendaries thus far There are meetup groups around here to hunt them down, but for some reason I have anxiety about joining one. No idea why.

[Magmar]

Okay, given the dearth of posting, I'm doublin' up.

SO! Today was a big day! After 267 KM of walking, I have finally evolved my Ivysaur (duly named "Aggravation") into Venusaur! Yes! God, that took forever. I've been walking her since my birthday in July.

The other day, I was on a train from St. Louis to Chicago and just popped on Go while stopped at Springfield IL. We were ahead of schedule so there was a smoking break, so I did a quick walk to see what I could find. There was the elusive Dodrio. At last, I've gotten Dodrio! Figures that I immediately found enough Doduos to evolve my own Doduo, but that's alright.

The nest rotation on Wednesday also brought Vulpix to the beach so, FINALLY, I have Ninetales. I also hatched enough Pineco to have Forretress. This brings me to 216 Pokemon caught.

Finally, upon evolving Ivysaur into Venusaur, I ran into the last Totodile needed to get Feraligatr. The last 11 days have been a boon to the Pokedex.

I'm currently walking Ekans to get Arbok and have her up to 43 candies. I'm surprised she requires 3 KM/candy. I didn't think it was standard... I assumed it was based on rarity and/or how powerful the Pokemon is. I'm literally one Oddish candy away from Bellossom and I'm okay with that. Also, I've hatched enough Porygon to get Porygon-Z if the game ever upgrades and brings in Gen 3 Pokemon. (On that note, hey y'all, start banking the 100 candies you might need for Electivire, Magmortar, Honchkrow, Yanmega, and whatever Aipom evolves into.)

My wish list now includes Arbok (7 candies to go), Steelix (93 candies to go, lmao), Charmeleon and Charizard (eleventy billion candies to go), Typhlosion, Meganium (this one is pretty close, too), and Ampharos. There are a few others I don't have, too, like Lickitung, Unown and Tangela. I'm starting to wonder if I'll ever encounter them since they don't seem to appear in the wild except as a very special occasion.

[Poryhedron]

Pory-Z is actually Gen-4, as are the others you listed, so we have two generation updates to wait through. Gen-3 brought us the babies Azurill and Wynaut, but no evolved forms of previously-existing pokémon.

Here's the full Gen-4 list for reference:

Magneton will evolve into Magnezone
Lickitung will evolve into Lickilicky
Rhydon will evolve into Rhyperior
Tangela will evolve into Tangrowth
Eevee will add Leafeon and Glaceon to its list of options
Electabuzz will evolve into Electivire
Magmar will evolve into Magmortar
Togetic will evolve into Togekiss
Aipom will evolve into Ambipom
Yanma will evolve into Yanmega
Murkrow will evolve into Honchkrow
Misdreavus will evolve into Masmagius
Gligar will evolve into Gliscor
Sneasel will evolve into Weavile
Piloswine will evolve into Mamoswine
Porygon2 will evolve into Porygon-Z


Also, when Gen-3 does come out, remember that the Gen-3 pokémon Kirlia (must be male), Nosepass, Roselia, Dusclops and Snorunt (must be female) will also get Gen-4 evos.

[Magmar]

Magmar will evolve into Magmortar

YEAH I WILL

But that's all good info, thanks Poryhedron! I'm geared up for a number of those already or pretty close (like with Magneton --> Magnezone), but I still don't have a Tangela or a Lickitung to evolve. I'm guessing that they'll become slightly more common hatches or wild finds at that point, since it takes so many candies to evolve most of the rarer basic Pokemon into Stage 1 in a two-tier evolution.

Also I imagine my Pokemon Mii or whatever it's called has his pockets STUFFED with Murkrow candies. It'll be good to evolve it!

[Poryhedron]

GEN 3 IS COMING!!

Pokémon GO's second Halloween event is giving us a small taste of Gen 3 before the rest arrive, much like how Gen 2's baby pokémon were released first.

All of the pokémon that were common during last year's Halloween event (Gastly, Cubone, Zubat, etc.) will be common again, as well as Gen 2 spookies Misdreavus and Houndour, but we'll also be seeing Gen 3 Ghost-types Duskull, Shuppet and Sableye!

Apparently we'll be getting a couple new Hats as well: a Witch Hat for Pikachu and a Mimikyu hat for Trainers to equip from the Fashion menu!

(Oh, and by the way, Candy gains will be doubled.)

This event will run for two weeks, starting tomorrow and ending November 2nd. Other Gen-3 pokémon will begin to trickle in sometime in December.

Personally, I'll be considering this event my big chance to get Dex data for female Marowak (and also a reason to really pound the pavement with my Buddy pokémon because double Candy.) Sableye's fairly cool, and of course I'll want to grab male and female Dusclops while it's relatively easy to prepare for Gen 4 unlocking Dusknoir, but when it comes to Gen-3 species I'm really just counting the days until I can catch Absol. (Hm, I wonder what they'll do with poor Shedinja in a setting where taking zero damage from attacks never happens? Oh, and it'll be fun to see how much of the screen Wailord takes up!)

Actually, come to think of it, Gen-3 makes for an interesting topic in Pokémon GO, because it's when Special Abilities first showed up, and some Gen-3 pokémon are going to be really unimpressive without their Abilities. Castform? Shedinja? Oh god, are they gonna have to find some other way to balance out Slaking's terrifying power if they can't give it Truant? Oh, and wouldn't it be cool if Solrock only appeared during the day and Lunatone only appeared at night?

[Magmar]

DOUBLE CANDY GAINS D: D: D: oh hello Charizard, you are MINE

GEN 3 IS COMING!!

Actually, come to think of it, Gen-3 makes for an interesting topic in Pokémon GO, because it's when Special Abilities first showed up, and some Gen-3 pokémon are going to be really unimpressive without their Abilities. Castform? Shedinja? Oh god, are they gonna have to find some other way to balance out Slaking's terrifying power if they can't give it Truant? Oh, and wouldn't it be cool if Solrock only appeared during the day and Lunatone only appeared at night?

You know I was thinking about that too--there are a lot of cool mechanics to consider! Day/night could be fun but also night-time wandering is dangerous for kids and kids do play this. I mean, hell, night-time wandering is dangerous for adults, but Magmar knows Mega Punch and Leer so he ain't too worried

I feel like abilities would really complicate Pokemon Go--but certain abilities could be cool. ~MAGMAR'S VISION FOR ABILITIES TIME~

Like... imagine if a handful of Pokemon had a general use ability (could be called anything you want, it's a game, use your imagination) and you could only use one in a 24-hour period. One could be, for example, Solrock has "Sunny Day" and that makes any Fire or Grass-type Pokemon you are walking gain 1.2x candy for one hour. Electrode could have some kind of general "Agility" move that allows your eggs to hatch at 1.2x normal speed for an hour. Noctowl could have "Foresight" that lets you scroll past the blue stops from a slightly further away distance (like increases your radius of touch by 1.2x). Or maybe you could have up to 3 ability slots and can use up to 3 abilities per day--they could stack, too? So you could hatch faster, gain candy faster, AND expand your radius for your hour of play, but it would incentivise continued play.

OR if your Badge for owning x number of Pokemon per element could allow you to use certain level abilities. I'm really thinking of my poor trashy Druid in D&D right now and how her spells work in 5e. But that's besides the point. So you could, say, have three slots per day, and use:

-Bronze Fire once (Sunny Day, 1.1x candy for Fire or Grass for half an hour) three times OR
-Bronze Fire once for one slot and Silver Fire once for two slots (Sunny Day stacks with a Tier 2 fire ability called something like Synthesis and that gives you something like higher catch rates on Fire and Grass Pokemon than you get as a bonus for having unlocked) OR
-Gold Fire once that uses all three of your daily slots (Something epic like your Fire-type techniques increase in power by 1.2x for gym battles and/or raids for half an hour)

You could also, say, use Bronze Fire and Silver, idk, Ghost called Hex that cuts HP of the Pokemon you catch while making them easier to catch for an hour. So you'd have to use your Potions to heal them but catch rates go up a little.

[Poryhedron]

OH MY GOD THE MAP MUSIC'S BEEN REPLACED BY AN AWESOME REMIX OF THE LAVENDER TOWN THEME THAT'S AMAZING!

Did they do that last year? I don't recall them doing that last year.

Anyway, I had a very productive first night of it. I already have dex data for all five Gen-3 ghosts, got the female Marowak I needed for the Genderdex, and for some reason there were a lot of Magikarp out tonight so I'm a lot closer to my next Gyarados than I was yesterday. I also hatched a Togepi under the double-candy moon, and with the Candies from that hatch I finally have both a male and a female Togetic for when Gen-4 unlocks Togekiss. I even caught a couple of Wiccachu, got enough Candies to evolve a Pichu I'd been holding onto, and was able to personally verify that evolving a Pichu into Pikachu earns you progress on the Pikachu Fan Badge.

I didn't get a female Sableye yet, and of course there's still plenty of Egg-hatching and walking with Buddies to do during the double-candy bonus, so I'm nowhere near done with this Halloween event, but today was definitely a pretty good first day.

[Magmar]

Hey Poryhedron! I had a good haul yesterday, too I've now got Chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarbok! My bootiful snek has evolved at last!

The five ghosts were pretty easy to catch. It took a little while to find Sableye here, but after I'd had some dental work done -_- I went for a pretty good walk while half my face was numb since I figured I wouldn't feel like it later on, and a bunch of them popped up all around the dentist's office. I also now have the Spooky Raichu as well--it was easy since I hatched Pichu. The beach nest has been replaced with ghosts galore. Lots of Duskull and Magikarp at the beach. I'm about 50 candies away from Gyarados #3 which I will probably name "Adole III". I name all my battling Pokemon after bastardized versions of diva names (thank you Nekci Menij Show) namely because I can leave them in the gyms and people will be like "Oh, why am I fighting a Blissey named Medoner?"

So now I am on to finally trying to evolve Machoke into Machamp. I'm walking my beefy bodyguard around and hoping to maybe have some miracle and hatch a Machop but not so late that I wind up with over 100 candies I was ready to curse the earth if and when I found a Bulbasaur after walking over 250 KM trying to evolve Ivysaur. I've got a few other starters that need evolving... mostly Gen 2 which are easily found in raids and then Charmander. I also still need Alakazam, but I'm not too worried about that one because Abra, while rare, do pop up now and again in my neighborhood. I don't know if I mentioned this earlier but prior to the ghost transitions, the beach nest was Vulpix at last! Fire Pokemon are very rare here and if it wasn't for the random wimpy Arcanine I found outside my apartment last year I probably still wouldn't have one. The extra Houndour around are helping boost my catch ratings on the Fire types.

Stats:
Seen: 242; Caught: 223
Wish List: Charmeleon, Charizard, Alakazam, Machamp, Lickitung, Tangela, every legendary lol I have zero, Meganium, Typhlosion, Ampharos, Unown, Steelix, Granbull, Shuckle, Magcargo, Tyranitar, all the ones that aren't found in my region

[Magmar]

Ah, it's been so quiet! Well... I'm currently working on walking Machoke to get candy.... the weather was bad the entire run of the event here, so I only got like 10 of the 30 candies I need. Shame on me!

Beach Nest = Mankey Mankey Mankey.

Snubbull has evolved into Granbull--I found the last Granbull at one of my favorite bars on a road called Granville, ha..

I hatched a Tangela though! So I'm inching ever closer to completion. I am also just one Abra away from having Alakazam (or four candies)! I'm also pretty close to Magcargo

Wish List: Charmeleon, Charizard, Alakazam, Lickitung, Meganium, Typhlosion, Ampharos, Unown, Steelix, Shuckle, Magcargo, Tyranitar

Hopefully next week I can check in having gotten Alakazam and Magcargo, and maybe when I'm in San Diego next week, I'll find a Charmander nest! They tend to nest in the rough parts of Chicago...

[Poryhedron]

Niantic made an interesting announcement today. As you may know, they recently announced a new game coming up: following the smashing successes of Ingress and Pokémon GO, they're going to be dipping their toes into the Wizarding World with "Harry Potter: Wizards Unite", which is said to have gameplay similar to Pokémon GO.

I guess some people were worried that with the Harry Potter game now on their plates, they'd lose focus on improving Pokémon GO, so today Niantic made an announcement promising us that this is the exact opposite of the case.

However, we–the Pokémon GO development team–want to say that we are 100% committed to creating an ever-changing and growing game that gets our players exploring, meeting each other, and deepening their connection to the Pokémon universe. We're actively expanding the Pokémon GO development team to build many more amazing features in 2018. Stay tuned for an update next week on upcoming improvements to certain features.

Niantic has announced job openings on the separate development teams for all three of their games...but what really drew my eye is the phrase "many more amazing features", promised for Pokémon GO. Adding a new generation of pokémon species, while certainly awesome, doesn't really count as a 'feature'. What new developments might be in store for this game?

They seem committed to expanding the role of Shiny Pokémon; for a long while the only Shinies in the game were Pikachu, Gyarados and their families, but during this recent Halloween event, all three of the Gen-3 Ghosts added to the game were found to have Shiny variants. I never saw one in the wild myself, but just yesterday I did conquer a Gym that had a Shiny Gyarados, Shiny Sableye and Shiny Banette all among its defenders. Perhaps it won't be long before all pokémon have Shinies in the game?

Another possibility is tickling my mind and refusing to stop. I had already given up on the idea of trading pokémon in Pokémon GO, figuring that if Niantic wanted it in the game they would have done it by now. But there are only so many new features they could realistically be coming up with for a game like this. Could trading actually be on the horizon now?

[Magmar]

I now have Machamp and Magcargo! Huzzah! I'm REALLY close to Alakazam, but the stupid app keeps crashing whenever I try to change my buddy... grr.

[Poryhedron]

I recently earned the Gold-level Catching Badge for Rock-types, which brings my total to 15 out of 18 Gold-level Catching Badges. The only ones I still don't have are Steel (which I only just recently earned Silver on), Fighting (which I'm close to earning Silver on), and Dragon (which I've still got a ways to go to earn Silver on.)

I did manage to catch an Entei last month. So far this month, I've had one successful run-in with Suicune, but then I ran out of Premier Balls trying to catch it. My main takeaway from that battle was that Jolteon is too fragile to be a mainstay, so now I'm focusing more on raising Venusaur and Exeggutor.

I'm loving the new batch of low-tier Raid Bosses! Having Ivysaur, Charmeleon and Wartortle show up as Raid Bosses makes up for having their basic forms removed from Eggs, and having Sandslash as a Raid Boss is the best chance I've ever had at completing both genders of Pokédex info for it (though it doesn't help me get male dex data for Sandshrew.)

Pokémon I'm still lacking any Dex data on, that I could theoretically get any time soon, are Feraligatr, Ampharos, Unown (I'm seeing increasing numbers of Gym Defender Unown - SO jealous!), Girafarig, Blissey and Pupitar...I have Tyranitar because I managed to capture a Raid Tyranitar, but have yet to evolve a Larvitar. Still also missing a few males and a lot of females...I'm actually half-wondering if the gender of the Trainer has any effect on the gender of pokémon you find, since the Genderdex data I'm lacking is so heavily skewed.