Pokemon Go

[ChobiChibi]

Who else wants this to happen right now?!

[Perfect Chaos]

Me, I'm super intrigued how this is gonna work out

[Blademaster]

A Pokemon MMO? Color me intrigued.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Two thoughts:

1. They have 'only' 6 Generations to share in the game. If they make this game happen all over the world, the new regions won't have new Pokemon.
2. This'll make it harder to explain why Pokemon aren't for real :P

[Knight of Time]

This almost sounds like Pokemon Dream Radar to me...is it possible that this could be a more "advanced" version? Presuming this app allows you to catch Pokemon anywhere in the real world, I'm curious to see if they'll be transferable to any of the 6th generation games?

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Hm,

2sj2iQyBTQs

is showing only Gen I Pokemon. Unless I missed any.

[Austrian ViceMaster Alex]

Wouldn't it be awesome if the game really were the way the commercial shows it to be?

[DarkestLight]

I'm all for this. Yes it won't be like the
Commercial, and yet I wish it would

[Jeff]

I was wondering when we'd finally see the fruits of Nintendo's new mobile partnership.

It does look interesting, but I couldn't help but notice that it was only the original 151. That could be to attract older fans, which there were plenty of in that trailer, and going by what Nintendo said about their new mobile strategy back when it was announced, it looks like they're trying to lure said older fans back into the series.

Anyway, enough of the business side of things, it looks really cool! This is the kind of thing I used to dream about when I was younger. A conversation that came up with the neighborhood kids sometimes was that if pokemon were real, what kinds would we be able to catch in our area. Looks like I'll finally get to find out!

[Magmar]

I think that despite the enormous appeal of a real world Pokemon game such as this... guarantee you it's going to be Freemium, overpriced, and lose its appeal in like a month because nobody's going to want to drop cash for Poke Balls. :(

that being said I definitely will be trying this out!!

[Link]

I love how you can carry a wristband that looks like an actual Pokeball.

[SupremeChampion]

I think the only way for this game to fail is if Nintendo screws this up. If they start charging for Freemium stuff (like pokéballs) then you're going to lose a lot of people who play. People will definitely pay for this game, they probably would pay a decent amount for it, but if you start charging for add ons like other companies (I'm looking at you EA) then like Magmar said you'll lose people.

It does have all the makings of a great game though. Walking around anywhere in the world, when all of a sudden your phone (or wrist doodad) let's you know when a pokémon is around, you catch it, train it and can eventually battle it. Heck they even said local gyms are a possibility. It really sounds like it has all the potential to be as close to real life pokémon as you can get w/o the actual monsters.

SC

[Jeff]

It's funny. At first I thought Nintendo would never do such a thing. "Not Nintendo", I thought, "they would never rip off their customers with microtransactions."

Then I played Pokemon Picross. Now I'm afraid. I'm very afraid.

[Perfect Chaos]

GAIZ, IT'S FINALLY HERE! POKEMON GO IS A GO! I REPEAT, POKEMON GO IS A GO!

[Crazy Elf Boy]

Yeah it's here, go out catch the Pokemon and battle them, as long as the server isn't down.

[ChobiChibi]

Or so long as you don't live in the EU D:

[Drago]

Or so long as your phone isn't antiquated D:

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

I never had a smartphone and I actually LIVE in the EU! On the plus side, I saw Crazy Elf Boy again.

[Katie]

Is this the only Pokemon Go discussion on TPM?

I downloaded it yesterday but haven't gotten a chance to really play it yet because work + server downtime. I have played from home, at work, and while in the car (PASSENGER) and have 13 different Pokemon so far. :) I look forward to exploring my neighborhood this weekend searching for Pokestops. Very close to level 5 but not quite there yet.

[Asilynne]

I got this last night and my house is a hotbed for pokemon!! They have infested my whole house and I was able to catch 20 unique pokemon, and 39 altogether from just my house. I'm totally out of pokeballs now though :\

Tomorrow I'll explore gyms and pokecentres, I'm level 5 on the verge of level 6 :D

[MToolen]

My wife, dad, and I played Ingress, the game the developers made before GO. It's awesome having a group of people to compare to in real time, and we have a working knowledge of where the Pokéstops and Gyms should be. It eats battery and isn't necessarily kind to data plans, but it's so cool to see a Pidgey on the ground and throw a freakin' Pokéball at it!

[Gavin Luper]

I got Pokemon Go on Thursday but didn't really get a chance to play until today. It's pretty cool. There are loads of pokestops and even gyms in my immediate surroundings which I didn't expect living where I live. I am currently a Level 3 trainer with 6 pokemon and an egg. I can see how this game would be addictive.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Pokémon Go Is Sending Lots of Players To Church (http://kotaku.com/pokemon-go-is-sending-lots-of-players-to-church-1783279425)

Unfortunately our church got burned. There's a new one coming up though.

[Shadow Wolf]

I also have it. For some reason the game does not pinpoint my phone direction (so when I find a Pokemon, I have to turn off the camera to see it and catch it, but is not so bad). I'll probably go on an expedition today after I drop my wife at work and see how it goes.

[Gavin Luper]

I also have it. For some reason the game does not pinpoint my phone direction (so when I find a Pokemon, I have to turn off the camera to see it and catch it, but is not so bad). I'll probably go on an expedition today after I drop my wife at work and see how it goes.

Going on an expedition sounds fun. I've had a hankering to do the same but have been fighting off a cold. As soon as I'm well I think I'm gonna get outdoors and make a proper expedition out of it.

[ChobiChibi]

Aaaaaand still no release in Europe >>

I'm fine with it. It's my fiancé that's really impatient and won't stop mentioning it every few hours. I get it. You want Pokemon Go. Cool. Don't need to tell me all the time XD

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

I'm considering getting a smartphone. What kind of smartphone supports this? Samsung or Sony?

[Austrian ViceMaster Alex]

I really consider getting the game now. A shame the released was postponed for Europe!

[MToolen]

I'm considering getting a smartphone. What kind of smartphone supports this? Samsung or Sony?

Either should be fine. You'll want something that has a somewhat bright screen, good battery, and possibly a portable charger or external battery. My phone lost twenty percent battery in less than an hour in the sun.

[Jeff]

Finally got going with this. My brother and I just got done driving around stopping at various pokestops. Every single church we passed was one, but also post offices, as well as historic sites and other landmarks. A few examples of the ones we found: some historic buildings in town, a statue and a plaque at the fire station, a fishing pier in my neighborhood, and for some reason, a random mural of a dinosaur near an abandoned grocery store. So yeah, those are the kinds of places you can find them at. Also, they can be used every five minutes, so even if you only have one near you you can still get plenty of stuff from it.

I also caught some pokemon today, including a Dratini while we were driving through town. Apparently it's rare. My brothers are jealous. :P

[Shadow Wolf]

Going on an expedition sounds fun. I've had a hankering to do the same but have been fighting off a cold. As soon as I'm well I think I'm gonna get outdoors and make a proper expedition out of it.

Hope you get well soon Gavin. Anyway, I went for a small walk that day. Found 3 poke stops (2 churches and a wagon wheel XD) and about 8 pokemon (half of them of different species). I want to go on a bigger one now.

On a side note: since my phone is not so new, it lacks something called a "gyroscope". It is the reason as to why I cannot use my cam to detect pokemon. Still, I can turn it ofd and catch them with the fictional background.

PS: threw a poke ball at a Hypno so hard that the server crashed XD

[Blademaster]

How much is Pokemon Go? I'm totally onboard for it, but money is tight these days. I can't shell out $50 or $60 right now.

[Crazy Elf Boy]

Free

[Jeff]

Technically it's F2P, but pokeballs and eggs are available at every pokestop, which are literally everywhere, so you can easily play the game and enjoy it without paying a cent.

[mattbcl]

My city's basement-dweller element has gone absolutely berserk over this game and now, where there used to be naught but empty sidewalks, there are instead throngs of people scowling at their phones and chasing footprints all over town. The graveyard 2 blocks from where I live has no fewer than 18 PokeStops. People charge up on goods over there. Most of the friends I have around here are alternately mad at crashing servers and delighted to be out and about doing something they enjoy and have fantasized about... I would assume much like we do.

One of the unintended side effects, however, is that players have been venturing dangerously close to the campus I work on. Evidently at least one of them was interested in chasing a Pokemon straight across our property -- and given that ours is a residential mental health facility, this is an extraordinarily bad idea. We've also evidently had something of a problem with trash-talkers harassing members of rivaling teams. And then there was tonight, when my girlfriend was driving across a parking lot and her phone alerted her to a nearby Paras... she stopped in place. Thankfully the lot was empty and there was no traffic happening -- but still, please don't GO and drive!

On the whole, it does seem to be an overwhelmingly positive experience for those I've seen. Couple friends of mine made local news regarding the game.

[Drago]

And then there was tonight, when my girlfriend was driving across a parking lot and her phone alerted her to a nearby Paras... she stopped in place. Thankfully the lot was empty and there was no traffic happening -- but still, please don't GO and drive!
Please tell me you took the opportunity to tell her "It's not called Pokemon STOP, woman." :cool2:

[mattbcl]

Please tell me you took the opportunity to tell her "It's not called Pokemon STOP, woman." :cool2:

If only I had. It was 12:30 am and I wasn't at my wittiest. But I'll save that for next time. And the sunglasses, too, definitely need those to complete the pun.

[shazza]

Make a Pokemon Go forum. We can all post topics. Perfect opportunity to inject some Pokemon related activity.

I am Team Yellow. Fuck the major parties.

[Blademaster]

Free


Technically it's F2P, but pokeballs and eggs are available at every pokestop, which are literally everywhere, so you can easily play the game and enjoy it without paying a cent.

:wow: Holy hot damn! Time to convert my Mom to video games at long last.

EDIT: I don't know how to do the eye-pop smiley. Bah.

[Drago]

Finally got it. I'm going on a drunken exploration tonight to catch some shit.

If I die, you'll know why. :yes:

[Weasel Overlord]

I emerge from the depths of Inactivity to proclaim that Pokemon Go is EXACTLY LIKE REAL LIFE POKEMON. I have already caught so many Zubats around my house that I've got a Golbat now, and I only got the game yesterday!! In the meantime, I am exceptionally jealous of my husband who gets to work at home and catch pokles while I am stuck at work in the depths of the No Signal Pit :(

On the plus side, we took the pups out hunting pokemon last night and saw at least 2 people also hunting pokemon! Good times!!

[Katie]

My Pokedex is up to 55!

It will be up to 57 tonight when I activate a Lucky Egg and go to my local Pokestop hot spot to start evolving stuff that I have been saving.

[shazza]

Where's the Pokemon Go forum?

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

I just encountered a strange situation. I have been trying to talk about Pokemon to my friends for 17 years and only some of them could follow, and now everybody around me in Mielikkitalo was suddenly hooked up in a conversation about Pokemon Go!

[ChobiChibi]

We missed out on a Dragonite last night :( Showed up on Ben's radar, we ran outside, managed to find it... My game wouldn't load, and Ben's froze as it was in the ball...

No Dragonites were caught that night ;o;

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Taken into account I'm going to move in autumn I don't really know if my budget would stand getting a good smartphone at the moment.

I wonder when the other Generations come out.

[Blademaster]

My phone and Internet suck. I have all of a dozen Pokemon, if that.

Woe is me.

[Crystal Tears]

My pokédex is at 41 (seen & caught), and I swear I'm more into catching all of them on this game then I ever was playing the others.

SOMEONE AROUND HERE HAS AN AERODACTYL AND I NEED IT.

On an amusing note, I was out at the park, and there were forty of us just gathered around catching because someone put down a lure. It was cool, and then there were these random people walking through who weren't playing the game and had no clue as to what we were all doing.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

I visited our church ruins today, and saw a crowd of Pokemon Trainers near it. Then there was this regular alcoholic group sitting on the park bench and one of them recognized me so he asked what this Pokemon thing is. Being an outsider, it was quite hard for me to explain. At least I was able to enlighten them about the history of the phenomenon.

[DarkestLight]

Pokemon Go is eating away at all social construct. Im at 85 Pokemon, and water types are effing hard to acquire here. But I love it. Gen II slated for Dec ember release, and FINALLY ILL HAVE DARK TYPES TO REIGN WITH

Side note, who picked a team. Im lvl 21 and teamless cause All TEAMS ARE BAD >O!

Oh and Hi :D

[ChobiChibi]

I've got plenty of water types where I live :D

I'm only level 17, but I do have some epic beasties to contend with. Dragonite (caught in the wild, fyi) being one of them :D I am team Mystic, because Articuno is life.

[Magmar]

I just turned Level 18 today and am also team Mystic. A stop down the street from my apartment was spawning Electabuzz and I got a CP900ish one ;) yay!

My apartment has two Pokestops that I can access from my bedroom.... which helped me level up rather quickly at first, and I always have tons of balls to catch Pokemon with. Unfortunately, it's also a Weedle nest, so pretty much only Weedle appears.

I'm two blocks from a big ol' lake, and occasionally Dratini spawn there at a quick rate... and in the center of the city, Clefairy appear all the time, but I haven't found anything like Sandshrew yet and only one Geodude, despite having caught maybe a million Rattatas who are quite fond of this city, haha. I expected to find more Caterpies and such, but no, it's pretty much Weedle or bust.

Also, my friends here catch LOTS of Jynx, but I've only got the one, who I named Nekci Menij, ha...

On another note, in the city, good stuff appears all the time at such fast frequency, unless you're near the Trump Tower, then it's literally just Rattatas!

[Dark-San]

I came back to this forum thinking that Pokemon Go has become a hot topic that might have prompt some real activities here. But to my disappointment not an ounce of excitement in the air. Back to my shelter now, I guess.

[Austrian ViceMaster Alex]

I came back to this forum thinking that Pokemon Go has become a hot topic that might have prompt some real activities here. But to my disappointment not an ounce of excitement in the air. Back to my shelter now, I guess.

I never tried it myself, nor any of my friends. I would give it a try if it had combat similar to the original games.

[Katie]

Pokemania seems to have died out here. :( There used to be lures 24/7 on a popular restaurant's pokestop on Taco Tuesday but I've gone the last few weeks and there haven't been any lures at all. Current stats: Level 23 and Pokedex is stuck at 83. I have enough candies to make a Vileplume but my two Glooms are shit stats so I might save up another 25 to evolve a good Oddish twice. And I still have yet to see a single Charmander other than my starter. BOOOOOO.

[dratinihaunter13]

In Arizona, love playing in my down time ^_^

Lots of fire types here, as could be expected. Lots of Ekans. Lots of ground types like Sandshrew and Cubone, Geodude. Arcanines are at just about every gym. Scarcity of waters so you'll see lots of Vaporeons taking gyms down. I've really enjoyed meeting other pokemon enthusiasts through this game though! And like someone said earlier, it is kinda strange suddenly talking pokemon with friends who I never would have expected to talk pokemon with O_o

Level 27, Team Valor

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

I finally got my first smartphone.

Will Generation II be available when or never?

[Poryhedron]

I finally got my first smartphone.

Will Generation II be available when or never?
They're making some sort of progress. All of the Gen-2 Baby pokémon except Tyrogue can now hatch from eggs, and then evolve into their Gen-1 parents. Togepi can even evolve into Togetic. More recently, data miners have discovered that they're apparently working on adding items like the King's Rock and Metal Coat into the game, which I'm not sure how I feel about (King's Rock is completely welcome since it gives us control over how our Poliwhirl and Slowpoke evolve, but if we don't need any items to evolve Pikachu, Vulpix or Haunter, why do we need them to evolve Onix or Scyther?)

[MToolen]

They just announced in the last hour that Johto Pokémon are coming this week! Early chatter seems to indicate the 18th. Lots of changes, including berries, evolution stones, and gameplay tweaks. I'm excited!

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

I asked some children about Gen II and it's here. Too bad I already went and updated my game, only to notice that it didn't work as I thought. If you restart playing now, are you somehow able to choose between Chikorita, Totodile and Cyndaquil?

[Katie]

Hooray for gen2! I have not yet finished my gen1 pokedex; still need 9 obtainable pokemon. But I have 20 gen2 including some previously released babies.

[Blademaster]

According to my Pokedex, I've got 123 different Pokemon right now. A lot of that is my own fault for being lazy and not getting out enough, but I haven't seen a trace of the Magnemite, Doduo, Grimer, Omanyte, or Kabuto lines ANYWHERE. Same goes for most of the Pokemon that were one-offs in Gen 1 like the Hitmons, Tangela, Mr. Mime through Pinsir, and Porygon. Where the fuck are they?!

At least progress on the Johto Pokedex is going smoothly. Got a Chikorita and a Larvitar on Day 1 and an Elekid from my first blue Egg back in mid-December. :hellyeah:

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

It's still so dark and the roads are slippery at times. I'm afraid my Pokehunting may wait for summer. Here, close to the polar circle, it will be bright all night and day. At least then I'll see what I am stamping.

[Poryhedron]

Same goes for most of the Pokemon that were one-offs in Gen 1 like the Hitmons, Tangela, Mr. Mime through Pinsir, and Porygon. Where the fuck are they?!
Well, I can at least tell you about Mr. Mime: It's a region-exclusive. Certain pokémon can only be found in certain parts of the world.

#083 Farfetch'd: Japan
#115 Kangaskhan: Australia
#122 Mr. Mime: Europe
#128 Tauros: North America
#214 Heracross: Latin America
#222 Corsola: Tropics

(Note that Corsola's region intersects a few others. Also, the line between North America and Latin America is drawn in a way that puts parts of Texas and Florida in Heracross Country.)
These are all of the region-exclusive species currently known. I personally have a theory that Delibird might also be region-exclusive to some Polar areas, but that's not confirmed.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

That's probably the reason why these kids are talking about having Mr. Mime up here.

[ChobiChibi]

Mr Mime is super common where I am. It's freaky. Trades need to be a thing. I would trade a Mr Mime for a Tauros.

[Blademaster]

#083 Farfetch'd: Japan
#115 Kangaskhan: Australia
#122 Mr. Mime: Europe
#128 Tauros: North America

Okay, that I remember looking up somewhere now. But I still wish there was some way of knowing how to find the rest of them easier.

Really, no Heracross? Fuck this shit game.

[Katie]

My Pokedex hit 219 today! (does anyone still play this lol)

[ChobiChibi]

Meeeee! But very casually. My fiancé plays every day.

We're headed over to 'MURICA in the Summer just to catch Tauros. Not like we're going on honeymoon or anything...

[MToolen]

I'm at 151! This time a year ago, that'd be amazing if not impossible. I still check in every day (I can hit a Pokéstop from my classroom), but haven't been actively hunting or hatching eggs or anything.

[Poryhedron]

I play pretty regularly, but don't have much opportunity to go far beyond my home region, so certain pokémon remain frustratingly rare for me. During this Easter event, I finally managed to get a Ninetales, Cyndaquil, Togepi, Ursaring and Donphan; my Pokédex completion now stands at 183 caught / 199 seen. I also found an Eevee with really good IVs that I'm going to walk with to make an Espeon once I've finished walking with my Dragonair to get it to Dragonite; I've already used the one-off nickname trick for Espeon and it came out with a lousy moveset. :(

[Blademaster]

This game is about 70% of the reason I go outside.

Also, 201/178, woo.

[Poryhedron]

The special events certainly help encourage me to get out there and walk around. The current "Adventure Week" is absolutely amazing for me because Rock-types in general have been so rare around here. This event got me pokédex data for Golem, Omastar, Kabutops, Aerodactyl, Shuckle, Magcargo and Larvitar...and I'm willing to hope, though it's not super likely, that I may even get Steelix by the end of the event.

[Blademaster]

Oh, so THAT'S what that was...

Fuck, I thought that getting a Bronze Rock-type Medal was finally paying off for me. :( This game really sucks most of the time. Bird- and Rodent-Encountering Simulator 2017. Not to mention it's been nearly a year and this frigging minimalistic game doesn't even have trading. I get that a free game isn't going to have THAT much content, but it'd be nice if Niantic at least gave me all the content necessary to actually win the fucking thing. I can't even BUY a Metal Coat or a Dragon Scale!

[Poryhedron]

Do you have at least daily access to a Pokéstop in your area? If you collect the Daily Bonus seven days in a row, you get a massive Weekly Bonus, and for Pokéstops that includes one guaranteed evolution item. It's bound to be a Metal Coat or Dragon Scale eventually.

[Poryhedron]

Thought I'd post this here to spread awareness further. Another big Pokémon GO event is coming soon...actually, a few big things are coming soon.

First, starting on June 13th is a Pokémon GO "Solstice event". Since this game is global, and the north and south hemispheres experience opposite seasons, both Fire-type pokémon and Ice-type pokémon will become far more common during this event. (To throw in a clarification on how this type of event works, the total number of pokémon spawned will not increase; the encounter tables will just be skewed heavily in favor of the relevant species.) The event will also increase the bonus XP you get for scoring a "Nice", "Great" or "Excellent" throw, and Lucky Eggs will be sold at a special discount in the in-game shop. We used to be able to count on these events running for one week, and that would make some sense since it means this event will be ending pretty close to the Solstice itself, but since the Grass-type event in May was only a weekend, we can only hope the Solstice event will be for the full week. We've had an update confirming the Solstice event will be for a full week! It runs from 1 PM California time the 13th to 1 PM California time the 20th. Also, apparently it's not just the throwing accuracy XP bonuses that are increasing; the XP bonus for catching a pokémon with a Curve Ball, and the one for catching a pokémon with your very first throw of the encounter, are also being increased!

Later, a new update will be coming to Pokémon GO that promises "collaborative group gameplay features that will get you playing Pokémon GO in fun new ways". Let's all hope this means they're finally adding trading...though there will definitely be something else involved as well, since apparently they need to temporarily disable Gyms to prepare for the update! (Note that multiple people teaming up to take down an enemy Gym faster is already possible in the game, though it could certainly be expanded upon as a concept.) Expect Gyms to be disabled starting June 16th.

One more thing: if you happen to live near Chicago, Illinois; Yokohama, Japan; or a Unibail-Rodamco shopping center in Europe, keep your eyes open for details about special Pokémon Go events happening in your area.

[Poryhedron]

...well, this event is getting off to a great start. So many Cyndaquil everywhere <3

Also, I finally got my first Houndour, and with it came the gold-level Badge for filling the Johto Pokédex! (70 2nd-gen species owned)

[MToolen]

One new species in my area so far: hadn't ever seen a Swinub. Their evading move (run around in a figure 8) is rather cute

[Blademaster]

Do you have at least daily access to a Pokéstop in your area?

The closest Pokestop to me is a five mile drive to some shitty summer camp in the middle of nowhere. :(
BUT!
Through some miracle, I managed to go out and visit Pokestops for a week straight, which got me a nice XP bonus and also a Dragon Scale. Now I can evolve Kingdra along with Bellossom and Politoed during my next Lucky Egg session.


So many Cyndaquil everywhere <3

Also, I finally got my first Houndour

Exact same situation here. Except I'm still 5 Pokemon away from the Johtodex. :/ Oh well, 206 sightings and 183 captures isn't bad for someone who plays as infrequently as I do, right?
Also I think I've finally pinpointed local places where Dratini, Squirtle, and possibly Charmander spawn, and I hatched a Larvitar and a Smoochum back to back not too long ago. So I'm on my way to filling out those, but I'm sure I'm going to hit a wall soon. In a year of playing I've found one each of Sandshrew, Magnemite, Voltorb, and Mareep, and I haven't fared much better at finding Grimers and Koffings, plus Doduo's line seems to not exist at all. The Johto Pokedex has been a bit more generous overall, but it also includes many more isolated no-shows like baby Pokemon, obtuse Gen 1 evolutions, and random useless loners like Delibird and Girafarig. I'll probably only be able to acquire another 10 or 15 Pokemon 'easily,' and then after that I don't know what else I'll be able to do.

[Poryhedron]

Big News About the Gym Update!!

Niantic has released a bunch of new information about exactly what they're doing to Gyms. Check it out:

http://pokemongolive.com/en/post/raids

Summary:

·Gyms will also be Pokéstops
·All Gyms will have exactly six stations
·Only one member of each species in a Gym at one time; no six Blissey
·Gym Defenders will no longer be 'assign and forget'; you still can't control your Defender in battle, but you must maintain them to keep them in the Gym
·Gym Badges! Separate from Achievement Badges, can be 'leveled up' and make Gyms more rewarding

·Raid Battles. These occur at Gyms and take over the Gym, booting out the usual Gym Defenders. Sounds like they are how we can access Legendaries, though most(?) will just feature very-high-CP final evos; pictured in the article are Raid Battles against Tyranitar and Alakazam.
·Joining a Raid Battle requires a Raid Pass. There are free vs. Premium Raid Passes; free ones aren't hard to get, but you can only hold one free one at a time.

·New Items! Rare Candy can be turned into the Candy for any species you own; Golden Razz Berries are like super versions of normal Razz Berries; and there are TMs now. These items are gotten by winning Raid Battles, apparently.

Raid Battles will be slower to arrive than the more basic Gym reworkings, being released in gradual beta form.

[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 :v 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.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvSe6pMvUjM

[Blademaster]

Legendary birds, yay.

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

[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 :D

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 :D
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!! :D

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.

[ChobiChibi]

I just had a scroll through my Pokémon, my male to female ratio seems quite even tbh. You might just be unlucky.

I now have all the legendary dogs, and a 100% IV Growlithe. I think I'm one candy from evolving it, which is annoying!

[Poryhedron]

Woohoo! I just got super lucky! I caught two Farfetch'd within an hour of them starting to spawn and they were opposite genders!

Now I just have to hope Niantic gets around to doing events like this for the other region-exclusives, because I definitely don't see myself managing to travel to other continents any time in the near future...

[Katie]

I forgot about this thread, happy to see it still slightly active. :D

I'm up to level 38 now, Pokedex up to 248. I just need Unown, Mewtwo, Mime, and Kangaskhan. Thank you event Farfetch'd! Still no EX pass invite... the only sponsored gyms by me are 20min away and I don't want to expand my usual poketurf that far unless there's some sort of guarantee. I took a trip up to Chicago last month and saw the same Mankey nest that you did Magmar. :D That helped me with my Fighting Badge, and all the Swinubs, Shellders, and Seels helped with my Ice Badge (197/200 :(). There were also a lot of Magnemites by the water which helped for the Steel Badge! Still haven't completed those three badges, nor even reached silver on the Dragon one, but oh well it was good progress. I also finally received the catch-300-tiny-Rattata badge yesterday so I can stop obsessing over those damn rats!

More Hoenn Pokemon are coming, twas announced today! Whatever "soon" means. https://twitter.com/PokemonGoApp/status/938407797640781824

[ChobiChibi]

I did 2 Ho-oh raids yesterday. Failed to catch it both times. My streak of catching legendaries on the first encounter has ended.

[Magmar]

AHHHHH Gen 3 is live!!!! Who'd ya catch first??? Wurmple for me ha.

[Katie]

Roselia for me! This is exciting :D Gen 3 was the last gen of games I played. Let's see how well I remember these guys! Want SKITTY!

[Poryhedron]

Zigzagoon was my first, but I think Gulpin was my second.

And I got the silver Badge for catching Fighting-types by catching my first Makuhita. :)

I'm disappointed in Zigzagoon. As a Rattata-equivalent, it should have needed only 25 Candies to evolve, not the full 50.

I've heard that Absol, which is now a level-4 Raid Boss, might be Raid-exclusive, so I guess I've got that long-term goal ahead of me now. I can't count on the same kind of help with level-4 bosses I often get with Legendaries because the other local players don't care about them as much. On the plus side, weather effects resulting in potentially level-35 wild pokémon may help me get a leg up on my solo raiding power.

[Magmar]

So um this is still happening!

[Poryhedron]

I just hit level 35 tonight.

The first Community Day was a bust for me. Despite being called a "Day" the event was only a few hours, during which I was not available. No Shiny Pikachu for me. I can only hope I have better luck for February's Community Day; I could definitely use more Dratini.

Makin' slow but sure progress on the Hoenn Dex. 51 Hoenn species caught so far.

[Magmar]

Congrats on hitting Level 35!

Um I ... uh ... got an EX raid pass for the 8th and am making nice progress on the Hoenn-dex as well. The winter weather is really my biggest barrier to getting out there more often. I'm able to swipe a few stops on my train ride as the stations are almost all stops, but the Pokemon that appear there are like... Natu, more Natu, 50 billion Natu, a Sentret, and now bonus Whismur (which only need 12 candies to evolve thank the god(dess)(es)).

Inching closer to completing the Pokedex overall, though! I'm halfway to Charizard--but yeah, a walking evolution is very difficult in January in Chicago, and the Charmander nests are all in that part of the city nobody should just go hang out in. Still haven't even seen a wild Lickitung, but there's a great site--chipokeradar--that allows me to track them. I try not to rely on it too much because part of the fun for me is walking around and discovering what's lurking about. Some folks in my raid group rely on it and run out only for specific mons. Each approach is valid tho.

Also I still need Unown and a few final-tier starter evolutions from Gen 2, but I think other than that, I'm looking pretty good for the Johto Dex. I got Tyranitar at last, huzzah!

The Wish List:
Charmeleon, Charizard, Alakazam, Lickitung, Meganium, Typhlosion, Ampharos, Unown, Steelix, Shuckle, Magcargo, Tyranitar, a ton of Gen 3s but I won't count those yet

[Poryhedron]

Well, my second Community Day was definitely much better than the first. I caught a bit over one hundred Dratini, including four Shiny ones, and while I was at it I was lucky enough to get involved in a Rayquaza Raid and capture that Legendary Dragon-type (it has the least useful of all of Rayquaza's Charged Moves, but I can live with that.) Yesterday my Dragon catching badge was bronze; tonight I'm more than halfway to Gold. I also have enough Dratini Candy to turn three of these little guys into Dragonite; I'm partway through evaluating their IVs now to decide which ones get to grow up (it's not looking like any of the Shiny ones will, at least for now.)

Anyone have any fun stories of their Community Day adventures?

[Magmar]

I thought I'd posted another update about what was happening, but um... think one of them is gone. Maybe I never clicked reply. If someone cared that I'd double-posted and removed it, that's a shock, since there's only like 10 active members on this forum ha

I was NOT able to get out for Community Day since I'd had a conflicting social engagement ;[ bummer! What I DO now have though is a perfect IV Metang :) but what hasn't happened is much progress on the Hoenn Pokedex. The weather has been terrible for weeks, but the sun is out at last today so I'm going to try to grab some of the harder-to-get ones.

Oh! Also, I'm level 33 now :D yay. I do have Rayquaza but would love it if the Gen 1 and 2 legendaries would show up for a while. It'd be great to have a chance to catch up and grab some of them like Moltres that I didn't have a chance to get (as I didn't have, and couldn't afford, a phone that could handle the game at that time).

Mewtwo Round 2 is tomorrow afternoon... I am excited to get out there and try to catch him. Out of the 20 people in the Mewtwo raid I did, only two of us didn't catch it (I was one of those two) and your boy Magmar is SALTY about this. ha

[Katie]

I have caught both Unown (J) and Mewtwo since my last check in. :) Level 39 now. Pikachu community day was spent mostly at home, mass-evolving stuff using Lucky Eggs for the extra XP. Went to a park for a while to catch some Chus, but only one shiny. Dratini day was better. 100+ caught, 8 shinies, and it was a park I hadn't been to yet in a biome I'm not familiar with so I had like 8 Pokedex additions that day.

PINK DRAGONAIR IS MY FAVORITE POKEMON NOW! I wanna make her my signature gym drop, since I don't last long as a Valor in my area anyway so what's the point of Blisseying.

I have vacation plans in a few months that will net me Mr. Mime, Lunatone, and Volbeat. :D

[Magmar]

I have caught both Unown (J) and Mewtwo since my last check in. :) Level 39 now. Pikachu community day was spent mostly at home, mass-evolving stuff using Lucky Eggs for the extra XP. Went to a park for a while to catch some Chus, but only one shiny. Dratini day was better. 100+ caught, 8 shinies, and it was a park I hadn't been to yet in a biome I'm not familiar with so I had like 8 Pokedex additions that day.

PINK DRAGONAIR IS MY FAVORITE POKEMON NOW! I wanna make her my signature gym drop, since I don't last long as a Valor in my area anyway so what's the point of Blisseying.

I have vacation plans in a few months that will net me Mr. Mime, Lunatone, and Volbeat. :D

Congrats on the Mewtwo and Unown! I am now Dead Sea levels of salty--I was the ONLY person who didn't catch Mewtwo at the raid on Monday. GRR. But--I finally have freakin' Charizard. Huzzah!

Omg pink Dragonair is best Dragonair <3 but what is up with this ugly gangrene Dragonite????

Safe travels Katie :)

[Katie]

Omg pink Dragonair is best Dragonair <3 but what is up with this ugly gangrene Dragonite????

Safe travels Katie :)

AGREED. Hell, make it blue so it at least matches regular Dratini/Dragonair

And thank you! :D

edit: made Pink D'nair my avatar :3

[Magmar]

Love it Katie! Although I do miss Mikachu's illustration, ha! The highest art.

I've been making progress, zipping along through Level 34 and am now only about 180,000 XP away from 35. I've filled in a few more holes in my Pokedex, evolving Blaziken and settling on an Aggron with decent stats, but not the best. Breloom is a recent addition, and I think I have to settle on the Slakoth I've got although with the Eggstravaganza upon us--that word is a physical challenge to type--I may hatch a better one in the coming ten days. Azurill was born from an egg at last yesterday, and I'm only six candies away from evolving Milotic. Also, caught Lugia FINALLY.

Current Wish List of Obtainable Pokemon: Lickitung (FFS), Mewtwo (also FFS), Unown, Ludicolo, Gardevoir, Slaking, Sharpedo, Wailord, Flygon, Milotic, Cradily, Altaria, Relicanth(?), Wynaut, Shelgon, Salamence, Metagross (one candy to go and have a perfect Metang!)

[Magmar]

Hello! It's been three weeks and there are major new developments in the game, and since there has been zero posting activity anywhere I'm *double posting* whee

I have advanced to Level 34, incorrectly cited before, and immediately after posting my prior reply, I saw a Lickitung on the ChiPokeRadar and caught that bugger! Of course, with the new updates, the Radar is down...

BUT HEY NOW WE CAN GET THE MEW. Most of the Mew challenges are soloable, which is exciting because most folks can actually do them regardless of where they live! The daily challenges are also able to be swapped out at your leisure, which is HUGE for folks who can't complete raids every day. I am now the proud owner of a Moltres at last, woohoo! Milotic and a graceful and demure Altaria have signed onto my team as well. Mazel tov.

The problem with the newest challenge has been the weather in the Midwest. I don't think many folks here are Midwesterners but our weather since the launch of the daily challenges has been garbage. It is next to impossible to go catch 'em all with the temperature CONSTANTLY below 0 C. This has brought about the handicap of the fact that I recently evolved a Gyarados and am now 330 candies away from the next one, which is greatly stalling my progress through the Mew quest. I was even hesitant to evolve Swablu because God forbid the next Discovery Challenge requires us to evolve one. My small army of raid-worthy Gyarados are now relegated to gyms in hopes of acquiring a candy along the way. Ugh, so frustrating. I wish we had options to do something like "Evolve a Pokemon that requires 400 candy." I think Swablu are relatively common in most places, while Magikarp is only typical by the sea. There's a lake right outside, but it has been too cold to go hunting by that lake. Ten minutes in, my hands are numb.

My wish list has shrunk considerably in the last three weeks:
Current Wish List of Obtainable Pokemon: Mewtwo (I hate you), Mew(!), Unown, Ludicolo, Gardevoir, Slaking, Wailord, Flygon, Cradily

[Poryhedron]

One thing the Research Feature has done for me (aside from get me doing even more walking, so I'm hitting my step goal more often) is speed up XP gain. I'm getting kind of close to reaching level 36, faster than I expected to.

I live near a few bodies of water, so I occasionally see wild Magikarp, but they aren't at all what I'd call common. However, they seem to have become a bit more common now than they used to, thank Arceus. Also, I've set my Red Gyarados as my Buddy and it grabs Magikarp Candy every kilometer. I'm now up to 272 Candy; I wonder how much longer it'll take me to reach 400? I'm not actually at the part of Prof. Willow's Special Research where I need to evolve the Magikarp yet; I still have to catch the ten Ghost-types. I'll try to do that tonight because I'll already have reason to be in the city late at night, when wild Ghost-types become plentiful.

I've also decided to keep catching Swablu even though I now have enough for my second, other-gendered Altaria, just in case the quests for Celebi or Jirachi or whatever call for evolving a Swablu. (Also also, I haven't caught a Shiny Swablu yet, so if I find one I'll want to evolve it!)

Yesterday I finally caught a Shiny Murkrow! Now I can stop checking all of them; I certainly didn't need any more Candies.

Oh, speaking of Shinies, everyone was wondering what new Kanto Shinies would become available during the special Kanto Celebration event...that's just started. I should check what new Kanto Shinies people have been finding...huh. No reports yet. I know it's only been live for less than half an hour, but I can usually find event reports that quickly. Guess they're only as common as the default for Shinies.

Pokémon I haven't obtained yet: Mewtwo, Mew, Unown, Blissey, Raikou, Pupitar, Lugia, Combusken and Blaziken, Ludicolo, Pelipper, Breloom, Slaking, Azurill, Medicham, Sharpedo, Wailord, Camerupt, Trapinch and evos, Cradily, Milotic, Chimecho, Absol, Shelgon and Salamence, Metang and Metagross, Latios, Kyogre...and pretty much all Regionals.

__________________________________________________ ____

...It's been zero weeks, and less than half a day, so I won't double-post. But I just wanted to say...I officially love this Kanto event.

Tonight, not only did I get all of the Ghost-types I needed for Willow's quests, I also made excellent progress toward the Magikarp Candies. I now have 349 of them. I also finally - FINALLY - got Genderdex data for male Sandshrew, and for female Doduo and Dodrio. I even found a Grimer; sadly it wasn't the gender I needed, but meeting one tonight gives me hope that I'll meet more this week. I'm getting closer to having enough Onix Candy for my first female Steelix, too. A great night all around!

[Poryhedron]

What the heck, double post time. The fourth Community Day was wonderful for me. I hit Level 36, I finally get female Muk, Pinsir and Kabutops, I have male, female and Shiny Dex Data for the whole Mareep line...and since Dragon Pulse was the wrong move to give Ampharos if they were trying to make it a worthwhile attacker, completing that dex data means I don't ever have to worry about how stupidly rare Mareep is ever again! :)

For the second time in as many Community Days, I ran out of Pokémon storage space partway through. Luckily I had the Coins on hand to buy more storage space; I still haven't reached the original maximum, let alone the current one, since it's so rarely an issue for me. My Coins are usually better spent on Pokéballs or Incubators. Speaking of Pokéballs, I quite enjoyed the trick they pulled with Field Research this time around; the steady supply of Great Balls, Ultra Balls and Pinap Berries really helped!

I've also been catching a pleasantly large number of Machop this week; it looks like this Kanto event is my key to finally earning the Gold rank in the Badge for catching Fighting-types.

[Magmar]

Hey Poryhedron! Glad you made out so well with the community day :) That's all good stuff! I also managed to get a shiny Mareep, despite the constant sleet all day, and enough candy that I now have a sparkly Ampharos! Also, big news: I got Mew today! AND a raid pass for the 22nd for Mewtwo (try #3...) I do love Thursdays in the game because I hit my 7-day Field Challenge reward and also get my 7-day Catch Streak and Pokestops, so all the grinding all week pays off. The double-candy with hatches means that I now have a reasonable Flygon at last and have more than ample candy for Aggron #2, provided I finally find one with respectable stats. (What is it with all the crappy Arons around?)

This event was a big help in that I scored the Steel 3x badge and the Fighting 3x badge, too! Just need Dragon and I'll have completed the set.

Next Pokemon being walked to evolution is Lileep. 7 candy to go.

Current Wish List of Obtainable Pokemon: Mewtwo (that complete ass), Unown, Ludicolo, Gardevoir, Slaking, Wailord, Cradily

[Magmar]

YUS
I CAUGHT MEWTWO

[Poryhedron]

It's official
Magmar wins the thread
Everyone can go home now

If you're already home
Just look around you
and think for a moment
about how utterly home you are

[Magmar]

Aw thanks Poryhedron!

Well, it's MAY DAY, the first of may. Workers of the world unite!!! And also, Pokemon Go players, of course.

The cleanup day event netted me a couple of helpful Rhydons. Sweet. Otherwise, I found it kind of a pain in the butt. It was tough to achieve the available daily challenges when they were all like "Catch 3 Pidgey or Murkrow" or "Evolve 5 Fire Pokemon". Um, there aren't any around anywhere... "Catch 500 Rhydons" was more achievable! Regardless it got us out to play a little, and now that spring has finally sprung in the hinterlands it's been absolutely lovely for both the game and, strangely enough, the beach. (We've gone from the 30s F/about 3 C every day to about 30 C all of a sudden!)

Also, I do have enough candy now for Wailord, but after the Magikarp fiasco last month, I'm holding onto those candies...

Currently walking my problematic Lombre to evolution. Mazel.

I think the Lati@s swap is coming up shortly, and allegedly we'll be getting Zapdos in the daily challenge queue now! Very exciting stuff--always thought Zapdos was pretty cool.

[Poryhedron]

Seeing the new Field Research challenges will be interesting, but I'm also definitely excited for this new Fighting-type event they're starting today. Thanks to the glut of Machop during the Kanto Celebration event, I got my progress in the Fighting-type achievement badge up to 199 Fighting-types caught, just one away from Gold Rank...and then Fighting-types went back to their usual extreme rarity, and I am STILL at 199 Caught. Today's the day I finally get that Gold Rank! Also, I'll finally be able to get enough Meditite Candy for Medicham...hopefully both genders, even.

[Magmar]

Poryhedron, you're in a more rural region right? I probably have an advantage being in Chicago. In my block radius, there are a dozen stops and several nests. Cities seem to have ample Fighting-types, although only Makuhita shows up with any regularity. It's a little annoying since the lakeshore is right there, but the event means that now that it's finally warm enough to go hunting for water-types, there are only fighting-types there. Good for taking out Blissey, bad for evolving Lombre!

[Poryhedron]

My home is rural, but there's a city about half an hour's drive away. Even in the city, though, Fighting-types pretty much never appear...at least not normally. I currently have the same problem as you regarding Fighting-types pushing out nearly all non-Fighting-types; that actually cost me my Field Research Stamp yesterday, making me a very grumpy virtual pokémon for the rest of the night. But at least I finally have a Preset Party full of L30+ Machamp and Hariyama with their optimal movesets for the next time I luck into an Absol raid.

I got enough Candies for both male and female Medicham the first day of the event, and figured I could safely ignore Meditite from that point on...but then, a couple days later, I was lucky enough to encounter a Shiny Makuhita! ...which reminded me that Shiny Meditite have also been reported appearing during this event, so now I have to pay attention to Meditite again :grumble: Just like the visible gender differences some pokémon have, you can't tell on the map screen whether a pokémon is Shiny; you have to initiate the encounter to see that. But at least you can simply run if it's not what you wanted.

Speaking of getting lucky, one of the biggest Nests in my area has become an Electabuzz nest, so I get to spend two weeks gathering the Candies for Electivire. New Pokéstops are also sprouting in that area, to the point where we even have a new Gym that should theoretically be a valid site for EX-Raids. I'm avoiding spinning the new Stops because May's version of the "Spin Pokéstops you haven't visited before" Field Research has Aerodactyl as the reward encounter, and I still don't have Genderdex data for female Aerodactyl.

[ChobiChibi]

Quick update from me. I had an Ex-Raid pass, at last! I got it at the last community day. However, they gave me a MONDAY between 3:15 and 4. Wtf Niantic?! So I missed out on Mewtwo :(

[Magmar]

Becki, I have the same problem--a Mewtwo raid pass for 1 p.m. today, and I have a meeting at that time! Bleh. I'm even tempted to call into the meeting and just do the raid as though I'm sitting in front of my computer, with the webcam off, LOL.

I got the Aerodactyl yesterday :) went to one of the suburbs and quickly swept house on the 6+ Pokestops. Mine was male and had lousy IVs, though. Browsing through the dex, I realized I've got all gender data for most Gen Is except a few starters, Aerodactyl and, for some weird reason, have only gotten female Muk thus far. Where is Mr. Muk???

[ChobiChibi]

I got Mew today :D It’s not got good IVs, but it’s cute.

[Poryhedron]

I just got my first ever EX-Raid Pass! Good thing the Electabuzz nest I had earlier has now become a Scyther nest; I need to beef up my collection of Scizor. I just recently got my first Tyranitar that knows Bite and Crunch, too, but it's only L20 and there's no way I'll be able to get it into shape by Memorial Day.

Speaking of finally getting Dark-types, I got my first Absol at the end of yesterday's Community Day! It's become a tradition to end Community Day with a Raid or two; shortly after catching the Absol I got my second Ho-Oh, but the Absol's more exciting to me because of Ho-Oh's less-than-stellar movepool. Just like Tyranitar, Absol's got the ideal moveset for Mewtwo-smacking but is only L20 and isn't going to reach L30 by the EX Raid.

If I manage to catch Mewtwo, the only Kanto Pokémon I'll still be missing basic Dex data for will be Mr. Mime and Kangaskhan...and there are rumors drifting about that we'll likely soon see another special event like the one that gave the whole world Farfetch'd for a brief time. Here's Hoping!

[Poryhedron]

HOLY $#17 ALOLAN FORMS!
WE'RE GETTING ALOLAN FORMS IN POGO!

What dark wizardry is this!?

[ChobiChibi]

They gave certain cities Kangaskhans last year. I just came back from my honeymoon and my husband made me go XD Yay jetlag.

I’ll swap you a Tauros for Mr Mime :) *if only*

I got my second EX raid pass. For a Tuesday. Around lunch time. Would be fine if it weren’t closer to my home than work XD

[Katie]

I hit level 40 during my trip :D I got my Mime, Volbeat, and Lunatone, but I was really worried about the latter. We were there for 2 weeks but for the first ~10 days I only saw its shadow on radar very late at night after we had settled in for bed. Luckily we got up stupid early one morning and found 2 Lunatones at about 6:30am. My Pokedex is now up to 365. Of the obtainables in my country, all I need are Wynaut and Metagross. 16/100 candies for Meta and I'm putting EVERY 5k egg in an incubator to hurry things along for Wynaut, though I'm starting to run out of incubators and don't want to spend any $ on more. I'll need to step up my gym game to get more coins.

[ChobiChibi]

I started community day by finally hitting level 30 :D I ended community day with a 98% Tyranitar, I was pleased with this outcome!

Anyone done any reading into this friendship stuff? I’ll post a link to the into my hubby had when he gives it to me lol.

[Magmar]

Now you're Lv30, we can connect as friends :3

[Katie]

July 26th, 2018
Dear journal,
Still no Wynaut. I'm starting to fear that they have gone extinct. With the rumors of gen4 fast approaching I'm afraid the polluted egg pool will never grant me this elusive baby Pokemon.

Also still working on Metagross. 61 candies! Still have only ever encountered 2 Beldums ever in-game. Meanwhile I've hatched 6 Bagon... The 61 candies are almost entirely from buddy-walking and gym-berry-feeding.

I did manage to trade for a Kangaskhan recently! That was nice. I really want Tropius next.

[Magmar]

Still no Wynaut?! Oh my goodness that's so annoying! I know you're down in TX, but if you're in Dallas area, I'll be there a few times this fall for work and maybe we can trade or something?? I've gotten a handful thus far.

My wish list has come down to trades at this point for international mons, but still no Unown. There was a Go Fest here in Chicago but the tickets all got swooped up and offered via scalping for exorbitant fees. Most of us in my group couldn't get the tickets despite living RIGHT NEXT TO THAT PARK. They had another sale of them later but they were $60. I like Go, but I don't $60 like Go, lol. So I still don't have Unown -_- the only other attainable ones I don't have are Gardevoir (waiting for a good Ralts) and the dogs, but the pups are coming to the reward system in August so that will soon change.

[ChobiChibi]

I FINALLY GOT AN EX RAID PASS ON A DAY I CAN ATTEND. HELLO MEWTWO. YESSSSSSS.

Ahem... >>

I went out on the Zapdos raid day, got a 98% one and a couple of shiny ones 8D I am now level 32. Hoping to hatch Alolan Vulpix soon, I keep getting everything but :/ Oh I got a good Alolan Raichu from a raid :D I’m also still without a Sun Stone, so I still don’t have Bellossum :(

Maybe we should post friend codes here? I has Magmar, but more are welcome :D

[Poryhedron]

Magmar made a separate thread in this forum for PoGO Friend Codes. Mine is in it; feel free to post yours there.

[Katie]

Hey yall, gen4's (partly) out :partyhat:

[Magmar]

yesssss i still dont' have my ghost monster thing tho :( stupid work travel!