Pokémon Go

[Michi]

Went for a good-ass walk today (around 6km). Picked up some coins (yay), hatched an egg (yay), used a lucky egg to do a mass-evolution and get the extra points for the new guys I knew I was going to evolve (double yay) and found out where the Dratini live (Whoo Hoo!)

New additions
Arcanine
Starmie
Hypno
Graveler


Here's my new top 12

The ones just out of view are Seaking, Hypno and Jolteon

I had enough candies to evolve 3 Eevees today and finally got another Vaporeon and Flareon. All the other Eevees I'd evolved lately had been a Jolteon. Which is fine if you want to take down a Gym with nothing but water Pokemon, but I was getting a little tired of seeing the same guy over-and-over again.

Also evolved that one Zubat I had with good ratings. He's surprisingly much stronger than I thought he'd be.

I'm just about 1-2 catches away with a couple other guys I'm looking to evolve. I'm one candy short on Psyduck and only need one more catch to evolve a 620cp Exeggcute. That last ones stats should be pleasantly high. Here's hoping its moves are too.

[ExedExes]

Level 6 or 7? That will last a while. Anything over Level 5 is difficult to solo on your own. It will take quite a (team) effort. My best stint was at a Level 10 gym for a week last month. As of roughly 5:00PM tomorrow, my best Flareon, usually not a good choice for a gym because of the power of water, is going to match that record. At the time I put it in, it was Level 3. I can't go and check on it as easily as I can, say, the flagpole gym which is the nearest gym to me, but I have a feeling it will last even longer than tomorrow night. I hope your gym will also last long (and prosper!)

I've heard good things about the Plus so far. The LED changes colors for Pokéstops (blue), Pokémon near (green), unseen (in your Pokédex) Pokémon near (yellow) and it lets you know if the catch attempt was unsuccessful (red). It will be nice in the car or even in places where whipping out your phone isn't a good idea if you're near a Pokéstop, because you just press the button and get the items. Despite early reports, it also tracks distance with the phone off which is fantastic for eggs and buddy candies. Someone also mentioned being on a lucky egg evo spree and as they were using the phone for that, they were able to get Pokéstops and catch Pokémon at the same time! That's going to be a great use for it. If I can, I'll do my best and field test it for you all.
EDIT: They are now officially out of stock on Amazon, again!

I missed a Snorlax today. It had a CP of "???", first time I saw that, and after a few Ultra Balls it ran away. But I did find another Growlithe not very far from home.

I like those Pokémon names Michi. I need a Hypno, the only Drowzee I got was from an egg on my very first day, and I still have it.

[Michi]

I like those Pokémon names Michi. I need a Hypno, the only Drowzee I got was from an egg on my very first day, and I still have it.

All the Drowzee's were yet another blessing from my trip to Colorado. I swear, without that trip I'd be so freaking behind....

Look forward to hearing about how well the Plus works.

[Tanooki]

I haven't seen a drowzee in awhile. Wife found that purple pile of goo grimer today...argh. Shadow of it was at the mall hours earlier, missed it.

Yes that gym is a 6 or 7, and it has my fire but non-fire arcanine in it so that has to be throwing some people for a loop not expecting a dark and ground(heavy) attack. I just want the coins to widen my item pouch so hopefully you're right, it stands for awhile.

I'm maybe missing something but does that Plus device let you catch pokemon without having the phone on because of the light on the front and its one button? Or it just goes red if you're on the phone and you miss one? I could see the use in it if you really can catch them, collect stops, run up eggs, run up the candy walk too.

[ExedExes]

After the Plus is paired with the app, you keep the app on but you can keep the phone locked/asleep because it works with Bluetooth Low Energy mode.

During the time the device and the app are active (phone can be asleep or in another app at this time), the LED will flash certain colors and also vibrate a few times.

Pokéstop near - blue LED
After pressing button, a vibration for each item you get, and multicolor LED
Long vibration if your bag is full. Of course, you'll have to check the journal to see what you got.

Pokémon you already have nearby - green LED
Press button and a regular Pokéball will be thrown.
After which, three vibrations to mimic the ball shaking in app
If a successful catch, five short vibrations and multicolor LED
If unsuccessful, one short vibration and red LED

Pokémon you don't have nearby - yellow LED
At that point, I'd probably hit the phone just to make sure I could use a better ball on it.

That information I gathered from TheSilphRoad reddit as well as the online user guide.

Catch rates have been reported so far as the same you'd get using a standard Pokéball on all types of CPs. It will make it much easier to get those commons that I'd usually ignore, for mass evolution times, but the nice thing is, you won't miss any Pokéstops while you're catching them, if I understand it correctly.

My Exeggutor has also returned from the Level 7 gym. It was held for over 24 hours, which is good for such a high-traffic area. Flareon is still there, but I haven't collected my bonus yet because I'm going to check out more gyms today.

[Tanooki]

If you're hardcore enough into it, that's invaluable I can see that now. I'm not, but if someone gifted me it for Christmas or whatever around here I wouldn't find a reason to not use it that's for sure.

I lost that gym not too much after the last time I posted so it barely made it a day and a half which blows so no more coins for me.

[ExedExes]

Today I managed to get 5 gyms; someone on Valor rolled over a route that I commonly take for gyms and had open spaces for 3 of them; I quickly added them and then took the flagpole gym which just had 1 Vaporeon for the 4th. Collected 50 coins today, but lost those 4 gyms a few hours later.

I also found the most valuable tool a gym fan can have -- pokestumble.com, a place that not only tracks Pokémon and Pokéstops (and show them in purple when lured (!!)), but this site also shows the current status of gyms. It shows the team holding it, the Pokémon that is the leader and the prestige number. It also shows when a gym is currently under attack! It did show me the gym that my Flareon has been now officially in for over a week (beating Vaporeon's record from last month), is at Level 6 with over 18000 prestige! So I know he's in for a little more time there. This will save me a lot of time and mileage, for sure. Great site, check it out.

[Tanooki]

Maybe that site works for you, it's just a google map for me with nothing displayed on it as far as pokemon go goes. It would be nice to see what's in the area.

[ExedExes]

I switched the map tiles (3 stack icon on the right) to OpenStreetMap H.O.T. which seemed to work for me. Don't forget to click on a location, if it's unsuccessful, keep trying. It's been a great tool for me keeping up on the gyms, and it works well on my phone too.

Now, the moment you've all been waiting for.

Pokémon Go Plus!

It arrived today. It was very easy to set up. It comes with the clip-on back attached. There is a wristband accessory as well, but you have to unscrew the clip on-back and then attach it to the wristband which also has a screw. It takes 2 CR2032 batteries.

Pairing it was very easy. Turn the Bluetooth on your phone, then go to the Pokémon Go app and touch Settings > Pokémon Go Plus. It pairs up fast, and there's also an icon on the main screen showing its status (bright white if paired, blacked out if not paired, touch the device button and the icon to re-pair if needed.)

I put the phone to sleep and let it do its thing. Sure enough, I was getting quite a few green light notifications for Pokémon in the area. A press of the button, and then 3 white LEDs indicate the catch attempt. My first attempt was successful, with the multicolor LED. I caught a Pidgey @ 267 CP. The device lit up around 20 times this afternoon alone, while I was sitting and watching TV. Catch rate was around 12-13, which isn't too bad for it using regular Pokéballs. The device also sends a notification to your phone for caught Pokémon, Pokémon ran away, Pokéstop successfully collected.

In the background was a 2km egg hatching (a nice Squirtle with good stats!) Here are the journal entries for today, a small sample of the device at work. All catches, including the Raticate and Vulpix, were done with the device!

I did find a Pokémon while I had the app on and the tracker had it near, I didn't use the device for this one, but it's #3 with 15 on ATK and STA!

The device also does track distance, I got quite a few Pikachu candies and that 2km egg hatched, due to my GPS location shifting from time to time. The only issues I had was when the GPS signal was lost, the device let me know with a flashing red LED. Otherwise, it worked great. I highly recommend it, it's really neat!

Finally, shoulder buddies exist!

[Tanooki]

I can't say I have a huge update here, I've been short lately but not short on playing just what I do is boring.

I can't seem to find a place with a solid gym so I'm fucked far as coins go which has me furious as the one my wife got into a good week ago still is around Lv6 and she's in the top half with her lapras so she's making coin. >:\ Double >:\ I found a diglett today for the first time in the wild, and the little shit ran off after the first ball so now I have an uneven pokedex to catch ratio as I was 1:1.

I've been working on milking a lucky egg so that's why I haven't done much on here.

220 pidgey candy so far and I believe 27 of them in inventory. I also have the candy to do (and bodies) 5 weedles. Seel (to unlock dewgong) is ready as is a bellsprout and goldeen. I'm 1-2 captures away on: Staryu, Horsea, Ekans (to unlock arbok), Squirtle, and Gastly (unlocks haunter?) are all about ready too. Then I have a few that are like 1/2 way like ponyta, charmander, clefairy and koffing. Lastly there's the stuff that just never comes up like snorlax, tentacool, dratini/dragonair that'll take awhile with candy (same with charmander who's being walked now.) A few I just consider lost causes like how I finally got 1 magikarp then a 2nd but never since but at least the 1 I kept is like proud, HP, and wow! with a 142cp (I think 150 is max.)

I may just buckle and run the pidgey/weedle/misc pile that's ready. It should cash in pretty well. 13500 in pidgey alone, 2500 for the bellsprouts, and seel would be 1k for the new and evolve, and 500 on bellsprout. And these are xp before the lucky egg. It should round out around 35000. Maybe I should do it, it'll drive me a bit into Lv22.

EDIT: Figured why not, just banked 31000xp, hit lv22 and got 2 medals as well. Man had I waited I still had 14min on the clock. :\ A poliwag just popped up as I wrote that last line, hit an excellent +400xp. Haha..and enough candy to make another Poliwhirl since my other had the crappiest moveset. +1000xp. Oh and that tenatcool I got that earlier on an egg.