Pokémon Go

[ExedExes]

I got to try it out in a gym battle today - Pound hits fast and damages decently well. It charges up the meter very fast. Dazzling Gleam didn't seem to do a lot, but then again I was trying it out on a 2142CP Vaporeon holding a gym, and Vaporeons get about half as much HP as Chansey does. Its only problem is the ridiculosly low CP, meaning it will almost always be first in line at a gym, but it will waste a lot of opposing teams' items in the process.

Speaking of gyms, that gym I was using Chansey in coughed up my Flareon 2 about 30 minutes prior. It lasted nearly a day. After I won the gym back, I found out the Vaporeon I had stationed down the road (remember the Level 9/10 gym?) was kicked out! I drove over to the gym, and I saw the dust clouds and lightning indicating it was under attack. I saw a pickup truck nearby obviously taking it down. Mind you, this was still a Level 6 gym at this point. It turned out to be 2 Mystics, as they added their Pokémon shortly thereafter. The time Vaporeon was there was 7 days and 19 hours, a full week! Best stint ever, and possibly the best there will ever be!

The gym at the church that was also level 10 and had my Exeggutor for a few days until last night became Valor again, but I knew the name of the ex-gym leader and noticed he was no longer there, so I think it's safe to say Mystic probably completely dismantled that level 10 gym last night! It was back to Valor level 6, but the lowest rung Pokémon there, a Starmie had Psybeam (one of the new attacks it gets from the latest update 2 days ago), and completely decimated my chances of getting in there as I was trying to train. Keep in mind, I was in *0* gyms at this point! I gave up and hit some nearby Pokéstops further south, that were giving out all types of potions like candy, another feature reportedly added in this new server-side update confirmed by many on Reddit, at the cost of Revives being less common now, from what I understand. I came back up and noticed even the church gym had the clouds and lightning on it, and not only was I glad I didn't bother adding a Pokémon to that gym and waste more items, but I realized that Mystic was probably attacking that one as well.

It was a very disappointing site to see Mystic EVERYWHERE I went today. All the strong high-level gyms Valor held in the past week are now claimed by Mystic. The worst part is I'm short 20 coins of 2 bag upgrades at 380. I purchased one upgrade at least so that I can hold 550 items now, and at my current capacity that means 100 more. All my Pokémon are now healed too. I was hoping for one more successful defender bonus. But, a couple of good points here.

1) I know the Valor contingency in this area is strong, and we have the will of fire not to give up. I unfortunately was probably the only member around this area today, our unofficial motto is "In the darkest night, we are the flame", and that is ever so true. I know this, the stranglehold Mystic has on us here won't be for long! I play so much I recognize names of Valor gym holders from gyms past.

2) I can now let the 20 hour timer expire on my upcoming defender bonus, and all I have to do to get 20 coins is to hold 2 nearby gyms at the same time, hit them quick and as soon as I get two again, no delay in getting my bonus, so I will get that second bag upgrade by the end of the week! For the next few days, I'm taking a small break to do other things and save items, but I'll be able to resupply a little more heavier than I usually do starting Wednesday during my weekly activities right next to Pokéstops, and on Saturday morning I'll be near another Pokéstop for at least a couple of hours at another function, so that will be *awesome*.

You better watch out Mystic! This Valor-ean isn't backing down!

(but honestly, the extra potions at Pokéstops means a LOT more turnover in gyms in the near future, I think!)

[Tanooki]

Are you buying coins or warning and if so how? I've never had one.

[ExedExes]

Are you buying coins or warning and if so how? I've never had one.

I bought coins previously using the prepaid Google cards, now all I purchase are incubators, $10 gets you 8 and a little spare change, I combine that with the infinite one you have to get all 9 eggs on at once; you can do that 3 times, so that's 24 eggs (paid for) for $10, not bad.

The rest of the coins I earned this go-around were from holding gyms. I was hoping to get one more day out of the 2 I had in so I could have had 400.

[Tanooki]

So you can earn those pikachu looking coins by longer term gym ownership, that's a nice incentive if anything to bother with that. I don't wish to ever pay for it, but I really would find it nice to have a larger pocket to keep more pokeballs in. I find I just end up erasing quite a few of the overly handed out potions and revives as if I'd ever seen 50 of them at one time.

[ExedExes]

Yes, you get 500 stardust and 10 coins per gym held (up to 10 gyms or 5000/100 in bonus), the bonus resets every 21 hours (not 20 hours as I may have said previously), so a couple of times I was able to hold 4 for 2000/40 per day, and much of last week I was able to claim 1000/20 for 2 gyms held before they fell yesterday. Bag storage is 200 coins, it adds 50 additional items up to a maximum of 1000. I am now at 550 and I'll try to hopefully get the last 20 coins for 600 by the end of the week. I'm keeping a minimum of 200 Poké Balls, 100 Great Balls, and 50 Ultra Balls.

With the new Potion over Revive update rolled out, I don't think I'll have 70 Revives like I used to anymore, I'm at around 20 now, but as rare as they now are I won't be throwing them out anymore, simply because they're a cheaper alternative to using Potions during gym battles.

[fastbilly1]

I didnt know you could get stardust that way. Looks like I need to scope out some lesser traveled gyms.

Exed, how do people continually get pokemon in the 1400+ CP? When you hit level 20 do they spawn in that high? The highest I have even seen in the wild is 376. I ask because the lowest level pokemon in the gyms near my office is 1800 CP, and those gyms flip almost daily.

[ExedExes]

The higher your level, the higher the CP that Pokémon in the wild will have. When I reached level 20, I caught an 1175CP Scyther, and I still have him because its moveset is optimal (Fury Cutter & Bug Buzz) and it's been very good in battle. Aside from that, I haven't seen CPs that high out there, although Exeggcutes, Pinsirs, and Eevees can get to around 600CP or more. So I am saying that you won't always see Pokémon at 1000CP or more in the wild that often, but I also will say you definitely do better with egg hatching and high CP at higher levels, that Magmar I got along with the Chansey the other day was at around 1250CP! Many of them that come from eggs will be near the very end of the CP arc for your level. Those are where my best performing Pokémon are coming from now.

There is also a new update out now, but it's not on the Play Store yet, it's being rolled out a little more slowly. This continues Niantic's trend of releasing new updates bi-weekly on Mondays. It's version 0.35.0 for Android and 1.5.0 on iOS.

New features include -

- Implemented Pokémon Appraisal: Trainers will now be able to learn about a Pokémon’s attack and defense capabilities from their Team Leader (Candela, Blanche or Spark) to determine which of their Pokémon have the most potential for battle.

- We are still working hard on several new and exciting features to come in the future of Pokémon GO.

- Minor bot fixes

So there's a way to determine the IVs (Individual Values) of your Pokémon in-game instead of using third-party apps and calculators by consulting with your team leader, which may save time and help you decide if you keep or transfer them. Plus, the usual joke from Niantic about "minor fixes".

[Tanooki]

Minor fixes = (Played out Nintendo Network firmware generic comment) Further improvements to overall system stability and software compatibility

I'm curious how that appraisal works, never knew you could talk to your faction leader unless it's some new icon.

[ExedExes]

People who have the new update (which I found out, is rolling out in waves because Google gives the developer that ability to reduce server load) have posted pictures of the new appraisal screens. To get there, you touch the 3-bar menu on any Pokémon screen, alongside Favorite and Transfer, the new Appraise option is there.

Next, your team leader will appear (in the case of Team Valor, Candela) and there will be a few screens of the appraisal.

Appraisal process images follow.

The things each team leader says about the percentage of your Pokémon will be different. In the example above, Team Mystic's leader determined that this Pokémon was 100% perfect. This percentage is also known as a perfection rating. Each Pokémon has a hidden level as well as 3 different IV stats for ATK, DEF, and STA(mina). Each value can range from 0-15 and if a Pokémon has 15/15/15, then it's 100% perfect. Each of these numbers give your Pokémon a slight boost in gym battles in attack, defense, or stamina with these statistics. This site lays out what to expect and what % is your Pokémon by what each team leader says.

Today I was able to hold a gym for about 2 hours. Got 10 more coins! I'll try to take one tomorrow so I can get my 600 bag upgrade.

[ExedExes]

The new update has arrived on Google Play, I just got it. One additional note from TheSilphRoad --in this update, Pokémon will no longer have 1 HP if they faint in a friendly gym (for training), they'll be at 0 and you'll need a Revive to heal them, as if you were battling at a rival gym. Which really makes sense, and again prevents you from having to use Potions. I'm ok with this change. So hang on to your Revives!

I also evolved a 2nd Jolteon! This one has Thunder, the best Electric move in the game, as well as more CP (1116) than my weaker Jolteon. I now have 2 of each "Eev-olution". That's great, because I can use my 2 Flareons in gyms, my weaker Vaporeon and Jolteon for training purposes, and my better Vaporeon and Jolteon for gym defense.