Type Effectiveness

 Every Pokémon has an assigned type, and sometimes they have two. The type assigned to the Pokémon will allow you to figure out what it is strong against and what it is weak against. Knowing about type effectiveness is very important when participating in battles against other trainers, completing raids, or taking over gyms. 

A Pokémon with a single type will be most effective when using a move that is the same type because it will gain extra attack power. This is called STAB (Same Type Attack Bonus). For example, a Water-type Pokémon using a Water attack will have increased damage by 1.5 times. When using this attack against a Pokémon that is weak to water, a Fire-type, for example, it will increase the damage by another 2 times. Below is a chart that fully shows type effectiveness among the 18 types available.

                            (Chart is from Pokémon Database (pokemondb.net))

On the lefthand column, you will see that it represents the attacking Pokémon. Going right from one of the types, like Fire to Grass, for example, you will see that Fire is super effective. If you reverse this and go from Grass on the left to Fire, you will see that Grass is not very effective against Fire, but not completely useless like Electric would be to Ground. 

As mentioned before, choosing a party of Pokémon to battle with depends heavily on type effectiveness. But, it is also different depending on what you plan to do. If you want to do regular battles against other Trainers or Team Rocket, you will want to diversify which Pokémon you bring with you. For example, you don’t want to just bring 3 Fire-type Pokémon, as a single Water-type Pokémon could potentially wipe out your team. When looking at the defensive side of the chart, you will see that Steel is extremely well at defending against most types, so having a Steel-type is a good way to help protect your team (minus Fire, Ice, and Ground attacks). But, if you plan on taking up a raid where the selected Pokémon is Dratini, for example, you should only bring Pokémon that you know will be effective against Dragon-types (Ice, Dragon, Fairy).

Becoming Buddies with your Pokémon

Having friends in Pokémon GO is a fun and helpful feature that makes leveling up and getting items much easier. But, did you know you can befriend Pokémon too? Increasing your friendship level with the selected Pokémon yields great benefits as well. I’ll explain how to become Buddies with your Pokémon, as well as the levels and benefits associated with each.

First off, becoming Buddies with your Pokémon is quite simple. To become Buddies, all you need to do is go down near your Trainer profile and you will find a little circle to the right of it. Tap on that, and you can choose a Buddy. The Buddy that you choose will follow you around on adventures as you walk around in the game. Determining which Buddy you’d like to take with you can depend on a few things, but that is ultimately up to the Trainer. You could choose your Buddy based on level, CP, or even just a Pokémon that looks cool or is your favorite. Once you have chosen one and assigned them as your Buddy, they will appear in the aforementioned circle near your Trainer profile, as well as beside you in your Trainer profile.

Best Buddy Ribbon

Now that you’re Buddies, you can increase the Buddy Level. To do this, you must start off by feeding it berries. By doing this for the first time, you will achieve the first Buddy Level by collecting Affection Hearts. The first level you achieve will be “Good Buddy”. By reaching this level, you will have collected your first Affection Heart which will allow you to read the mood your Buddy is in, as well as allow the Pokémon to follow you on the map. The first level is by far the easiest to reach, considering you only need one Affection Heart. 

The second Buddy Level is “Great Buddy”. In order to reach this level, you must obtain 70 Affection Hearts. Now, this is certainly more of a strenuous goal than the one Affection Heart required for the first level. But, there are many ways you can reach the next level and gain more Affection Hearts than just feeding your Pokémon berries, which can be done 3 times a day. Other ways to gather Affection Hearts include battling, capturing a photo of your Buddy, walking, visiting a new Pokéstop, or following a Route together. Affection Hearts for walking, feeding, and battling can be done 3 times a day. Reaching the Great Buddy status will allow your Pokémon to bring you gifts, such as potions or revives. They can also assist in catching Pokémon.

The third level is “Ultra Buddy” and requires a total of 150 Affection Hearts. At this level, your Pokémon will let you know about “interesting locations nearby”. They will also bring you Souvenirs from specific locations that you get to keep and look at whenever you desire. The final and fourth level is “Best Buddy”. By achieving Best Buddy status, you have collected a total of 300 Affection Hearts with your Buddy. Your Buddy will sport a red Best Buddy Ribbon that can be seen by everyone, as well as receive a CP boost for battles.

Everything is Better with Friends!

Everything is better with friends, including playing Pokémon Go. Having friends in-game is beneficial for a few different reasons. Having those friends play the game with you in real life is also very helpful! I’m going to get into why having friends is valuable and will absolutely change your gameplay. 

First off, friends can send you Gifts. These Gifts hold items that can be opened at any time by the trainer, making them a great tool for when you run low on Pokéballs or other items, such as Revives or Potions. A trainer can hold 20 gifts at a time in their Item Bag to send to other trainers. The number of gifts a trainer can receive is only limited by the number of friends a trainer has. But, if you are holding onto an unopened Gift from a friend, that friend cannot send you another one until you open it. So, it’s best to periodically open your gifts so that you can get new ones. A trainer can receive one gift from each friend per day, and vice versa when it comes to sending. 

When trainers send each other Gifts, their friendship level will increase. Trainers can also increase friendship by participating in raids together, battling each other, taking over a gym together, and trading. But, keep in mind that you can only raise your friendship level with that trainer once per day. There are four levels, and reaching a new level will grant both trainers a large amount of XP. By increasing the levels of friendship between you and another trainer, you will also receive benefits such as decreased trade costs. To trade, both trainers must be near each other and they will both pay Stardust to complete the trade. 

With that being said, once a set of trainers reaches the final stage of their friendship level, Best Friends, they have the chance to become Lucky Friends. It is said that the chance of becoming Lucky Friends is around 2% each time you raise your friendship level. If you get the chance to be Lucky Friends with another trainer, you should both strategize a trade since afterward, the traded Pokémon themselves will become Lucky! A Lucky Pokémon will have a guaranteed better stat floor compared to trading normally, which rerolls all of the stats at random. Plus, Lucky Pokémon also requires less Stardust to level up and will also receive a boost in its Combat Power.

Pokéstops and Gyms!

The game is Pokémon Go… not stop, right? Well, such a thing called a Pokéstop exists in the game, and I’m here to tell you all about it. Plus, I will also get into detail about Gyms; which ironically, aren’t a place for you or your Pokémon to work out. Pokéstops and Gyms are very helpful tools when it comes to playing Pokémon Go, so let’s dive into it.

First up are the Pokéstops. If you’ve ever seen a light blue Pokéball-looking figure on the map, you’ve come across a Pokéstop! A Pokéstop yields items for the trainer, such as Pokéballs, potions, berries, eggs, and gifts. To get these items, the trainer will spin the photo disc on Pokéstop, which will make it turn purple. The photo disc will feature a photo of the location of the Pokéstop. Pokéstops can also be beneficial to catching Pokémon with the use of a Lure Module. Trainers can acquire Lure Modules from the shop or from completing certain Research Tasks and can come in several different forms (regular, Rainy, Mossy, Magnetic, and Glacial). When a Lure Module is active, all trainers who are near the Pokéstop can catch the Pokémon that appear from it.

A Gym is similar to a Pokéstop in the way that trainers can collect items from them by spinning the photo disc. A Gym is much larger on the map compared to a Pokéstop and is also color-coded depending on which team is in control of the Gym. It will either be blue for Team Mystic, red for Team Valorant, or yellow for Team Instinct. If your team is currently holding the Gym, then you can add one of your Pokémon to defend the Gym. If not, you can choose to battle the Pokémon defending the Gym with your own. Defending the Gym itself doesn’t yield benefits, but getting knocked out of the Gym does. Once your Pokémon is knocked out of the Gym, you will receive Pokécoins depending on how long your Pokémon was in the gym. There is a cap of 50 Pokécoins to be earned per day. Pokécoins are used in the shop for items a trainer may need on their adventures. Another thing about Gyms is that they are also the place for raids! When a raid egg appears at a Gym, trainers can gather and work together to defeat the Pokémon that hatches from it. Once defeated, trainers are given an opportunity to catch said Pokémon.

What is a Community Day and Spotlight Hour?

Pokémon GO frequently holds events where players can catch multiple of the same Pokémon in a specified allotment of time. These events are known as Community Day and Spotlight Hour. While they are similar, these two types of events vary slightly with how long and when players can acquire the specified Pokémon listed. 

  

First, I will go into detail about Spotlight Hour. During Spotlight Hour, trainers can collect a specified Pokémon (sometimes more than one!) between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Tuesdays. The event will run at the trainers' local time. The Pokémon that spawn during Spotlight Hour will not have increased shiny odds. But, since there are more of them at once than usual, you will have a higher chance of catching one that way than normally in the wild. Plus, trainers will get the opportunity for a bonus during the event, such as increased XP for catching Pokémon or decreased distance required to hatch eggs. These bonuses are usually not the same every time.

Community Day is similar to Spotlight Hour, except the duration is longer and the event typically has more yields. A Community Day typically takes place on a Saturday or Sunday once a month. On the specified day of the event, a trainer can catch the featured Pokémon from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. in their local time. Like Spotlight Hour, the spawn rate of the specified Pokémon will be much higher than usual. But, during a Community Day, the rates for a shiny are increased. The usual odds for catching a shiny in Pokémon Go is about 1 in 500. The rate for Community Day is about 1 in 25, making the event a great opportunity to catch shiny Pokémon to add to your collection. Additional Research Tasks are also available during Community Day for those who plan on catching many Pokémon during the event. These Research Tasks will give things like Pokéballs, incense, and additional encounters with the featured Pokémon. The tasks will also guide the trainer to evolve the featured Pokémon which will usually have a featured move. These special moves can be learned for free during Community Day, which would otherwise require an Elite Charged or Fast TM, depending on the move. While Community Day runs from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., the event doesn’t technically end there. After the aforementioned catching period, the featured Pokémon can appear in bonus raids at gyms, allowing the trainer to continue to catch it. Plus, after a trainer wins the raid at the gym, the same Pokémon will spawn around the gym for an additional 30 minutes.

Pokémon Catching Guide

 The most important aspect of Pokémon GO is of course catching the Pokémon! But, some trainers may be much less effective than others. With that in mind, I am going to explain different ways that will help you retain more Pokémon, as well as save more Pokéballs which will make your gameplay much more effective. 

One of the first and easiest things you can do is observe the color of the ring when attempting to catch the Pokémon. If the ring is green, it will be easy to catch. Yellow is a bit harder, with red being the hardest. To get the levels down to green, one can either use a better Pokéball (like a Great or Ultra Ball instead of a regular red Pokéball) or feed the Pokémon a regular or golden Razz berry. Keep in mind that if you feed a berry at a Pokémon and it breaks out of your ball, you will need to feed it again because the effect of the berry will have gone away.

The second thing to observe is how the Pokémon moves (or doesn’t). If the Pokémon is jumping around or has a movement sequence, study it and time your throw accordingly. Doing this will help you make more consistent throws. Once you do this, try your best to throw the ball when the colored inner circle is small. The smaller it gets, the better the ranking of the throw. For example, hitting a larger colored circle will grant you a Nice throw, then onto Great and Excellent as it gets smaller. When hitting these throws, you have a higher chance of retaining the Pokémon in your ball, rather than it breaking through. Plus, if you happen to catch the Pokémon with a Nice, Great, or Excellent throw, you will be rewarded with additional XP with respect to the level of the throw.

Another way to help ensure better throws is to use the curveball method. To do this, the trainer will spin the Pokéball and then throw it on a curve to catch the Pokémon. This definitely takes practice, but once you get it down, it is a sure way to get extra XP and help retain more Pokémon.