To be the very best or to catch ’em all? My real-world experience with ‘Pokémon Go’

Last night I downloaded Pokémon Go for my Galaxy S5. It’s not technically available in the U.S. right now, but I figured out a way to make it work. It was about 2 a.m., and I couldn’t do much with the game other than set up my character’s appearance and choose Squirtle as my starter because I didn’t want to walk around alone late at night. But I woke up early Wednesday to go catch some Pokémon (OK, so early is like 9:30 to me, but still).

Creating your character

First, let’s start with that character creation I was working on last night. It’s kinda bland, to be honest. There are only about three or four options to choose from in each category of clothing (shirt, shoes, pants, hat, backpack), and not many more options when choosing eye, hair and skin color.

Naming your character limits you to just numbers and letters, and with each name having to be unique, I suspect players are going to be testing quite a few names before they get one that hasn’t been taken (I’m not surprised that someone already had my last name, but even “George93” was taken by the time I made my character, and the game’s not even out in America yet).

I’m not big on character creation in games, so I was able to put something together I’m happy with. I just worry that when more people start playing this game, everyone’s characters are going to look very similar.

Landmarks and items

So let’s get into the good stuff. This morning I set out to the nearest location listed on the game’s real-world map. These ‘Pokéstops’ are based on real-world landmarks and require you to be physically near them to unlock them. Once you’re within distance and tap the landmark, a circular image of the location shows up on a coin-like object. Spinning the picture nets you items like Pokéballs and eggs but puts the landmark on a ~5 minute cooldown until it can be tapped again.

Most of these locations gave me three Pokéballs, with some giving around nine, and just a few tossed eggs my way alongside a few Pokéballs.

Eggs end up hatching Pokémon but require incubation in order to do so. Incubation uses a pedometer to count how far you’ve walked, with each of the eggs I collected requiring between 1.25 to 3 miles to hatch. The game also only gives you one incubator to start off with, but you can purchase more in the in-game shop.

The game also starts you off with 50 Pokéballs, but by the time my Pokéhunting was forced to end due to rain (less than an hour and a half), I had amassed 231. This seems like a lot of Pokéballs, but I’m sure they’ll get used pretty quickly.

Everything you know about catching Pokémon is a lie

Catching Pokémon isn’t actually about battling them in Pokémon Go; it’s just about using Pokéballs. In the games, you do that by using your current Pokémon to lower the wild Pokémon’s health, then using a ball to capture it. But in Pokémon Go you just swipe your finger forward on the screen in order to throw the Pokéball. This flicking motion is difficult to master, and I often ended up using around 10 Pokéballs trying to catch some pretty basic Pokémon since I kept over or under throwing the balls, or just completely throwing them to the side of the Pokémon.

It will be interesting to see how this plays in the long-term, as I can imagine it getting boring pretty quickly. At the same time, seeing Pokémon in the places you walk by everyday is pretty cool, but it makes the objective of the game feel like it’s purely “catch ’em all” instead of “be the very best.”

So what kind of Pokémon can you expect to catch? Well it depends where you live. People close to an ocean or large body of water will come across a lot of water-type Pokémon, for example. This geography based gameplay encourages play when traveling, as you might come across Pokémon you would never find at home. Being in the southern Midwest, I was finding a lot of bug, flying and grass-type Pokémon, but a Goldeen surprised me as well.

Evolution

Catching Pokémon also yields candy specific to that Pokémon, as well as stardust, which is shared among all Pokémon. Using stardust and one candy on a Pokémon levels it up, increasing its health and combat points. Evolution doesn’t require any stardust, but it does require a large number of candies.

I found a lot of Pidgeys and Eevees in my Midwestern town, so I decided to use all of my (1600) stardust on an Eevee, bringing its combat points to 110 and increasing its HP to 31. I then used 12 of my Pidgey Candies to evolve a Pidgey to a Pidgeotto, bringing its combat points from 43 to 81 and increasing its HP. Pidgey’s moves ‘Quick Attack’ and ‘Air Cutter’ also got automatically switched out for ‘Wing Attack’ and ‘Twister.’ To evolve again to a Pidgeot requires 50 more Pidgey Candies. I’m sure I’ll get there eventually.

Gyms

Yes, they’re here! But, like collecting Pokémon, they’re completely different than the gyms you know from other Pokémon games you’ve played.

Gyms are placed at landmarks throughout the world just like Pokéstops. Upon stopping at your first gym, you’re forced to choose which of three teams you want to join: blue, red or yellow. Once you’ve joined a team, you can claim a gym for that team by leaving one of your Pokémon at the gym for others to fight.

Since I was the only one around playing, I could only find unclaimed gyms, so I didn’t have the opportunity to see how attacking a rival gym works, but in theory players can team up in order to take down other team’s gyms by attacking and decreasing the gym’s prestige to zero. Players can also, apparently, train their own Pokémon at friendly gyms in order to increase the prestige and level of the gym.

Time will tell how well this feature of the game will pan out, but grouping up with friends to go take down a rival gym sounds like exactly the kind of fun I want to have with this game.

How’s it run?

I’m playing on a slightly outdated Samsung Galaxy S5, but the game still runs pretty smoothly. Opening the app up is the worst part, as it takes about 20 seconds to load, and for a game I’d like to quickly pop into every once in a while, this might become an issue. Once in, however, the interface is very smooth most of the time. I had to shut down the program and restart once or twice while playing, and I sometimes had problems with landmarks not loading correctly, but these are minor issues that will hopefully be taken care of by the time the game officially releases in the U.S.

Something I don’t expect Niantic to be able to fix is battery life. By the time I was done with my hour and a half walk, my Galaxy’s battery was about half drained. If you’re trying to go all day without a charger, Pokémon Go might not be for you.

Items and in app-purchases

Pokémon Go is a free mobile game, and as is tradition, it has in-app purchases. Using coins, which you can only get in exchange for real-life money, you can buy Pokéballs, incense to attract Pokémon to you, lucky eggs that earn double experience for 30 minutes, a lure module to attract Pokémon to a Pokéstop (landmark), a three-use egg incubator (the one you get at the start has unlimited uses, but you can only incubate one egg at a time), a bag upgrade to increase the number of items you can carry by 50 (you start at a maximum of 350) and a Pokémon storage upgrade to increase the number of Pokémon you can carry by 50 (you start with 250 slots).

Coins themselves vary in cost, with more expensive packages giving more coins per dollar. The packages range from 100 coins for $.99 to 14,500 coins for $99.99. A 20 pack of Pokéballs, for reference, costs 100 coins.

Tapping on Pokéstops is another way to get items, but I’ve only been given eggs and Pokéballs so far. I have gotten some other items, including some you can’t buy with coins (potions and revives), while leveling up, however.

I’ve had a lot of fun with Pokémon Go for the few hours I’ve used it. There are features from other games I miss (come on, let us battle more!), but seeing Pokémon and gyms throughout the world makes for a fun experience. I’m betting the multiplayer aspect of the game will break up any monotony and help the game be enjoyable for a long time to come.

For now, Nintendo seems to have shut down the servers for the game, so I likely won’t be hopping back on until the game’s official release. I can’t wait.