Weekend Free-for-All!

[inkstone]

Welcome to the inaugural weekend free-for-all here at pokestop!


How was your week in PokeGo?

Did you level up? Did you finally get the eeveelution of your dreams? Did you catch snorlax? Let's celebrate!

Did you lose tauros? Did they remove the only PokeStop in your town? Did your 2km egg hatch a rattata with middling CP? Let's commiserate!

Your triumphs, your trials, your frustrations, and your excitement--it all goes here.


Mod note: Like many people who use Gmail as their provider, my comment notifications have been delayed. In fact, I'm not sure I've received any since yesterday. I am still getting inbox notifications here on DW, but obviously I'm not on DW all the time. So if there's a pressing issue that needs to be addressed immediately, hit up my Tumblr askbox. It's open to anons, so you don't need a Tumblr account. I imagine it might take a while before Gmail decides DW isn't a source of spam and clears us again. If it's not so urgent, a regular PM is fine since I check DW regularly.

Comments

[cyphomandra]

I opened two 10K eggs about a week ago and got a Lapras and a Scyther (yay!) but haven't managed to get any more 10K ones since then, and my 2/5K ones have been unexciting (my first ever 5K egg gave me Porygon, tho', so I can't complain). I have walked 65.3K since start date

My mission for this week is to fight some more gym battles. Currently i have fought about six times, trained once, won once, and have no idea what I'm doing at all times! Tips welcome as all I know is that I tap frantically at the screen and every so often hold something for longer.

[inkstone]

So, ironically, it is easier to fight rival gyms and take them over than it is to train at friendly gyms and level them up. But here are a couple tips that might help.

- Learn how to dodge. It's really helpful and becomes really useful once you start fighting the higher level pokemon.

- There's a trick to the dodging. It make take some practice before you get the timing down but once you get it, battling will become much easier. Basically, watch the screen carefully. When the screen flashes and you see the anime action lines, that means the defender is going to attack. Swipe left or right to dodge. Again, you have to play with the timing. I usually have to swipe 2 to successfully dodge because my reaction time is just a little too fast. When you see the "Dodged!" message appear on screen, then tap the screen 2-3 times. At that point, the defender will attack again. Lather, rinse, repeat.

- Stick with the basic attack. Using the special attack (long hold) leaves you vulnerable for a few seconds. Only when your pokemon is about to die, then unleash the special attack.

- Learning weaknesses of defending pokemon is really useful! If your brain can handle the information, then there are charts you can reference. My brain cannot handle that information so I think of it terms of elemental incompatibilities. Water attacks are strong against fire. Electric attacks are strong against water. Electric attacks do nothing against ground. And so on.

- Knowing those weaknesses is really handy because you'll discover that you'll be able to defeat pokemon several hundred CP stronger than yours because their attacks are ineffective.

It takes practice but it'll be okay! Everyone flails at gym battles when they start out. (And if they don't, I don't want to hear it LOL.)

[cyphomandra]

This is very helpful - thank you!! I should be better at elemental weaknesses after making my way through several Final Fantasies, but something about the gym setting seems to make my brain freeze. Anyway. Onwards!

[troisroyaumes]

Ooh this is amazingly helpful, thanks!

[kaberett]

Ooh, thank you for the links - I had no idea about dodging!

[monanotlisa]

Yeah, I haven't had 10k eggs in a while.

Do we know what the system for pokéstops giving 10k is?

[inkstone]

They say it's random but I'm not sure how true that is. If there are weighted factors or some such. I got A LOT of 10km eggs in the beginning but then I went through a stretch where I got nothing but 5km.

[monanotlisa]

Same here -- for several levels all I got was 2km or 5km.

[cyphomandra]

Googling suggests lots of theories (the stop? the user? random?) but nothing definitive. Like much else about this game!