So, you've downloaded "Pokémon GO" to your phone and you're ready to go on a Pokémon adventure. Welcome! You want to be the very best, like no one ever was. That's fantastic.
Unfortunately, you need enough experience points to reach level five before you can start going to gyms, those awesome-looking points on the map where Pokémon belonging to other players tower over everything else and taunt you.
So, how do you get to level five?
Take a walk around town
YouTube/The Official Pokémon Channel/Niantic
This is what gyms look like in the game world.
The quickest way to level up is to play the game as intended, by walking around wherever you live with the app open. Here's what you can do:
- Tap on every PokéStop you can. When they're blue, they have items in them, and you get a little bit of experience, which helps out a ton in the early goings.
- As you walk around, you may feel your phone vibrate. That means a Pokémon is near! Tap it, swipe to throw a Poké Ball at it, and it's yours. You'll get a lot of experience for doing this, so do it as often as possible.
- If you feel like spending money, you can use it to buy Lucky Eggs from the in-game store. A Lucky Egg will double the amount of experience you get for 30 minutes, so if you have one, use it before you start doing all of the above.
If you're stuck at work/school/etc.
YouTube/The Official Pokémon Channel/Niantic Some of us have full time jobs and can't walk around and catch Psyducks all day like this guy.
Unfortunately, plenty of people can't just walk around staring at their phones all day. You're probably sitting in an office or classroom reading this right now. So, what can you do to level up in that situation?
- You start with some incense in your item bag. Use it, and wild Pokémon will come to you for 30 minutes. Each one you catch will get you a lot of experience points, so this is extremely useful.
- If you keep seeing the same Pokémon, go ahead and capture them! You can transfer duplicates to Professor Willow through the Pokémon menu in the game to get some candy, which will eventually let you evolve the original one you want to keep.
If you were to spend an hour or two walking around town and doing these things, you'd get to level 5 in no time. I gained two levels on my walk to work this morning. If that's not an option, just use some incense and capture Pokémon from the comfort of your office.
It can be done, folks. You just have to believe in yourself.