[Megathread] Pokemon GO

[Cthulhu 2020]

Niantic really needs to tell us what stuff means..

What does the "XL" "xs" sizes mean?
What are the odds for catching pokemon?
(Balls, screwball, nice/great/excellent, color of the circle)
I mean, i've got it figured out after checking online, but all this should have been easily accesible in game.

XL - Extra Large
XS - Extra Small



Their weight/height calculator is a bit strange though...

[Seegtease]

Niantic really needs to tell us what stuff means..

What does the "XL" "xs" sizes mean?
What are the odds for catching pokemon?
(Balls, screwball, nice/great/excellent, color of the circle)
I mean, i've got it figured out after checking online, but all this should have been easily accesible in game.

Eh, do the numbers really matter? Great ball is better. Ultra ball is best. Razz berry helps next throw. They don't give numbers in other pokemon games, do they?

I decide based on how bad I want the Pokémon how difficult it is to catch, and how many of the items I have in my inventory.

Smaller pokemon have less HP and can dodge easier, I imagine, or attack faster.

With the lack of turn based combat and how fast and haphazard it can be, do the minor number differences matter that much? A couple well timed dodges will change the outcome more than anything.

[Lahis]

whats the point in having these IVs, if you have to use a 3rd party calc to know what they are? why not just either make IVs visible in game or just make CP the only stat?


its annoying me because i feel like i should check IVs of all my pokemon, but entering their stats on a calculator all the time is tiring, so far i havent really bothered with it, ive just been evolving my highest CP pokemon :\ im not really sure how much of an effect the IVs have, so not sure how much i am disadvantaging myself.

Welcome to Pokémon. And GO only has 3 IVs, real games have 6 and then there's natures and abilities mixing up teh bag even more.

[Cthulhu 2020]

Smaller pokemon have less HP and can dodge easier, I imagine, or attack faster.

I'm pretty sure they determined size has nothing to do with stats or combat ability. It's just one of those things niantic put in to make the creatures seem more "real", i.e. you can imagine kind what they look like.

[RoninaThorstone]

Welcome to Pokémon. And GO only has 3 IVs, real games have 6 and then there's natures and abilities mixing up teh bag even more.

And it better be shiny!

[Argarock]

My 2 cents on the whole "cheating" debate..

It's fine.
When the game is designed around walking around in real life, and playing the game requires the use of items you can only get at certain points irl, I completely understand that people living in the middle of bum-funk-nowhere will use a gps thingie to get balls..

Additionally, the game rewards camping at a lure way more than actively walking around, further incentivising using gps spoofs..

If the game was just designed better, (the tracker actually working + more pokemon spawning when walking around) less people would "cheat"

And, the biggest reason to not care about people cheating. It has literally no negative impact on me or my gameplay. So why the hell should I care?

[Cthulhu 2020]

Welcome to Pokémon. And GO only has 3 IVs, real games have 6 and then there's natures and abilities mixing up teh bag even more.

At least they have STAB in GO. Just sucks when you evolve a high CP, high IV pokemon and it gets sucktastic abilities. And actually in GO, pokemon can have 2 or 3 abilities for it's primary and secondary attacks, and many times one of the options will suck while the other is great.

For instance Dragonite has several abilities it can get, and while steel wing and hyper beam may look like the best, due to STAB and cooldown + need to fill the bar all the way to cast hyper beam, along with dragon breath having a much faster attack speed, the dragon type abilities are much better.

[Jester Joe]

My 2 cents on the whole "cheating" debate..

It's fine.
When the game is designed around walking around in real life, and playing the game requires the use of items you can only get at certain points irl, I completely understand that people living in the middle of bum-funk-nowhere will use a gps thingie to get balls..

Additionally, the game rewards camping at a lure way more than actively walking around, further incentivising using gps spoofs..

If the game was just designed better, (the tracker actually working + more pokemon spawning when walking around) less people would "cheat"

And, the biggest reason to not care about people cheating. It has literally no negative impact on me or my gameplay. So why the hell should I care?

Exactly. It's no different than those who live right next to the spots.

It's not as if spoofing suddenly creates points that only spoofers can farm.

[Deleted]

Welcome to Pokémon. And GO only has 3 IVs, real games have 6 and then there's natures and abilities mixing up teh bag even more.

i dont remember ever bothering with IVs in the originals either, i just used my highest lvl pokemon / the one i thought looked coolest :P

then again, last time i played a pokemon game i was about 12, refuse to buy any hand held consoles, so last i played was on gameboy colour

[Cthulhu 2020]

i dont remember ever bothering with IVs in the originals either, i just used my highest lvl pokemon / the one i thought looked coolest :P

then again, last time i played a pokemon game i was about 12, refuse to buy any hand held consoles, so last i played was on gameboy colour

A lot of people did a whole fuckton of math in figuring out whether or not a pokemon was "optimal", i.e. perfect. In the original games, a pokemon could actually be REALLY REALLY bad, so if you weren't paying attention to stats, one pidgey could have 2 strength while another would have 20 (made up values in my head, but they could vary that widely).

A lot of perfectionists not only wanted to catch all the pokemon, they wanted to get as many with absolutely perfect 100% stats as they could, 100% being the optimal values in every single attribute.

[Argarock]

XL - Extra Large
XS - Extra Small

....Thanks

[Deleted]

A lot of people did a whole fuckton of math in figuring out whether or not a pokemon was "optimal", i.e. perfect. In the original games, a pokemon could actually be REALLY REALLY bad, so if you weren't paying attention to stats, one pidgey could have 2 strength while another would have 20 (made up values in my head, but they could vary that widely).

A lot of perfectionists not only wanted to catch all the pokemon, they wanted to get as many with absolutely perfect 100% stats as they could, 100% being the optimal values in every single attribute.

i managed to complete / beat all the gyms in crystal (the only pokemon game ive played) without looking at any stats, i may have got lucky, i remember having my water starter pokemon fully evolved and basically just 1 shotting most the game with that thing, i cant remember what other pokemon i even used other than my starter one. think i had a pidgeeot on my team as wel

[Cthulhu 2020]

i managed to complete / beat all the gyms in crystal (the only pokemon game ive played) without looking at any stats, i may have got lucky, i remember having my water starter pokemon fully evolved and basically just 1 shotting most the game with that thing, i cant remember what other pokemon i even used other than my starter one. think i had a pidgeeot on my team as wel

You didn't need perfect or even great stats to beat the game. I remember playing through mine and my first run through of the final five in the gen 1 games was a little rough because I was only slightly above their levels. Then as I went back and releveled (since your game saves each time you beat the final 5 and you get a ton of xp for beating them) it got easier and easier. Just simply outleveling them makes beating the game possible.

This was for people who were either hobbyist completionists or serious battlers with other people.

[Argarock]

I'm pretty sure they determined size has nothing to do with stats or combat ability. It's just one of those things niantic put in to make the creatures seem more "real", i.e. you can imagine kind what they look like.

Thats the thing, people dont know. And thats what worries me.
What ive heard is that small pokemons are better for special attacks and that big pokemons are better at physical attacks.
And no matter what it is, how high are the differences, 5%? 10? 50%?

At 5% a 2000 cp pokemon is better than a 2100 cp.
So it doesnt matter that much, but at 10% and up it would make more of a difference.


But. To be fair, theres a bunch of other things in the game i find way more important than IVs and sizes,
Like getting the tracking back,
Trading pokemon,
Battling and generally interacting with other trainers
More interaction with gyms.
And the classical combat system implemented in some way

[Pendulous]

I haven't played in almost a week. It's way too goddamn hot outside for me to walk downtown, even at night, and there's really no point if it's going to take a hour's worth of ball farming to catch two pokemon. Also, ever since the patch, I get GPS errors literally every minute. I think I'll just stop altogether until a ton of things get fixed.

[Lahis]

At least they have STAB in GO. Just sucks when you evolve a high CP, high IV pokemon and it gets sucktastic abilities. And actually in GO, pokemon can have 2 or 3 abilities for it's primary and secondary attacks, and many times one of the options will suck while the other is great.

For instance Dragonite has several abilities it can get, and while steel wing and hyper beam may look like the best, due to STAB and cooldown + need to fill the bar all the way to cast hyper beam, along with dragon breath having a much faster attack speed, the dragon type abilities are much better.

You're confusing Abilities with Moves.

[GoKs]

My only gripe with the original games are, that you cannot catch'em all.... It sucks!!
Back to PoGo, I dont seem to have the problem with pokemon running away or be harder to catch, the most balls I used on a mon was 4 and it stuck, usually when they run it is after the first or sometimes second ball. I think it is maybe because my trainer level is still very low (only 11 now).

[GreenJesus]

You didn't need perfect or even great stats to beat the game. I remember playing through mine and my first run through of the final five in the gen 1 games was a little rough because I was only slightly above their levels. Then as I went back and releveled (since your game saves each time you beat the final 5 and you get a ton of xp for beating them) it got easier and easier. Just simply outleveling them makes beating the game possible.

This was for people who were either hobbyist completionists or serious battlers with other people.

Yeh I beat the pokemon league in Pokemon ruby in 5 and a half hours. My Pokemon were all like level 40-48.

- - - Updated - - -

My only gripe with the original games are, that you cannot catch'em all.... It sucks!!
Back to PoGo, I dont seem to have the problem with pokemon running away or be harder to catch, the most balls I used on a mon was 4 and it stuck, usually when they run it is after the first or sometimes second ball. I think it is maybe because my trainer level is still very low (only 11 now).

Actually.. as your trainer level increases the pokemon get harder to catch.

[AeneasBK]

Can someone explain to a noob what the difference beteen CP and IVs is?

I've reached level 24, and just attained my "Find 100 pokemon" medal; still enjoying walking + hatching eggs with my GF but the actual "catching" part has become something of a chore. I find I'm avoiding a lot of potential catches just to save my balls for something more interesting...

[Deleted]

Can someone explain to a noob what the difference beteen CP and IVs is?

I've reached level 24, and just attained my "Find 100 pokemon" medal; still enjoying walking + hatching eggs with my GF but the actual "catching" part has become something of a chore. I find I'm avoiding a lot of potential catches just to save my balls for something more interesting...

im a noob too, so this is just what i understand, i could be wrong though; IVs are hidden and you need to use a calculator to figure them out, there are 2(3?) hidden stats on every pokemon that go to a max of 15, IVs dont change when evolving so your highest CP pokemon may not always be the best one. like you could have to pidgeys, pidgey A and B, A has 70 CP and B has 50, but B has better IVs, so its best to upgrade and evolve him.

thats what i understand of it anyway, but as i said in a previous post ive not bothered with this IV stuff, unless you really care about min/maxing your pokemon to their best, its just hassle looking them up in the calculator all the time