Some thoughts concerning xp

I've received a few questions concerning levels and xp. As in how I made the amount I have, and why I play the way I do.

Now I'm definitely the wrong person to ask about really high level. There's a level 40 hanging out at our usual place, and I've gathered just about a third of the xp he's amassed.

That said, I've also heard that it's impossibe to reach high level, or at least to progress at high level (even at my current level), without spending a lot of money on the game.

I disagree.

Now, I do shop a pack of 1200 coins every month. Of those 680 goes to an eightpack lure modules as I prefer to contribute at least some of the lures we use. As for the rest I slowly maxed out bag space and pokemon slots, and by now I shop myself three incubators for the remainder. So that's an extra nine pokemons hatched monthly, which does indeed increase my cp, but not exactly by a vast amount.

If I had known in July what I know today, I would have bought 2500 coins more or less immediately and spent it all on 600 extra bag space. It's just that important. That part is definitely pay to win. And it costs you once only.

Now to the question how I made a lot of xp.

The answer is I don't.

I deliberately earn as little xp as possible. By level 35 the game hands you lucky egg number ten. Five of those take up bag space as a personal gimmick. So I've used a grand total of five lucky eggs since I started playing.

Now, why on earth would anyone take such a backwards stance towards gaining levels?



Why I'm a rabid xp-hater

Look at your pokemon line-up. Somewhere around level 25 you should have your first set of useful pokemon for gym battles. Maybe half a dozen pokemon all in all. And then it would feel nice to add at least one pokemon per level to that line-up.

And that's fine.

To reach level 26 you need 190000 xp.

Even with my playstyle I gain a little more than 1 stardust per 2 xp. So during level 25 I would collect around 100000 stardust.

Now let us assume I did indeed have half a dozen maxed out pokemon at trainer level 24. At two power-ups per pokemon and trainer level that's twelve power-ups. At trainer level 25 a pokemon can reach pokemon level 26.5.

Let's have a look at https://rankedboost.com/pokemon-go/stardust/

At 4000 stardust per power-up that's 48000 stardust to keep my line-up maxed out.

Now say I hatched something really nice at level 25. It enters my collection at pokemon level 20, which means it needs 13 power-ups to reach max level. That translates into aproximately another 45000 stardust for that single pokemon.

So I have 7000 stardust left over for the next level.



How it's usually done

A more sane player would spend at least one lucky egg per level. At 80 coins per egg in the shop that's perfectly doable by collecting the basic 10 coins from gyms daily. Add the total of six lucky eggs the game provided you with by level 25.

It's perfectly reasonable to assume that an average player should be able to power evolve enough pokemons during half an hour to gain 60000 xp. We're talking two evolves per minute.

Which means level 25 effectively lasted for 130000 xp rather than 190000 xp.



Why I stubbornly stick to being a rabid xp-hater

Subtracting 30000 stardust (60K xp from the egg, remember), leaves me at minus 23000 stardust for level 25.



So what, we're playing at high level

So maybe level 25 was a bad example. Let's look at the 750000 xp it takes to reach trainer level 33.

The way I play the game I'll hopefully collect 400000 stardust at level 32.

Looking at the earlier example I should have 13 maxed out pokemon starting at level 32, and I just got myself a juicy 98% ryhorn in an egg.

Each pokemon costs 13000 stardust to max out, so that's 143000 stardust. And then we had the new buddy. https://buimichael.github.io/pokemongo-Stardust-Calculator/ suggests that one alone eats another 116000 stardust.

So a total of 259000 stardust. Sweet. That leaves me with around 140000 stardust to save for later, right?

Wrong.

The assumption that I'll get one juicy pokemon per level breaks down when you compared 190000 xp for level-up to 750000 xp for level-up.

The assumption that you have 140000 stardust extra comes crashing down like a ton of bricks when you realise that the super sweet 100% new addition you just caught in the wild was level 18, just below anything you hatch.

Because that means another 120000 stardust consumed.

Still doable for me.

For the sane player?

I'll make the assumtion that a sane player evolves a little more than 400 pokemon during level 32, even with only one lucky egg. Let's round it off to 250000 xp gained from evolving pokemon.

Why 400? Well 1000 pokemon caught translates into around 200000 xp. It's safe to assume that anyone would catch at least 2500 pokemon during level 32. At eight pokemon caught for every pokemon evolved we're looking at an average of 32 candy per pokemon evolved. Seems doable, given that a fair number of them will be pidgeys, weedles and caterpies.

Anyway, we're chopping away some 120000 stardust gained by the sane player.

And suddenly maxing out that extra pokemon wasn't doable after all. At level 32. One. Single. Pokemon.

So you, the sane player, is stuck with maxing out one new pokemon per level. That leaves you with 16 maxed out pokemon in your lineup when you try to hit level 36 as I'm doing right now.

I have 21. When I hit level 37 another two or three months down the line I'll have 30 (yeah, I know, I'm insane in more ways than one).



Back to the original question

Fine, level 35 isn't especially grand or anything, but how did I get there?

I walk.

A lot.

Even before Pokemon Go existed I tried getting at least 10 kilometres into my legs per day. It's more now.

Obviously I walk other places now than then. Places where a lot more pokemon spawn.

An ordinary day I'll hatch three eggs (5 km), catch enough pokemons and spin enough pokestops to get around 40000 xp. Some days more, some less.

It's nothing exceptional. Maybe quarter of a million xp during a week. Or a million a month. The game has been around for little more than half a year.

I'm level 35.

Kind of makes sense since there were three week-long boosting events late October to mid November.



Last words

You really don't want to get into a pissing contest with me about who has the most candy lying around for a random pokemon.