http://pokemongolive.com/en/post/valentines2017
Enough said.
Go get them, go walk. Have fun.
Wednesday, February 08, 2017
On spoofers
The bad news
Is there a way to stop gps spoofers, ie players who fake their gps-coordinates in order to foll the game into believeing they are somewhere else than where they really are?
Probably not.
To begin with, if you're looking at a tracking map and find something interesting you pop into your clothes (if you're indoors) leave, find a transport and arrive, hopefully in time to make an attempt at a catch.
The spoofer teleports.
The result is that even using maps you're still left with lower quality material compared to a spoofer.
They teleport between gyms as well.
Ever added prestige to a gym in the middle of nowhere, not a soul in sight, and poof, the slot you opened up is suddenly occupied? That's a spoofer.
Ever tried adding prestige to a gym in the middle of, etc, etc, etc, just to notice the gym is losing prestige faster than you can add it? That's a spoofer.
Ever tried tearing down... , and notice it's going down slightly slower than it should? That's a brainddead spoofer. You don't defend a gym solo and expect to win, not even if you're spoofing.
Ever seen a gym magically grow like a mushroom and noone is there? That's a spoofer with twelve accounts. One for the prestige mon, one for kicking it out, and ten for populating the gym.
And they teleport.
The good news
If you're still a decently sized group of players doing gyms together several times a week you'll be able to push a gym to ten and populate it within ten minutes.
Spoofers usually play solo.
Spoofers have to visit pokestops.
Spoofers have to collect stardust, or their material falls behind.
It's horribly expensive in terms of potions and revives to tear down three or more level ten gyms alone. Not to speak of a minimum of two hours down the drain, even with teleport.
You can deplete their potions and revives by doggedly pushing those gyms back to 10 at a fraction of that cost.
The really good news
In the end the spoofer will find somewhere else to go, or they'll fully atomate refilling their bags, ie go botting.
Niantic are mass-banning bots.
The best news
Is really a tips, or at least a suggestion. If you run into a group tearing down a friendly gym filled with spoofers of your own colour. Why don't you give them a hand? They're probably sick and tired of spoofers just like you. You might get some help in return.
Is there a way to stop gps spoofers, ie players who fake their gps-coordinates in order to foll the game into believeing they are somewhere else than where they really are?
Probably not.
To begin with, if you're looking at a tracking map and find something interesting you pop into your clothes (if you're indoors) leave, find a transport and arrive, hopefully in time to make an attempt at a catch.
The spoofer teleports.
The result is that even using maps you're still left with lower quality material compared to a spoofer.
They teleport between gyms as well.
Ever added prestige to a gym in the middle of nowhere, not a soul in sight, and poof, the slot you opened up is suddenly occupied? That's a spoofer.
Ever tried adding prestige to a gym in the middle of, etc, etc, etc, just to notice the gym is losing prestige faster than you can add it? That's a spoofer.
Ever tried tearing down... , and notice it's going down slightly slower than it should? That's a brainddead spoofer. You don't defend a gym solo and expect to win, not even if you're spoofing.
Ever seen a gym magically grow like a mushroom and noone is there? That's a spoofer with twelve accounts. One for the prestige mon, one for kicking it out, and ten for populating the gym.
And they teleport.
The good news
If you're still a decently sized group of players doing gyms together several times a week you'll be able to push a gym to ten and populate it within ten minutes.
Spoofers usually play solo.
Spoofers have to visit pokestops.
Spoofers have to collect stardust, or their material falls behind.
It's horribly expensive in terms of potions and revives to tear down three or more level ten gyms alone. Not to speak of a minimum of two hours down the drain, even with teleport.
You can deplete their potions and revives by doggedly pushing those gyms back to 10 at a fraction of that cost.
The really good news
In the end the spoofer will find somewhere else to go, or they'll fully atomate refilling their bags, ie go botting.
Niantic are mass-banning bots.
The best news
Is really a tips, or at least a suggestion. If you run into a group tearing down a friendly gym filled with spoofers of your own colour. Why don't you give them a hand? They're probably sick and tired of spoofers just like you. You might get some help in return.
Monday, February 06, 2017
On bubble strat
I've received a number of questions concerning bubble strat.
To begin with, what is bubble strat? It is a method to quickly add prestige to a friendly gym without spending any potions or revives. In an ideal world you should be able to push an empty gym all the way to 50K prestige alone in about twenty minutes.
In a not so ideal world you won't manage to flee from the next battle in time to avoid having your attacker swatted like a fly.
The setup
The link at the top of this post shows a number of attacker-defender pairs. Not all of the 'verified 1000 prestige without taking any damage' work. A hundred revives and twice as many potions can testify to that.
You'll have to find and test what works for you, on your phone and with what you have managed to catch.
Personally I run with abra and krabby as defenders. A Haunter (for the abra) and a gastly for my krabbys make up my attacking team. My abra makes my haunter go splat about one fight out of five. The gastly/krabby combo is 100% barring network lag.
You'll need to check the IV for the small critters you catch. But a simple ruleset is as follows:
Defender
To begin with, what is bubble strat? It is a method to quickly add prestige to a friendly gym without spending any potions or revives. In an ideal world you should be able to push an empty gym all the way to 50K prestige alone in about twenty minutes.
In a not so ideal world you won't manage to flee from the next battle in time to avoid having your attacker swatted like a fly.
The setup
The link at the top of this post shows a number of attacker-defender pairs. Not all of the 'verified 1000 prestige without taking any damage' work. A hundred revives and twice as many potions can testify to that.
You'll have to find and test what works for you, on your phone and with what you have managed to catch.
Personally I run with abra and krabby as defenders. A Haunter (for the abra) and a gastly for my krabbys make up my attacking team. My abra makes my haunter go splat about one fight out of five. The gastly/krabby combo is 100% barring network lag.
You'll need to check the IV for the small critters you catch. But a simple ruleset is as follows:
Defender
- Poor overall stats, quickly available in-game via the appraise functionality
- The best stat should be attack
- 10 hp
- A primary attack that is slow. Almost always corresponds to high damage output
Attacker
- Lower cp than the defender. If possible half or lower
- As high attack stat as possible without pushing the cp too much
You need one attacker, but you can make good use of multiple defenders
Companions
- Six cp 10 pokemon (five is enough)
How to use bubble strat
The basic usage is to push a gym to either level seven (20K prestige) or level 10 (50K prestige). If you're a group of players together you can stop adding prestige when it's enough to drop pokemon inside to reach your target. Each added pokemon also adds 2000 prestige to the gym.
Drop a bubble defender into the gym. Chose your attacker and fill the remaining five slots with companions to make certain your attacker has the highest cp of your lineup.
The bubble defender (or defenders) will stay at the bottom when you're done. Having it kicked out one way or another is preferable.
The legit way is to drag around a friend from a rival team. The not so legit way is to have a low level extra account from a rival team.
After the defender is kicked out you prestige back a level and add a proper pokemon. Rinse and repeat until no bubble defenders are left.
A neat trick when you encounter a gym at almost 20, 30 or 40K prestige alone is to push it to the next level, and then you do not drop your preferred pokemon inside, but you add a bubble defender.
Eight short battles later the gym should reach next level again. Wait for someone to snipe the free spot and have your bubble defender kicked out. Add a little prestige and drop your prefered pokemon inside a substantially stronger gym. Works best at high traffic gym.
For gyms I don't care all that much about I'll sometimes push it to 50K and just leave my krabby inside in the hopes that the gym will fill upp. With some luck I might even be able to collect coins for my crabby.
For gyms I care about and that are very close to my home I do the same thing. The difference being that I check the gym from time to time to see if my krabby has been kicked out. Usually means the gym was either torn down or stands at level nine or ten. Time for some old fashioned prestige.
Please do rename your bubble attackers and defenders. If you name then 00something (zero zero something), they'll be at the top when you display your pokemon using the name-sorting. Picking out your attacking team takes ten to fifteen seconds rather than over a minute.
Raid
Using bubble strat or similar approaches enables a group to build a gym to level ten within minutes. Our record is two minutes, fifteen seconds, including half of the team having problems with their phones. This was done using a bubble-lookalike method where your attackers still take a lot of damage.
The method used here is immediately dropping two or three prestige pokemons inside when the gym is won. Each player will add 2 or 3K prestige to the gym before composing a new attacking team.
A full raid encountering no problems should be able to do this in one minute flat given (almost) identical defenders.
The main reason players have trouble with their phones is that slots get sniped while you add prestige to the gym, and this sometimes locks your phone in the dreaded "error" mode, which disables you from taking part in combat until one more pokemon has been added to the gym.
Sunday, February 05, 2017
Big gyms, from the bottom
I realised something so obvious it was hard finding it out.
High level gyms are defined by their bottom most defenders.
Of course it's best to have good defenders all through the gym, but when that can't be achieved it's best to have the highest quality defenders at the bottom of the gym. This is especially true for gyms at 25K prestige or above.
The reason is that if the pokemon at the bottom is very easy to beat, then an attacking player could simply flee after beating it for faster prestige decrease until that pokemon is kicked out.
For example a level 10 gym with four weak pokemon at the bottom is extremely easy to kick down to under 20K prestige.
Conversely the same gym with four top class defenders at the bottom would force the attacker to go through the number nine to seven defenders more than once.
This makes lapras an extremely valuable defender due to its comparatively low max cp in combination with being a grade A defender. The same goes for exxeggutor.
High level gyms are defined by their bottom most defenders.
Of course it's best to have good defenders all through the gym, but when that can't be achieved it's best to have the highest quality defenders at the bottom of the gym. This is especially true for gyms at 25K prestige or above.
The reason is that if the pokemon at the bottom is very easy to beat, then an attacking player could simply flee after beating it for faster prestige decrease until that pokemon is kicked out.
For example a level 10 gym with four weak pokemon at the bottom is extremely easy to kick down to under 20K prestige.
Conversely the same gym with four top class defenders at the bottom would force the attacker to go through the number nine to seven defenders more than once.
This makes lapras an extremely valuable defender due to its comparatively low max cp in combination with being a grade A defender. The same goes for exxeggutor.
Saturday, February 04, 2017
Renaming your pokemon
There are a number of reasons and ways to rename your pokemon. I'll quickly go through the ones I've seen most and the one I use myself.
- IV
- Stats
- Attacks
- Gym
- Role
IV
The potential of the pokemon. Usually as a percentage. Especially useful when you have two or more pokemon of the same kind with approximately the same cp as well.
Stats
Attack, defence and stamina. Three numbers between 0 and 15 each. Indirectly holds the IV information.
Attacks
What attack moves the pokemon has. Indirectly holds the role information.
Gym
Which gym the pokemon currently is assigned to. You'll have to come up with abbreviations you can remember. Gives you instant info on which gym was succesfully attacked when you find one of your pokemon needing a revive.
Role
Attacker, defender or multipurpose. Basically defined by the charge attack move. A one-bar move usually means it's an attacker, and three or more bars means it's a defender. Two bar moves usually work well for both purposes.
For primary attacks the general rule is that fast attacks with low damage is best for an attacker, while slow attacks with higher damage is for defence.
Using smart abbreviations allows you to combine information types.
Friday, February 03, 2017
Keep your route in order
This post is aimed at those who do not use the plus, but are entirely dependent on the phone. If you're using the plus you're basically able to fire away at every target within sight as long as you take your pokestops with your phone.
Most of us have habitual routes we walk (or cycle, or whatever) when we catch pokemon and take pokestops.
Those routes may vary depending on wether we primarily catch pokemon or primarily refill our bags.
In the latter case, learn to keep your route in order. I personally use trams for refilling bags.
Even when you're only after replenishing your bag, there are places where pokestop-density becomes lower in terms of time needed. Ie there's a 30 second or longer period between two pokestops you want to take. This is a perfect opportunity to squeeze in an extra attemot at catching a pokemon.
Don't be afraid to run away from the catch if the pokemon doesn't stick.
It doesn't add a lot, but a twenty minute tram ride gives me maybe an extra dozen pokemon caught where I earlier didn't try to catch one at all. In the long run it sums up.
If you're moving in traffic, red lights are added opportunities to cram in an extra throw or two.
Most of us have habitual routes we walk (or cycle, or whatever) when we catch pokemon and take pokestops.
Those routes may vary depending on wether we primarily catch pokemon or primarily refill our bags.
In the latter case, learn to keep your route in order. I personally use trams for refilling bags.
Even when you're only after replenishing your bag, there are places where pokestop-density becomes lower in terms of time needed. Ie there's a 30 second or longer period between two pokestops you want to take. This is a perfect opportunity to squeeze in an extra attemot at catching a pokemon.
Don't be afraid to run away from the catch if the pokemon doesn't stick.
It doesn't add a lot, but a twenty minute tram ride gives me maybe an extra dozen pokemon caught where I earlier didn't try to catch one at all. In the long run it sums up.
If you're moving in traffic, red lights are added opportunities to cram in an extra throw or two.
Wednesday, February 01, 2017
Winter gear
For those of us who are actually walking around playing Pokemon Go the word 'gear' doesn't imply in-game items.
High quality walking shoes make your feet happy, and a touchpad pen is friendly to frozen hands. They are preferable to touchgloves since those really don't handle winter temperatures all that well.
Layered clothing is a classic among people who are used to being outdoors, and I wouldn't cheat on the knickers. They make a distinct difference.
A thermos with something warm is always nice, and for the hardcore walker energy bars come in handy. Sure, those could be substituted by any kind of food that's fairly apetizing even when cold, and can be held in your hands.
A hat, or a hood. I kid you not. Frozen ears can destroy an otherwise perfectly decent walk. And, if you're carrying a backpack, drop a light weight rainjacket inside. Oh, a foldable, foam seat cushion costs just about nothing, weighs nothing and fits inside the smallest of backpacks.
Down for sub zero, synthetics or wool for above. Down just can't handle getting wet.
For the extremely hardcore walker there are guides out there. OK, that was rather extreme. We're playing Pokemon Go after all.
Don't cheat on the USB-cable for your powerbank. There are cables, and there are cables. If your phone drops battery-capacity despite being plugged in, chances are the cable is at fault.
High quality walking shoes make your feet happy, and a touchpad pen is friendly to frozen hands. They are preferable to touchgloves since those really don't handle winter temperatures all that well.
Layered clothing is a classic among people who are used to being outdoors, and I wouldn't cheat on the knickers. They make a distinct difference.
A thermos with something warm is always nice, and for the hardcore walker energy bars come in handy. Sure, those could be substituted by any kind of food that's fairly apetizing even when cold, and can be held in your hands.
A hat, or a hood. I kid you not. Frozen ears can destroy an otherwise perfectly decent walk. And, if you're carrying a backpack, drop a light weight rainjacket inside. Oh, a foldable, foam seat cushion costs just about nothing, weighs nothing and fits inside the smallest of backpacks.
Down for sub zero, synthetics or wool for above. Down just can't handle getting wet.
For the extremely hardcore walker there are guides out there. OK, that was rather extreme. We're playing Pokemon Go after all.
Don't cheat on the USB-cable for your powerbank. There are cables, and there are cables. If your phone drops battery-capacity despite being plugged in, chances are the cable is at fault.
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