Pokemon Go #12: "It's in the trees! It's coming!" The Houndooms of love are calling me (to join in a raid).

[DoctorTwo]

Shiny new thread starts here.

I don't think I have ever seen an empty gym!

Thank you all for the warm welcome!

Yeah I thought the empty gym might just have been what happened to me a few times back in the early days, when my phone died a death after all the effort of beating the gym and I hadn't yet bought a portable charger! But did think it was strange walking home that I saw several, that's never happened before. They're all back to normal now as far as I can see.

My exciting Pokemon news today is that I hatched a Mareep with enough candy to evolve so am now the proud owner of a Flaafy, and I stumbled upon my first Snubbul too. Having recently moved house from rural to city I'm very much enjoying the increased opportunity to see more than the odd pidgey and caterpie, which is helping get back in the game!

The only time I've seen so many before is when Niantic did a massive ban wave and any gyms with spoofers in were automatically emptied

And welcome Orecchietti! :)

There is a guy in our group who goes round taking gyms and not putting anything in, leaving them neutral. He just doesn't want the coins as he spends so much on the game that they're irrelevant.

From talking in our raid group, one of the guys was near a gym that went white and says it wasn't being battled, and nobody in those gyms got the X needs a berry notification. Surrounding areas are reporting similar too. So we think it must be Niantic and wondering if it's related to ex raids. Perhaps they're updating the gyms and it wiped them - though it's probably wishful thinking and it's actually just a ban wave!

I've left a couple white if i've taken them down while on a bus then moved out of range.

Finally made it up to Level 34 a couple of days ago. Just did the calculator again that we all did months ago. Back then it was saying I'd reach level 40 in May 2019, but I've obviously been slacking off on my daily XP grind because now it's saying February 2010. Might have to have a few lucky egg sessions with Pidgeys and Weedles.

Unlike some though, I'm loving the current coins set up. At the moment I have about 1300, with the old set up I never got to a stash of more than a couple of hundred.

I work out how long it will take me to the next level. not beyond that as it is too dispiriting. I have a mountain of candy and a bag of pidgeys and I hope that there will be some sort of event between now and December where I get x4 xp with a lucky egg because otherwise L35 will be December 12th.

I usually get 50 coins a day from the five local gyms but it failed yesterday because it rained and here were few raids to tempt people out. No-one was about and none of the five turned over. On the other hand there were no raids so I saved the raid pass.

I battled the gym by my home and won it. I was just choosing my good defender to go in when it was taken over by a raid Pokémon so stayed grey for the hour they were in it. Someone got into it later but I forgot to go back till the next day!

Yeah, if it had been one gym that had been white I wouldn't have thought anything of it but it seems multiple went white simultaneously with no signs of battle across my city and two neighbouring cities, plus where Orecchietti lives.

This case sounds like something different but do be careful with empty gyms.
A few months back there were some muggings in London where they'd leave a gym blank knowing someone would come along and get their phone out. There was a warning about it on the Facebook group.

My first Porygon since the Valentine event! It just popped up at random on the High Street.

My latest 10km egg is a lovely Snorlax. I'm well happy.

Well done DoctorTwo lovely Snorlax indeed- very jealous!

Congrats DoctorTwo!

Just caught up on the thread, lots of exciting catches and hatches! I'm on 238 for my Dex now, only Hitmontop to go of the ones we can/could get in Europe now!

Congratulations DoctorTwo on a lovely snorlax.
I've just got a low CP and IV wild one but still love it. A hatched one would be very welcome!

Just walking my last few for generation 2. 4 to go! (Of what's available)

Congrats @DoctorTwo on the Snorlax. :) Nothing new here and not been out much. Didn't even get my 7 day streak yesterday as the weather was miserable and I just had so much to get on with at home. :(

Catching up with thread

Walking my Onyx now, evolved my Bayleef tonight. Just need the last Mareep evolution and I'm done, bar the ever elusive shiny and legendarys.

Two pleasing egg hatches today; a very good quality Rhynose from a 5k and an Aerodactyl from a 10k. Neither particularly necessary but with time the Rhynose will be good for evolving, and Aerodactyl is sufficiently novel and could be far worse. Still plodding on with Flaaffy... 120k down... 47 candies to go

Did a raid on a Bayleef without being errored out. I didn't manage to catch the blighter. I got a golden razzberry out of it which I was reluctant to use, and a couple of potions. Not seen a rare candy or a TM for a while. Hopefully I can do more raids and better stocks now the DCs are in school.

Nothing much to report here either. Hatched 2 5km eggs today- a Hoppip (rubbish) and an Elekid (cute, but a bit useless). I've managed to keep up with my streaks, but the motivation just isn't really there at the moment.

Not really sure what to walk next, so I'm walking an Eevee to do the 10km Espeon/Umbreon evolution trick. My espeon I have at the moment is rubbish, as it's before I knew all about IV etc. Not as fussed about Umbreon, but will probably try evolve a stronger one in the future at some point, as the one I've got is also pants. Damn you've reminded me actually that Onix is one I could walk next- I'm sitting on 4 metal cotes, I've already done Scizor so Steelix could be next.

Great day here for a change, picked up 3 10k eggs ;) and two dittos. It's almost fully maxed ditto, is it useful for anything? (Sorry, don't know how to add a photo ;)

Somewhat, Bayleaf has run away from me in raids a number of times, so frustrating, I feel your pain ;)

It's almost fully maxed ditto, is it useful for anything?

It's very situational. A ditto copies the Pokemon's stats but not the moves, so if you put it against one that doesn't know moves that are super effective against itself but has the potential to (i.e. Gengar) then it can beat the opposition if it's a higher level.

If it's a higher level than the opponent, it might be better, depending on whether it rolls better or worse moves.

Also, it keeps its own hitpoints, so it will also be better against glass cannons (i.e. Gengar, Alakazam etc.) than tanks (Blissey, Snorlax etc.).

You really need to know what you're doing with a Ditto, otherwise it will be shit It can be good if you know how to utilise it properly.

Two pleasing egg hatches today; a very good quality Rhynose from a 5k and an Aerodactyl from a 10k. Neither particularly necessary but with time the Rhynose will be good for evolving,

Rhydon has an evolution in Gen IV, Rhyperior, so you definitely want to save candies for it as it will be a beast.

Had lots of eggs hatch in the last 2 days... porygon, skarmony, elekid and iggybuff. Iggybuff is cute and an addition to the Dex, but everything is a bit shit really. I want a mareep!!