PokemonGo #14. Rhydon Time, Rhy-Rhy- Rhydon Time...

[DoctorTwo]

It could have been Absol ute beginners, but it wasn't.

Our new thread, fellow players. All are welcome.

Yes I’m over the moon!

I can’t actually Pokemon at the moment as I’ve just had an operation and can’t walk, so I was very happy to see it outside the hospital. It’s made all the pain worth it 😂

Get well soon WhattoDo and good news shiney came along to cheer you up.

I've still never seen a shiny anything. I have enough magicarp for another Gary but am hopeful for one. I don't see magicarp very often so it's hard work getting 400

And I've been overrun with Cactus pokemon today despite never seeing one before

KadabrasSpoon Thank you I’ve been quite lucky with shiny Magikarp really as this is my third The other two were low levels (4 and 14) and awful IVs (59% and 69% - though I evolved the 69% one) so I’ve proper lucked out with this one.

I have 500 Gyarados candy; I nearly evolved my best the other day so I’m really glad I didn’t now! I think this red Gyarados will be my best Gyarados overall.

I haven’t seen a Cacnea yet I really want one as it’s so cute!

My best wishes for a speedy recovery WhatToDo, and congrats on your future Red Gary.

Nowt new to report here, other than I'm away from my local group and missing out on legendary raids there.

DoctorTwo Thank you

I'm assuming that the cactus is weather dependent as I am overrun by them too.

Get well soon WhatToDo

Nothing overly exciting to report here either- caught a Baltoy this morning, which was a new 'dex edition. Up to 51 in the 'dex now, with a few still to evolve once I have a good enough Pokemon to do so.

Enjoying all of the Gen 3 hatches from eggs! Hatched 3 starters today- Chikorita (which must have been an old egg), Treeko and Mudkip! Now up to 150 Mudkip candies. I'm tempted to evolve the one I hatched today- 91% IV, but Level 20. I don't fully understand the whole 'levels' system, however it's the one with strongest IV so I will probably be the one I evolve. I doubt I would power it up to max anyway (I'm a bit of a Stardust whore and can never seem to go over 50,000 before spending it all ).

Get well soon and Congrats WhatToDoAboutThis2017 on your amazing red Gary. I don’t have a single one! Got my candies ready and waiting though for whenever one finally appears. Did you get a raid pass tonight? I didn’t but have hardly been put raiding these past few weeks. My group got one here again Input local park. I really must get out raiding more again. Trouble is park is locked up at 6 so I am hardly ever home from work in time. Also this legendary raid is at 6-6:45 when the parking shut! They will have to go in early and refuse to leave or climb over the fence. There is a turnstile to get out again.

cottonwool125 Thank you

With the levels, the higher the better, because the higher the level is the less stardust you need to spend powering it up. Anything under 20 you don’t really want to evolve even if it’s 100% IV because it would take too much stardust powering it up to be any good.

So you could make it amazing, but it would take hundreds of thousands of stardust to make it so, when it would cost you so much less to evolve a slightly lower percentage but higher level.

For example, take a couple of my Charmanders.

Charmander 1 is 618 CP, 67% IV and Level 29; high level and CP but low IV.

Charmander 2 is 458 CP, 87% IV and Level 20; lower CP and much lower level, but high IV.

If I were to evolve and power up Charmander 1 to Level 30, it would be 2,173 CP and it would take 10,000 stardust.

If I were to evolve Charmander 2 to Level 30, it would be 2,256 CP but it would take 75,000 stardust.

So although the IV is much higher, it would take far too much dust to power up Charmander 2 to be worth it.

TL;DR the higher the level, the less stardust you have to spend powering it up, so you want the highest level possible. Anything over 30 is brilliant.

So while IV percentage is important, you do have to weigh up the level and stardust cost. There’s no point evolving anything under 20 as it’s just too low. Level 20 is the bare minimum and I would always go with or wait for a higher level if you can.

(With your Mudkip, Swampert is a good Pokemon worth powering up, so if you’re not planning on powering it up all or most of the way, I would hold out for a better one. It would take well over 50,000 dust to power up to 30 and there’s not really any point only powering up a Pokemon a bit, as that’s just a waste of dust. If you’re not going to use it or power it up at all then it doesn’t matter though, but I would either commit to fully powering up or not at all; don’t just do a bit.)

Does that help?

Murinae Thank you We did not get an ex-raid in our town unfortunately, despite following all the advice and targeting gyms. We’ll try again, but with me not being able to Pokemon I can’t help.

I think climbing over the fence is definitely worth it for the chance at a Mewtwo!

Oh also this is an interesting chart on how much stardust you can acquire during the 3x stardust on the next community day

Get well soon WhatToDo, and congrats on the lovely flappy fish.

We've only got one ex-raid here this time (no pass for me), whereas we've had two in the more recent rounds. Of the three previous ex-raid gyms, one hasn't had many raids appearing since the ex-raid last week so with the pre ex-raid hiatus there won't have been much activity there. But the other one is in a park in the centre of town and is one of the most frequently raided gyms in town, but zilch this time. So there is much debate about strategies for triggering raids and maximising chances of a pass. But it seems to be so random

Ooh that table shows how much advantage the weather bonus makes. I am saving 6 star pieces and am planning on spending the entire 3 hrs catching. I won't be walking past any weather-boosted mons...

PikachuHeadgear Thank you The ex raids appear to be really hard to get, at least in our town. Whatever we’re doing we’re missing something!

I’m saving my star pieces too. I really hope I’m well enough to walk by then as I really don’t want to miss out on so much stardust!

We usually get 2 EX Raid locations but only 1 this time for us too. We have a gym that's been selected 7 times in our town but this time, it's a gym that's never been chosen so good for them.

Wow, me, DH, DD, and DS1 all got Ex raid passes for next week! Thanks to the rubbish porygon we took at a raid on Saturday only because DS1 has only just started and didn't have one yet.

Someone was telling me about how to trigger gyms for Mewtwo, it involved having 60 individuals raid at the location, ideally the three days before passes are given out. And gyms that can be triggered are mostly in parks. I have no idea how it works, but she's been right so far in our area...

Our local park gym has got another pass this week but as I said I wasn’t around to raid mich so didn’t get one. I’m a bit sad as it’s the first mewtwo raid here without me 😢 but I have two mewtwo already so not too bothered and I’m too fat to climb the fence!

I’ve just been out and done an absol raid. Sadly wasn’t in the park though.

RueDeWakening We’ve had members of our group extrapolate and pick apart everything about ex raids, following every and all advice including the one I posted the other day from a well known Pokemon site as well as the patterns from the next town over who get loads. Still nothing since the very first test raid way back in October!

We thought we'd sussed it here but last night's ex raid passes has thrown us and a new unexpected gym for the ex raid pass. (We normally get 2 gyms and a local one has been selected 6 times hence why we thought we'd sussed how to trigger a raid)

pokemongohub.net/post/research/data-tells-us-ex-raid-february-8-2018-invitation-cycle/

I'm on Level 35

Did a mass evolution session earlier and evolved some new gen 3s while I was at it. I needed a big tidy up of the pidgeys

Someone did a map of the ex raids on the London group and it's definitely parks. Or areas that pokemon go colours green anyway which might include playgrounds etc.
I don't really raid much and I'm not near a park often so thats me out!

goo.gl/maps/s3PVZ4TBG9o

WhatToDo that us SO useful! Despite getting to level 31, I've never really understood Levels and how much priority to give to CP versus IV.
I'm due a mass evolve when I get back from my hols so will try and study Levels a little more first.

GreenShadow Glad it helped!