Level 50 in Pokemon GO – Not Even Close
Back in December 2020, Pokemon GO had a rather large update. After four years of the maximum level being 40, we finally got levels 41-50 added. However, the new levels weren’t as they seemed. To make one’s way to level 50, you must do tons of grinding for experience, and it’s an insanely long journey.
So long in fact that it’s taken over a year to increase my level by 3.
Millions of XP, lots of tasks
Right now, I am level 43, and I need 11,000,000 experience to go from level 43 to level 44, and I’m not even half way there. Or a quarter of the way there. I’m about 1/5 of the way to level 40. The amount however keeps on going up. Going from level 49 to level 50 requires getting 30 million experience points!
And just to make things harder, every level from 41 to 50 has a list of 4 tasks that we have to complete, alongside the main goal for farming experience. Some of these tasks are somewhat easy, like evolving Eevee into all its different forms, or battling in the GO Battle League 20 times. As a level 40+ player, those are all easily done. However, some of the tasks are either tedious, a waste of time or both. Level 43’s extra tasks are all about battling other players, which is easy, but takes a lot of time. On the flip side, level 44 requires you to do hundreds of Team Rocket battles and purify them. Personally, the number of grunts and leaders doesn’t bother me. But purifying Pokemon requires a HUGE amount of Star Dust!
I know people who have reached 50
Despite what I’ve just been saying, there has been a steady stream of people hitting level 50. How they manage it? I have no idea. I assume it may have cost some money though, mostly in the form of raids and Lucky Eggs. After all, the best way to level up is to get Best Friends with someone. This is a time-consuming task that takes 3 months of preparation in advance. Lucky Eggs double experience earned, and with a Best Friend, you get a cool 200,000 experience.
It’s either that or these people catch everything they see, and always get Excellent Throws. There are fast ways to get experience fast, but it all seems so small compared to the amount of experience we need. 1000 experience for an Excellent throw, but you’ll need 30,000 excellent throws to go from 49 to 50.
Either way, anyone who reaches level 50 is insane. In a good way, I guess.
Don’t really care about my level
As for me? I’m not really fussed. Who cares if I don’t make it to level 50? I certainly don’t. All the good stuff in Pokemon GO kinda unlocks at levels 38-40 anyway. The new thing you do unlock now is XL Candy, for powering Pokemon up past level 40. Thankfully, once you hit level 40, you can farm XL candy regardless of level. The same can be said for people below level 40 – they can get their Pokemon to level 40 but no higher. The ability to nominate new Pokestops also unlocks at level 38, previously level 40.
What’s kinda nice though is that there are several extra rewards you can get for leveling up. When you hit level 43, 45 and 50, you are given some bonus rewards in the form of a special research task. But the tasks are just “do X thing 45 times.” The special research is honestly kinda lazy, but I do appreciate some extra raid passes or incubators thrown my way.
At the end of the day though, I’m not even close to level 44, let alone level 50. That grind is just way, way too much work for me…