Loading Screen Tips for Pokemon GO

When you load up Pokemon GO, as you watch the loading bar slowly creep across, there’s always a tip, a little “did you know” sort of thing with some useful advice. There are only a handful, and while they are quite useful, there could definitely be more tips. So I’m going to give Niantic a hand and list out some other little tips. Maybe they can put these on the login screen too.

Here’s a bunch of random tips that hopefully make the game easier for you. Not in any particular order though.

• Pokemon turn to face you when you tap on them, making it easier to see which Pokemon you have already checked on.
• Team Rocket Grunts can disguise as Giovanni, but if you have a Giovannin radar and a Rocket balloon spawns, that balloon is a guaranteed battle against Giovanni.
• Use the Team Leaders on the Battle menu to easily get hearts for your buddy. Candela is fastest if you do a Master League battle, and Blanche is the easiest for Great League battles.
• Battling against a friend can reward you items like Sinnoh stones and the odd rare candy.
• You can use a Lucky Egg when reaching Ultra or Best Friends to get huge amounts of experience.
• Avoid using the Recommended Party when doing a raid. While it can inform you what moves a raid boss has, the recommended are chosen for how much defense they have, not how much damage they can dish out. For example, battling a Guzzlord, if the recommended Pokemon are fairy types, that means it will probably have dragon-type moves.
• If you keep on getting bad Pokemon recommended for battles and raids (e.g. Aggron, Slaking), put them in a gym. When they return, don’t revive them, and they will no longer be recommended in battle.
• Golden Razz Berries don’t just fully heal Pokemon in Gyms, they also instantly fill your buddy’s hunger. Silver Pinaps also work, but they’re kinda rare.
• If you hatch a baby Pokemon like Riolu or Budew, give them a second move before you evolve them. It will only cost you 10,000 stardust compared to 75,000 stardust later on.
• It’s worth checking on the daily free box in the shop. Most of the time, it’s just Pokeballs, but apparently you can sometimes get nice stuff in the box.
• Lucky Pokemon are cheap to level up, requiring half the cost a normal Pokemon would. Purified Pokemon are also cheaper to level up, and cost less to evolve and give a second move to. Lucky and Purified both stack, but it costs a special trade to do.
• Always try to catch evolved Pokemon in the wild. They give both more stardust and more candy.
• If you have a Mega Pokemon evolved, if you catch Pokemon with the same typing, you get one extra candy. This is particularly useful on Community Days and similar events.
• Team Rocket Grunts in balloons always spawn once every 6 hours, at midnight, 6am, midday, 6pm, when you open the game.
• Pokemon spawned by incense disappear quickly. Prioritize incense spawns over any other spawns.
• Rather than using a nanab berry, you can throw a Pokeball just after a Pokemon attacks, as there is a small window of opportunity where the ball will connect.
• Use “costume” in a search to bring up all Pokemon from events that wear costumes.
• You receive more candy in a trade if the Pokemon were caught far away from each other.
• Pokemon that appear in Mega Raids have a chance to be shiny, as do wild spawns of those Pokemon.
• Don’t bother doing GBL if you are looking for a Legendary. The chances are low and it’s often easier to do a raid.
• If you are running out of space, you can send some Pokemon to Pokemon Home. However keep in mind that Pokemon from Home can’t be sent back to GO.
• Keep an eye on the Today tap. Scroll down and you’ll see latest news, such as Community Day schedules and the like.
• If you are having problems, then check on the Niantic Support Twitter page and have a look, because they rarely mention problems in-game. Then again, they don’t always mention problems on Twitter either.

And last of all:

• Be patient. Most things come back after a while. So don’t worry too much if you miss out.