How to level up in Pokemon GO
By Buckie Wells
Remember how laborious it was to keep your Tamagotchi or Neopets alive? Leveling up in Pokemon is a little bit worse.
It’s important to distinguish that leveling up your avatar and leveling up your Pokemon are two different things. One is easy, and the other one is annoying and requires some commitment.
Perhaps you’ve noticed the leagues of Pidgeottos and Raticates swarming your neighborhood and nearby gyms, and by now you’ve probably noticed that this is not a matter of coincidence. In such Pidgey-dense populations, what’s a Pokemon trainer to do but engorge themselves and their little flying partner on as many Pidgey candies as possible?
Leveling up your Pokemon is really straightforward — once you tap on your Pokemon, you’re given the option to “Power Up” or “Evolve.”
Power Up uses Stardust and usually one Pokemon-specific candy. Each time you catch a new Pokemon, or the thirtieth of the same one, you are rewarded with more Stardust and candy. Additionally, every time you transfer a Pokemon (scroll down on your Pokemon’s stats and hit “transfer”), you will permanently give your Pokemon to the Professor in exchange for another candy.
Evolving, however, requires no Stardust and a lot more candy. For example, to evolve Pidgey to Pidgeotto, it costs 25 candies. But to evolve Pidgeotto to Pidgeot, you’ll require an additional 50 candies.
With some basic math, I estimate that one would have to catch approximately 75 Pidgeys to get all the way to Pidgeot.
I know… whoa. Forgot the army of Pidgeys you can have, but what about all those pokeballs you toss catching them? Tough Squirtles, you’re going to have to get some more.
Unfortunately, we have to file “wasting pokeballs” under the “Things Pokemon GO Can Improve On” column.
The more you level up your Pokemon, the more CP and HP they’ll have. CP stands for Combat Power, which affects the strength of their attacks in battle, and HP is their health.
On the plus side, the more Pokemon you catch and level up, the more experience your avatar gains. Likewise, you level up as a trainer, making more (and stronger) Pokemon available to you and more goodies, like Ultra Balls.
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