I just did the lucky egg thing. It was kinda half-assed since I only had about 20 pokemon to evolve, but the game crashed a few times and I couldnt reconnect for a while so in the end I didnt have much extra time. I still went from level 9 and a half to almost 13.

Okay, since people keep asking the same questions that I and others have answered several times in this thread, here's a post I made a couple days ago on my local Mystic fb page:

"Alright, I figured since I just hit level 20 I'd do a little write-up for my fellow local Mystics. I'm sure most of you have done some research already, these are just the major things I've picked up personally and hopefully they can help you out too.

First thing's first, leveling up should be your utmost priority. Your level is what determines the CP of Pokemon you find in the wild and how much you can power up a Pokemon. After I hit level 12 I started seeing crazy high CPs out there.

Catch EVERYTHING, evolve EVERYTHING. Both of these give you experience and stardust. If you can save all your evolving for when you find a lucky egg, even better (double XP means 1,000 XP per evolution). Pidgeys, Weedles, and Rattatas have been my bread and butter-- Pidgeys and Weedles only take 12 candies to evolve (but still give 500 XP). A lot of times I will evolve them and then transfer the evolved Pokemon immediately.

As for catching Pokemon, I'm sure you all know about the circles and ability to spin. As far as I can tell, hitting inside of the circle is much more important that throwing a curve. That said, I really seem to suck at straight-on throws so I usually throw a curve and try to get the base "nice" when the circle is the largest. Having those two stack seems to be working pretty well.

I think we all understand Gyms by now. I've simply been trying to level up any friendly gym I see. After posting a Pokemon of my own, I try to leave it close to the next level for the next Mystic who rolls up.

*The app seems to use Google maps API. So, downloading the map from google maps as an offline area should reduce battery consumption and improve app performance. Either way, it can't really hurt.

1. Open Google maps
2. Go to settings
3. Go to Offline maps
4. Hit the Plus sign
5. Choose your area"

Edit: Also, there's an update out now for iOS

zubats and spearows are the woat to catch. they have been the toughest to actually hit, break out more frequently than other common finds, and take 50 to evolve anyway. i often ignore them

Very helpful, thank you.

What's the fastest way to get candy? Just capturing? Does holding a gym help?

You only get candy by transferring Pokemon. Holding gyms grants you stardust and coins once per day, you can benefit from up to 10 gyms max. So ideally, you'll wait to "cash in" until you have Pokemon guarding 10 gyms. You can find the button in the upper right corner of the shop screen.

You get candy from catching Pokemon too

Right, which is why you should always be catching everything like I said above.

Stardust > candy. I may be rolling bad but between potions and berries, the pokeball intake seems to decrease as I level so I have been leaving zubats (50 candies for one evo and they hard to catch) and tauros (useless In fights and no evo exp) alone.

Anyone know what a good attack constitutes for a pokemon? I caught a pigeot that has a 60 dmg attack for one bar, seems to be really good for me so far.

Yeah, Hurricane? I love that move too.

I'm thinking 50+ is good at the moment, but I've only caught about a third of the pokedex.

Edit: I have a Raticate that has Hyper Beam for 70.

Click on the Pokéstop several seconds before you're in range. When you get close the "Not in range" message disappears and you can spin. There are some back roads out of my neighborhood that add a few minutes to my drive but there are 4 Pokéstops within range of the road on the way so I hit them up on the way out and back.

Team Yellow seems to be doing fine in my neck of the woods. Four gyms are visible from my location and two have been consistently under yellow control for the past couple days.

Working on a major college campus this week. Stops and gyms literally every 50 feet. Could see what seemed like hundreds on my screen at one time. Tons of the stops had lures going. Time to sneak away from work tomorrow and load up lol.

Sucks at my house tho. Can see one gym that's like 1/2 mile away and that's it. I live in the middle of a capital city as well so I found that a bit odd

HAWK!! How's the back buddy?

Saw an article that mentioned the legendary Pokemon from the series this is based on, are indeed in the game. However, not a single one has been found in the wild yet. They speculate special events may be involved in the release.

Also, saw they plan to introduce trading, which makes sense as its a staple of the franchise.

Disagree that trading should be a part of this game

so i took some screenshots on my way home of what i think are cool locations to have gyms: the lincoln memorial, the pentagon, the white house, etc.

[there are also some pretty unfortunate spots for gyms that i passed: the pentagon 9/11 memorial and arlington national cemetery. also the holocaust museum (although i didnt see that one myself). the cemetery and museum both asked people to stop playing there.]

but beyond that, this is a lot of fun. i can hit 2 pokestops from my desk chair, 4 total from my office if i move around. and people drop lures on them all day.

What??? you don't want people selling virtual Pokemon on eBay?

making it so you have to be physically next to the person you're trading with would alleviate a lot of that

also had some lady run me out of an empty parking lot today where i was trying to catch some pokemans

lol 10. i dont think i can physically go from one gym to a second gym and have the first gym stay captured. actually dont see any reason at all to capture a neutral gym, you dont even get xp for it.

need better luck finding ally gyms already with 4 guys on it to pile on but then it takes forever to raise the prestige to get a slot open

I think the best situation to be in is where you're splitting time between high traffic areas with Pokéstops within range of work or home, and more secluded areas where you can find gyms that aren't constantly under attack. Trying to take over the Starbucks is pointless but I have a couple neighborhood playground gyms that have been under my control for a few days.

So does this guy just suck is there something non obvious about how attacks work

some go faster than others

Just had a Kabuto on my nearby but couldn't pinpoint him beyond 3 steps. I was in a pretty high traffic area. Would have been cool to have

Is there any way to tell how fast? Or are all of the non-special attacks pretty much normalized to do similar dps