Collection of Tips and Trick Focused on Rural Gameplay

USER GUIDE | Submitted by LarianIf you live in a rural area, there are a few frustrating things about Pokémon Go that one needs to contend with. While Niantic has stated they will try to alleviate them, sometimes you just need to take things into your own hands, and keep charging forward. While this basically itemized list of hints and suggestions are possibly universal, they are probably more relevant and vital to successful rural gameplay.

One of the biggest challenges of finding Pokémon nests in a rural area is due to the lack of Poke Stops and lack of a tracker. I have found a nice correlation between Pokémon Go spawn points, and another Niantic game. As most of us know, Poke Stops and gyms are based on “portals” in the other Niantic game Ingress. Another thing you can see in Ingress are sort of random areas of dense “XM” energy. If you don’t know where Pokémon spawn, download Ingress and wander around. If you see a concentration of white spots (after you get through the training section), you will find Pokémon there.

The larger and denser the XM energy area is without an actual portal, the larger number of Pokémon will spawn there. I have found some very lucrative nests out in the middle of the woods while walking my dog.

PRO TIP

You can read more on Ingress and Pokémon correlation in our “Tracking Pokémon using Ingress field guide”.

Pokestops and resources do tend to be a limiting factor. Rural areas lack loops that you can restock at, so here are a few tips and tricks I have used to counter this:

• Save your pokecoins for Bag upgrades. This should be the only thing you will ever want to buy. Firstly, this is a permanent upgrade, so once you spend it, you’ll always have it. Also, getting 200 coins isn’t that unachievable. The more bag space you have, the longer you can last before you have to make a supply run.
• Don’t be afraid to destroy items. Especially early on when your bag space may be a bit more limited. Balancing between balls and combat materials will always be a challenge. Since I am in a rural area, I don’t get to do as many gym battles and gym training as I would like to, so you may want to take that into consideration when looking at your balance of supplies.
• Find a gym and Poké Stop that you can regularly visit. Mostly for the streak bonus on the Poké Stop, but also to lay a claim to a gym. If you aren’t sure where a gym or Poke Stop is, go to the Ingress Intel Map with that Ingress account and zoom in to where you live. Again, for the most part, those portals correspond to gyms or pokestops.
• As you build up your bag space, keep taking road trips to a more populated area where you can do supply loops. Again, if you are time limited or anything, just loop for supplies as much as you can, and only catch any Pokémon you may need/want for candies or your pokedex. If you find a nest with Ingress near where you live, catching Pokémon will be the least of your concerns.

Since I like to keep everything organized and in one place, I’ll also write down other general hints and thoughts on gameplay. Most of these are relatively obvious, but it’s always nice to have them all in one place.

• Use your Lucky Eggs strategically. Since they last 30 minutes, you can perform around 60-70 evolutions in that time. If you want to use one early in the game, make sure you are also registering to the Pokedex at the same time for even more XP bonus. It will slow you down a bit, but the bonus is nice.
• Catch those Pidgeys, Caterpies, and Weedles. You only need 12 candies to evolve them, so if you collect a large number of them, you can get 60-70k XP in one sitting with a Lucky Egg up. And when you evolve a critter, you get a candy back, and then you can get another for transferring them. So all you need is [(n*10)+2] candies (where “n” is the number of critter you have collected) for maximum cycling effect. Rattata are less desirable as they take 25 candies to evolve, but they are plentiful, so why not use them as well. Keep in mind, you may be distracted to catch Pokémon while doing a marathon evolution set. I would recommend against that as the XPPS (XP Per Second) is higher evolving as catching is always unknown.
• APPRAISE! You will want to get the best possible Pokémon in your pack, so make sure that you appraise, appraise, and appraise. Once you find one with the IV and attributes you want (as well as the best moveset), make sure to star/favorite the critter. That way you can’t accidentally transfer it.

That’s all I have for you in this guide.