Mini Hacks for Pokemon GO Players

Now we’ve learned how to catch Pokémon, how to use the map, and how to use PokéStops, we can now use all of the items to make our Pokémon more powerful by evolving and powering up our monsters.

To evolve a Pokémon, you need a certain amount of that Pokémon’s Candy, which can be gained either by catching that monster in the wild, or transferring extras back to Professor Willow. When you have enough candy, select Evolve on their screen in the Pokémon menu and watch your creature transform in front of your eyes.

Catching Pokémon in the wild rewards you with more Candy, while transferring Pokémon only rewards you with one Candy for each transferred.

From there, the process is relatively straightforward. Continue to collect enough Candy and you can evolve Pokémon.

For some Pokémon, the evolving process can take a lot longer, as these higher-levelled Pokémon are harder to find in the wild, making their Candy that much rarer. It may only take twenty-five Candy to evolve a monster, but for others, it could take a hundred or more.

Combat Power, or CP, plays a big role in the evolutionary process as well. Based on what CP your Pokémon is at their basic evolution level, this will give an idea of how powerful that Pokémon can become when it’s evolved. If you had two of the same Pokémon but one had a five hundred CP and one had a hundred CP, which would you want to evolve? The five hundred CP, because that five hundred CP Pokémon will end up being a lot stronger. Here you can see two Pidgey Pokémon and their evolved form of Pidgeotto. The weaker Pidgey turned into a weak Pidgeotto, and the stronger Pidgey into a stronger Pidgeotto.

Evolving is only one part of strengthening your Pokémon, the other is powering up. This is done with Candy and also with Stardust, an item that can be acquired after capturing Pokémon, hatching eggs, or having your Pokémon stationed at gyms. The white arc behind a Pokémon in the menu gives an idea of how powerful it can become.

It’s also useful to evolve Pokémon to get you XP points, especially if you already have one of the more advanced evolutions in your collection.

Yeah, you want to do that. I’ll probably never use this Ekans-soon-to-be-Arbok in battle, but I’m still getting some valuable XP from his evolution.

Always keep an eye on how much Candy and Stardust you have, as you don’t want to waste it. And balance out your team as well, so you aren’t just powering up four favorite Pokémon over and over.

The evolution process is the same for all Pokémon except one: Eevee.

Eevee is an adorable Pokémon that can evolve into one of three different forms: Flareon (Fire type), Jolteon (Electric type) or Vaporeon (Water type).

Ordinarily your Evee would be evolved randomly, but by nicknaming your Eevee after one of the Eevee brothers from the Pokémon anime, you can evolve that Eevee into any final evolution you wish. The brothers were appropriately named Sparky, Rainer, and Pyro. Respectively, Sparky owned a Jolteon, Rainer owned a Vaporeon, and Pyro owned a Flareon.

So when you’re ready to evolve an Eevee and know which type you want to evolve it into, here’s what to nickname it before it starts its evolution.

• IF YOU WANT A JOLTEON, NICKNAME YOUR EEVEE “SPARKY.”

• IF YOU WANT A VAPOREON, NICKNAME YOUR EEVEE “RAINER.”

• IF YOU WANT A FLAREON, NICKNAME YOUR EEVEE “PYRO.”

I’ve selected the Eevee I wanted to evolve, which is the one with the highest amount of CP, and have now nick-named it Pyro because I want a Flareon.

After the name was set, I clicked Evolve and watched what happened.

Yes, I got a Flareon! And any other Eevees I collect, I can use their candy to power up each of these Pokémon.