Pokémon Go tips, tricks and cheats guide - Part 6

Find out whether you actually caught that Pokémon before the game crashed

Due to its immense popularity and a rollout that has seen new regions introduce waves of players every few days, Pokémon Go has had an unsteady launch, with regular bouts of downtime and connection issues. One of the more frustrating incidents is when the game stops responding as you catch a Pokémon.

If this happens, give it a moment to respond, then close and re-open the app and check your Journal (you can do this by tapping the lower right menu bottom on your Trainer screen) to display a list of recent activities. Fingers crossed your prize catch made it to the servers after all!

There's other server-related issues to be aware of too, which we explain in this page

There's a simple method to get a whopping 60,000 XP in 30 minutes

Players have worked out a method to get huge XP gains in a short space of time, and interestingly, it involves using the game's weakest and most Pokémon - Pidgey, Weedle and Caterpie - with lots and lots of Candy, netting you tens of thousands of experience in a single sitting

You only have one shot at choosing a Gym team, so pick wisely

Once you hit level 5, you are invited to join one of three teams - Team Instinct, Team Mystic, or Team Valor. The point of teams is to divide the users into competing camps that control gyms, with the idea for players to seek out gyms owned by rival groups, take control of them, and continue to defend them over time, with the game rewarding players for doing so.

While the differences between them are minimal, since you can't change your team once they've been chosen, it's a decision that really matters, especially since there are so many rivalries emerging between players around the globe. Make sure you take your time and choose wisely!

Pokémon Go tips, tricks and cheats guide - Part 5

Access the game's many sub-menus faster

Instead of tapping the Pokéball at the bottom of the screen to bring up each menu item, you can swipe it in different directions to take you to corresponding sub-menus instead:

• Swipe Left for Pokémon and Eggs
• Swipe Right for Items
• Swipe Up briefly for Shop
• Swipe Up more for Pokédex

The greater the contest, the more you'll help defend your Gym

If you arrive to a Gym in Pokemon Go with the same allegiance as yours, you can raise its Prestige by performing practice battles with one of your Pokémon.

If you want fast Prestige gains for your Gym, then the lower the CP the better. So instead of rolling out your most powerful creatures, hold them back and play smart with Type advantages using weaker Pokémon instead.

High HP Pokémon make for better Gym defenders

When it comes to deciding which Pokémon to leave at a Gym for battling in Pokémon Go, while you might automatically think offense is the best defence, Pokémon who are defending a Gym get a double HP bonus. It means that creatures with the highest HP (or Stamina) in the game - such as Lapras and Snorlax - are then much tougher to take down, and make for the perfect defenders.

Players have figured out which these Pokémon are - as well as those with the highest Attack, Defence and overall stats

The higher your Trainer level, the better (and rarer) Pokémon will be

Trainer level is possibly the single most important stat in the game; the better it is, the stronger CP the Pokémon you encounter will have, and the higher your chances will be for discovering rare Pokémon. Each new level also gives you items, including more powerful Pokéballs and Potions, so it's worth looking to gain XP whenever you can.

Pokémon Go tips, tricks and cheats guide - Part 4

There are more Easter Eggs and secrets to find in Pokémon Go

Players have already discovered a few neat secrets hidden away in Pokémon Go - from the chance to shrug off classic starters Charmander, Bulbasaur and Squirtle in favour of a Pikachu starter, as well as getting your preferred Eevee evolution using hints from the TV show.

But there's apparently more - at Pokémon Go's San Diego Comic Con panel, developer Niantic revealed that there are several Easter Eggs in the game that fans had not revealed yet, so expect more secrets to emerge in the coming weeks and months as players pick the game apart.

You can stop yourself from accidentally transferring Pokémon

Niantic have added a function which prevents you from accidentally transferring those valuable Pokémon to the professor, thanks to a post-release reworking of the game's Favouriting system.

In brief, Pokémon favourited by the player - which can be done by tapping the star in the top-right of the Pokémon's screen - are now unable to be transferred at all, until you unfavourite them again. As part of the July 31 update, the Transfer button has now also been moved to a sub-menu on the Pokémon's screen, under a button with three horizontal bars in the bottom-right, rather than simply being left on its own down the bottom of the page.

It's a quick, simple means of stopping yourself from doing something incredibly frustrating by accident, whilst also making the instant transferring of a Pokémon far easier. You can now mulch down those pesky Zubats into Candy as fast as your heart desires, without the risk of chucking an accidental Dragonite into the mix. Not that we've ever done that, of course...

There's a battery saver mode which can help keep you playing for longer

Pokémon Go has proven to drain phone batteries surprisingly quickly, but thankfully there's an in-game option to help combat this problem.

To access the Battery Saver, tap the Pokéball at the bottom of the screen during map view to bring up a menu of options, then tap the cog in the upper right corner. Once you enable it, the phone's screen will automatically dim when it's down by your side in a horizontal position, but still continues operating, notifying you of any nearby Pokémon, PokéStops and counting steps towards hatching eggs.

There's a few other ways to save battery that the game doesn't tell you about

Pokémon Go tips, tricks and cheats guide - Part 3

Pokémon Go is just as complex as the main games, thanks to a hidden layer of stats

CP is one of the most important values for a Pokémon, but it hides a number of hidden stats that determine how effective a Pokémon can actually be. Just like the main games, fans have discovered there are a series of Individual Stats - or IVs - that act as an individual Pokémon's genes, dictating whether and how much a particular Pokémon's stats deviate from the norm of their Base values.

A combination of a Pokémon's hidden Base Stats, IVs, and Level (the white bar above the Pokémon) are what dictate its CP. While the higher the better, remember that your initially brilliant Vaporeon might only be strong because it's a high Level, and could get swept aside by more naturally strong, high-IV alternatives later on.

Our dedicated page explains more on how this works in more detail, and how to find and exploit these hidden values

You don't have to tap every item at a PokéStop

A surprisingly helpful time saver is knowing that you don't need to tap every single item that floats up the screen when you spin a PokéStop. If you tap the cross at the bottom of the screen, you'll be given every item automatically, which is particularly useful if you need to get back to the map to turn your attention to another PokéStop or Pokémon out in the world.

Use the 'L Throw' technique for perfect Curveballs

As well as throwing balls within a shrinking circle to get Nice, Great and Excellent catches - increasing your chances of success - you can also get a little extra XP on top with Curveballs, a sort of trick shot that sees balls curl towards their target.

To throw a Curveball, start by holding the Pokéball and rotating it round. When you throw, it'll then curve in the rotation you spun the ball - if it's clockwise, then it'll go to the right, and if anti-clockwise, to the left.

They're hard to pull off, but thankfully players recently discovered a technique that allows you to easily throw them with great success. After a spin, move the ball up the left-most side of the screen, and release at the same height as the Pokémon. Assuming the Pokéemon didn't move or attack, it should land and start the capture process.

Pokémon Go tips, tricks and cheats guide - Part 2

Increase your egg hatching productivity by not moving at all

Another trick that players have discovered that if you leave the game open when you're not moving - such as on your desk at work - your Trainer can sometimes step slightly from side-to-side as the phone continues to narrow down your GPS position. These little movements count as walking towards hatching, so it might be worth keeping the app open to slowly chip away when you can - assuming you can trust co-workers not to mess with your phone away from your desk, of course!

But you can't hatch eggs faster by using public transport

Since the game uses the amount of distance you have travelled to hatch eggs and unlock certain medals, you might think that catching a bus or train is a quick way of travelling large distances. However, the game will know that you are travelling too fast, and won't register the movement at all - and even gives you a warning when it happens. As if things were that easy!

That said, if you're not needing to track specific Pokémon, then using public transport is a great way to increase your chances of encountering them out in the wild, especially in busier urban areas.Remember you can complete a capture without having to stay in a fixed position, so don't worry if the bus or train speeds away.

While public transport also isn't a great way to interact with Gyms, since they require you to be in their radius for the duration of their use, can 'queue up' a PokéStop interaction up ahead before you pass through it, and then spin the screen at the right time.

There's a way to see which Pokémon you caught recently

When browsing your Pokémon, you might have noticed some have a blue glow to them - this means they have been caught in the past 24 hours.

While you can already filter your roster by Recent, it allows you to differentiate at a glance if you are browsing by Pokédex number, CP and name, too.

Out of Revives? Then have Candy at the ready...

This is a short but sweet tip; if you're out of Revives and need to resurrect a creature, then spend Candy through a Power Up or Evolve and it'll come back to life with HP. Handy if you're in a pinch!

Pokémon Go tips, tricks and cheats guide - Part 1

Pokémon Go, the location-based free-to-play game that has taken the iOS and Android app stores by storm, allows players to use the original 151 Pokémon in real-world locations, as Google Maps data turns parks, shops and churches into places where you can capture, train and battle creatures.

Despite the seemingly straightforward premise, there's lots of hidden, unexplained or not-so-obvious elements throughout the game, and we have a series of Pokémon Go guides that can help.

On this page are a series of tips and tricks that allow you to make the most out of finding and catching Pokémon, hatching eggs, leveling up creatures and much, much more - as well as a few unauthorised cheats.

Pokémon Go tips, tricks and cheats guide

If you want to play properly, then be prepared to travel around

Instead of exploring at random, there are ways to track specific creatures in Pokémon Go with Nearby and Sighting radars thanks to an in-game radar in the bottom right corner of the screen, which allows you to hone in on what creatures are nearby and by PokeStops. You can also track creatures by their Type in real-life locations - such as water Pokémon being near rivers, canals and lakes - as well demanding players travel to entirely different continents to get region-exclusive creatures.

Increase your egg hatching productivity by playing smart

For hatching eggs, you start the game with an incubator that you can use as many times as you like, and also find or purchase additional one-time-use incubators so you can have multiple eggs brewing at once.

When you have more than one available, it pays to be smart about where you put your eggs; placing longer-lasting 10km eggs in the finite supply will make them last longer, since they're based on the number of uses, not distance used.