I have no idea. Not sure if it's RNG during the test phase or if Niantic is being selective across their player base.

Level 34.

Hit a few extra raids yesterday as I was running low on golden rasp & there is no way I'm turning up at the raid time unprepared. Hopefully catch a decent IV one or even better, a perfect.

I've installed it again and usually play it a bit when walking to the gym /supermarkets.

Just hit level 8, so if anyone could explain the power up /evolve strategy, that would be nice. There's supposed to be some IV calculators out there, to give you an idea which one to evolve? But do you power up first, then evolve, or the other way around?

Good to know, guess it's better to just power up the higher CP ones then.

I'm way to far behind everything to ever do any raids or whatever, in just using it as a distraction while waiting for traffic etc.

I'll do that then. From when would looking at power ups / evolving be useful.

Just caught 3 more while waiting for an haircut.

Found out from leaks that the story of ultra sun/moon is largely the same for the first 3/4s of the story. Like 90% the the same, with the last quarter throwing some new stuff in here and there.

I don’t know why I expected it to be a bit more like b/w2, but that is very disappointing. The post game is pretty different apparently, but other than that you’re getting Pokemon s/m with extras. I still want to play through it as I love a good RPG for my commute, but I’m glad I’ve preordered for £27 rather than full whack!

Edit: thank you evilredeye for posting that deal btw

WorKid wrote:

Probably level 15 or so, that's when trainer levelling up tends to slow appreciably, although of course it depends how much you play. That said, unless you raid much, there's virtually no point having good pokemon any more these days. Low level 'mon tend to spend the same time in gyms and so get you the same coins.

not really true. People are far far less likely to go at a gym with a 3k blissey than a 800 bubasaur. 

For now though you won't get the good pokemon till between level 15-30. So for now concentrate on catching, evolving and attacking gyms. Lucky eggs are what you want for pidgie evolutions. You get double xp with the lucky egg. 

Best advice to catch up is to get a "got-cha" online for £25. Does all of the grinding crap for you.

@Nina

Lvl20 is the cut off point for decent cp eggs. Lvl30 is the cut off point for decent cp wild pokemon.

Basically, try not to spend any stardust till you hit 30 unless you need a counter for something.

WorKid wrote:

but also these days you actively want your pokes kicked out after a period. So there's no point having high level good quality pokes except in raids. And IVs are now virtually irrelevant.

Unless you are trying to "gold" the gym for increased items.

Agree to a degree about IV's, margins are not great, but the hopeful PvP massive* believe it will give an edge. Time will tell I suppose. I have no interest in PvP, but I still mainly only give dust to decent IV pokes when I can be arsed to check.

*My friend falls into this category, he also believes you will be allowed to use legendaries in PvP, I can't see it happening.

Thanks all, I'll have a look at the gyms in the neighborhood, think most of them are churches though. Not sure what to do with them, guess I'll help defending if they're the same team /attack when not? I really never did more than walk around, activate Pokéstops and catch every Pokémon I see. Noticed I haven't even hatched my first egg, a 10km one.

Went for a fairly long hike yesterday, and had mobile internet for about half of it. Got loads of Pokemon, and finally hatched that 10km egg. Close to level 11 now. Got a couple of 300+CP Pokemon, so slowly the better ones are showing themselves.

Went to an Indian restaurant that also happened to be a gym, was yellow last night and that'y my team colour. Couldn't do more than feed some berries. Walked past it again this morning and 2 of the yellow gyms turned red overnight, tried attacking one but that's no use yet. Think the lowest level player I've seen is a level 24. There are 2 other gyms (currently yellow) near the same road, so might see if they can use some useless backup, just to get the exp.

Can see this game being some good fun once you hit better levels, don't even need to walk far to get to the stops and gyms. There's about 6 gym's all within 10 minutes walk from home, and loads of stops. And there's always a couple of raids going on.

Also started transferring some Pokemon, checked the appraise guy and every Pokemon that he gave the lowest overall and lowest stat got transferred. Got 1 Pokemon that got both the highest overall and stat score, but that's a Magmar with only 97CP, so might not really be worth it to power up. It was the Pokemon that came from my 10km egg.

So reviews for ultra so far are mostly very positive, surprisingly. Also got a dispatch notification so should be getting tomorrow as well!

Aww!!

mk64 wrote:

For now though you won't get the good pokemon till between level 15-30. So for now concentrate on catching, evolving and attacking gyms. Lucky eggs are what you want for pidgie evolutions. You get double xp with the lucky egg. 

Ok, hit level 16, so I'm starting to see some more decent Pokémon now. I guess with pidgey evolutions you mean just evolving as many as possible with a lucky egg active? Think I got more paras and ekans though. I'll keep catching a few more till I hit the Pokémon cap, can catch about 30 more.

So far I'm using the in game appraisal option, and favourite every one that gets the two top appraisals. Does size matter in any way?

Enjoy playing this again, haven't really focused on getting gold gyms yet as everyone here is level 30+, so most I can do is feeding everyone berries. Gyms are usually full anyway, so can't store my sub 500cp ones.

Edit: and do that learned moves matter?

Good advice, especially the last bit.

Although I disagree you need pokes properly appraised. There's no point other than bragging rights looking at IVs. Unless PvP comes in and even then I'm not convinced.

Moveset is important though. I have many a decent 'mon ruined by shit moves.

Thanks for explaining all that, I'm installing Pokémon Genie now, I know IV's might not be too important right now, but I'd rather select the best ones right now than just random ones.

Will look up movesets online, and also try to figure out how much candy I'm gonna need to evolve all the common Pokémon. Had a quick look yesterday and seems you need to transfer loads first, gather the candy, catch enough Pokémon, use the lucky egg and start evolving.

I'll also try to see if I can find local players, didn't think of that.

I've seen farfetch'd twice now, once when I was in the car and accidently selected the wrong Pokémon, was if course too far away when I escaped that, once here in the neighborhood, but first throw want good enough and be fled.

Yeah I'm also a fan of the new gym system. I can easily make in game cash now & so can my daughter as most attackers wait for the gyms motivation to drop before clearing it out & taking it.

@Nina I mainly use the following reddit for info https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/

Its a bit more research based than the other main Pokemon Go reddit, but it is packed with info & they also have this...

https://thesilphroad.com/atlas#15/40.294/-76.6562

Also when you have some downtime, watch a few vids from this guy.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrtyNMe3xtv3CLg5QR78HzQ

As others have said, when you are ready to go raiding(to most your level will not matter, the more the merrier etc) join a few Facebook/Discord groups, meeting others is one of the best things in this game & will help with the grind, dex entries, nest locations & no doubt you will pick up a few tips & possibly new friends.