THE ULTIMATE POKEMON GO GUIDE 

Chapter 1: Foundations 1

Chapter 2: Searching and Filtering Through Your Pokemon Inventory 7 

Chapter 4: How to Level Up First 22 

Chapter 5: The Mystery Box and Meltan/ Melmetal 33 

Chapter 6: Lucky Trades and Lucky Friends 40 

Chapter 7: Random Facts to Know about Pokemon Go 44 

Chapter 8: Battling 47

Chapter 9: Pokémon Go Team Rocket 64

Chapter 10: Pokemon Go Plus 73 

Chapter 11: How to Buy a Pokemon Go account that’s right for you? 79
Bibliography 83
 

Chapter 1: Foundations 
 
Pokemon Go is the key to our long-forgotten childhood fantasy, becoming a Pokemon 
trainer. Wondering the lands far and wide in search of exotic Pokemon, asserting your 
dominance in gym battles and, most importantly, making friends on the road.  
 
Back when the game was released in 2016, it delivered on its promise of making you a 
Pokemon trainer. The game took the world by storm when it was released and the 
developers have supported the game with constant updates to keep it fresh and far 
from stale. While Pokemon Go is not as popular as it was back in 2016 in pop culture, 
the player base is constantly rising with over a hundred million active players around 
the globe.  
 
This ebook is your one-stop guide to everything Pokemon Go. We’ve covered 
everything from getting started, levelling up, trading, battling and everything in 
between.  
 
Here in the first chapter, we’re going over the basics and foundations of the game. 
Whether you’re a total newbie to the game or you’ve already heard about it, the 
foundations will get you up to speed with everything that’s going on in the world of 
Pokemon Go today.  
 
 
What is Pokemon Go?  
 
Pokemon Go is an Augmented Reality video game for iOS and Android devices, 
developed by Niantic Games. When the game was released back in 2016, it received 
mixed feedback, praised for its brand new concepts but criticized for its technical 
shortcomings. Over the years, the developers have fixed the game, leaving nothing but 
hefty potions of praise in the favour of the game. It’s a must-play game for not just 
Pokemon fans, but everyone remotely interested in video games and Pokemon due to 
it’s one of a kind gameplay.  
 

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How to get started with Pokemon Go? 
 
The first thing you need in order to get started with Pokemon Go is the app itself, 
available on both iOS and Android devices. The first time you jump into the app, you’ll 
be prompted to create a character. Initially, the character customization was limited to 
choosing between a boy or a girl, but now the feature is truly dynamic with the ability 
to customize the physical appearance and your gear. You’ll start out at level one, and 
level up as you catch Pokemon and win gym battles.  
 
But before you head out on your journey to catch them all and become the very best 
like no one ever was, you have to choose a starter Pokemon.  
 
 
How to choose a starter Pokemon? 
 
As soon as you’re done with making your character, three Pokemon will pop-up on 
your map- Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle. You can choose one of them as your 
starter Pokemon or, simply walk away from them until a Pikachu appears on your 
screen which you can capture as your starter Pokemon.  
 
Unfortunately, you can’t choose a starter Pokemon from any other generations, you’re 
stuck with the first-gen starters. A part of the reason for this is the fact that the game 
started with just the original 151 Pokemon back when it was released and more 
Pokemon generations were introduced later on.  
 
Choosing a starter Pokemon will not really impact your game as you’ll catch way 
stronger Pokemon before your first battle. Moreover, starter Pokemon are really 
common and easy to catch. Your starter Pokemon is basically just a tutorial for 
catching Pokemon.  
 
It’s worth noting that AR is turned on by default, which means that the game will use 
your phone’s camera to integrate a Pokemon in your environment. While it was a major 
marketing point, we’d recommend you to turn it off for a couple of reasons.  
 
1. It’s distracting.  
2. It slows down your phone, especially if you’re not playing on a flagship 

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 3. It drowns your battery  
 
 
How to catch Pokemon?  
 
Once you’ve made your character and caught a starter Pokemon, you’re already set to 
step outside and start catching Pokemon. Now, as you walk around, Pokemon will 
start popping up on the screen. Your phone will vibrate every time a wild Pokemon 
appears so you don’t have to glue your eyes to your screen while walking around the 
streets.  
 
Every Pokemon inside the white flashing circle and be engaged and caught. If a 
Pokemon is beyond the reach of your circle, simply walk towards it and tap on it. Once 
you click on it, the Pokemon will be engaged and you’ll land on a “catching” screen.  
 
Here, there are a few things to notice. In the centre of the screen, you’ll see the 
Pokemon itself and it’s combat power denoted by “CP” on top of it. CP is basically a 
Pokemon’s level indicator, so Pokemon’s with higher CP are more difficult to catch as 
compared to the ones with lower CP.  
 
On the bottom centre, you’ll see a Pokeball. The red and white Poke ball is the basic 
Pokeball but as you level up and encounter more powerful Pokemon, you’ll get access 
to great balls and ultra balls. Each consecutive Pokeball has a higher chance of 
successfully catching a Pokemon.  
 
On the bottom left, you have access to berries, which can be fed to the wild Pokemon 
for a number of effects.  
 
Razz Berry-​ Increases the chances of catching the wild Pokemon  
Golden Razz Berry- ​The highest probability of catching a wild Pokemon, acquired 
from battles and raids  
Nanab Berry-​ Immobilizes the Pokemon so it’s easier to catch 
Pinap Berry-​ Gives you 2x candy  
Silver Pinap Berry-​ Increases the chances of catching the wild Pokemon and grants 
2x candy, basically a combination of a Razz Berry and Pinap Berry.  
 

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When you hold down the Pokeball, a coloured breathing circle appears within the white 
circle around the Pokemon. The colour of the inner circle denotes the level of the 
Pokemon, so lower-level Pokemon have a green circle around them while the highest 
level Pokemon have a red circle around them.   
 

 
Source: Dexerto.com 
 
The best way to capture a Pokemon is the curveball throw. In order to perform a 
curveball throw, hold down the ball and snip it around before throwing it. If it lands 
within the white outer-circle around the Pokemon, you’ll capture the Pokemon but it’s 
not yet over! Wild Pokemon, especially more powerful ones, can escape Pokeballs. If a 
Pokeball fidgets around thrice without the Pokemon within escaping, it’s counted as a 
successful throw. You can use berries and Pokeballs to increase the probability of 
capturing a Pokemon.  
 
If you successfully caught a Pokemon, you’ll be rewarded with three things- XP, 
Stardust and candy. XP is used to level up the trainer, while Stardust increases the CP 
of the Pokemon and candy can be used to evolve them.  
 
We’ll recommend you to save your Stardust until at least you’re at level 20. Moreover, 
don’t rush and evolve a Pokemon to its third stage until you have all the candy 

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required, 125 to be precise. You may run into a more powerful version of the same 
Pokemon, which will evolve into an even more powerful evolution.  
 
While wild Pokemon randomly appear around the map, you can also track certain 
Pokemon by tapping on the “Nearby” tab on the bottom right-hand corner of the map. 
Some Pokemon are region-locked, which means they can be only found in certain 
countries. Your vicinity and the weather are also a deciding factor on the subject of 
wild Pokemon. So if you’re near a water body, you’ll come across a lot of water type 
Pokemon while urban areas are swarmed with Rattata and Zubat. 
 
 
Pokestops  
 
Once you start catching Pokemon, you’ll soon realise that you have a limited number 
of Pokeballs and they’re simply not enough to keep up with your lust of becoming the 
best Pokemon trainer. That’s where Pokestops come to rescue!  
 
 
 
Pokestops are little, dish-like, blue icons on the map that 
dispense items like Pokeballs, eggs and other items when 
they’re spun. Pokestops are usually located on real-life points of 
interest like post offices, libraries, sub stops and community 
centres. They appear on your map if you’re within a 1.5KM 
radius and, in order to interact with them, you’ll need to be at 
least 150m from it.  
 
You can interact with a Pokestop only once every 5 minutes and 
the first spin of the day also grants you extra XP and stardust.  
 
 
 
Eggs and Incubators  
 
Along with Pokeballs and other items, Pokestops will also give you eggs that hatch into 
Pokemon. There is no way to actually tell which Pokemon will hatch out of the egg, but 
you can take a guess based on the distance. If it’s a 2 KM egg, it’ll hatch into a pretty 

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common Pokemon such as Zubat, Magicarp or Rattata. 5 KM eggs are rarer while the 
10 KM eggs are the rarest and hatch into the most powerful Pokemon.  
 
In order to hatch an egg, you’ll need to place it in an incubator and walk the respective 
distance. The game will start you off with just one incubator that can be used infinite 
times. You can also acquire more incubators by simply levelling up, but these are 
limited use incubators that break after hatching a certain number of eggs. You can also 
buy more incubators from the shop for the price of 150 Pokecoins each.  
 
 
That’s all you need to know to get started with Pokemon Go! In the coming chapters, 
we’ll go over battling, trading, levelling and much more that’ll help you become the very 
best Pokemon trainer like no one ever was.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Chapter 2: Searching and Filtering Through Your 

Pokemon Inventory  
 
Once you set out on your journey to collect every Pokemon out there, you’ll soon run 
into an integral problem- Inventory Management! Back in 2016, you could have a 
maximum of 250 Pokemon in your inventory, but as the game grew and more 
Pokemon from different generations were introduced, the storage capacity was 
increased. As of now, the game allows you to catch and store up to 3000 Pokemon in 
your inventory, which can be further increased with Pokecoins.  
 
Unfortunately, it’s a hassle to filter and browse through them even with just a few 
hundred Pokemon.  
 
This guide will help you easily navigate through the vast list of Pokemon you’ve caught 
based on keywords, names, power, region and many more parameters. 
 
 
How to access your Pokemon Inventory?   
  

In order to see all the Pokemon in your inventory, click on the Pokeball “ ” in the 
bottom centre of the map. Then, out of all the buttons that pop-up, click on the 

Pokemon button with a Pikachu outline “ ”.  

 
Here, you can see all the Pokemon you've ever 
caught. By default, the last caught Pokemon will 
appear first, followed by the second last and so 
on. The first Pokemon you ever caught, 
presumably your starter Pokemon, will be the 
last Pokemon in your inventory.  
 

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A magnifying glass on the top helps you search and filter through your inventory. Here 
are some of the ways by which you can efficiently manage your Pokemon inventory like 
a pro. 
 
 
How to Find a specific Pokemon? 
 
1. Name:​ ​The first and most obvious way to look up a Pokemon in your inventory is 
the name. For example, searching for “Charmander” will show you all the 
Charmanders in your list.  
 
2. Nickname: You can give a personalised nickname to any Pokemon and search 
with that Nickname. For example if you named a Charmander “Erik”, that 
Pokemon will show up when you search “Erik”. It’s particularly useful when you 
a lot of the same Pokemon.  
 
3. Type: Enter the type of Pokemon to show all the Pokemon of that type. For 
example, searching “Fire” will yield all the Fire Type Pokemon in your list.  
 
4. Combat Power: To search Pokemon with a specific CP or CP range, you can 
type “CP” followed by the number or the range. For example, “CP250” will show 
you all the Pokemon with a combat power of 250 while “CP250-CP300” will 
show you all the Pokemon in that range.  
 
5. Health Points: Health Points works exactly like Combat Power. So “HP100” will 
show you all the Pokemon with 100 Health Points and so on. The search is 
based on max health points, rather than current health points. So if you’ve got a 
Pokemon with 100HP but it’s injured, it’ll still appear when you search “HP100” 
 
6. Distance: Distance feed allows you to view all the Pokemon caught within the 
specified distance from the current location. For example, “Distance 100” will 
show you all the Pokemon caught within the 100KM radius, “Distance 100-” will 
show you Pokemon caught beyond the 100 KM radius. You can also set a 
range, such as “Distance 100-200” to find Pokemon caught within the specified 
range. It’s worth noting that the distance is measured in Kilometers, rather than 
miles.   
 

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 7. Evolutionary Family: You add “+” symbol before a Pokemon’s name and all the 
members of that Pokemon’s evolutionary family will be listed. For example if you 
search “+Charmander”, all Charmander, Charmeleon and Charizard will show 
up, given that you have at least one of each in your inventory.  
 
8. Region: Search Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, or Galar to see the 
Pokemon from that region. Basically, it acts as a distinction between 
generations. So first-gen Pokemon are a part of the Kanto region, the 
second-gen Pokemon are a part of the Johto region and so on.  
 
9. Pokedex Number: Search by number to show all the Pokémon matching that 
Pokédex number. For example “1” will show all the Bulbasaurs, given that you 
have at least one Bulbasaur in your inventory.  
 
10. Move: Add “@” before a move to show all the Pokemon that know that move. 
For example “@tackle” will show all the Pokemon that can tackle. 
 
11. Move Type: Move Type works just like Move. For example, “@Poison” will show 
you all the Pokemon with a Poison-type attack.  
 
12. Types of Quick and Charged Attacks: If you want to filter through the Move Type 
search, add @1, @2, or @3 to search for Pokemon with a specific type of Quick 
or Charged Attack. For example, “@2Fire” will show all the Pokemon with an 
evolved fire type attack. 
 
 
How to find a Pokemon with a Specific Status? 
 
1. Age (in Days): Search for “age” followed by a number to see how many days 
ago you caught a particular Pokemon. For example “age7” will show all the 
Pokemon you caught a week ago, while “age0” will show all the Pokemon you 
caught within the last 24 hours.  
 
2. Buddy Level: Buddies are Pokemon that follow you around on the map. Search 
for “buddy” followed by a number between 0-5. For example, “buddy0” will 
show you all the Pokemon with whom you have no history, while “buddy5” will 
show you your Best Buddy.  

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3. Evolvable Pokemon: Search for “evolve” to see all the Pokemon in your list that 
can evolve, considering both special items and candy requirements.  
 
4. Gym Defenders: Gym defenders are Pokemon with high defence stats, perfect 
for defending conquered gyms. Simply search “defender” to see all the gym 
defenders in your list.  
 
5. Item-based Evolutions: Search an item to see any Pokemon that can be evolved 
with that particular item.  
 
6. New Evolution: Enter “evolvenew” to find the Pokemon that can be evolved to fill 
in a new Pokemon entry.  
 
7. Trade Evolutions: Search “tradeevolve” to find Pokemon that can be evolved 
without any candy after being trading with another Trainer.  
 
8. Weather Booster: Some Pokemon are boosted by the current weather. Search 
“@weather” to find all the Pokemon that are boosted by the current weather in 
your list.  
 
9. Year: Search “Year” followed by a year to find all the Pokemon that you caught 
in that particular year. For example “year2017” will show all the Pokemon you 
caught in 2017.  
 
 
How to find certain types of Pokemon? 
 
1. Alolan Pokémon: Search for “Alolan” to see any Alolan Pokémon in your list. 
 
2. Appraisal: Enter a number between 0-4 to search for Pokémon by the quality of 
their appraisal, 4 being the highest appraisal while 0 being the lowest. For 
example “3” will show all the Pokemon appraised to level 3.  
 
3. Egg-exclusive Pokémon: Search “eggsonly” to find Egg Exclusive Pokemon in 
your list such as Togepi, Magby, Igglybuff, etc. 
 

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 4. Hatched Pokémon: Enter “hatched” to see all the Pokemon in your list that 
hatched from an egg.   
 
5. Lucky Pokémon: “Lucky” can be searched to look up Lucky Pokemon in your 
inventory.  
 
6. Legendary Pokémon: Use the term “Legendary” to see all Legendary Pokemon 
you have.  
 
7. Mythical Pokémon: Use the term “Mythical” to see all the Mythical Pokemon you 
have.  
 
8. Purified Pokémon: Use the term “Purified” to see all the Purified Pokemon you 
have.  
 
9. Shadow Pokémon: Use the term “Shadow” to see all the Shadow Pokemon you 
have.  
 
10. Shiny Pokémon: Use the term “Shiny” to see all the Shiny Pokemon you have.  
 
11. Special Event Pokémon: Some cosmetic Pokemon, such as Pikachu wearing a 
witch’s hat from Halloween can be caught only during special events. Search 
“Costume” to see all such Pokemon.  
 
12. Traded Pokémon: Type “Traded” to find all the Pokémon you received via trade. 
 
 
Modifying search terms with Search Operators 
 
1. Combining searches: Use “&” or “|” between two search terms to combine the 
searches as an ‘and’ statement. For example, type “Fire&CP100” or 
“Fire|CP100” to find all the fire type Pokemon with 100 CP.  
 
2. Exclude Pokémon: Use “!” (also known as ‘not’ operator) before your search to 
search for all Pokémon except those that match your search. For example, 
searching for “!defender” will show all Pokémon not currently defending a Gym. 
 

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 3. Minimum searches: Use “-” to search for Pokemon with a minimum HP or CP. 
For example, “HP300” will show all the Pokemon with the HP of 300 or more.  
 
 
Which Pokemon should you transfer and which Pokemon should you keep? 
 
When you’re starting out, it’s a good idea to catch all the Pokemon that appear on your 
screen to gain XP and grind levels. Unfortunately, you can’t keep all the Pokemon you 
capture as you’ll run out of space to catch new ones.  
 
Pokemon Go allows you to transfer Pokemon to the professor in exchange for candy of 
that certain Pokemon. Candy is used to evolving Pokemon, but you can’t evolve a 
Squirtle with a Charmander candy.  
 

 
 
So, which Pokemon should you keep and which Pokemon should you transfer?  
 
First off, don’t transfer any Pokemon if it’s your only one. Say you have just one 
Jigglypuff and you transfer it to Professor, the resulting candy will be useless since you 
won’t have Jigglypuffs to evolve.  
 

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If you have two or more of the same kind, then transfer the weaker among the bunch to 
the professor. Weakness can be confused with low CP, but in fact, true strength is 
indicated by “IV”. The appraisal/ rating process can help weave out the “weak” 
pokemon. A fast way to transfer low IV pokemon is to search !3*, which basically 
translates to NOT a 3 star pokemon. But be careful in searching this way, as it will 
include the 4 star pokemon (Hundos) in that search, so make sure you favorite your 4* 
pokemon first so they're not accidentally transferred.  
 
As a rule of thumb, the Pokemon caught from raids or hatched will typically have a 
strong correlation for IV and CP. The pokemon with the lowest CP will have the lowest 
IV, while the one with the highest CP will have the highest IV, hence the strongest. In 
terms of raids, be careful to categorize by weather boosted (level 25) or non boosted 
CP (level 20). For instance, you can have a pokemon caught via a non boosted raid 
with an IV100 at CP2000 vs. a pokemon caught via a weather boosted raid with an 
IV70 and CP3000, but who in fact will be the “strongest”? A few other parameters such 
as attack power also play a negligible role. You’ll receive the same amount of candy, 
which is one, for every Pokemon you transfer, irrespective of its CP. But to optimize 
the candy you get for a pokemon you plan to discard, you should trade it with a friend 
(or yourself if you have an extra account) for up to 3 candy (based on the distance of 
where both pokemon were caught). 
 
So, transfer the Pokemon with lowest IV, and use the candy to evolve/power-up the 
desired Pokemon. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Chapter 3: Trading 
 
Trading was an essential feature of the mainline Pokemon games on the Nintendo 
consoles, but it took a fair while to make it debut on the Pokemon Go. Now that we 
have the trading feature, the lack thereof in the previous version is felt heavily.  
 
Trading brings around a number of benefits for trainers on either end of the trade. First 
and foremost, just like the original games, some Pokemon can be only evolved via 
evolution. The function allows the traded Pokemon to evolve without any candy. 
Moving on, completing a trade earns you bonus candy and XP for Pokemon you traded 
away. On the other hand, you can receive Pokemon that you haven’t seen or caught 
yet to complete your Pokedex and earn more XP.  
 
It’s a win-win situation for both the parties involved in the trade. However, before you 
set off trading Pokemon with your friends and fellow trainers, there are a few 
prerequisite requirements.  
 
Here the three requirements that you need to fulfil before you can trade Pokemon-  
 
1. Be at level 10.  
2. Be friends with the trainer you’re training with 
3. Be within 100 meters of them physically in real life 
 
Once you’ve fulfilled the prerequisite requirements, trading is a pretty simple task, on 
paper at least. First, select the friend that you'd like to trade with. To access the list of 
your friends, click on your avatar on the bottom left of the screen. Then head over to 
the ‘Friends’ tab to see the list of your friends.  
 
Once you’ve selected a friend, simply tap on trade and choose the Pokemon you’d like 
to send them and, in turn, they’ll send one back to you. And you’re done! While it 
sounds like a child’s play on paper, things can get quite intricate when stardust 
requirements, friendship levels and candy multiplier and much more.  
 
In this chapter, we’ll discuss everything you need to know about trading in Pokemon 
Go to become the very best trainer out there.  

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How to make Pokemon Go friends? 
 
Once you’ve reached level 10, you can start adding friends. Follow the following steps 
to add a friend in Pokemon Go: 
 
1. Go to the ‘Friends’ tab and click on ‘Add Friend’.  
2. Here, you’ll see your trainer code and QR code. Share or copy your code and 
send it to your friends.  
3. In the ‘Add Friend’ section, enter the 12 digit trainer code and click on ‘Send’.  
4. Alternatively, you can also scan their QR code to send a request. Once your 
friend request is accepted, you’ll see them in your friends.  
 

 
 

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Similarly, if someone sends you a friend request, you’ll receive a notification for the 
same. If you choose to accept the request, the said trainer will be added in your friend 
list.  
 
 
Where to find Pokemon Go friends? 
 
This is a little tricker and non-technical question. The best way to find friends is to ask 
your real-life friends who play Pokemon Go as well to accept your request. If you don’t 
have any such friends, then hop on to the local Pokemon Go forums and search for 
other trainers who’re looking for friends. Reddit is an excellent place to find local 
Pokemon communities.  
 
Likewise, you can also head over to your local Pokemon gyms during raids and other 
special events. There are bound to be more trainers hanging around the area, 
especially on weekends and holidays. Go over and socialize with your fellow trainers 
and offer them trades and you have a friend!  
 
 
Friendship Levels in Pokemon Go 
 
There are four levels of friendships that you can achieve with another trainer in 
Pokemon Go, each with their own set of bonuses and perks. Fortunately, you only 
need to be good friends to trade Pokemon, which means you can trade immediately 
after adding someone to your friend list. However, the bonuses and perks offered on 
higher levels of friendships are completely worth it!  
 
Here’s a complete table of Friendship Levels, requirements and bonuses.  
 

Friendship  No of days to  Bonuses 

Level  unlock 

Good Friend  1  Ability to ​Trade​ and send/receive ​Gifts 

Great Friend  7  3,000 XP, Small (0.2x) Stardust discount on 

Trading 
 

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 Small (1.05x) Gym and Raid attack bonus 
+1 Raid capture balls 

Ultra Friend  30  50,000 XP, Medium (0.92x) Stardust discount 

on ​Trading 
Medium (1.07x) Gym and Raid attack bonus 
+2 Raid capture balls 
Participating in ​Trainer Battles​ at any 
distance 

Best Friend  90  100,000 XP, Large (0.96x) Stardust discount 

on ​Trading 
Large (1.1x) Gym and Raid attack bonus 
+4 Raid capture balls 
Chance to become ​Lucky Friends 

 
 
 
When you reach the Great Friend level, you can enter raids together and you receive a 
discount on Stardust requirements. Great Friendship also allows trainers to trade 
Pokemon they haven’t caught yet. Each level up increases the bonuses and perks.  
 
While time is the main requirement to unlock friendship levels, you can also send gifts 
to upgrade your friendship level. Gifts are special items that you may receive by either 
spinning Pokestops or your buddy. You can’t do anything with these gifts yourself, but 
you can send them to anyone on your friend list. Unlike trading Pokemon, there are no 
physical distance requirements to send a gift. These gifts contain useful items like 
potions and PokeBalls, and even a special yellow and pink egg that will eventually 
hatch into an Alolan form Pokemon. You can only send one gift to a trainer per day, but 
doing so increases your XP and friendship level. At the same time, if your friends are 
compassionate enough, they might send one back to you!  
 
 
What are lucky friends and how do I get one?  
 
One might think that the friendship level maxes out at ‘Best Friend’, but you’d be so 
wrong. Once you’re best friends with another trainer, any action that would otherwise 

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raise your friendship level, such as sending gifts, will raise your chances of becoming 
lucky friends.  
 
Trades between lucky friends result in lucky Pokemon whose power up Stardust costs 
half as much as their normal counterparts. It’s frequently advised to hatch Lucky Eggs 
before hitting Ultra or Best Friends to double that XP. With a Lucky Egg, reaching Best 
Friends with single-player rewards a whopping 200,000 XP. 
 
Unfortunately, lucky status does not last forever once it is achieved. Lucky status lasts 
until your next trade. So while you can attain the lucky stage with a friend and maintain 
it beyond a day, you can only trade one lucky Pokemon.  
 
On the positive end, you can become Lucky Friends with a Best Friend more than 
once. Furthermore, it is also possible to have multiple lucky friends active at once.  
 
 
How does Pokemon Go trading work? 
 
Now we’re clear and through with the friendship levels, let’s get to trading. After 
accepting the friend request and exchanging at least one gift, you’re set to trade 
Pokemon. Each trade costs stardust. The exact amount of stardust varies on a number 
of factors (which we’ll get into in a moment), but you’ll be informed of the trade cost 
before you finalize the trade.  
 
The traded Pokemon’s CP will also vary and the exact CP can’t be determined before 
the trade. If your friend is sending you a Pokemon with 100CP, it’s CP may be above or 
below 200 when you receive it. However, a CP range is displayed before the trade is 
finalised and resulting CP will sit somewhere in that range. Generally, it’s dependent on 
the trainer level as well as friendship level. If you’re a level 45 trainer trading with a Best 
Friend, the CP of the Pokemon you receive will be more than someone who’s a level 20 
trainer trading the same Pokemon with a good friend.  
 

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Another great incentive for trading Pokemon is candies. The exact number of candies 
that you receive for each trade is based on the location where the Pokemon in question 
was caught. The further away you are from its source, the more candies you’ll receive. 
Niantic has not given out any specific numbers, but according to a Reddit user, you’ll 
get one candy for trades under 30KM, two from 30 to 100 KM and three candies per 
trade for anything beyond 100 KM.  
 
In order to maximize the candies that you get from each trade, trade Pokemon that you 
caught beyond the distance of 30KM from the location of trade. An easy metric to keep 
the distance in check while trading with your local friends is to trade Pokemon that you 
didn’t catch in your locality.  
 

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Furthermore, on the subject of trading, there are two types of Pokemon trade-  
 
1. Standard Pokemon Go Trades- For every type of Pokemon except legendary 
and Shiny.  
2. Special Trades- For Legendary or Shiny Pokemon.  
 
Unfortunately, mythical Pokemon like Mew or Mewtwo can’t be traded. They must be 
earned for what it’s worth.  
 
 
But why are the types of trade important, you ask? Good question! Types of trade, 
among a few other metrics, determine the amount a stardust required to trade 
Pokemon.  
 
 
Pokemon Go Trading cost and Stardust Requirements 
 
The Stardust cost required to trade Pokemon in Pokemon Go is dependent # factors.  
 
1. Friendship Level- Good Friends, Great Friends, Ultra Friends or Best Friends 
2. Type of Trade- Standard Trade (For normal Pokemon) or Special Trade (For 
Shiny or Legendary Pokemon) 
3. Pokedex Registry- Is the Pokemon you’re receiving registered in your Pokedex 
or not. In other words, have you previously caught the Pokemon that you’re 
receiving.  
 
Here are the complete stardust requirements for each type of trade.  
 
Standard Trades 
Good Friend: 100 
Great Friend: 80 
Ultra Friend: 8 
Best Friend: 4 
 
Shiny or Legendary (caught) 
Good Friend: 20,000 
Great Friend: 16,000 

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Ultra Friend: 1,600 
Best Friend: 800 
 
Shiny or Legendary (uncaught) 
Good Friend: 1,000,000 
Great Friend: 800,000 
Ultra Friend: 80,000 
Best Friend: 40,000 
 
 
Here’s the take away from the stardust requirements chart-  
 
If you want to trade a Shiny or a Legendary Pokemon with your friend, especially if it’s 
uncaught, then plan ahead. Consider raising your friendship level to Best Friends 
before trading a legendary Pokemon to save a ton on Stardust.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

21
 

Chapter 4: How to Level Up First 

 
 
At its core, Pokemon Go is an RPG. And just like any other RPG, levelling up is 
an important aspect of Pokemon Go. The levels in Pokemon Go aren’t simply a 
measurement chart for your in-game progress. Rather, each level unlocks new 
items and elements of the game, such as gyms, Pinap Berries, Max Revives and 
Ultra Balls. Furthemore, the higher your level is, the rarer the Pokemon will be 
that appear in the wild and hatch from eggs.  
 
Simply put, levelling up allows you to fully enjoy and experience what Pokemon 
Go has to offer. But, while levelling up till level 5 is child’s play and can be done 
within a day of starting the game, the journey can get rough beyond that 
checkpoint. Right now, the highest achievable level in Pokemon Go is level 40. 
In this chapter, we’ll explore everything you need for scour levels and reach 40 
as soon as possible.  
 
 
How to level up in Pokemon Go? 
 
In order to level up, you need Experience points, often denoted as ‘XP’. The 
actual amount of XP you need to level up depends on your current level. For 
example gearing up from level 1 to level 2 requires just 2000 additional XP, while 
making the jump from level 33 to level 34 requires 1,000,000 additional XP and 
making the final leap to level 40 from level 39 requires a whopping 5,000,000 
XP.  
 
So, the ascend to each successive level becomes harder and harder as you 
progress through the game.  
 
Here’s a complete chart of XP you need to progress from level 1 all the way to 
level 40.  
 
 

22
Level  Additional  Total XP 
XP 

1  0  0 

2  1,000  1,000 

3  2,000  3,000 

4  3,000  6,000 

5  4,000  10,000 

6  5,000  15,000 

7  6,000  21,000 

8  7,000  28,000 

9  8,000  36,000 

10  9,000  45,000 

11  10,000  55,000 

12  10,000  65,000 

13  10,000  75,000 

23
14  10,000  85,000 

15  15,000  100,000 

16  20,000  120,000 

17  20,000  140,000 

18  20,000  160,000 

19  25,000  185,000 

20  25,000  210,000 

21  50,000  260,000 

22  75,000  335,000 

23  100,000  435,000 

24  125,000  560,000 

25  150,000  710,000 

26  190,000  900,000 

27  200,000  1,100,000 

24
 28  250,000  1,350,000 

29  300,000  1,650,000 

30  350,000  2,000,000 

31  500,000  2,500,000 

32  500,000  3,000,000 

33  750,000  3,750,000 

34  1,000,000  4,750,000 

35  1,250,000  6,000,000 

36  1,500,000  7,500,000 

37  2,000,000  9,500,000 

38  2,500,000  12,000,000 

39  3,000,000  15,000,000 

40  5,000,000  20,000,000 

 
 

25
Thankfully, Pokemon Go awards you XP for pretty much every in-game action. 
Basically, the game rewards you for simply playing the game. While small 
actions such catching a Pokemon or spinning a Pokestop grants small amounts 
of XP, 100 XP and 50 XP respectively, every little drop adds to the mighty 
ocean. On the other hand, Streaks and Raids drop high XP. Here’s a complete 
list of all the actions that grant you XP in Pokemon GO.  
 

For catching Pokémon: 

● Curveball bonus: 10 XP 

● Nice Throw bonus: 10 XP 
● Pokémon Flees: 25 XP 
● First Throw bonus: 50 XP 
● Great Throw bonus: 50 XP 
● Excellent Throw bonus: 100 XP 
● Catch a Pokémon: 100 XP 
● Catch 100th Pokémon of a species: 100 XP 
● Add a Pokémon to your Pokédex: 500 XP 
● Daily Catch Streak (Days 1-6): 500 XP 
● Daily Catch Streak (Day 7): 2000 XP 

For spinning PokéStops and Gyms: 

● Spin a PokéStop: 50 XP 

● Spin 10th PokéStop in a row: 100 XP 
● Spin a PokéStop for the first time: 250 XP 
● Spin 10th PokéStop for the first time in a row: 500 XP 
● Spin a rival Gym (Basic): 25 XP 
● Spin a rival Gym (Bronze): 50 XP 
● Spin a rival Gym (Silver): 75 XP 
● Spin a rival Gym (Gold): 100 XP 
● Spin a friendly Gym (Basic): 31 XP 
● Spin a friendly Gym (Bronze): 63 XP 
● Spin a friendly Gym (Silver): 94 XP 

26
 ● Spin a friendly Gym (Gold): 125 XP 
● Daily Spin Streak (Days 1-6): 500 XP 
● Daily Spin Streak (Day 7): 2000 XP 

For hatching Pokémon:

● Hatch a 2K egg: 200 XP 

● Hatch a 5K egg: 500 XP 
● Hatch a 10K egg: 1000 XP 
● Add a Pokémon to your Pokédex: 500 XP 

For evolving Pokémon: 

● Evolve a Pokémon: 500 XP 

● Add a Pokémon to your Pokédex: 500 XP 

For battling at Gyms and Raids: 

● Feed a berry to a friendly Pokémon: 25 XP 

● Beat a Gym defender: 100 XP 
● Beat all Gym defenders: 25 XP 
● Beat a Raid Boss: 3000 XP 
● Beat a Legendary Raid Boss: 10,000 XP 

For Friendship: 

● Sending a Gift: 200 XP 

● Become a Good Friend: 3,000 XP 
● Become a Great Friend: 10,000 XP 
● Become an Ultra Friend: 50,000 XP 
● Become a Best Friend: 100,000 XP  

27
 
Can you just XP in Pokémon Go? 
 
Unless you’re purchasing an account, it’s impossible to directly buy XP in Pokemon 
Go. That being said, you can buy a Lucky egg from the shop that grants you double XP 
for 30 minutes. So if catching a Pokemon adds 100 XP to your XP meter, then catching 
a Pokemon with a Lucky egg will grant you 200 XP.  
 
 
How to get Lucky Eggs in Pokemon Go? 
 
There are only two ways by which you can get Lucky eggs, either in the shop or as a 
level up reward. You’ll get one at level 9, 10, 15, two at 20, then one at 25, followed by 
three at 30, one at 35 and four at level 40.  
 
 
How to effectively use Lucky Eggs for maximum XP? 
 
Lucky eggs are hard to come by and expensive to buy. So it's crucial that you make 
the most out of the 30 minute time frame that grants double XP.  
 
There are two proven strategies to get the most out of your Lucky egg- mass catching 
and mass evolution.  
 
Each successful catch will grant you at least 200 XP. On top of that, you can expect 
additional XP if you master your curveball throw or the Pokemon is not yet registered in 
your Pokedex. Additionally, some Pokemons also get weather bonuses.  
 
In your 30 minute window, make sure to catch each and every Pokemon that appears 
on the screen. You might need a hefty stock of Pokeballs to catch every Pokemon, so 
it's a good idea to activate your Lucky egg in a location where there are a bunch of 
Pokestops nearby, mainly city centers, malls, markets or parks. You can also install 
lure modules and incense to attract even more wild Pokemon.  
 
The second thing you need to do in order to get the best out of your lucky egg is mass 
evolution. Each evolution will grant you 1000 XP with a lucky egg and 2000 XP if the 
evolution results in a new Pokedex entry.  

28
 
Save all your candy for the lucky egg. Mark the Pokemons for which you have enough 
candy to evolve in advance so you don’t have to go through the complete catalogue in 
that precious 30 minute window. You can do so by adding a special mark (such as 
#,@,^,*) in the nickname section. Additionally, mass catching Pokemons will also grant 
you a ton of candy.  
 
 
Other ways to garner more XP in Pokemon Go 
 
1. Master Curveball Throw 
 
Curveball throw is the easiest way to earn 10 extra XP for every Pokemon you 
catch, and thus, an essential skill to learn. All you need to do is spin your 
Pokeball in place before throwing it and then throw it sideways rather than 
straight. The Pokeball will spin and capture the Pokemon.  
 

 
Source: Tablet2cases.com 
 
You can easily master the curveball throw in a handful of tries and the payoff is 
totally worth it.  
 

29
 2. Maintain 7 day streaks 
 
7 day streaks are an easy way to collect a ton of XP with a side of stardust. The 
first Pokemon you catch on a given day grants you an extra 500 XP and 600 
Stardust. If you catch a Pokemon everyday for 7 days straight, the game 
rewards you with 2,000 XP and 2,400 Stardust. On the 8th day, the meter resets 
to day 1 and you’re granted 500 XP and 600 Stardust on the first catch of the 
day.  
 

 
 
7 day streaks are not only a good way to earn XP and level up, but also a 
fantastic formula for Stardust, which is required to power up and trade 
Pokemon.  
 
3. Spend coin on incubators 
 
Hatching eggs is a great way to rake XP. Hatching a 2 KM egg grants you 200 
XP, 5 KM egg grants you 500 XP and similarly a 10 KM egg grants you 1000 XP. 
The only problem is that the game gives you just one infinite incubator.  
 

30
  

 
 
Incubating all, or most, of your eggs at once is a great way to earn extra XP 
without any extra effort. While the game grants you a certain number of 
incubators as level up rewards, it's a wise idea to spend your coin on incubators 
to gain XP and crush through the levels.  
 
4. Friendships 
 
Friendships are a great way to earn an enormous amount of XP without any 
active effort. Simply adding a friend grants you 3,000 XP, while achieving the 
Best Friend level grants you a staggering 100,000 XP. All you need to do to 
achieve the best friend levels is be friends with another trainer for 3 months.  
 

31
  
Source: iMore.com 
 
Exchanging gifts with friends also grants you little nuggets of 200 XP, which can 
add up over time.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

32
 

Chapter 5: The Mystery Box and Meltan/ 

Melmetal 
 
The mystery box is a legendary artefact in Pokemon Go whose only purpose is to 
catch Meltan, a mythical Pokemon who made its debut in Pokemon Go.  
 

 
 
Once you get the Mystery Box, you’ll need to activate it and Meltans will start popping 
up on your screen for the next 20 minutes.  
 
 
How to catch Meltan in Pokemon Go?  
 
There are two ways to catch Meltan in Pokemon Go. For the first one, you need to 
complete a series of quest called ‘Let’s Go, Meltan’ and the second one requires a 
Nintendo Switch with a copy of Pokemon Let’s Go Eevee or Pokemon Let’s Go 
Pikachu. 
 

33
 
How to find the mystery box with “Let’s Go, Meltan” quest? 
 
The quest is active right from the get-go. There are nine stages, each with three steps 
(apart from the last stage which has only one step), that need to be completed to finish 
the quest.  
 
In order to access the quest, click on the orange binoculars icon on the bottom right 
and head over to the ‘Specials’ tab. Here, you’ll be able to see your current stage of 
Let’s Go, Meltan quest and your progression.  
 
Here’s the complete list of stages you need to conquer in order to capture Meltan.  
 
Stage 1:  Spin five PokeStops or Gyms. 
Catch 10 Pokemon. 
Transfer five Pokemon. 
Rewards:  1000 Stardust, 10 Poke Balls, and one Incubator. 
 
Stage 2:  Earn two Candies walking with your Buddy Pokemon. 
Make 10 Great Throws. 
Hatch three eggs. 
Rewards:  2000 Stardust, two Lucky Eggs, and one Fast ™. 
 
 
Stage 3:  Catch a Ditto in Pokémon Go. 
Win two Gym Battles. 
Battle in two Raids. 
Rewards:  10 Great Balls, three Incense, and three Max Revive. 
 
 
Stage 4:  Catch five Steel-type Pokemon. 
Catch five Electric-type Pokemon. 
Earn five Candies walking with your Buddy Pokemon. 
Rewards:  4000 Stardust, five Pinap Berries, five Rare Candies. 
 
 
Stage 5:  Evolve a Grimer. 

34
 Catch five Slugma or Galpin. 
Make 20 Great Throws. 
Rewards:  5000 Stardust, 20 Great Balls, and five Lure Modules. 
 
 
Stage 6:  Evolve a Magnemite. 
Catch five Exeggcute. 
Battle in 10 Raids. 
Rewards:  One Silver Pinap berry, one Metal Coat, and 10 Ultra Balls. 
 
 
 
Stage 7:  Evolve one Drowzee. 
Catch one Cubone. 
Evolve one Scyther. 
Rewards:  10 Ultra Balls, one Charged TM, and three Premium Raid Passes. 
 
 
Stage 8:  Catch two Omanyte or Kabuto. 
Catch two Lileep or Anorith. 
Catch an Aerodactyl. 
Rewards: 8000 Stardust, Meltan encounter, and one Star Piece. 
 
 
Stage 9:  Catch Meltan. 
 
Rewards:  Three lots of 4500XP, 9000 Stardust, one Super Incubator, and five 
Meltan candy. 
 

35
36
 
 
It’s a long tedious quest that can take months to complete. Fortunately, there is an 
easier way to get the mystery box that leads to Meltan. The only prerequisite 
requirement is a Nintendo Switch with a copy of Pokemon Let’s Go Eevee or Pokemon 
Let’s Go Pikachu. 
 
 
How to catch Meltan in Pokemon Go with a Nintendo Switch? 
 
 
1. Go to the Go Park in Fuchsia City on your Switch and transfer any Pokémon 
from Pokémon Go to your Nintendo Switch. 
 
2. After the transfer is finished, you’ll get a mystery box in Pokemon Go on your 
phone. It can be found under items. 
 
3. Tap on the mystery box to open it. Now, a bunch of Meltans will spawn for the 
next 30 minutes. Capture as many as you can. You can also use incense or a 
lure module to spawn more Meltans.  
 

 
 
Transfer one of the Meltans that you caught back to your Nintendo to update the 
in-game Pokedex on the Nintendo as well.  
 
 
Is there any other way to catch a Meltan?  
 

37
There isn’t really any other way to catch Meltan in Pokemon Go. Since it is a mythical 
Pokemon, it can’t be traded either.  
 
However, it can be traded within your Pokemon Home. So if you were to catch it in 
Pokemon Go, you can access it on all the other games supported by Pokemon Home.  
 
Unfortunately, Meltan can be only caught in Pokemon Go and there are only two ways 
to do so.  
 
 

 
 
How to get Melmetal in Pokemon Go? 
 
Melmetal is the evolved version of Meltan. You’ll need 400 Meltan candies for the 
evolution.  
 

38
Meltan candies are hard to come by. Your main source of the Meltan Candies will be all 
the Meltans that you can catch in the 30-minute timeframe created by the mystery box. 
You're out of luck if you completed the quest to get Meltan.  
 
Nonetheless, you’ll need to make Meltan your buddy and walk in order to get 400 
Meltan Candies.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

39
 

Chapter 6: Lucky Trades and Lucky Friends 

 
Trades between lucky friends result in lucky Pokemon whose power up Stardust costs 
half as much as their normal counterparts. But those who’re not keen enough to 
regularly maintain and max out the friendship level to Best Friend and beyond here’s 
everything you need to know about lucky trades without a lucky friend.  
 
If you’re looking for more info on lucky friends, including to attain the said level, refer to 
the Trading section (Chapter 3) of this ebook.  
 
Ever since the trading feature was introduced in the game, we were never given clear 
stats or numbers as to the likelihood of a Pokemon trade resulting in a lucky Pokemon. 
All we had was a vague indication that suggested that “the more time a Pokémon 
spends in a Trainer’s Pokémon storage, the higher are its chance of becoming a Lucky 
Pokémon when traded.” 
 
Fortunately, the Silph Road, a research group dedicated to Pokemon Go, completed 
over 9,000 trades since changes to the Lucky Trade system were announced to 
determine the exact chances of a Pokemon trade resulting in a lucky trade.  
 
 

AGE OF OLDEST  % CHANCE OF  LUCKY RATE 

POKÉMON  LUCKY TRADE 

< 1 Year  5%  1 in 20 

1 Year  10%  1 in 10 

2 Years  25%  1 in 4 

40
 Jul-Aug 2016  75%  3 in 4 

 
 
 
Quick Take Away: The Pokemon’s age is the key factor, the longer it spends time in 
your inventory, the higher the chances of the trade resulting in a Lucky Pokemon.  
 
A Pokemon caught back in 2016 when the game was originally released, has way 
higher chances of turning into a Lucky Pokemon after a trade than, say a Pokemon 
caught a week ago.  
 

 
Source: The Silph Road 
 

41
This mechanic makes 2016 Pokemons extremely valuable for trades.  
 
 
GUARANTEED LUCKY TRADES 
 
In 2018, Niantic announced guaranteed lucky trades. There are just two conditions on 
receiving guaranteed Lucky Pokemons from trades-  
 
A. The Pokemon must be in your inventory since July or August 2016 
 
B. You haven’t received 10 or more lucky Pokemons, via the guaranteed trade or 
otherwise. Lucky evolutions are not included in this threshold.  
 
Given that you’ve never received a lucky Pokemon in a trade, you can get 10 
guaranteed lucky Pokemon that cost half as much stardust to power-up. Since the 
guarantee is only valid on Pokemon that have been in your inventory since July or 
August 2016, only 151 Pokemon from the first generation are covered in this guarantee 
since they were the only ones present in the game at that time.  
 
As you’re operating on a thin margin, it’s important to make a wise dedication. The 
best strategy is to double move and max out a Pokemon before trading it to yourself. 
Many people buy accounts with their desired pokemon so they can max them out and 
double move them. 
 
The easiest Pokemon to acquire for your guaranteed lucky trade are the registered 
legendary pokemon, as the stardust trading cost is less than an unregistered legendary 
type. Other nonlegendary or pseudo legendary like Dragonite are also a good pick for 
the guaranteed lucky trade.  
 
 
Other Factors and Correlations for Lucky Pokemon 
 
The Silph Road also evaluated a number of other factors, along with the age of the 
Pokemon, that was believed to play a role in the likelihood of obtaining Lucky 
Pokemon. After 9000 trades and extensive research, the following factors were 
considered to have no impact at all on the likelihood of obtaining Lucky Pokemon via a 
trade.  

42
 
FRIENDSHIP LEVEL 
 
Unless you’ve attained the ‘Lucky Friend’ status with one of your best friends, the 
friendship level plays no role in the trade. You have the same likelihood of receiving a 
Lucky Pokemon from a ‘Good Friend’, that’s just a day old, as you are from a ‘Best 
Friend’ that’s over three months old.  
 
TRADE DISTANCE 
 
Trade distance did not impact the chances of receiving a lucky Pokemon in a trade. A 
Pokemon caught a 100KM away from the trading spot had the same chances of being 
lucky as a Pokemon that was caught just a 100M away.  
 
Pokemon trading has become a crucial part of the game. Acquiring lucky Pokemon is, 
well simply put, quite lucky. You can power them up so much as they require half as 
much stardust. The only guaranteed way to receive a lucky Pokemon in trade is 
receiving a Pokemon that was caught in July or August 2016, given that you haven’t 
received 10 or more lucky Pokemon in trade.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

43
 

Chapter 7: Random Facts to Know about 

Pokemon Go 
 
● The current trainer cap is 40 and requires a staggering 5 million XP to level up 
from level 39 to 40. To put that into perspective, you need a total of 20 million 
XP to rise from level 1 to 40.  
● The potential quality of Pokemon from eggs caps at level 20. Above that, you 
don’t get any better Pokemon from eggs.  
● The potential quality of wild Pokemon caps at level 30. 
● The white arc behind a Pokemon indicates the maximum potential CP. The CP 
can be increased by powering up a Pokemon, while the maximum potential CP 
increases as your trainer level increases, allowing you to push your Pokemon to 
higher CP. You can power-up a Pokemon beyond the max cp by levelling up 
your friendship level with a buddy.  

 
● There are badges above gold. 

44
● Curveballs and accurate throws (Nice, Great, Excellent) actually help with 
captures. The more accurate the throw, the higher the chance of capturing a 
wild Pokemon, among other factors.  
● In battles, each move has an accuracy and critical hit chances. 
● Depending on its rarity and level, Each Pokemon has its own capture and flee 
rate. 
● A Pokemon’s move damage can increase with trainer level. 
● Most cities have discord groups that you can follow in order to trade, raid, and 
battle people around you. Many discord groups also provide team rocket 
locations and Pokestop field research.  
● Place your Pokemon in gyms around your vicinity to maximise your daily coin 
reward.  
● The pokemon's cp from raids will be directly correlated with the iv in most cases 
● Battle friends 3x a day for rewards like rare candy, stardust, evolution stones, 
etc.  
● The three teams in Pokemon Go represent three legendary birds in the 
Pokeverse. Articuno for blue, Moltres for red, and Zapdos for yellow. The logos 
of the three teams are based on the silhouette of their respective mascot.  

 
● Initially, Eevee’s evolution in Pokemon Go seemed totally random. However, a 
Reddit user discovered that changing the name of Eevee before evolving it can 
result in your desired evolution. For Eevee to evolve into a Vaporeon, you must 

45
 rename it ‘Rainer’, for Jolteon, rename Eevee to ‘Sparky’ and for a Flareon, you 
must rename your Eevee to ‘Pyro’. These three names are based on the Eevee 
brothers from the TV anime series. 
● The concept of Pokémon Go was inspired by an April Fool’s prank where 
Google posted an ad on their landing page, looking for a Pokémon Master and 
asked players to explore Google maps and catch Pokemon. The massive 
interest in the prank sparked an idea and two years later, Pokemon Go was 
released,  
● Although Pokemon Go is free to play and download, it was an immensely 
profitable investment for Nintendo. The company raked $200m in revenue in the 
first month itself and the stock price rocketed. The game has earned over $3 
billion in revenue in its lifetime.  
● Since its release, players have collectively taken over 150 billion steps while 
playing the game. Pokemon is also attributed to promoting physical activity 
among gamers.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

46
 
 

Chapter 8: Battling 
 
Battling has been an integral part of the Pokemon series ever since the inception of the 
series. In 2020, there are three types of battles in Pokemon GO- Gym Battles, Raids, 
and Go League Battle.  
 
This guide is designed to help you get started with the battling mechanism in Pokemon 
Go, covering the best and most effective strategies to assure your victory when you 
step in the battlezone. At the end of this guide, we’ve also prepared a chart of the best 
Pokemon ranked on the basis of their types, effectiveness and ultimates.  
 
Each type of Battle is slightly different in purpose and rewards, but the basic 
mechanisms and ‘most’ of the controls across all types of battles are essentially the 
same.  
 
You select a party of three Pokemon from your inventory and battle against other 
Pokemon. Unlike the original games, battle’s are not turn based. You tap on the screen 
to attack and build up your special attack meter. Once the special meter is full, you can 
unleash your Pokemon’s most powerful special move. Dicing up the orbs builds up the 
power of the special move and, once you’ve unleashed it, the meter resets. In gym 
battles and raids, you have the option to dodge but that’s missing in the PVP battles. 
Instead, you can use shields that completely block your opponent’s special in PVP 
battles. You’re limited to just two shields per battle, so it’s a matter of utmost 
importance to use them wisely as they’re often the deciding factor between victory and 
loss.  
 
The result of any type of battle depends upon the Pokemon. A certain type of Pokemon 
is either strong, weak, resistant or vulnerable against another type of Pokemon. Here’s 
a complete list of Pokemon types and their weakness and strengths against other 
types.  
 
 

47
 Type  Strong  Weak Against  Resistant To  Vulnerable 
Against  To 

Normal    Rock, Ghost, Steel  Ghost  Fighting 

Fighting  Normal,  Flying, Poison,  Rock, Bug, Dark  Flying, 

Rock,  Psychic, Bug,  Psychic, Fairy 
Steel, Ice,  Ghost, Fairy 
Dark 

Flying  Fighting,  Rock, Steel,  Fighting, Ground, Bug, Grass  Rock, 

Bug,  Electric  Electric, Ice 
Grass 

Poison  Grass,  Poison, Ground,  Fighting, Poison, Grass, Fairy  Ground, 

Fairy  Rock, Ghost, Steel  Psychic 

Ground  Poison,  Flying, Bug, Grass  Poison, Rock, Electric  Water, Grass, 
Rock,  Ice 
Steel, Fire, 
Electric 

Rock  Flying,  Fighting, Ground,  Normal, Flying, Poison, Fire  Fighting, 

Bug, Fire,  Steel  Ground, 
Ice  Steel, Water, 
Grass 

Bug  Grass,  Fighting, Flying,  Fighting, Ground, Grass  Flying, Rock, 

Psychic,  Poison, Ghost,  Fire 
Dark  Steel, Fire, Fairy 

Ghost  Ghost,  Normal, Dark  Normal, Fighting, Poison, Bug  Ghost, Dark 
Psychic 

Steel  Rock, Ice,  Steel, Fire, Water,  Normal, Flying, Poison, Rock,  Fighting, 
Fairy  Electric  Bug, Steel, Grass, Psychic,  Ground, Fire 
Ice, Dragon, Fairy 

Fire  Bug,  Rock, Fire, Water,  Bug, Steel, Fire, Grass, Ice  Ground, 
Steel,  Dragon  Rock, Water 
Grass, Ice 

Water  Ground,  Water, Grass,  Steel, Fire, Water, Ice  Grass, 

Rock, Fire  Dragon  Electric 

48
 Grass  Ground,  Flying, Poison,  Ground, Water, Grass, Electric  Flying, 
Rock,  Bug, Steel, Fire,  Poison, Bug, 
Water  Grass, Dragon  Fire, Ice 

Electric  Flying,  Ground, Grass,  Flying, Steel, Electric  Ground 

Water  Electric, Dragon 

Psychic  Fighting,  Steel, Psychic,  Fighting, Psychic  Bug, Ghost, 

Poison  Dark  Dark 

Ice  Flying,  Steel, Fire, Water,  Ice  Fighting, 

Ground,  Ice  Rock, Steel, 
Grass,  Fire 
Dragon 

Dragon  Dragon  Steel, Fairy  Fire, Water, Grass, Electric  Ice, Dragon, 
Fairy 

Fairy  Fighting,  Poison, Steel, Fire  Fighting, Bug, Dragon, Dark  Poison, Steel 
Dragon, 
Dark 

Dark  Ghost,  Fighting, Dark,  Ghost, Psychic, Dark  Fighting, Bug, 

Psychic  Fairy  Fairy 

 
 
 

Gym Battles 

Gyms are team strongholds that are located at points of interest around your city such 
as a Metro station, a museum and so on. Each gym is controlled by one of the three 
teams, indicated by the colour of the gym itself. For example if a gym is controlled by 
Team Instinct, it will be in blue colour.  
 
For the gyms controlled by rival factions, your goal is to defeat the Pokemon defending 
the gym and take control of the gym for your own team. For the gyms controlled by 
your own team, the goal is to keep up the motivation and defend the gym by placing 
your Pokemon at the gym.  
 

49
A Pokemon’s ability to be successful in a battle is primarily based on two factors- its 
Hit Points and its Combat power. HP is a measure of health and CP is a measure of the 
strength of their attacks, so a Pokemon with a high HP can endure more damage while 
a Pokemon with high CP can deal more damage.  
 
Ideally, to defeat the opponent team’s defender, you should select a Pokemon with a 
high CP who happens to have just enough HP to endure the damage received in a 
battle. Furthemore, you should opt for a Pokemon that is strong against the defender. 
Say you’re about to battle against a fighting type Pokemon. If you choose a Poison or 
Psychic type Pokemon, then all your attacks will be super effective. For the complete 
list of Pokemons strengths and weaknesses, refer to the chart in the beginning of this 
guide.  
 
A gym’s strength is also dictated by motivation, a measurement of the Pokémon’s 
desire to defend the gym. Defending Pokemon lose their motivation over time and by 
losing battles against other teams. As a result of the reduced motivation, a Pokemon’s 
CP is temporarily reduced making it weaker in battle. So, for opposing teams, your 
goal should be to reduce a gym’s motivation while if you’re visiting a friendly gym, then 
consider increasing the motivation of the defenders, more on the same later.  

How to join a gym battle? 

 
Walk up to a Gym controlled by an enemy team and touch it to interact with it. Press 

the Battle button to initiate the battle. The first order of business is to select a 
party of Pokemon that will fight against the defenders. The game automatically 
suggests a party based on your opponents’ strengths and weaknesses. You can either 
use the suggested party, or customize it. We’d recommend you to refrain from using 
your strongest defender in the party as it’s the one you should place in the gym after 
claiming it your own. For a list of the strongest defenders in Pokemon Go, refer to the 
chart at the end of this guide.  
 
You’ll be battling Pokémon in the order they were assigned to the Gym; the Pokémon 
on the Gym for the longest time will battle first. If a gym is defended by extremely 
powerful Pokemon, then you can team up with another trainer to challenge the gym at 
the same time. Y 
 

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Once you and your party are ready, it’s time to rock. Press the “GO Battle” button to 
start battling your opponent. 
 
When you’re in the arena, you can perform one of three distinct actions.  
 
1. Fast Attack- Press anywhere on the screen to perform a fast attack. Fast attacks 
build up your charged attack.  
2. Charged Attack- Once the charged attack is fully enabled, press on the charged 
attack button to perform a special attack that deals a huge amount of damage.  
3. Dodge- Swipe right or left to dodge incoming attacks from your enemy.  
 

 
Source: iMore.com 
 
Once your opponent’s HP hits zero, they will faint and you’ll win the round. After each 
round, you’ll have the option to either continue and battle the next Pokemon or end the 
battle. However, if all six of your Pokemon faint, you’ll lose the battle. If you manage to 
defeat all the Pokemon defending a gym, the gym will open up, indicated by the grey 
colour.  
 
 
Claiming an Open Gym 

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Once you’re cleared the gym, you can claim it for your own team. Enter the gym by 

tapping and then press the Add Pokémon button. Now, you can choose any 
Pokemon from your inventory. Your Pokémon won't be returned to your collection until 
it's knocked off the Gym, so choose carefully! 
 
Once you’ve placed one of your Pokemon at a gym, it’s colour will change from grey to 
your team’s colour. A total of six Pokemon can be assigned to defend a gym, but a 
trainer can assign only one Pokemon at a given gym. If a gym is already claimed by 
your team, then you can place your Pokemon at the gym without putting up a battle. 
Only one Pokémon of a particular species can be assigned to a Gym at one time. So if 
a Charizard is already assigned at the gym by one of your teammates, you won’t be 
able to assign another Charizard at the same gym.  
 
It’s important to keep up the motivation of your Pokemon at a gym to safeguard the 
team stronghold against invaders. In order to motivate a Pokemon, you can give it a 
berry. Simply walk up to the gym and choose the Pokemon you’d like to give a berry. 
Choose the berry and you’ve successfully increased the Pokémon’s motivation meter. 
 
You can also feed your Pokemon a berry from afar. Locate the Pokemon that’s 
assigned to a gym in your inventory and press the “Go to Gym” button to feed a berry 
from afar. Unlike on-site, you can only feed your Pokemon a berry from afar.  
 

Pokémon Go Battle League  

Pokemon Go League is a much requested feature that lets you go head to head 
against other trainers in Pokemon Go. 

Getting Started  

Pokémon Go battles are restricted to players who have reached level 10. Once you’ve 
cleared the level threshold, click on the ‘Pokeball’ button at the centre of the map view 
and then press the ‘Battle’ button on the top right.  

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How to battle against other players in Pokémon Go? 

There are two ways of battling against others: 

● Locally:​ Open the 'Nearby' menu, which is at the bottom right corner of the 
map screen. This will give you a variety of Battle options. Trap the 
'Challenge a Trainer' button and scan the QR code on another player's 
screen (also found in the same menu). You don't need to be Friends to 
battle locally. 
● Distance:​ If you want to battle other trainers at a distance, you’ll need to be 
an Ultra or Best Friend. When you are ready, go to your Friends list, and 
find the player you want to battle. Press the Battle button, and they will 
receive a notification. If they accept, the battle begins. 

You can also battle random trainers online. Simply click on the button that says ‘Battle’ 
under Go Battle League and you’ll be paired up with a random trainer online.  

How to train against the computer in Pokémon Go? 

You can train against the three leaders of Team Valor, Mystic and Instinct in PVP 
battles. These battles give you a taste and practice of PVP battles before you head into 
actual battles. Trainer battles also yield some nifty rewards such as Stardust.  

To train against the computer, scroll all the way down in the Battle menu and you’ll be 
able to see Candela, Blanche and Spark. Tap on any of them to begin the battle.  

Everything you need to know about PvP battles: 

● PvP battles are fought with a party of three Pokemon, as opposed to the 
party of six in gym and raid battles. Niantic originally tested out 6 vs 6 
battles, but they proved to be quite long so the developers opted for a 
shorted and fast-paced 3 vs 3 mechanism. 
● You will have the ability to swap Pokemon mid-battle to get an edge over 
your opponent.  

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 ● The controls are the same as gym battles, with the only exception being the 
loss of ability to dodge an incoming attack. However, you can use a shield 
against charged attacks that completely absorb any damage. You’re limited 
to two shields per battle.  
● Battles are timed, and if at the end of the battle there are still Pokémon 
remaining, then the winner is determined by the amount of Pokémon available, 
and if that's a tie, the amount of HP remaining. 
● There are three leagues- Great, Ultra and Master. The difference between 
each league is the CP cap, so even low level trainers can enjoy PvP battles 
without a constant fear of facing a vastly superior nemis. The CP cap for the 
different leagues are-  
○ Great League - 1500 CP cap 
○ Ultra League - 2500 CP cap 
○ Master League - no CP cap 

● There’s a penalty for intentionally leaving the battle. If you leave a battle without 
finishing it, you’ll automatically lose. If your internet connection drops while 
playing the game, you can still rejoin the match by rebooting the app. However, 
in the meanwhile, your opponent may still continue to attack.  

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 ● Each battle can reward you with Stardust, Rare Candy, Pokémon encounters, 
TMs, and other random goodies, varying based on how many battles you won in 
the set of five. 

Raid Battles  

The final ingredient of battles in Pokemon Go is Raid. Raid Battles occur when an 
extremely powerful Pokemon takes over a gym. Your goal is to team up other trainers 
and defeat the raid boss for exciting rewards and a chance to catch the raid boss itself.  
 
Although raid battles take place in a gym and the controls are the same as a gym 
battle, raid battles are much more difficult than your typical gym battles. There are four 
difficulty tiers, tier 1, tier 3, and tier 5. The stronger the boss, the more difficult it is to 
defeat. So make sure you can get all the support required from your fellow trainers to 
succeed in the raid.  
 
On top of the tier 5 raid bosses, the game also features Mega Raids where you and 
your party go against Mega-Evolved Raid Bosses. Defeating a Mega Raid Boss gives 
you Mega Energy, a resource required to Mega Evolve Pokémon. 
 
There is yet another, even more powerful and exclusive raid known as EX raid battles. 
EX raids are an invite only event that take place at specific Gym at a specific time. 
These battles give you an opportunity to catch few of the most powerful and sought 
out Pokemon in the game. In order to join an EX Raid, you’ll need an EX Raid pass 
which is a challenge in itself but the journey to an EX raid starts with a normal Raid 
Battle.  
 
 
FINDING A RAID BATTLE 
 
Before a Raid starts, a raid egg will appear at the top of the gym along with a 
countdown until the egg hatches and the battle begins. Unfortunately, you can’t know 
the Raid Boss until the egg hatches.  
 
You’ll also receive an in-game notification for raids taking place nearby and you also 
locate nearby raids by pressing on the nearby button (Pokeball) on the map. You may 

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be invited to a raid by a friend. If you choose to accept the invitation, you’ll need to 
walk all the way to the gym where the raid in question is taking place.  
 

 
 
How to join a raid battle?  
 
The first thing you need to participate in a raid battle is a raid pass, which basically 
acts as a ticket for entering the raid. There are four types of raid passes-  
 
1. Standard Raid Pass 
 
You can get a standard riad pass by spinning a gym. You can hold only one raid pass 
in your inventory at once and get a maximum of one raid pass per day by spinning the 
gym. The standard pass gives you access to Tier 1-5 Raid Battles. Raid passes can be 
also purchased in the shop.  
 
2. Premium Battle Pass 
 
If you have already used your Raid Pass, you can participate in another Raid Battle by 
purchasing a Premium Battle Pass from the Shop. Unlike the Raid Pass, you can hold 
more than one Premium Battle Pass in your inventory at a time. Like the Raid Pass, the 

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Premium Battle Pass also grants access to Tier 1-5 Raid Battles. Premium Battle 
Passes can also be used to unlock Premium rewards in GO Battle League. 
 
3. Remote Raid Pass 
 
Remote Raid Pass allows you to participate in a nearby raid without being physically 
present at the gym. Remote Raid Pass can be purchased at the shop and occasionally 
received as a reward for special events. You can hold up to 3 remote raid passes in 
your inventory.  
 
4. EX Raid Pass 
 
EX Raid Pass grants you access to invite only, EX Raids. To receive an EX Raid Pass, 
you must have successfully completed a raid recently by defeating a Raid Boss at the 
Gym where the EX Raid Battle will be taking place. 
 
How to increase your chances of getting an EX Raid Pass?  
● Join more Raid Battles. The more Raid Battles you successfully complete, the 
greater your chances to receive an EX Raid Pass. 
● Try completing raids at a variety of different Gyms. 
● Earn more Gym Badges. Trainers with a high-level Gym Badge are more likely to 
be invited to EX Raid Battles taking place at that Gym. 
● JOINING A RAID BATTLE 
● Once the Egg hatches, the raid begins and you have 45 minutes to defeat the 
Boss. Any number of Trainers can join a raid, but only in groups of up to 20 
Trainers. If you would like to be in the same group as your friends, you can join 
the raid privately. Otherwise, you will be automatically matched with other 
players in the lobby. 
 
 
Once you have a pass, you can participate in a Raid Battle. Follow the steps below to 
battle a raid boss.  
 
1. Tap on the gym where a raid is in progress.  
2. You can join a raid with either a random party of automatically matched 
strangers or with a private party. Tap Join Privately to enter an existing group. 

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 You’ll be asked to provide a group code. In either case, the maximum number of 
trainers that can battle a raid boss is limited to six.  
3. Exchange the raid pass for entry into the raid. The raid passed in non 
refundable, despite the outcome of the raid battle.  
4. The next steps are just like battling at a regular gym. Choose a group of 6 
Pokemon from your inventory and start the battle.  
 
 
What to do after defeating the Raid Boss? 
 
Once you defeat the Raid Boss, you’ll earn a number of awards such as Golden Razz 
Berries, Fast and Charged TM, or Rare Candy. In addition to the above, you’ll also 
receive a number of Premier balls that can be used to catch the raid boss. The number 
of Premier Balls you receive in a Raid Battle depends on how much damage you deal, 
whether the Gym is controlled by your team, and how quickly you defeat the Raid 
Boss. 
 
You can only use a Premier ball to capture a raid boss, however you will be able to 
feed berries from your inventory to increase your chances of successfully capturing the 
Pokemon. If you run out of Premier ball, the Pokemon will flee. The only exception to 
this rule is Mega Raid Battles, where you receive extra Mega Energy instead of extra 
Premier Balls for defeating the Raid Boss quickly. So you can’t capture a Mega Raid 
Boss.  
 
If your Pokemon faint and you’re unable to defeat a raid boss in a battle, you can rejoin 
the battle again without using another raid pass. 

And that’s a wrap on our complete guide to Battling in Pokemon Go. Check out the list 
below to find the best Pokemon by type in Pokemon Go. Hope this helps you dominate 
any arena you step into in Pokemon Go. 

Pokémon Go Best Pokémon by Type: 

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 Type  Best Pokémon  Best Uses  Fast Move (of that  Charged Move (of that 
type)  type) 

Normal  Blissey  Defending  Pound  Dazzling Gleam 

Snorlax  Defending  Lick  Body Slam 

Slaking  Defending  Yawn  Play Rough 

Fighting  Lucario  Attacking  Counter  Aura Sphere 

Conkeldurr  Attacking  Counter  Dynamic Punch 

Machamp  Attacking  Counter  Dynamic Punch 

Flying  Rayquaza  Attacking  Air Slash  Aerial Ace 

Honchkrow  Attacking  Peak  Sky Attack 

Moltres  Attacking  Wing Attack  Sky Attack 

Poison  Roserade  Both  Poison Jab  Sludge Bomb 

Toxicroak  Attacking  Poison Jab  Sludge Bomb 

Victreebel  Both  Acid  Sludge Bomb 

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Ground  Goudon  Attacking  Mud Shot  Earthquake 

Garchomp  Attacking  Mud Shot  Earthquake 

Rhyperior  Both  Mud Slap  Earthquake 

Rock  Tyranitar  Both  Smack Down  Stone Edge 

Terrakion  Both  Smack Down  Rock Slide 

Rampardos  Attacking  Smack Down  Rock Slide 

Bug  Pinsir  Both  Bug Bite  X-Scissor 

Scizor  Attacking  Fury Cutter  X-Scissor 

Yanmega  Attacking  Bug Bite  Bug Buzz 

Ghost  Giratina (Origin  Attacking  Shadow Claw  Shadow Ball 

Forme) 

Defending  Hex  Shadow Ball 

Chandelure 

Defending  Shadow Claw  Shadow Ball 

Gengar 

Steel  Metagross  Both  Bullet Punch  Meteor Mash 

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 Dialga  Attacking  Metal Claw  Iron Head 

Excadrill  Attacking  Metal Claw  Iron Head 

Fire  Darmanitan  Attacking  Fire Fang  Overheat 

Entei  Attacking  Fire Fang  Overheat 

Moltres  Attacking  Fire Spin  Overheat 

Water  Kyogre  Attacking  Waterfall  Hydro Pump 

Swampert  Attacking  Water Gun  Hydro Pump 

Gyarados  Both  Waterfall  Hydro Pump 

Grass  Roserade  Both  Razor Leaf  Grass Knot 

Alolan Exeggutor  Both  Bullet Seed  Solar Beam 

Tangrowth  Attacking  Vine Whip  Power Whip 

Electric  Raikou  Attacking  Thunder Shock  Wild Charge 

Electivire  Both  Thunder Shock  Wild Charge 

Zapdos  Attacking  Thunder Shock  Thunderbolt 

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Psychic  Mewtwo  Attacking  Confusion  Psychic 

Metagross  Both  Zen Headbutt  Psychic 

Latios  Attacking  Zen Headbutt  Psychic 

Ice  Mamoswine  Both  Powder Snow  Avalanche 

Weavile  Attacking  Ice Shard  Avalanche 

Glaceon  Attacking  Frost Breath  Avalanche 

Dragon  Rayquaza  Attacking  Dragon Tail  Outrage 

Palkia  Attacking  Dragon Tail  Draco Meteor 

Garchomp  Both  Dragon Tail  Outrage 

Dark  Darkrai  Attacking  Snarl  Dark Pulse 

Hydreigon  Attacking  Bite  Dark Pulse 

Tyranitar  Attacking  Bite  Crunch 

Fairy  Togekiss  Defending  Charm  Dazzling Gleam 

Gardevoir  Both  Charm  Dazzling Gleam 

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 Granbull  Both  Snarl  Play Rough 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Chapter 9: Pokémon Go Team Rocket 

 
Team Rocket has invaded the world of Pokemon Go and it’s up to you to defeat the 
villainous franchise and save the Pokemon. Defeating Team Rocket leaders isn’t an 
easy task, but if you manage to do so, the pay-off is huge! But defeating Team 
Rocket’s leaders isn’t easy. In fact, finding the bosses is a behemoth task in itself.  
 
Here, we’re looking at everything you need to know about Team Rocket in Pokemon 
Go, starting all the way from the origins of the villainous organisation, to locating Team 
Rocket members and all the way to defeating Giovanni, the infamous leader of Team 
Rocket in Pokemon Go.  
 
What is Team Go Rocket? 
 
Team Go Rocket is the incarnation of the first criminal organization from the original 
Pokémon games and anime. Just like the anime, Team Go Rocket lurks in the shadows 
and steals any and all Pokemon they can get their hands on. These stolen Pokemon 
are corrupted through a crazy technique that leaves them in constant pain and 
converted into Shadow Pokémon that are forced to do the dirty biddings of the team.  
 
 
How to Encounter Team Go Rocket? 
 
Team Go Rocket uses regular Pokestops and turns them into Team Rocket Stops, 
identifiable by the grey colour and a red ‘R’ hovering above the Pokestop. The 
Pokéstop disc isn't just discolored either. It also behaves erratically — spinning quickly 
and changing direction often — which gives you additional clues. 
 

64
  
 
As you get closer to the Pokestop, a Team Rocket member will appear and tapping on 
them will initiate the battle.  
 
Ever since the coronavirus Pandemic made walking out of your house a tough job, the 
Ninatic has introduced a feature that allows you to battle Team Go Rocket from the 
comfort of your home. Hot Air balloons will spawn in the sky and tapping on them  
initiates a battle with the Team Go Rocket.  
 
Four times a day, a Team GO Rocket balloon can appear on the map.  
● Without a Rocket Radar, you will encounter Grunts. 
● With a normal Rocket Radar equipped, you will encounter one of the Team GO 
Rocket Executives. 
● With a Super Rocket Radar equipped, you will have the chance to encounter 
Giovanni, himself. 
 
● The first balloon will show up between midnight and six. 
● The second balloon will show up between six and noon. 
● The third balloon will show up between noon and six. 
● The final balloon will show up between six and midnight. 
 

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Each encounter against a Team Go Rocket member will be like a PvP battle, where 
you’ll go one on one with a Team Go Rocket member with a party of three Pokemon. If 
you manage to defeat them, you’ll have a chance to capture a shadow Pokemon with 
premier Pokeballs earned during the battle, a mechanism reminiscent of Raid Battles. 
Once you run out of premier Pokeballs, the shadow Pokemon flees.  
 
Shadow Pokémon which have dramatically different stats from normal Pokémon. 
They're much more aggressive, with higher attack power in exchange for defensive 
capabilities. They make for the ideal glass cannon and are some of the best counters in 
certain Raids. You can also purify the captured Pokemon at the cost of candies and 
stardust to restore their original stats. Purified Pokemon also cost less to power up.  
 
 
How to build a Rocket Radar? 
 
A rocket radar allows you to find Team Go Rocket stops and encounter Team GO 
Rocket Executives instead of low level thugs. In order to assemble a Rocket Radar, 
you’ll need to defeat six grunts, each of which will drop a mysterious component. 
When these mysterious components are pieced together, a Rocket Radar emerges.  
 
 
 
Ever since the aerial invasions with hot air 
balloons were introduced, Rocket Radars have 
lost their importance as executives also spawn in 
hot air balloons. Nonetheless, a Rocket Radar 
still functions as it used to and indicates the 
hideout locations, not to mention the fact that it 
is a prerequisite requirement to face Team Go 
Executives.   
 
 

Team Go Rocket Bosses and their Tactics  

 

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Team Go Rocket features three executives, each of which are the counterparts of the 
three team leaders, followed by a special boss and ultimately, Giovanni, the big boss. 
Over the time, players have figured out exactly which Pokemon are used by each boss. 
You can use this intel to configure your party with Pokemon that are super effective 
against the bosses in order to rise victorious. Refer to our battling guide to find out the 
strengths and weaknesses of each type of Pokemon, along with the best Pokemon of 
each type.  
 
If you lose against a boss, you can use the battle as strategy guide in your next guide 
against the said boss as you can battle against a boss unlimited times.  

Cliff 

Cliff is the first of the three Team Go Rocket executives. He’s a counterpart of Blanche, 
the Mystic Team Leader. Cliff has a party of three Pokemon and they’re as follows.  

1. Slot 1- Grimer.  
2. Slot 2- Machamp/ Omastar/ Electivire  
3. Slot 3- Tyranitar/ Swampert/ Torterra  

Reward Pokemon- Shadow Meowth 

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Sierra 

Sierra is the next executive in the line up and she packs a blast in her part.  

1. Slot 1- Lapras 
2. Slot 2- Exeggutor/ Lapras/ Sharpedo 
3. Slot 3- Houndoom/ Shiftry/ Alakazam 

Reward Pokemon- Shadow Sneasel 

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Arlo 

Arlo is the last of the three executives. She brings out a wide variety of Shadow 
Pokemon with ridiculously high CP, so picking out the right Party against her can be a 
tough job.  

1. Slot 1- Pineco 
2. Slot 2- Charizard/ Steelix/ Blastoise 
3. Slot 3- Salamence/ Scizor/ Dragonite 

Reward Pokemon- Shadow Scyther 

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Special Mention- Jesse and James 

 
 
Starting July 2020, you can encounter and battle against the iconic duo of Jesse and 
James that served as the face of Team Rocket in the Pokemon Anime. Jesse and 
James can be caught flying around in a Meowth hot air balloon, as compared to the 
bland grey Team Go Rocket balloon.  
 
Here are the Pokemon that Jesse and James will be throwing at you when you 
encounter them. 
 
First up is Jesse with: 

1. Slot 1- Ekans 
2. Slot 2- Scyther 
3. Slot 3- Bagon 

Reward Pokemon- Shadow Ekans 

After beating Jesse, James is up with: 

1. Slot 1- Koffing 

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 2. Slot 2- Sneasel 
3. Slot 3- Beldum 

Reward Pokemon- Shadow Koffing  

This technically is an unequal battle since one trainer with three Pokemon is going 
against two trainers with six Pokemon, but since you know exactly what you’re up 
against, you can use this information to your advantage and rise gloriously.  

Giovanni 

If you successfully defeat all the three Team Go Rocket executives, you’ll be against 
Giovanni, the infamous founder of Team Go Rocket. Defeating him is no child’s play, 
but if you manage to defeat him, you’ll receive a number of worthy rewards and the 
opportunity to capture a legendary Shadow Pokémon, such as Shadow Articuno, 
Shadow Zapdos, Shadow Moltres and more. Each month, the Pokemon you can 
receive as a reward is different, but it’s always a legendary Pokemon.  

Finding Giovanni is much more difficult as compared to locating grunts and executives. 
Follow the steps below  

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 1. First, you must complete the Special Research story-line, A Troubling Situation 
to unlock the latest Giovanni Special Research quest. Every month, a new quest 
is added to encounter Giovanni. If there’s no new quest, such as in September 
2020, it means there will be no Giovanni encounter that month.  
2. Completing the fourth step of Looming in the Shadows will reward you with the 
Super Rocket Radar. The super rocket radar guides you to Giovanni.  

But here’s the catch, as soon as you pop open the Super Rocket Radar, you’ll see a 
number of Giovanni locations on the map. Only one of them is the real Giovanni, others 
are just Team Go Rocket disgusted as Giovanni to throw you off track. You’ll need to 
work your way through these grunts to find the real Giovanni. Furthermore, unlike 
grunts and executives, Giovanni doesn't spawn in Hot Air Balloons, that simply does 
not suit his style.  

Once you’re up against Giovanni, here’s what he’ll throw at you.  

1. Slot 1- Persian  
2. Slot 2- Dugtrio/ Suicune/ Nidoking  
3. Slot 3- Garchomp 

The variations on Giovanni’s line-up is pretty limited, with the uncertainty arising at the 
second Pokemon slot, but this battle is one of the toughest battles in the whole game. 
In addition to Stardust and special items, you also stand a chance to capture a shadow 
Legendary Pokemon as a reward for defeating Giovanni.  

 
 

72
 

Chapter 10: Pokemon Go Plus 

 
Pokemon Go Plus is a wearable accessory that connects to your phone via Bluetooth 
and essentially allows you to play Pokemon Go without opening the Pokemon Go app 
or even turning on your phone. It can be worn as a bracelet, locket or a collar pin.  
 
Pokemon Go Plus is shaped like a pin drop and coloured red and white like a Pokeball. 
In the centre, there’s an LED light that also doubles as a button which allows you to 
interact with the app. There’s also a tiny rumble motor in the device that vibrates where 
a Pokestop or Pokemon is nearby. By pressing the button, you can spin Pokestops 
and catch Pokemon without ever having to boot-up the Pokemon Go app. Pokemon 
Go Plus operates in the background, so it doesn’t drain your phone’s battery or slow it 
down by blocking the RAM. 
 

 
 
 
What Can Pokemon Go Plus Do? 
 

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Pokemon Go alerts you when you’re in the vicinity of a Pokestop by flashing a blue 
LED. You can simply press on the button to spin the Pokestop and receive items such 
as Pokeballs, Potions, Eggs and more. Plus will vibrate and flash a spectrum of LEDs 
to confirm that you’ve got the drop. However, unlike spinning a Pokestop in the app, 
you can’t actually see what you received unless you open up the trainer journal in the 
app. 
 
Furthermore, you can use it to catch Pokemon, more on that in a second, and measure 
your footsteps to help you hatch eggs.  
 
 
How to catch Pokemon with Pokemon Go Plus? 
 
Pokemon Go allows you to catch a Pokemon if it’s already registered in your Pokedex. 
If you encounter a wild Pokemon that you’ve caught already, the device will blink green 
and you can press the button to throw a Pokeball. Then the device will vibrate thrice to 
imitate the moving Pokeball from the game. If the encounter was successful, the light 
will flash all it’s colours to celebrate your achievement. On the contrary, if the 
encounter was unsuccessful, the device will vibrate once and the light will flash red.  
 
If you come across a Pokemon that isn’t registered in your Pokedex, the light will blink 
yellow to indicate the same. Pressing the button will open the app on your smartphone 
and you can capture the Pokemon the normal way.  
 
So while you can technically catch Pokemon with the Pokemon Go Plus, there’s a 
major catch with it. The app doesn’t tell you anything about the Pokemon you’re 
encountering. If maybe a 20 CP Zubat or a 1000+ CP Dragonite, there’s simply no way 
to tell without opening the app.  
 
Pressing the button will throw a normal Pokeball at the wild Pokemon, there’s no 
option to use an ultra ball or any sorts of berries. If you’re out of normal Pokeballs, the 
light will flash red to indicate the inability to capture wild Pokemon. What’s worse is the 
fact that, unlike the app, you’ve got just one shot at capturing the wild Pokemon with 
Pokemon Go Plus. If the Pokemon breaks free, it flies away.  
 
Catching Pokemon with Pokemon Go Plus is always a gamble. While it offers the 
versatility of capturing a Pokemon without ever having to look at your screen, the 

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chances of capturing high-level Pokemon is terribly low. Keep in mind that as you 
level-up, you’ll encounter more powerful wild Pokemon. So the chances of capturing a 
wild Pokemon with Pokemon Go Plus will drastically reduce as you level-up. Not to 
mention the fact that you won’t receive any curveball of Nice throw bonus with 
Pokemon Go Plus.  
 
 
How much does Pokemon Go Plus cost and what’s in the box? 
 
Pokemon Go costs $39.99 and here’s what you get in the box-  
 
Pokémon GO Plus 
Pokémon GO Plus exclusive band 
Coin battery (CR2032)—already installed in the Pokémon GO Plus 
Instruction sheet 
 
 
Is Pokemon Go Plus rechargeable?  
 
No, Pokémon GO Plus is not rechargeable. It runs on a coin battery but given the fact it 
doesn’t have any sort of display, the coin battery can last an exceptionally long time 
before a replacement. CNET conducted an in-depth test where their Pokémon GO Plus 
lasted 32 days. A number of Reddit users reported that they could squeeze just under 
2 months of battery life with battery.   
 
 
How to pair Pokémon GO Plus with your Smartphone? 
 
Open the Pokémon GO app- 
 
In Map view, tap the Main Menu. 
At the top right, tap Settings. 
Tap Pokémon GO Plus. 
Press the button on the Pokémon GO Plus to make the accessory discoverable. 
Tap your Pokémon GO Plus on the Available Devices list. It will vibrate when 
connected. 
 

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If your phone is unable to connect to your Pokémon GO Plus, you may need to pair 
using your phone's Bluetooth settings. 
 
On iOS devices: 
 
● Open the Settings app and tap Bluetooth. 
● Tap the Bluetooth toggle to turn Bluetooth on. 
● Press the button on the Pokémon GO Plus to make the accessory discoverable. 
● Tap Pokémon GO Plus from the My Devices or Other Devices list. 
● Open the Pokémon GO app. 
● In Map view, tap the Main Menu. 
● Tap Pokémon GO Plus. 
● Press the button on the Pokémon GO Plus to make the accessory discoverable. 
● Tap your Pokémon GO Plus on the Available Devices list. It will vibrate when 
connected. 
 
On Android Devices  
 
● Open your device's Settings menu. 
● Tap the Bluetooth toggle to turn Bluetooth on. 
● Tap Search for devices or Refresh to scan for nearby devices. 
● Tap the button on the Pokémon GO Plus to make the accessory discoverable. 
● Tap Pokémon GO Plus from the list of available devices. 
● Open the Pokémon GO app. 
● In Map view, tap Main Menu. 
● At the top right, tap Settings. 
● Tap Pokémon GO Plus. 
● Press the button on the Pokémon GO Plus to make the accessory discoverable. 
● Tap your Pokémon GO Plus on the Available Devices list. It will vibrate when 
connected. 
 
 
Is there an Apple Watch or Wear OS app that performs the function of Pokémon 
Go Plus? 
 
Unfortunately, there’s no Apple Watch or Wear OS app performs the functions of 
Pokemon Go Plus. There were rumours of an Apple Watch App that worked like a 

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Pokémon Go Plus in development in 2019, but it has subsided since then and there 
haven’t been any updates.  
 
Nintendo says that they want the technology to be easily accessible rather than 
coming at the cost of owning a smartwatch. However, if you’re looking for an upgrade 
over Plus, Nintendo manufactures Pokemon Go-Tch, which is similar in functions as 
the Plus but features an LCD Touchscreen complete with animations.  
 
Should you buy a Pokémon Go Plus? 
 
Short Answer- Yes! 
 
If you want to grind through the levels and acquire more items by spinning Pokestops, 
you should definitely consider investing in a Pokémon Go Plus! 
 
Pokémon Go Plus allows you to spin Pokestops faster than ever, even faster than the 
app. It’s a simple device that integrates into your life. It’s the perfect wearable for those 
who’re always on the go. It vibrates, you click on it. That’s it!  
 
Pokémon Go Plus is particularly helpful on community days when you’re going around 
catching Pokemon or raiding gyms. The small device allows you to spin Pokestops 
even while you’re engaged in a raid or a battle simply by clicking on it. This feature is 
perfect to get the most out of your lucky egg.  
 
Levelling up is a child’s play with Pokémon Go Plus. Each successfully captured 
Pokemon grants you 50 XP (100 catch + 50 first throw) and even the Pokemon that run 
away, which is quite likely the case at higher levels, leave 25 XP to your name. This is 
an excellent target to capture low-level Pokemon for candies that can be used to 
mass-evolve Pokemon for grinding levels.  
 
Pokemon Go Plus also gives you much-needed freedom from the screen without 
hindering your level progression. Theoretically, you can play the game for days on end 
without ever having to open up the app as long as you’ve got Pokemon Go Plus. The 
device allows you to focus on your life and surroundings when you’re on the move or 
trying to focus on work.  
 

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Sure, the Pokémon Go Plus has its drawbacks. There are a few known connection 
issues, it’s not rechargeable so you’re always stuck with replacing the coin batteries 
and biggest of all, it’s pretty much useless when it comes to catching Pokemon. But all 
of that is easily forgiven for everything else if offered under its sleeve.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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C​HAPTER​ 11: H​OW​ ​TO​ B​UY​ ​A​ P​OKEMON​ G​O 

​ HAT​’S​ ​ R
ACCOUNT​ T ​ IGHT​ F​ OR​ Y​ OU​? 
 

Once you’re thorough with the ins and outs of Pokemon Go, you’re ready to buy an 
account with your dream Pokemons. This guide is crafted to aid you in buying a 
Pokemon go account that’s perfect for you. It will include all the common variables you 
should consider before purchasing an account. Additionally, it will include details on 
how to change your email after you buy the account! 

1) Prioritize your necessities: 

Firstly, you should note what you’re truly looking for in your dream account. Is it a 
high level? A bunch of fully evolved pokemon? Lots of legendarys/ mythicals? Lots 
of shiny? Maybe shiny shiny legendarys?  

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 a. The maximum level you can purchase is level 40, typically when you 
purchase these accounts, they will be abundant in fully evolved pokemon, 
legendarys, and shinys.  

2) Special moves/ legacy moves/ double moves 

Next, you want to see if you’re targeting accounts with legacy moves, community 
day pokemon, special event pokemon, double moves, etc.  

a. It’s always good to have pokemon that have optimal moves.  

3) Are you buying an account for permanent use (to serve as a main 
account)? Or are you buying an account to trade over certain pokemon? 
If you’re buying an account to trade over Pokemon to your main account, then you 
should make sure the account you’re purchasing has all or most of the pokemon 
you’re looking for.  

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 a. It’s important to keep a minimum amount of extra accounts for trade 
because it takes time to trade over a shiny or legendary Pokemon you 
don’t already have (approximately 30 days) because of the hefty stardust 
fees associated with an unregistered shiny/ legendary trade (800,000 
stardust until you’re ultra friends which will only cost 80k stardust) 
b. Also, some people buy an additional account to raid. If this is you then 
ensure you obtain an account with high cp pokemon, especially powerful 
legendaries! 
 

 
 
4) What else to look for when purchasing an account 
a. Stardust 
i. It is important to purchase an account with enough stardust to 
power up your pokemon and/ or trade over the pokemon to your 
main account.  

b. Pokemon total 
i. Make sure the account you purchase has a sufficient amount of 
pokemon in the pokemon bag 
c. Item bag max and pokemon storage max 
i. It is essential to have an upgraded storage space because it will be 
difficult to hold a surplus of items and pokemon over time. It also 
becomes costly upgrading these bags, so buying an account with 
upgraded storage is a big plus.  
d. Lures/ premium raid passes/ evolution stones/ coins 

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 i. Although these are not as important as stardust, they are great 
perks that can maximize your pogo experience.  

5) How to secure your account after purchase: 

a. Once you have your account, the first thing you need to do is secure it, 
the best way to do this is to change the gmail address that it’s associated 
with.  
i. To do this you must first login to the pokemon go application on 
your device and then go to settings and scroll down the account 
section and you will see a “link” option for facebook. Click that and 
link your facebook account, if you don’t have a facebook account 
then you can create one and use that (but you must wait 30 
minutes after creating it unfortunately). 
ii. Next you must logout from your new account and log back in via 
the facebook method option (instead of google).  
iii. Once you’re signed in, you can go back to settings and unlink the 
original gmail associated with the account and then you can link 
your own gmail address.  
iv. Once you have your new gmail (and facebook linked), you can add 
more security by logging into your google account via web 
browser at google.com manage accounts security add 2 step 
verification. Also you can add a recovery email address within the 
web browser.  

Hope this helps. Good luck shopping! 

 
 
 
 
 
 

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 Bibliography  

● Dexerto. “Pokemon Go Mystery Box - What Is It and How to Get It? Shiny 

Meltan Available.” ​Dexerto.com​, Dexerto.com, 21 Apr. 2019, 

www.dexerto.com/pokemon/pokemon-go-mystery-box-meltan-355198. 

● “Enjoy Guaranteed Lucky Pokémon!” ​Pokémon GO,​  

pokemongolive.com/en/post/luckypokemon-update/. 

● Frank, Allegra. “Pokémon Go Plus: Everything You Need to Know (Update).” 

Polygon​, Polygon, 11 July 2016, 

www.polygon.com/2016/7/11/12153040/pokemon-go-plus-price-info-and-relea

se-date. 

● Holly, Casian. “Team GO Rocket Is Blasting off Again!!” ​IMore,​ IMore, 10 July 

2020, 

www.imore.com/team-go-rocket-invasions-pokemon-go-everything-you-need-k

now. 

● Loveridge, Sam, and Ford James. “Pokemon Go Trading Explained: Stardust 

Costs, Special Trades and More to Get You Prepared to Trade.” ​Gamesradar,​  

GamesRadar , 4 May 2020, www.gamesradar.com/pokemon-go-trading-guide/. 

● “Pokémon GO: Battling Other Trainers.” ​Niantic Support​, 

niantic.helpshift.com/a/pokemon-go/?s=gyms-battle&f=battling-other-trainers&

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 p=web. 

● “Pokémon GO: Battling at Gyms.” ​Niantic Support,​  

niantic.helpshift.com/a/pokemon-go/?s=gyms-and-battle&f=battling-at-gyms&l=

en&p=web. 

● “Pokémon GO: Searching &amp; Filtering Your Pokémon Inventory.” ​Niantic 

Support​, 

niantic.helpshift.com/a/pokemon-go/?p=web&s=finding-evolving-hatching&f=se

arching-filtering-your-pokemon-inventory. 

● “Pokémon GO: What Are Raid Battles?” ​Niantic Support​, 

niantic.helpshift.com/a/pokemon-go/?s=gyms-battle&f=what-are-raid-battles&p

=web. 

● Ritchie, Rene. “Level up Fast with These Tips to Maximize Your XP.” ​IMore,​  

IMore, 27 Feb. 2020, 

www.imore.com/pokemon-go-xp#:~:text=Mass-raiding,event and a Lucky Egg. 

● “The Secrets of Traded Pokémon: Lucky Rates.” ​The Silph Road​, 2 June 2019, 

thesilphroad.com/science/chance-of-lucky-trade/. 

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