Mega Gengar almost made my stop playing it was so annoying hahaha. And wow that sucks :( it took me probably around... 5-10 tries to get Milotic. It's tough because it all depends on Milotic changing the right ones the first few rounds.

I'm totally down for regional Pokemon solely for the opportunity to meet more nerds :D (and oooooh tots. I bought the new3DS special edition version because my thirst for basically all things Animal Crossing is so high hahahahah)

Also, you're totally welcome to explain away all the things haha it saves me typing :P

It's super fun and cute! I'm sure you'll enjoy it!!! Hahaha I've been playing at work and not only does it drain my data so fast, my battery is basically dead after my shift. So yeah, it's rough :( (I've also changed to manually turning on the data for Pokemon).

The microtransactions (as korishin has mentioned) is all powerups for each specific level and extra opportunities+boosted catch chance. Each opportunity is pretty pricey tbh which is unfortunate but as a stringent non-money player, I haven't had to pay for anything yet. Just your general grinding to earn cash. They also have plenty of event rounds to earn extra moola and level your Pokemon so while there are some really unfair levels (I think only 3 or so come to mind), it's not impossible. Korishin gave a great description of the Great Balls which is really the only thing I've bought with in-game earned credits.

I'm kind of hoping there are region-specific pokemon too, because otherwise, I kind of think the game's going to be too easy. But I'd be sad if there weren't SOME way other than actual travel to get the chance to get them.

I see what you're talking about with the Shuffle! It's not too bad so far, but I have the feeling this might get frustrating in the future. Stupid Pikachu keeps not wanting to get caught but I don't have enough money for a great ball so OTL off I go to try again.

I suppose we'll have to wait and see how it looks in February (I think that's the release date?) and in the meantime, gossip and speculations! xD

I am enjoying it, except for the aforementioned Pikachu which resists all capture. I'm now down to, like an 18% chance of capture and arrrrgh. I hope Go isn't so reliant on microtransactions, I'm really not a fan of how early I got stymied by the "oh, you don't have money yet? Sucks to be youuuu!" aspect of it.

Yeah, I've really put my external battery to the test. I'm hoping it won't be THAT much of a data hog. I'm not quite sure how the bracelet/wristband thing factors in yet, either - I'm hoping I can get away with not wearing that really unfashionable thing! LOL

There is a Meowth money stage, that is helpful at getting money (it dishes out around 2k for me each time which is half a greatball). But that might not be the same for you (I've cleared all the main stages so my Pokemon are pretty high leveled).

And yeah, I understand the obnoxious in your face microtransactions are there to continually goad people into spending money but man is it annoying hahaha. And the bracelet is said to be optional from what I last checked so you won't have to wear it hopefully :P but if it saves my battery life, I'm totally strapping that to my wrist and becoming a Pokemon MasTER!!!!!! The data usage was like.... 0.2MB every time I played and used 5 lives approx.

The Meowth area shortcut just appeared after I played a couple more stages. It's nice! I didn't do too well, but my guys are all like level two. Hahaha. Can't wait until I can actually do more, although I realize that I fail completely at the timed matching. SIIIGH.

I have a charger cord at work so battery isn't a problem there, thank goodness. And free wifi. I just wish I had Ingress portals in reach from where I sit, but I don't. At least I have lunch breaks.

Good point! I'd gladly wear that clunky thing around if it saves me data!

Awww hahah I totally gotcha. It takes a little while to get to the level where you can take advantage of the special stages :D And omg too true! I have so much trouble with the timed matches. It's pretty awful hahaha. Wait until you get to the legendary dogs (10 seconds is not enough to do anything except cry)!!

And nice nice!! I literally ran out of battery today so that was great (not). And hahahah too true!!That thing is going to be permanently glued to my wrist if it saves data :P

Does anyone have any tips to beat the Blaziken expert level? I've beaten everything else up to Entei (beat him and captured him 1st try woot woot), but Blaziken is literally impossible for me. XD Also I'm stuck on Mega Mewtwo Y, but I'm getting close I can feel it. >)

Ahaha I tried a couple of the special stages and failed miserably. It keeps opening expert levels but I'm too chicken to try any of them. xD I'm just slowly tromping through the levels, and failing miserably as I go.

I'm not a fan of the limited lives, I really hope Pokemon Go follows more of the Ingress style of "play whenever you want to as long as you move around enough or have recharge items" rather than "you are limited to x amount of energy per hour". :c

Blaziken tips hmm. Most important suggestion is probably timing when the two columns of blocks are appearing. If you can match or move or even hold those blocks, then those won't be turned into blocks. Since time is short I don't really focus more on the mega evolution, just take the biggest power hitters and smack the darn fire bird around as fast has you can hahaha. Good luck! I haven't even tried the dogs because 15 seconds is not enough to do anything but cry :P Good luck with Mega Mewtwo! If I remember, that one just takes some time and luck.

Expert levels are really annoying since it's wicked fast paced for some. Plus I'm used to taking my time and thinking about the best move so it's jarring to do the exact opposite. But yeah, after a while you get used to it! And haha too true. Special stages kick my butt too. I suggest waiting until the last 4ish days of an event to actually start trying to catch the Pokemon. That way you've given yourself as much time as possible to level up. And hahaha be careful of Mega Gengar. That guy took me like... 3 days to catch. It was pretty awful. Everything else isn't nearly as bad but don't be afraid to take your time during the levels to decide what would be the best move :D

Yeahhh... I would really prefer if they styled it more like other limited lives games where you only lose a life if you lose the level. It's really tragic to have to wait 2.5hours for 5 lives. Since Niantic is making it I really hope they make it more balanced.

Yeah, I've kind of just been avoiding Expert level entirely. Fortunately the Special section has some neat stuff going on at the moment like Daily Pokemon and the Safari thing, and I'm managing well enough.

Does the rank and/or level of the pokemon you have mean anything? I know S is best, but does that affect how good they are in your team? I'm assuming level does have an effect, but I seem to win okay with low level teams, so I'm not sure if I should go back and try to re-catch some of my lower ranking pokemon.

I'm also really abusing the "Optimize" button. All the pokemon it's offering to me are the ones I don't really care about, go figure, hahaha.

It's getting closer to February. Eeeee. I saw a blurb that said there might be new info around November 15, I hope that's the case. I really want to know more about the game play!

Awesome! Yeah Expert is really tough after a while. I'm still missing one or two Pokemon from it.

And the S ranking is solely for the point of unlocking more Expert level Pokemon. The more you S rank, the more you get.

Hahaha the Optimize button is indeed the best! Though for Safari it doesn't work :( Especially with ranked events, I highly recommend sifting through the top ranked people to see what Pokemon they use. It'll give you a great idea of what strategies to think about.

And UGH I really want to know. I don't think anything has been released yet. Maybe they'll spoil us a little for Christmas :D :D :D

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