Murphy’s Law: just as soon as you finish complaining how lame the Pokemon Go app is, you’ll be asked to write a story on the tips and tricks to mastering the game.
Oh, the irony.
But after an hour or so trawling geek sites for the best ways to, er, ‘catch ’em all’ (did that sound natural?) I am actually a little intrigued. This thing looks ADDICTIVE. Did you know the amount of active users on Pokemon Go is just about to surpass TWITTER?
I was starting to think I was wrong about this game, and then I saw this:
OKAY THEN.
For those already hooked, here are the top sneaky cheats the internet has to offer.
Go forth, and channel the wisdom and bravery of Ash Ketchum: “Eat righteous Ponyta dust!”
How to read the colour and size of the ring around the Pokemon.
When your phone enters capture mode, you'll see a wild Pokémon appear on your phone's camera, with a colored ring circling the Pokémon's body. What does it mean?
The smaller that ring is, the more likely you are to capture that Pokémon. You might not notice much difference early on in the game, but it's a tip that will become more important the further you progress.
The color of the ring when catching Pokémon tells you how hard it is to capture said Pokémon.
-Green = Easy
-Yellow = Moderate
-Red = Difficult
How to find Pokemon that are nearby.
Rustling green leaves on your map is a dead giveaway that a Pokemon is hiding somewhere close - you won't know what type it is, however, until you approach.
On your main screen, you'll also see a little silhouette of a Pokemon with footprints next to it. The number of footprints indicates how far away it is: the more footprints you see, the further you'll have to travel.
Oh, and another thing? The list of nearby Pokemon are actually ordered from closest to furthest away.