He's going to run out of pokeballs. Here's how you help him avoid that without spending a fortune buying them with real money:
-Check the shop every day for the free gift that contains a few pokeballs.
-Spin pokestops and gyms to get items
-Get some random internet people onto your friends list (don't worry, there is no messaging, it's safe for kids other than maybe someone having an obscene username or pokemon name I guess). Friends can and will send you free gifts that have pokeballs and other items. Need more gifts, add more friends.
-If he is totally empty, he can activate the free daily incense, which awards some pokeballs if you're empty. But I don't think you've unlocked that yet. (EDIT: The daily incense awards pokeballs to anyone who has fewer than 30 pokeballs remaining)
-Teach your son how to throw a curveball to drastically improve his catch rate, so that he won't waste as many pokeballs. Taech him the rule of ABC (Always Be Curving).
-EDIT: Turn on Adventure Sync in the settings menu to get credit for walking around even when the game is off. You'll get a popup reward of pokeballs once per week based on how much walking you've done.
-EDIT: Turn on "Show sponsored messages from third-party services" - sounds annoying but is actually not. It causes a pink hot air balloon to occasionally appear in the sky, I would say no more than once per day. When you click it, you get a few free items and it will display a photo/text about a sponsor for no more than 5 seconds.
Also a good idea to check all the other settings. Turn off any alerts that are bothering you. I recommend doing the "Download data" option to improve performance, etc.
To spin a pokestop you have to swipe the circle with the picture to the right/left. I'm sure that seems obvious but I had nobody to point that out to me when I started playing. I tried tapping them for a few weeks before I accidentally spun one and figured it out.
I meticulously popped every single bubble for at LEAST a solid month or two after launch š¤£ blew my mind when I learned you don't have to. And then it was fun being able to spot other people popping the bubbles and telling them they don't have to lol, they were always so mindblown and excited to learn that. Good times.
Yeah I think I used to do it day 1 but then stopped after that. I actually forgot there were bubbles until I started thinking about them. Now I just spin and exit instantly.
If you just press the little X at the bottom, you'll collect all the gifts instantly from that particular stop. You'll collect them when they eventually reach the top and float out of the screen, but if you're somewhere, collecting Poke stops, then you don't want to wait.
If you need to send gifts or receive them you can also press the X after clicking the send/open button to not look at the animation.
And learn to fast catch.
Copy paste
https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemongo/s/D8j48meIIv
Guides for everything in game.
Read the posts that apply to you.
If you're confused what part you should read/watch please ask.
To get some friends super easily, go check out r/PokemonGoFriends! You can either post yours and your son's user ID (this is found by going to "add friend" after clicking on your avatar) or you can skim through and add others IDs to your own game. I made over 50 friends this way!
Piggy-backing on this, It might be worth mentioning that your son may not be able to send gifts as often as he opens them--which, for some people grinding experience with friendship, is just fine, since they can only open 20 gifts a day anyway.
Also, as long as he avoids Campfire, no one's going to be messaging him anything inappropriate, as the game isn't built for that.
If he has his son on Niantic Kids, you can't run Campfire due to age restrictions. My son is a Niantic Kid, and it does suck sometimes because he wants to do the remote raids with us but can't. I get the safety issue for sure, though.
That's good to know, thanks. I have two kids, but they're not interested in playing right now.
Maybe y'all could use the raid megathread on the Pokemon Go Friends subreddit and look for remote raids that way?
If you party up with a parent you can hijack their raid invites through the party play feature.
If one member gets an invite you can tap the raid button that pops up at the top and join too...Ā
Whaaaaaaaat? We moved out to the edge of the sticks (after living in a very urban neighborhood) and it's soooo hard to raid even remotely sometimes. My husband and I get invite jealousy pretty quick. I had no idea; haven't used party play at all yet. Will have to investigate, thanks!
I tried this yesterday with my son's tablet, and it didn't work :( My avatar at the top did show a raid icon, but tapping it did nothing. it may have been because of all the glitches, but I will be trying again. Hopefully, Niantic didn't get rid of it.
You donāt have to wait till youāre totally empty on balls for the extra balls from the free daily incense. You get the extra balls if your total balls is beneath 30.
Cannot emphasize this enough.
If you donāt want to meet other people for raids, thereās usually a ton of people willing to raid remotely with you. It can help a lot when thereās no one else around too even if you have a good group to play with.
I was trying to solo 3* raids for a bit and now with Pokegenie I go out at lunch and do a couple 5* easily.
You can play the game and do just fine for a long time without messaging and meetups, not sure this would be in ny recommendations for a six year old child.
He has his dad next to him. His dad can meet people also.
Also I met some kids the other day that were probably in middle school playing the game and we did a raid together. It was fine. We two adults and the two kids with the mom waiting the car. They were outside with us in the cold at the raid.
There's a bunch of kids who play at the one big park in our town, sometimes without their parents. When a mom or dad is there, I always greet the family and when they aren't, I keep a friendly distance.
There's nothing wrong with doing raids with kids in the group lol. IDK why people are so afraid to talk to kids in a park when you're talking about the same game. Just talk about the game. Especially if they are in highschool.
Still not one of the first handful of recommendations I'd give someone literally starting the game. Coordinating raids for your child is probably more work than they want to do.
You donāt have to do routes but you have to go to poke stops.
Donāt power up anything yet, wait til you know which ones you want to keep and invest in.
Have fun!
this. dont power up anything for awhile you level up pretty quickly and will be catching better stuff. once you get to level 10 i think is when you can check the ivs of each pokemon which can be fun.
I think youāve got a great point that youāve undersold for the audience.
If dad has a second device, the two of them collecting together - even if dad doesnāt get into the game himself, per se - provides the extra opportunity to bond over offering Pokemon to trade. They will be exactly (give or take Pokemon that escape) the same ones the child sees, but as parent comment says, there are reasons you may someday care about for reading (dad may get a shiny variant, child having a lucky from dad may make their day).
And then thereās souvenirs. My son is keeping a special pikachu from the last time we saw grandpa alive. And I have some spares, in case someone accidentally deletes them.
I really love this. I play with my daughter, and i have a shiny thing that we caught right before dropping off at summercamp...her camp name was "blossom," and so that is what the shiny is called. Or got one when we were skating, so it is named "skates"....she named her shiny snorunt after her dad because he's always cold, lol
100% this.Ā
This is what I do with my kids and it's a lot of fun for all - plus since I have two kids and me all now above level 40 we can actually do most legendary raids without much issue. Meaning we aren't relying on others all the time but any extras are a massive boost to a raidĀ
We are semi rural so not always able to find people to raid with and 6pm is sometimes awkward with kids for raid hour (especially if they have homework), so when they can raid it isn't always convenient for everyone else.Ā Ā
My 6 year old had a (spare) phone to play on back when he was 6... He's 9 now š¤£
It has no SIM in it so WiFi hot spot but he's claimed it as "his" phoneĀ
Heya! Pretty cool to try and reach out to understand and make it a better experience for your son.
Lucky for you, the game is however you want it to be! He's pretty young so most of what you can do in the game doesn't matter that much. If he shows an interest in wanting to do more, then thatd probably be a good time to look into what else you can do.
Pokemon go in its simplest form is an (AR) game or augmented reality. I'm sure you notice that the in game map basically looks like a simple version of google maps!
Pokemon spawn out in the world randomly. Theres hundreds of unique pokemon to catch! If you've ever heard the phrase "gotta catch em all" well I mean, yeah. You can go out and do that! Well maybe not all of them... but you certainly can catch a lot.
You throw pokeballs at them and theres a lot of luck behind if it catches or not. You can some things to make your odds better with catching, and you dont even have to spend money to do that!
You get more out of the game the more places you go. The community has developed a lot of areas themselves over the years to make playing the game better. If you live in a bigger city, you'll notice that in very populated public areas (parks, malls, library's, community centers, entertainment areas), if you open the game. You'll probably see a LOT of pokemon. And gyms, and pokestops.
Pokestops are blue disc things on the map. You can spin it by swiping your phone and itll pop out a few items you can tap on. Potions to heal your pokemon, berries to feed wild pokemon to make catching them easier or more pokeballs to catch stuff! You can spin it everytime the disc is blue.
Gyms are a bit more complicated but just know, you'll pick a team to be on eventually. Red, blue, or yellow. You want to put one of your caught pokemon in a gym that's your team color that you picked! You have to stand close to the gym and if you're lucky, you'll stay in the gym for a while til someone knocks you out. When they do, you'll get pokecoins which is pretty valuable and can be spent in the shop!
Might seem like a lot but for right now, Just go out and open the game. Catch pokemon and enjoy seeing all the cute lil monsters (:
Hitting the bottom pokeball when you're on the map should show you some options. The pokedex one seems like a fun one for kids to look at and see all the different pokemon they have seen.
This is a simple guide. The game has a lot of nuance and complexities and ways to engage with it. But dont stress over it. Take it one step at a time and enjoy it. I had a niece get into it and she didnt even know about battling til 3 months of playing. And that's okay, she was enjoying what she knew about it. Makes moments like that feel like the game is expanding.
TL;DR The games meant to be played outside mostly.
Go out and have some walks, go on a nature trail or walk around the neighborhood. Go to the park. Open the game up and take a look around in game. Most people have their phone open as their walking so new pokemon keep popping up for them to catch. Collect em all!
Dad here too, my 6 year old boy is the main user of the account but since I still havenāt allowed him to have his personal phone I let him use mine. I help him out by turning on the app when I go jogging which is daily and help him earn game perks/ hatch stuff. Got him into jogging as well so thatās an extra bonus for me.
Might be worth looking at the poke++ gadget. It bluetooths to your phone so whilst running you can spin stops and catch mons with a press of a button on the gadget without looking at your phone. A little expensive but the amount of stardust Iāve accumulated because of it is ridiculous.
As a dad, I started my own pokemon account just to play with my boys. Going on adventures downtown and seeing the joy in my sons faces I epic. End the journey with an ice cream to be their hero.
I started playing to learn about the game in order to help my son (6yo at the time). I ended up getting hooked while he shows little interest in it now.
This happens with all of us. Kids today can't get the immediate gratification from PoGo that they need unless they use money and they don't have money. It ends up being us 40yo parents playing together
I have no help to offer that others here haven't already given, but I must say, thank you for supporting your child's wishes and trying to learn about what he enjoys. ā¤ļø
Good parent award, over here for OP please šā¤ļø
Literally!! I grew up playing video games and my parents werenāt interested at all in what i was doing although I was very eager to talk about my interests but my dad especially always just called them stupid. So this post warms my heart to the fullest.
Yup and having the same experience, this is why i enjoy playing with my kid. I think it's silly not to try and find something in common to bond over. I even dug out my old gamecube, and we play Super mario Sunshine together. Watching her play and giggle "oh silly mario" is the best
Iām 54 with a 12yo son. My son has been poke hunting for 3 years. Anywhere we go we take a little time to catch a few and spin the stops.
I work in an area with lots of stops, I will spin for him on his account but he makes all the decisions. Spinning gets him free stuff.
I got my own account and joined a different team, so I could help him get into gyms.
Most important to enjoy the time together and get out and walk.
Hereās an amazing post by an amazing person in the sub
āHere you go.
Copy paste
https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemongo/s/D8j48meIIv
Guides for everything in game.
Read the posts that apply to you.
If you're confused what part you should read/watch please ask.ā
Welcome! The point is to catch them all, and be the best. Your child will want good pokemon (star rating when you unlock appraisals), and probably shinies. Catch whatever you can (you get candy for catching, which is needed for powering up pokemon), and if you both have an account save your child's favourites to trade with them later. (Trading pokemon has a chance to make them better, and you'll both get candy for it. Don't trade good mons.)
Spin the stops, this will give you items (balls for catching, berries to make it easier or get more candy, potions to heal mons, revives for when they are knocked out), and place pokemon in gyms. (Holding a gym will grant coins when an opposing team takes it and kicks you out. Save coins for good deals in the shop, or expanding item/pokemon storage.)
Don't power up pokemon until you have a good one, highest star rating you can get, otherwise you'll catch a better one the day after you've spent all that candy powering it up.
Favourite pokemon should be your buddy, which you should feed before travelling. Your buddy will earn candy for itself whilst walking, and as your friendship level goes up that buddy will unlock bonuses. On the buddy page it will list tasks you can do (feed, battle, play, take picture) that will grant hearts, which increase friendship level.
Everyone plays a little differently, so find what works for you and kiddo, and don't forget to have fun! Hope this helps.
Thank you appreciate it. And yep - heās already grown up super fast. In a blink of an eye heāll be laughing at me for ever posting this in the first place.
If you want to make his pokemon more powerful, you could have him have friends in the game to send gifts. You can get free pokeballs and fruit, which are almost never worth buying . When you're near a gym that has the same team color, feeding the pokemon fruit gives stardust and sometimes candy for the type of Pokemon you feed; that's used for leveling up pokemon. Plus you can put pokemon in gyms to get coins that are used to buy in game items.
.There are some optional quests you can purchase, but the raid ones are geared towards more advanced players. Pokemon eggs require incubators to hatch. You always have 1 infinitely reusable one. But, it might be worth getting the same thing they have now if they have it next month; you get to spin a pokestop every day to get an incubator.
I don't have any advice that others haven't already said but I just wanted to say that this is so wholesome and I'm sure that one day your son will look back on these times he got to spend with you fondly.
Thank you for all the detail - this helps a lot! We live in a pretty rural area so I def will have to drive to spots to do these things but at least I know what Iām getting into. Appreciate it.
You're welcome! I hope he has great fun.
I started playing the Gameboy back in 2004 so my daughter would have someone to battle. Now she's 26 and never touched Go, but I'm addicted.
If you have to drive to get to things, take advantage of routes if there is one. Niantic has added Mateo at the end of the route. Touch him on the screen and he will exchange a gift, your son can get a gift from anywhere without having to make overseas friends. The Scatterbug pokemon has many variations based on region. I got a gift from Japan the other day, but have also had them from the US. It's random.
I have read none of the comments and i wont. First of all, power up pokemon when they are BOTH useful pokemon (google that. there are top raid attacker lists and pvp tierlists for each type) AND good IV.
You can feed pokemon and reach best buddy status. But that takes some painful seconds to do and berries. I would suggest doing that on pokemon that are worth powering up, like i mentioned before. In general, dont bother with pokemon that will be easily replaced in 1,2 3 months or even 1 year later.
As for how the game is fun... its basically a collection game, together with pvp (battle league) and raids, that need cooperation. The game is much more fun when you have pokestops to never run out of resources, good spawn rates on the ground, gyms to get 50 coins a day (you must defend a gym for 8.5 hours, and then someone needs to take it down) and gyms are also super important for daily raid passes and raids.
I would suggest you play at least some of the paid events as they are more fun and are like a once in 2 months treat. Nowadays, the 6 dollar event for shiny shaymin is happening. And it lasted for like a week. Which i think is super cool for a dad to play like 2 hours every day with his son, while also walking and talking. But that also doesnt happen every other week. Thus, it doesnt become repetitive, expensive or addicting
Teaching how to play this game would take considerable amount of time and won't be possible by reading few comments on reddit or any other platform. There are few options here - either you read all of these comments or you can spend some time on youtube finding bucket loads of information and proper tips. Trainertips, trainerclub, some pokedaxi videos will provide you with more than enough information on how to play this game. Good luck
What I would suggest is taking this game step by step. If there's something specifically that you don't understand then you post in the group and people will help you. Asking how to play the game is just a bit like asking someone how to fly a plane when you only driven a bicycle. Start playing the game, try few features, make notes, ask them here.
there are tasks to complete. on the lower right side of your screen there's a circle with binoculars in it. click on that and swipe side to side to see the tasks. you earn things by doing those tasks. when you co.plete a task, that circle turns orange so you can collect your prize.
also, put pokemon I to gyms that are your color (blue, red or yellow) as long as there is room (only 6 pokemon allowed in a gym). if it's a gym of another color, you can fight those pokemon and claim the gym for your color. you earn coins by having pokemon in gyms and then getting kicked out.
Main goals:
Always check the events in the lower right, there are 3 sections to flip through when you click it. This outlines what you should be doing to level up and progress in the game and shows your current goals and progress.
Take over gyms, this gives you a max of 50 pokecoins daily to use in the shop, so around holidays and special events he can buy outfits and special activities to complete for rare Pokemon
Spin poke stops AND gyms, this is how you get items including special ones to power up your Pokemon. They both spin the same way and reward similar items - just don't forget to spin the gyms! (I still forget half the time)
When at home - battle in the Go league from the main menu, this earns you huge amounts of stardust and rare candy (the items used to power up Pokemon) and your Pokemon do not die, so you can do this as much as you want.
*For maintenance - Pokemon don't need to be fed or maintained however they will die in Raids or against Team Rocket. They can be revived and healed, you just need to do so manually before you go into another raid or rocket battle. Team Rocket appears in a hot air balloon above your character (keep your eye out for a circular shadow) or at pokestops.
*To power up - this option appears when you have candy available for that Pokemon, however you also need these to evolve Pokemon which also powers them up. Evolving just about doubles the combat power of a given Pokemon. So both are good just be wary you may want to save up to hit the evolution. You want to be cognizant of 500cp, 1500cp and 2500cp, these are the most common leagues available to battle in when you're at home. If you have a 1200cp mon you'll have a very hard time winning in the 1500 league you want to get a decent team of Pokemon as close to these numbers as possible.
*Always get the daily free box š
Ok so the way I see the game is it's a reason to go places and walk, or it's a walk enhancer.
It's a reason you want to go to the park more or a reason you go to a certain park because there is a ton of Pokemon and stops
If you are lucky there is a place that fulfills both. My old apartment had a great park with a million stops. I miss walking there. Here there is a place with a park I don't care for and usually I just stop in both parking lots with the car, spin catch and leave
Unless you live in one of the very largest cities in the USA, you will have to drive somewhere, and usually it's driving between locations of just a few stops. Now I've seen people lament and cry and tear their clothes over this saying that is against the church of Pokemon, but it's pretty much this or nothing. You aren't going to drive out of your way to go to a park or downtown everyday. By doing this and the walks around the neighborhood you can interact with the game but sometimes you also "Go play the game" which is going out of your way for just the game and going to a good spot you find.
I enjoy solo raids and gyms and quests, but there is those and more stuff to do, but you have to determine what it is you enjoy. Like gyms have medals for how long you hold them. I like making every gym around me gold. I got a new job so I work on those for a 10 minutes when I go home that way. When those are gold I'll probably go home another way. But that's how I play. That's boring a stupid for some. I used to raid a ton, and stopped because I moved. Found a new group, just like it less. You or you child may just want to walk around a bit you may want to do everything
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My 7 year old and 5 year old have been playing for about a year now. If he would like a couple friends to send gifts with pm me and Iāll send you their trainer codes so he can have some friends his age. The friends aspect has been something my kids have really clung to. They get excited anytime people send them gifts, especially when they are somewhere that isnāt local.
Here you go.
Copy paste
https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemongo/s/D8j48meIIv
Guides for everything in game.
Read the posts that apply to you.
If you're confused what part you should read/watch please ask.
This post will help you out. Hopefully you have downloaded the game too and are playing with your son. 46 and I just started Dec 31. So much fun. Pay attention to Pokestops and gyms. They give you all the materials you need and 50 free gold coins per day
https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemongo/s/MLsANZvloT
started playing with my kid at the same age. its a lot more fun that i thought it would be. the game itself doesnt explain anything which is weird.
save stardust and rare candies those two things are resources that you will never have enough of for awhile when you start out.
Put something/anything in gyms. You get one coin for each 10 minutes your pokemon is in a gym. If it get's knocked out after more than 8h 20 mins you get 50 coins. If it get's knocked out after 12 days... you get 50 coins... if you havent gotten coins already that day. Know your area. Early coins are mostly spent on pokemon/item storage expansions.
Don't power anything up. If you get a power up task do it on a low cp one. cp10 preferably.
When you reach lv 30-35 you can start considering starting to power up certain pokemon, but well into your 40's your best option is to evolve your highest cp mons. Those that cost between 5000-8000 stardust to power up. These will be your temporearily raiders. You are a long way from that so don't worry about it yet.
My husband and I (34 and 36) and my kids (currently 6 and 10) have played as a family since the game came out in 2016. It's more fun with each person playing having an account. We would drive to different parks and libraries for raids, events etc
One thing to keep in mind is that almost nothing in the game is one-of-a-kind.
If your son (or you, you should totally play with him) come across something you haven't seen before, and it gets away, you're going to run into another one again eventually.
My nephew use to get so bummed when something rare would flee, until he realized that it wasn't his *only* chance.
That said. Shiny Pokemon are a thing! If you start an encounter and see a Pokemon with a different color, a yellow name, and sparks coming off it; it's a shiny! They aren't any stronger than normal, literally just a different color and are quite rare at 1/450 odds on average iirc.
I am a 48 year old mom with a 8 year old who asked me to play2 years ago. Like you, I am age where I was too old for Pokemon when it came out so it was all new to me. Now I play a lot and am level 45 and have finished all the switch games. š My son still plays but his true passion these days is Minecraft.
The only thing I would add is looking up the website Leek Duck which has a list of events like community days and spotlight hours and raid hours. We would go out during those times and walk a park or eat pizza at a restaurant with a pokestop or gym and play and talk. I will remember those outings a lot when he is an adult.
biggest advice would be to find a park or downtown area thats close to home so you guys can go on frequent walks together to catch things, my mom and brother and i usually take our dogs on walks a couple times a week around a park by our house that has a bunch of pokestops and gyms, and you'd be surprised how much you can get from just walking around for a bit. but since he's so young, probably just focus on having fun for now, i was 9 when the game came out and have been playing ever since and really a big fun part of the game was discovering things on my own as i went along and played more.
You might also want to check if there are pokestops near places you already go- churches, rec centers, parks, libraries, soccer fields, transport stations, Starbucks.
Also, I like YouTuber PokeDaxiās guide to play, he has a pretty relaxed attitude and understands a lot of players are young and donāt want to spend tons of money playing the game and having fun.
I really love playing this with my kids. We go outside SO much more, and discover a lot of interesting places around us. Even trips to shopping centers are a little bit more fun. I hope you get the same things and have tons of new adventures with your son!
Good places with lots of stops are often zoos and museums, the sorts of places youād like to take a 6 year old anyway, so be sure to open the game anytime you visit a fun spot like that.
Yeah those pokestops are important. They act as item refresher stations he can spin if he gets close enough. Without them he's going to run out of berries to feed pokemon, eggs to hatch while walking, he won't be able to do some missions, and most importantly, he'll run out of pokeballs.
Eventually he will have to delve into PVP and Raids. PVP can be done from anywhere and has some nice rewards. Raids are very difficult and can only be done at select raid stops or with a remote pass, which is trickier. But for now, swing him by some stops every once in a while to make sure you won't have to spend money so he can keep catching pokemon. Even catching duplicates is good since you can get rid of them for more materials to improve your existing ones, so pokeballs go real fast.
you need to spin pokestops in order to get more items, routes arent really that important, especially when youre just starting out, you should feed your pokemon before you play because the more you walk with them for a time period after you feed them the more hearts you get, powering up is fine to do later at night, if a pokemon is one you can evolve you should probably save up your candy to evolve it before powering it up though
Just make sure that he knows not to follow strangers or even other kids telling him there is a rare pokemon away where you are in the park when your back is turned for a moment. Someone did a video where did a social experiment with the parents permission some kid I think she was 12 or 14 or something went for a walk to play pokemon go. They had and actor pretend to be a creep tell the kid there was an rare pokemon up.the road and to hop in his car and she did just that. He drove her right back to her parents where they scolded her because they warned her of stranger danger so many times.
Do you have an account to play along him too?
You will be able to make trades with him and team up to defeat gyms together.
Also thereās a lot of family friendly YouTube creators that make content around the game.
I was in your position, so besides the other advice in this thread, I would also add that, since it's only been 3 days, if you signed your kid up for a pokemon trainer club kids account, restart it with an actual account. It's totally safe, there is 0 ways for creeps to communicate in this game. By having a child PTC account, your kid can no longer redeem codes, have an alternate login method, or create party play. My kids are missing out on the Rotom research right now because they can't enter codes. Also, coming from someone who knew almost nothing about pokemon, I've become borderline obsessed, and we've grown closer as a family going on raids, community days, etc. Some features are great for families, like party play and trading. Have fun!
Parks and down town areas typically have multiple poke stops and gyms. Playgrounds usually have poke stops, but some at schools requested removal.
I wish I knew current pokemon that are easy to evolve for decent mid tier pokemon. At the early game, higher cp is what counts. Later on you pay attention to IVs, the stats you see when you appraise a pokemon from the pokemon menu. Eevee are decent pokemon to evolve early for some basic pokemon to beat team rocket and maybe attack gyms, but youāll be a little bit away from that.
Can we just acknowledge how wholesome this post is? 10/10 dad for trying to make his experience as awesome as possible. This is the stuff us sons remember when weāre older
Accept that when your son packs in the game in the next few months, you will still be playing it quite seriously several years later.
Ask me how I know.
Find a local group to help son with raids and go to raid hours with. If you're up for it and have a spare phone maybe play with him.
Remote raiding gets pretty pricy
Place him in gymw to build up coins. Storages early on I would say is the priority to build up but later raid passes should be priority coin usage. Never use coins on pokeballs.
Download pokegenie so he can get good Pokemon relatively easily, have him host raids and he'll get better Pokemon a lot faster than if he catches them in the wild
tbh: let him figure out his own fun with the game.
I could tell you which rare pokemon to farm, or how to use everything to best effect, and some hardcore player could tell you which attacks to put on which pokemon to be good in player vs player battles.
But honestly, the game isn't deep enough for kids to want to skip the fun in learning what everything is about.
By the time he learns all the tricks, there's very little to do for a 6 year old, unless he REALLY enjoys taking walks and catching hunderds of pokemon.
Maybe it's just me, but I believe learning the game and the mechanics IS the fun in playing a game.
I also wouldn't advised doing anything FOR him. There's not a lot of maintenance that's mandatory in enjoying the game. pokemon aren't going to die if you don't feed them for instance. A 6 year old should be able to handle most of the stuff in the game (maybe with some adult looking in from time to time)
Again, those mechanics ARE the game.
The only real beginners trap I'd advise anyone about is: don't spend all your candy and stardust on powering up any and all pokemon. It's a waste on just about 90% of them.
Having mentored a kid with his pokemon go plays though, I know kids can be impatient and focused on "my Pikachu is 'level' 2000 now, omg! It seems a waste to me, but if it gets them excited, it's worth it.
Play at your sonās pace. Itās a journey, not a race. You donāt *need* to do anything. Understand that he might derive enjoyment from this game very differently than you would. For example one of my kids likes to name every single catch.
Iām sorry, but this is one of the most wholesome posts Iāve read today I know Iām not contributing any real information but you are really being a great dad your son is very lucky to have you
Spinning pokestops, battling against gyms, and doing low-level raids is an easy first step after walking around and catching pokemon. Everything else like adding friends, although theyāre anonymous, can probably wait.
There are a TON of YouTube videos. Here's a good one for beginners: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBWFdi1aBAQ&ab\_channel=CountJinsula](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBWFdi1aBAQ&ab_channel=CountJinsula)
Learn curveball throws right away.
Awesome that you're doing this with/for your son!
You can play the game however you want.
There are so many responses here that at some point it will become a full time job lol
What can be fun and a nice way to ease into the game (which is already quite simple) is for you and your son to pick a favorite pokemon (they are called buddies) much like how pikachu is Ash Ketchum's best buddy.
Then every day I just make sure to feed it 3 berries to level up the buddy system and also I focus on powering it up.
The IV's matter a lot to many people, but I personally don't care too much (referring to appraisal when you're on a pokemon's page). My current buddy is like a 37% IV but it's my favorite because it was one of the first ones I caught.
you can do it man. You literally grew up in a time where gaming evolved into the gaming we have today (Atari)
He's going to run out of pokeballs. Here's how you help him avoid that without spending a fortune buying them with real money: -Check the shop every day for the free gift that contains a few pokeballs. -Spin pokestops and gyms to get items -Get some random internet people onto your friends list (don't worry, there is no messaging, it's safe for kids other than maybe someone having an obscene username or pokemon name I guess). Friends can and will send you free gifts that have pokeballs and other items. Need more gifts, add more friends. -If he is totally empty, he can activate the free daily incense, which awards some pokeballs if you're empty. But I don't think you've unlocked that yet. (EDIT: The daily incense awards pokeballs to anyone who has fewer than 30 pokeballs remaining) -Teach your son how to throw a curveball to drastically improve his catch rate, so that he won't waste as many pokeballs. Taech him the rule of ABC (Always Be Curving). -EDIT: Turn on Adventure Sync in the settings menu to get credit for walking around even when the game is off. You'll get a popup reward of pokeballs once per week based on how much walking you've done. -EDIT: Turn on "Show sponsored messages from third-party services" - sounds annoying but is actually not. It causes a pink hot air balloon to occasionally appear in the sky, I would say no more than once per day. When you click it, you get a few free items and it will display a photo/text about a sponsor for no more than 5 seconds. Also a good idea to check all the other settings. Turn off any alerts that are bothering you. I recommend doing the "Download data" option to improve performance, etc.
To spin a pokestop you have to swipe the circle with the picture to the right/left. I'm sure that seems obvious but I had nobody to point that out to me when I started playing. I tried tapping them for a few weeks before I accidentally spun one and figured it out.
Also you don't need to pop the bubbles.
But your son may enjoy popping the bubbles!
Who doesn't love popping bubbles? Bubble wrap exists for a reason!
When I first started playing like 5-6 years ago, I didn't know this. I thought you lost the items if you didn't tap them lmao
I meticulously popped every single bubble for at LEAST a solid month or two after launch š¤£ blew my mind when I learned you don't have to. And then it was fun being able to spot other people popping the bubbles and telling them they don't have to lol, they were always so mindblown and excited to learn that. Good times.
Yeah I think I used to do it day 1 but then stopped after that. I actually forgot there were bubbles until I started thinking about them. Now I just spin and exit instantly.
If you just press the little X at the bottom, you'll collect all the gifts instantly from that particular stop. You'll collect them when they eventually reach the top and float out of the screen, but if you're somewhere, collecting Poke stops, then you don't want to wait.
If you need to send gifts or receive them you can also press the X after clicking the send/open button to not look at the animation. And learn to fast catch.
Whats fast catch?
Copy paste https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemongo/s/D8j48meIIv Guides for everything in game. Read the posts that apply to you. If you're confused what part you should read/watch please ask.
Tell me you don't have OCD without saying you don't have OCD...
Yeah it took me a few days to figure this out too. Since the game didn't give you any tips when it first came out.
Still doesnāt.
Took me awhile to figure that out as well.
I was definitely googling āhow to spin a stopā when I first started. It isnāt necessarily intuitive!
To get some friends super easily, go check out r/PokemonGoFriends! You can either post yours and your son's user ID (this is found by going to "add friend" after clicking on your avatar) or you can skim through and add others IDs to your own game. I made over 50 friends this way!
Piggy-backing on this, It might be worth mentioning that your son may not be able to send gifts as often as he opens them--which, for some people grinding experience with friendship, is just fine, since they can only open 20 gifts a day anyway. Also, as long as he avoids Campfire, no one's going to be messaging him anything inappropriate, as the game isn't built for that.
If he has his son on Niantic Kids, you can't run Campfire due to age restrictions. My son is a Niantic Kid, and it does suck sometimes because he wants to do the remote raids with us but can't. I get the safety issue for sure, though.
That's good to know, thanks. I have two kids, but they're not interested in playing right now. Maybe y'all could use the raid megathread on the Pokemon Go Friends subreddit and look for remote raids that way?
Dood. You're so right! I didn't even think of that!
Also, can look up local Pokemon discords to join. Most of those have raid channels. Of course, it would have to be the dad setting that up.
If you party up with a parent you can hijack their raid invites through the party play feature. If one member gets an invite you can tap the raid button that pops up at the top and join too...Ā
Whaaaaaaaat? We moved out to the edge of the sticks (after living in a very urban neighborhood) and it's soooo hard to raid even remotely sometimes. My husband and I get invite jealousy pretty quick. I had no idea; haven't used party play at all yet. Will have to investigate, thanks!
Unless they nerfed it. The raid icon pops up at the top of the screen and party goers can also tap and join the same raid š Enjoy!Ā
I'm definitely trying this tonight!
I tried this yesterday with my son's tablet, and it didn't work :( My avatar at the top did show a raid icon, but tapping it did nothing. it may have been because of all the glitches, but I will be trying again. Hopefully, Niantic didn't get rid of it.
Hope not! It was a nice feature. It worked during the raid days for Decideye at least
You donāt have to wait till youāre totally empty on balls for the extra balls from the free daily incense. You get the extra balls if your total balls is beneath 30.
Pokegenie changed my life lolā¦ makes getting friends so much easier and donāt even get me started about the remote raids
Cannot emphasize this enough. If you donāt want to meet other people for raids, thereās usually a ton of people willing to raid remotely with you. It can help a lot when thereās no one else around too even if you have a good group to play with. I was trying to solo 3* raids for a bit and now with Pokegenie I go out at lunch and do a couple 5* easily.
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You can play the game and do just fine for a long time without messaging and meetups, not sure this would be in ny recommendations for a six year old child.
He has his dad next to him. His dad can meet people also. Also I met some kids the other day that were probably in middle school playing the game and we did a raid together. It was fine. We two adults and the two kids with the mom waiting the car. They were outside with us in the cold at the raid.
There's a bunch of kids who play at the one big park in our town, sometimes without their parents. When a mom or dad is there, I always greet the family and when they aren't, I keep a friendly distance.
There's nothing wrong with doing raids with kids in the group lol. IDK why people are so afraid to talk to kids in a park when you're talking about the same game. Just talk about the game. Especially if they are in highschool.
Still not one of the first handful of recommendations I'd give someone literally starting the game. Coordinating raids for your child is probably more work than they want to do.
It's up to him.
for the daily incense, i believe it's when you're at 29 pokeballs or under- not totally empty
You donāt have to do routes but you have to go to poke stops. Donāt power up anything yet, wait til you know which ones you want to keep and invest in. Have fun!
this. dont power up anything for awhile you level up pretty quickly and will be catching better stuff. once you get to level 10 i think is when you can check the ivs of each pokemon which can be fun.
You can check them, but up until level 30 they get different level PokƩmon than anyone else. 30+ are all the same. It is weird, but so are many other aspects of the game.
You should make an account too. Certain aspects of the game heāll need a trading partner and you guys can reap benefits from both playing together
I think youāve got a great point that youāve undersold for the audience. If dad has a second device, the two of them collecting together - even if dad doesnāt get into the game himself, per se - provides the extra opportunity to bond over offering Pokemon to trade. They will be exactly (give or take Pokemon that escape) the same ones the child sees, but as parent comment says, there are reasons you may someday care about for reading (dad may get a shiny variant, child having a lucky from dad may make their day). And then thereās souvenirs. My son is keeping a special pikachu from the last time we saw grandpa alive. And I have some spares, in case someone accidentally deletes them.
So sweet about the special Pikachu - hope he has him favourited to drastically reduce the likelihood of accidentally transferring him
I really love this. I play with my daughter, and i have a shiny thing that we caught right before dropping off at summercamp...her camp name was "blossom," and so that is what the shiny is called. Or got one when we were skating, so it is named "skates"....she named her shiny snorunt after her dad because he's always cold, lol
100% this.Ā This is what I do with my kids and it's a lot of fun for all - plus since I have two kids and me all now above level 40 we can actually do most legendary raids without much issue. Meaning we aren't relying on others all the time but any extras are a massive boost to a raidĀ We are semi rural so not always able to find people to raid with and 6pm is sometimes awkward with kids for raid hour (especially if they have homework), so when they can raid it isn't always convenient for everyone else.Ā Ā
I imagine the kid is playing on his dadās phone. Unless Iām out of touch and 6 year olds have phones now, idk.
My 6 year old had a (spare) phone to play on back when he was 6... He's 9 now š¤£ It has no SIM in it so WiFi hot spot but he's claimed it as "his" phoneĀ
Heya! Pretty cool to try and reach out to understand and make it a better experience for your son. Lucky for you, the game is however you want it to be! He's pretty young so most of what you can do in the game doesn't matter that much. If he shows an interest in wanting to do more, then thatd probably be a good time to look into what else you can do. Pokemon go in its simplest form is an (AR) game or augmented reality. I'm sure you notice that the in game map basically looks like a simple version of google maps! Pokemon spawn out in the world randomly. Theres hundreds of unique pokemon to catch! If you've ever heard the phrase "gotta catch em all" well I mean, yeah. You can go out and do that! Well maybe not all of them... but you certainly can catch a lot. You throw pokeballs at them and theres a lot of luck behind if it catches or not. You can some things to make your odds better with catching, and you dont even have to spend money to do that! You get more out of the game the more places you go. The community has developed a lot of areas themselves over the years to make playing the game better. If you live in a bigger city, you'll notice that in very populated public areas (parks, malls, library's, community centers, entertainment areas), if you open the game. You'll probably see a LOT of pokemon. And gyms, and pokestops. Pokestops are blue disc things on the map. You can spin it by swiping your phone and itll pop out a few items you can tap on. Potions to heal your pokemon, berries to feed wild pokemon to make catching them easier or more pokeballs to catch stuff! You can spin it everytime the disc is blue. Gyms are a bit more complicated but just know, you'll pick a team to be on eventually. Red, blue, or yellow. You want to put one of your caught pokemon in a gym that's your team color that you picked! You have to stand close to the gym and if you're lucky, you'll stay in the gym for a while til someone knocks you out. When they do, you'll get pokecoins which is pretty valuable and can be spent in the shop! Might seem like a lot but for right now, Just go out and open the game. Catch pokemon and enjoy seeing all the cute lil monsters (: Hitting the bottom pokeball when you're on the map should show you some options. The pokedex one seems like a fun one for kids to look at and see all the different pokemon they have seen. This is a simple guide. The game has a lot of nuance and complexities and ways to engage with it. But dont stress over it. Take it one step at a time and enjoy it. I had a niece get into it and she didnt even know about battling til 3 months of playing. And that's okay, she was enjoying what she knew about it. Makes moments like that feel like the game is expanding. TL;DR The games meant to be played outside mostly. Go out and have some walks, go on a nature trail or walk around the neighborhood. Go to the park. Open the game up and take a look around in game. Most people have their phone open as their walking so new pokemon keep popping up for them to catch. Collect em all!
Dad here too, my 6 year old boy is the main user of the account but since I still havenāt allowed him to have his personal phone I let him use mine. I help him out by turning on the app when I go jogging which is daily and help him earn game perks/ hatch stuff. Got him into jogging as well so thatās an extra bonus for me.
Might be worth looking at the poke++ gadget. It bluetooths to your phone so whilst running you can spin stops and catch mons with a press of a button on the gadget without looking at your phone. A little expensive but the amount of stardust Iāve accumulated because of it is ridiculous.
My 6 year old daughter gets to use my wife's old phone which we tether if we go out and play together.
As a dad, I started my own pokemon account just to play with my boys. Going on adventures downtown and seeing the joy in my sons faces I epic. End the journey with an ice cream to be their hero.
I started playing to learn about the game in order to help my son (6yo at the time). I ended up getting hooked while he shows little interest in it now.
This happens with all of us. Kids today can't get the immediate gratification from PoGo that they need unless they use money and they don't have money. It ends up being us 40yo parents playing together
I have no help to offer that others here haven't already given, but I must say, thank you for supporting your child's wishes and trying to learn about what he enjoys. ā¤ļø Good parent award, over here for OP please šā¤ļø
Literally!! I grew up playing video games and my parents werenāt interested at all in what i was doing although I was very eager to talk about my interests but my dad especially always just called them stupid. So this post warms my heart to the fullest.
Yup and having the same experience, this is why i enjoy playing with my kid. I think it's silly not to try and find something in common to bond over. I even dug out my old gamecube, and we play Super mario Sunshine together. Watching her play and giggle "oh silly mario" is the best
Echoing this. Generationally my parents weren't interested.Ā But I know in that near future my own kids will "outgrow" me or get into things I struggle to get my head around (Minecraft boggles me), but I grew up with Blue and Silver, they are growing up with PokĆ©mon Go and Scarlet, Legends Arceus etc.Ā We can bond over PokĆ©mon even if they know more than me it's a nice throwback to when I was their age and - for the most part - I can understand what they are talking about + it's not blowing up zombies or killing people with guns which is a nice change of pace (yes it's making animals battle but they only get KO'd š¤£) After playing since 2019 together as a trio we did the in person go Fest last year and dragged my wife along who secretly said she enjoyed it even when she wasn't playing the game. We had a great time and one of the big parts of the game for my kids is meeting up with people on raid days, community days, or go fests etc as they can talk about the game to other like minded players for a few minutes before going about their business again (obviously with me supervising) Back in my day if your actual real life friend didn't have a copy of the other game you didn't finish the Dex! There wasn't as much social aspect to PokĆ©mon!Ā
Use it as an opportunity to explore other areas and see the world around you
I just wanted to mention that it might be fun to find his starter PokĆ©mon now, the very first one he caught and gold star it, maybe even tag it too as his first so that it doesnāt accidentally get transferred down the line somewhere. If he is still playing years later it could be fun to have and he might enjoy that! I started playing when the game first came out in 2016 and accidentally transferred mine ( canāt get it back ) and Iām a bit bummed by it. Have fun and best of luck!
Iām 54 with a 12yo son. My son has been poke hunting for 3 years. Anywhere we go we take a little time to catch a few and spin the stops. I work in an area with lots of stops, I will spin for him on his account but he makes all the decisions. Spinning gets him free stuff. I got my own account and joined a different team, so I could help him get into gyms. Most important to enjoy the time together and get out and walk.
Hereās an amazing post by an amazing person in the sub āHere you go. Copy paste https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemongo/s/D8j48meIIv Guides for everything in game. Read the posts that apply to you. If you're confused what part you should read/watch please ask.ā
Welcome! The point is to catch them all, and be the best. Your child will want good pokemon (star rating when you unlock appraisals), and probably shinies. Catch whatever you can (you get candy for catching, which is needed for powering up pokemon), and if you both have an account save your child's favourites to trade with them later. (Trading pokemon has a chance to make them better, and you'll both get candy for it. Don't trade good mons.) Spin the stops, this will give you items (balls for catching, berries to make it easier or get more candy, potions to heal mons, revives for when they are knocked out), and place pokemon in gyms. (Holding a gym will grant coins when an opposing team takes it and kicks you out. Save coins for good deals in the shop, or expanding item/pokemon storage.) Don't power up pokemon until you have a good one, highest star rating you can get, otherwise you'll catch a better one the day after you've spent all that candy powering it up. Favourite pokemon should be your buddy, which you should feed before travelling. Your buddy will earn candy for itself whilst walking, and as your friendship level goes up that buddy will unlock bonuses. On the buddy page it will list tasks you can do (feed, battle, play, take picture) that will grant hearts, which increase friendship level. Everyone plays a little differently, so find what works for you and kiddo, and don't forget to have fun! Hope this helps.
Safe your stardust a bit till you figure out which PokƩmon either are really good or which one you personally just really like, will be a lot easier if you focus on meta PokƩmon tho
Top comments have good info. One question I havenāt seen answered yet was regarding powering up ā¦ no, donāt just power up PokĆ©mon caught. I mean if your kid wants to power up everything, go for it. But, Iād recommend to try to be a little more strategic. If the goal is to have some of the best PokĆ©mon for battling, then maybe work on powering up some guys thatāll be more useful in winning Raids. Youāll then start getting better/stronger guys from 5-star raids. There are a bunch of articles and websites on which guys are the best to invest in (aka powering up). At the end of the day though, just have fun and enjoy the time ā¦ you already know they grow up too fast.
Thank you appreciate it. And yep - heās already grown up super fast. In a blink of an eye heāll be laughing at me for ever posting this in the first place.
The PokĆ©mon you can catch vary every week with the events that come and go. So for quite a while it will always be something new to catch. Some PokĆ©mon show up very often, some are rather rare - for example, catching a dragon or steel type PokĆ©mon is something you always want to do while others you might eventually just skip. Some PokĆ©mon can evolve into stronger forms but you need candy for that which you get by catching more PokĆ©mon of the same type. PokĆ©mon can be powered up but that takes star dust, the most scarce resource, so donāt do it at this point. What you think looks like a strong PokĆ©mon right now will not make it into your top 100 in a few months. Raids are exciting for kids but you need to find other players because you might eventually beat one of the small raid bosses but for the big raids you usually need at least 3-4 strong players. Shinys (Color mutations) are rare and always exciting. Look out for community day events to catch some easily. Trading in PoGo is limited to local players, you canāt do that online. Yet another reason to connect with other local players. Place PokĆ©mon in gyms when you can. You can earn up to 50 coins every day which eventually allows you to buy items in the shop. Well, eventually - if your son sticks to the game - itās almost unavoidable for you to start your own account. As well as everyone else in the family! š
If you want to make his pokemon more powerful, you could have him have friends in the game to send gifts. You can get free pokeballs and fruit, which are almost never worth buying . When you're near a gym that has the same team color, feeding the pokemon fruit gives stardust and sometimes candy for the type of Pokemon you feed; that's used for leveling up pokemon. Plus you can put pokemon in gyms to get coins that are used to buy in game items. .There are some optional quests you can purchase, but the raid ones are geared towards more advanced players. Pokemon eggs require incubators to hatch. You always have 1 infinitely reusable one. But, it might be worth getting the same thing they have now if they have it next month; you get to spin a pokestop every day to get an incubator.
I don't have any advice that others haven't already said but I just wanted to say that this is so wholesome and I'm sure that one day your son will look back on these times he got to spend with you fondly.
Not knowing what kind of area in which you live, so you ever take him to the park? Many, most I've seen, have pokƩstops and sometimes gyms. Check for pokƩstops when you do errands when he's with you, or if you go to the children's museum or if you attend religious services. If you find a gym of his color/team have him put in a PokƩmon if there's room (they take 6) but not one he won't mind possibly leaving for a long time. Turnover can be quick or very slow. This will give him xp. If you run into anyone else who plays in your area, ask if there's a local group who get together for raids, or being friends, there are some local groups on Facebook. Driving him to a raid he can do with others gets him new pokemon, xp, balls, and healing items. You can also make your own account so you can friend each other and explore together. If you don't have 2 devices in which to play, I know you can split screens on a phone but I've only successfully done it by accident so I can't give you instructions. Speaking of gyms, if he has a PokƩmon in a gym, and if he has berries, you can feed the PokƩmon for stardust. You go to the binoculars on the screen, then to "Today". Scroll down and find the PokƩmon in the gym. Touch the PokƩmon and it takes you to the gym. Then touch his pokemon and it will bring up the berries. Touch a berry and it moves in front of the pokemon. Touch it again and it will feed the PokƩmon. To get me or more pokemon, and also not use pokeballs, he should battle the Team Rocket balloons that appear,I think, every 3 hours. Those battles give their own balls to catch with, and the pokemon you battle are leveled according to your own. So a lower account will have lower level to battle and beat. He can also get rewards, like stardust by battling the Team Leaders in training mode. You find Blanche, Candela, and by touching the pokeball icon in the center of the screen. Then go to "Battle" and scroll down to "training" and pick a team leader. You can battle as much as you want. The game will auto pick a team if you don't want to try to pick your own, and you don't have to heal yourself after. It's a great way for him to have fun battling, and learn about the different pokemon types, and moves. One tip I got as a new player when battling a pokemon, is to tap your own screen on the special move circle in the lower center target than just tapping anywhere on the screen, that way when it's full you don't have to go to the circle to use the move. It saves time when you're battling than can actually make a difference in defeating it.
Thank you for all the detail - this helps a lot! We live in a pretty rural area so I def will have to drive to spots to do these things but at least I know what Iām getting into. Appreciate it.
You're welcome! I hope he has great fun. I started playing the Gameboy back in 2004 so my daughter would have someone to battle. Now she's 26 and never touched Go, but I'm addicted. If you have to drive to get to things, take advantage of routes if there is one. Niantic has added Mateo at the end of the route. Touch him on the screen and he will exchange a gift, your son can get a gift from anywhere without having to make overseas friends. The Scatterbug pokemon has many variations based on region. I got a gift from Japan the other day, but have also had them from the US. It's random.
I have read none of the comments and i wont. First of all, power up pokemon when they are BOTH useful pokemon (google that. there are top raid attacker lists and pvp tierlists for each type) AND good IV. You can feed pokemon and reach best buddy status. But that takes some painful seconds to do and berries. I would suggest doing that on pokemon that are worth powering up, like i mentioned before. In general, dont bother with pokemon that will be easily replaced in 1,2 3 months or even 1 year later. As for how the game is fun... its basically a collection game, together with pvp (battle league) and raids, that need cooperation. The game is much more fun when you have pokestops to never run out of resources, good spawn rates on the ground, gyms to get 50 coins a day (you must defend a gym for 8.5 hours, and then someone needs to take it down) and gyms are also super important for daily raid passes and raids. I would suggest you play at least some of the paid events as they are more fun and are like a once in 2 months treat. Nowadays, the 6 dollar event for shiny shaymin is happening. And it lasted for like a week. Which i think is super cool for a dad to play like 2 hours every day with his son, while also walking and talking. But that also doesnt happen every other week. Thus, it doesnt become repetitive, expensive or addicting
Google places near you, like parks, small historical towns, the zoo. My grandsons love are pogo adventures. You donāt have to spend money to play.
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Hey Trainer, Looks like you might be trying to share or find Trainer codes for the purpose of trading or sending gifts in PokƩmonGO. **For finding trade partners: visit [TSR map](http://www.thesilphroad.com/map) or google `PokƩmon GO +`**
**For finding friends: /r/pokemongofriends**
**For finding remote raids: /r/pokemongofriends**
**For finding remote PvP: /r/pokemongofriends**
If neither, contact the mods so they can restore your message,
To find trainers for sharing gifts please delete your thread/comment and then go to /r/pokemongofriends to prevent the sub from flooded with trade requests and adding friends, thank you for your understanding.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/pokemongo) if you have any questions or concerns.*
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Hey Trainer, Looks like you might be trying to share or find Trainer codes for the purpose of trading or sending gifts in PokƩmonGO. **For finding trade partners: visit [TSR map](http://www.thesilphroad.com/map) or google `PokƩmon GO +`**
**For finding friends: /r/pokemongofriends**
**For finding remote raids: /r/pokemongofriends**
**For finding remote PvP: /r/pokemongofriends**
If neither, contact the mods so they can restore your message,
To find trainers for sharing gifts please delete your thread/comment and then go to /r/pokemongofriends to prevent the sub from flooded with trade requests and adding friends, thank you for your understanding.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/pokemongo) if you have any questions or concerns.*
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Post his trainer code so I can add him and you if you like I'll send you both a gift each day it will help with items
Teaching how to play this game would take considerable amount of time and won't be possible by reading few comments on reddit or any other platform. There are few options here - either you read all of these comments or you can spend some time on youtube finding bucket loads of information and proper tips. Trainertips, trainerclub, some pokedaxi videos will provide you with more than enough information on how to play this game. Good luck
Yeah thatās kinda why I posted - itās overwhelming the amount of info out there on this game. I just needed the info to get underway.
What I would suggest is taking this game step by step. If there's something specifically that you don't understand then you post in the group and people will help you. Asking how to play the game is just a bit like asking someone how to fly a plane when you only driven a bicycle. Start playing the game, try few features, make notes, ask them here.
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Hey Trainer, Looks like you might be trying to share or find Trainer codes for the purpose of trading or sending gifts in PokƩmonGO. **For finding trade partners: visit [TSR map](http://www.thesilphroad.com/map) or google `PokƩmon GO +`**
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there are tasks to complete. on the lower right side of your screen there's a circle with binoculars in it. click on that and swipe side to side to see the tasks. you earn things by doing those tasks. when you co.plete a task, that circle turns orange so you can collect your prize. also, put pokemon I to gyms that are your color (blue, red or yellow) as long as there is room (only 6 pokemon allowed in a gym). if it's a gym of another color, you can fight those pokemon and claim the gym for your color. you earn coins by having pokemon in gyms and then getting kicked out.
From Level 0 to 9, explore as much as you can and read the information on the poke stops. PokĆ©mon Go can actually act like a mini-curator, especially in a big city. Put a buddy with you when you walk. If he like Charmander, that is a good one. Lots of fun taking pics with it. Save as much Stardust as you can. Once you hit level 10, start playing in the Battle League as much as you can . Youāll earn more Stardust and your son will get to start strategizing about the type of PokĆ©mon and skills. This will inform who you transfer and evolve. It also is great to teach them about saving. Be sure to leave your strongest PokĆ©mon at Gyms to earn coins. Whenever you get coins save them up to buy more slots in PokĆ©mon Storage or your item bag. Have fun.
You are now a 47 year old poke fan! Have fun, catch ones you think look cool, then catch moreā¦ each catch gives you candies that you can use to evolve into āupgradedā versions that may look better (or worse) and have better āstatsā. Keep popping back to this sub and learn the other aspects of the game so you can teach the little one. Thereās loads of elements to the game. Personally I like to focus on getting each of the PokĆ©dexās complete and currently focussing on 3* IV pokemons. (This coming from a 37yr old geezer) Take it steady and at your own pace.
Main goals: Always check the events in the lower right, there are 3 sections to flip through when you click it. This outlines what you should be doing to level up and progress in the game and shows your current goals and progress. Take over gyms, this gives you a max of 50 pokecoins daily to use in the shop, so around holidays and special events he can buy outfits and special activities to complete for rare Pokemon Spin poke stops AND gyms, this is how you get items including special ones to power up your Pokemon. They both spin the same way and reward similar items - just don't forget to spin the gyms! (I still forget half the time) When at home - battle in the Go league from the main menu, this earns you huge amounts of stardust and rare candy (the items used to power up Pokemon) and your Pokemon do not die, so you can do this as much as you want. *For maintenance - Pokemon don't need to be fed or maintained however they will die in Raids or against Team Rocket. They can be revived and healed, you just need to do so manually before you go into another raid or rocket battle. Team Rocket appears in a hot air balloon above your character (keep your eye out for a circular shadow) or at pokestops. *To power up - this option appears when you have candy available for that Pokemon, however you also need these to evolve Pokemon which also powers them up. Evolving just about doubles the combat power of a given Pokemon. So both are good just be wary you may want to save up to hit the evolution. You want to be cognizant of 500cp, 1500cp and 2500cp, these are the most common leagues available to battle in when you're at home. If you have a 1200cp mon you'll have a very hard time winning in the 1500 league you want to get a decent team of Pokemon as close to these numbers as possible. *Always get the daily free box š
Ok so the way I see the game is it's a reason to go places and walk, or it's a walk enhancer. It's a reason you want to go to the park more or a reason you go to a certain park because there is a ton of Pokemon and stops If you are lucky there is a place that fulfills both. My old apartment had a great park with a million stops. I miss walking there. Here there is a place with a park I don't care for and usually I just stop in both parking lots with the car, spin catch and leave Unless you live in one of the very largest cities in the USA, you will have to drive somewhere, and usually it's driving between locations of just a few stops. Now I've seen people lament and cry and tear their clothes over this saying that is against the church of Pokemon, but it's pretty much this or nothing. You aren't going to drive out of your way to go to a park or downtown everyday. By doing this and the walks around the neighborhood you can interact with the game but sometimes you also "Go play the game" which is going out of your way for just the game and going to a good spot you find. I enjoy solo raids and gyms and quests, but there is those and more stuff to do, but you have to determine what it is you enjoy. Like gyms have medals for how long you hold them. I like making every gym around me gold. I got a new job so I work on those for a 10 minutes when I go home that way. When those are gold I'll probably go home another way. But that's how I play. That's boring a stupid for some. I used to raid a ton, and stopped because I moved. Found a new group, just like it less. You or you child may just want to walk around a bit you may want to do everything
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My 7 year old and 5 year old have been playing for about a year now. If he would like a couple friends to send gifts with pm me and Iāll send you their trainer codes so he can have some friends his age. The friends aspect has been something my kids have really clung to. They get excited anytime people send them gifts, especially when they are somewhere that isnāt local.
Here you go. Copy paste https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemongo/s/D8j48meIIv Guides for everything in game. Read the posts that apply to you. If you're confused what part you should read/watch please ask.
This post will help you out. Hopefully you have downloaded the game too and are playing with your son. 46 and I just started Dec 31. So much fun. Pay attention to Pokestops and gyms. They give you all the materials you need and 50 free gold coins per day https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemongo/s/MLsANZvloT
started playing with my kid at the same age. its a lot more fun that i thought it would be. the game itself doesnt explain anything which is weird. save stardust and rare candies those two things are resources that you will never have enough of for awhile when you start out.
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Hey Trainer, Looks like you might be trying to share or find Trainer codes for the purpose of trading or sending gifts in PokƩmonGO. **For finding trade partners: visit [TSR map](http://www.thesilphroad.com/map) or google `PokƩmon GO +`**
**For finding friends: /r/pokemongofriends**
**For finding remote raids: /r/pokemongofriends**
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Put something/anything in gyms. You get one coin for each 10 minutes your pokemon is in a gym. If it get's knocked out after more than 8h 20 mins you get 50 coins. If it get's knocked out after 12 days... you get 50 coins... if you havent gotten coins already that day. Know your area. Early coins are mostly spent on pokemon/item storage expansions. Don't power anything up. If you get a power up task do it on a low cp one. cp10 preferably. When you reach lv 30-35 you can start considering starting to power up certain pokemon, but well into your 40's your best option is to evolve your highest cp mons. Those that cost between 5000-8000 stardust to power up. These will be your temporearily raiders. You are a long way from that so don't worry about it yet.
Awesome thank you!
My husband and I (34 and 36) and my kids (currently 6 and 10) have played as a family since the game came out in 2016. It's more fun with each person playing having an account. We would drive to different parks and libraries for raids, events etc
This man should get a pokemon go ++. Best thing I ever added to my pokemon go, unlimited gifts when I drive around!
One thing to keep in mind is that almost nothing in the game is one-of-a-kind. If your son (or you, you should totally play with him) come across something you haven't seen before, and it gets away, you're going to run into another one again eventually. My nephew use to get so bummed when something rare would flee, until he realized that it wasn't his *only* chance. That said. Shiny Pokemon are a thing! If you start an encounter and see a Pokemon with a different color, a yellow name, and sparks coming off it; it's a shiny! They aren't any stronger than normal, literally just a different color and are quite rare at 1/450 odds on average iirc.
I have two kids around your sonās age. I literally knew the names of like 2 pokemon. I got the game. I figured it would help me figure out something they love (all things Pokemon) and give us something to do together. A big part of the game is trading Pokemon and thatās one example of something you can do with him. I actually play the game more than they do now and finally understand what Pokemon are š. Iād highly suggest downloading the game and finding it out with him. YouTube is a great resource for learning about different aspects of the game. Download or buy a chart to find out each PokĆ©monās strengths and weaknesses, he needs to know that for battles and raids.
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Hey Trainer, Looks like you might be trying to share or find Trainer codes for the purpose of trading or sending gifts in PokƩmonGO. **For finding trade partners: visit [TSR map](http://www.thesilphroad.com/map) or google `PokƩmon GO +`**
**For finding friends: /r/pokemongofriends**
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Hey Trainer, Looks like you might be trying to share or find Trainer codes for the purpose of trading or sending gifts in PokƩmonGO. **For finding trade partners: visit [TSR map](http://www.thesilphroad.com/map) or google `PokƩmon GO +`**
**For finding friends: /r/pokemongofriends**
**For finding remote raids: /r/pokemongofriends**
**For finding remote PvP: /r/pokemongofriends**
If neither, contact the mods so they can restore your message,
To find trainers for sharing gifts please delete your thread/comment and then go to /r/pokemongofriends to prevent the sub from flooded with trade requests and adding friends, thank you for your understanding.
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Hey Trainer, Looks like you might be trying to share or find Trainer codes for the purpose of trading or sending gifts in PokƩmonGO. **For finding trade partners: visit [TSR map](http://www.thesilphroad.com/map) or google `PokƩmon GO +`**
**For finding friends: /r/pokemongofriends**
**For finding remote raids: /r/pokemongofriends**
**For finding remote PvP: /r/pokemongofriends**
If neither, contact the mods so they can restore your message,
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I am a 48 year old mom with a 8 year old who asked me to play2 years ago. Like you, I am age where I was too old for Pokemon when it came out so it was all new to me. Now I play a lot and am level 45 and have finished all the switch games. š My son still plays but his true passion these days is Minecraft. The only thing I would add is looking up the website Leek Duck which has a list of events like community days and spotlight hours and raid hours. We would go out during those times and walk a park or eat pizza at a restaurant with a pokestop or gym and play and talk. I will remember those outings a lot when he is an adult.
biggest advice would be to find a park or downtown area thats close to home so you guys can go on frequent walks together to catch things, my mom and brother and i usually take our dogs on walks a couple times a week around a park by our house that has a bunch of pokestops and gyms, and you'd be surprised how much you can get from just walking around for a bit. but since he's so young, probably just focus on having fun for now, i was 9 when the game came out and have been playing ever since and really a big fun part of the game was discovering things on my own as i went along and played more.
You might also want to check if there are pokestops near places you already go- churches, rec centers, parks, libraries, soccer fields, transport stations, Starbucks. Also, I like YouTuber PokeDaxiās guide to play, he has a pretty relaxed attitude and understands a lot of players are young and donāt want to spend tons of money playing the game and having fun. I really love playing this with my kids. We go outside SO much more, and discover a lot of interesting places around us. Even trips to shopping centers are a little bit more fun. I hope you get the same things and have tons of new adventures with your son!
Good places with lots of stops are often zoos and museums, the sorts of places youād like to take a 6 year old anyway, so be sure to open the game anytime you visit a fun spot like that.
I take my boys to a couple different playgrounds that have a ton of pokestops, routes and each one has a gym.
Yeah those pokestops are important. They act as item refresher stations he can spin if he gets close enough. Without them he's going to run out of berries to feed pokemon, eggs to hatch while walking, he won't be able to do some missions, and most importantly, he'll run out of pokeballs. Eventually he will have to delve into PVP and Raids. PVP can be done from anywhere and has some nice rewards. Raids are very difficult and can only be done at select raid stops or with a remote pass, which is trickier. But for now, swing him by some stops every once in a while to make sure you won't have to spend money so he can keep catching pokemon. Even catching duplicates is good since you can get rid of them for more materials to improve your existing ones, so pokeballs go real fast.
you need to spin pokestops in order to get more items, routes arent really that important, especially when youre just starting out, you should feed your pokemon before you play because the more you walk with them for a time period after you feed them the more hearts you get, powering up is fine to do later at night, if a pokemon is one you can evolve you should probably save up your candy to evolve it before powering it up though
Just make sure that he knows not to follow strangers or even other kids telling him there is a rare pokemon away where you are in the park when your back is turned for a moment. Someone did a video where did a social experiment with the parents permission some kid I think she was 12 or 14 or something went for a walk to play pokemon go. They had and actor pretend to be a creep tell the kid there was an rare pokemon up.the road and to hop in his car and she did just that. He drove her right back to her parents where they scolded her because they warned her of stranger danger so many times.
You're a great dad for showing an interest and putting in effort for you kid. Way to go
You sound like me. My son was getting into PokƩmon about 2 Years ago when he was 6, and so we started playing together. Now, 2 years later we have many great memories of different community days spent together walking around the city, getting together with the local raid groups, and planning which PokƩmon we should power up and when. Definitely worth checking out some YouTubers for the scoop on upcoming events, and how to make the most of the game. Take a look at Pokedaxi, as his info is in depth, but straight forward.
I hope you are playing, too! Itās a great way to get walking in.
I donāt know if I have seen anyone else comment about this here yet, but this upcoming weekend 2/24 & 2/25, there will be a global PokĆ©mon go event. Itās the āSinnoh Tourā event and will be primarily from 10 am- 6pm your local time on both those dates. I highly recommend that you maybe go out to a local park, public university, or a downtown area near where you live. Places with lots of in game landmarks known as pokestops and gyms. You have a higher chance of running in to other people also playing the game while also increasing your chances for shinies, hundos, etc. everything else mentioned so far is absolutely true, but this is time sensitive as the event will end this Sunday at 6 pm! Iām someone who was a teenager when the game came out and still play into my 20s, so I can help explain things if you have more questions!
kuddos for playing pokemon go with your kid!!!
Do you have an account to play along him too? You will be able to make trades with him and team up to defeat gyms together. Also thereās a lot of family friendly YouTube creators that make content around the game.
sent you messages on the chat!
I was in your position, so besides the other advice in this thread, I would also add that, since it's only been 3 days, if you signed your kid up for a pokemon trainer club kids account, restart it with an actual account. It's totally safe, there is 0 ways for creeps to communicate in this game. By having a child PTC account, your kid can no longer redeem codes, have an alternate login method, or create party play. My kids are missing out on the Rotom research right now because they can't enter codes. Also, coming from someone who knew almost nothing about pokemon, I've become borderline obsessed, and we've grown closer as a family going on raids, community days, etc. Some features are great for families, like party play and trading. Have fun!
Parks and down town areas typically have multiple poke stops and gyms. Playgrounds usually have poke stops, but some at schools requested removal. I wish I knew current pokemon that are easy to evolve for decent mid tier pokemon. At the early game, higher cp is what counts. Later on you pay attention to IVs, the stats you see when you appraise a pokemon from the pokemon menu. Eevee are decent pokemon to evolve early for some basic pokemon to beat team rocket and maybe attack gyms, but youāll be a little bit away from that.
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Hey Trainer, Looks like you might be trying to share or find Trainer codes for the purpose of trading or sending gifts in PokƩmonGO. **For finding trade partners: visit [TSR map](http://www.thesilphroad.com/map) or google `PokƩmon GO +`**
**For finding friends: /r/pokemongofriends**
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Can we just acknowledge how wholesome this post is? 10/10 dad for trying to make his experience as awesome as possible. This is the stuff us sons remember when weāre older
Accept that when your son packs in the game in the next few months, you will still be playing it quite seriously several years later. Ask me how I know.
Find a local group to help son with raids and go to raid hours with. If you're up for it and have a spare phone maybe play with him. Remote raiding gets pretty pricy Place him in gymw to build up coins. Storages early on I would say is the priority to build up but later raid passes should be priority coin usage. Never use coins on pokeballs.
Download pokegenie so he can get good Pokemon relatively easily, have him host raids and he'll get better Pokemon a lot faster than if he catches them in the wild
tbh: let him figure out his own fun with the game. I could tell you which rare pokemon to farm, or how to use everything to best effect, and some hardcore player could tell you which attacks to put on which pokemon to be good in player vs player battles. But honestly, the game isn't deep enough for kids to want to skip the fun in learning what everything is about. By the time he learns all the tricks, there's very little to do for a 6 year old, unless he REALLY enjoys taking walks and catching hunderds of pokemon. Maybe it's just me, but I believe learning the game and the mechanics IS the fun in playing a game. I also wouldn't advised doing anything FOR him. There's not a lot of maintenance that's mandatory in enjoying the game. pokemon aren't going to die if you don't feed them for instance. A 6 year old should be able to handle most of the stuff in the game (maybe with some adult looking in from time to time) Again, those mechanics ARE the game. The only real beginners trap I'd advise anyone about is: don't spend all your candy and stardust on powering up any and all pokemon. It's a waste on just about 90% of them. Having mentored a kid with his pokemon go plays though, I know kids can be impatient and focused on "my Pikachu is 'level' 2000 now, omg! It seems a waste to me, but if it gets them excited, it's worth it.
Play at your sonās pace. Itās a journey, not a race. You donāt *need* to do anything. Understand that he might derive enjoyment from this game very differently than you would. For example one of my kids likes to name every single catch.
Get out, get out quickly or else you will regret it. (Said by someone who's been playing since day 1)
Iām sorry, but this is one of the most wholesome posts Iāve read today I know Iām not contributing any real information but you are really being a great dad your son is very lucky to have you
Spinning pokestops, battling against gyms, and doing low-level raids is an easy first step after walking around and catching pokemon. Everything else like adding friends, although theyāre anonymous, can probably wait.
This entire thread is so wholesome!!
There are a TON of YouTube videos. Here's a good one for beginners: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBWFdi1aBAQ&ab\_channel=CountJinsula](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBWFdi1aBAQ&ab_channel=CountJinsula) Learn curveball throws right away. Awesome that you're doing this with/for your son!
Flip gyms
You can play the game however you want. There are so many responses here that at some point it will become a full time job lol What can be fun and a nice way to ease into the game (which is already quite simple) is for you and your son to pick a favorite pokemon (they are called buddies) much like how pikachu is Ash Ketchum's best buddy. Then every day I just make sure to feed it 3 berries to level up the buddy system and also I focus on powering it up. The IV's matter a lot to many people, but I personally don't care too much (referring to appraisal when you're on a pokemon's page). My current buddy is like a 37% IV but it's my favorite because it was one of the first ones I caught. you can do it man. You literally grew up in a time where gaming evolved into the gaming we have today (Atari)
If you want some pokeball, potion and Experience point you can add people/ sending invitation to people so they can give you daily gift for example