I am still working 40 hours a week in a essential job. So I don’t have the time to do the blogging since a lot of my job right now is high stress. So this is not always high priority, but once a week I will at least do TWIP Notes (This Week in Pokemon). Some good, some bad things that I have noticed.

I caught this (as a Rhyhorn) on Saturday the 2nd. Definitely “the good of the week” I’ll be walking this instead of what I was going to walk since this will be a monster. Right now, I have enough to get this bad boy to L 40, but I will walk this around some to get some Stardust before I do anything. I don’t want to be stardust poor yet again, since I just built that number up with the recent Sentret Double Community Day event where Stardust was huge. Plus with Tuesday being Double Stardust Catch Day… good time to pull some extra stardust out.

In another personal good news, my Heatran and Swampert are now both L40… I have to finish off Best Buddy with both, but that will come in due time.

Also a bit of good news came as Giovanni is taking the Summer off. Seems as though Giovanni will be back in October, which was a great decision. Not everyone has their normal access right now. Besides, I do like this Throwback Challenge which has replaced it to a point.

Speaking on the Throwback Challenge, I must call the powers that be out on Step 2. Not everyone has access to a gym in their home screen, especially the more rural players. I thought I was going to be out of luck since the local gym’s hatches were Darkrais and a L4 character (and I will not waste a Remote Pass on something I cannot win). Finally, last night a Scyther was in the raid, so I went in. I won. Still, it’s completely not fair to those in areas where there are no gyms to require such a step to win this timed event. At least the others seem to be OK… some walking, but hopefully we all can complete those.

The new promo codes that were extremely limited was also a giant misstep. From what I understand, those were only opened while I was asleep (as would be many others in the Western Hemisphere) and well… that to me is not right.

I do like that our buddy is now getting gifts from local spots so I don’t have to go out to give out some gifts. This is a wise move since very few of us have a Pokestop right outside of our door. Granted, it would be nice if our buddy spun the stop for us, but I guess that’s too much.

I sure hope Darkrai comes back out again soon… I can’t remote a 5*, I don’t know anyone else in this area who would play with me. Not everyone lives in an area where they can gather up enough people to take on a Darkrai… or an Altered Forme Giratina.

To end on a good note, I like the new daily research without spinning. At least this gives everyone a chance to continue Special Researches. I like this month’s Shinx, as I don’t have all the evolutions yet.

I can pretty much sum my Abra (Double) Community Day by sharing my “Catch of the Day”

OK, I got 8 shinies, but no Abras were over 87%. I am glad I saved a 96% for this event or I would have been totally out of luck for a good Alakazam from this event.

Hope yours was better! Let me know!

Yesterday (April 19, 2020) was Incense Day… though it felt like Sentret Double Community Day. It was 6 hours of Pokemon in a row of various intensity. Some hours were great…. some hours were the complete opposite.

Water Hour for me at least was great… I saw a good number of Mudkip (something I am working on), and at least 2 or 3 of everyone else who was supposed to be featured. At least there was a good mix. Good job.

Fire Hour was also good… I got some Ponyta (I have a 4*, so I am working on it), and a few of each. Though fires don’t always seem to want to be caught, I was pretty happy. I would have liked to have seen more Litwick, but that’s a personal thing. Hopefully that will be featured during Halloween again this year.

Grass Hour is where it began to slip. I saw every character, but it took a while to get a Ferroseed and I only saw one. Sentret seemed to be more featured at this time, and I was getting less happy.

Psychic Hour was a joke. I can count only two or three characters I saw multiples of that should have been featured. I remember seeing about as many Sentrets, if not more than I did psychic. At least I finally got Gothita, so it was somewhat worth it. If it wasn’t for that, I would have considered it a complete fail.

Bug Hour I skipped. Nothing made me excited there… that and more Sentrets was not doing anything for me.

Ground Hour was pretty good… like the game got the hint with skipping Bug Hour. I saw multiples of each and at least a few of the ones were ones I wanted. A good mix like earlier.

Overall, way too many Sentret, a nice seasonal Pokemon, but not one that I would consider a good pick for Community Day. Got 6 Shiny Sentret (which is Community Day numbers) and 2 non-Sentret Shiny (Cubone and Zigzagzoon… not great either). I didn’t want one hour, one hour was a waste… I am less two Incenses that I was before net. Thankfully I have saved a lot of mine since regular Incense from home doesn’t do much for me.

I have three major suggestions for a better next Incense Day. Each of these would have made a better experience overall.

First, no “Community Day” character that is overarching. I got tired of Sentret after a while and it was more of a distraction than a positive to game play. Yes, getting the shinies was nice, but I would trade the shinies for more of the individual featured characters. There were some hours where the featured characters were desired. I want more of them.

Second, 100% of the spawns (both Incense and non-Incense based) should conform to whatever hour. I was speaking with my Fiancee early and she was saying that she got non-water and non-fire spawns at her house (she lives in a more urbanish area than I do, and she gets home spawns without the benefit of incense) during the hours. I went out for a walk later and I saw non-ground spawns in the last hour. Not good… they are not the target Pokemon and well…

Finally, get some more uncommon or better characters out during the hours. I didn’t participate in Bug Hour mostly because there were no uncommon to rare Pokemon. I recently saw spawned Skorupi. Anorith doesn’t do anything for me really (I get enough of them from 7K eggs trying for others) and Joltik was the best, but it was the best of a bad bunch in an hour of mediocrity. Joltik has been at least semi-common for me. At least Clampearl, Litwick, Ferroseed, Gothita, and Wooper are uncommon enough in my experience that I was happy that I participated since I caught some of them. Ground was the best since the non-Alolan forms of Diglett and Geodude are not common in my experience, neither is Onix or Hippopotus. Those are the ones I wanted. Put some more uncommon to rare characters in. Maybe if Bug Hour had some uncommons/rares or was something uncommon/rare (Dragon Hour anyone?) I would have participated.

April 15, 2020 brought a lot of news to the Pokemon Go world. Some of these are great news… some not at all.

First thing that is mentioned is the final (hopefully not) information about Remote Raid Passes. Only if you have a gym on your Nearby Screen (where we catch Pokemon) will you be able to use them. Great for those in urban areas where there are plenty of gyms (I remember in my nearby screen in Manhattan there were so many gyms that one could have used this pass idea and gotten at least a dozen or more, and that was only looking in one direction!), but not so much for those of us in rural areas. As I have mentioned in the past, I have one gym in my nearby screen, which is off a 2 lane each way numbered highway and I cannot see it from my house. In fact, it is virtually impossible to tell if anyone else is at the site until you get there. The gym doesn’t change color often (at least when I look), so it’s not heavily trafficked. This is absolutely no help to me, since I don’t know the people who put into the gym and cannot coordinate a raid. I feel for people who have 0 gyms in their nearby screens. This is completely useless to me and to many other players. Once again, the rural community is overlooked.

Next, they mention that we get a a bonus Field Research daily without visiting a Pokestop. Double edged sword really… though yes, it is helpful, especially if the research is easy to get without venturing outside. However, with this comes the lack of spinning (which let’s face it, spinning the Pokestop bonus is huge). Maybe this is remedied by the next announcement, that our Buddy Pokemon will go out and find gifts from nearby Pokestops. That would help out a lot, so that we don’t have to go outside, but only if the Pokestops are still spun.

At the end, there are two great things. First, the ability to multi-level Pokemon is a dream come true. There are multiple Pokemon characters I would like to level up, but having to go one at a time for multiple levels is a pain. That and stacking Star Pieces, Lucky Eggs, and Incenses makes perfect sense. There are times I would like to get 1 hour of effects at a time, so allowing the stacking makes sense. Hopefully there will be more good updates in the near future!

A friend of mine and I were talking about some of our favorite Pokemon. When we got to how close to Tangrowth we are, she mentioned she is 30 candies away. I said I don’t have one right now, so I have no idea how close or not I am to getting Tangrowth. It has been a while since I got a Tangela, so I cannot say when the next time I will see one. In the mean time, I am curious… how many Tangela Candies do I have? There are other Pokemon out there I know I do not have a current copy of since they have been weak, so I transferred them right away. I would like a way to be able to see exactly how many candies I have of a certain Pokemon at a click. Ideally, this would be part of the Pokedex screen for each individual Pokemon. At least then I would know how close (or not) I was so I can maybe evolve the next one I see, even if it isn’t up to my usual specifications. I want to fill my Pokedex as much as I can. This would be a help to that quest. That and it would be helpful for trades so I can target certain types for evolution, as well as give my friends targets for their evolution.

Recently, Niantic announced that Pokemon Go Players should be able to raid from home in the near future. This, along with the catch from home would make a pair of major changes to help us in who have to stay at home. I do have a few questions that deserve answers and some suggestions for play that would help facilitate this temporary change. (note: anything I say here about trips, raids, and the like are obviously prior to the current situation and hopefully will come back online soon.)

Question: How far away from home can we raid?

I remember reading that we might be able to raid at any Gym we have been to before. At least that is how I understand what Niantic said about virtual raids. I personally have Gym Badges from Rhode Island to Arkansas. Can I raid at them all? That would be neat. Granted, some of these are obviously just trips that I took and I do not know anyone who plays at a great number of out of my area gyms. However, I will argue that I have strong ties to the Albany, NY and Lehigh Valley, PA (Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton) areas. I have extended family and know others in Albany and my Fiancee is in the Lehigh Valley. I have a bunch of gym badges in those areas and frankly, I would like to play with them if I can. I can’t personally see them, so this would be a nice substitute. So will there be an upper limit?

All I know is that a tight circle of eligible Gyms would only be acceptable for those in urban areas. Example: I only know of 1 gym within 1 mile of my house. If that is made about 5 miles, I have 5 that I know of. There are likely more, but I don’t know of them. These are probably on the side roads and places where I do not frequent and have no reason to without knowing that Gyms are there. Now with no unnecessary driving ban, getting to these places are more difficult. An area I have played in past that has about a dozen gyms is 9-13 miles away. This is among two different towns and is a large area. Combined, those two areas would have enough, but I don’t know the players as well. To get where I normally play Wednesday Night Raid Hour is 15 miles by road. Combined with a couple other local places, I can easily access about another dozen gyms. Where I go on weekends (where I can at least get into gyms all within in walking distance) is about 19 miles by car. I counted about a dozen there. Those are the places where I know I will meet other players, some I have as in game friends, some I do not as of yet, but I recognize them. I am in contact with many of the people who play there, so coordination is great. Therefore, I will state that a 20 mile radius is the minimum if raids are going to be limited to a circle as the crow flies.

Another way I thought of to establish parameters of Raidable Gyms are to do it by color of gym. This could be what Niantic was hinting at when they meant “favorite places”. My concern is how will they define favorite.

If they define favorite as “gold gyms” only, that would severely limit the amount of gyms I would have access to. Right now, I have 4 gold gyms. Only 1 is a place where I raid on a regular basis. This is one of the ones that is 15 miles away that I mentioned before. 2 are within 3 miles of my house, but I have never done a raid at either of them and have no idea if others do. They are both relatively isolated from other gyms and would need to be driven in between to get to. There are no sidewalks… one is off of a numbered divided highway, the other off a main thru-road. The other is off a major thru-road (actually, the same number highway which by me is divided becomes a one lane each way thru-road), but at least it has sidewalks. This is in a downtown type area where two such major numbered thru-roads intersect which are normally pretty heavily for our area traveled. I have done a couple raids in the area, but they were random raids where a 5* Raid was, and at least some others were mobilized. However, this is not the norm. I do not belong to a chat group for that group, so I would not know how to contact them. So I would basically be hemmed into 1 gym for virtual raiding with others. That would not work.

Silver or better gyms would be more reasonable for me, but I have some doubts there as well. Right now, I would have 38 gyms available that are silver or better. Knock 2 off of that for the Sprint Stores which used to be gyms and are inactive. Among those 36, 3 are within 3 miles of my house (the one that is close, but across a divided highway going the wrong direction from my house is the third). 10 are within that 9-13 mile two town range I mentioned earlier. 1 is within 12 miles the opposite direction of the two towns. 1 is about 14 miles away where a friend plays, 3 are at/near the mall 15 miles away, 8 are at/near the park 20ish miles away, 2 are in the Lehigh Valley (I know I can do 1 with my Fiancee… not sure about the other), 6 are in Albany, and one each in Dyersburg, Tennessee (at a Rest Area off of I-155), and one is in St. Louis, Missouri (at a hotel). My point here is that I am spread out with the gyms to prove the point that if there was both a color and mileage restriction, I would be hemmed in depending on how far I would be able to go. I would be OK with a color restriction of silver (it would be neat to do a virtual raid from home in St. Louis or Dyersburg, probably a lower level one though since I cannot be assured of others playing). However, I am aware of the plight of the newer player or the even more rural player that I am who may or may not have silver gyms yet.

Bronze would at least prove that you have been there and probably either raided or at least kept the gym for a while. This would be more ideal for me, as it opens up another 80 (Mainly in the Lehigh Valley, Albany, Rhode Island, Manhattan, and other more local places). The hurdle is relatively low in that one raid or a few hours in a gym with feedings will make the gym bronze. Memories would be made and there would likely be stories there. In the same vein, having the badge with some sort of progress towards bronze would open up the majority of gyms for just about everyone (I have about 50 of my 208 gyms that can still be accessed that are spin one time to earn the badge only). That would be the most ideal, since even newer players should have some places where they have spun more than once and have placed a Pokemon or two in a gym.

Question: How will we know what is available to raid?

If the Nearby Raid page is used, we are limited to the number that this tab can hold. I have seen no more than 9 at a time, so would we be limited to the 9 closest to us? 9 of the highest star raids? 9 of the lowest star raids? If there are raid hours like there used to be, would we be limited somehow. What I would like to see is some sort of identifier on the gym badge screen. At least this would give everyone a chance to play where they want to and be able to coordinate with others to play. Hopefully there will be some sort of limited chat function in game, which I previously asked for, to facilitate this.

Finally, can we Ex-Raid style situation for gyms we haven’t been to yet, but a friend has? I know that there are plenty of gyms I have been to maybe once that some of my friends have vast experience with, and vice versa. I would like to be able to play with my Fiancee in a gym she has that I don’t since I haven’t played with her much. I don’t have a lot of gyms by her, and I know some gyms by me I have that she doesn’t have. Just using her as an example… but I have other friends from the park I play at that I have met that have the local to them gyms that I would like to play with. They might have an area that is popular (or at least populated) outside of the park to play at… and my friend I play Wednesday Night Raids with knows gyms I don’t in her hometown. Even if it was limited to once a week for Ultra Friends or better I would like to foster some cooperation and experience gyms that we don’t have, but maybe once this COVID-19 is gone we can go out and play and explore more. Even if we get a “shadow badge” (meaning that the stats are accrued, but we still have to physically visit the gym for it to count in our Gym Badges, but we are still aware of the gym and location so we can go visit once COVID-19 is no longer a threat… NOTHING to do with Team Rocket), that would be good. At least then we would have a memory of the place and then we can create memories in real life at the specific gym. This would be echoed even louder if we have a limit based on the color of the gym.

This and I would want spinning the Gym Disc to count for Pokestop Spin. This since we still don’t have a temporary Pokestop at home.

Niantic is getting it now. Glad to see that the Giovanni Quest has been extended to April with Entei as the reward. With so many of us on lockdown and it seems like the lockdown will continue through April at this rate, we get a sorely needed rest from one of the more time consuming (and repeating) quests. Niantic has just won a lot of Goodwill back. Let’s keep the ball rolling, so to speak.

This works from Buddy1 (chosen buddy but not played with) to Buddy5 (Best Buddy) and all in between based on heart level. Thanks, Niantic.

I know I am invoking a classic “Spaghetti Western” in my title, but there have been some of all three so far.

The Good

• More Pokeballs in Gifts. I received upwards of 10 Red Pokeballs in some gifts.
• Cancellation/Postponement of some events that are geared more towards group gaming. Some have been reworked to solo gaming.
• The 99.9% sales (30 incenses and 100 Red Pokeballs for 1 coin)

The Bad

• Niantic is (at least in my view) quite REACTIVE and not adapting to the situation in a proactive manner. Everything seems to be a tooth pull to get the needed changes. It took how much to get the hike in Pokeballs? I am grateful, but it shouldn’t have to come to the players complaining for days. Niantic should have seen the writing on the wall.
• Personal experience: I got up to the catch 25 Electric Pokemon in the Drive to Investigate quest. I saw ZERO Electric Pokemon out yesterday. This is still the middle of the time that the quest is supposed to be active and the various needed Pokemon are out. I just hope that Ice Pokemon are plentiful in the next couple of weeks. It’s Spring and Winter here has been a complete dud so far as cold and snow around here. One lure will not do it.

The UGLY

Yes, I can do this by myself. However, I live in a Rural area. I see 3 Pokestops in a weekday. I have seen Rocket Grunts at these stops maybe a dozen times or so since the event started. There is no way that this is feasible for me to get without this being kept for a very long time. Add that New Jersey has banned unnecessary travel (and Pokemon is unnecessary at this point), this renders the research impossible and COMPLETELY INAPPROPRIATE until the COVID-19 situation is resolved. Niantic is once again showing that they do not understand the Rural player’s situation. And now this is two days in a row. 3/26’s Battle in a raid is not as bad, but having only 1 gym in my walkable area… on a major highway with no sidewalks makes this quite a monumental task. John McEnroe was right at Wimbledon all those years ago…

Yes, Niantic deserves Kudos for the good things and gets some Goodwill for this. However, their mistakes have erased a huge chunk of the Goodwill they got.

So yes, the Incense does work from my house. Just wish I didn’t need it to get home catches… Here is my first Shiny.