It is the beginning of another month of the year 2023. I have been keeping a record of my monthly and weekly Pokémon GO stats which includes the experience points (XP). As a current level 50 Pokémon GO trainer, XP does not really matter. However, I like to accumulate them as much as I can. Who knows? Niantic and the Pokémon company may decide to increase the level limit. Anyways, that is a story for another day. Let’s see how I actually gained the 58 Million XP.
As you may have noticed, we gain XP via catching any Pokémon, any new Pokémon caught, spinning PokéStops, spinning any gym you have a badge for, evolving any Pokémon, hatching an egg, defeating any Pokémon in gyms, completing any tier of raids, feeding berries to any Pokémon in gyms, completing certain research tasks (special research tasks, event tasks, and research breakthroughs), sending/opening gifts, and leveling up friendship levels. These are what I did to gain the 58 Million XP in 6 months – January 1, 2023, to June 30, 2023.
Everyone can do this and not gain the 58 million XP. While some Pokémon GO trainers (out of everyone) did this and gained much more than the 58 million XP. As for me, here is how I did it.
Catching Pokémon in Pokémon GO
I caught a total of 35,769 Pokémon from January 1, 2023, to June 30, 2023. With a base catch of 100 XP for a Pokémon caught, this amounts to 3,576,900 XP. However, I always make a curveball throw. That means an additional 20 XP for each Pokémon caught. This increases the XP to 4,292,280 XP.
That’s not all!
We do gain 1,500 XP for every first daily Pokémon catch. January 1 to June 30, 2023, amounts to 181 days. Therefore, that is an additional 271,500 XP which increases the catch XP to 4,563,780 XP. In addition, we gain 6,000 XP for every seven-day catch streak. I did not break any catch streak during the past 6 months. Therefore, the catch XP from the seven-day catch streak is 156,000 XP (i.e., 26 weeks * 6000). The catch XP is then 4,719,780 XP.
Other ways to gain XP via catching Pokémon in Pokémon GO are as follows;
- New Pokémon caught: 500 XP
- 100 of the same species caught: 100 XP
- Pokémon flees: 25 XP
- Nice/Great/Excellent Throw: 20/100/1,000 XP
- First-time throw: 50 XP
- Special events (spotlight hour, community days, etc) catch XP (2x XP, 3x XP, etc) bonus.
I could not really put a figure on any of these since I do not know how many new Pokémon I caught in the past 6 months. I also do not know how many times I caught 100 species of the same Pokémon, or how many times Pokémon flees from me or how many times I did make a nice/great/excellent throw, or how many times I caught a Pokémon with first throw. Most especially, I cannot remember how many Pokémon (out of the 35,769) I caught during the special XP events.
Therefore, let’s record the XP from catching Pokémon as 4,719,780+ XP.
Spinning PokéStops and Gyms in Pokémon GO
We do gain 100 XP for spinning each PokéStop and 300 XP for spinning a new PokéStop. In addition, we gain 1,500 XP for each first daily spin of a PokéStop and 6,000 XP for a seven-day spin streak.
I spun a total of 16,524 PokéStops and 426 new PokéStops. This gives a total of 1,780,200 XP. For the first daily spin of a PokéStop, this gives 271,500 XP (i.e., 1,500*181). The seven-day spin streak gives 156,000 XP (i.e., 26 weeks * 6000). The total XP from spinning PokéStops is therefore 2,207,700 XP.
We do gain XP from spinning gyms and most especially the gyms we do have a badge for. In addition, we do gain XP if the gym is currently occupied with Pokémon from trainers in the same team you belong to. We gain 25 XP from spinning gyms. This increases by 2x XP per gym tier (basic, silver, or gold gym). This further increases by 25% if the Gym is occupied by trainers from the same team. In summary, we gain a base of 25 XP per gym. I cannot really put a finger on what this total would be since spinning gyms are counted as part of spinning PokéStops for the backpacker and sightseer badges.
Therefore, let’s record the XP from spinning PokéStops as 2,207,700+ XP.
Other ways we gain XP in Pokémon GO
- Evolving any Pokémon
- We gain 1,000 XP from evolving any Pokémon. I evolved a total of 1,335 Pokémon. This amounts to 1,335,000 XP. However, I did gain more than this from evolving Pokémon. This is because I did a lot of these evolutions during special events such as the 2x XP evolve XP during some of the spotlight hours. Therefore, let’s put the total XP at 1,335,000+ XP.
- Hatching an egg
- Hatching eggs do reward XP. However, the amount of XP gained is determined by what type of egg was hatched. Hatching a 2km egg gives 200 XP, a 5km egg gives 500 XP, a 7km gives 1,500 XP, a 10km egg gives 1000 XP, and a 12km egg gives 4,000 XP. I hatched a total of 1,004 eggs. This amounts to a base XP of 702,800 XP since I cannot specifically say how many of each egg I hatched. I could do a quick search for hatched Pokémon in my inventory but I have transferred a couple. So, let’s keep this as 200,800+ XP.
- Defeating any Pokémon in gyms
- Winning gym battles do reward 1,000 XP. I completed a total of 779 gym battles. This gives a total of 779,000 XP.
- Completing any Tier of raids
- Completing a Tier 1 raid gives 1,500 XP, Tier 3 gives 3,500 XP, and Tier 5/Mega/Elite Raids gives 10,000 XP. I did a total of 165 Tier 1, Tier 3, and Mega Raids. This gives a total of 247,500 XP minimum. I did a total of 483 Tier 5 and Elite Raids. This amounts to a total of 4,830,000 XP. The total XP from completing any tier of raids is therefore 5,077,500+ XP. This also considers the fact that there are some events that rewarded a 50% increase in XP from completing raids.
- Feeding berries to any Pokémon in gyms
- This may come as a surprise but we do get 50 XP for each berry fed to any Pokémon in any gym. I fed a total of 8,843 berries in the 6 month period. This gives a total of 442,150 XP.
- Completing certain research tasks
- There are some special research tasks and event tasks that reward XP when completed. The XP reward varies. I do not have a record of the special and/or event tasks. However, I do for the research breakthroughs. I have a total of 26 research breakthroughs completed. We do gain 3,000 XP per research breakthrough completed. This amount to a total of 78,000. However, considering the other research tasks XP, and some situations where we get 2x XP for completing the research breakthroughs, let’s put this number at 78,000+ XP.
- Sending gifts
- Sending gifts rewards 200 XP per gift sent. I do not have a record of how many gifts I sent within the 6 months period. However, let’s say I sent a total of 30 per day (I did way more than this). This results in a total of 1,086,000 XP (i.e., 30*181*200).
- Leveling up friendships levels
- Each friendship level rewards a different XP. Becoming a Good Friend (i.e., adding someone for the first time) gives 3,000 XP, a Great Friend gives 10,000 XP, an Ultra Friend gives 50,000 XP, and a Best Friend gives 100,000 XP. I do not have a record of how many good, great, and ultra friends I got within the 6 months period. However, I had a total of 63 Best Friends. I also made sure I use a lucky egg when leveling up as best friends. This amounts to a total of 12,600,00 XP. Therefore, considering up level-ups, let’s put this at 2,600,00+ XP.
Putting all together
Combining all the XP from each section as follows;
- Catching Pokémon in Pokémon GO = 4,719,780+ XP.
- Spinning PokéStops and Gyms in Pokémon GO = 2,207,700+ XP.
- Evolving any Pokémon = 1, 335,000+ XP
- Hatching an egg = 200,800+ XP.
- Defeating any Pokémon in gyms = 779,000 XP.
- Completing any Tier of raids = 5,077,500+ XP.
- Feeding berries to any Pokémon in gyms = 442,150 XP.
- Completing certain research tasks = 78,000+ XP.
- Sending gifts = 1,086,000 XP.
- Leveling up friendships levels = 2,600,00+ XP.
The total is == 18,525,930 XP.
Whew. This is too far away from the 58 million XP I gained (see image above). However, if you remember, there were a lot of XP sources I could not put a number on because I do not have the data. Also, if you consider the fact I regularly use lucky egg to get 2x XP from all of these sources, you will see why there is a big difference between the numbers.
Let’s say all of the missing data adds 3.15x XP to the total. We would get a total of 58,356,680. This looks more like the total amount of XP I gained within the 6 months period.
Basically, I did everything possible in Pokémon GO to gain as much XP as possible. However, the main deciding factor is the amount of Pokémon I was able to catch, the number of new PokéStops I spun, the number of raids I completed, and the amount of Best Friends I got.
If you are looking to get as much XP as possible, concentrate on these while doing all the others to supplement your main efforts.
