It’s the beginning of another month, which means it is time to do a recap of my previous month in PokémonGO. This is basically a “data story” of which stats increased (or decreased) during the month of March 2023.
One thing about Pokémon GO is that it lets you walk. You need to do this to be able to catch ’em all, whether during a normal day or during special events. I was able to walk a total of 271.30 km. Although I did not catch ’em all, I was able to catch a total of 6,428 Pokémon, in the wild, in raids, in research rewards, and via hatching of eggs. Most of these require walking to complete, especially the hatching of eggs. I was able to hatch 118 eggs. As you may have already known, the reward of catching and hatching is the experience points (XP), stardust, and the candy (regular and XL) per Pokémon that you get. Due to this, I earned a total of 8,979,482 XP and a decrease of 2,664,314 stardust. Please note that other activities you do on the Pokémon GO app contribute to the XP you get, not just catching and hatching. Also, note that the amount of increase in stardust is what is left after spending a bunch to ‘power up’ several Pokémon.
Some of the activities that contribute to XP in Pokémon GO
Raids
I got different XP rewards depending on the level of difficulty of the raid tier. I also got double the XP whenever I use a lucky egg before the raid completes. In total, I did 116 tier-5 raids. I also did a total of 27 tier-1, tier-3, mega and elite raids.
In addition, I was able to raid 7 different specie of Pokémon and raided 123 times with friends in Pokémon GO. One other benefit of raiding is the medal you get after the raid completes. For example, you can get medals such as hardest hitter, style servant, etc. I was able to get these raid expert medals 117 times (out of the 143 raids completed).
Evolutions
I got different XP depending on the type of Pokémon and when it was evolved. I got 2x XP when I evolve a Pokémon that has not been registered to my PokéDex. I also got 2x XP when I evolve a Pokémon during the 2x XP evolve events. These become 4x XP if I use a lucky egg during such evolutions. I was able to do 92 evolutions.
In addition, I was able to mega-evolve a Pokémon 51 times. This was because I used a few mega evolvable Pokémon in raids and also took the Primals (Kyogre and Groudon) to their high level. This indirectly contributes to increased XP when catching a Pokémon when it is mega-evolved.
PokéStops
Spinning PokéStops also got me different XPs depending on if it is new or not. New PokéStops give more XP than the ones you have visited before. I was able to visit 83 new and 3,313 old PokéStops.
Gym Battles
Battling Pokémon in gyms to be able to place your Pokémon in the gym rewards more than the coin you get. I also reward XP for every battle you do. I was able to complete 191 gym battles. Another thing about battling and defeating gyms is the gym hours you get. Those 191 gym battles help me to get a total of 2,620 gym hours. Okay, I need to confess here that I did not get those gym hours just by placing my Pokémon in a gym. I needed to keep feeding the Pokémon in the gym with berries. Due to this, I was able to feed 1,863 berries to Pokémon in the gym occupied by Instinct trainers.
Field (and Special) Research Tasks
These tasks not only reward XP directly or indirectly when you catch a Pokémon from the research encounter, but they also reward different items like balls, berries, and stardust. I completed a total of 203 field research tasks. Now, I cannot really say which ones gave XP and which ones gave other items.
Friendship XP
Every daily interaction with the people on your friend list (whether gifting or battling) rewards XP. However, what is important is the XP you get via friendship level-ups. I got different XP depending on the friendship level reached (Good, Great, Ultra, or Best). You also get double the XP if you use a lucky egg when reaching those friendship levels. I was able to get 9 new best friends.
My other activities playing Pokémon GO
Catching them all and more
I tried catching as many Pokémon as I can in Pokémon GO. Although, I did not. However, I was able to achieve the following;
- 4 perfect IV Pokémon.
- 0 unique perfect IV Pokémon.
- 0 shiny perfect IV Pokémon.
- 9 uniquely purified Pokémon (I purified a total of 45 Pokémon).
- 7 unique shadow Pokémon.
- 2 unique 3-star Pokémon.
- 1 unique 3-star shiny Pokémon.
- 0 unique shiny Pokémon.
- 0 unique event Pokémon.
- 28 XXS Pokémon.
- 39 XXL Pokémon.
Side note: I helped other trainers catch just 39 Pokémon.
Trading them all and more
I was able to trade 278 Pokémon out of the 6,428 caught. The result of this was getting 5 unique lucky Pokémon and a 544,601 trading distance. The trading distance was achieved because my trading partner and I mostly trade Pokémon caught during remote raids for Pokémon caught locally.
Battling them all and more
I wish I can battle them all but who got time for that? I did a lot of battles – GO Battle League and Grunt battles. However, for the GO Battle League, I was able to achieve 145 Great League wins, 132 Ultra League wins and 20 Master League wins. For the Grunt battles, I was able to defeat the Grunts 227 times.
Pokémon Type Medals
I was able to increase all my Pokémon type medals too.
- Normal-type: 1,482
- Fighting-type: 330
- Flying-type: 1,396
- Poison-type: 630
- Ground-type: 488
- Rock-type: 368
- Bug-type: 594
- Ghost-type: 67
- Steel-type: 583
- Fire-type: 364
- Water-type: 921
- Grass-type: 450
- Electric-type: 273
- Psychic-type: 736
- Ice-type: 32
- Dragon-type: 51
- Dark-type: 248
- Fairy-type: 203
Concluding with one of the most time-consuming things to do in PokémonGO. Do you know what that is? Taking a Pokémon to best buddy level. I was able to take 10 Pokémon to the best buddy level. These are 100% IV Zamazenta, Excadrill, Banette, Absol, and Xerneas; 100% IV and shiny Gigalith; 98 IV and shiny Tapu Koko; 96 IV and Shadow Swampert; 87% IV Keldeo and 47% IV Galarian Articuno.
