Take your game to the next level!
Pokemon GO has been around for four and half years and the level cap is finally being raised to 50. Many trainers have hit the current level cap of 40 within the first year and some elite trainers even sooner than that. For those of you who got into the game late or struggle to gain XP quickly, now is the time to do so before the level cap increase which takes place at the end of this year.
There is a lot to master and little time to learn, so in this, the first of three articles we are going to be focused on boosting the XP gained from catching and faster catching mechanics in order to grind XP even faster.

You Gotta Pump Those Numbers Up

Gaining XP by catching Pokemon can be a slow process. So how can you ensure you are getting the most out of each catch? There are bonuses such as catching a Pokemon on the first ball, using a curve ball, and hitting a nice, Great or Excellent Throw. The latter two come with practice but will pay off as each of the bonuses reward you with extra XP.
The best way to get that practice is to use an Incense to increase the number of Pokemon spawns in your area. Niantic just announced that Incense will have increased effectiveness so this is a great time to perfect that Excellent Curve Ball on the first time, every time.
Now to boost those numbers even further. Use a Lucky Egg to double your XP for thirty minutes. While you are at it you may as well use a Star Piece to increase the Stardust that you will need a little later. To make the most of these items, I suggest setting aside a time of day dedicated to catching and boosting XP. There is nothing worse than popping a Lucky Egg only to be pulled away from playing to deal with real life.

Gotta Catch em All: Quickly

You now have the skills to catch ‘em all, but man, it is really time consuming. Waiting for that ball to shake three time….ain’t nobody got time for that! Time to learn another skill, The Quick Catch.
Did you know you can skip the ball shake animations? Well it’s true. First, select the berry you want to use if any. I recommend a Razz Berry for this as you want to raise the capture rate as high as possible. Now select the ball that you want to use. Again this is up to you, but to make this as quick as can be, I like to use balls based on CP. 10-400 use a Poke Ball, 400-900 use a Great Ball, 900+ use an Ultra Ball.
This is where the trick comes in. Before you throw the ball, tap, hold the ball select menu button and drag it out of the way, but hold on to it, do not let go. Me, being right handed, I drag the button with my left thumb to the left edge about halfway up the phone screen. (A left handed person can drag the berry button instead of the ball button.)* Now you can throw the ball as you normally would. Once the Pokemon goes into the ball, you can release the menu button. This is when you want to run from the encounter. Tap the upper left corner twice, sometimes three times. You will be back to the over world view. If the Pokemon you tried to catch is gone, congrats, it was a successful catch. If it’s still there, do not fret. Tap on it and one of two things will happen. It will disappear which also means the catch was a success, or the encounter will begin again, because it would have popped out of the ball or it fled.
To test the latter, try giving it another berry. If you get an error message, then it ran. Throw a ball normally and watch it go bye bye. If the second berry feeding goes normally, then you can try again to capture the elusive creature.*

One last thing to note. From personal experience this method rarely works on incense spawns. Not sure if this is intentional or just my bad luck. TL:DR check out this video explanation from the top Pokemon GO player, Brandon Tan.*


That’s it for today, now go out and practice these techniques. I’ll be back in a few days with more XP boosting tips.* Please leave a comment below if you found this helpful, or if there is something you want me to cover.
See you around, Genesect!
The post Getting To Level 40 And Beyond in Pokemon GO appeared first on Pokémon Crossroads.


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