Pokemon GO: What You Need to Know. [The Basics]

Pokemon GO is officially out in the UK. Download it from your phone's app store.

Many of my friends have downloaded it and a number of questions have popped up over how to play it. In all honesty, you don't have much to go off by way of in-game manual. So I thought I'd compose an easy guide for Pokemon GO. This one will be a basic guide, but feel free to ask me any questions in the comments if there's something I haven't covered.

Starting Pokemon GO

You will first be required to enter your date of birth, then you can either sign in with your Google account or your Pokemon Trainer Club account (if you have one). I signed up with my Google account. Then Professor Willow, this games Professor, will introduce you to the game. You make a slightly customisable avatar, make a unique username then you go into the game with a few pokeballs.

Here you can catch one of the three starter pokemon: Bulbasaur, Charmander or Squirtle. OR. You can walk away from all three (don't tap on them) and a short distance later, they'll disappear and reappear next to you. Repeat this process until eventually they'll disappear and reappear with a pikachu.

To catch a pokemon 

You first tap the pokemon on the map-screen if you're close enough.

It will bring up the capture screen. Hold your finger down on the pokeball and a circle will appear around the pokemon. Wait for the inner-circle to shrink as small as possible; this'll give you the best chance at catching it. Then swipe the ball towards the pokemon. You might have to swipe a bit further than you first think; the pokemon are a little further away than it seems.

If you're successful, it'll register in your pokedex, you'll win that pokemon's candy and some stardust. These items can be used later on. You also gain EXP which level your avatar/trainer up.

The higher your trainer level, the stronger the pokemon you can catch!

Finding a Pokemon

EDIT: As of update 0.31.0 the 'nearby' footprints have been removed. It is uncertain if they will return however some believe they will once Niantic fixes the glitch that makes all pokemon appear 3 footprints away no matter what their actual distance is.

Please disregard this section for now, but should the footprints return you can check back here for reference.

Pokemon hunting can be tricky. Though a few will wander up to you while you're sat in the living room on the sofa, they don't all do that.

In the bottom right of the screen is the 'nearby' tab. Pressing it brings up all the pokemon close to you. Below each pokemon will be a number of footprints. Each indicates an area of about 50 metres. If the pokemon does not have any feet below it, it is within 50m of you and generally already within your catching/finding range. You can probably stay still and wait for it to appear.

If there are feet, though, get walking. If you want to find a specific pokemon on your nearby list, press it. It will then appear in the bottom right of the screen with the footprints next to it.

Now. Turn 90 degrees. Wait. Wait for about 10 seconds. If you are facing the right direction, a green pulse will emit from the box with the pokemon in (here it's a pidgy) eventually. But it takes a little while to pulse. The closer you are to the pokemon, the quicker it will pulse and the fewer feet there will be next to it.

Pokestops

Pokestops can be found, usually at landmarks in your area. Some examples from my area are post offices, statues, sign posts and churches. They are very useful for stocking up on free pokeballs as well as other items.

To use a pokestop, you have to be within range. You'll know if you are because the stop will change from a blue floating box to a circle shape. Click it and spin the disc to the left or right. Normally you get between 3-5 items. You can pick up pokeballs, revives, potions and eggs. You will almost always get at least one pokeball.

*edit: I have found you get more items from pokestops the higher level you are. Pokeballs from level 1, eggs, revives and potions at level 5, razz berries at 7 (which if a pokemon eats it, its easier to catch on the next throw).

The stop will then turn pink. If you wait 5-10 minutes, it'll turn blue and you can use it again!

Gyms and battling

At level 5 you become eligible to fight at the pokemon gyms. They're very obvious on the map. There's usually a pokemon on either a red, blue or yellow pedestal. If you click on it, it will show you an image of the gym leader (another player, not NPC) and their pokemon. WARNING. Scroll right to see if there are any other people in the gym with their pokemon. I went to a gym, decided to fight it because the gym had a weak rattata, then realised too late that there was also a ridiculously high-strength hypno waiting after I defeated it.

If you defeat the gym, you become the gym leader. You have to put a pokemon there for other people to fight, and the more people that fight in your gym, the more exp your gym gets. And you get a sweet daily bonus if you keep the gym for more than a day! At level 5 you will have to choose a team; Instinct, Valor or Mystic. The gym will belong to whichever team the gym leader is, and if you are on the same team, you can throw your pokemon into the gym for people to fight. You also get the daily bonus! 

Now, to fight. When you press the gym, in the bottom right there's a fight button. Press it, pick your team then go. Then tap the screen like crazy. That's how you fight. The higher the pokemon's 'CP', the stronger it is. If you lose the fight, you can revive your pokemon with the handy revive you grabbed at the pokestop, or use potions.

Eggs

If you want to get fit, incubate an egg. You can pick up eggs randomly from pokestops. They will either be 2.0km, 5.0km or 10.0km. This is the distance you have to walk to hatch the egg. You get a free incubator at the start of the game.

To put an egg in an incubator, press the pokeball in the middle bottom of the screen then press the left hand side 'pokemon' tab. At the top, press the egg tab. Click on the egg you want to incubate and the incubator you want. You can buy additional incubators but they break after 3 uses.

Be warned, you need to have the app open for it to register the distance you walk. Don't walk 10km to find it counted for nothing! It is a massive data/battery drain though. You may want to pack a portable charger with you. Of course, the distance accumulates over time so you can start and stop whenever you want.

Raising and evolving your pokemon

If you find your area is full of pidgys and rattatas and nothing else, don't fret! There's a lot you can do with a lot of the same pokemon in this game.

Pokemon have CP which stands for Combat Power. The higher the CP, the stronger it is. Even if you catch a rattata with only 10CP, have no fear. There's something you can do. Catch more rattata.

When you have too many rattata to know what to do with, the best thing to do here is pick the one with the highest base CP (the CP it has when you catch it), then 'transfer' the other pokemon to Professor Willow.

To transfer a pokemon, go to the pokemon tab through the middle-lower screen, click on the pokemon you don't want then click on the green circle in the bottom right of the screen then press 'transfer'. Pressing it sends the pokemon to the professor and in return he gives you one of that pokemon's candy. The more of that pokemon's candy you have, the more you can power up that one rattata you want to keep.

After transferring all the unwanted rattatas, you might even have enough to evolve it straight into a raticate. You could, but I wouldn't. Power up your rattata as much as you can before you evolve it so that it'll have a bigger CP boost when you finally do evolve it. You can see how much it is powered up by the arching line over the pokemon's image, which will increase with each power up. 

Of course, you can only power up your pokemon so far if you're not a high enough trainer level. You also need to have enough stardust which can only be obtained through catching pokemon (or from getting a gym defender bonus). Evolving does not use stardust.

A final note about pokemon candy. If you evolve your rattata into a raticate, it will still use rattata candy to power up, not raticate candy. This is also true if you catch a kakuna; it will use weedle candy to power up. Pokemon in an evolution-chain only use the base-evolution candy and if you transfer, for example, a kakuna, you will get one weedle candy in return.

oOo

As far as I can think, this is all you'll need to know to get you going. If I have a sudden spark of realisation that I've forgotten something important then I'll add to this. Otherwise, leave a comment with any questions!

Good luck and catch 'em all!