PokeMonday 11-14-2016: Location, Location, Location???
I’ve been playing Pokemon Go since July, but haven’t had much rhyme or reason to how I go about playing. I do the majority of my hunting within a mile or two of my house here in the middle of the desert. So it’s no real shock that outside of the typical Rattata, Pidgey, Ekans and Meowth, my Pokemon sightings are largely centered around things like Geodude, Sandshrew, Cubone and Rhyhorn.
As I was preparing for a recent business trip, I was talking with my son about how I was going to be staying in a lodge on a lake. His first was “You’re probably going to catch a bunch of water type Pokemon.” I hadn’t really thought of, but I was definitely excited by the prospect. And, much to my delight, he was exactly right. While I was there I picked up several water and grass type Pokemon. Oddish, Bellsprout, Krabby, Horsea and Magicarp were all pretty common. I also found that the eggs I was hatching were more commonly water and grass types, too.
Right after I got back from my trip, I found the website pokefind.co, where you can look up sightings for different Pokemon in your area. Between my experience on my trip and the research I had been doing on pokefind, it was time to change my strategy a bit.
Let’s Roll!
Since I have hatched so many eggs right around my house, I wanted to see if I could influence the type of Pokemon that hatched simply by driving to another area. I had a 10k egg that was close to hatching, so I used pokefind to look up Snorlax sightings in my area. Turns out, there had been 3 or 4 that day all within about 10 minutes drive from my house. My family piled into the car and off we went.
When we got to the general area where the Snorlax sightings had been, my egg was at roughly 9.5k. We found a large park with a gym and a pokestop so we pulled in. After a few minutes of walking, it was hatchin’ time. I didn’t get a Snorlax, but I did get a Dratini. Even though it wasn’t what I was hoping for, the fact that it was something I had never even seen before got me excited. It was time to plan a little trip!
To the Lake!
LITERALLY on the water!
About 30 minutes from my house in Henderson, NV is a little resort area called Lake Las Vegas. With Friday being a holiday, I made plans with the family for us to go and hunt Pokemon. I prepared for the event by loading up 9 incubators. I had a 10k egg, five 5k eggs and 3 2k eggs all pretty close to hatching before we got there. The ultimate goal being to hatch a Lapras.
As we got out of the car and turned on the app, I was immediately surprised to see 4, yes 4, ekans and nothing else to catch. As we walked toward the water, the next few Pokemon to show up were Geodude, Growlith and Eevee. Curious.
I swear, I’m near water!
I finally had to laugh and snap this screenshot. There was water all around us, but other than a Goldeen who may have lost its way, we may as well have been hunting right back at home.
But, I still had 9 eggs to hatch, so on we walked. And as the first two hatched, I started to gain some encouragement as I hatched back to back Bulbasaurs. They weren’t new to me, but they did push my candy count high enough that I could evolve one of them into an Ivysaur. Hurray, my first new Pokemon of the day! I also hatched a Seel which game me enough candy to Evolve a Dewgong which was another new Pokemon. Hurray again!
After the early success, things slowed down and I hatched a handful of what I would call “nothing special” eggs. But then it was time for the 10k. Was it going to be a Lapras? Maybe a Gyarados? Nope. Instead, I got a 1252cp Magmar. Much stronger than the Magmar I had previously, but far from what I had hoped for.
Maybe it’s not where you finish, but where you start?
We stopped for a drink and a bite before we left Lake Las Vegas and we were talking about our expectations vs the reality. We all had a great time, but we certainly didn’t see nearly as many water type Pokemon as we expected. I was able to catch my first Squirtle, so the day certainly wasn’t a complete bust.
My wife suggested, maybe the new eggs that I started incubating while we were at Lake Las Vegas, perhaps they would turn into some water type Pokemon when they hatched. So, after we left the lake, we stopped by a man-made lake closer to our house and did a bit more walking. During that walk, I hatched a Horsea, Staryu and then a couple other “nothing special” Pokemon.
Check the scoreboard
At the first lake, 1 of the 9 eggs hatched ended up being water type, and the 2 Bulbasaurs hatched are grass types. At the second lake, 2 of the 4 hatched were water types, and those were both started and hatched near water.
So what have we learned?
My sample size is pretty small, but I think there is definitely some merit to where you hatch your eggs influencing your percentage chance of hatching specific types of Pokemon. We didn’t have as much success with hunting water types being near the water, but I think that may have been an anomaly and I plan to do more walking near the man-made lake as it’s less than a 10-minute drive from the house.
I’m still on the hunt for a Lapras and Gyarados. I’ll check back in after I do some more research.
I too have found that the eggs hatch Pokemon from the area in which the egg was collected not where it was hatched at. Looks like you too are having a lot of fun playing! Since I work at a church I have two Pokestops and 1 gym on our campus and the gym is always maxed out by the kids that attend church here.