Finding Pokemon in the Wild

How do i find wild pokemons to capture?

• Wild pokemons are all over the place. I believe there is some sort of time based setting where if you leave your phone for long enough, a wild pokemon is going to spawn near you regardless of where you are and regardless of what the "nearby" button says.

• On the map, if you see areas where you get wild grass animating, pokemon are more likely to be around those areas. You will normally find multiple pokemon in those areas and your more likely to get multiple to spawn at the same time. Though i believe everywhere can spawn a pokemon potentially based on a timer since your last encounter with a wild pokemon.

I see a wild pokemon on the map, now what?

• If you see a wild pokemon on the map, you want to try and double tap on it - this can be painful if they are right next to a pokestop/gym - as the pokestop/gym take preference and the app seems to "help" you select these rather then the pokemon.

• Double clicking on the pokemon will take you to the capture screen where you attemp the capture.

What does the rustling grass mean on the map?

• From my experience, rustling grass just represents an area where pokemon are near. Basically, if you see an area with multiple ruslting grasses, it means there is more likely to be pokemon around that area. You typically find these types on things in park like areas. You can still find pokemon anywhere, but if you head towards rustling grass, there seems to be a higher chance of an encounter especially if you just roam around those areas.

I can't see any pokemon around me, will some spawn near me?

• If you leave your phone on , plugged in and running the app, you will find pokemon will eventually spawn on you without you actually moving. So i believe there is some sort of "timer" that if you havent had an encounter for X time, the game spawns one near you.
  

How Does The Nearby Pokemon Tab Work?

• Nearby Pokemon is actually quite powerful once you know how it works. It basically seems to be a linear scale in regards to the distance to the Pokemon and the number of footsteps. The only one that i think may not be this way is the 3 footsteps. I think the 3 footsteps means 3+.

• I added an image that shows the distances based on a test i've done. 100% of the time that the Pokemon has had 0 footsteps, when i have clicked it, it has spawned within 5 to 10 seconds. I have also 100% reproduced that once a Pokemon goes outside your circle range, it changes from 0 footsteps to 1 footstep

Image That Shows Footstep Distance

• You should be able to use these tips to track down specific Pokemon that show in your nearby (aslong as they are atleast a 2 footstep as 3 may be a bit hard).

Capturing Pokemon

How do i capture the pokemon?

• Once you are in the capture screen, the goal is to throw the pokeball so that it hits the pokemon on the full. If it bounces, goes over them or misses, well you have to try again. Each throw will take 1 pokeball so you dont want to miss. In saying that, you will eventually get your eye in where you can hit them with 1 shot 80% of the time.

• To throw the pokeball, tap and hold the pokeball, then flick your finger with the right speed/power based on the distance the pokemon is from you.

Augmented Reality when capturing is cool, but can i turn it off?

• I recommend turning of AR as it makes capturing pokemon easier and you will look less wierd when doing this in public. To do this, when you are in the capture screen, at the top right is an AR switch, just toggle that and AR will turn on/off.

What does the coloured circle mean?

• The color of the circle represents the difficulty of the capture. Green being the easiest, red the hardest. A harder pokemon is more likely to resist capture and escape even after you successfully hit it with a pokeball.

• After much testing, i believe the entire purpose of the colored circle is to tell you the difficulty of the catch and it also highlights the area you need to hit to get "Nice" and "Great" throws. Pokemon can still escape capture even if you do a "Great" throw.

• I have not seen a difference in capturing chance when the colored circle is small or large

• I have not seen a difference in "throw speed" if the circle is small or large.

So i'm unsure if the below is true based on my own experience - left it here as its from official site
* From the official site, you have a greater chance to capture the pokemon when the circle is the smallest in diameter. /u/PatThePirate

You gain some extra experience depending on the type of throw you do and whether you hit that colored circle.

• Curveball = 10XP
• Nice Throw = 10XP
• Great Throw = 50XP
• Excellent Throw = 100XP

You only get 1 bonus per throw, so even if you do a curve ball and get a "great throw" , only the highest XP will show - so you will get 50xp and not 60xp.

The wild pokemon escaped my pokeball????

• There is a random chance that the pokemon resists capture. Most of the time, they will stay around and you simply need to throw another pokeball at them to capture them. However, sometimes they will run away and they disappear from the map and you have missed you chance to capture them.

• I have taken up to 5 captures to actually capture a pokemon before - mostly, if they escape capture once, the next time you get them with a pokeball, it will work. Its rare that it goes more then 2 times.

What are these curveballs i've been hearing about?

• To do a curveball, you want to tap and hold the pokeball, rub in a circle so that the pokeball rotates, then flick it like you normally would (except its going to curve obviously). If you manage to hit a pokemon with a curveball, you gain an extra 10xp (you normally get 100xp from a capture - 600xp if its a pokemon you dont have yet).

• I have had a pokemon escape capture after being hit by a curveball - i'm unsure if it effects capture chance or not, but its definitely not 100% chance to capture if you hit with a curveball.

• But curveballs are quite fun.

I've found a difficult wild pokemon, can i make the capture easier somehow?

• Once you get up a few levels, you will get some berries, you can use these berries to make your next throw have a higher chance to capture the pokemon. But it only effects the next 1 throw (regardless of if you hit or not).

• Berries dont make it a 100% chance to capture, but i definitely feel a difference when i use them on harder Pokemon and it really feels like they dont escape hardly at all - but i have had it happen to me now once or twice.

• As you level up, you get stronger pokeballs which make capturing easier as well.