With less than a week to go before the Kanto Tour on February 20th, here are some last minute tips to prepare and make sure you can fully enjoy your day!
Pokémon storage space
With a whopping 12 hours of play, this is a serious amount of Pokémon to catch! Give your Pokémon storage a large amount clean up and be cruel. If you hold a dex, make sure you only have multiples of the meta-relevant Pokémon. Transfer community day shinies to Pokémon HOME or to the professor. You never need more than 20 shinies from any Pokémon (unless it’s your favorite, I understand that, I guess bright Turtwig!), It’s time to say goodbye to them.
If you can, take advantage of the increased distance trading this week and revisit a few if you can, but you will have to be cruel. If you are not maximizing your pocket space, this may be the time to do it. I’m going to wait until the morning of the tour to use my pocket space, because otherwise I know it’s just going to get full without me realizing it.
Do you need one of each Spinda pattern? Should you keep the 98% Ampharos if you have the hundred? Now is the time to make your collection difficult and transfer it. Have you stockpiled a whole bunch of legendary Pokémon for trading? Sorry, but it’s time to dump her! There is no double candy for this month, so take it over now. You do not need 20 of each legendary group; keep your best teams of 6 if you have to, but make sure you go through them, you will be amazed at how many you have.
I also recommend that you Shadow Pokémon and pure and transfer. I say pure first, because to reach level 50, you need a lot of platinum badges, and that’s a badge you can work on passively. Note, however, your star dust, I do not recommend purifying the 5000 dust Pokémon! You do not have to keep all of them (unless you love AR), so get rid of what you do not need.
Taking inspiration from Marie Kondo, does this Pokémon sparkle joy? No? Professor Willow then you go!
Item preparation
Ball, balls, balls, that’s all you need to take care of this week. Drinks and revivals fill up quickly when you loot, so keep it to a minimum, keep your berries in check and focus on the balls. I realized the other day that my business bag was constantly full and I could not figure out why … I had been stripping a lot lately and that I was stockpiling more than 700 rare sweets!
There’s way too much space in my pocket. I put a bunch in Noibat because I’m not going to go to 400 treats soon to develop that tuck, and looked at what legendary Pokémon I want to put in and also put rare treats in it.
Other surprising items that take up your pocket space can be an excess of berries, so feed them in gyms for stardust or evolution items. You do not need a whole bunch of every evolution item, do not use it or throw it away.
Open your maximum amount of gifts weekly will help you store your ball, so make sure you send out as many gifts as you can, and make sure you open your full amount every day. With a greater chance of happy friends, it’s the best way to give the best preference to your best friends this week, but once you’ve opened presents from people you want to try to be happy with, open them up, open up, open! Make sure you reach your limit every day. If you need more friends, check out your local groups, disagreements, etc., post them on social media, fill out the friends list and get more gifts for you.
If you have a GO Plus or similar, make sure you have a lot of Pokéballs over Great Balls, it’s coming soon, so use Great / Ultra Balls to catch manually and leave your Pokéballs for the GO Plus.
This is the key to also make sure you have it incense, stars or lucky eggs You may want to use them, and remember that you can pack them up now, so go ahead at the beginning of the event, then you do not have to worry about them running out over time. The exclusive spawns are incense only, so you will need incense to get it!
Make a shiny checklist
I would recommend to ‘imitate’ myself before the day flashing checklist of what you need from the Kanto region. Go through your Pokédex and make a note of what you are missing, you may be surprised to realize how much you need, or to realize that you have glitters that you have forgotten. If you have a list, you can prioritize what you are going to click on in a group of spawns. I’m going to old school and going to make a paper list that I can keep in my pocket, rather than a note on my phone, since at no point am I planning to be off the program. Every Kanto Pokémon will be shiny available, and we’re hoping for a shiny rate similar to GO Fest (or better, we’ll take better!), So this’s your best chance to get that shiny live Kanto dex.
Choose Red or Green with a partner
With two different ticket options, red and green, and exclusive Pokémon for each version, talk to your friends before choosing if you have not already done so. I chose green, so my bestie Max chose red so we can make sure we have exclusive versions to trade among each other so we can get the full 151 Kanto Pokémon on the day. Check with your local raid groups and community and switch off, or at least make sure you have a good mix of each ticket version, so on the day you are not afraid to find someone to trade with. Friend up!
Also make sure you really do choose your ticket option before the event saves time!
Batteries, chargers and phones
If you live somewhere, you can play outside legally and safely, making sure you have charged portable battery packs and that charging cables are ready. This is a long event, you will need that drawer! Even if you play from home, you can save by making sure you know where your chargers are and that battery power is monitored. With extreme weather in many of the world, the percentages of the battery can suddenly drop, so do not let it get too low!
Make sure you hef overnight so that your phone is ready to use and that you have enough data leave if you will not be on WiFi all day. The last thing anyone needs is to run out of all day data.
Suitable clothes
We have serious extremes again at the moment, so it’s so important to make sure you’re appropriately dressed.
If it is spring / summer where are you now sunshade is the key! Do not burn or give heat, otherwise it will be bad. Make sure you have access to cool drinks, shady spots, and wear light, airy clothing that will keep you cool while protecting your skin.
If you wear hair in a section, make sure that the section is also covered with sunscreen. It’s easy to forget. Set the timer to apply again and make sure you apply a good half hour before going out in the sun to let it sink in and work. Sunglasses and sun hats also help protect you.
If it is winter / autumn, turn warm! Several thin layers are better than one or two thick layers, and a good waterproof layer. Sunscreen is still needed in winter, the sun can be incredibly harsh, especially through the snow. Gloves you can use with your phone, and good sturdy running shoes to keep you from slipping are also great.
Watch the weather, it’s not worth your Pokémon’s health; so stay indoors when the weather is extremely severe and keep it safe!
Check your local Covid 19 guidelines
Go to you local laws and guidelines regarding Covid 19 and make sure you protect yourself. Mask up, keep 6 feet apart, wash your hands and use disinfectant if you can. Do not run the risk of breaking the rules or spreading the virus. Guidelines may differ from town to city, from state to country, from country to country, so make sure you are aware of your specific local guidelines.
In the UK, for example, we are only allowed to leave our homes for essential reasons or exercises. Exercise does not include meeting someone else, and people have been fined for traveling from their area to play Pokémon GO. Stay safe and protect your health service and those around you.
Food and drink
Plan ahead for snacks, lunch and drinks, as well as breaks in the bathroom. Maybe mealtime is the time you go home (if you can play outside) so you can rest, charge your phone and refuel with a decent lunch. Keep hydrated and nourished and you will have a much nicer day.
Last Minute Prep
If you’re in the Western Hemisphere, we have an advantage over other parts of the world. With New Zealand, Australia and Japan starting so long before us, there will be a lot of data available on social media about what to look for and what to do. It’s worth checking out our social media and website to see what the day entails so you can plan ahead and keep your expectations in check. Follow us on Twitter!
Make sure you know you are following a respected, trusted source, and there are likely to be fatal photo shops doing the rounds, so go to your sources.
General tips and tricks
If you intend to really hone, then learn the ‘Quick catch‘trick can be a real help (although I have to admit, as a leftist, I can not figure it out!). There are a bunch of videos on how to do it on Youtube, so check it out here.
Another handy tip is that when you click on a Pokémon to flash it, it will look at you. So if you have a clusterthose you have not checked will not look at you, so it will save you time to check the same Pokémon twice.
Make sure you do prioritize the control of an incense burner about wild spawns, since incense spawns will only last for a very short time, with one every minute, and you do not want to miss that shiny check!
Closure
Currently we have no idea what to expect in terms of shiny rates, but we hope it will be something like GO Fest, if not better. We hope that the search for many Pokéballs will reward us for keeping us well, and we really hope that the search can be completed completely at home.
Stay safe, have fun and take care of yourselves!
