The first Pokémaster: Tips and tricks from the first 'Pokémon Go' player to catch 'em all
Developer Niantic had a very similar map-based game which used much of the same data which moved over to Pokémon Go.
If you want to be a Pokémon Go master, you have to learn from a Pokémon Go master.
Earlier on Thursday, Brooklyn-based Nick Johnson became the first Pokémon Go player to publicly confirm that he had caught all 142 unique Pokémon that are currently available in the United States.
It took a lot of doing, including at one point hiring an Uber to drive him in circles to catch one of the very last Pokémon he needed.
Here are Johnson's top tips for catching 'em all — as well as some of the crazy Pokémon adventures he had along the way.
Johnson's first piece of advice: Buy a comfortable pair of walking shoes. He walked around eight miles a day, every day, after work in search of distant Pokémon. And he says the game is better at recognising a jogging pace than a slow walk.
If you're trying to hatch eggs, walking should be done in a straight line. As Johnson explains, the game measures distance by periodically checking in on your distance and calculating the straight-line distance between where you were versus where you are.
So if you just walk in little circles, the game won't accurately measure how far you've gone, and you'll have wasted your time and energy. "I learned that the hard way," Johnson says.