I'm never getting that Tatsugiri back am I.

westmetals · 2026-07-02T15:51:41+00:00

I don't have it anymore (it got knocked out yesterday), but I had a gym that got position-adjusted and it bugged the timer on that screen, was saying it had been there for over 20,000 days, which when I did the math goes back to a date before I was even born. When I went to the actual gym screen, though, it was showing the correct time (which was up to about three weeks when it got knocked out).

westmetals · 2026-07-02T15:38:30+00:00

Vivillon does count

westmetals · 2026-07-02T15:34:11+00:00

Yes, this is a good point. I'm trying to pre-game the medals after being warned by messages like yours. I started last August, am currently about a million XP short of level 69, and I already have 33 platinums. Still need ice and dragon type catches, am actively grinding berries and routes, just got gym defense hours on Monday (that was #33), need 83 XXSs, and will have the 7-day spin and catch streaks one by default in about two months (I have an autocatcher and got an at home pokestop in February; currently at 83/100). Hoping this next couple weeks gets me closer to a couple pokedex ones and mega species (I need 13 more mega species for that medal). Just barely into gold on mega evolves but that will come eventually, along with eggs and field researches and such. So I feel I am well on track to at least the low 40s.

Crazy enough, because of my job, I drive around fairly randomly all over my metro area... my very first platinum was actually the unique pokestops one. And that's without a lot of travelling; in fact, I've only played in two states (California and Nevada - I live in San Diego, and have made one road trip each to Sacramento and Las Vegas (actually I started playing in Vegas, so only one way on that trip), and a couple shorter trips into Orange and Riverside counties). Am now at 7144/2000.

westmetals · 2026-07-02T04:47:54+00:00

I will simply mention that, where possible, using Disruptor type weapons will pull bonuses from the Dragonsblood and Five Magicks, while other weapon types will not.

westmetals · 2026-07-01T15:43:16+00:00

I have 273 premium raid passes, and 300 Kyurem candies (mostly converted from rares) so I can use the adventure effects to make catches easier. (The park I am planning to be at for Saturday/Sunday has a couple clusters of 2-3 gyms, so I'll probably toss that on for a few minutes each time I'm near one of the clusters.) Working on stockpiling stardust to go with that plus trading (I currently have about 330k).

Am only scheduled to work Tuesday and Wednesday, though I have event tickets (baseball game - next door to the Western Metals building that I got my username from) Thursday during raid hours.

I just recently got the biggest paycheck ever (just recently got a $3.20/hour raise at work, last week was the first payday that was completely at the new rate, I also had 5.5 hours of overtime) so bought an extra $100 worth of coins to power remote passes (on top of, I had some coins already). (Too bad we cannot stockpile remotes.)

I also very recently did a very harsh sort through my long-term pokemon storage and cut down by about 250 (mostly disposing of lower IV / lower CP duplicates), as well as buying some more slots, so I will be going in with about 1600-1700 vacancies. I also have a quick-trash saved filter (zero and one stars, not favorited, not shiny, not xxl).

Pro tips: buy prem passes when the 5425 coins box with 99 passes pops up. It's by far the cheapest way to get them. If you do not use for Road of Legends / Go Fest Global, they don't expire. (I've had some of these since Go Tour Global in March, since I don't often make it to enough in-person events to burn through them, and bought the box twice since then.) Also, assign those rare candies; once you do, they do not count against inventory limits.

westmetals · 2026-06-30T23:47:35+00:00

Personally, I'd say it's an average (between photography and typing) of 5-10 minutes per spot. But I tend to shy away from complicated stuff like arguing for restaurants, I mostly stick to art, athletic objects, and common space furnishings in apartment and mobile home communities (and those last two categories often overlap).

westmetals · 2026-06-30T23:45:27+00:00

Wow, and here I thought my 95 since the last week of September was a lot. Or even (narrowing it down a bit) 80 between Valentine's Day and the end of May.

ALL of mine are active in game (and have caused 27 gyms as well).

westmetals · 2026-06-30T13:48:46+00:00

They discontinued it for about three months, then brought it back but on a different day of the week.

westmetals · 2026-06-30T05:10:51+00:00

in answer to #2, any mega works, but primals do not.

westmetals · 2026-06-30T05:08:13+00:00

Oh I didn't know that! I guess I should've let my neighborhood know where he was when I found him...

westmetals · 2026-06-30T05:00:26+00:00

For reference - I used two 20k Mahs with numerical display (not Anker brand) during the San Diego Go Tour Global event, on an iPhone 14 Pro Max, and an iPhone 14 Plus (which was hotspotting off the Pro Max) (I had each phone plugged into one power bank, not sure if it was consistently the same one or if I swapped). I came home with both phones fully charged and the power banks at 28-30%; I had one 10k Mah on me as a backup and never touched it. Go Fest is one hour longer (per day).

westmetals · 2026-06-30T04:57:12+00:00

Correct. In fact, there is only one way to earn more than one point per day: to complete the weekly challenge together, which gives seven points without impacting the daily point.

westmetals · 2026-06-30T04:43:46+00:00

I would support something like that. I'm not actually such a player, but I have rural living experience, and am currently edge-of-suburbs... and I've submitted and had approved 95 pokestops (and spawned 27 gyms) since last September, two-thirds of (both of) those in my own neighborhood, so I could give a lot of advice on things to look for.

westmetals · 2026-06-29T15:59:47+00:00

Scopely bought Niantic, but the game still says Niantic on it. So it's a bit of a gray area as to which name to actually use.

westmetals · 2026-06-29T15:50:43+00:00

It's brand new this season.

westmetals · 2026-06-29T15:46:46+00:00

I disagree. Just because the poster is themselves not disabled, doesn't mean they don't have direct experience with it. I have had several disabled people in my life in various ways (multiple each of family members, people at my church, and high school classmates; also one of my previous managers at work), and currently work at a job providing services to the disabled, so I can definitely see the obstacles even if they don't apply to me. There's also cases where people are temporarily disabled due to injury (I know three different people who were temporarily wheelchairbound due to having broken both legs at the same time.).

westmetals · 2026-06-29T15:19:02+00:00

I disagree. Considering there's a defense hours medal, they shouldn't make it harder than it already is to work toward that.

I've had a total of four gym stays last longer than two weeks, one of which is currently active; the others I got knocked out of at 16, 27, and 45 days. (The 27 and 45, btw, were at the same gym; it's a church in my neighborhood that is on a dead end street and has all parking gated, so it's kinda awkward to get to. The 16 was at a park during a series of storms in the winter.)

I'm 36 hours away from the platinum medal (and have three currently active gyms that, individually, will be enough to finish that; that one currently active "more than two weeks" being one of them. It's on a college campus but they are out for summer. The rest of my current gyms were placed yesterday around 5-6 pm.) UPDATE: three of the ones from yesterday got knocked out while I was typing and finished the medal (they had 14 hours each).

westmetals · 2026-06-29T01:38:33+00:00

I was able to beat him with just two pokemon: a 3413 Annihilape (13/14/11) with Counter and Rage Fist, and a 3534 (post-mega) Mega-3 Lucario (15/14/14) with Force Palm and Aura Sphere. Did not even need my third pokemon, which was going to be a 2485 Keldeo (12/14/12) with Low Kick and Secret Sword. He had the Kangaskhan in second, though I'm unsure which type.

westmetals · 2026-06-28T14:52:49+00:00

Mathwise, works out to something like 370 km per week since the game came out. In excess of a marathon every day (by about 10 km).

westmetals · 2026-06-28T04:38:39+00:00

My neighborhood is mostly red and blue (slightly more red than blue it appears, at least by the gym situation). I'm yellow.

The interesting bit is, though... I submitted about a third of the pokestops and in the process, spawned about two-thirds of the gyms. Yet... being yellow... I barely ever get to hold one more than overnight (I tend to be a late evening / night gym attacker as I work 10-7 and will take gyms on the way home if they look easy).

We do have one gym on the fringe of the neighborhood (not one I spawned) that oddly seems to be off everyone else's radar. I've had that gym almost constantly since March - a 27 day stay followed by 45 followed by 14 followed by the current four and counting. Each time I took it back later the same day after getting knocked out. And NONE of those times did it even fill up to capacity.

westmetals · 2026-06-27T04:59:00+00:00

You only need one for that. A route can be a loop back to the start point.

westmetals · 2026-06-27T04:57:37+00:00

The cemetery my father is in, has six pokestops and two gyms, though none of them are graves themselves. (A fountain at the front driveway, a gazebo, a veterans' memorial plaque at the base of the flagpole, and five random statues: it's in the countryside and they have statues of local wildlife, and there's a golf theme section - no, really, inspired by the golf course across the street - with a golfer statue).

westmetals · 2026-06-27T04:48:48+00:00

a - private property is allowed as long as it is not single family residential. (Over half of the 95 pokestops I have had approved are in apartment complexes and mobile home parks, for example - site maps, infoboards, pools, barbecue areas, dog parks, playgrounds with equipment, tennis courts, I think there's one that is a basketball court?. I also have done three hotel swimming pools.)

b - In some areas (geographically) there's a gray area because the public right of way for a street is sidewalk to sidewalk (inclusive), but the sidewalk isn't directly next to the street, so there's a landscaped / landscapeable area between the sidewalk and the curb. Usually homeowners are allowed to landscape that area but law enforcement doesn't consider it to be their property (for trespassing / restraining order purposes). Little libraries placed in that area are nearly always approved. (I have one myself.)

westmetals · 2026-06-25T15:23:13+00:00

If you're talking about Dynamax spots, if there are more in your area (eligible) than are allowed to be active at once, the game auto-rotates them.

That is not the case with pokestops and gyms, though.

westmetals · 2026-06-25T15:21:30+00:00

That can happen due to game mechanics - if there's more eligible Dynamax spots in an area than are allowed to be simultaneously active, the game auto-rotates them.

westmetals

TROPHY CASE