Pokemon Go – How to Gain XP Fast, Pidgey Grinding

Everything you need to know about player level and XP in Pokemon Go.

Leveling fast and gaining XP as fast as possible is extremely important in Pokemon Go. If you’ve been wandering around looking at Google Maps to find and catch Pokemon but are only coming across low level Pokemon, your player level is probably the biggest issue. Generally speaking, the higher your player level is, the better the Pokemon that you’ll find out in the wild and the more impressive the items are from the various Pokestops along the way including eggs that you can quickly hatch into Pokemon that are more rare. In addition to the strageies we’ve outlined below, there’s a newly discovered strategy to gain XP quickly which involves using a Diglett.

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Pokemon Spawns

Pokemon Combat Power (CP) is very important, and many of you are probably wondering why you’re only tracking Pokemon of 10 or even 50 CP. The higher your player level, the higher the CP of the Pokemon you find out in the wild. If you know you can find a certain Pokemon around the corner, when you first start playing that Pokemon may only be 15 CP. However, if you go back to that same area when you player level is much higher, you may find the same Pokemon at 150 CP instead.

Caught Pokemon

If your friend has a Bulbasaur with a much higher CP than your Bulbasaur, there are a few factors at play, but the more significant is your player level. Every time your player level increases, your Pokemon can be powered up accordingly. You’ll have to spend more Candy and Stardust, the max CP level increases as your player level gets higher. You may have also noticed that the Power Up button for your Pokemon is greyed out. That means you need to increase your player level before you can power up that Pokemon any further.

PokeStop Items

The loot you can obtain at PokeStops also varies based on your player level. You won’t find any healing items until your player level reaches at least 5. Likewise, better healing items appear at level 10, and Ultra Pokeballs don’t show up until level 20. It’s very important to continually check back at PokeStops as your player level increases to make sure you always have access to the best items available for your level.

Gaining XP

There are a wide variety of ways you can earn XP, including the brand new Bubble strategy using a Diglett. Knowing exactly how to earn XP will help you level up faster. Below is a list of all the ways you can earn XP, but that’s not all there is to know. Lucky Eggs will double your XP gain for 30 minutes. In addition, if you have a large amount of candy for a specific Pokemon that only needs a small amount for the first evolution, use a Lucky Egg, then evolve as many of those Pokemon as you have for an impressive boost of XP.

Using Pidgey is a great way to abuse the Lucky Egg XP gain. Every Pidgey you catch will give you three Candies. You also get one Candy for transferring a Pidgey to the Professor. So for every four Pidgey you catch, you can gain up to 1,000 XP with a Lucky Egg. Basically, get a ton of Candy for your Pidgey, catch as many of them as possible, then use a Lucky Egg and evolve as many of the Pidgey as you can. You will get 1,000 XP per evolution. This is one of the fastest ways to level up in Pokemon Go.

Another trick is going into a gym battle, defeating the first opponent, then running. When timed correctly you will still get XP from the battle and can immediately go back into the gym to battle once more. Repeat this process as long as you care to grind for XP and you’ll get a decent amount of XP gain per hour, even if it feels a bit stale.

If you have some time, find an area with a few PokeStops in a short area. If you can hit three or four in a five minute period, that would be ideal. Move between these PokeStops, circling back every five minutes or so, catching all of the Pokemon you can find. This will help maximize your XP gain, and when you couple it with Candy and Lucky Eggs, you can get a ton of XP is a short period of time.

If you’re just getting started in Pokemon Go, be sure to find out how to get Pikachu as a starting Pokemon and learn some basic tips and tricks!

Pokemon Go XP Chart

Activity XP Gained
Catching a Pokemon with a Curveball 10
Catching a Pokemon with a Nice Throw 10
Catching a Pokemon with a Great Throw 50
Spinning a PokeStop 50
Catching a Pokemon with an Exellent Throw 100
Catching Any Pokemon 100
Winning a Gym Battle Against One Pokemon 150
Winning a Gym Battle Against Two Pokemon 250
Winning a Gym Battle Against Three Pokemon 350
Winning a Gym Battle Against Four Pokemon 450
Hatching a New Pokemon 500
Evolving a Pokemon 500
Catching a New Pokemon 600
Evolving a New Pokemon 1000

Good luck playing Pokemon Go! 

 


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Author
Bryan Dawson
Bryan Dawson has an extensive background in the gaming industry, having worked as a journalist for various publications for nearly 20 years and participating in a multitude of competitive fighting game events. He has authored over a dozen strategy guides for Prima Games, worked as a consultant on numerous gaming-related TV and web shows and was the Operations Manager for the fighting game division of the IGN Pro League.