13 Pokémon Go Hacks To Help You Be The Very Best

A silhouette indicates a Pokémon that you haven't caught yet, and the paw prints indicate how close that Pokémon is. Three paw prints means they're far away, while one paw print means they're just a short walk from you.

CP stands for combat power, and the higher it is, the stronger your Pokémon is. However, high CP Pokémon are also harder to catch. These might swat away your Poké Ball or jump back out of it after a shake or two.

These items will start appearing for you at Pokéstops once your level is high enough. Razz Berries can be fed to Pokémon to make them easier to catch, and the higher-level Poké Balls will lower their chances of escaping.

Everyone starts with two incense items in their backpack. When you use one, wild Pokémon will appear around you at a higher rate for 30 minutes, which helps fill up your Pokédex and level you up.

UPDATE: You'll catch more Pokémon if you walk while using incense. Users who uncovered the game's code found that you'll get approximately one Pokémon every five minutes while standing still, or approximately one Pokémon every 60 seconds while walking assuming you cover at least 200 meters.

There's an item called a Lure Module — purchasable in the store — which works a lot like incense, only it's used at Pokéstops and works for everybody in that area. The more populated the area, the better chance that there will be someone using a module that you can mooch off of!

If you check out your roster of Pokémon, you can tap on them and transfer them to Professor Willow in exchange for one candy. It's best to do this with low-powered Pokémon that you already have more than one of...unless you want 40 Pidgeys.

You have an incubator in your backpack that can hold one egg at a time. As you walk, the egg will incubate until it hatches, potentially giving you a new Pokémon and other rewards like candy.

A 10 km egg is more rare than a 5 km egg, and a 5 km egg is more rare than a 2 km egg. You're therefore much more likely to get bigger rewards from a 10 km egg than from a 2 km egg.

In other words, you can supposedly find more water-type Pokémon near ponds and lakes, more grass-type Pokémon in the woods, and more dark-type Pokémon at night. You can still find these Pokémon in other places too, they just appear more often in their natural habitat.

We can't guarantee you'll find a Ghastly near your stuffed Haunter, though.

Just in case you want a more animated as opposed to IRL feel.

Just tap on the Poké Ball to bring up the main menu, then tap on "Settings" in the upper right corner. The app runs only while it's actually open (so if you minimize it or turn off your screen you won't catch any Pokémon), so normally it drains your battery pretty fast.

With the battery saver on, just turn your phone upside-down and the app will still run, but at very low power. This mode is best for long walks!