Apps Review: Pokemon Go [Final Chapter]

After 3 months of hunting Pokemon, I captured 141 Pokemon except Porygon, 3 regional based Pokemon, Ditto and 5 legendary Pokemons. It's time to end this daily routine until they announced an event for Ditto and the 5 legendary Pokemon so I present you the final chapter for Pokemon Go series in this blog.

141 Pokemon Completed in the Pokedex, Pokemon Go
All image belongs to Niantic and The Pokemon Company

The Joy

The first time I exposed to Pokemon was 1999 then 2005 was the year I said Good bye to Pokemon as there was a transition of life from childhood to teenhood. After 11 years, the first 151 Pokemon has returned in an augmented reality game known as Pokemon Go. I believe half of the players enjoy playing the game is because of being nostalgic to experience the adventure of a Pokemon Trainer to travel across the neighbourhood physically.

It may not be the first augmented reality but it is the most successful augmented reality so far that attract fans and non-fans regardless age to play it. With this new wave of gaming introduced in our society, I believe the bonding between friend or family will be significantly grown. Either you saw the 80's born parents bring their 00's born child to hunt Pokemon together in a park  or a 90's born man bring his mother to play it together. Consider that our parents used to criticize us to obsessed with Pokemon 10 years ago, now they joined us to play together. It somehow make the society more lovely. For example, there will be more telegram group, wechat group and whatsapp group that allowed players to gather information together to play the game effectively.

With introduction of Buddy system in the recent month and egg hatching, it really encouraged trainers to walk 2-3km a day. It is definitely burnt some calories but it is really depend on the trainer's behavior. For example, will they be tempted to consume sugary food or drink after the workout?

It is very grateful that they implement the Pokemon Nest system in the game such that the trainers community need to be cooperative to share their knowledge through forum or telegram about the nest of their neighbourhood that allowed the other trainer to have a chance to capture other Pokemon that is rare or not available in their own neighbourhood.

Other than introducing the 145 available Pokemon the game, they also introduce some iconic attack move in the game like Hydropump, Fireblast, Solar Beam and Hyperbeam. In the tradition Generation 1, there are no Fairy Type, Dark Type and Steel Type but they classify the current 151 Pokemon into 18 Pokemon Type which is the modern classification. To fans, is that a sign there will be Generation 2 and so on in this game?

In short, it is still a very entertaining augmented reality game to hunt Pokemon by exploring the neighbourhood, travel to other city and country.

The Bad:

The concept of the game is still new such that most of the mobile hardware may not be powerful enough to handle its software architecture. After 30-45 mins of non-stop playing, the game will be lagged and freeze. It is annoying when you were able to catch a rare Pokemon then the game just freeze such that it takes you another 5-10 minutes to restart the game. In an unlucky scenario, the rare Pokemon was gone once you returned to the game.

Maybe some expensive smartphone or smart tablet can handle the software architecture but not its GPS. With the game, most users realize how inaccurate were their GPS system installed in their device. It is really random, both GPS accuracy would be significantly different although both were from the same manufacturer. Hence, it gave us an idea whether the manufacturer didn't pay much attention on the GPS quality. It is very annoying when hunting Pokemon in a group such that one of you need to travel 5-10m away to capture the same Pokemon.

It required internet connection, it is annoying when you reached area where the reception was bad such that everything in the game would laggy followed by disconnection. As a result, users with slow data plan is unable to compete to defend the gym as the information they received on the game would be slower than others with better speed. In this scenario, it is not really a fair game that Niantic keep emphasizing in the past.

With active GPS and data connection together, this game drained a lot of battery. I can't play this game more than an hour without a power bank. My greatest record was hunting Pokemon in 6 hours. With 3000 mAh phone battery and 10000 mAh powerbank , there was no more 2500 mAh left after the 6 hours. This game somehow reduce the lifespan of the battery. For example, my battery only accept 1A charging only instead of 2A after 3 months of gaming.

The Disappointment:

If you had read the gaming mechanic series previously, I did mention about how the game ruined some beauty from the original game. First of all, 18 type Pokemon has their own unique ability to counter each other. Fighting, Ground, Fire Type are famous for their brute strength and damage, Water and Rock type are famous to have high defence or health, Electric type and Ghost type would be popular to be fast attacker. Other than pure damage, some type like Psychic type and Chansey use recover or heal respectively to make them hard to be defeated Pokemon. Psychic and Poison Pokemon are very good to use special condition like confuse and poison to weaken the opponents. And many many more.

All the beauty of the Pokemon game above are ignored in Pokemon Go. Pokemon Go apply Base Stats, Move DPS , Type effectiveness and STAB to decide the winner in the game. That's the major reason why Jolteon has no chance to defeat Vaporeon as well as both Alakazam and Gengar are not tough Pokemon in the game.

In my own opinion, the reason behind to ignore all these beauty is to simply the software architecture to ensure most players can play the game with an affordable smartphone. Very simple illustration, what is the point to make a money making apps when only 10% of the community has the recommended spec to play the game?

What is the consequences to have a gaming mechanic like Pokemon Go? Everyone who chose Blue's path only who only focus on the most powerful Pokemon, they only interested to Dragonite, Snorlax and Lapras. No one will admire the electric type and psychic type Pokemon. After three month of launching, you will see either Dragonite or Snorlax in the gym battle. It really makes players feel bored to have a Dragonite battle every time.

In a battle, only two moves are assigned on each Pokemon and the Pokemon was unable to learn new move so it make the whole game become a luck dependent. The evolution from Dratini to Dragonite with 125 candies, there is no guarantee you will get a Dragonite with Dragon Breath and Dragon Claw. How about 400 candies that give you Gyrados with Twister as charge move when everyone in the game has Dragonite.

Therefore, I think these disappointments made most of the fans stop playing the game after a week or a month. In addition, perhaps pick Red's path to catch them all is the only way to play this game longer. After 3 months of playing, I captured 141 Pokemon with Porygon remaining, I also feel the time has come to end this game.

Recommendation:

I believe the current hardware technology is not capable to give us the same gaming mechanic like the original Red & Blue series. Perhaps, Niantic need 3-5 years to achieve that instead of simplifying the software architecture.

It will be wiser for Nintendo create a portable gaming console that served the purpose of Pokemon Go without ignoring the original beauty of Pokemon Red & Blue.

Pokemon Go Gaming Mechancs: General Strategy

With the 8 terminology in previous topic, I hope you really understand the gaming mechanic in the game and explore what is the best Pokemon in the game. With all these 8 terminology, what really decide the best Pokemon?

To answer above question is subjective, it is also depend on the player's will to play it. With references of Pokemon Origins the mini series about Red's Journey to capture all Pokemon and become the Pokemon Monster just like the classic Red & Blue game, there are typical two options for players to play Pokemon Go:

• Red - catch them all to complete the Pokedex
• Blue - select 6 most powerful Pokemon in a team to counter any opponents.

Red Path:

If you choose to be Red to complete the Pokedex, in fact, there are not many consideration to play Pokemon Go. All you need to do is travel other places across your neighbourhood to catch them all. No doubt that higher trainer level will have higher chance to capture higher level Pokemon so you still need to capture the same Pokemon in order to level up or like pidgey spam evolution with lucky.. Hence, the main consideration for you to select which Pokemon to stay in your bag is the IV. The higher the IV, the better the Pokemon. In the case of catch them all, every Pokemon is unique.

Depend on Player's will, some may consider to collect Pokemon with good IV and best moveset as well. Some might prefer to be have specific type collection like those who completed the Pokedex, they will just keep hunting rare Pokemon like Lapras, Snorlax and Dragonite as many as possible to make a beautiful collection.

Blue Path:

Completing the Pokedex is not necessary for you but you want to be a Pokemon Master who can counter every opponents with 6 of your best Pokemon then you really need to familiar with the gaming/battle mechanic behind Pokemon Go better than Red style player.

Unlike the classic Red&Blue and Trading Card series, Pokemon Go ignore many beauty from the original Pokemon Game. All the battles are defined by base damage and DPS alone. As compared to original game, Fire and Electric Pokemon may have less HP however they are very popular choice as fast attacker whereas Pokemon Go introduce DPS to decide the attack speed that ruins Fire and Electric Pokemon and Water Pokemon is known as slow attacker has a fair chance in Pokemon Go. Furthermore, Psychic Pokemon and Chansey has a move to heal or recover their hp that make them strong defensive Pokemon. In addition, special condition like asleep, confused, paralyzed, etcs are gone in Pokemon Go.

Therefore, Pokemon Go only focus on pure Base stats (Attack, Defence and Stamina) and Type Advantage to determine how strong the Pokemon and DPS to determine the attack speed.

These are the major criteria to be the most powerful Pokemon in the game:

1. Base Stats
2. Base Damage of Moveset and DPS
3. Type Advantage from Movesets included (STAB)
4. Hidden Pokemon Level 
5. IV

In stackexchange gaming forum, part of the crucial formula in gym battle as shown below:

0.5 * (Atk/Def) * (CpM_Atk/CpM_Def) * TYPE * STAB * Base Damage

In a gym battle, there are Pokemon that defend the gym are known as Defending Pokemon whereas trainers send Pokemon attack the gym are known as Attacking Pokemon.

Based on the formula above, (Atk/Def) we need to compare the Attacking Pokemon's Atk stats (included IV) against the defending Pokemon's Def stats. An example, Charizard Atk stats is 212 whereas Venasaur Def stats is 200.

Hence, Charizard damage for (Atk/Def) will be 212/200 that yield 1.06.

On the other way round, Venasuar damage on Charizard will be 198/182 that yields 1.09 for (Atk/Def).

Similar to CpM stand for Combat Power Multiplier that is fixed and based on Pokemon's level. (CpM_Atk/CpM_Def) just means that a higher level Pokemon has advantage against a lower level Pokemon..

Type and STAB are both well defined in the terminology based on the previous topic.

With formula above, IV played insignificant role to determine the strongest Pokemon. In addition, Type advantage also do not guarantee a victory. Here are a few case studies.

Case Studies#1: Poliwrath Moveset and IV

Poliwrath is both fighting and water type Pokemon but it can perform either water, fighting, ice and ground type move. By judging STAB advantage and DPS, Poliwrath's best movesets are Bubbles and Hydropump so I compared a Poliwrath with 0% IV but has the best movesets against with other Poliwrath with 100% IV with no Bubbles and Hydropump.

To simplify the formula, assume Pokemon Level are the same so CpM will be ignored and we only want to figure out which yield greater damage so there will be no defending pokemon's stats and advantage consideration.

Poliwrath Movesets analysis with Stats, STAB and IV

It is very clear that Poliwrath will deal more damage with Bubble and Hydropump to earn DPS and STAB advantage although the IV is 0%.

Case Studies#2: Ice Pokemon Frost Breath vs Dragonite's Dragon Breath

Dragonite is both Dragon and Flying so it is much more effective to use ice type move to against it such as Frost Breath to earn STAB and Type advantage that yield 1.875 damage since both Dragon and Flying type weakness is Ice but that is just a theory that ignore bases stats.

Same formula with assumption of each Pokemon has same level, here are 4 Ice Pokemon that can use Frost Breath against Dragonite's Dragon Breath.

Frost Breath vs Dragonite's Dragon Breath

Consider that both DPS are quite close so I don't really think it will affect the attack rate very much. With the analysis above, it is no doubt that Lapras is the best Ice Pokemon to counter Dragonite. It deals the second most damage and received the third least damage from Dragonite with 30-50% more hp than Dragonite.

Cloyster and Dewgong are plausible to counter Dragonite but they have stamina disadvantages so it will be better that trainer used dodge during the battle.

Jynx has the slightest chance to win Dragonite as it received the most damage from Dragonite and it has only 60-80% hp of Dragonite for the same level. Hence, the only way to increase the chance of victory for Jynx is has significant higher Pokemon Level than Dragonite.

Similarly, Dragonite has the chance to defeat Lapras when it has higher level since Ice Pokemon didn't earn the advantage that reduce Dragon type damage so it is still a fair fight.

Case Studies#3: Blastoise vs Grass Pokemon

Blastoise is one of the most powerful Water Pokemon with a well balanced stats such that it has chances to defeat grass Pokemon that has advantage against it. Three of the most powerful Grass Pokemon are Vileplume, Venusaur and Exeggutor.

With same formula and same level for each Pokemon assumption, the calculated results as shown below.

Blastoise vs Vileplume, Venusaur and Exeggutor

With STAB and Type advantage, Blastoise has no chance to defeat Venusaur with any possible moves combination due to Venusaur has similar stats and better DPS moves unless its level difference is significantly greater. However, there is a slight chance that Blastoise can defeat Vileplume and Exeggutor.

For Vileplume, it is both Poison and Grass type and it also able to perform fairy type move. With poison move and fairy move combination, it didn't earn the type advantage against Blastoise with Ice beam that is able counter grass Pokemon with 25% more damage and Blastoise has slightly greater stamina stats. In short, Vileplume with acid and moonblast are not the best move combination such that a Water type has chance to defeat it.

Exeggutor is both Grass and Psychic type and it is unfortunately that all of its fast move are psychic that has no advantage on Blastoise whereas Blastoise fast move, Bite is a dark type that has 25% damage bonus due to type advantage on psychic. As long as Blastoise's charge move is not Flash Canon and Exeggutor move is not Solar Beam, Blastoise has the slight chance to defeat Exeggutor but there major problem will be Exeggutor's hp will be significantly greater than Blastoise so Blastoise with higher level should have higher chance to win.

The Best Six Pokemon

You are allowed to bring 6 Pokemon to challenge a gym. As mentioned before, Base Stats and DPS played more important role to determine the strongest Pokemon in the game.

1. Dragonite
2. Exeggutor
3. Arcanine
4. Vaporeon
5. Charizard
6. Lapras

How do I get the list above?
First of all, sum up the stats value for each attribute in the base stats of each Pokemon. From Charizard with 550 total stats to Dragonite 644 stats.

Second consideration will be which Pokemon has the highest chance with higher DPS movesets. Both Dragonite, Vaporeon, Charizard and Arcanine have a common 12 DPS move which are Dragon Breath, Water Gun, Wing Attack and Bite move make them fast attacker, only Vaporeon has a lower attack stats. Similar to Exeggutor, its highest DPS move is Zen Headbutt, 11.4 DPS but it has the third highest attack stats.

Lapras may not have a high DPS fast move and high attack stats but its Blizzard is the second highest DPS charged move.

Each of the six has its unique type advantage and large base stats make them a powerful team. With Dragonite alone, it can handle all Pokemon except itself, Lapras, Dewgong and Cloyster.

To counter these Ice Pokemon, Fire Type Pokemon has higher chance to counter them. Those Ice Pokemon is also Water Pokemon that make fire type move not their weakness nor resistance hence Fire Type Pokemon like Arcanine has a fair chance to fight it.In addition, Arcanine gains advantage when Ice type moves is used since Fire type resists ice type attack.

These Ice Pokemon has no water type fast move that make them a slow attacker against Arcanine. Dewgong only water type charged move is Aqua Jet with 8.8 DPS. Compared both base stats, Arcanine has higher chance to defeat Dewgong with Aqua Jet. On the other hand, Cloyster has a surprisingly high stats on Attack and Defence make it has a slight chance to defeat Arcanine. In addition, Cloyster's only water type charge move is Hydropump. However, the major disadvantage for Cloyster is its low HP which is a bad choice to handle Arcanine that is both powerful and fast attacking Pokemon. Charizard is another alternative choice for fire type Pokemon.

Similar to counter the fire type, Vaporean with Water gun, 186 attack stats, Type advantage and STAB bonus make it a strong water type Pokemon to overcome fire type. Its extreamly large stats on stamina make it able to endure more damage from powerful fire type attackers.

Snorlax and Chansey have total bases stats of 680 and 600 but they are not really good attacker. First of all, there are no Pokemon has weakness on Normal Type so its attack didn't get benefit from type advantage. Normal type is capable to resist ghost type but there are only three ghost Pokemon that are unlikely used in gym battle.

Both attack and defence stats are below 100 for Chansey make Chansey's attack very weak against any Pokemon with defence stats above 120 (that will be 50% reduction on Chansey attack). So, how about Blastoise defence stats, 222? (60/222) would be 73% damage reduction against Blastoise.

Snorlax may have a better combat ability as compared to other normal type but its available fast move has a relatively lower DPS as compared to Water Gun and none of the fast moves are normal type that Snorlax didn't get advantage from STAB. Meanwhile the available fast move is effective against Ghost and Psychic type or Poison type. However, Snorlax has the second strongest Hyperbeam charged move and second highest stamina stats with a well balanced atk and def stats that makes it able to endure a lot of damage. However, 4 Pokemon above except Lapras and Vaporeon have higher chance to defeat Snorlax due to fast and powerful attacker.

Therefore, these six Pokemon are the most ideal Pokemon team to counter any Pokemon by considering its base stats, type effectiveness, available type and DPS moves.

Best Defending Pokemon:

Most people will consider that Pokemon with both high defence and stamina stats are strong defending Pokemon but I believe in "Offence is a better defence". So, the Pokemon either has a relatively high stats on both Attack and Defence or Attack and Stamina are good choice to be a Defending Pokemon.

Second consideration will be the Pokemon should have less weakness and more resistance because trainer will never know what will the attacking Pokemon. A good example of less weakness Pokemon would be Snorlax, only has a weakness which is Fighting Type. Pokemon with less weakness and more resistance would be Dragonite.

Pokemon like Exeguttor would be a bad example for second criteria.
Its Grass type makes it vulnerable to Flying, Fire and Ice
Its Psychic type makes it vulnerable to Dark and Ghost
When combined both type, Bugs are super effective against Exeguttor.
Due to its dual type nature, it makes itself has 6 weakness.

Another worst defending Pokemon would be Rhydon.
Ground type makes it vulnerable to Ice
Rock type makes it vulnerable to Fighting and Steel.
Dual type makes Grass and Water Type super effective against Rhydon.
Consider that Grass and Water Type are strong, common and popular choice.

For Chansey, it is only a time buyer without damaging the attacking Pokemon. Clefable and Wigglytuff would be a better choice with 2-3 weakness such as Fighting, Poison and Steel which are not popular choice in Pokemon Go.

Lastly, defend the gym together in a group would be a wiser choice than consider an individual Pokemon alone. An example:

Gym Level 1: Snorlax
Gym Level 2: Lapras
Gym Level 3: Vaporeon
Gym Level 4: Arcanine
Gym Level 5: Dragonite

Other than Fighting type, no Pokemon has type advantage against Snorlax. With insanely large HP and relatively higher atk stats and def stats, Snorlax is able to buy time while reducing the attacking Pokemon's HP.

Lapras did a similar with its high stamina and defence stats followed by Vaporeon. Then both Arcanine and Dragonite would be applying "Offence is better Defence" to defend the gym.

In reality, it is very hard to level up the Gym more than Level 3 when the competition is high but the ideal example above is just a concept about the advantage to have a group of trainers from the same team played together.

Water Pokemon are dominating in Pokemon Go:

As explained, most Water Pokemon possessed Water Gun as fast move that make them fast attacker that breaks the Pokemon Tradition. When we sum up the base stats, there are five Pokemon are water type in the top 10 lists, they are:

• Lapras (Ice-Water) = 636 base stats
• Vaporeon (Water) = 614 base stats
• Gyrados (Water-Flying) = 578 base stats
• Slowbro (Water-Psychic) = 572 base stats
• Blastoise (Water) = 566 base stats.

Vaporeon, Slowbro and Blastoise has 184-186 attack stats and the only three in the lists can use Water Gun that make them fast attacker.

Vaporean has the highest stamina stats (260) to receive more damage.

Blastoise has the highest defence stats (222) to endure more damage.

Slowbro only better stamina stats than Blastoise, defence stats than Vaporean but just slightly little attack stats difference.

As long as the attacking Pokemon are not Dragon, Grass and Electric type, these 3 Pokemon managed to defeat most of the Pokemon in this game. Even with type disadvantage, the attacking Pokemon need to have good base stats to overcome these water type Pokemon. As analyzed with Blastoise, Blastoise has the slight chance to defeat Vileplume and Exeggutor.

Gyrados has a very balanced stats on each attribute that make it the best attacker among the 5 water Pokemon and it is the only Water Pokemon has no weakness on Grass type due to Flying Type. However, there is a price, electric type will be super effective against Gyrados. The major drawback about Gyrados is only Hydropump allowed it to gain STAB advantage.

Lapras is not really a Water Type since it has no available water type move. Its ice moves make it super effective against Dragonite and it has a fair fight with grass type as both side apply 1.25 type advantage against each others. With STAB alone, Lapras is still strong enough to handle most of the Pokemon except pure Fire Type Pokemon.

No doubt that Grass type is able to handle these Water Type Pokemon but why aren't they be the dominating Pokemon in the Game? Grass are super effective against Water and Ground only but Grass type alone has five Weakness, Flying, Bug, Fire, Poison and Ice. These five type Pokemon are very common in the early stage of the game like Pidgeot.

Eevee Evolution: Vaporeon vs Flareon vs Jolteon

With similar analysis with Blastoise, the results are presented below

Pokemon Go: Vaporeon vs Flareon vs Jolteon

With many case studies here, I believe it makes sense that Vaporeon is overpowered as compared to Flareon and Jolteon. Even though Flareon may have type disadvantage, its available charge moves has higher DPS than Vaporeon but its fast move was 25% slower than Vaporeon. With Fast Move alone, Vapourean could have defeated Flareon effortlessly.

Jolteon may gain both type advantage and STAB to defeat Vaporeon however Electric type Pokemon does not resist Water Type Moves at all. For fast move, Jolteon is 10% slower than Vaporeon but most of its charge move has higher DPS than Vaporeon in general. However, Jolteon fast move is only deal 18% more damage on Vaporeon and maximum 32.3% more damage with Charge Move. This additional bonus on Jolteon attack does not really help it to overcome Vaporeon that has 100% more HP. 

For the same level and 0% IV consideration, Vaporeon may have 180 HP but both Flareon and Jolteon only have 90 HP theoretically. With Water gun alone, it only takes 10s for Vaporeon to defeat Flareon or 5s with combination of Water Gun and Hydropump. With Ember and Fire Blast, Flareon only deal 26.9 and 70.83 damage respectively in 6s but Vaporeon has 80+ HP left. Similarly, Vaporeon takes 12s to defeat Jolteon with fast move alone or 5-6s with Hydropump. However, both Jolteon and Flareon has the chance to defeat Vaporeon if both of their charge move has greater DPS.

Therefore, Vaporeon is the champion among the three Eevee's evolution followed by Flareon has an insanely high attack stats and higher defence stats than Jolteon. On the other hand, Flareon charge move is much stronger than Jolteon's.

In Conclusion:

Vaporeon > Flareon > Jolteon

Best Charge Move for Dragonite:

Case#1: Dragonite vs Other Pokemon

Assumption: Same Level and Defence Stats is ignored

Results:

Dragonite vs Other Pokemon Scenario

Both Base Damage and DPS make Hyperbeam as one of the most powerful charged move and Dragonite has the strongest Hyperbeam among other Hyperbeam users due to its high Atk stats although it has no STAB advantage.

When compared to its own charge moves available, Dragon Claw has a slightly higher DPS due to STAB. Theoretically, Dragon Claw will be performed three time before a Hyperbeam was launched.

With STAB consideration, Dragon Claw is slightly more powerful than Hyperbeam.

Case#2: Dragonite vs Dragonite

Assumption: Same Level and Defence Stats will be Dragonite's stats.

With Defence consideration, the scenario become more realistic. Since Dragon Type move is more effective against Dragon type, Both Dragon Claw and Dragon Pulse earned a type advantage such that Hyperbeam is Dragonite's weakest charge move against another Dragonite.

Conclusion:

Best Charge Move is Dragon Claw

Pokemon Go Gaming Mechancs: Terminology

In order to appreciate reader on my Pokemon Go Rethink Series, I would like to do 3 more topics about Pokemon Go. The first topic is discussing the mechanic behind Pokemon Go to answer "What is the best Pokemon in this game?" because I do realize that players still get confused after 2-3 months of launching.

Background:

I believe half of the Pokemon Go players are not the original fans of Pokemon, they just played it just to join the hype of Pokemon Go, There are a lot of similar mechanic inside Pokemon Game whether the classic Gameboy Red & Blue, Trading Card as well as this game.

After 4 months of launching, I still see players are still confused about the meaning of Best Pokemon. Like there are a lot of terminology such as CP and IV in the game. Some players emphasize a lot on Pokemon IV and some will emphasize on Moveset to define the best Pokemon in this game.

Perhaps, many common question like:
1. Why was Dragonite the best attacker?
2. Why was Snorlax the best defender?
3. Why was Vaporeon is so overpowered as compared to Flareon and Jolteon?

With this guide, you will be clear about all the question above.

Terminology:

1. Combat Power (CP)

Combat Power is a summary of the Pokemon's Level, Base Stats and Individual Value (IV). Since CP is pre-determined by Base Stats and IV, the only way to increase CP is powering up with the stardust.

If you are good in cracking the game's code, you will find the formula to calculate the CP which is very complicated hence I simplify it by calling it as a summary of the above variables.

In addition, Game Press has an article about CP Amplifier that will be taken in consideration on the overall base stats. CP Amplifier is also a reason why the Pokemon HP (which is the stamina) will be increased after powered up.

2. Pokemon Level

Every Pokemon has its level and it also depend on the Player's level. There are two ways to identify the Pokemon Level. The specific way is the amount of stardust needed to power up the Pokemon which is also increasing Combat Power. The greater amount the stardust required, the higher the level the Pokemon will be. However, Pokemon's maximum level is limited by the Player's level.

Therefore, a lazy method to determine the Pokemon Level is check the CP Meter. For example, Pokemon's CP Meter is full (required Player to level up further to increase the CP), the Pokemon's level is equal to the Player Level plus 1.5 according to Trainer Tips.

Hence, spending stardust to power up is increasing the Pokemon Level and its HP then it only increases its CP. As mentioned by Game Press, Pokemon Level will increase the CP Amplifier then this amplifier will affect the Base Stats during a gym battle.

3. Base Stats

Similar to the Classic Red & Blue game, Pokemon has fixed base stats that can't be changed. The Base Stats show its Attack, Defence and Stamina. Silphroad has done an amazing to summarize all 151 Pokemon Base Stats in the game.
Higher Attack stats means the Pokemon will do more damage on the same move.
Higher Defence stats means the Pokemon will receive less damage from the same move.
Higher Stamina stats means the Pokemon will have more HP for the same level.
Let take a look at the example below:

Chansey HP compared to Golduck HP

Even though my Golduck has higher CP and level than my Chansey but Chansey base stat for stamina is 500 hence Chansey HP is expected to be greater than Golduck without considering IV.

Chansey might be a good defender due to highest stamina stats but it has a terrible stats on Attack and Defence hence Chansey will be knockout before doing any significant damage on other Pokemon with higher defence and attack stats.

4. Individual Value (IV)

IV is a bonus stats that will be added to the Base Stats. Each Pokemon has pre-determined base stats however each individual Pokemon has its own IV. Similar to Base Stats, IV covers the bonus stats on Attack, Defence and Stamina ranged from 0 to 15.

It is only pure addition,
Final Stats = Base Stats + IV.

Lapras is my favourite Pokemon in the game so let study the effect of IV on Base Stats with my Lapras.

Best Stats Lapras compared to Worst Stats Lapras

IV only affected the finalized Stats of the Pokemon which would be affecting the overall CP but it only contribute 5-8% for Lapras with the best IV (15 for each Attack, Defence and Stamina). In the case, you have an average Lapras with 7-8 stats in each IV:
Your Lapras is 3-5% better than the worst Lapras whereas the Best Lapras is only 3-5%  better than yours as well.

So my point is
"Is IV really matter a lot in this game?"

5. Fast Move and Charged Move

Each individual Pokemon are only assigned with two moves to attack the defending Pokemon. Fast move required no energy charging but there is a cooldown from 0.4s to 2.3s depend on which moves according to Pokeassistant. So, it is really a fast move. This is where players introduce the concept of Damage per seconds (DPS) which is equal to the amount of damage deal divided by the cool down duration. Therefore, Water Gun is the most popular fast move in the game 6 damage with 0.5s cool down that yields 12 DPS.

Charged move just likes its name, it need energy to charge up which is indicated in the blue bar during the gym battle. Normally powerful moves like Hyperbeam has a long and single bar indicated that it takes time to charge up whereas weaker moves like Twister has multiple shorter blue bar where players can use a few Twister move before the opponent used Hyperbeam. DPS in this scenario has an additional timing variable which is the duration to charged up the blue bar followed by the cool down which is the animation of the charged move.

Even though it takes 2.7s to charge up Twister, it only deals 25 damage.
Hyberbeam only takes 5s to be fully charged but it deals 120 damage.
Conclusion, Hyberbeam is more powerful than Twister and it is still one of the most powerful charged moves. In addition, probably water gun is good enough to handle Twister move.

However, DPS is an ideal scenario where players really tap on the screen faster than a second and the players had good data connection to avoid lagging.

6. Pokemon Type and Dual Type

In the classic game, trading card game and the anime also introduced us about the significance of Pokemon Type and some Pokemon are Dual Type. There are 18 types available but there is no Dark Pokemon in the game yet. Only Dratini, Dragonair and Dragonite are the only Dragon type Pokemon.

Pokemon Type is important as it determines its weakness and resistance that will be discussed later. Pokemon with dual type like Lapras is interesting because it is both Water and Ice Type. Water is effective against fire but fire is effective against ice which is contradicting, should we use fire type Pokemon to attack Lapras?

Meanwhile, Movesets for both fast moves and charged moves are also categorized in these 18 types which played more important role to decide the effectiveness of the attack instead of the Pokemon Type only and it plays an important role in STAB which will be discussed later.

7. Weakness and Resistance

For a specific type of Pokemon, it has its own weakness and resistance.
Eurogamer site has summarize them all.
According to Pokeassistant,
It apply 1.25x more damage on weakness whereas 0.8x more damage (0.2x less) on resistance.
For example, Water Type move is very effective against Fire Type Pokemon because water is fire-type weakness.
When a Pokemon use water type move to attack a Fire Type Pokemon, the Fire Type Pokemon will receive addition 25% damage. On the other hand, the Water Type Pokemon will receive 20% less damage from the Fire Type.
This is where you saw the game indicates "Very Effective" or "Not Very Effective" wording during a gym battle.

Dual type is more amusing and sophisticated,
Let's take Gyarados which is both Water and Flying type and both types' weakness is electric hence Gyarados will be receiving 50% more damage when an electric move was used against it.

How about Lapras, both Water and Ice Type?
A fire moves attack Lapras,
It probably will be 25% minus 20% that yield 5% only.
With additional 5% more damage does not fall into "Very Effective" or "Not Very Effective" so it is still a fair fight to use Fire moves to attack Lapras.

Just visualize a typical gym battle in the game:
There is an Attacking Pokemon and Defending Pokemon.
Weakness is applicable when the attacking Pokemon's move type is able to counter defending Pokemon type.
Resistance is applicable when the Defending Pokemon type is able to resist the Attacking Pokemon's move type.

For example, one of Gyarados' charged move is Twister which is a Dragon Type move. Even though Gyarados is Water type, its Twister won't apply 1.25x more damage on Fire-Type Pokemon.

On the other hand, Blastoise is pure water but it has Ice Beam charged move. When it attacks Dragonite (both Dragon and Flying Type) with Ice Beam, 50% more damage will be deal on Dragonite although Blastoise is not an ice type Pokemon.

Last but not least, move with same type against a same Pokemon type will be 20% reduction as well except Dragon type. In Pokemon Series, Dragon type is strong against Dragon type instead of weak against/resist to Dragon type so it will be 25% more damage when Gyrados used Twister on Dragonite.

8. Same Type Attack Bonus (STAB)

In the above illustration, we learned Pokemon is able to use other type move like there is no Dark Type Pokemon but the fast move, Bite is classified as dark type that both Gyrados and Arcanine can use it.

STAB is nothing new in classic Pokemon game, it just encourage players to let their Pokemon use move that matched its type. For example, Arcanine a fire type Pokemon will have advantage to use fire type move like Fireblast.

Pokemon uses move that matched its type will have addition 25% damage bonus and it doesn't matter the Pokemon is single type or dual type as long as its move matched its one of the types.

When Arcanine used Fireblast against Victreebel,
It will be (Weakness Bonus)*(STAB) = 1.25*1.25 = 1.56,
Arcanine will deal 56% more damage.
This is the major reason why Lapras is a popular choice to counter Dragonite.
It will be (Weakness Bonus 1.5)*(STAB 1.25 such as Blizzard and Ice Beam) that yields 87.5% more damage on Dragonite.

Take some time to digest the content of this post then I further discuss the gaming mechanic by answering these questions below:

1. What is the Best Pokemon in Pokemon Go?
2. Why was Vaporeon is so overpowered as compared to Flareon and Jolteon?
3. What really determine the best Pokemon, IV or Moveset Combination?
4. Is Hyperbeam the best charged move for Dragonite?
5. What makes Dragonite so powerful in the game?
6. Why Ghost and Psychic Type are weak in this game?

Pokemon Go Rethink: Economic Benefit and Potential Abuse [Part 4 The End]

Source: http://bit.ly/2aGcfk0

Welcome to the last chapter of Pokemon Go Rethink.
I would like to apologize for spending 2-3 months to end this Pokemon Go Rethink because I spent my time to study this game and meanwhile see the potential benefit in the economy and the potential abuse in this game.

To refresh the memory, the picture below summarize Part 1 to Part 3 of Pokemon Go Rethink.

The Pros:Cons Ratio in Each Aspect on Pokemon Go

How did I generate the above figure?
Very simple just use Microsoft Word to perform word count on how many Pros content and Cons content on each aspect. In short, Pokemon Go is more beneficial to Mental Health than Physical Health if the players know how to control their obsession.

The final chapter will focus on the third party instead of the players. In short question:
How do other people get benefit from Pokemon Go?

There will be two aspects for the above question
1. Economic Benefit
2. Potential Abuse

Economic Benefit:

With this game, it somehow makes Pokemon regain its popularity among the public as this game was not only attracted the fans but our elder generation who used to criticize us to be obsessed with Pokemon. When there is something become popular, it will be a great opportunity to improve the business.
There will another 4 aspects on Economic Benefit:
1. Telecommunication and Phone Accessorises
2. Pokemon Icons
3. Catering and Shopping Mall
4. Freelancer

Telecommunication and Phone Accessories:

The only way to play this game is either you owned a smartphone or a smart tablet. Playing with PC or Laptop will be banned. With current battery technology, most of them were unable to last more than 2 hours as this game drained a lot of batteries. Therefore, the Power Bank Sales should be boosted up significantly during the first month of the game. Depend on which shop, some is more creative to market their power bank product that there will be 10-20% discount when you show them that you had installed the Apps.

Other than Power Bank, I did see some of them are more creative to sell the screen protector in the way they promote it as it is very smooth to slide on the screen which help you to throw the Poke-ball in the game.

With the hype of Pokemon Go, they were able to sell phone case with Pokemon picture that attracted the younger buyers. In conclusion, I believe the Phone Accessories industry should have a good business sales during the first month launching of the apps.

In addition, the game itself consume a lot of data. Some people prefer no data plan as their home country has sufficient free-wifi hotspot until the launch of this game. Immediately, they switched their service with data plan. Meanwhile, some of the telecommunication company did promotion on the data plan based on the game.

Pokemon Industry:

As mentioned, Pokemon Go brought Pokemon returned to its hype again. For me, I only watched the anime until the Johto League whereas Pokemon Trading Card game until the 3rd Generation.

Now Pokemon has returned, every market or shopping mall, you will see they sell Pokemon-related products like stuff-toys, stickers, t-shirts, bag, shoes, etcs.

Pokemon Stuff Toys in Hong Kong
Pokemon is belongs to The Pokémon Company

Perhaps, even an old fans like me will return to the current Pokemon Series to track how was Pokemon developed in the past decade. For example, we were surprise that there was Mega-Evolution and there was a mini-series about Red under Pokemon Origins. In the X-Y series, fans was glad to see Ash was a lot maturer than his first appearance in Indigo League even though he's still a 10 years old boy.

Since Pokemon was owned by Nintendo, its share went up 120% during the launch according to CNN Money.

Catering and Shopping Mall:

Similar to the Phone Accessories industry, Catering service and Shopping Mall also gain the benefit. In the game, there was Poke-Stop where players can top up their item like Poke-ball, berries, potion and eggs while earning 50xp per Poke-Stop.

Most of the time, a shopping mall will have at least 3 Poke-Stop where they will invest on lure module to ensure that their Poke-Stops always released the flower petal that spawn Pokemon every 5 minutes to attract Pokemon Go Players. To further improve the attraction, I had seen Aeon HK promoted that if the players managed to capture three Pokemon inside their shopping mall, they will give HKD5-10 voucher on any sales under Aeon.

Restaurant used Pokemon Go for Marketing in Hong Kong

For Catering Service/restaurant, they will market their restaurant as strategic place to chill when there is a Poke-Stop nearby. As usual, some will offer discount if the players managed to capture the specific Pokemon. For example, Snorlax, Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle were the specific Pokemon that were offered to have discount. 10% discount for 1 of the 5 Pokemon you owned in the game then every +5% for the next Pokemon with maximum 20% discount.

Freelancer:

In 21st Century, it is unlikely to work a single job due to inflation. As there are a lot of people wish to own fancy car and houses in shorter period of time instead of relying in single income. Hence Pokemon Go offered this opportunity.

Pokemon go involved walking to hatch eggs or candies from 2km to 10km. Public Park is one of the hotspots for Pokemon Go Players. After all the workout, freelancer can just set up illegal small hawker stall to sell simple stuff like drinks to the players.

In addition, I witnessed people offered Power Bank Renting Service. Charge rate was HKD50-100/hr with addition HKD50-100 deposit.

Lastly, some players were too lazy to walk. They were willing to pay someone they trusted to walk for them. In Malaysia RM10-20 per hour whereas HK probably HKD50.

In conclusion, there was an opportunity to earn extra with the hype of Pokemon Go but it only last during the hot season since the game was cooled down after 2 months.

Potential Abuse:

The most valuable data in Pokemon Go is the GPS. Did Pokemon Go track every players movements in GPS? Within 1 month time, it is sufficient to track where did the player live, work and shop. That's dangerous if someone attempted to kidnap your family member.

In my opinion, 2016 is a mild dark age or grey where we begin to live in fear due to ISIS and Killer Clown Wave.  Whether a ISIS, Killer Clown or psychopath who wished to seek attention to the public, they aims crowded places with less police forces like such as a park.

One of the simplest ways to the extreamists above to do their act is check which Poke-Stop has the most active flowers petal spawning. As mentioned earlier, it attracted players to have a rest there while capturing a Pokemon every 5 minutes.

Multiple Poke-Stop with active petal spawning
All image are belongs to Niantic and Nintendo

On the other hand, some IT genius were very intelligent to hack into the Pokemon Go map to trace the location of each Pokemon. Either they created a map to indicate where is the Pokemon or they just created a Telegram Bot to announced the location of the Pokemon. Most of them did it in a good intention to help the player to capture the rare Pokemon effectively but it is possible that some with harmful intention.

For example, the third-party app indicate there was a Dragonite spawned at a specific location. From time to time, most of the players trust the app so they just went there without a doubt. Meanwhile psychopath expected that spawn location will be crowded and gladly to do whatever they like to get attention.

This is where I really concerned about how could Pokemon Go be abused when it fell into the hand of terrorist and psychopath. To all players, please rethink your action whenever you are using any of these third party apps or telegram to hunt the Pokemon.