F2P Strategy? Just reached 30.
As the title states, for whatever masochistic reason I've decided to play this game free-to-play style. That means my only source of coins is the gym game.
With that in mind, I'm curious what your thoughts are as far as the most efficient way for me to play from here on out. I've heard that at this point I shouldn't be solely focused on experience gain, and that I should be stockpiling Stardust and good, gym-worthy Pokemon.
I have:
* 8 Lucky Eggs
* 300 storage
* 400 bag
* 128k Stardust
As far as my current 'mons, I have about six gym-level ones (CP 2750+) - a good IV Snorlax (ZH/HB), almost perfect IV Gyarados (B/HP), 3 decent-enough Rhydons, and a good IV Vaporeon (WG/HP). If I'm vigilant I can usually get 20-50 coins a day, but I know I want to aim for that 100/day eventually. I'm sitting on a 96% Dratini and ~80 candy, as well as an 89% Larvitar and ~70 candy, so I probably want to acquire the candy to evolve those at some point as well. I also have an 84% Blissey (ZH/P) at level 20 which I'm unsure about leveling.
I'm sitting on 300 coins right now and curious as to whether I should expand my storage or bag, buy incubators, or keep saving. I'm also conflicted about who I should be walking. Any help is appreciated!
Answers
First save your coins, since the 1 year anniversary of the game is coming and maybe another store discount.
Stardust save until the new updated gym system comes out. You might need to power up a non normal gym defender, to now be a gym defender.
Keep leveling up because you will have higher CP Pokémon's. It is going to be a grind.
If you want 10 gyms per day, then you will probably need to have ability to post 15 to 20 Pokémon as gym defenders.
As far as your buddy, Dratini is closer to the magic 124 for a Dragonnite and its CP would be greater then your Larvitar at its final stage.My second choice with be a Snorlax. Do you have a Snorlax with low IV that you cannot post in gyms, if yes, consider walking it.
Good call on the Stardust hoarding - I'll continue to do that. Here's hoping the meta shakeup might give me an advantage in powering up some Pokemon that haven't historically been top-tier. I don't have another Snorlax unfortunately, but hopefully I can hatch one again soon.
As for the 1yr anniversary - isn't that a little over two months out? I'm not sure 300 coins will make that much of a difference that far in the future (since ideally I'll increase my ability to generate coins during the next couple months). I'm leaning toward spending the 300 sometime soon - what would be the best use of them, in your opinion?
I would get incubators and use their first two uses to clear space than save the last use to hatch several 10k eggs and as far as defenders you should see if you have any vaporeons/snorlaxes with a better defending set such as WG/AT or WG/WP and for snorlax ZH/BS or ZH/HS because 1 bar charge moves are pretty easy to dodge and as far as walking I would go with larvitar because he has more use against the legendarys when they come out wich will be usefull also he has a higher max cp so if you only want placement you can use him.
Very interesting point about the Legendaries - hadn't thought about that, but it makes a lot of sense. IV-wise the one I have will barely edge out my future Dragonite's CP, but I do see a lot more Larvitars out where I live than Dratinis, who are almost nonexistent. I don't have better defending sets on any Vaporeons and unfortunately I only have one Snorlax, haha.
By clearing out space, do you mean that I should use incubators' first two uses to get rid of the pesky 5k eggs, and then cap them off by using their last use on a 10k egg? I'm currently sitting at nine 5k eggs which is definitely frustrating, haha.
F2P here (after $30 at the beginning), almost to level 35. Lucky in my suburban area to be on dominant team and hold 10 gyms daily.
I would suggest try to build up your coin savings, expanding either bag or PKM space as need dictates and limit buying incubators (except for 10K, get those in the hopper ASAP to hopefully get good candy hatch).
Incubators are temporary but item/PKM storage space will enhance your game play experience permanently. When leveling was important I increased PKM storage every time I hit the ceiling and didn't have any easy transfers (holding onto lots of evolution spam for lucky egg + double XP events). Now that leveling not so important I've maxed my item space, hugely important out in the burbs so I can play for days without doing an item run (I only hit 2-3 stops on my normal 3K walk).
As for buddy choice, I nominate Chansey, but agree don't power your Blissey until you can have a useful (coin-generating) one, 84% is just not high enough. I was 100 KM from my goal of 120 candies, and just today got a Chansey with 16 candies (albeit low IV), but they are extremely rare for me, and never seen one in wild.
I'm in an urban-enough area that I don't run low on items unless I do a massive gym spree, and I can usually hoard around 80-100 mons for evolution spam without deleting any important ones. The upgrades I bought in the past definitely helped though, so I'm glad to hear I'm on the right track with buying them as needed.
I like the Chansey idea a lot - that way I'll be positioned well for when I hopefully eventually hatch a good one.
What's the best way to use the limited-use incubators, in your opinion? Another poster recommended using them to clear out space a bit (I'm chock full of 5k eggs...), and I'm curious what you think of that idea.
Well since item/PKM space not so crucial to you as for me, then I agree next priority is getting more high CP mons to see if you can get in gyms more - i.e. more 10K eggs and hoping for lucky hatches. I get more larvitar/dratini then Chansey from eggs which is why I'd stick to her as my buddy. Blissey is head and shoulders above every other mon (attacking or defending) so that's why she's my permanent buddy.
So buy 2 incubators and start clearing out eggs - much faster and more satisfying to do 3 at a time rather then 1! You should have either a single use remaining incubator or 150 coins in the bank at all times so you can start a 10K in ASAP, that's really all you need though. Good luck and enjoy!
{and key caveat: this could all change in a heatbeat!]
[Edit: don't you get 3 incubators at level 30? Or did you already burn through those? Could you potentially be clearing out 6 eggs at a time? Naturally you'd want to time that with an evolution spree... ]
Awesome suggestions! I did burn through the 3 level-up incubators already (I'm roughly 60% of the way to level 31 now), but I was stingy and only used them on the 10k eggs I came across. My infinite incubator was clearing out 2k and 5k eggs the whole time.
I will be buying two incubators and starting off on the 5k egg clearing tomorrow!
This ^ and walk/bike/run/slow transportation a lot, I think that is the only way to compensate for buying coins and having 10 gyms.
By a lot I mean 15km plus, ideally 20, so you hatch at least as you would run 2 or 3 incubators at a decent pace (7-10 km). You need dust, don't forget any egg gives you dust.
