What is the best way of using incense?
If I see a larvitar on my radar or in the wild and start using incense, is there a high probability that it will generate additional larvitars?
If I am walking in a Machop nest, will incense generate Machops?
If I am using incense in the middle of nowhere (no spawn 1km around), will incense generate more rare pokemon?
I know the rumors but I am looking for some hard data confirmation from players who have tested recently.
Answers
Incense generates stardust. It passed lucky eggs in usefulness for me a while ago already and currently is also more valuable than lures because of how bad our lure spots are and because sitting in a public transport with incense also generates distance in addition to spawns. Distance=hatching=stardust. The dust must flow.
Incense is not dependent on biomes, nests, or spawn areas/clusters as far as I'm concerned. In my experience, everything and anything (other than regionals) can spawn from using an incense and the same rarity odds from normal spawns apply. I've been lucky to spawn 3rd stage evolution rare in my area (water types) and a friend once spawned an unown before they became special spawns at events.
Having said that, incenses are pretty crappy the way they work right now. You need to be actually moving at a certain speed to maximize the amount of spawns generated by them, which is pretty counter-intuitive for an item designated to "attract" Pokémon to you. So I think the amount of mons you can get from using one tops at 10 (not sure about this)? You can pop one in the middle of the ocean and it'll get you some Pokémon, granted that you somehow still have a connection.
You’re actually wrong. Incense is totally random. Not attached to Biomes or nests.
I can get 29 per use. Was my way to get Magikarps since all I would see are Pokémon in the desert Biome.
I would actually get Pokémon from incense opposite to my Biome. Magikarps, Dratini, Slowpokes, a huge Slowbro once and other grass Pokémon.
This is where Growlithe and Houndoors roam the lands.
Let's elaborate then. I will get only Spinarak, Weedle, Rattata, Pidgey, Natu, Venonat, Murkrow, Paras, maybe an Eevee if lucky. Because those are the pokemon that make up 99% of spawns in my biome. Seeing, for example, even one fire pokemon would be incredibly unlikely.
EDIT: How could I forget Sentret from the list lol.
Basic facts first:
Incense spawns a pokemon once every 5 minutes or once every 200 meters moved, with the minimum amount of time between spawning being 1 minute. This means that the maximum number of spawns from one is 30 but also requires you to be going faster than the egg hatch speed limit.
Incense takes into account surrounding biomes and nests. It can be used to identify nests in areas with no natural spawnpoints and it can be exploited in areas with no biome information, like in extremely deep rural areas or out on the sea, where it can spawn pretty much anything. I have personal experience of both.
So what this comes down to is that a cruiseship is pretty much the optimal place to use incense if you can maintain a connection. The next best thing is any sufficiently slow public transport like a bus or tram in a city. If you don't have a lurespot where you can sit inside, incense rides are a nice alternative that lets you stay warm instead of walking in a park when it's freezing.
Also regarding your questions: What you see on the radar has no impact on anything whatsoever. Incense does not care what is actually present, it just gets its spawn probabilities from the surrounding biome/nest information. Popping an incense in a Larvitar area still only has a small chance of getting you even one Larvitar.
What I personally like doing is running fast for 200m to spawn a pokemon, then slowing down for a while to catch it. This way I can keep the average speed below the limit for egg hatching and get almost all distance recorded, but seem to get more spawns off the incense than if I was running at a constant speed.
Is Incense an Area effect, or an Individual effect? I think it's supposed to be Individual, but nearly every time I use Incense, the spawns I get on my account are identical to the spawns my wife gets on hers as they're being played at the same time in the same place. (Mostly when I'm out walking late at night and I've got her phone with me to get her some extra KM's) On a few occasions I've gotten 1-3 extra spawns, but it's irregular enough to make me question whether it's the Incense or if there's a bug in the server.
Or are there area's where Incense are less useful? There are several places where I play that have 10-15 Pokestops in a good walking area, and looping around can get to about 1 Pokestop per minute (and they're between 800m and 1km from start to finish), moving from city parks to museums to a secondary "Main" street with a few Pokestops on it. I use them in those locations regularly to no obvious effect; I've used about 10 of them over the past year, all with the same general reaction - if I'm very lucky, 1-3 additional Pokémon spawned in 30 min, though normally that cute little swirling cloud following me around is all I have to show for using the Incense.
It should be individual but I don't know if anyone has ever properly looked into it and proven it is. I sometimes incense ride together with other people, should check next time if our spawns match.
Area should only impact what the incense spawns. When the spawns happen only has to do whether you satisfy the criteria a) the game records 200 meter moved in a straight line since the last spawn b) it's 5 min from the last spawn. Maybe you're not moving enough for it to work properly?
It’s pretty good if used right.
Find a pretty straight road or trail that doesn’t show ANY Pokéstops on your nearby.
Pop one and drive about 10-12 mph.
It’s NOT Biome dependent and will spawn all kinds of Pokémon. Was my main source to get Magikarp living in a Desert Biome but wasn’t always guaranteed.
They say you can get 1 Pokémon per per minute which equals 30 spawns but I’ve personally gotten 29 as my highest. Never seen anyone get all 30. Numerous times I’ve had 28 total spawns as well during those 30 minutes.
Don’t pop them around Pokestops cause then they will suck. Only get maybe 5 Pokémon if that to spawn.
You say you went far enough from pokestops to not see any pokestops. Did you see pokemon on sightings or was it just blank from pokemon altogether? Because this sounds to me like you went far enough out into the desert to get into a biomeless area, which would explain your random spawns.
Try using one near your pokestops. I'm pretty sure you will get only desert biome pokemon.
