Pokemon GO: Starter Buddy Challenge
If I haven’t been playing Pokemon Go as much as used to… it’s not so much that I’m done with the game, but that I’m waiting for the weather to cool down so that I can enjoy my time outside without melting in the summer heat. I really can’t wait for fall to get in swing so that I can catch Pokemon more comfortably.
When Syn visited a few weekends back, I took her out to our local Veteran’s Park and we had a good time as I taught her the ropes of the game. There were happily some lures out and enough Pokestops, one which surprisingly spawned Psyducks consistently (it never had before). She was able to level up to 5, whereupon she chose to go with Instinct of all teams. Ah, well.
But in playing that weekend, I found I was still excited about catching Pokemon and having a good time. That’s why I’m happy I finally got the Buddy Pokemon update yesterday.
Buddy Pokemon
If you haven’t heard about this newest feature, this allows you to choose one of your Pokemon to make a walking buddy. As you walk with them, they will find candy, which you can use to evolve them and make them stronger over time. Different kinds of Pokemon find candy at different rates, with the rare Pokemon taking longer. You can change your buddy at any time, so no worries about picking the “wrong” Pokemon.
I really like the idea behind this system because it does several things:
- Level up Pokemon when you’ve only ever seen/caught/hatched one of them
- Level up Pokemon that take a long time to earn candies for (Magikarp)
- Encourage people to move around and not just sit and farm a few adjacent Pokestops
I knew exactly what I was going to do with my Buddy Pokemon slot.
The Starter Buddy Challenge
I chose Charmander as my starter, just as I did back in the Pokemon Blue days. I’m happy I did because in all this time that I’ve played, I haven’t seen a hint of another Charmander anywhere nearby. Not even a shadow. I’ve caught a Pikachu, Bulbasaur and Squirtle in the wild… but never another Charmander.
This means I’ve never earned any candies for my Charmander, nor have I found a stronger one to replace my starter. He remains in my roster, one of the weakest Poekmon that I own, just like this:
For me, my starter is special and I’m sorta glad that I haven’t found any to replace him. Because now, with the Buddy system, I can challenge myself to level up my Charmander purely from walking and traveling around with him! I know it’s going to take a long time to do as I’m not always the most active person, but this gives me a goal and an incentive to get out and be more active on top of just catching Pokemon in general.
In fact, I’m pretty stoked about this prospect and hope that I don’t accidentally hatch another Charmander along the way. I’ll let you know how the challenge progresses over time. Don’t look for any updates soon, though. I have a lot of candy to gather…
