How to Make Money Playing PokemonGo (and why it's still worth playing)

​t’s summer time and you know what that means…

Girls in bikinis? Guys in speedos?

Barbecues and picnics?

Slide n' Slides and pool parties?

NO.

It’s Pokemon Go season!



Today i want to talk about how to make money playing Pokemon Go.


But before we get into that, I want to dive into how much this game has really changed since its launch, because for a lot of people, Pokemon Go was some sort of fad for about a month back in 2016.

What a time to be alive! Everyone and their mother (literally) was walking around, filling up their Pokedex.

It’s like we all forgot our worries and our differences and just wanted to get together and catch virtual creatures.

If someone asks if I believe world peace is possible, I say look no further than that summer.

People embraced the Lazy Mindset, and said “I don’t care, man, I just wanna catch Pokemon”

While Pokemon Go is no where near the level of popularity it had upon its initial release, it’s still maintained quite a cult following and dedicated playerbase. People are still actively playing it, believe it or not, and if you are one of those people, you understand why.


The main features that still make Pokemon Go worth playing today are:

Raids, trading,  events, buddies, more generations and actual functioning servers.


First of all, we have raids, which are basically giant Pokemon boss battles for rare and of course Legendary Pokemon. You get a team of other players together and fight something like a Mewtwo or Gyrados and once you defeat it, you get  a chance to catch it. Raid battles hatch in these giant eggs at gyms. There are groups on Facebook and Discord chats of local players where they communicate with each other about what’s spawning and where and who’s interested in going.

Now the raids didn’t “technically” replace the gym battle system, although to be frank they kinda freaking did, because what they did do is rework it entirely.




The new gym battle system (rework) made the game less of a “turf war” and more of a “fight for the catch bonus before the raid spawns” because whatever (color) team owns the gym when a Raid boss spawns will gain extra balls (chances) to try and capture it.

Although usually this bonus isn’t very much anyway and it’s really not worth fighting over, especially considering defenders (the Pokemon holding a spot in the gym) have a HUGE advantage now over the attackers with the OP Golden Razzberries, which heals Pokemon to full health with just one click.

Oh and unlike how before when you would “capture and hold” a gym spot for days or weeks at a time,since ya know, it was a cool little turf war, now you just need to take it over for a few hours to earn your coins There’s a maximum amount of coins you can earn from a gym each time you put a Pokemon in there, so now there’s literally no point in holding down a gym. Also, your Pokemon starts dying (over time) the longer it is in a gym and you need to feed it berries

Previously, in order to defend a gym, you had to “train” on it by fighting with your own Pokemon and would unlock new spots as you “level up” the gym. They wouldn’t lose health or stats over time while sitting there.

You could unlock up to 10 spots. Now there are 6 spots permanently and they don’t need to be trained or unlocked to access them. Anyone, even noob players can throw in

Gyms used to be end game content, reserved for top high level players, but now pretty much anyone who downloads the app can get a spot in the gym. Well, once they reach level 5, which is pretty much within the first hour of game play.

Previously, before the gym rework, it was more of an actual battle for the gym, not a “hope to god they run outta berries” type thing. I mean there is a limit of 10 berries each player can use per hour but again, Golden has waaaay too much healing power!






Frankly, I prefer the old system in terms of competition.

In my local PoGo community, there were literal “peace treaties”and negotiations, involving “real world trade”.

One guy for example who worked for a nameless cable company offered one of my buddies free cable with premium channels to not attack any of “his” gyms.


Between actual treaties, late night missions to conquer the enemy, the game was basically “Poke War” and it was freaking EPIC.


I mean yeah I do think the old system needed some tweaks. Like uhh, fighting against a wall of ten Blisseys (super high health that took forever to kill) is in no way good game design. That was unbalanced for sure. There should have been a one Pokemon name per gym rule in place. That was long overdue and a welcome rule in the new system.

Also only being able to use ONE (attack)Pokemon against the whole gym was kind of shitty.

But the fix was not to destroy what made it fun entirely.

To be fair though, this type of game play was NOT for everyone, hence why a lot of people quit, if they didn't already give up due to the excessive lagg and server crashes.

This new gym battle system is very noob-friendly and approachable. Maybe even too noob friendly. No actually, definitely too noob friendly.

It's become more of a fun party game than its  strategic augmented reality turf war roots.

The problem I have with it, is that it completely deletes end game content and compelling competitive gameplay.

One could argue that new “end game” is raids.





But honestly get about 8 or so level 35+ players and you can pretty much take down any raid. You could easily be level 5 (the lowest level possible to access gyms) and get away with leeching off those high level players. Nothing prevents you from doing so.There’s no minimum level to join a raid of any tier. You can literally join the highest tier level raid as a noob.

You couldn’t leech in the old system. You had to actually be decent.

That and you can’t gain as many gold coins (premium currency) per day now as you could in the old system.

In general, no one really cares about teams much any more and it has become a co-operative experience more so than a competitive one. I used to despise team Mystic, but now it’s just like “hey, I don’t care what team you’re on. Let’s fight this Dragonite together”

I don’t want to sound like I’m just complaining about how things are’t how they were “back in the day”. I mean, I like it for what it is.

It just...scratches a different sort of itch.. if you get what I’m saying.

It was a highly competitive game, but now it’s highly co-operative one.

The gears have shifted completely. It’s like you were playing RISK and now you’re playing Telestrations.

That said, it’s really good at what it does now.

Throw in trading and community events into the mix and you’ve got yourself the perfect GPS co-op game.

Gone is the harsh competitive environment. Gone is the endless turf war. Gone is the bragging rights of owning “x” amount of gyms

But that kind of fits the Family-friendly” vibe Nintendo usually aims for.

The competitive side has kind of shifted towards something that reminds me of Topps collectible cards, in terms of just “looking cool” rather than being good at the game.




Like: “Who can get the most shinies?” (Shiny Pokemon are just cosmetic re-colorings of Pokemon)

or…”Who can get the most 100% IVs?” (IV, which does actually effect combat stats ,doesn’t really much matter in the scheme of things because like I said: gym battling is dead)

It’s really just a “Show off your collection” sort of thing or “get the highest xp”endeavor.

It’s a numbers and cosmetics game, in terms of competition and there are simply better games out there to compete for cosmetics and numbers.

But in terms of co-op, PoGo is solid.

I don’t want to just glaze over the new community events. They’re important. Because if you played PoGo on its launch you’ll remember there were two -- Two Pokemon in the whole game.

Rattata and Pidgey.

That’s it.

It may seem like I’m exaggerating, but literally over 90% of the spawns were one of these two in the beginning.




Now they kind of mix it up every few weeks by featuring a specific “type” of Pokemon or generation (that’s another thing - they added hundreds of new Mons with all the new generations). Right now, for example, they have Snorlax spawning more often in a sleeping position. They also, get this, actually decreased the spawn rate of rattata and pidgey.


In addition to mixing up the spawns, each month they have a “Community Day” where they feature a specific Pokemon for 3 hours on a specific date (usually a Saturday or Sunday).

It’s amazing how many people show up to these events, even if the freezing cold, snowy Northeast temperatures.

This upcoming Saturday, by the way, I’m completely stoked! It’s Slakoth Community Day on Pokemon Go.

Slaking (his final form) is my spirit animal. The event starts at 3 in the afternoon. So I will be sleeping until 3 in the afternoon in preparation.

Anyway, that was a round about way of saying: yes, Pokemon Go is still worth playing in *insert current year* (at least once a month anyway)

And since it is entertaining and worth playing, and I’m all about making money doing things I enjoy with as little effort as possible, let’s get into how to turn playing Pokemon Go into not only a fun co-op experience but a profitable one as well.




Your Steps Are Worth Moola

When you’re playing Pokemon Go, you’re going to be taking a lot of steps, assuming you’re not cheating by spoofing, of course.

Which by the way is just stupid.

The whole thing is about getting outside and exploring and meeting up with people. It gamifies face to face social interaction and exercising.

Like Pokemon Go, as a game where you’re NOT going outside and going to places is fucking boring.

As a matter of fact, IF Pokemon Go did not have a GPS multiplayer aspect to it, I wouldn’t play.

The gameplay doesn’t hold up on it’s own, but the community aspect does.

It’s like...fishing. Probably one of the most boring things you can do on the planet. But you don’t go fishing to actually...go fishing. You go fishing to sit out on the lake and drink a cold case of beer with your buddy and not have to talk about anything.




Seriously, like what’s the most boring part about Final Fantasy XV or Zelda? The fucking fishing.

(Says the man who's first 99 in Runescape was fishing.)

I mean, ethical issues of cheating aside, by removing the physical act of actually meeting up with people, you remove the quintessential aspect of the game that makes it uh...actually worth playing.

PokemonGo, like fishing, is an excuse to get together with your friends and meet new people, not an actual fun thing to do. And that's why it's mostly adults that play now. The kids aren't really playing it (unless their parents drag them along). It's an excuse for adults to get together and make new friends, because let's face it, adulting friendships are hard.

Despite the fact PoGo is intended for kids, it's literally mostly people who are at least in their 20s and up.

As a kid, you're just sort of thrown into a building with literally hundreds of people around the same age as you for hours at a time.

As an adult, you don't get that sort of opportunity and PoGo fills that void.

Anyway, these steps you take while playing on Pokemon Go have some value to them

See, exercise is apparently a healthy to do. I don’t know. I don’t care.

But other people seem to, specifically companies that want to promote “healthy living”.

Okay cool, I’m not that healthy I spend most my day on the couch playing video games or watching movies. My diet consists of mostly pizza and soda. The main food groups.

The point I’m getting at is when I do actually get off the couch, I want it to be worth the effort. I want it to be rewarding, either with entertainment or financial incentive, and when I can get both at the same time, then sign me right the fuck up.

These companies out there pay you for “living healthy” by taking steps, aka, playing Pokemon Go. Little do they know you’re only getting up to capture Slakoths anbd Snorlaxes before going back to bed and spending the rest of your day as a Slaking.




Get Paid to Walk:

You read that right. There are a plethora of apps out there that will literally pay you for walking (read: playing Pokemon Go). I’ll dive into a full in-depth review and strategy for these apps in the future, but for the purposes of this article we’re just going to cover them here very briefly

Lympo

You must manually hit “JOIN” a challenge then either Sync with Google Fit or hit START to begin. It does NOT automatically sync your activity/steps until you hit the button to do so.

The coins you earn is  actually a real crypto coin: LYM, which you can buy on any crypto exchange and store in an Ethereum wallet.

So far though, there’s no way to transfer your earned LYM from your wallet in the app to an external wallet to be able to sell it on an exchange from the app.

You can redeem Lympo for athletic gear from a store that changes its stock daily.



SweatCoin

This app is 100% passive (no need to check in or click anything. Just set it and forget it) but is a HUGE battery killer, especially if you turn on “optimization” mode to increase the accuracy. This is pretty much necessary though because otherwise it doesn’t count *most of* your steps. I once walked 2 miles and it only counted a few yards.

The rewards are geared towards living a healthy and athletic lifestyle, like smoothie blenders, workout clothes, and running shoes, but these things could be sold online.

That requires making a listing and finding a buyer though, which may not be worth all that extra effort.

They do have larger prizes like iPads but the amount of Sweatcoins you need is nearly unobtainable, even for a marathon runner, yet alone a casual Pokemon walker.

Like Lympo, Sweatcoin has a different stock of prizes daily, andfollow an athletic theme.

The extra battery drain can be a deal breaker, unless you’re using a powerbank, which if you’re any level of a serious player in PoGo (or mobile gaming in general), you already have.

And in case you don’t, and aren’t sure what to look for: go for the big heavy one like the Anker PowerCore+ 20100 USB-C. That thing is a freaking powerhouse and it can last a few days on one charge, worth 6+ hours of play time while charging my One Plus 5T each day.

I use the same portable charger to power my Nintendo Switch on the go and it’ll more than double the battery life of that baby.

LifeCoin

A lot like SweatCoin with a built-in pedometer and 100% passive, but also takes a toll on your battery life.

The rewards expand beyond just athletic stuff though and opens the doors to gift cards to places such as eBay, Spotify,  and Netflix

WinWalk

Steps are tracked automatically, so you don’t have to open the app and START a run or anything. You must manually collect your coins and watch an ad (in full) in order to actually add points to your account though. This must be done once per day, otherwise the points are forfeited and you get NOTHING!

There are gift card rewards and not just athletic gear.


Achievement

You can sync with lots fitness apps and earn rewards including gift cards

What to sync?

Now in terms of choosing which app to use to sync your activity, you can use whatever your favorite one is, me personally, though, I recommend Google Fit because it uses the pedometer on your phone to *automatically* track your steps and there’s no need to buy an extra peripheral like smartwatch or fitness tracker. You don’t have to boot up anything yourself (it boots automatically with start up). You don’t have to click “START” to begin a new run or work out.

Other apps that Achivement syncs with like RunKeeper, for example, require you to manually hit START before it tracks your time/distance/steps, which is just an extra step to remember to do.


By the way, as a matter of transparency, the links are in fact affiliate/referral links and I do receive a bit of incentive/commision for sharing them. I do hope you choose to use my affiliate link to help support my content.

Walgreen Balance Rewards

While it does sync with multiple apps, this requires *manually* entering your activity (beginning a run, etc.) There is no auto option to automatically sync activity

You can only redeem for Walgreen gift cards and nothing else. I mean, makes sense, since it’s well -- Walgreens app.

GO Sell Your Pokemon on the Black Market

In addition to earning a few pennies for your steps while out traveling across the land, searching far and wide, it is also possible to make money selling the mons you catch.

Disclaimer: I’m not saying I do this. I’m not even saying it’s right or justifying it. I am saying, for education purposes, that it is indeed possible to do this.

Shinies and Legendaries are highly valuable and really the only thing worth selling/trading.




High IVs don’t matter in trades because RNG applies to the IV when a Mon is traded. The IV is re-rolled and that rare 100% Electrabuzz you had could now be shit.

There is a limit to just one “special” trade per day though. Keep that in mind

If you’re going to do this though, I recommend that you use a secondary account and phone and perhaps even separate service provider, in order to decrease your chances of getting BANNED.

Real World Trade, like in any typical MMORPG is a big NO NO and your account could be banned if you’re caught.

So, don’t get caught, right?

At the very least, make sure your username in PoGo is way different than your username in whatever site. Don’t make yourself traceable.

Don’t literally hand people the Silph Scope.




Now, where to sell?

Player Auctions

This is like an eBay of sorts but for gaming. The link provided goes directly to the PokemonGo page, where you can sell your shinies or legendaries.

You could also straight up sell accounts if you’re bored and wanna start from the beginning, raising the account to a high level. It probably won’t really be “sellable” until at least 35+ which can be quite a grind from level 1.

G2G

Not many trades happening on this site, but you can “farm” candies and Pokestops for people, offering your Pogo playing as a “boosting service”. I mena if you’re enjoying the game, hey, why not?

Owned Core Forums

This is a forum thread where players post their buying/selling offers for Pokemon Go accounts.


Search Discord & Facebook Groups

Check social media for people trading PokemonGo and see if anyone is open to paying money for a trade. “I’ll give you a shiny magikarp adn you give me whatever.” Some of them straight up offer money from the get-go

Be careful using your real profile here. It’s not a good idea to attach your real name and photo to sketchy business. Just like putting your hideout behind a poster in a casino isn’t a good idea either.

Again, technically selling items for RWT is against the rules, so it’s best not to attach your real profile to such schemes.

That’s like the drug dealers who pose with their drugs and use their real names and addresses. I mean just because there’s a supply/demand for it doesn’t mean it won’t get you banned from society or the game, in this case.

Ironic how greedy Niantic can get (like the government) with their special packages, but then get all mad when you try just to make a few bucks.

With any of these game trading sites or resources, always be careful with who you’re dealing with. Do your research and look at their reputation.

Play it smart and remember if a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Set boundaries and know when to walk away.

By the way, when making money with Pokemon Go, iIt is possible to skip the whole walking part and just spoof.You could even skip the catching part and just bot.

But only do that if you want to join Team Rocket.

Anyway, happy hunting!

I got some Zs to catch.

Take it easy,


-N8