Deconstructing Pokémon Go for smartphone users

If you have young siblings or nieces and nephews, chances are that you know how big deal Pokémon is! And the app—Pokémon Go—that turns everyone into a real-life Pokémon trainer has become a bonafide hit for adults too, just days after launching. But all is not hunky-dory about the app. Despite its obvious appeal, Pokémon Go has frustrated quite a number of users with its complications at explaining the rules.

So here we are, putting together a guide to help you navigate the wild world of Pokémon hunting, and becoming the ultimate Pokémon master.

When you boot up Pokémon Go for the very first time, you’ll be given the option to choose between the three classic starter pocket monsters from Pokémon Red and Blue—Charmander, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur. Just tap on the one you want, toss your Poké Ball at it and you’ve captured your first Pokémon.

Pokémon Go takes place in the real world, so it will map your surroundings with your character in the center. It will have floating blue squares and large platforms dotted around the map. The blue squares are Poké Stops and the platforms are gyms. But forget about gyms until you reach level 5, and focus on visiting as many Poké Stops as you can, to get rewarded with free items and Pokémon Eggs (which will hatch once you pop them in an incubator and travel a few miles with the app running).

If you want to expand your collection significantly, you’re going to have to leave your neighborhood. This guide happens to be going up on a Friday, so rather than sitting around in your home or apartment all weekend, plan a trip into the city or take a drive down the coast.

The most frustrating thing about Pokémon Go is that the app has to be running in order for it to function. If you want to be alerted when a Pokémon appears, if you want to hatch an egg or if you want to visit a Poké Stop, the app needs to be open on your phone, which means you’re going to kill your battery pretty quickly.

But the app comes with a Battery Saver mode, which you can find in the Settings menu in the top right corner of the screen when you tap the Poké Ball icon. Once you have captured a couple dozen Pokémon, keep them, if it happens to have better stats or attacks than the others, or you can transfer them to Professor Willow, which will permanently delete it from your collection, but you’ll be rewarded with a Pokémon-specific candy.