If you have been on any social media lately, you might have noticed that Pokemon Go has been set free into the world. Pokemon Go seems to be the talk of most social media the past week, and there are a lot of great reasons why. Pokemon Go is helping Pokemon lovers to get outside to see new places they have have never seen before, helping the players make friends by picking teams (note that no matter what team you are on you will be subjected to memes about your team), getting people to exercise which is so important for a person of any age, and finally Pokemon Go is helping to make people's lives better enough to the point of inspiring them to help make a change in their communities. In the past week I have seen so many people sharing ideas for walking shelter dogs while playing Pokemon Go, or downloading apps that donate money to charity for how many miles they walk, the world has started to change is a beautiful way because of a video game.

Enough of my sappy views of how Pokemon is changing lives, here are the thing you need to know as a trainer

1. Catch every Pokemon you possibly can:

This one might make you think to yourself, "Are you kidding me? My childhood dreams of being a Pokemon Trainer are finally coming true and you think I am not going to catch them all?" (Pun intended.) But after a few days of only seeing Pidgeys and Rattatas you might want to rush to transfer them to Professor Willow just to have space in case a better Pokemon comes along. Well don't transfer those common Pokemon right away, you will gain XP for new species of Pokemon and species you already have. Also each Pokemon species has its own candies which you need to evolve that species or level it up. But don't level your Pokemon up until level nine ! You will see why as the list goes on.

2. Look at the bottom right hand corner of your screen:

This one is probably already well known among Pokemon Go players but I figured I should put it in the list in case someone didn't know how to use the distance map. One you tap on this distance map you will see shadows of new species of Pokemon and pictures of species you already have that have foot steps under them. There are theories that the foot steps mean how many feet away those Pokemon are, or how many yards away, these are both false. While using this map for tracking Pokemon it is best to think of it as a hot or cold type map, getting closer or further. If you do get closer to a Pokemon the amount of foot steps will decrease, also if you select a Pokemon or shadow of a Pokemon on this map the bar will pulse green more frequently as you get closer until in pops up on your screen!

3. What is a Pokestop?

If you have been playing the game for the past week and don't know what a Pokestop is I feel bad at how much money you could have possibly already spent. Pokestops are those blue squares on you map that give you Pokeballs, XP, and various other goodies like Lures, Eggs, Incense ( all of which will be explained below). Once you walk to the Pokestop the blue square will turn into a blue Pokeball, once that icon appears tap on it and a picture of your landmark will pop up in a circle, spin that and your goodies will appear, quickly click them. After you have gotten your goodies from the Pokestop it will turn purple for five minutes after that you can get more spins out of that stop.

Helpful hint: There are more Pokestops in cities (ex: Philadelphia).

4. Using Lures and Incense:

If you want to bring Pokemon closer to a Pokestop a lure will help you and anyone in that area out. I have heard that lures will only bring new Pokemon to your location not the ones already on your distance map, but I am not sure about that. What is true about the lure is that you can either buy one in the shop or go to a Pokestop to possibly get them. Lures last for 30 minutes at the Pokestop you choose, if you leave that area you will not get the help of the lure but other players will. Incense bring nearby Pokemon to where you are located for 30 minutes, using incense is useful for when you are walking around and are not near Pokestops, this will not help other players. A purple ring will appear around you once you have started using your incense, it will count down 30 minutes on your main screen until it runs out.

5. Picking your Team at Level five:

Once you reach level five in the game and go to visit a gym you get to pick what team you are on for the rest of the game, there are rumors that which team you pick is related to what legendary Pokemon you might get. The choices are: Team Instinct which is yellow and represented by Zapdos, Team Mystic which is blue and represented by Articuno, and Team Valor which is represented with red as their color and Moltres as their mascot. No matter what team you pick there are going to be memes about why you team sucks or is the best, so pick the one you want not the one you might feel pressured into joining. These teams will also give you a chance to make new friends while going outside because people will ask you "Hey, what team are you?" Once you have made the decision of what team you want to be on forever (no pressure) you will then be able to battle at gyms. Gyms are landmarks as well but you go here to claim the gym for your team, then more people will come to that location to help you keep that gym for your team so you all can get rewards. Different Teams will also regularly show up to battle you for that gym, so select the Pokemon you put in there carefully. Battling at the gyms will give you XP based on how well you do, try to select a good Pokemon based on what the line up is at the gym ex: if the gym has a fire type don't use a grass type to battle it. You also don't have to battle if you don't want to, you can get XP by just going to Pokestops and collecting more Pokemon as you walk.

6. Level nine Lucky Egg Trick! :

So once you have made it to level nine hopefully you saved your all your Pokemon up that you didn't really want to *cough Pidgey and Ratatta,* use can a lucky egg to earn double XP for 30 minutes. So here is an amazing trick to get you up several levels within a half hour. Use an Incense and a Lucky Egg at the same time, you can also go to a Pokestop to use a Lure as well to make this even stronger, and start evolving all the Pokemon you can. Evolving so many Pokemon will give you thousands in XP, then you can give the ones you evolved to the Professor to get a candy for that species and keep evolving more until you run out or you want to power them up. After you have evolved you Pokemon and transfer the ones you don't want to the professor walk around and catch the Pokemon that are being pulled your way! I tried this and I went up from level nine to level 12 in 30 minutes!

Most Importantly: Watch where you are going, stay safe and don't risk your life for Pokemon!

P.S. Get outside and have fun with this game, help make your community a better place, and see beautiful places that you have never been to!

I will update this more as more information is discovered, comment if I missed anything you thought should be included!