Running Out of Space in Your Items Bag

As you continue to catch Pokemon, you will periodically find yourself "leveling up," and when you level up, you receive as a reward a lot of new items in your bag. Also, when you collect Pokeballs, you will collect other items as well, which are also stored in your items bag. Eventually, and it doesn't take very long, you will run out of room in your bag.

There are a couple of ways to deal with this problem. You can delete items from your bag, such as Revives and Potions, which you don't need to use at this time. However, you will need them later, so we believe a better option is to purchase a "upgrade" for your bag. Doing so will increase the storage in your bag by 50 items. Some tips we have read in other blogs say that discarding Pokeballs is a good way to clear storage in your bag, but we have found, except for very early on the game, we need to increase our bag size because we run out of Pokeballs.

Purchasing an upgrade is easy, and it's one of the very few things you need to spend money on in Pokemon Go, so you don't need to be worried about escalating expenses to continue enjoying the game. I have upgraded my bag probably three times, and that amount is serving me well after a couple of months of playing the game.

To upgrade your bag, press the Poke button on the main screen, and then on the next screen, press Shop.

You will then see a list of items you can shop for. Scroll down, and you will see the option for Bag Upgrade costing 200 Pokecoins; that is roughly $2.00.

Before you can buy any items in the Pokestore, you will need purchase some Pokecoins through your app store. Scroll down further, and you will the option to purchase Pokecoins. Tap the amount you want; I recommend $4.99 US dollars. (I apologize that the picture shows pounds rather than dollars.) In the near future, you will probably want to buy a couple of bag upgrades and possibly some lures, magic eggs, and incubators, so having some Pokecoins available can come in handy. As I mentioned previously, unless you spend your entire day at the coffee shop setting up lures or burning incense, you are not going to end up spending much on Poke items.

When you choose to purchase Pokecoins, you will be taken to your app store where you already have an account established, or you can pay via PayPal. It takes only a few seconds. You are now set to buy a bag upgrade. Simply select the bag from the shopping screen, and the Pokecoins will be deducted from your balance.

You are now ready to collect more Pokeballs and continue catching Pokemon. The next tip will be on how to make space on your Pokemon screen, the place where the Pokemon you catch are stored. Although you can buy more Pokemon storage space, you don't need to do so. There is a simple way to combine Pokemon to clear space. Stay tuned.

Running out of Pokeballs

When you first start playing Pokemon Go, you are given a certain number of Pokeballs -- about 20, I think, or maybe it's 50. Anyway, you can catch Pokemon for a few days, but inevitably you will run out of Pokeballs. That situation put me at a standstill for a few weeks because I didn't know how to get more balls without paying for them. 

I found out that I needed to visit Pokestops to get more balls (see the "Getting Started" section of this blog if you need some terminology definitions). I looked that up on the internet hoping to find a map of Pokestops in my area. It turns out there are some unofficial maps for various parts of the country, but there is not one big map of Pokestops around the world, and I couldn't find a map for my area. By word of mouth, I found out the location of a few Pokestops, so my sister and I set off in search of them. Sure enough, when you are near a Pokestop, it appears on the map as a blue cube. When you are in range, i.e., close enough to get items, the Pokestop changes to a circle and starts spinning. You can then tap on it to open to open the Pokestop. 

When the Pokestop opens, you will see a round photo of it. Spin the photo by swiping it with your finger, and it will release Pokeballs and other items. You can tap on the items to collect them or just press the X at the bottom to close the Pokestop. In either case, the items will be stored in your bag. After you collect items from a Pokestop, it changes color from blue to pink, and it takes about 5 minutes before you can collect more items. 

At some point, you will run out of room in your Items bag. Ways to deal with that, as well as a description of the items, will be the subject of another post.  

Early Strategy

At this early stage of the game, your best strategy is just to keep catching Pokemon and collecting Pokeballs. Have fun!

Taking Pictures

Taking pictures of Pokemon in your environment is one of the first things new Pokemon Go players want to do. Most likely when you tap on a Pokemon, the screen will open in "AR mode" (with AR standing for "augmented reality"). That means the background where you see the Pokemon will be your actual environment, such as the Pokemon shown in the pet store in the photo below. On that screen, you will see a camera icon at the bottom right. Tapping that icon doesn't take the photo but puts you into another mode where your camera is operational. Take your photos, and they will be stored in a separate Pokemon folder in your smart phone's gallery. When finished, there will be an arrow key to take you back to the screen where you can catch the Pokemon.

If your Pokemon shows on a grassy green background, you can switch to AR mode by tapping the AR toggle switch at the top right of the screen.

Sometimes the background of your location can be distracting when you're trying to catch a Pokemon. If that's the case, you can turn off AR mode to view the Pokemon against the grassy background, making it easier to catch. To turn off AR mode, tap the AR toggle switch at the upper right of the screen. The button at the top left of the screen, which looks like a running person, is used to return to the main map screen if you decide not to catch the Pokemon.