'Pokémon Go' Locations: How To Find Your Favorite Pokémon

Where Pokémon Live

I have no idea how the Pokémon Go algorithm works or why specific Pokémon appear in some places but not others. I found more Horseas, Poliwags and Staryus in Brooklyn than I did on the actual beach. I didn’t see a Dudou for miles, but when I stepped back into Manhattan, it’s all I could find.

Some Pokémon exist everywhere. You’ll find Pidgeys, Spearows and Rattatas wherever you go. Some are bit more elusive, but not really rare; Weedles, Caterpies and Zubats roam the streets, but hate the water. Oddish, Meowth and the Nidoran genders love giant fields. Some pocket monsters only come out at night, like Ghastly or Clefairy.

There are certain things you can do to find Pokémon:

• Dropping an Incense at your current location will bring Pokémon to you for thirty minutes.

• If someone drops an Incense at a PokéStop, you can piggyback off of their kindness and wait there for Pokémon to come right to you.

• There’s a menu on the bottom right, that if you click opens up a menu of what Pokémon are around you. The footprints underneath signify how close that Pokémon is to you: one step means it’s super close, two means you have to walk a block, and three means it’s somewhere in your general area.

Trainers are being forced to walk around and actually explore their neighborhoods. I moved to New York City recently, and have been dealing with all sorts of horrible “apartment issues.” It’s cute to find a Rattata in your room; it’s not cute to find a dead rat. I decided to take a few days off and return to my ancestral home of Long Island and see how the Pokémon Go experience changes depending on where you are.

Back To The Burbs

Trying out Pokémon Go for the last few days hasn’t been easy. The servers have been under major stress and haven’t been able to stay up for very long. In between the crashes, “servers are down” messages and Gyarados loading screens unable to load, I was able to see enough.

I grew up in Long Beach, a small beach town on the bottom side of Long Island. It’s a beach town filled with small business, locals and a shit ton of sand. I was expecting loads of water Pokémon I couldn’t find in the city: Horseas, Staryus, stuff that would make sense in the ocean and not in a subway station.

Walking along the boardwalk, adjacent to the actual beach, was an amazing experience. I noticed a bunch of other people doing the exact same thing I was doing; staring down at their phones, flicking tiny pokeballs and catching Magikarp.

I swear, there must have been an Old Rod storm that night, because the beach was littered with flopping Magikarp. I also managed to score a Shellder, and a ton of Slowpokes and Psyducks. When I walked away from the beach, something in the air changed. All the ‘karps and slow pink sloths just disappeared.

What I found shocked me to my very core, my little town was overrun with electric Pokémon. I couldn’t go two blocks without finding a Magnemite or a Voltorb blocking my path. I even found an Electrode chilling behind the Stop And Shop, which has to be a safety hazard. I kept walking, trying to find anything that wasn’t covered in magnets, or looked like a Pokéball.

After two full days of walking on foot, I found 70 Pokémon; 15 Magnemites, 10 Voltorbs, seven Psyducks, too many Magikarps and a bunch of randoms. If you are going to the beach find something to battle your friend’s Charizard, you might have better luck anywhere else.

I can’t wait to explore more with Pokémon Go and see what crazy Pokémon I can find. I already have Shellder, what more do I need?