How to walk in Pokemon Go

Movement is one of the essential mechanics in Pokemon Go. You’ll need to walk in order to do a variety of things such as catch Pokemon, hatch eggs, and find stuff. One question a lot of trainers ask is what constitutes as “walking” in Pokemon Go. Here’s a quick little tutorial on how all of that works.

• Are you a beginner? Click here to see our beginner’s guide to playing Pokemon Go!

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Attack of the Fanboy

What does walking achieve in Pokemon Go?

Walking around (and movement in general) has a lot of uses in Pokemon Go. They are:

• This is how you find Pokemon to catch. Just walking around all but guarantees that you’ll find all of the Pokemon that have spawned in your area. Pokemon spawn at set places on the map, so you’ll have to travel to them in order to find the Pokemon. Here’s a quick guide on how to track Pokemon when you’re walking around.
• It’s also how you hatch eggs. Each egg has a certain number of kilometers that you must walk in order to hatch them. Learn more about hatching eggs by clicking here!
• You’ll most likely be walking in order to get to Pokestops and Gyms. This is essential for battling and restocking your inventory. Click here to learn more about taking Gyms!

It doesn’t seem like a lot. However, since the entire game revolves around catching Pokemon, battling Gyms, and finding Pokestops, it could be said that movement is the most important part of Pokemon Go.

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How do you “walk” in Pokemon Go?

Well, the simplest way is to just start walking. You’ll have to have the game open so that it can register your movement. Aside from that, virtually any movement counts. A few things to note:

• “Walking” is essentially any movement that’s below 15MPH. You can go faster and the game still registers you as moving. However, that movement will not count toward anything like eggs hatching.
• People who are biking, skateboarding, etc are likely registering under that 15MPH limit, although we recommend you do exercise caution if you’re on wheels of any kind.
• Pokemon will still spawn and you can still do stuff like collect at Pokestops if you’re going faster than 15MPH. However, at those speeds, you’re probably in a car. We highly recommend you not play Pokemon Go while driving. Passengers can still get this stuff if they’re fast enough.
• Some Android emulators and GPS spoofers have found ways to walk without actually moving themselves. This is against the rules. It’s also against the spirit of the game. Since it’ll likely get you banned at some point, we won’t go over how to do that here.

It sounds complicated, but it’s really not. You just open the game and start moving around!

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Other stuff you can do while walking

We’ve talked about all of the instances where walking can be useful, but there is more that you can do:

• Many players take this opportunity to pop an Incense. Incense spawn Pokemon at your location. It’s been noted in early versions of the game code that Incense are more effective and spawn Pokemon more frequently if you’re walking around as opposed to standing still. Here’s how Incense work!
• A lot of players also head to areas where there is an abundance of Pokestops. There are often loops that you can walk to just continuously collect Pokestops. This is a great way to hatch eggs and beef up your inventory at the same time.
• The game will vibrate when a Pokemon spawns on your map. That means you don’t have to actively look at the screen while playing. You can engage in the game’s battery saver mode to preserve your precious battery life. Alternatively, you can use this opportunity to manage your Pokemon, your items, check on your badges, and do other stuff in the game.

Pokemon Go revolves a lot of its game play around walking. It sounds drab, but as you can see, there are still a ton of things you can do while walking around. Leave us a comment if there are any tips and tricks that we didn’t cover about walking around in Pokemon Go! Also, don’t forget to click here to see the latest Pokemon Go news!