We Developed an Assistant Application for Pokémon GO This Weekend

Like almost everyone else on this planet I have been out there catching Pokémon and conquering gyms last week whenever I took a break from uni work and went outside. In case you have no idea what I am talking about, well, no offense, but you must have been living under a rock for the last weeks - I am of course referring to the highly popular augmented reality game “Pokémon GO”.

Tobi and I were both excited about the game’s release but as computer scientists we don’t “just play” such a game. We systematically try to find ways of optimizing our progress with as little effort as possible. We experimented and did research on the best ways of boosting our XP points quickly. It turned out that there is a very common technique to achieve this: Try to evolve as many Pokémon in a row as possible (ideally under the influence of a lucky egg which doubles your XP gain).

While this is a good strategy there are a few parameters which need to be considered in order to optimize the outcome of that approach. Evolutions cost candy, transferring Pokémon gives you candy but also makes you loose a potential evolution candidate. So we figured out the maths to solve this simple optimization problem and wrapped it up in a pair of nice, little mobile apps so you too can benefit from our insights. Find out more on my corresponding project page.