You Want To Level Up In "Pokemon Go"

Anyone who spent their youth glued to a Gameboy color knows how important it is to level up your Pokémon. I mean, you're not gonna get a Gyarados without feeding your Magikarp a boatload of rare candies (or, you know, training it proper). But the difference with your new favorite life-consuming app is that you can level up as a trainer. And since I'm pretty sure we're not going to evolve any time soon, you may be wondering what happens when you level up in "Pokemon Go."

Leveling up is important for reaping the benefits of the game and subsequently growing as a trainer. You may not evolve in a literal sense (again, I'm pretty sure), but you'll certainly become stronger in a certain way.

The first five levels are especially pivotal to opening the world of Pokémon to you. Up till Level 4 you'll get get restocked on Poké Balls, with 15 Poké Balls for every level increase. The focus is solely on catching Pokémon and building up your party. Once you hit Level 5, the game expands to battling: Gyms are unlocked and you can choose your team (Instinct, Mystic, or Valor). You're also rewarded with 10 potions, an incense, and 10 revives; with the incense the game is encouraging you to catch more Pokémon, certainly, but really it's pushing you to make your Pokémon fight and conquer.

With each level increase after that point, you get more powerful items to aid in your quest. For example, Level 8 unlocks razzberries, a kind of bait to calm a Pokémon down so you can catch it easier. At level 12, you unlock Great Balls, another facilitator for catching those higher CP Pokémon. There are more advanced trinkets and the full list of level rewards can be readily found online, but a lot of the items are meant to help you catching rarer and more powerful Pokémon. And that's comforting, because you're going to encounter more of those as you level up.

You know how the more you progressed in the original Pokémon games, the better Pokémon you would find? Like, you weren't traveling through Victory Road to encounter some Weedles, to say the least. It's the same concept here, as you level up and become a stronger trainer, you encounter stronger Pokémon. Some may be, granted, a lot of the same Pokémon you encountered in your lower levels. There's no deeper frustration than wasting Poké Balls to catch a high-level Doduo, which is the overpopulated Pokémon in my region. But you're sure to find new Poke friends as well, you just need to keep at it.

In short, the more you grow as a trainer, the more the game seems to reward you. Right now you can only climb to Level 20, but it's probable that new levels will be unlocked in the future, with more rewards with it. So keep gathering those XP points, and I'm sure within no time you'll become a Pokémon Master.

Images: 4Kids Entertainment; Giphy (2)