Pokemon Go daily fix: What to do once you reach level 5

It won’t be saying too much if Pokemon Go has become a phenomenon in less than a week. It needs no introduction, not anymore, not in India, not anywhere else. Although the game is not yet available in India, considering you’ve already downloaded the game through APKs (click here if you haven’t), it’d be safe to talk about the fabled level 5, which opens doors to those red, blue, or yellow-colored towers aka gyms.

The game itself offers almost no help in the complexities surrounding the world of pocket monsters. Life till level 5 is simple and easy. You walk around, catch Pokemon, collect items from Poker stops, and that’s it. Neat deal! When you reach level 5, you realize it was not even the tip of an iceberg; it was just a speck of snow. With this daily blog, I offer you a detailed first-person experience of the game.

Summary show

Let’s check out what awaits you at level 5 and above.

A wild Professor Willow appeared.

The good old’ Professor continues to be as helpful as before. Or, in other words, not helpful at all. Professor Willow tells you how to join a team and visit gyms to train your Pokemon or fight to claim a gym. Team? Nobody told me it’s a multi-player game. Rightly so, it’s not. However, you’ll have to choose one team from Team Instinct, Team Mystic, and Team Valor. These teams follow different schools of thought, seemingly just a gimmick supporting gameplay. It doesn’t matter which team you pick.

Team Instinct: These people believe their guts regarding a Pokemon battle.

Team Mystic: These people believe Pokemon have “immeasurably deep” wisdom and that Pokemon trainers need to respect and analyze that wisdom.

Team Valor: These people are all about going out in a battle. They believe Pokemon are powerful creatures. As we said earlier, it doesn’t matter. It matters only when you want to train your Pokemon or fight some Pokemon. But how?

It’s time to hit the gym…

From the very first level, you must have been seeing tall colored towers. Now is the time to know more about them. A red building is owned by a member of Team Valor, a blue one is by Team Mystic, and the last one, the yellow building, is owned by a member of Team Instinct. If you enter a gym of your team, says Team Valor, you can train your Pokemon there. Training a Pokemon is just the same as fighting against one. And if you enter a gym of a rival team, which could be Instinct or Mystic, you have to fight the Pokemon there. If you beat the monster, the tower’s color changes to that of your team.

That sounds easy.

Well, not always. Even though it has been just a week since the game was launched, people have played it as their lives depend on it. While you reached level 5, some people are already at level 10 or maybe higher. When you enter a gym with someone at level 8, 9, or 10, you should expect a Pokemon with Combat Power over 400 or even 500. In my case, I took pride in my Growlithe with 158 CP. Entering the gym, I realized I was against a Golbat with 379 CP. I don’t know it anymore. And my Growlithe is virtually in a hospital.