The climb to level 80 carries on for us in Pokemon Go. My wife and I made it to level 75 back in May. Now, here at the start of September we have arrived at level 76.
Level 76 Achieved
Well, I have arrived. My wife managed to beat me there by a good two weeks.
The tasks required to get to level 76 were:
- Earn 38 Platinum medals
- Defeat 100 Team GO Rocket Grunts
- Explore 300 km
- Catch 200 Pokemon in a single day
I finished three out of four of those before her. But then there was the platinum medal task. I have a whole post about platinum medals and my strategy for them.
I started out with 35 platinum medals when we hit level 75, while my wife had 38 already. So she was set. Eventually the three I ended up earning for the level were:
- Unown – 28 of 28 Unown caught
- Collector – 50,000 Pokemon caught
- Hero – 2,000 Team Go Rocket members defeated
On this past Saturday… so I did actually level up in August, but I’ll mark the date from this blog post… I was finally down to six Team Rocket Go grunts to defeat. While we were out running errands I managed to find enough to finish off the medal.
Hero – 2,000 Team Go Rocket members defeated
When that medal landed it was time to level up. Here is my stats page summarizing what I managed while level 75.
Level 75 stats as I hit Level 76
I caught 4,687 Pokemon. That feels like a lot. Below I’ll get to why that number was that big.
I also visited 2,387 Pokestops and walked 349km.
That completed, it is time to look at what getting to level 77 is going to take.
As has been the case so far since level 70, I already have more than enough experience to get there.
The xp requirement for level 77 done already
That just leaves the tasks, and the tasks are always what takes all the time.
The tasks required for level 77
Spelling those out for later re-use, they are:
- Earn 41 Platinum medals
- Power up 7 Pokemon to their max CP
- Win 100 Max Battles
- Make 10 trades with Pokemon caught at least 300km apart
Taking those from the bottom up, making those 10 trades… will probably be easy enough. My wife and I can trade at need and I’ll be in LA later this month… more than 300km away… so I just need to catch some Pokemon there and remember to keep them for trades. Easy.
I’m already one in since I took that screenshot using the new remote trade option with somebody from Japan on my friends list. I could probably get there that was as well.
Winning 100 Max Battles… is very doable. The only impediment is that my wife doesn’t like Max Battles and has held a position of refusing to do them lest she be promoting a feature she does not like.
But she will go along with the plan to get to level 77. We have a Max Battle location just two blocks from our house. We will get it done.
Powering 7 Pokemon up to their max CP, or combat power… that will take some work, on my part at least. My wife is already done on that front. I had 4 Pokemon set to go, but need to find 3 more to get there. I have a few close… within 40 XL Candies… but that is still going to take some effort.
Then, finally, there are three more platinum medals to earn. These are my top three contenders for the next level.
- For Level 77
- Mega Evolution Guru – 41 of 46 different species mega evolved
- Rail Staff – 2,430 of 2,500 steel type caught
- Skier – 2,403 of 2,500 ice type caught
This coming weekend there is a mega evolution event. If my wife and I can go out and get seven more mega evolutions set, we’ll both have this one done. (I only need five, but I will of course help her get her medal as well.)
Meanwhile, thanks to some feedback on my post about my platinum medal journey, I have seriously boosted up my count for steel and ice types. The trick I learned is that catching isn’t all that counts. If, for example, you catch a steel type, that gets you one more on the count… but if you then evolve it, it counts again. And then if you trade for a steel type, that also counts.
I started doing this as soon as I learned about it, which is likely why my total Pokemon caught is much higher for my level 75 time than previous levels. “Caught” does not, strictly speaking, mean “caught” it seems. Evolved or traded Pokemon count as well.
If I get those three platinum medals I will still need 9 more to get the 50 total needed for level 80. Here is is my tentative medal plan.
- The Path to Level 80
- Cameraman – 373 of 400 snapshot encounters
- Wayfarer – 529 out of 1,500 Wayfarer agreements
- Backpacker – 39,945 of 50,000 Pokestops visited
- Berry Master – 13,253 of 15,000 berries fed at gyms
- Great League Veteran – 366 of 1,000 victories needed
- Expert Navigator – 240 of 600 routes completed
- Jumbo Pokemon Collector – 232 of 500 XXL Pokemon caught
- Tiny Pokemon Collector – 189 of 500 XXS Pokemon caught
- Dragon Tamer – 1,305 of 2,500 dragon type caught
The tiny, jumbo, and dragon type medals feel doable if only because of the evolve/trade thing. My wife and I are now tagging any XXS or XXL Pokemon we catch and trading them nightly.
The rest… well, they will take time. I wouldn’t mind if Scopely released a few more Pokemon to so we could finish the five incomplete regional Pokedex medals. We will have to see how that works out.
So it is onward to level 77!