{"id":612,"date":"2016-08-03T06:54:54","date_gmt":"2016-08-03T06:54:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/the-pokemon-go-master-on-a-quest-to-catch-em-all\/"},"modified":"2022-08-08T23:21:37","modified_gmt":"2022-08-08T23:21:37","slug":"pokemon-master-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/pokemon-master-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pok\u00e9mon Go Master on a quest to catch \u2018em all"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost one month ago American Nick Johnson was living in Brooklyn, working in Manhattan and hanging out with his girlfriend. Boy, has that changed.<\/p>\n

Nick has spent the past few weeks on a whirlwind worldwide adventure, playing Pok\u00e9mon Go. Since being one of the very first people to \u201ccatch \u2018em all\u201d (all 142 Pok\u00e9mon types in America, more than 5,200 Pok\u00e9mon in total), he\u2019s become an overnight gaming sensation. With the help of Expedia he\u2019s travelled from Brooklyn, all the way to Paris, Hong Kong, Sydney and soon to Tokyo, to complete his Pok\u00e9mon collection.<\/p>\n

We had a chat to Nick to talk about how he did it, his top Pok\u00e9mon hunting hacks and what\u2019s next (including his thoughts on the super rare Pok\u00e9mon still coming).<\/p>\n

How did you manage to catch all 142 American Pok\u00e9mon in just two weeks?<\/h2>\n

I work 9am-6.30pm so I\u2019d get up, catch a few on the way to work, grab dinner with my girlfriend and then we\u2019d head out hunting until around midnight. Toward the end, when I realised I was close to catching all of the American\u00a0Pok\u00e9mon, I stayed out until 4am and 5am for a couple of nights.<\/p>\n

What are your top tips for Pok\u00e9mon Go players?<\/h2>\n
    \n
  1. My number one tip is to keep your head up! I say that to my girlfriend all the time when she\u2019s looking at her phone and walking, I say \u201chead up, you\u2019re about to walk onto a road, head up!\u201d It can certainly be distracting, keep your head up and stay aware of your surroundings. There\u2019s a big warning message about that when you open the game, so take it very literally.<\/li>\n
  2. For safety and for optimum Pok\u00e9mon catching, go to populated areas \u2013\u00a0more people catching in one spot, the rarer Pok\u00e9mon tend to spawn, I think they\u2019ve built that into the game. And the other bonus is people set up lures there so you don\u2019t even have to spend your money to get things to show up.<\/li>\n
  3. Always ignore Zubats. They\u2019re everywhere, annoying and they\u2019re not very good.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Where\u2019s the busiest place you\u2019ve caught a Pok\u00e9mon?<\/h2>\n

    Definitely the Grand Army Plaza in the south east corner of Central Park, even Justin Bieber turned up! If it\u2019s good enough for the Biebs, it\u2019s good enough for me!<\/p>\n

    Justin Bieber usually attracts the crowds! What did people do when he turned up?<\/h2>\n

    I was about 200 feet away so I didn\u2019t see him, but I talked to people later who did see him, and apparently just one person yelled out to him but people shouted back \u201cdude, leave him alone, he\u2019s playing Pok\u00e9mon\u201d. I mean come on, respect the guy, he\u2019s just trying to catch \u2018em all too, ha!
    \n<\/p>\n

    What\u2019s your favourite\u00a0Pok\u00e9mon?<\/h2>\n

    Eevee. We named our dog after Eevee, three years ago, before the game came out!<\/p>\n

    Why do you think Pok\u00e9mon Go has taken the world by storm?<\/h2>\n

    I think the idea of Pok\u00e9mon and \u201ccatching \u2018em all\u201d has been with people since childhood, like it is for me, and I think one of the cool things about the game is that it brings people together and creates a community. You have it here in Sydney, and in New York, where there\u2019s hundreds of people gathered in one location.<\/p>\n

    You get to explore places you\u2019ve never gone before \u2013 I\u2019ve been in New York for five or six years and been to parts of the city I never have visited before and never would have otherwise. I\u2019ve made some friends and met people I never would have had the chance to meet without the game.<\/p>\n

    And it is good exercise, I’ve lost 8-10 pounds in two weeks doing this!<\/p>\n

    Are you a bit addicted to the game?<\/h2>\n

    I don\u2019t think so! It\u2019s a fun game to play, but if my girlfriend didn\u2019t play it, I wouldn\u2019t play it that much, there\u2019d be a bit of frustration there! I have a lot of co-workers that have that issue.<\/p>\n

    What will you do when you\u2019ve finally caught \u2018em all?<\/h2>\n

    I\u2019m not sure yet! I give away a lot of my tips for free on Snapchat so I\u2019ll probably just keep doing that. Life goals? I want to catch Pok\u00e9mon with the Biebs! Other than that, I\u2019ll probably just enjoy playing the game with my friends. They\u2019re going to release more legendary, rare Pok\u00e9mon, which should be nuts, I bet they\u2019ll need a permit for a public event in New York!
    \n<\/p>\n

    Are people chatting to you on social media asking for tips?<\/h2>\n

    Yes hundreds of people have reached out to me on Snapchat every day, I use Reddit, Twitter and Facebook, and people are messaging me all the time \u2013\u00a0that\u2019s how I heard about Kangaskhan hanging around the Opera House this morning. I\u2019ve received hundreds and hundreds of messages of support from people, it\u2019s been cool, I always try to respond to everyone.<\/p>\n

    What did you think when Expedia offered to send you around the world?<\/h2>\n

    It\u2019s kind of surreal. I wasn\u2019t expecting it to go anywhere, I originally put it up on Reddit thinking no one\u2019s done this, it got a little bit of traction, but then I went to sleep and I had thousands of comments and media requests in my inbox. I had to fly to a wedding the next day in California so it was a busy weekend!<\/p>\n

    What\u2019s been the best part of the whirlwind trip?<\/h2>\n

    Every city has been unique. In Paris it was a struggle as I landed I found out they\u2019d updated the game, so every where rare Pok\u00e9mon used to spawn changed, but people messaged me on Reddit with tips on how to find Mr Mine. I was in an Uber and someone messaged me the location, it was five minutes away so I told my Uber driver to change the destination. I got there in time, it was midnight, I was flying out at noon the next day so I was lucky, and then I caught another one five mins later so that worked out. It was a stressful day but definitely fun \u2013 I got to explore the Eiffel Tower (a big Pok\u00e9mon hotspot), the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs Elysees. I didn\u2019t sleep in Hong Kong, but the guys at Expedia drove me around until I found Farfetch\u2019d. And Kangaskhan in Sydney! I\u2019ve never been to Sydney before, so a highlight was seeing the Opera House.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Almost one month ago American Nick Johnson was living in Brooklyn, working in Manhattan and hanging out with his girlfriend. Boy, has that changed. Nick has spent the past few weeks on a whirlwind worldwide adventure, playing Pok\u00e9mon Go. Since being one of the very first people to \u201ccatch \u2018em all\u201d (all 142 Pok\u00e9mon types… Continue reading The Pok\u00e9mon Go Master on a quest to catch \u2018em all<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,14],"tags":[228,8,68,393],"authors":[],"class_list":["post-612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-interests","tag-america","tag-australia","tag-france","tag-pokemon-go","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Pok\u00e9mon Go Master on a quest to catch \u2018em all - Expedia AU Stories<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/pokemon-master-interview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Pok\u00e9mon Go Master on a quest to catch \u2018em all - Expedia AU Stories\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Almost one month ago American Nick Johnson was living in Brooklyn, working in Manhattan and hanging out with his girlfriend. 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