While PainterMan was making a new friend, new players who started the game were just as amazed by how well the Pokemons meshed with the real world. After a few hours, the first forum was made specifically for Pokemon.
1: Pokemon are so cute! How many do you think there are?
2: I don't know, maybe sixty at most? It is a small studio after all.
3: Yeah, but the developers don't really have to work the visuals, they just have to create Pokemon and their behaviors.
4 : Behaviors? What do you mean?
3: Oh, you must be new to the game! You see, certain Pokemon interact with the environment or people if they have something that triggers it. For example, Meowth, one of the Pokemon, is attracted to shiny things, so if you put a coin close to it, it will try to move it around.
4: Woah, that's pretty cool!
While many threads began about which Pokemon was the cutest, more hardcore gamers were trying to find strategies and guides on how to play the game. While they were looking for information, they found a recent video with the title: The Ultimate Guide to Pokemon!
After clicking this video, they arrived at a familiar face, the streamer Watermelon, who right after being alerted of the launch bought the game. Of course, Watermelon did this to make content, and he decided to explore the game mechanics by asking NPCs and other players to be one of the first to post a guide on Youtube.
"Pokemon is an amazing game, today after hours of studies and observations, I will explain to you what the core features of the game are. Hi, I'm Watermelon, and this my guide for Pokemon.
Let's start with how the game is played. While this game is about capturing Pokemon, it is also about battling. You see, each Pokemon get their own stats and levels.
Stats are mostly the same in each species. For levels, Pokemon have a range they can be at in the wild. There is also Potential. Potential is a certain limit in each Pokemon for how high their level can go. You can increase it with Items, but it's harder to increase it by a lot. From what I have gathered, Potential is determined by the environment of the Pokemon. For example, more powerful rifts create stronger Pokemon and some with more Potential.
I also found out that your first Pokemon has a Potential to reach level 60. This is very high and we have not found many Pokemon that have that high of a Potential.
For battling, you fight other players with your Pokemon, but don't forget if you get hit by an attack you might lose some Items so be careful.
To create Outposts or control gyms, you need at least 3 people to create a faction. Then, If you pay 10000 Stardust collectively, you can create an outpost. These outposts can have NPCs like gyms, but no powerful Pokemon will appear there. However, I've heard sometime an NPC makes a competition and gives the winner some rare items.
If you control a Gym, you can put taxes to make a profit and you get private access to the Pokemon there. However, be aware that if you get beaten in a duel by another faction, you will lose control of the Gym. If you refuse the duel, If you leave the Gym for more than 3 days, it will become Neutral again.
For Outposts, you can see them, they have a marker in the color of the faction. People who control it can also make taxes, but wild Pokemon appear more frequently even outside the rift, it like a magnet to them. They still are very weak Pokemon but hey, It's free money!
That's about it for the basics. The game is mostly centered around forming groups and obtaining resources to upgrade and capture Pokemons. It's a very good game!
This video, after of few hours of being up, got many likes and brought attention to this new game. Many started playing Pokemon and began recommending it to their friends. After all, the idea of a VR game based on the real world was really novel.
While the public was marveling at this game, A a certain was watching it all unfold.
"Seems it has been a success, huh Pikachu?"
"Pika!"
"Yeah!"
While David celebrated his success, the game's popularity continued to grow.
This was the historic launch of Pokemon!