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 Pokémon Go. Since being one of the very first people to “catch ‘em all” (all 142 Pokémon types in America, more than 5,200 Pokémon in total), he’s become an overnight gaming sensation. With the help of Expedia he’s travelled from Brooklyn, all the way to Paris, Hong Kong, Sydney and soon to Tokyo, to complete his Pokémon collection.
We had a chat to Nick to talk about how he did it, his top Pokémon hunting hacks and what’s next (including his thoughts on the super rare Pokémon still coming).
How did you manage to catch all 142 American Pokémon in just two weeks?
I work 9am-6.30pm so I’d get up, catch a few on the way to work, grab dinner with my girlfriend and then we’d head out hunting until around midnight. Toward the end, when I realised I was close to catching all of the American Pokémon, I stayed out until 4am and 5am for a couple of nights.
What are your top tips for Pokémon Go players?
- My number one tip is to keep your head up! I say that to my girlfriend all the time when she’s looking at her phone and walking, I say “head up, you’re about to walk onto a road, head up!” It can certainly be distracting, keep your head up and stay aware of your surroundings. There’s a big warning message about that when you open the game, so take it very literally.
- For safety and for optimum Pokémon catching, go to populated areas – more people catching in one spot, the rarer Pokémon tend to spawn, I think they’ve built that into the game. And the other bonus is people set up lures there so you don’t even have to spend your money to get things to show up.
- Always ignore Zubats. They’re everywhere, annoying and they’re not very good.
Where’s the busiest place you’ve caught a Pokémon?
Definitely the Grand Army Plaza in the south east corner of Central Park, even Justin Bieber turned up! If it’s good enough for the Biebs, it’s good enough for me!
Justin Bieber usually attracts the crowds! What did people do when he turned up?
I was about 200 feet away so I didn’t 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 “dude, leave him alone, he’s playing Pokémon”. I mean come on, respect the guy, he’s just trying to catch ‘em all too, ha!
