While the goal in Pokémon games is catching all the Pokémon and being 'the very best, like no one ever was,' finding, evolving and hatching Pokémon are very much a thing. In Pokémon GO, you'll have the option to do all three.
You will not be able to turn on Pokémon GO and tell yourself "Today I'm catching a Psyduck," especially if you live in a desert. In Pokémon GO, Pokémon are found depending on which habitat you personally live in and chance.
Related: Pokemon GO Guide Hub
If you live near a beach, you'll find water-type Pokémon. If you live in a volcano, you'll probably find fire-types. However, there is a way to see the Pokémon in your area and how far away they are.
In the lower right hand portion of your game screen, you'll see three Pokémon – some will be greyed out and other will not. If you've caught the Pokémon before, they will appear in color, if you haven't they will be a grey sillhouette.
Clicking on that small box will open up a bigger box that will show you more Pokémon. Each of these Pokémon are in your area, how close they are depends on the little feet below them. The more feet, the further away – the less feet, the closer.
Evolving:
Every time you catch a Pokémon you will receive a special Candy tied to the specific species of Pokémon. In the image above, you'll see that this particular Eevee has six Eevee Candy pieces and requires 25 candies to evolve.
In order to get more candy for a specific type of Pokémon, you have to catch that Pokémon. Once you catch more Eevee, you will get more Eevee candies, however, that's not the only way to get Candy. If you have multiple of the same species, you can transer your Pokémon to the Professor (Transfer can be found at the bottom of a Pokémon's status page).
Before you transfer Pokémon, you should look at the Pokémon's Combat Points (That thing called "CP") to make sure your are transferring the weakest Pokémon. Transferring Pokémon will give you candy for that species.
How to Evolve:
- In Map View, touch the Main Menu
- Touch Pokémon
- From your list of Pokémon, select one Pokémon to evolve.
- On the Pokémon’s summary, touch the Evolve Button.
Incubating and Hatching Eggs:
Finding and evolving Pokémon is one thing, but hatching them is entirely another thing. If you recall the Game Boy and 3DS games, you'll know that you have to take a specific amount of in-game steps to make the Pokémon Egg hatch and it's a similar method in Pokémon GO.
You will find Pokémon Eggs at PokéStops, the same place you gather Poké Balls and potions. Spinning the PokéStops' Photo Disc will give you items and sometimes one of those items will be a Pokémon Egg.
Once you put the Egg in an incubator, it will tell you a number of kilometers you need to travel before the Egg hatches. The more kilometers, the rarer the Pokémon in the egg.
Pokémon Go will only track your steps while your app is open.
Note: Incubators only hold one Egg at a time, however, you can purchase additional incubators with real money.
Note 2: Going over a certain speed (lets say you're driving around to hatch an egg) will not count as steps.
To hatch an Egg:
- In the Map View, touch the Main Menu
- Touch Pokémon
- At the top of the screen, touch the word Eggs.
- Select one of your Eggs
- Touch Start Incubation
- Select an incubator to use on your Egg
- Walk to hatch the Egg
