While Pokemon GO (Free) players likely know the name Pokemon, there’s another name to know: the developer, Niantic. Namely, because they made another geolocation game called Ingress (Free) that served as the foundation for Pokemon GO. And as it turns out, there’s years of advice in playing Ingress that’s useful for Pokemon GO. We already know that you can use the Ingress map for Pokemon GO, since it’s based on the same data. As such, it’s worth heeding tips and tricks from Ingress veterans. What you may not know is that it was once possible to submit data for where Pokemon and various gyms would be, but this was shut down. Still, if you want to know why some Pokestops are what they are, these guidelines explain why. In particular, so many churches are Pokestops because of the connection to Ingress‘ lore. Turns out Pokemon wasn’t Satanic, it was gonna drive people to church! Literally! The point is that if Ingress grew too large for further portal submission, don’t expect to be submitting your own Pokestops any time soon.

This does mean that the occasional great spot will be available – these were known as “couch portals" based on the jargon of Ingress, and were great places to get resources in that game. Here, they might just help you out with catching all the Pokemon. And it’s not considered cheating, everything is just coming up Milhouse. Do note that the system is built around you not being able to do anything too fast. There’s a speed limiter, where if you go too fast between Pokestops, then the game might not let you use them. Some observations have been made about the speed limiter before, and are worth keeping in mind though they are sure to be tweaked at any point. If you have a bus route that goes by a lot of Pokestops, the start-and-stop nature of public transit may help you with getting Pokestops rapidly without triggering the limits.

Again, because Pokemon GO is based off of an exiting game in Ingress, this means that there’s a lot of information on just what is considered cheating, and that Niantic has methods to detect it. Making two accounts will be caught – it’s known as ‘multiboxing’ in Ingress and people have been busted for it. More in a morally gray area is if you know someone who is on the other team in the game – if you play fair, it’s not a problem, but behavior such as win trading can and will be punished. Oh, and don’t be a jerkwad and trespass on private property. People have been detained for suspicious behavior in Ingress. The best behaviors in Pokemon GO are the same as in Ingress as they are in real life: be most excellent.