I reached Level 50 in Pokemon Go!

After roughly three years of playing somewhat consistently, I have finally achieved the end goal of Pokemon Go - level 50!

Level 50 finally achieved!

Following on from my previous post in April where I finally reached level 45 with 100 million XP, it's been more or less smooth sailing into the finish line since then. The only real thing that changed was the announcement of the level cap being raised to 80 on October 15th, which gave me a small kick to speed up the process. It was really only the level-up tasks that got in the way though, since I only really need a few million XP to level up thanks to my previous efforts.

The worst of these tasks were:

• Send 500 Gifts to friends
• Obtain 50 Lucky Pokemon in trades
• Probably all the level 48 buddy-related tasks

I feel like these should be self-explanatory on why they sucked. The gift one required me to spin 500 Pokestops which was an absolute chore unless I went out to places full of them (I lost my auto-catcher last year - it would've made this a breeze...). The 50 lucky Pokemon wasn't too bad the first day, where I got 23 of them by trading with my alt, but then I ran out of Pokemon to trade and every subsequent trade seemed to have reduced odds. Thankfully I siphoned off my friend's guaranteed lucky trades to complete this one. Finally, the level 48 tasks all sucked since they're all effectively purely time gates. I also had to waste a few puffins since somehow the buddy heart one was my last task. Finally, the 999 excellent throws task sounded daunting, but actually ended up as a decently fun challenge, only taking me two weeks to complete at a casualish pace.

Stats and Stuff

Obviously words only tell half the story, so here is a few pieces of my statistics as I reached level 50!

 

Overall stats when reaching level 50

 

Progress on the medals are also a good indicator of overall achievement:

Event medals and Platinums

Remaining medals

I only have one medal I actually enjoy looking up the number for, and that's my evolution medal as it was my primary method I used to earn the majority of my XP. I also used the friend level-up system a bit for XP as well, although quite a few friends never reached above the penultimate stage.

 

Thank heavens for 2x Evolve events!

For the friends I've made along the way

Finally, I have my plain old type catches:

• Normal - 15,956
• Water - 12,032 
• Flying - 11,334
• Grass - 8,979 
• Psychic - 7,252 
• Poison - 7,050
• Bug - 6,990
• Electric - 6,853 
• Fire - 5,986 
• Rock - 5,253 
• Ground - 5,074 
• Dark - 4,705 
• Fighting -  4,563
• Ghost - 4,339
• Dragon - 4,326
• Fairy - 4,302 
• Steel - 4,083 
• Ice - 3,781 

 

My Team

Of course along the way I've gathered and powered up a team to meet whatever comes my way. I've got numerous fully powered up Pokemon, with almost all being either perfect or near perfect:

 

My Level-Up Journey

I love stats, so here's each level-up screen I had over the course of my level 40s:

Level 50 - 28/09/2025

 

Level 49 - 14/09/2025

Level 48 - 18/08/2025

Level 47 - 27/06/2025

Level 46 - 27/03/2025

Level 45 - 12/03/2025

Level 44 - 11/12/23

Level 43 - 12/09/2023

Level 42 - 01/08/2023

Level 41 - 10/06/2023

My Favourite Pokemon

While probably not my favourite Pokemon overall, in Pokemon Go one Pokemon stands out and above as my favourite: Zarude

I caught this fella back when I first started properly playing back in 2022, and he was my very first perfect Pokemon. I've been slowly powering him up over the years as I gained more and more Rare Candy XL. Finally, after the Max Finale event I had the necessary candy to max him out!

My Perfect Maxed Zarude <3

 

Thanks for reading this absolute gargantuan post (mainly thanks to all the images). It's been a joy writing these predominantly Pokemon Go related posts, and I'm thrilled to have reached the pinnacle of the game for at least a few weeks. I doubt I'll ever bother going for the future level 80 unless it's all task related to level up, as I am burnt out on the XP grind. Anyways, thanks for your time and I hope you have a great day!

dl 

Small Adventures in Animal Crossing: New Leaf

Okay I will be honest, I haven't played any Animal Crossing: New Leaf since my last blog post. What I do finally have however, are images from when I did have that small addiction phase. It's taken me this long to purchase a SD Card reader that works with modern technology!

 

Earning Bells 

Aside from Animal Crossing's version of the stock market, the other surefire way to earn money is through farming the tropical night in the evening. After 7PM, the spawns on the island are only the highest-worth insects and fish available, meaning you earn an absolute ton. Two strange events happened while I was spending an hour every night following this method. 

Firstly, I one session I had about six or seven golden stag beetles appear in a row, and thankfully I managed to catch five of them. They cost the most out of everything available and I believe they're meant to be rare, so my luck was firing on all cylinders. Secondly, I had one session where the vast majority of spawns were sharks, which also are supposed to be rare enough where something like this shouldn't happen.

5 Golden Stags caught in a row

A very Shark heavy spawn pool

I think it should be slightly bigger!

The average tropical payday

Public Works Projects (PWPs)

As referenced in my previous post, after several years I was finally able to pay off my Stonehedge PWP. I'm pretty sure one of my goals in a previous playthrough was the addition of a modern bridge connecting the eastern side of my islands - I know this because I distinctly remember a bridge there and the path that led to it still existed, I assume I destroyed the original bridge to make way for the modern one. Another strange thing is that I swear I already had the modern bridge unlocked but supposedly I didn't, as the moment I finished the Stonehedge I had a villager immediately suggest the modern bridge. It's a crazy coincidence - does the game read my thoughts and desires?!?

The bridge was immediately paid off, and I finally have the eastern connection restored!

Stonehedge completed

A missing bridge

Tom coming to my rescue

Immediately paid off

The bridge restored!

 

Other Screenshots:  

A very popular shirt design!

Quiet contemplation

A double rainbow

 

That'll be it for my New Leaf phase since it'll probably be another few years since I get back into it. Still more than I'll play New Horizons in the rest of my lifespan. :p

 

dl 

Returning to Animal Crossing: New Leaf

I was first introduced to the Animal Crossing series through it's Wii entry 'Animal Crossing: Let's Go to the City', since then I've been enthralled! The next entry in the series was Animal Crossing: New Leaf and I distinctly remember being blown away by it's reveal trailer in 2011. It took another two years to come out and it became my soul for awhile, I easily amassed more than 500 hours in the following years. Obviously this commitment died down but I did have a short stint where I returned somewhat consistently back in 2019. The Switch edition 'Animal Crossing: New Horizons' came out in 2020 and I did spend quite a bit of time with it, but it really really struggles to compare to New Leaf.

In the past week or so (couple of weeks by the time I finish and post this), I've once again gotten into the New Leaf groove. I felt like I've left too much incomplete in my town and an overall Animal Crossing itch has arisen, so why not spend it on the best game in the series?

There were three main goals I had back in the day that I have yet to achieve:

1. Unlock the Police Station
2. Build a Modern Bridge
3. Purchase a Royal Crown
4. Complete my Fishing Catalog 

Funnily enough, I actually completed the Modern Bridge goal just before I started writing this post. I had my Stonehenge public works project (PWP) as my active one since I assume the last time I played in 2019 and I'm not really sure how I hadn't paid it off considering I had a million bells at the bank. Anyways, I finally paid it off and genuinely almost immediately I had a villager suggest the Modern Bridge project to me. I'm not really sure if the game has developed foresight, but it was a crazy coincidence. I've had a giant gap in my town's movement system ever since I removed a bridge in 2019, so it was great to somehow have the stars align with it's replacement. I also paid it off instantly so it was great to see it instantly appear the next morning. 

The other goals require just waiting around and playing often... Getting a villager to recommend the Police Station will probably take years more at this point, while waiting for the Royal Crown to go on sale is more an inevitability and shouldn't take too long. Finally, completing my fishing catalog only really requires either a full-year of time, or simply time traveling, which is the much more appealing option. That's all I've got in regards to those goals for now, but I also have a couple other notes. Actually, I wrote that three weeks ago and I was intending to include images off my 3DS to go alongside these additional notes. I don't have an SD port/reader on me though so I'll save them all for the next post, since I need to get a July one out today! :p

Until next time,

dl 

 

 

Pokemon Global Go Fest 2025

It's that time of the year again - it's the premier event in Pokemon Go: Global Go Fest! Thankfully, I can say that this event was actually fun and worth attending. This year, the primary focus was on the crowned forms of Zamazenta and Zacian, with both being featured in raids. There were also the usual features such as rotating habitats, collection and hourly challenges, as well as a paid ticket being available. Naturally I paid for the ticket since it's brought me value the last few years.

 

Day 1:

Honestly I'd say it's a given with these events that the first day is more fun than the second - everything is all fresh and exciting. It's always great fun slowly completing all the new research that's given to you the moment the clock strikes ten. Compared to the last couple global events, I'm happy to say that the shiny rates were actually increased, but that's to be expected following Go Fest trends. I caught two shinies within my first 500 metres of playing though, so I was pretty much instantly in the mood to play. I started with a shiny red Floette, a colour not usually catchable within my region. Caught two shiny Houndours after which is perfect since I instantly completed the family! One downside to this event is that many of the available Pokemon have already had events where they had been shiny-boosted, thankfully though the majority of my catches did not include these!

Zamazenta was the raid focus of today, with it taking up the vast majority of raid spawns throughout the day. I'm happy to say that after 43 raids, I was able to score both a shiny as well as a perfect one! The latter even came after I had already acquired enough candy to max it, so it instantly rose to be my second highest point Pokemon. I've heard that apparently Zacian is a significantly better attacker in Max Battles, but I decided to max both his Behemoth Bash move as well as his Max Guard. I did not have enough candy for his Max Spirit, but I have a level 50 Blissey to fill that role anyway. Alongside Zamazenta, I also caught a perfect Skarmory, with the two being the only perfect Pokemon I caught in the event.

Another highlight of the day was having a complete stranger join our party of three, making it complete. It was an unusual but enjoyable experience but I wish I wasn't so awkward the entire time. Great guy though, hope you're doing well Ryan!

 

Day 1 Shiny Pokemon

Day 1 Shiny Pokemon

Day 1 Shiny Pokemon

Perfect Pokemon

A Perfect Level 50 Zamazenta!

Day 2:

For the second day I went completely solo. Zacian was the raid focus today, and my primary goal was to collect enough candy to max both Zacian itself, as well as it's Behemoth Blade move. The new Campfire group Pokestops/gyms made this a breeze though, with my community's ambassador placing these markers in the gaps found between gyms. This allowed for almost continuous raids while walking as long as the raids were actually Zacian... I ended up getting the necessary candy much quicker than expected, but unfortunately my best Zacians were 94%s, and I desire only perfection after my Zamazenta yesterday. I've done a couple lucky trades since but to no avail, I will be doing one more with my shiny soon though.

On the topic of shinies, my very first one was a Karrablast, with the Zacian coming in on the tenth raid. Honestly I felt like the shiny rates were nerfed today - I played significantly sweatier today and struggled to match the amounts I was getting while casually strolling yesterday. I suppose that's how odds work though, I can't win every time. I got a few new shinies today at a rate of 50/50 in terms of whether I had already caught one. The Skiddo/Pachirisu were my main goals but my favourites are Piplup and Elgyem - the latter looks so much more evil compared to his non-shiny counterpart.

I'll also take this moment to pronounce my new love for Skiddo, I discovered over the course of the weekend that I actually adore this damn goat - he's amazing. I assume I just didn't use him in my X/Y playthrough since he would've become my favourite otherwise. The shiny isn't my favourite though, like it's alright but just not perfection.

The second day brings fatigue as always though, and I was out of willpower by the second half of the day. After getting enough candy for my Zacian, I only really had shinies left as a goal to pursue. But as I said earlier, the majority had already been caught through other events. This in conjunction with what felt like a lesser boost when compared to the first day, meant I lost interest and decided to end my day. I also ran out of Pokeballs which probably didn't help. It's also a bit embarrassing to admit, but I spend genuinely most of the last hour chasing a shiny Klefki, and I only just discovered while writing this that it isn't even available...

Day 2 Shiny Pokemon

Day 2 Shiny Pokemon

Final Thoughts:

It's always nice to finally play an event that actually feels like it's worth the effort of traveling to and playing for a large period of time. Zacian/Zamazenta are both desirable Pokemon to raid for and have amazing uses, the shiny rate boost was actually noticeable, and the research tasks weren't tedious or too difficult to complete. The sour taste in my mouth from the last two major events has been cleansed, and I'm hopeful that the recently announced Go Fest Finale event follows the trend this event set.

Also on a semi-related note, catching the Volcanion from research means that I finally have the means to completing my Home living dex from generations 1-8, meaning that I should be able to recieve the special style Magearna! I've been at this stage for a couple years, with Volcanion being a roadblock in it's completion. It's a real damn shame that I got a 96% though...

96% Volcanion

The passes were also another feature that became trivially easy with this event, it became something like 25 points for a single catch, meaning both the June and Ancients passes were completed in no time! I don't think I'm ever going to fully complete another pass again unless they have another event with similarly generous point distributions.

Rank 500 Completed Pass

Anyway, thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope to see you soon!

dl 

These events were better than Go Global Unova Tour!

After the utter disappointment the Go Global Unova Tour event was, I am conflicted to say that almost every event since has been the polar opposite. I'm really happy that there wasn't a paid ticket for Unova Tour now! March was a good month for shinies. We started off with Fuecoco Community Day where I ended up with seven shinies after playing for a whole 20 minutes. For reference I got a total of six over roughly 14 hours of play for Unova Tour.

 

Catch Mastery: Archen

The real kicker was the Catch Mastery: Archen event though! Two weeks after Unova Tour, an event lasting 10 hours featured Archen and a couple other fossil Pokemon with increased shiny rates. Going into this event, I already had one shiny Archen, so I wasn't too committed to playing. I played for around 20 minutes and ended up with the one shiny Archen I needed, as well as somehow two Meditites. I don't even think the latter has a boosted rate, so I guess I got incredibly lucky. 

I had purchased the ticket though, which gave another set of research encounters with Archen. If I had known I was going to get one straight away I probably wouldn't have bothered, but in the last Catch mastery with Cryogonal it took my around 80 encounters to catch my first shiny, so I wasn't taking risks. I later spent the last hour of the event walking around my neighbourhood slowly completing the remaining timed research tasks. I ended up with an additional 5 shiny Pokemon, with the Flabebe being full odds and the Kabuto and Omanyte being somewhat boosted. I had already found it incredibly funny by the time I caught the Flabebe, but the shinies just kept coming. After suffering through Unova Tour, it was such a nice change of pace to finally be catching shinies at a decent rate. I'd rate this event significantly more fun despite playing it for a tenth of the time - those full odds encounters are crazy for a single day. Oh yeah, I also caught a perfect Archen which was a great extra addition.

 

Shinies after roughly an hour and a half of playing

A Perfect Archen!

 

Deep Depths

A few days after the Archen event, we had the Deep Depths event which focused on underwater as well as Dark-type Pokemon. I must mention that I would personally say I was playing the game super casually around this time frame, and was putting in maybe an hour or so every couple days when I traveled to university. Anyway, I caught two shiny Claunchers within three encounters of the paid research tasks. I don't know which god I pleased recently, but they're amazing shinies and not exactly very easy to shiny hunt naturally, so I'm happy I've completed the family.

 

The Toothpaste Boys!

 

Totodile Community Day Classic

The next major event was a re-run of the original Totodile community day. I was not playing this game back then so this was a welcome re-run. I also have an obsession with the colour green, and shiny Totodile is close enough to becoming a very welcome catch! I knew shinies would come naturally though, so my actual proper goal was to gain enough XL candy to finally max my shadow perfect Feraligatr. This was one of the first shadow Pokemon I caught after picking up this game properly back in 2022, and I've never had the opportunity to gather enough XL candy until today. 

I made one big mistake though - the bonuses. Every new community day these days comes with the bonus of an increased chance of gaining XL candy upon each catch. This however, was a classic community day meaning this bonus was not in play. I had to play a lot longer than I was willing to, and I actually gave up in fact. But I realised I could maximise the guaranteed XL candy upon trade, as well as the chance of receiving them upon releasing Pokemon, to finally achieve the roughly 220 XL candy needed to max my Feraligatr.

It took awhile, but I finally created the strongest Feraligatr possible in the game! On a side note, such a grind also meant I had accrued an asinine number of shinies - I only really needed enough for a full evolution line... The game also decided to mock my goal, and gift me a perfect normal Feraligatr, as if I am ever going to do anything other than look at it once in awhile (Although Legends Z-A is changing that).

My Perfect Shadow Maxed Feraligatr!

A Perfect Feraligatr

Too many shinies to count...

 

Fuzzy Buddy Research Day

The final event of March, the Fuzzy Buddy Research Day, went in a similar way to the other events featured in the same month. Was a nice boiling Australian summer day so I only spent around an hour playing, hiding in the shade as best I could. Ended up with almost everything I needed, with only one additional shiny Stufful missing. I also got both a shiny Weedle as well as a shiny Nicada which were unexpected surprises!

 

Conclusion

I have to be honest, I wrote everything up to the second line of the Fuzzy Buddy Research Day more than a month ago, and I've only just completed this post. I'm happy to say that I've now equaled my record for amount of posts in a year, and will hopefully exceed it and continue my trend of one post a month in June. The next big Pokemon Go event will be in June, Pokemon Go Fest 2025: Global, so hopefully that will live up to the hype. The last two big global events have obviously left a sour taste in my mouth and I'm hoping this will cleanse it. I will be purchasing the paid tickets so I should theoretically have 'increased chance to encounter shiny Pokemon', but only time will tell if this is actually true.

Until then!

dl