Today I felt like doing some walking and playing Pokemon Go, so I thought I’d finally check out this new “Routes” feature they added. Figured it would be a good way to find some new spots and maybe hatch some eggs.
I started by checking online to see if people had made any maps of these routes. Apparently, there are some tools that help you find PokeStops and gyms, but not really any that showed the actual routes. Bummer. I found one site that claimed to have a “global map” of 3,384 of them, but it seemed pretty outdated.
I remembered seeing something about a few routes near the Bayfront Hilton downtown. I tried one of them, but didn’t find any of those Zygarde cells I was hoping for. Pretty disappointing.
- How to find nearby Routes: Apparently they show up in the “Nearby” menu under a “Route” tab.
- But, here’s the kicker, sometimes they don’t show up unless you’re really close. So, basically, you have to wander around and hope one pops up.
- These are created by players, then approved, and you follow them to get rewards.
Here’s what I learned from the official Pokemon Go site:
Then I found some other players talking about these maps called “Pokemaps” that are updated by other players. Sounded promising! One of them had like 5.83 million PokeStops and a ton of gyms.
But then I stumbled upon this crazy story about a route called “Noodley Labyrinth” that someone found. It supposedly takes over seven hours to complete! How did that even get approved? People were guessing it was some kind of glitch or maybe someone was spoofing their location.
So, my quest for a decent pogo routes map was kind of a bust. I guess I’ll just have to stick to exploring the old-fashioned way. Maybe I’ll even make some of my own routes to share. I just hope they don’t take seven hours to walk! Anyway, it’s still a good excuse to get outside and catch some Pokemon.
