Interview With a Youtuber: BrandonTan91

Right now, Pokemon Go is in a pretty unique position. We've got a lot of changes to the status quo with recent updates to Raids and the PvP metas alongside the release of the Dynamax system, and while we do our best to cover these changes (though it's been slow recently, admittedly), there are definitely members of the community who have their fingers on the pulse of Pokemon Go. And today, we're very pleased to share a bit of insight from one such member of the Pokemon Go community:the well known Pokemon Go Youtuber BrandonTan91.

Recently, BrandonTan was nice enough to sit down with our very own Redworstje and give an interview, covering topics such as the current state of Pokemon Go and his own history with the game. His answers were both interesting and informative, so please kick up your feet, open his Youtube channel to play in the background, and enjoy a bit of insight from BrandonTan91!

BrandonTan91 Interview

When did you start playing Pokémon Go? Did you play on a high level from day one?

Singapore had Pokémon GO released on 6th of august 2016. I started playing a day after that. The moment I started playing I knew it would get me hooked. In fact, I did not want to play on the first day, but my friends from my previous game, Clash of Clans, were the ones who got me to play Pokémon GO. 20 of them got me to play. I told them that if you get me to play the game I might not play Clash of Clans anymore, and true enough it happened and I'm still playing the game 8 years later, while most of them quit after the first 2 months.

When I first started to play I knew I wanted to play on a high level, because whenever I put my time into a game i want to play to the game to its maximum potential, so I started at a hardcore level. So that's how my journey started. I used to play 16 to 18 hours a day. In terms of actual grind time in the 2016 period it was literally sitting at a grind spot with 4 Pokestops in a neighborhood area. I'd start the grind at about 5pm until 6am everyday. Because the spot is located at an exposed area where it would be very hot during the day, so it wouldn't make sense for me to play during the day. This also allowed me to play with other people who would work during the day and I'm a more nocturnal person. At least 13 hours at the 4 Pokestop grind spots. That's how I used to play.

What was your first major goal you reached in game?

Hitting level 40 was the first goal I set for myself and definitely the first major goal I reached. I didn't set myself a timeframe to hit it, but I told myself I would do it as quickly as I could, which was in 82 days. Considering there were no raids or friendship bonuses. I actually hit it before the first ever double XP event. I even travelled a bit during that time where I kept playing. Even when I visited family I would play from 10pm until 4am. Then I'd hang out with my family from the morning until the evening. To hit level 40 quick was my first major goal.

Why did you start traveling around the world visiting communities? What made you want to switch from being a hardcore player to traveling and visiting communities?

What happened was, back in late 2019 my two grinding partners (Auntie Gladys and Ann) both of them hit 1 Billion XP. I was at 1.9 billion at the time. I asked both of them if they wanted to progress to 2 billion XP. Auntie Gladys said that 1 billion was enough for her. Ann was sitting in the back of my car, and I had to ask her 3 times as she didn't answer me the first 2 times. As Auntie Gladys, said she had enough with 1 billion, then so do I. So I told the both of them that as they're done that I am as well, but if the two of you want to come back to the grind that I would come back from anywhere in the world to grind back with the two of you.

I told them I would be focusing more on community based activities, which I started to do in Singapore by encouraging people to come to raid hours, and then I started visiting the communities in South-East Asia. That's when my transition to doing more community based activities started. At that point of time i didn't care as much about the numbers anymore because once I've washed my hands off it it's gone. Then the pandemic came and that prevented me of doing community based events/activities, so I started focusing more on my YouTube channel, and then the numbers kept coming in.

How would you recommend (new) players find other people to play/raid with?

There are 3 recommendations I have for a new player to look for other players. One is to just use Campfire. That is the number one way to me to look for other players. Sometimes, with some luck, there are other players making meetups and try your best to attend those meetup and see if the organizers show up. Especially for raid hours, community days, etc. Any big event, try to go to those Campfire meetups.

Second one is to go out during events like raid days and go to your local parks or other areas where there are a lot of gyms/Pokéstops where it's likely to run into other players. I understand that it's not easy for everyone because the game is designed in a way that in a rural place its hard to find other players.

The third option is if that if you have a friend to have them try the game. What I've been doing from the start, and I understand that some people have social anxiety, is that I usually look for the universal signs that someone is playing Pokémon GO (doing a curveball throw movement on their screen or intensely tapping during a raid) and go up to them and ask if they're playing the game and start a conversation from there. I considered that first interaction to be magical as I'm still friends with some of those people today. That's how I started back in 2016 to build my own community.

What would you recommend to someone trying to start/grow their local community?

This is very location dependent. If you're in a highly populated city I would suggest doing consistent meetups on campfire at a popular place to play Pokemon go would work over time. I wouldn't recommended doing just one or two meetups and get demoralized when no one shows up. Rome wasn't build in a day. Building a community will take time.

What I recommend community leaders who want to grow their community is try campfire for six months and do 24 raid and spotlight hours and do six community days. So far I've said this to over 40 community leaders who were on the fence of trying campfire. None of them came up to me after those six months and told me that campfire doesn't work. I truly believe that's the number one way to get people to play together.

Of course in some situations where people play in really rural areas, where you'll unfortunately have to go to cities or other nearby places where other people play. It's like having to go out of your way and travel to a supermarket. That's the reality of having the disadvantage of living in a rural area.

The second way I'd suggest is to start a Facebook group. I understand that some Facebook groups already exist from before the pandemic, but those are no longer active or have died out. There can always be a new person who is willing enough that has the leadership characteristics to start a new group. It doesn't have to be that old Facebook page, just start a new one.

What are your thought on the move timing changes?

I think it would be great if Niantic could just give you that information first hand, but Niantic usually doesn't disclose this information because we are supposed to research and figure it out as a community.

I look at it this way. For old time players, like Fleeceking, who have powered up 6 perfect IV Kartana to level 50 which was the #1 grass type attacker. Now all of a sudden they would have to invest in Zarude, the new #1 grass type attacker. It can make you feel like the Pokemon you've invested in are now less relevant and make you feel like you've wasted your rare candy (XL) and stardust. I can understand the heart pain some people have over these changes, myself included.

But... Overall, the firepower of every player in every typing has improved by 4-8%. This was evident to me when I was raiding Kyogre. I saw that the Kyogre went down faster with 20 people than it did before, even if players just used their recommended team. We also have to account for raid bosses now using their charge moves way faster, making short manning raids (meaning 3-5 players) slightly tougher.

So if you ask me, those people who haven't powered up a lot of pokemon yet, now they may have pokémon that are considered stronger. You also have to consider in cases like Keldeo, who has taken over the #1 spot as a fighting type, that it was only ever available in paid research before, so it's impossible for new players to obtain. Similar to Zarude, who's only been available in research twice and those researches are no longer obtainable. We now have to wait until they get released in Elite raids.

For an example, Xurkitree has gone down as an electric type attacker, but if you use it against a water type, it's the top counter with an electric type fast attack and grass type charge move which is insane if you think about it. It doesn't make much sense. I think Niantic should look into that and make adjustments sooner rather than later as some people might invest in these Pokémon while they might get adjusted later.

How do you feel about the new Dynamax system?

What long term players have told me is that some of them are not interested in the feature for two reasons. They don't want to reinvest in a new Pokémon in order to Dynamax. "Why can't I just use my perfect Charizard I have already invested in? Do I need to replay the game from the start?" is what I hear them say. These players feel like whatever they have grinded for in the last few years is useable for Dynamax. I try to remember that these players have a huge lead over the new players, because you already have the stardust and the candies, which already puts you way further ahead then a new player. The only thing that you have to "start over" with is the Pokémon itself and of course the Max Particles.

There might be Pokémon that will be exclusively released in the Dynamax system. Think about Eternatus for example. It might only be available to catch in Dynamax battles to then use in raids, PvP and gym battles. if you think about it this way, some people are suddenly interested in the new feature. Lets say you don't do any Dynamax battles for a month, you're technically wasting 24,000 Max Particles (as you get up to 800 a day). Which is about 4250 pokécoins if you would buy that from the shop. So if you do some battles, you are preparing yourself to be able to catch Eternatus in the future.

I also understand that people are not interested in going after a non-shiny Scorbunny, for example, that don't have access to their community day move. In those down times I would suggest to use your Max Particles not for Dynamax battles, but to power up your Max Moves. Say Dynamax Beldum, for example, is available. Or Dynamax Tyranitar. Use your Max Particles to fight them. But in a down period, use your Max Particles to upgrade. That's my mentality.

New players however, who've started a year ago, I've noticed are more interested in Dynamax Pokémon. Because they can use it for four purposes: they can use their high IV ones for raids, PvP, gyms, and for Dynamax. But long term players only real purpose to get Dynamax Pokemon is to use them for Dynamax battles. So new players feel like there's a lot more purpose to doing those Dynamax battles.

Next to getting a Dynamax Pokémon, new players also like doing those battles for the XP they can get from them. Especially because you can solo them. You get 5000XP for one battle in two minutes, if you do three then you can get up to 30,000 XP with a lucky egg in 6 minutes, all for free. Compare that to one free raid a day you can do, you need other people to play with and you can only get 20,000 XP with a lucky egg.

What changes would you like to see in Campfire?

There are a few things I would like to see added or changed in Campfire. I've spoken to the developer, but there are certain features or improvements that cannot be implemented as there are restrictions set from the Pokémon company. One such feature is that I would like to see is to have a flare appear in Pokémon GO, not just Campfire. That way people would get a notification that someone is at the raid from Campfire in the game itself. However, Campfire is a Niantic app and Pokémon Go is a Niantic and Pokémon app. There are many kids playing the game. If there is a direct link from people using Campfire to Pokémon GO and there was anything to happen to those kids who go to meetups, Pokémon might face consequences for what could happen.

• Isn't that similar to lures?

It is similar, hence why they don't want to encourage it more. That's why communicating on Pokémon GO is not possible. Even with Ultra/Best friends, which I believe would be a great feature to coordinate friendship level ups or lucky trades. Having this as a feature would be great as not everyone has a connection with their friends in the game.

I also feel like they could improve on the icons the map. I would like to see the option to customize icons as a lot of players have complained to me about the size. Niantic hasn't really advertised Campfire all that much. There hasn't been any posts that say "Come join Campfire!". If they would the chat similar as to how Discord works with roles to see or not see certain channels would also be a great improvement.

I don't know how possible this is, but some countries like Thailand and Indonesia don't have acces to Campfire, and I don't know why. They used to have access to it, but now you have to either use a VPN or data roaming from another country. However, your account might be compromised if you do this. I've known players who got their accounts getting banned for doing this.

What's your favourite Pokémon?

My favorite Pokémon is Piiiiiiiiii... dgey. Pidgey. not Pikachu. Recently Brandon used his first ever masterball on one. Check out his video to see why he used it on Pidgey!

Closing

We just want to thank BrandonTan once again for taking the time to answer all of these questions for us to share with all of our readers. Don't forget to show him your support by checking out a few of his videos and subscribing to his channel, as his content is definitely great for anyone interested in optimizing their Pokemon Go gameplay!

We're hoping to get more interviews from other members of the community, so let us know if you enjoyed this interview!