You can finally say, “I’m going to hit the Gym,” without having to lift weights or run on a treadmill.

The popularity of Niantic Labs and Nintendo’s new location-based augmented reality game Pokemon GO is evident all around campus. With Florida Atlantic’s seemingly endless array of PokeStops and Gyms for players to use, it’s easy to see why students have caught Poke-fever.  

Looking for game advice online isn’t always helpful, as certain websites can have falsified and untrustworthy information. Instead of having to rely on such uncharted waters, here are six things every player should know if they want to be the very best, like no one ever was.

Eevee evolution myth:

In one widely spread rumor, controlling Eevee’s evolution has something to do with its known battle moves or the region it was found in. However, neither of these is correct.

According to Niantic Labs CEO John Hanke, the real way to control its evolution is through the nicknames you give it. “If you name your Eevee properly, you can control how it’s going to evolve,” said Hanke on July 24 at San Diego Comic-Con.

For example, if you wanted Eevee to evolve into a Jolteon, you would nickname it Sparky. If you wanted to turn it into a Vaporeon or a Flareon, you would name it Rainer or Pyro respectively.

The names are meant to be a tribute to the famous Eevee brothers from the original cartoon series. Simply change the name of your Eevee prior to clicking the evolve button and you’ll know exactly what furry friend you’re going to end up with.

Conserve your items as best you can:

One of the biggest mistakes you can make as a new trainer is to waste your items. Incense, Lucky Eggs and Lures all have time limits before they’re completely worn out, so do your best to get the most out of what you’ve been given.

This is especially true with higher level Poke Balls.

Players are given access to Great Balls when they reach level 12 and Ultra Balls at level 20, with each ball having a greater catch rate than the last. This makes them incredibly useful when catching rare or higher level Pokemon.

Be as stingy as you can with these, you don’t want to miss out on catching that Blastoise outside your dorm room because he ran away from your low-level Poke Balls.

There is no Poke Ball insurance:

Everyone has fallen victim to this misconception. For a while, there were both memes and posts going around telling players that they could pick back up their thrown Poke Balls so long as they click on the ball after they miss the shot.

The result appears to be the Poke Ball disappearing in the distance and rematerializing back in the trainer’s possession, but in reality, a different ball is simply appearing in your hand. The Poke Ball count never changes back after one has left the player’s swipe.

Pidgey stacking strategy:

For those who are tired of catching so many of the same Pokemon without seeing any actual value in keeping them, here’s an idea that will boost your level faster than you thought possible. You’ll never scowl at seeing a low-level Pidgey ever again.

All you need is a Lucky Egg, a plentiful supply of Pidgey and the candies you feed it. The act of evolving these flying creatures only takes 12 candies and adds a whopping 500 experience points to your character, guaranteed.

If you evolve one Pidgey with a Lucky Egg activated, the gained experience is doubled, leaving your trainer with a lot to gain from all that Pidgey hunting.

The Boca Raton campus is a hotbed for this fine, feathered Pokemon, so take advantage of it. This technique isn’t limited to Pidgey either — other common Pokemon such as Weedle and Caterpie do the job just as well.

Finding Pokemon the easy way:

As the three-step Pokemon locator was eliminated in an update for the game, trainers have to make do with other methods to track the rare creatures they desire.

With the shutdown of the third-party website PokeVision — which shows exactly where Pokemon are and how long they’ll remain there — because of a dispute with Nintendo and Niantic Labs, the mobile app PokeRadar seems to work the best out in the field.

The app has the ability to scan for Pokemon every 30 seconds and shows Pokemon in much the same way that PokeVision does, but PokeRadar does not include definitive despawn times because players report only locations to the app’s database.  

It’s possible that PokeRadar may meet the same fate as PokeVision, so take advantage while you can.

Minimal effort egg hatching:

Yes, it’s true. Strapping a phone to a ceiling fan in the hopes of hatching eggs does actually work.

Is it morally acceptable for a trainer to do such a heinous act? Probably not.

Depending on the strength of your ceiling fan, you can simulate movement within the game. For a ceiling fan that was tested at the medium setting, it took about 45 minutes to hatch a single two kilometer egg.

It’s definitely slow, but it gets the job done.

Obviously, precautions should be taken before ever trying something like this. Make sure your phone is fully charged and secured to a fan blade with heavy duty duct tape and let your friends know that if they need you then they should write because you’re probably never leaving your room again.

On top of that, don’t leave anything breakable (yourself included) anywhere near striking distance of the phone should it fly off.

A turntable of some sort would be a much safer alternative. However, just because your microwave has a turntable, don’t think you could ever use it.

Seriously. Don’t mess with it.

Remember that the point of the game is to have fun and get active at the same time, so don’t forget that there is a world of Pokemon out there just waiting to be explored.

Andrew Loitz is a contributing writer with the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or tweet him @andrewloitz.