Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

A day in the life of a Las Vegas Pokemon hunter

Pokemon Go at Craig Ranch Regional Park

Steve Marcus

Edward Bravo, left, and his wife Christina play Pokemon Go during a Pokemon Go event at Craig Ranch Regional Park in North Las Vegas Sunday, July 17, 2016. His brother Biaggio Bravo plays at center. About 1,500 people attended the event according to the Pokemon Go Las Vegas Facebook page.

Pokemon Go at Craig Ranch Regional Park

Emily Kray, foreground, looks for Pokemon with friends during a Pokemon Go event at Craig Ranch Regional Park in North Las Vegas Sunday, July 17, 2016. About 1,500 people attended the event according to the Pokemon Go Las Vegas Facebook page. Launch slideshow »

The inexorably adorable, ferocious fighters who battled alongside a generation of Pokemon trainers throughout their childhoods, from Pallet Town to the Cerulean Cave, have returned. But they’re no longer relegated to the pixelated screens of the Game Boy Color. Pokemon are now living among us.

Through the screens of our phones, they’re hanging out under trees at actual parks and brazenly chilling at casino bars. In the short time “Pokemon Go” has been hijacking normal life pretty much everywhere, Las Vegas has emerged as one of the more unique cities in which to play. For starters, how are you supposed to catch water Pokemon in a desert? The solution, according to some local players, has been to venture boldly and illegally into the city’s flood channels and retention basins. (“It’s not safe for you or your #Bulbasaur,” the Regional Flood Control District tweeted in response.)

But just as it has in countless other cities, the game has succeeded in getting people to connect with the places they live. Landmarks like Sunset Park and Springs Preserve turned into epicenters of Pokemon-related humanity literally overnight, so much so that Metro Police have ramped up enforcement of park curfews.

Since the release of Nintendo’s mobile phenomenon July 6, a handful of public gatherings have been organized around the game, local businesses have reaped the windfalls (Atomic Liquors has a Gym!) and virtually everyone has offered opinions on the silliness and genius of the world’s most popular smartphone app. The Sunday took to the streets on a Friday night to check out where Pokemon are lurking in our midst.

4:57 p.m.

What is a PokeStop?

Geo-tagged locations on the in-game map — often sculptures or other objects of interest — that players can visit and obtain items (such as Poke Balls, for catching Pokemon, and Potions, which are used to heal your monsters after battling with them). Players can also add a Lure (pictured on-screen above) to attract more wild Pokemon to the area.

Location: Henderson

Suburbia is a strange place to catch Pokemon. Lots of Pidgeys, lots of Rattatas, lots of Ekans, but it’s just more and more of the same — I feel like that’s a metaphor.

PokeStops around suburbia are odd, too. My map tells me the nearest ones are the “Siena Hills Fountain” and “Horizon Ridge Mural,” except those aren’t the official names of anything. The fountain is just the fountain on the corner outside the shopping center with a Chipotle, and the mural is a random painting outside of a Smith’s. On the plus side, I can now honestly say I’m running to the grocery store to pick up some Poke Balls.

5:48 p.m.

Location: Pebble Park

Parks seem to be an ideal place to catch Pokemon. Many more PokeStops and a good deal of Pokemon — at least, more than seem to lurk around my house. At Pebble Park, we meet a SolarCity employee also out hunting. “Did you catch the Charmander?” he shouts at us, as we’ve stopped to pursue a Hitmonlee (which runs away from me).

We end up walking with him around the park and find that not only does he have many thoughts on Pokemon, but also on the state of the solar industry in Nevada, and that he attended both the county and state Democratic conventions as a Bernie Sanders delegate.

He agrees with my theory that “Pokemon Go” might secretly be part of Michele Obama’s plan to end childhood obesity. (Case in point, each piece of exercise equipment at the park near my house is a PokeStop.)

Total Pokemon caught: Another Abra, and I hatch a Jigglypuff from an egg after walking around so much.

Side note: The park is next to a basin, which shows up as water in the app, though it is dry as a bone. No water Pokemon here.

6:07 p.m.

How many Pokemon are there?

There are 721 types of Pokemon, and more will be unveiled this fall with the release of “Pokemon Sun” and “Pokemon Moon” for the Nintendo 3DS. Only the first 151 Pokemon from Generation I are found in “Pokemon Go.”

Location: UNLV

Seemed like there was a lot of hubbub online about catching Pokemon at UNLV, so that’s our next stop. As we drive onto campus, I’m overwhelmed by the number of PokeStops. Also, there are a bizarrely large number of Meowths, so I catch one for good measure.

6:26 p.m.

Location: UNLV

Wandering somewhere in the middle of UNLV, I stumble across a Machop lounging in a xeriscape garden. He doesn’t put up much of a fight.

7:11 p.m.

What's a gym?

While some might prefer to focus on catching ’em all, players can choose to strengthen and battle their Pokemon against those of other players at Gyms on the map. Many are at businesses, but there are some unexpected settings — for example, there’s a Gym in the chocolate fountain at Jean Philippe Patisserie at the Bellagio.

Location: SLS Las Vegas

SLS Las Vegas was apparently having some sort of discount on beer for anyone playing “Pokemon Go” from 5 to 7 p.m., so we miss the perk. And I think I expected more rare Pokemon on the Strip (some reports of that on Reddit), but the first two I spy on the casino floor are a Zubat and a Pidgey. Then I spot an adorable Growlithe lounging among the slot machines. I take a picture (because Vegas) and then catch it.

7:31 p.m.

Location: The Strip

Headed south on Las Vegas Boulevard, and glad to be stuck in traffic — all the better for cruising random PokeStops. Much better luck here, probably thanks to the dozens of lures set up at various casinos. And that’s not even counting the number of PokeStops on the Strip’s actual roadway; at one point just in my field of view I see at least 60. My most useless but delightful catch is a Magikarp, which I encounter flopping helplessly on the pavement in front of Caesars Palace.

7:58 p.m.

Location: The Park

Our last stop: The Park. For some reason, we thought this would be a great place to catch Pokemon. Our folly was forgetting that “Pokemon Go” relies on old crowdsourcing information from the augmented reality-game “Ingress.” That means any new developments are unlikely to have any PokeStops. The great equalizer.

So we wander down Las Vegas Boulevard. As the sun sets, I look at the hordes of people staring at their phones, from the Pokemon trainers to the tourists Instagramming and Snapchatting their weekends away, and already it’s difficult to tell which is which.

Ian Whitaker contributed to this story

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