My wife and I continue to chug along in Pokemon Go.  I wrote about hitting level 72 less than a month ago and now here I am with a post about making it to level 73.  Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Now, on the one hand, our new Saudi Pokemasters have been trying to make it easier to level up.  I mean, as I have noted before, we had that big level cap increase that dragged my wife and I up from level 48 to level 70 overnight.  Still kind of strange, but whatevs.

On the other, level 73 had a bit of an obstacle in it for both of us.   The required tasks were:

• 25 Platinum Medals
• Purify 100 Shadow Pokemon
• Power up 3 Pokemon to their max CP
• Win 30 raids

We had 25 platinum medals on hand when we leveled, so that was done out of the gate.  And we had both been collecting shadow Pokemon to purify for a level or so.  That meant another task out of the way.

Winning 30 raids… we did half of that in an afternoon on a community day.

Which left us with the need to power up 3 Pokemon to their max CP… and that was no joke.

Both of us managed to get two leveled up pretty quickly.  My wife, who catches about twice as many Pokemon as I do just found a couple that had enough candies, they key being the 296 XL candies you need to get to max CP.

I had a little more trouble.  Fortunately, I had been working on a few different paths towards this the last time we had a task like this, so I was able to get a Vivillon to max CP without too much work.

Then, in looking for a second, I found that I wasn’t too far away from getting their with a Pikachu.  This necessitated me sacrificing my collection of Pikachus in seasonal outfits and hats from events, but the task had to be accomplished.  They were transferred en masse to generate the candies I needed to get there.  Two down.

The third took a while to find.  I was chasing down options, with a Jolteon that was just 57 XL candies away, a Vulpix that was 60 away, and a Wigglytuff that needed 80.  Meanwhile, my wife found her third one and leveled up about a week ago.

So I was working on those while going through Pokemon looking for anybody who might be close enough.  And then, on Thursday, while looking for something else, I stumbled upon a Pumpkaboo sitting there in the lineup with over 300 XL candies, just waiting to be sent to max CP.

That did it.  I was level 73 about a week after my wife, but I was there.

Of course, once you make it to one level, your plan immediately focuses on the next.  What was it going to take to get to level 74?  Well, we were both ahead of the game on xp still.  No problem there.

It was the tasks that were going to be the challenge yet again.  And something of a challenge for me, with the tasks looking like this.

Those tasks, written out, are:

• Earn 30 Platinum Medals
• Level up a Max Move 20 time
• Explore 200 km
• Complete 250 Field Research tasks

For the first time, but not for the last, I was behind on platinum medals.  Those are essentially achievements, and for each level past 70 you need more and more, with the requirement rising to 50 platinum medals to get to level 80.

And I have just 29.

This was my block back when we were trying to get to level 49 before the level cap increase.  I wrote a whole post analyzing my platinum medal options back in August.  I am probably going to revisit that.

I am currently on track for the 30th platinum medal.  I just need to catch 19 more ghost type Pokemon.

The only issue is that Halloween is the best time for that… and I tried to catch as many as possible then.  But they still show up now and then.  A Ghastly here, a Drifloon there.  They can be found.  I just have to be on the lookout.

Otherwise, the rest of the tasks are things that just take a bit of effort.  250 Field Research tasks and 200 km walked… those will come with some time.  I already know how to knock out 25+ km a week… just keep my phone in my pocket and let the pedometer count all the pacing I do around the house during the day… as noted in my One Simple Trick post back in March.

The Max Moves will be annoying.  I have a post sitting my drafts folder with the title Stop Trying to Make Max Battles a Thing, It’s Not Going to Happen, about the whole Max Battle thing that Niantic foisted on us in a cash grab so naked it should be charged with public indecency in at least half a dozen southern states.

Basically, it was a new raiding mechanic with a currency gate so draconian that even my wife, who barely pays attention to business models, actively hates it.  It all comes down to max particle, which you can collect on your own, but there is a very low daily cap and there was an exceedingly low balance you could hold, which they had to raise a couple of times because it was so obviously there to force you to do to the cash shop, and which is still annoyingly low.

You need 600 max particles to for the cheapest Max Move level up, but you can only collect 300 particles in a day.  The game now gives you 300 a day as well in the desperate hope of getting people to buy into the whole thing, so with some effort you can get one level up a day without spending money.  The cash shop is right there, tempting you to spend.

But I can wait.  My need for that 30th platinum medal will likely be the gating factor for me to make level 74… at which point I will need four more for the next level.

I’m working on it.

Meanwhile, the game lets you peek ahead at tasks, and to get to level 77 we will need to do the max CP thing again, but this time with seven Pokemon.  So I am already plotting out how to get there.

Of course, I will also need 41 platinum medals at that point, itself a daunting task.

I clearly need to come up with a plan.  But first things first.  Time to work on getting to level 74.