A Pokemon Go Player Has Caught ‘Em All—in the US

In the 20 or so days that it has been released in the U.S., one guy can proudly utter the infamous line:

"I caught every Pokemon currently available in the U.S."

It's not nearly as catchy, but that is a feat in itself. The Reddit user, ftb_hodor, has been the first to claim and show the fruits of his labor. And by labor, that means 142 Pokemon available in the U.S., almost 100 miles of walking amounting to exercise, 303 eggs hatched, a total of 4,629 Pokemon obtained in the process, and a hundred or so dollars of real-money spent.

The new Pokemon Go champion (so far) had also spoken to Rolling Stone and revealed himself to be 28-year-old Nick Johnson from Brooklyn. Johnson shared that his interest in Pokemon Go was not just about completing the game, but because of his job as the head of platform at Applico.

"My initial attraction to the game was the chance to pick apart how it worked—to understand the underlying mechanics of things like spawn points, mapping, and how players interact with each other."

There are a few Pokemon that are supposedly exclusive to certain areas. For instance, Asia has Farfetch'd, Europe has Mr. Mime, and Australia has Kangaskhan, said one Reddit user mtlyoshi9 in the thread. In addition, there are still five unreleased Pokemon, including Mewtwo and Ditto, as well as the three legendary birds.

Apart from the rewarding title as first to beat the North American Pokedex, Johnson did share one significant finding about Pokemon Go. He found that the rural areas in the U.S. are not necessarily a good place to find Pokemon.

He had visited a rural area and the only time he was able to locate one was when he went to a hotspot in one town. Johnson makes a good point that this is a miss to the game, since it would have good way to let people explore areas outside the city and be rewarded with a Pokemon or two.

Pokemon Go is currently available in North America, several parts of Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and Hong Kong. Developer Niantic Labs has been busy trying to improve servers to get its worldwide launch up to speed.

Read:Check the web dictionary, "Pokemon" is there.