Gotta evolve 'em all? How to level up fast in Pokemon Go with Lucky Eggs and wild Pidgeys

How to gain quick XP, encounter high CP Pokemon and net some lovely Ultra Balls.

Staring at a high-level Gyarados nestled atop an opposition Gym in Pokémon Go is a strangely daunting sight, especially for latecomers to Niantic's Pokémon-in-real-life mobile mega-hit.

Thankfully, there is a cheeky trick to level up fast in Pokémon Go which gives budding trainers the opportunity to grab tasty upgrade spoils and increase the CP of wild Pokémon encounters much faster than slowly grinding for minuscule amounts of XP.

First off, you'll need to understand how Candy works in Pokémon Go. You can find a comprehensive guide here, but the basic idea is that each Pokémon needs a specific amount of unique Candy to evolve to its next, stronger form.

Some Pokémon require a vast amount of Candy to evolve, with the aforementioned Gyarados requiring a whopping 400 Magikarp Candy needed to transform the flailing fish into an all-powerful hydra-beast.

Whenever you evolve a Pokémon you also receive a significant 500 XP boost for your player avatar. However, whenever you use a Lucky Egg item, this total is doubled to a whopping 1000 XP. It is worth remembering though that the Lucky Egg double XP boost only works for 30 minutes per Egg.

With this in mind, players have scoured Pokémon Go's evolution stats to find the most common Pokémon which requires the least Candy to evolve. That Pokémon is Pidgey - the series' premier ubiquitousbird Pokémon.

A Pidgey requires just 12 Pidgey Candies to evolve into Pidgeotto, which is a significantly small amount. On top of that, Pidgey is an incredibly common creature and can be found almost anywhere on Pokemon Go's GPS-powered map.

So, are you ready to do some Pidgey farming? Then follow these steps:

Obtain a Lucky Egg - These can be found at PokéStops, received as level up bonuses or bought from the in-game Shop for PokéCoins (1 x 80 Coins, 8 x 500 Coins and 25 x 1250 Coins).
Find an area with Pidgeys and start catching! 50-60 is the maximum target considering each evolution animation takes around 30 seconds to complete.
Use PidgeyCalc to work out how many Pidgeys you should transfer to Professor Willow before starting the 30 minute Lucky Egg time limit - each transfer adds one extra Pidgey Candy - while also making sure the potential XP gain is worth it with your current Pidgey and Pidgey Candy totals.
When ready, go into your bag and use a Lucky Egg.
Find a nice place to sit and start evolving those Pidgeys!
Once your Lucky Egg timer ends, transfer the Pidgeottos to Professor Willow for a head-start for the next "Pidgey Grinding" session.

Upon reaching a new level your item bag will be filled with a range of goodies, with later levels dropping sought after PokéBall upgrades such as stronger healing items and the sought-after Ultra Balls at level 20.

Equally, while the CP level of a Pokémon encountered in the wild is subject to random number generation to some degree, a higher player level increases the maximum possible CP level of each particular encounter. This makes levelling up your avatar key in building a strong squad of Pocket Monsters.

Using the "Pidgey Grinding" method is currently the fastest way of levelling your avatar, however there are other methods that can speed up the process too, with hatching Pokémon Eggs (500 XP) and catching a new Pokémon (600 XP) both offering high XP rewards.

You can read all the latest Pokémon Go news from IBTimes UK here and brush up on the rest of your trainer skills with our other informative guides:

Our Pokémon Go guides