The trainer “ThatsMyNameNow” from the USA has achieved an insane goal in Pokémon GO. He became the first known player to earn 1000 gold gyms. We asked him how he accomplished that.
This is the goal: The trainer from Portland, USA wanted to have 1000 golden gym badges. After more than 2 years, he has completed his goal.
It is particularly impressive because in Pokémon GO, you can generally only hold 1000 gym badges. This means that every gym badge he possesses on his account is gold.
We from MeinMMO wrote to the American and asked how he went about it and what tips he can give to other trainers.
Several hours a day for over 2 years
How much time is invested in the gold gyms? The trainer provided us with a precise schedule of how he approached the gyms. He started at 5:30 AM and worked on the gym badges for 2 hours before work. After work, he refocused on the gyms. He raids and battles until the evening and usually gets home around 10:30 PM.
On weekends, it gets even more extreme, and in the raid train from Portland, they raid for 10 hours. Before and after, he, of course, checks all the gyms and occupies those he still needs to turn gold.
“ThatsMyNameNow” refined and repeated this entire process for 2 years and 2 months. Only by doing so did he ultimately reach 1000 gold gyms.
How does one even get so many gyms? Many trainers dream of having 1000 gyms in their city. Often there aren’t even 100, and the dream of numerous gold gyms quickly fades.
The American explains the chance of achieving 1000 gold gyms as follows:
“Somehow a stupid observation, but my lifestyle is the key to making it easier for me than for most others. I live in Portland but work during the week in the Seattle area. This gives me access to a lot of gyms I can reach depending on my route.”
ThatsMyNameNow
He has two major cities he can visit daily. The metropolitan areas of both cities have a combined population of 6 million, and therefore, enough gyms. In Portland, the player has 427 gold gyms and in Seattle even 573.
How do his statistics look? “ThatsMyNameNow” has impressive statistics around the gyms. He has:
- 315,000 hours spent in gyms
- 310,000 berries fed
- 99,000 gym battles won
- 5,000 level 1 to level 4 raids completed
Why did he set this goal? The trainer explained to us that he has always enjoyed battling and had fun with the old gym system.
When he then encountered his raid team, he noticed that some trainers were hunting for gold gyms. This motivated him as well, and he surpassed every player in the gold gyms until he ultimately reached the 1000 gyms.
How did he approach the gold gyms? To quickly turn a gym gold, he especially recommends raids. After all, these yield 1000 gym points and thus make the most progress. Therefore, he tried to do every raid at a gym he hadn’t yet turned gold.
Otherwise, “ThatsMyNameNow” played persistently. If someone quickly knocked him out of the gym, he immediately responded and drove many players away. However, he also tried not to occupy everything at once in one area, because then other trainers cannot retreat to other gyms and would inevitably knock him out of gyms.
It was also important to always have golden raspberries. He always ensured that his Pokémon were well-fed and that enough monsters were in the gyms because 6 Pokémon defend better than just one. For this, he certainly used the best defenders in Pokémon GO.
The farthest distances he traveled for gyms were about 45 minutes long. However, in this radius around his home and work, he had also covered almost all gyms.
Is he the first trainer with 1000 gold gyms? If you look at various leaderboards, he appears to be the first player to achieve this goal.
However, it is always possible that a trainer before him reached 1000 gold gyms and did not make it public. Official leaderboards do not exist.
Are there more such goals? “ThatsMyNameNow” himself wants to take it a bit easier. Other trainers, however, are throwing around records. In Germany, the trainer TZPokémon98 is especially well known. He runs up to 500 kilometers a week.
Recently, the first player worldwide reached 1 million catches. This was surprising, as the Japanese player was unknown to many trainers.
