Everyone wants to catch ’em all, but one man has taken his quest very seriously.
Singaporean Terence Ho claims to have captured all 145 available Pokémon in just a matter of 10 days after the game’s release in the region. He admitted to spending most of his waking hours on the game, and even asked several of his overseas friends to capture Pokémon that are region specific.
Showing his completed Pokedex to The New Paper, Ho said that he has travelled around Singapore, all the way from Punggol, a residential town situated in the North-East region, to Sentosa, a tourist island located at the Southern coast of Singapore.
The app developer used to walk 10km to 20km per day, but switched to cycling after realising that it was a more effective method. Wandering around from 8pm till the wee hours of the night, Ho spent countless hours trying to find and evolve rare Pokémon.
For the region locked Pokémon – Tauros in the US, Farfetch’d in Asia, Mr Mine in Europe, and Kangaskhan in Australasia – Ho confessed that he had help from friends. His friends logged in to his account and caught the aforementioned Pokémon for him.
“I just wanted to complete it (Pokedex), and have closure, then move on to do other things. I won’t spend thousands of dollars on a game,” said Ho, as he explained that he did not have the time and resources to travel to the other regions.
However, Ho admits that he has spent at least SGD 150 on the game, purchasing useful items such as lures (to attract Pokémon), incense (to attract Pokémon), and Lucky Eggs (to gain more experience points).
While many have called him out for “cheating”, Ho is adamant that it is a “grey area”, and his method is just one of the more “creative” ways to complete his Pokedex. He explained that he got the idea from a woman who borrowed her boyfriend’s phone to play the game as hers ran out of battery.
Netizens are not the only one who frown upon his questionable method, as Niantic, the developer of Pokémon GO, has urged users to not “share accounts” as it is considered a form of cheating.
Ho still insists that his method is perfectly legit as he did not “location spoof”, a method used by cheaters to explore the Pokémon GO world without leaving their computer screens. However, he did say, “If the CEO of Niantic say that it’s cheating, then I’ll apologise for being a bad example. But it’s just a game.”
Explaining that he wasn’t a Pokémon fan before this, Ho’s interest was piqued when the game was first launched on 6th July. He spent a lot of time on the game, but since he has caught all the possible Pokémon, his playing time has decreased.
The 39-year-old is waiting for the currently unavailable Pokémon (Ditto, Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, Mewtwo, and Mew) to be released in the game, as well as the other generations of Pokémon.
Meanwhile, Nick Johnson from the US and Ahmed Ali from the UK have reportedly stepped up as the first 2 Pokemasters who have caught them all. Johnson accomplished his feat on 22nd July while Ali completed his Pokedex in early August.
Pokémon GO was released in Malaysia and Singapore on 6th August.
Sources: Straits Times, The New Paper.
