Pokémon GO: 7 Essential Battery-Saving Tips You Need To Know
Leave it to the community to step in when a game falls down.
Needless to say, Pokémon GO is a bonafide global phenomenon. Social media feeds are clogging up with Magikarps popping up in kitchens, Charmanders in bedsheets and townships coming together to do battle over their local Poké-gyms. Hell, even our own 'Tips & Tricks The Game Doesn't Tell You' has become a regular read amongst many a budding Pokémon master.
That said, what can we do about the most pressing issue, the insane battery drain?
As it stands, you're likely to blast through an entire 100% charge in about 40 minutes - yes, really - which isn't the best when the game requires a constant connection, or if you need to venture across town to track down a wayward Hitmonlee.
To that end, I've scoured the internet for the finest battery-saving tips and included my own, as when developers Niantic are still trying to get the game's servers to run in its standard form, an official battery fix will be a long ways off.
--
7. Download Your Local Area Map
Fresh off Reddit's presses, user throwaway96388 figured out that Pokémon GO uses Google Maps' dormant data to establish the game world. As such, even though you may not have Google Maps open, the game interacts with it to populate everything just as fast.
To that end, open Google Maps, hit menu > Settings > 'Offline Maps/Areas' and hit the plus symbol. From here just download a local area map of wherever you are (it'll take a hefty chunk of data, so do it from home, work on a WiFi connection if possible).
Once this is done, close Google Maps altogether and dive back across to PoGo - the game will now use the downloaded map for all its data-centric calculations. Pokémon GO's GPS positioning tech is now connected to a far more easily-readable, offline map. Simple.
In addition, the game will run smoother as there's far less going on to compute, and early reports from Mr. 96388 state that they've been able to play up to five hours more than normal. Brilliant!