Pokémon GO: 11 Biggest Questions Answered For New Players

8. How Does The 'Nearby Menu' & Footprints Work?

Fire up the app and take a look at the bottom right 'Nearby' menu in the bottom right. Tapping on it brings up a list of monsters with small footprint icons underneath. Whilst these may look to represent availability and popularity, instead they're indicative of distance.

Pokémon GO takes note of where you are when booting it up, and these icons denote 100s of metres; one footprint dictates less than 100 metres, two is 200 and three is 300.

As you're forever travelling further away from your 'starting point', walking in various directions will get you closer to different Pokemon. Furthermore, to nab a specific creature on your Nearby list, tap on it to track them individually and then you can see the footprints decrease in quantity as you zero-in on your prey.

So, either wander around and see what Pokémon show up, or pull up the Nearby list and select a specific creature to track. The 'Nearby' icon will pulsate if you're walking in the correct direction afterwards, and if not, try heading somewhere else and see what else you can come across.