Pokémon Go player hits level 30 without catching a single Pokemon

A Pokémon Go player found an unorthodox way to reach level 30 in the popular augmented reality mobile game: without catching a single Pokémon—other than the mandatory starter at the beginning of every trainer’s journey.

Redditor notAKawaiiCatGirl posted a screenshot to r/pokemongo showcasing a level 30 status with a thread title reading: “Today I hit level 30, having only caught my starter and only adding friends I actually know IRL.”

Redditor UltraShinySwablu was quick to respond to the impressive milestone: “What? how did you progress?” OP notAKawaiiCatGirl answered, “pokéstops, gyms, eggs, gifts & evolving. Evolving is very slow with only eggs though.”

This type of challenge goes to show the various ways of earning experience points in Pokémon Go. There’s catching Pokémon, and then there’s every other way to nab those precious XP points—Pokéstops, gyms, eggs, and evolving add up little by little. To reach level 30, players must accumulate 2,000,000 total experience points. That’s a lot of points to gather if you’re not catching any Pokémon.

Another Redditor, twivel01, chimed in on the challenge: “Most important question, other than karma, why?” User yeahnahnahna elected to share their two cents, comparing the accomplishment to why people play Runescape in Ironman mode, a mode that almost prevents any form of help from other players. “It adds another level of challenge and every accomplishment feels more rewarding, like you’ve 100% earned it yourself.”

In response to why, OP officially comments within the thread: “to challenge myself :)” along with adding their rules for the personal challenge: “I cannot catch Pokemon, I can use eggs, I can only add friends I actually know IRL, No trading—cheapens the challenge.”

As far as future plans go now that level 30 is in the rearview mirror, notAKawaiiCatGirl shared the next goal: “I will continue the challenge until I hit level 40 but that puts a hard cap on my level, as I can’t get to level 41.” Reaching level 30 is one thing, but level 40 is a whole other can of worms, requiring 20,000,000 total XP points to get there.