The Difference Between These Pokemon Go Items

If you're one of the many people trying to be the very best like no one ever was, then you have to make sure that you're doing everything you can to become the strongest Pokemon gym leader around. The sudden release of Niantic's "Pokemon Go" augmented reality app made it easy for us all to level up, catch a bunch of Pokemon, and spend all of our stardust and candy on powering up our favorite Pokemon in the beginning. But, now it's time to strategize. In order to be a Pokemon master, you have to make sure that you know the right way to go about powering up your Pokemon and preparing them for battle. So, basically, you have to know one core thing: What's the difference between stardust and candy?

Every time you catch a Pokemon, you receive two thing: points towards stardust and points towards candy. While the stardust you earn can be spent for all of your Pokemon, the candy you receive with each catch remains specific to that Pokemon. That could make the rate at which you gain stardust and specific candies differ, and, therefore, make your decisions on how you should spend your stardust and your candy all the more confusing. In order to help you strategize in the best way possible, let's first break down how you earn each one.

Both stardust and candy are usually earned when you catch a Pokemon. You get 100 points of stardust and three points towards that Pokemon's candy. However, you can also get an extra candy towards that type of Pokemon when you transfer it to the Professor. Another 500 stardust points can be obtained when you add a Pokemon to the gym.

The stardust is used to power up your Pokemon. All of the stardust you've obtained catching Rattatas and Pidgeys can help make your Squirtle or your evolved Starmie stronger. However, in order to evolve your Pokemon or level them up, you also need to use your candies. Depending on how many unique versions of that specific Pokémon you've captured, you may only have a finite amount of candies.

Knowing the difference between the two is now your key to strategizing what moves you want to make when it comes to powering up and evolving your Pokemon. For example, since candies are harder to come by, you may want to wait to power up a Pokemon you still need to evolve. Instead, you can spend your stardust and candies towards the fully evolved Pokemon you only want to make stronger.

When it comes to spending your stardust, keep in mind that the stronger a Pokemon is, the more stardust it may require the next time you want to power it up. That way, you can figure out which ones are worth spending your stardust on, and if you want to focus on powering up one or more specific Pokémon at a time. As seen in the picture above, I have enough stardust and candy to power up my Eevee, but considering how close I am to evolving this Eevee, I may want to hold off on spending any of my candies until I have enough to do so.

So, get catching. There are a ton more stardust and candies out there just waiting for you to use. Just be sure you spend your candy properly.

Images: The Pokémon Company International; Pokemon Go