PokéCoins are an in-game currency in Pokémon GO which allow players to purchase several useful items. You can earn them by leaving your Pokémon in Gyms to defend them.
Every major live service game has a currency that can be purchased for real money. This currency usually unlocks the best in-game items players can acquire. For Pokémon GO, this currency is PokéCoins.
Thankfully, though, real money isn't the only way Pokémon GO players can acquire this currency. There's a way to earn them for free. And for the most part, it's pretty easy to do, unless you're a new player without access to decent Pokémon and healing items.
Here's how you can get PokéCoins in Pokémon GO.
Leave Pokémon in gyms to earn PokéCoins
You can earn PokéCoins in Pokémon GO by leaving your Pokémon in a gym controlled by the team you belong to. For instance, if you're a part of Team Mystic, you can leave one of your Pokémon in a Gym controlled by Team Mystic. The Pokémon will stay to defend the gym against attackers.
If any player belonging to another team battles and takes the gym down, your Pokémon will return to your collection with its HP depleted and you'll stop earning PokéCoins from that Gym.
The longer a Pokémon remains in a gym, the more PokéCoins you can earn. This is limited to 50 PokéCoins, and no this doesn't stack across multiple days. So a single Pokémon in a gym cannot earn you any more than 50 PokéCoins from defending it.
However, as long as your Pokémon remains in the gym for at least 8 hours and 20 minutes, it is pretty much guaranteed to earn 50 PokéCoins. So it is actually in your best interests that your Pokémon is knocked out of the gym it is defending after this duration. It's a case of diminishing returns after that. So essentially, you're earning a PokéCoin every 10 minutes at maximum efficiency.
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What can you get in the game with PokéCoins?
Players can use PokéCoins to purchase many useful in-game items from the store in Pokémon GO. These include storage upgrades, Lure Modules, Pokéballs, raid passes, incense, Rocket Radars and Lucky Eggs. Pretty much anything you can buy with PokéCoins is useful.
So, it's a great idea to leverage this and place your Pokémon in gyms to defend them and earn coins. You don't need to spend real money to buy PokéCoins as long as you're consistently earning them from defending gyms. No need to fall for those Twitter and Facebook scams that claim to give you free PokéCoins!
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