r/TheSilphRoadAnalysis I'm the madman who set out to gain 1 million exp using legitimate methods in just two days. Turns out it's fun to prove people wrong. u/jdero11d, 1h Edit: Thanks for the gold!

First I want to apologize as I planned on posting updates every 6 hours but failed to foresee it being such a heavy time investment.

Second, I want to state that my motivation was a post (link) that made it to /r/thesilphroad about a week ago regarding it being impossible "implausible" for players to be level 33+, where the community then reasonably justified that 35+ was probably impossible, which I still thought was low.

As a hardcore player familiar with min/max strategies, I just wanted to prove that if someone wanted to, they could be level 40 38 by now, plain and simple. They just need to have had physical training to do my method at a higher rate than I was able to, and more time (I work 40hr a week).

Third, I received several (if not over a dozen) posts guaranteeing that I "must be a bot" or "doubt you'll do this" or "that's impossible", "good luck avoiding a ban" etc. I don't have to prove myself to anyone but I can't say I didn't use this as some extra fuel for the gas tank.

For those who missed my initial post, find it here. The main gist is that I grind a very specific loop, walking between 2mph and 4mph, and then resting 10-15 seconds at the home base 3-loop. The info is somewhat outdated, but here's the original facebook post.

I was doing minor updates to facebook every 2 hours at first, but by the 6th hour I realized I didn't have time to open up reddit as I needed that time to run evolutions. I almost met up with a roommate at starbucks doing evos at peak heat but he was 30 minutes late and that was all the time I had.

Overall, I finished with 1,055,525exp gained between 12:01am Saturday and 11:59pm Sunday.

I'm going to link the updates that I posted to Facebook, chronologically:

Update #1

Update #2

Update #3

Final Update

As for further verification, the three main sources that covered over 80% of my total hours this weekend are Aaron (/u/djhardly, saturday 3PM-11:00PM, 12-1:30AM), John Ilger (7PM-9PM, 11:30PM-2:30am and he outstayed me, and then rejoined sunday 4pm-10:30pm), and Brittany F. (sat 11am-12:30).

Several others joined me at random parts of my journey, namely Adam H., Anthony G., and Jacob H.. Also I had some great conversations with a navy veteran (Steven S.) who kept up with me and john for like ten laps early Sunday, after he was with the trio Saturday evening for a bit. Really cool guy and was telling me about how he worked in underwater mines after doing work with radars. I just love how many new people I've got to meet. Shoutouts to all of you. Extra props to those who helped drop lures.

Edit: was going to make a special note for Jose (/u/RGVHooligan) but missed it - this guy brought music, gave me some almonds (yay protein) at 12:30am, gave me a water, and offered baby powder. Turns out I didn't know what I was getting into!

I walked somewhere between 60 and 80 miles, most likely around upper 70s. FWIW, John and I walked together 100% on Sunday and he had 32 miles tracked on Sunday alone (in 8 hours) and I had walked 16 hours (discluding 2.5 after midnight) on Saturday.

I could post pictures of the blisters on my two pinky toes (my left foot had some leftover action and there's a new one forming around it).

tldr; the grind is real.

P.S. Thanks especially to the Austin community for being incredibly supportive. I'm lucky to be part of such a great group of diverse people. From the random kids who just hit level 10 and used a lure inside the loop to the silent facebook users who hit like on my posts.

Anything is possible!

EDIT: My hourly should come out to 41.4k 18.5 hours (it was more like 18.25) on Day 1 and another 7.5 on Sunday (I didn't leave my apartment until close to 3:15 after much needed rest and grabbed DQ before it closed at 11, leaving the capitol at 10:15 or so).

EDIT: Just putting more data here: I spent about $150. 5000 coins carried in, two $100 purchases, still sitting on 9.5k. Right around the budget I expected. Evenings are much better value for me personally than mornings since people share the financial burden more at night.

UPDATE: As for my methods in actually getting the exp, I was running 8-9 incubators (I would save a 2km egg in slot 9 for the unlimited if my unl currently had an egg with less than 1km on it (usually a 2km, rarely a 5km). Furthermore, I think it's fair to say I caught every single 25 or 12 evolution mon regardless of when it showed up. I coined a term I call "edgewalking" where when you know there is a second mon you want to get at a lure, you walk to the edge of the radius to grab the second one and then the moment you engage the last mon you want at that location, you start walking to the next edge of a stop - ideally you shouldn't stop moving (you either walked too fast, or the moment you see the ball stop start for the third iteration, you speed up out of the radius and continue moving.) I also made a joke later about what I call here in Texas, "shadewalking" since it's so dang hot, and the sun is dangerously bright, I optimize walking paths with shade because it makes sense. This is an example of something that I think could be much nicer.

To go off that update, it sounds funny, but my EXP/hr will definitely improve in the winter time, when it's a high of 70, and everyone else will be struggling in the cold, and I'll be grinding even better rates than I am now. Not bragging, just saying ideal PoGo farming is going to be in the southern regions with warmer climates. Funny to think about I guess.