Why Do Some Pokestops Have Leaves & Others Don't? It's About The Hunt

So you're obviously, just like everyone else, pretty obsessed with "Pokemon Go" right? There are lots of little tricks and things you need to know if you really want to get ahead, like why some Pokestops have leaves and others don't. It's actually not as complicated as you might think, but it can get frustrating.

Let's back up. A Pokestop, as any dedicated "Pokemon Go" gamer knows, is like a landmark where you can try to catch more Pokemon than just any other place and pick up rewards like Pokeballs and other things to help you advance in "training," as the game calls it.

But be careful, because landmarks usually mean buildings — and some places like people's homes and churches have been marked as them. So, be respectful, and do not break in and enter anyone's residence unless they invite you in, like a vampire. Because that's probably what you look like after wandering around in a heatwave all day and night collecting digital animals. But that is beside the point.

Anyway, if you see leaves around one, that means, technically, that you're going to find a lot of Pokemon there. The thing is, sometimes those little rascals will run away before you can get there and some users say that they've spent actual hard time walking around in the same spot trying to rustle the leaves to find one. Back in the good old days, people called this a psychotic break. But that, again, is beside the point.

So, to make this all the more confusing (or very exciting depending on your obsession level) the leaves are not a lure, like the incense, which is something that gamers can activate to draw Pokemon to a Pokestop. Which is why you might hear a friend say "someone just activated a lure at the Pokestop two blocks away" and just straight up leave a happy hour and what you thought to be enthralling conversation, only to return to find you drank her wine while you waited, because that's what you get when you leave polite society to hunt Pokemon. That's a real thing that happened to yours truly this weekend and I'm not sure I'm over it yet.

But that's how life is now.

Some users are also calling the leaves, "spawning points," which means the Pokemon aren't always there, but will reappear every hour or so after someone else catches one. So go forth and wander around those rustling leaves. Just don't leave your date at the table while you do it.