Best places in Melbourne to catch Pokemon Go characters revealed

WE see them all over town, engrossed in their phones playing Pokemon Go. But where are the best places in Melbourne to catch the mythical creatures?

Crowds of people have been flocking to Lillydale Lake to look for Pokemons. Picture: Zoe Powell

A NORMALLY quiet reserve in Melbourne’s east may have lost its major Pokemon Go drawcard, but remains one of the top catching locations in Melbourne, according to a leading gamer.

Chris Smith, the founder of Pokemon Go Melbourne, an online community group for gamers with more than 20,000 members, said Lillydale Lake, Altona Pier, Frankston Pier and the State Library were other sites drawing plenty of players.

Mr Smith said the “mirage Pokemon” Dratini, which had been drawing people in their thousands to the lake, was no longer in abundance there.

IS THIS MELBOURNE’S FAVOURITE POKEMON HAUNT?

COUNCIL REAPS $4K FROM POKEMON INVASION

LAZY POKEMANIACS DRIVING PEOPLE IN MORDIALLOC CRAZY

TEEN’S LATE NIGHT POKE-HUNT LEADS TO ASSAULT

He said there had been a “nest” of Dratini at Lillydale Lake up until last weekend when an update in the game dramatically decreased the number of the dragon type Pokemon.

It’s not just the sun attracting people to Frankston pier. Picture: Janine Eastgate

“Dratini … are kind of rare and until recently if you were anywhere else other than Lilydale you were never going to catch many — people were getting 20 in an hour at Lillydale Lake,” Mr Smith said.

“If you caught that many you could evolve them into Dragonite which people like from the Pokemon TV series and from when they played the original games … it’s also one of the best defensive Pokemon.

Phones out at the State Library.

Mr Smith said the gaming community understood that the recent update to Pokemon Go meant these “nests” were a thing of the past.

He said Dratini could still be caught at Lillydale Lake, Frankston Pier and some other locations, but in far less numbers.

But he said the lake still had a number of drawcards for gamers, with two gyms and a number of lures; and other locations had their own attractions.

Once the word is out, there’ll be a few more people at Altona Pier. Picture: Sarah Matray

“Altona has a bunch of different Pokemon but lots of semi-rare ones, Lillydale Lake is Eevee, the State Library just has normal Pokemon but tons of them and Frankston pier has lots of Magikarp and Nidoran male and female,” he said.