After the fallout of Pokémon Go, Nintendo found itself with a gap in the market. Gamers love Pokémon apps, so they had to find a way to push out something new and exciting for us. Hence we got Magikarp Jump, a strange little game where you have to train your Magikarp to jump higher than any others in a competition. It involves a lot of mindlessly tapping the screen and waiting. It's not like a lot of games where the faster you click, the better you do, because Magikarp takes his sweet time no matter what.

There isn't much to the game. You catch Magikarps, feed them, train them and then make them jump. You win the jumping competitions until your Magikarp is at its max level and can’t win anymore. After that, Magikarp goes into retirement and you get a new Magikarp that can reach a even higher level. Which may sound annoying, except for every level you go up as a trainer, you can raise a higher level Magikarp. It’s an easy way to make a game super addictive. Magikarp Jump is pretty simple and yet there are a few secrets hidden in Magikarp's blank stare. This is still a pretty new game, but despite that most of it has been explored thanks to the extreme love of the die hard fans.

If you're looking for some tips to have the best Magikarp in town, then check out this article!

15 Get A Gyarados

via game4v.com

The only reason you catch a Magikarp is so you can get a Gyarados. At least that’s the traditional way of Pokémon. In this game, you really don’t want a Gyarados! It’s called Magikarp Jump for a reason, not Gyarados Jump. That being said, I’m pretty sure Gyarados can fly, making jumping pretty useless. If you do want to trigger this event, all you have to do is tap your Magikarp for a good 30 seconds. After that, you’ll trigger an event that says you broke your Magikarp's Everstone. If they are level 20 or above, they will evolve into Gyarados. This will also forcibly retire your Pokémon and you’ll have to fish up a new one. Again, Gyarados can’t participate in the competition, but it's always cool to see one.

14 Better Safe Than Sushi

via megagames.com

There is a defining moment in Magikarp Jump, which is the moment when you kill your first Magikarp. Well, maybe they don't pass, but the game really hints at it when you get greedy and see a shining Poké Ball in a random event. Last time, it had coins, so why not grab it? Surprise! It’s a Voltorb! And they used Self-Destruct. You wonder if you’ll have to take them to the Pokémon Center, but no. It cuts to a lonely walk down the road, with no Magikarp. It’s a pretty shocking part. I thought maybe they didn’t actually die, as it never happens in the games, since they only faint. Alas, it does indeed meet its gruesome end, as you don’t even see them swimming in the background of your pond. There's another way your Magikarp can meet a terrible end involving a Pidgeotto, but we've covered enough sadness here.

13 Catch Dratini

Via: YouTube

In the original games, if you fish enough, you may come across a Dratini. Well, Magikarp Jump is no exception! Except you better be ready to pay the big bucks. See, when you fish up a new Magikarp, you have the option of turning in ten diamonds in exchange for throwing your catch in for a new one. If you do this about five times, you will trigger an event in which you get a Dratini on the line. The catch? It costs ten the first time, and then fifty diamonds for every cast afterwards, which ends up being over 200 diamonds. Which is probably only worth it if you are actually using real money to buy diamonds. Then again, is real money worth a Dratini? My Pokémon Go account would say so.

12 Give Your Friends Candy

Via: The Enterprise Daily

If you didn't notice, you can upgrade almost everything in this game using coins. If you upgrade your berries or training equipment enough, you get friend candies. With enough friend candies, you can upgrade your Pokémon companions using those. It’s a win/win situation, as you upgrade your stuff, it becomes faster to raise your Magikarp to higher levels. My Litten is upgraded to level two at this point and every time I tap him, I get 12k or so.

Although it does sound pretty weird, give your friends candy and upgrade them. I wish I could upgrade my real friends like that. Then again, I guess upgrade when given sweets.

11 Early Retirement

via recombu.com

Sometimes you catch that one Magikarp and it starts out kind of blah. It's nothing interesting color wise, as maybe it’s all orange. However, it could turn out to be a skelly! So you train it in the hopes of eventually revealing something special, but instead you get another regular ol' Magikarp with less than promising stats. When you reach trainer rank twenty, you can decide to make your Magikarp retire before it has reached its maximum level. When you reach even higher levels, it can be pretty annoying training up the Magikarp, knowing it won’t reach the end of the league. Instead, when they reach their larger size and prove to be a dud, you can simply force them into an early retirement. It’s pretty easy, but kind of hidden. If you tap your player icon in the left hand corner and then scroll down, you can come to your own Magikarp’s stats and there will be a button that says ‘retire early.’ You'll get a new fish to train and you won’t have to kill him to get rid of him.

10 The Ring

Via: Modojo

In case you didn't know, you can click the TV and it will take you to the Nintendo YouTube channel. A goofy song about the uselessness of Magikarp will play and it’s pretty cute and adorable. However, if you click the TV and then cancel seven times, a creepy ghost girl will appear. That’s right, it’s something straight out of The Ring, as after seven days she will appear. Except instead of taking your life, she gives you life. She’ll ask you to be gone and then your current Magikarp’s level will increase by one, which is pretty awesome. The only problem is that this can only happen once per account. So it’s definitely something you want to save for later in the game. You don’t want to increase the level of a Magikarp that will cap out at level 12 or so.

9 Sell Out

Via: HuffPost Maghreb

When it comes to shamelessly posting things on Facebook for free stuff, I am totally a sellout. We all did it for Candy Crush during that huge wave of Facebook games that were popular a few years ago. If you have scruples, you can avoid doing this kind of thing. If not, you can click that easy little “share” button. Then, in the achievements section, you can get some sweet rewards, including diamonds! The second round will give you five diamonds, if you share ten times. I am trying to get as far as I can without spending actual money, so this is an easy way to pick up diamonds. Plus, it flushes out all your friends across Facebook that play the game too. Show off your Magikarp on Facebook and then you’ll know who else is playing and you can see how much better you are.

8 Two Berry Method

Via: Rebrn.com

Despite the fact that the game only came out a short-time ago, there are already different strategies that people are touting. This one is called the ‘Two Berry Method’ and it’s all over the Magikarp Jump sub-Reddit. Basically the idea is that when you get your first two berries, you continuously upgrade them and don’t buy any new ones. The idea is that it’s more cost-effective to upgrade than buy the new kinds. Also, you get better JP using just those two. I am not sure about how effective this is, since when I started playing, I bought the new berries pretty quickly. It’s been discussed a lot so far and the general consensus is that it’s the better way to play, plus you get all those extra friend candies.

7 When You Lose, You Win

Via: Modojo

If you're looking for a way to level up quickly, without spending money, you can trigger random events. Now, obviously you can’t do anything specifically to trigger these, but you can make it more likely to happen. When you are challenging the league, you can tell if you are going to lose by comparing your JP to your opponents (this is only shown if you've already beaten them by the way). Sometimes it’s better to lose though because it can trigger a random event. You may either get extra coins or you’ll re-gain a training point! If you are really close to your Magikarp’s maxed out level, this can be a really smart thing to do. Once they reach their max level, they regain their League Points! Then you can just battle them again until your Magikarp loses and faces retirement.

6 What’s In A Name

Via: Imgur

With every Magikarp you get, you can name them something new. I put a lot more care into it when I first started, but by the time you get you 8th Magikarp or so, it becomes tedious. For instance, Karpeltunnel, Karpe Diem or TimeKarpsule are some of my favorites. But did you know you can change your Pokémon’s nickname? No Name Rater needed! If you click on your trainer icon in the top left hand corner of the screen, you can scroll down and it will say “Magikarp’s Nickname” with a button that says ‘change’ next to it. This is also super helpful if you think that your Magikarp is a dud and it turns out to be a new pattern once it reaches its final pattern!

5 Random Great Effort

Via: Youtube - Nintendo

Most of this game is pretty random. If you want something good to happen, you really just have to be patient. One of the really great things that can happen is you can be training and get a “Great Effort” or even an “Excellent Effort!” Great means that you will double your training points and an excellent will give you triple. If you have a high level training item, this can be an extreme upgrade. My Boldore Push gave me an extra 30+ JP which pushed my level 1 Magikarp up to about a 10 in two seconds. This is a random event, so there’s no way to trigger it through anything, but it’s certainly a sweet surprise. In the end, you just have to continuously train your Pokémon and hope they put in the extra effort.

4 Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop

via gamezebo.com

With a lot of these goofy little app games, you have to pay money to keep playing. Magikarp Jump is really no exception. You have real-time timers for regaining training points, as well as League Plays and even Pokémon Companion powers. However, there is one thing you can do eternally. Collect berries. No matter how many berries you grab, more will spawn. It will be one every second or so, but if you upgrade them a lot, that can be an extra 800+ JP. My Rawst Berries are only level 7 and they give 700 JP, which can translate to about 3.5K bonus to my JP sometimes. If you leave the screen and go back, even more berries will spawn! So rather than sitting there staring, if you close out of the app and then go right back more will appear! If you have the patience, you can level up your Magikarp with no real money spent!

3 Shiny Karp

via youtube.com

In a world where every Pokémon can be found easily, by either training or trading, the Shinies still reign supreme. In the system games, there are a few ways to get a shiny Pokémon, but they really only improve your chances a little bit. In Magikarp Jump, there is no way to improve your chances, but you can still get a shiny Karp! It’s really just random chance, but eventually you can fish up a Gold Magikarp! On top of that, you can use the previous tip to evolve your shiny Magikarp to get a shiny Red Gyarados! He looks pretty cool. but in the end he’s useless. It unlocks an event which is nice and you get a bonus for it. Plus you get bragging rights. If you are also lucky and patient, you can spot a shiny Corsola or Luvdisc in the food frenzy!

2 Roddy Tackle Snitches

Via: ArtemisiaAbsinthium - DeviantArt

When you bring up a Magikarp, Roddy Tackle gives you a quick blurb about them. They are as follows:

- Not much of an individual, though, is it?

- It's got some individuality, I'd say

- That is one singularly stunning individual

- And it's quite the individual! It's got some real personality

Obviously, it’s best to throw your fish back for the ten diamonds if you get one that’s not much of an individual. The ones that have ‘some real personality’ are the best and can get individual bonuses that involve extra coins when you win or JP bonuses. You can always save your diamonds and just forcefully retire the weaker Karps, when they reach level 20 as well.

1 Pink Karpette

via forbes.com

Once you beat the Great League, which can involve A LOT of hours dedicated to tapping the screen and fishing up higher level Magikarp, you will be rewarded with the Good Rod. This one lets you catch even more patterned Magikarp and there are three pink patterns available. After that, if you are still playing, and you manage to beat the Luxury League, you will earn the Great Rod. This will unlock six more patterns, three for a Gray Magikarp and three for Purple. You get bonuses for every new pattern, so if you are going to be playing anyway, it’s a fun extra. Again, that’s a lot of time put into the game. Is it worth it for a speckled purple Magikarp? I would say yes.