Pokemon Go players now get experience points and stardust just for playing, and the more you play, the more you rack up. Now when you go hunting for pocket monsters you will get your normal awarded points for playing certain aspects of the game, plus you get additional rewards. You'll get even more rewards when you play for an entire week.
How you earn XP and stardust
Earning your XP and stardust is pretty simple. You get 500 XP and 600 stardust for the first Pokemon you catch every day on top of the XP and stardust you already get.
Keep that streak up for seven days straight and you'll get an additional 2,000 XP and 2,400 stardust on top of what you would normally get. That equals out to 2,500 XP and 3,000 stardust for the weekly bonus.
Now, when Niantic announced this new bonus system it was unclear about how you earn awards from Pokestops. It kind-of sounded like you got a reward for visiting a PokeStop and another reward for spinning the Photo Disc. Nope. When you spin the Photo Disc you get extra items and 500 XP on top of what you would normally get. For example, I got six items with my first PokeStop today. You don't get anything for just being near a PokeStop, though. Originally, you just got 50 XP per spin, so this is still a big step up.
Just like with catching Pokemon, if you visit a PokeStop every day for seven days you get an additional bonus. You'll receive 2,500 XP and more items from your Photo Disc spin.
The PokeStops seem to be glitchy after this update, and you may get a "Try Again Later" message. Just close out the PokeStop, open it up again and spin it again. You probably won't get a notification that you got the daily bonus. That's okay, you still got it. When you close out the PokeStop screen, take a quick look at your avatar. A 550 XP notification should pop up over your avatar's head. If you see that number you got the bonus.
How to keep track
Every time you get a daily achievement, a gauge will pop up on your screen. For each day you catch a Pokemon or spin a PokeStop, the game will fill in one of the seven bubbles on the gauge. The gauge will also tell you what day you're on of your streak.
Unfortunately, your XP bonuses don't record in your Journal. Your Journal will show your extra items when it logs your first PokeStop of the day, though.
Play every day, every week
Once you play for seven days, the bonus resets and you can start a new streak. The seven days starts whenever you catch your first Pokemon or spin a PokeStop the day after you get your weekly bonus. A day is defined by Niantic as a day of the week from midnight to midnight in your local time. So if you catch a Pokemon at any time on Thursday local time, you'll be eligible for the next daily bonus on Friday at 12 a.m. local time.
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