CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

Last week, I talked about a couple of Ingress badges: the Trekker and the Guardian. Of the two, the Guardian is hardest to get at its highest level. I think I managed to get to Silver once, and Gold twice before losing the portals that earned me those levels. To get to Black is incredibly hard. The only tips I can think of for those of you looking to take a portal to 150 days are these: It's best to choose a portal a long way away from civilisation. Even small towns can be home to Ingress agents. Also be aware of holiday destinations. If they are popular, they may not be the best place to situate a hopeful guardian. It's best if the portal is in a space that has restricted hours. Many National Parks in Australia, for example, close between 5 p.m. and 9 a.m. No nightwalkers (players who like to do their ingressing at night, away from the heat) are likely to take down the portal between those hours. It's best if the portal is located early on a walk...

Sorry, no location pictures—and no badge pictures for today. I had to visit the tax agent, because it’s really time to get that done, in Australia, and then we were busy getting the yard in shape for the annual house inspection that renters go through, here. I now have two lovely garden beds, a mowed lawn, trimmed trees and bushes, and four mulch buckets starting to make dirt from scratch. A pretty good day’s work, but not much Ingress. Despite that, and despite visiting places I’ve already been, I still managed to hack some portals, and two of them were one’s I’d missed. So, slow start, but a win, in spite of it. Via Lux Progress: Day 1: 5 uniques visited Day 2: 30 uniques visited Day 3: 2 uniques visited TOTAL: 37 P.S. The scanner has had an update, and there are voices on my scanner… Why are there voices on my scanner? And what do they mean?   It is definitely time to move.

I know it should be pokemon, but, for a couple of weeks, now, I’ve been trying to complete a mission series. Missions earn you badges, and mission series badges usually form pictures, in a mosaic kind of way. Missions give you walking routes, so that you can take yourself exploring while you're getting fit, and missions give you an added purpose for being where you're being and going where you're going. They make exercising easier, and, yes, more fun. I’ll talk more about my current mission series later, but, today, I thought I’d take you for a stroll by Lake Burley Griffin, for Part 10 of the Explore Canberra mission series designed by Enlightened agent, delta284.    Here’s what the badge looks like: If you’re on foot, this mission is best done from the Carillon portal, as you can catch a bus to the next mission location in the series not far from the stop at the other end. To get to the National Carillon start point, you can either walk down from t...

Sorry, no location pictures; I did these missions, so I could get back to writing as quickly as possible. Mission Badges as follows: Via Lux Progress to Date: Day 1: 5 uniques visited Day 2: 30 uniques visited   TOTAL: 35   P.S. It's also important to note that there could be hackable uniques accessible from the bus. Either way, it's time to move.

Every year, Niantic hosts gatherings called Anomalies, where agents from both sides gather to progress the Ingress story-line. Usually, these gatherings take place in large cities a very long away from Australia… although in 2016, part of an Anomaly was hosted in Sydney, with an accompanying mission day. Still, Australia is a big country, and Sydney, although close, was still four hours and several days I couldn’t take off from family and university away, so I didn’t make it. Anomalies come with badges to celebrate participation, and, when they are hard to get to, it can be a bit discouraging, but you accept it and enjoy the game you can play. So, you can imagine my surprise, when Niantic announced a medal for the latest anomaly that could be played anywhere in the world. It really made me feel part of the game, again. This medal was still going to be a challenge, though: Find, visit and hack 300 portals you haven’t visited before. I’ve been fairly thorough in getting to the ...