Problem: There is no incentive to level up poketes

[magnus-ISU]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Poketes take a ton of XP to level up. Meanwhile, in each new area the level of poketes increases by 3-4.
Right now, I got past the forest boss. I have my initial Steini, who is level 10. All my other poketes are lvl 16 to lvl 25. I'm underleveled as well compared to the enemies I'm fighting for the most part I think.

Describe the solution you'd like
2 things: First, you should have some reason to keep around your first pokete - they should be special in some way. I feel that making them a unique pokete would be a cool way to do so; alternatively
XP to level up should be cut a lot, probably in half or more.
There should be more ways to permanently upgrade your poketes; at least one after defeating the forest gym for example.

Describe alternatives you've considered
Instead of making your first pokete unique, get a unique pokete as a reward for finishing a quest in the starting city. Would go nicely with #127

[lxgr-linux]

Instead of making your first pokete unique, get a unique pokete as a reward for finishing a quest in the starting city.

Yes, or at least making it somehow unique.