Pokémon GO

[pika pal]

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So, if you missed this, it emerged the other day that remote raids for the lake trio were yielding an abnormally low rate of shinies - estimated at around 1/125. Various people dismissed this as bad RNG or inaccurate reporting from players, but Niantic have now acknowledged that yes, the shiny rate was lower than usual, and they'll compensate those affected.

At risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist... okay, no, that's exactly what I sound like... I find it very hard to believe this wasn't deliberate. It's not even in question at this point that they're trying to kill remote raids: they've outright admitted it. Reducing the shiny rate so drastically is just another nail in the coffin... except not really, because if you're dead-set on getting the shiny you're probably going to do as many remote raids as you can. There's a long history of them messing up with shiny releases (I believe someone on r/Silphroad said this makes about the 89th documented instance) but I would not be surprised they nerfed the rate deliberately and didn't expect that people would notice. This has such a whiff of "sorry we got caught!!!"

Nothing lost personally though. Azelf is the one shiny from this trio I don't have (and my favourite of the three by coincidence) but, what with the ridiculous price of remote raids, I wasn't even planning to buy any passes. However I got a remote pass in my rewards box the other day so ended up doing one raid. So... I'm assuming this means I get two remote passes. Nice, I'll take that.

...might wait for confirmation that they haven't nerfed Nihilego's shiny rate before I use them, though...

While I would certainly believe Niantic is immoral enough to try something like this, I have a few hang-ups with this theory of it being deliberate for this specific Raid set.

1. The Lake Trio being regionals that didn't change spawn territories from last time (which is its own can of dumb to me) means they were going to encourage more Remote Raiding than usual, at least among collectors who would do them en masse to get a Shiny that now wasn't showing up when it should. This would have made more sense to sneak in during a relatively low value Raid rotation like Regigigas.
2. If Niantic intended this to further kill Remote Raids, I feel like they would have publicized it, whether truthfully (they haven't cared about saying controversial things before with regards to "Play Local Raids, we don't care about the complaints") or trying to spin it a certain way ("Local Raids will now have a Bonus to Shiny Encounter Chances over Remotes" which is technically true if they stay 1/20 and the Remotes drop to 1/100). They don't have any intention of weaning people off Heavy Remote Raiding, they're trying to push them to quit near-Cold Turkey and go back to Locals with the Shadow mechanics and meager in-person bonuses
3. The fact that they bothered coming forward to admit it can be read another way to me, as deliberately done or not, they probably are concerned enough about PR to not want it framed as them fixing the odds under the hood, since that reflects a LOT worse on consumer trust and hurts their future business prospects as well (which they obviously are concerned about considering Niantic and the PoGo Twitter account likes to retweet messages from their other games). There is a marked difference between "your customers don't agree with your business decisions" and "your customers actively do not trust your product or business" as problems when pitching themselves to investors or collaborators.

So while I would very much believe they want to do something like this, this is such a bad time to have done so deliberately if they didn't want to get caught, alongside doing it covertly not matching their goal or MO up to now either. That said I expect/hope people keep a hawk-eye on the Rates for Future events because now they're aware this can happen, deliberately or accidentally, and once is a fluke, twice is incompetent, and three would be a malicious pattern.

I'm hopeful that shadow articuno will be duoable with best rock types but as my attempts to solo weavile sometimes went wrong, I'll likely prefer to do with 3 accounts. I found when I had the upper hand earlier on I could take it down. Not sure if it was a glitch or not when it almost become unbeatable even with low health.

Was Weavile ever a raid? Most I can think of is Sneasel or the current Shadow Sneasel, the latter being harder than its bulk/difficulty lets on because of Enrage at least.

That said, Shadow Mewtwo didn't require much more for team members than his normal version, so Articuno is likely the same.

Honestly, I am unlikely to bother raiding any Articuno unless I already happen to be out and about. Mewtwo is worth making a day of, the birds not so much, especially with Niantic's heavy-handed approach to "getting players back outside." I just got on to the next part of the masterworks Jirachi research that requires 10 Kecleon and pokestop spins 20 days in a row. They really need to knock it off with this long streak nonsense and just let it be "spin a pokestop on 20 different days" so that people don't have to schlep out to their nearest pokestop rain or shine or wildfire smoke be damned.

Articuno at least has the dubious benefit of happening during a very sought after Community Day among its Weekends (Axew/Haxorus is both popular and a very good Dragon Raider/ML side option with Breaking Swipe), so people might just be out and about anyway and willing to burn their free pass off (I often have to throw it as a 1-3* just to avoid it going to waste).

 

[QuentinQuonce]

The Lake Trio being regionals that didn't change spawn territories from last time (which is its own can of dumb to me) means they were going to encourage more Remote Raiding than usual, at least among collectors who would do them en masse to get a Shiny that now wasn't showing up when it should. This would have made more sense to sneak in during a relatively low value Raid rotation like Regigigas.

When there's a limit of 5 remote raids a day, you can't exactly encourage more remote raiding than usual; hardcore raiders probably do that many raids fairly frequently. And it's not as if they really hyped up the lake trio being in raids at all: it was just part of the general June content update "yeah these will be in raids for a couple of weeks". It wasn't like they went all out with "can you catch all three of the lake trio?" or anything of that sort.

Granted, they could have swapped them like they did with the legendary beasts initially, but Niantic seem unwilling to do that for whatever reason (probably because the very existence of remote raids makes doing such a thing fairly pointless).

So I don't really think they were trying to encourage more remote raiding, beyond a couple of token boxes which didn't really give much of a discount; if they were they'd have probably raised the limit on passes.

(Also do we know for sure it wasn't snuck in during Regigigas? There was an issue with Kleavor's raid day where the shiny rate seemed to be far lower than the expected 1/10, documented in a similar manner to this - personally speaking I did over 20 Kleavor raids across 4 accounts and got one shiny, but hey I just figured I was unlucky. I can't imagine people were doing anything like the same amount of Gigas raids so maybe it got overlooked. Idk though.)

If Niantic intended this to further kill Remote Raids, I feel like they would have publicized it, whether truthfully (they haven't cared about saying controversial things before with regards to "Play Local Raids, we don't care about the complaints") or trying to spin it a certain way ("Local Raids will now have a Bonus to Shiny Encounter Chances over Remotes" which is technically true if they stay 1/20 and the Remotes drop to 1/100). They don't have any intention of weaning people off Heavy Remote Raiding, they're trying to push them to quit near-Cold Turkey and go back to Locals with the Shadow mechanics and meager in-person bonuses

Why would they publicise lower shiny rates, though? This way, people still buy passes. If they'd said "Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf obtained from remote raids cannot be shiny" that'd be one thing - this just reads as them going "well, if they're still going to buy remote passes, we may as well make more money off of it".

The fact that they bothered coming forward to admit it can be read another way to me, as deliberately done or not, they probably are concerned enough about PR to not want it framed as them fixing the odds under the hood, since that reflects a LOT worse on consumer trust and hurts their future business prospects as well (which they obviously are concerned about considering Niantic and the PoGo Twitter account likes to retweet messages from their other games).

Go Fest is upcoming, so yes, they probably are (more) concerned about PR and looking good (than usual). The compensation offered goes far beyond what they've previously given (usually it's "you'll get 1-3 passes" even if you did 20 remote raids on something bugged). I've already seen lots of "wow, this is really cool of them" comments from people. If this was deliberate, it's kind of a win-win as now they get to look all magnanimous.

There is a marked difference between "your customers don't agree with your business decisions" and "your customers actively do not trust your product or business" as problems when pitching themselves to investors or collaborators.

Has this... ever not been the case? No, but seriously. It's a long-established trope at this point that Niantic are incompetent. I know very few people who would be likely to say "I trust this product". They might like the game plenty, but no-one I know is surprised when there's some sort of bug or outage. Yeah yeah, "never attribute to malice what can be attributed to incompetence" and all that - this week alone they fucked up Sandygast's release as well as Shadow Sawk and Throh. So I'm perfectly happy to believe that this really was just down to pure incompetence with no greater plan to it. It just strikes me as a massive coincidence that this particular flub coincides so neatly with their desire to discourage remote raiding.

 

[Ivy]

Honestly, I am unlikely to bother raiding any Articuno unless I already happen to be out and about. Mewtwo is worth making a day of, the birds not so much, especially with Niantic's heavy-handed approach to "getting players back outside." I just got on to the next part of the masterworks Jirachi research that requires 10 Kecleon and pokestop spins 20 days in a row. They really need to knock it off with this long streak nonsense and just let it be "spin a pokestop on 20 different days" so that people don't have to schlep out to their nearest pokestop rain or shine or wildfire smoke be damned.

Lol, the streak was the easy part for me. During that time I only acquired one (1) kecleon...

 

[Mex]

I only completed page 1 during spotlight hour yesterday. Haven't been in much of a rush to complete this, though the kecleon will definitely be awkward considering i think i've found like, 4 total since Hoenn Tour ended

 

[Expert Evan]

I meant Sneasel (normally double weak to fighting) for the shadow raids.

For the upcoming shadow Articuno raids I see Pokebattler is recommending minimum of 3 with best counters though I'll only do it if convenient enough. I did 2 shadow mewtwo raids unsuccessfully and don't want to get burnt again.

 

[R_N]

I've mentioned it elsewhere, but I've been doing a lot of Wonder Boxing in Home lately and have been amassing a surprising collection of Go-origin Pokemon. There's been a pretty nice variety of things, but something I keep noticing is a lot of...Wailmer?? I have 4 of them (one is a Wailord now) at this point and I'm pretty sure I've wound up trading away another 2 at some point.

Is Wailmer especially common in Go? It's one of those I just figured would be in that "unusually uncommon" so I'm a bit surprised to see a bunch of them relative to i dunno, garbage birds or whatever.

I guess relatedly, is there anyone to kind of gauge how rare a given Pokemon is from Go (either i ngeneral or by region)? Interested in how common some of the things I'm getting have been.

 

[Mex]

Wailmer isn't super common most of the time, however we currently have an event going on where it's a promoted spawn, and in general it's generally around.

Most mons in Go are generally common enough, the exceptions being stuff that's restricted by encounter method (eg. Druddigon only ever being available in raids) or by region (eg. Klefki being a French regional). Obviously the more recently it released the less likely you are to see it as well

 

[pika pal]

I've mentioned it elsewhere, but I've been doing a lot of Wonder Boxing in Home lately and have been amassing a surprising collection of Go-origin Pokemon. There's been a pretty nice variety of things, but something I keep noticing is a lot of...Wailmer?? I have 4 of them (one is a Wailord now) at this point and I'm pretty sure I've wound up trading away another 2 at some point.

Is Wailmer especially common in Go? It's one of those I just figured would be in that "unusually uncommon" so I'm a bit surprised to see a bunch of them relative to i dunno, garbage birds or whatever.

I guess relatedly, is there anyone to kind of gauge how rare a given Pokemon is from Go (either i ngeneral or by region)? Interested in how common some of the things I'm getting have been.

A lot of one stage Pokemon can be raid/research quest only or EXTREMELY rare in the wild (stuff like Mawile, Druddigon, etc).

Wailmer is probably because of the event Mex mentioned, and because Wailord costs a lot of Candy to Evolve (400 vs a typical 1 Evolution being 50 and a 2 stage being 25 + 100), so people are catching a lot of them for candy (3-8 depending on different factors and 1 more for Transfering) and then probably left with extras to transfer for various purposes.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

I've mentioned it elsewhere, but I've been doing a lot of Wonder Boxing in Home lately and have been amassing a surprising collection of Go-origin Pokemon. There's been a pretty nice variety of things, but something I keep noticing is a lot of...Wailmer?? I have 4 of them (one is a Wailord now) at this point and I'm pretty sure I've wound up trading away another 2 at some point.

Is Wailmer especially common in Go? It's one of those I just figured would be in that "unusually uncommon" so I'm a bit surprised to see a bunch of them relative to i dunno, garbage birds or whatever.

I guess relatedly, is there anyone to kind of gauge how rare a given Pokemon is from Go (either i ngeneral or by region)? Interested in how common some of the things I'm getting have been.

In general the newer (by generations) something is the rarer it is (obviously enough); they generally bring down the rarity over time, though slowly. Mareep, of all things, was incredibly rare at first and only hatchable from 10km eggs (the highest distance for a long while, and containing stuff like Dratini and Larvitar). It's in the wild a lot now, as is Flaaffy and occasionally Ampharos. Other species like Mawile were formerly exclusive to raids/research tasks but are being slowly bled into the wild.

They've increasingly been releasing individual species via a themed event and taking them out of circulation completely once that event is over: Pumpkaboo wasn't seen for ages once the Halloween event it was part of ended. Atm Wooloo, Falinks, and Skwovet are extremely elusive, having been released briefly a couple of years back. And some species like Gible, Aerodactyl, and Lapras are pretty much always rare unless there's an event featuring them.

Any regional is obviously pretty rare. Even with various events featuring them I know loads of people who still don't have Kangaskhan or Heracross or Tauros et al.

The season mechanic they're doing means that things will come in and out of circulation, though. They change up the egg pools every season as well which can make some baby Pokemon completely inaccessible because they don't spawn wild. IIRC Smoochum, Elekid, and Magby aren't in eggs atm though I might be wrong on that, the new season started this month. Edit: just checked - Magby is, the other two aren't. Sewaddle and Burmy were both hardly seen for ages following their releases, but the former is everywhere atm and Burmy was a very common spawn in a previous season. Off the top of my head, Munna hasn't been common for a while either. Axew was pretty much unheard of when it debuted but has become incredibly common of late (I've caught dozens this year). Not surprising given that today is its community day.

Should have traded the shiny I caught last year... it'll be worthless after today.

 

[pika pal]

Axew day went well for me. Got a really strong Shiny and a total of 10 Haxorus evolved for Raiding or PvP down the line.

 

[Expert Evan]

I had limited opportunities with Axew CD. My main got 3 shinies and I also encountered a wild with 15/14/14 at least. I was able to evolve either the good lucky ones I got in past trades, any shinies, and those with good PvP IVs for the ultra league at least.

 

[Mex]

Honestly, this event is easily my favorite of the year so far, even over stuff like Hoenn Tour.

Not biased at all or anything (i just got a shiny mantine today) but like, the spawn pool is varied, the spotlight hour was a great idea and it was the first spotlight hour i've been incentivised to go outside and play in months

Only issues i've had with it are the fact that my pokeball supply hasnt been able to keep up, the tasks are a little obnoxious (specifically the sandygast task), and sandygast not spawning in the wild is annoying

 

[Ashton98]

I used to play it years ago, but I haven't played it for years. I got bored of the game and eventually found the gameplay got very repetitive. It's certainly great for a free app game, though. And it's a lot of fun to play, but after a while it can become quite boring.

 

[Expert Evan]

Sorry for not accepting remote raids as of lately as I'm still refusing to do many of them until maybe mega rayquaza comes out.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Sorry for not accepting remote raids as of lately as I'm still refusing to do many of them until maybe mega rayquaza comes out.

Entirely reasonable policy.

Have been quite disconnected from PoGo of late but the arrival of Mega Tyranitar has revived some interest since there's only one other Rock-type Mega atm (I expect Adventure Week will also entice me - love those shiny Kalos fossils).

That said, I've done as many raids as I can with free passes (saved Monday's so I could do two on the first day) and the disconnect between energy received/energy required really is making itself apparent - haven't had more than 225 energy from a raid, and of course it takes 300 to evolve it the first time. If you want to level up something without spending ANY energy (which is sensible if you only managed to do a couple of mega raids and don't have a lot of energy beyond the initial unlock) it takes forever since you have to wait for the timer to hit zero every few days. I've got a Mega Gardevoir and Banette which I've been steadily raising mega levels for since their release - so for Banette that's last Halloween while Gardevoir was Valentine's Day this year. And they're still both midway through the second stage! On the other hand when Salamence dropped I did a bunch of raids for it (Zekrom was in 5 star raids at the time and I wasn't too fussed about it) and consequently had ample energy so hit the max level months ago.

So if I want to raise my Tyranitar's mega level reasonably quickly I'll basically need to ensure I spend every free raid pass I get this week on mega Tyranitar raids. The fact that it's soloable under the right conditions makes that all the more annoying - I haven't attempted soloing (or duoing with my second account) because I want as much energy as possible, but you really would think that being able to do that would mean you'd earn MORE mega energy, not less.

But of course that, like so many things that would benefit players, goes against Niantic's stated aims for the game.

 

[pika pal]

So if I want to raise my Tyranitar's mega level reasonably quickly I'll basically need to ensure I spend every free raid pass I get this week on mega Tyranitar raids. The fact that it's soloable under the right conditions makes that all the more annoying - I haven't attempted soloing (or duoing with my second account) because I want as much energy as possible, but you really would think that being able to do that would mean you'd earn MORE mega energy, not less.

But of course that, like so many things that would benefit players, goes against Niantic's stated aims for the game.

To be "fair" this is also to incentivize more people joining raids (and thus spending more Raid Passes) regardless of how, which this Mega System used even before the "go touch grass" updates as I call the Remote Raid nerfs and their aftermath.

The part that's even more expensive with Ttar is that compared to most other dual-Typed Megas, you HAVE to raise two if you want to efficiently use both of its types, since the CD move is Smack Down for Fast and thus you can't do the "Two Charged and switch Fast" method for something like Blaziken or Mamoswine.

Honestly I'm not the most fussed about the energy because not a lot has my attention for free passes besides Tyranitar anyway since I'm not insane enough to hunt a Shiny-Hundo for stuff like Bagon and Dratini, and Regidrago is pure Dex Filler in Go. I need to XL candy anyway to max out my best ones, so the energy is collateral in maxing the Mega candidates out a bit faster I suppose.

The real jerks are Legendaries. The Primals have a 400 Base cost and no way to get more Energy short of 20km Buddy walking, so they're slow going while arguably being the most important Mega Types so far (due to boosting multiple types in party instead of just while alive). Rayquaza is set to join them with Go Fest, alongside Mega Diancie for Ticket Buyers (even then you'd be encouraged to farm Energy from Go Fest Global Carbinks for when it eventually drops as a F2P capture).

 

[QuentinQuonce]

To be "fair" this is also to incentivize more people joining raids (and thus spending more Raid Passes) regardless of how, which this Mega System used even before the "go touch grass" updates as I call the Remote Raid nerfs and their aftermath.

The part that's even more expensive with Ttar is that compared to most other dual-Typed Megas, you HAVE to raise two if you want to efficiently use both of its types, since the CD move is Smack Down for Fast and thus you can't do the "Two Charged and switch Fast" method for something like Blaziken or Mamoswine.

Honestly I'm not the most fussed about the energy because not a lot has my attention for free passes besides Tyranitar anyway since I'm not insane enough to hunt a Shiny-Hundo for stuff like Bagon and Dratini, and Regidrago is pure Dex Filler in Go. I need to XL candy anyway to max out my best ones, so the energy is collateral in maxing the Mega candidates out a bit faster I suppose.

The real jerks are Legendaries. The Primals have a 400 Base cost and no way to get more Energy short of 20km Buddy walking, so they're slow going while arguably being the most important Mega Types so far (due to boosting multiple types in party instead of just while alive). Rayquaza is set to join them with Go Fest, alongside Mega Diancie for Ticket Buyers (even then you'd be encouraged to farm Energy from Go Fest Global Carbinks for when it eventually drops as a F2P capture).

Rayquaza at least will be easier to defeat (hopefully). Mega Mewtwo is going to be a killer...

 

[Expert Evan]

I'm quite thankful that many of the raids this summer have been fairly easy duos. One of my alts was the last to reach level 46 which has a level 47 requirement to max 3 pokemon to level 50, a task I feared years ago but with the easiness to now achieve that is nice, especially pokemon that can be useful in the Masters Premier such as Dragonite, Mamoswine, Excadrill, Gardevoir, Metagross & Swampert to name a few. My main account still needs 65 XL candies to max out a shadow hundo Snorlax which needs about 360 XL candies and is a beast in the master premier and cool to show off as my buddy so long as I don't accidentally purify it which I have nightmares about doing so.

For the other level 47 requirements, I did the max cp1500 raid with the help of another and I have about 20+ more raids to do unique parties. I could barely do that with the regi raids, but mega ttar is much tougher to accomplish so I'm not going to rush it for now.

 

[R_N]

So I saw Zygarde hit Go a few weeks ago, been cruising around Home seeing if I can snag one because that's just what I do now I guess, but it's been a slim search so far.
I understand the research can get you one at 10%, and then Routes allows you to get cells to get it to 50%, but what's the actual vibe of obtaining one?
Is it literally *just* the one you get out of the research that you can then power up separately? Is it even something that's had a chance to proliferate regardless? Is it good so no one wants to give it up quite yet?

 

[Mex]

Just the one, can't be traded at all either, so unlikely to have hit home at all

 

[R_N]

Just the one, can't be traded at all either, so unlikely to have hit home at all

I suppose if it's literally just the one it makes sense it can't be traded. Maybe it can't even be transferred or turned into candy? Guess I'll need to wait for a raid event to happen.

 

[pika pal]

So I saw Zygarde hit Go a few weeks ago, been cruising around Home seeing if I can snag one because that's just what I do now I guess, but it's been a slim search so far.
I understand the research can get you one at 10%, and then Routes allows you to get cells to get it to 50%, but what's the actual vibe of obtaining one?
Is it literally *just* the one you get out of the research that you can then power up separately? Is it even something that's had a chance to proliferate regardless? Is it good so no one wants to give it up quite yet?

It'd be a combination of the latter two points: Zygarde is currently only available in 10% form through the Research, but the same step that gives you the Zygarde is how you get the Cube to start picking up Cells via the route feature, which are used to transform Zygarde (akin to an evolution mechanically) into its higher forms. Zygarde's higher forms have significant PvP potential (Great and Ultra League favor low ATK/High Bulk Pokemon), so people likely to hang onto theirs even if they could transfer it.

The question is how long it's Research Locked since the only source is walking routes and finding cells, they may want to keep it exclusive if additional Zygardes end up becoming a source via transfer or something.

tl;dr don't expect Go Zygarde in Home for a while.

That said, August is going to be a very packed month for Go stuff: with Carbink making its "widespread" debut in the upcoming Go Fest (as the Mega Energy source for Diancie), alongside a lot of Legendary reruns like Cresselia, Xerneas/Yveltal, Groudon/Kyogre (for Primal Energy raids), and Rayquaza (for Mega Energy debut). So if you're hunting Go Mark stuff you couldn't find before, keep an eye out during the month because a lot of "new" things are dropping alongside rare stuff getting another injection.

 

[R_N]

It'd be a combination of the latter two points: Zygarde is currently only available in 10% form through the Research, but the same step that gives you the Zygarde is how you get the Cube to start picking up Cells via the route feature, which are used to transform Zygarde (akin to an evolution mechanically) into its higher forms. Zygarde's higher forms have significant PvP potential (Great and Ultra League favor low ATK/High Bulk Pokemon), so people likely to hang onto theirs even if they could transfer it.

The question is how long it's Research Locked since the only source is walking routes and finding cells, they may want to keep it exclusive if additional Zygardes end up becoming a source via transfer or something.

tl;dr don't expect Go Zygarde in Home for a while.

Yeah makes sense. I imagine 100% Zygarde in particular will be a major PVP unit.

That said, August is going to be a very packed month for Go stuff: with Carbink making its "widespread" debut in the upcoming Go Fest (as the Mega Energy source for Diancie), alongside a lot of Legendary reruns like Cresselia, Xerneas/Yveltal, Groudon/Kyogre (for Primal Energy raids), and Rayquaza (for Mega Energy debut). So if you're hunting Go Mark stuff you couldn't find before, keep an eye out during the month because a lot of "new" things are dropping alongside rare stuff getting another injection.

Legendaries are all taken care of at this point but good to know about the Go Fest stuff; I think I thought it already happened. Carbink will be a nice one to add to the collection.
Doing wonder boxing during an event's always a good way to pick up some spares. Was there a fossil event recently, for example? Big uptick in those guys both in GTS searches and in the wonder box.


I know you (& others) have mentioned here & there but as someone who doesn't play Go and is only into collecting go marks because I've lost my mind to wonder box, it's really fascinating what stuff is significantly rarer than I would ever imagine. Either because they had a very limited release, no true reruns, only available for specific avenues, regional exclusives....the latter's interesting both because there'es far fewer than I thought but also the ones that are regional are ones that make me go "wait really?" Kangaskhan or Klefki, for example.
or the ones that haven't been released. It stunned me that the gen 8 starters still aren't in the game, or how most of gen 8 in general isn't around; and how even the "commons" were in fact very not common. I knew they had to slow down to a drip feed to keep the game more relevant for collectors, but I would at least have thought the starters would have had a run and stuff like Wooloo would be significantly more common. To make no mention of no Rookidee, no Blipbug, no Nickit, etc.

 

[pika pal]

Legendaries are all taken care of at this point but good to know about the Go Fest stuff; I think I thought it already happened. Carbink will be a nice one to add to the collection.
Doing wonder boxing during an event's always a good way to pick up some spares. Was there a fossil event recently, for example? Big uptick in those guys both in GTS searches and in the wonder box.


I know you (& others) have mentioned here & there but as someone who doesn't play Go and is only into collecting go marks because I've lost my mind to wonder box, it's really fascinating what stuff is significantly rarer than I would ever imagine. Either because they had a very limited release, no true reruns, only available for specific avenues, regional exclusives....the latter's interesting both because there'es far fewer than I thought but also the ones that are regional are ones that make me go "wait really?" Kangaskhan or Klefki, for example.
or the ones that haven't been released. It stunned me that the gen 8 starters still aren't in the game, or how most of gen 8 in general isn't around; and how even the "commons" were in fact very not common. I knew they had to slow down to a drip feed to keep the game more relevant for collectors, but I would at least have thought the starters would have had a run and stuff like Wooloo would be significantly more common. To make no mention of no Rookidee, no Blipbug, no Nickit, etc.

Yeah, the current event is "Adventure Week," which among other things promotes outdoor walking and has the Fossils as pretty common spawns. I imagine you're seeing a lot of the Gen 6 fossils since their shinies debuted with this event (meaning people are hunting and hatching a lot of them to look for those), followed by Aerodactyl, Shieldon, and Cranidos as old Pokemon that are still very relevant to use in something or another (hence lots of captures for Power-up Candy).

The Regionals are weird because some of them I get and others are indeed perplexing, whether for the mon itself or how they're handled as Regionals mechanically. Kangaskhan for example I sort of get because it's Australia exclusive with the Kangaroo/Marsupial motif since those species are only naturally found in Australia as well. The weird ones come in with stuff like Farfetch'd, which is based in East Asia (I assume because of the Duck + Onion Leek joke), but Galarian Farfetch'd I believe has just been a generalized Seasonal Spawn/Egg (i.e. time specific availability but not specific to one area) even though for Candy and Dex purposes they share an entry.

I think the issue with the ridiculous drip feed is that they blew their load on stuff early as mentioned, and they're so low on "hype" stuff to still add, especially because a lot of Pokemon with use in main series (be it collection prospects, PVP, or Main Game runs) don't translate a lot of those traits to here, or the later gens have a LOT of mons with gimmicks built in that are hard to translate meaningfully if at all, so they mostly have design to go off of. Hell, some Pokemon who are in the game still have oddities, like how Regional Evolutions still can't evolve from the base form outside of very specific events (i.e. no way to evolve a Cubone INTO an Alolan Marowak), turning those into more "event exclusive" mons to make.

I also think regardless of that it's to induce a sense of scarcity when they seldom run the good OR the junk-rares. "Oh man, if I don't go hard on Wooloo this time it'll be months before I can get the Dex entry for Dubwool" and such. With that mindset it makes players go that much harder on stuff they want (like the Hatch-Day for Riolu, who until now was only available rarely from 10KM Egg hatching) and more inclined to spend money if it affects the hunt (such as buying the Timed Research tasks for more High IV encounters or Incubators on Hatch focused stuff).

 

[QuentinQuonce]

The way they've released Zygarde stinks (I tried using a route yesterday and found it the process so buggy I gave it up as a bad job) but it annoys me all the more because the one I caught was pretty decent (15-15-13 IVs; every other one-time mythical I've caught has had garbage stats).

A while ago I'd have been tempted to put some candy into it and power it up, but you just know they'll release others eventually so I'll probably end up getting a better one down the line. I'm not even that motivated to go out and find cells since the rate is so low that getting 250 will take forever. I'm sure they'll make that easier in the coming months so I'm fully content to wait.