the pidgey are not easy though, they are so close you cant curve ball and get them in the circle... and always orange circle.. therefore a waste, I would rather catch the other stuff i see often, like nidorans or venonats.. or water types...
This makes little sense. You get 10 more xp per catch from a curveball, and consistent curveballing saves you balls over time due to the higher catch rate. But pidgeys aren't that hard to catch even with bad straight throws outside of the circle, and the when you take into account the xp you gain from mass evolves, a straight ball, outside of the circle catch of a Pidgey is still worth *much* more XP than a great, curveball catch of a random 50 candy pokemon, with an identical dust reward. So unless you're you're catching a Pokemon where you either 1) plan actually use it in battles or 2) really need the candy it gives you, a pidgey is objectively the preferred catch unless you are so incredibly Pokeball starved that you desperately need the balls you save from consistent cuverballing. This seems to be a rare case.
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Math (again assuming only evolving on a lucky egg)
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catch 14 pidgey -> 42 candy
Evolve 3 -> 3 pidgeotto, 11 pidgey, 42 - 36 + 3 = 9 candy
transfer 3 pidgeotto + 9 pidgey -> 2 pidgey, 9 + 12 = 21 candy
evolve 1 -> 1 pidgey, 1 pidgeotto, 21 - 12 + 1 = 10 candy
transfer pidgeotto -> 1 pidgey, 11 candy
evolve pidgey -> 1 pidgeotto, 11 - 12 + 1 = 0 candy (assuming you had an extra candy from earlier to "borrow" and then immediately repay)
Net result: 14 pidgeys becomes 5 evolves + 1 leftover pidgeotto. And the final pidgeotto can itself be transferred for a candy if you like.
XP total = (14 * 100) + 5(2 * 500) = 6400.
XP per pidgey = 6400 / 14 =
457. Not bad!
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Catch 25 venonat -> 75 candy
transfer 23 -> 75 + 23 = 98 candy, 2 venonat
evolve 1 -> 98 - 50 + 1 = 49 candy, 1 venomoth, 1 venonat
transfer venomoth -> 50 candy, 1 venonat
evolve venonat -> 50 - 50 + 1 = 1 candy, 1 venomouth
XP total = 25(100) + 2(2 * 500) = 4500
XP per venonat = 4500 / 25 =
180 (plus a little extra since you end up with 1 candy and 1 venomoth left over)
Note that even if you add 60 xp to that, to represent catching every single venonat with a great curveball, you still end up at just
240 XP per venonat.
457 > 240
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What if for some reason you never use a lucky egg?
Then the xp for the pidgeys is:
14(100) + 5(500) = 3900
XP per pidgey = 3900 / 14 =
278
The xp for the venonats is:
25(100) + 2(500) = 3500
XP per venonat = 3500 / 25 =
140
Even if you add 60 to this to represent great curveballs on every single venonat catch, you still end up at just
200 XP per venonat.
278 > 200
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So in short, even if you are being extremely inefficient and not lucky egging when you evolve things, a great curveball catch of a 50 candy-to-evolve Pokemon is worth less than a straight, out-of-circle pidgey catch. So unless the Pokemon you are catching is something you are going to actually use, or is of a species for which you need the candy for evolving / powering up, you almost always want to see more pidgeys.
Note that for 25 candy Pokemon like Nidoran, the numbers are closer, but the no bonus pidgey catch is still worth a lot more than the great curve ball Nidoran catch when you take lucky egg evolution into account.
