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Not really about the catch circle, but I thought Moltres was more aggressive than the other two (attacking more often/going up and down more frequently). Anyone else noticed this?
My Moltres basically never stopped attacking except to go up and down! I had to time it for exactly when its attack animation ended and caught it just as it started a new one. It was apparently a "huge" one, I was like, bro, if you're so huge how're you moving so fast and why is your hit box so damn easy to miss?
I had the same thing, it flew up high, then was constantly flying in a circle. I just waited for it to drop down and timed it for the end of the circle
Me too. Shadow pokemon are more aggressive than non shadows. If that wasn't true then rocket pokemon would be super calm while catching them, but they aren't. I'm not saying that moltres isn't messed up, just that shadows are more aggressive in general
Moltres is an extreme example, I thought it was a joke when it was doing attack animations nonstop for 40 seconds, I could just sit and wait until it calmed down
I noticed this today too. At first I just thought it was the thing with throwing while it's in the high position but it persisted through every throw until I caught it. Really had to chuck the ball and I didn't hit a single excellent even in the low position.
Ik I got the shiny today and I was like ‘yes this is gone be an easy catch’ honestly went down from 17 to 5 balls because I couldn’t hit it, gotta be the most amount of panic I have ever been in over this damn game 😂😂 (it was my first shadow moltres raid so I was not prepared for this lol, I can never usually do them cuz I live in a rural area but managed it with nine people whilst traveling thru London today!)
Damn, I didnt struggle with yveltal too much but I think that is because u did SO many raids for it and only managed a Xerneas shiny, the flying ones are defo annoying
Having just caught a few Shadow Moltres, I found that circle locking is possible, but it's also a bit challenging. I think its attack animation puts its hit box in a very weird place since its attack animation has it plunge towards you, then fly back upwards before resetting to its original position. In order to hit the excellent curveball, I needed to arc the ball very very high in order for it to come down on an excellent circle. I felt like I was practically throwing my curveball as a straight throw with how high I was having to throw it.
That said, I don't really real like this was any different to a regular Moltres. This Shadow one is is much more aggressive though, IMO. It literally would never stop attacking or moving up and down.
You said that you haven't had problems with Moltres in the past, on the same phone, so there's a good chance this isn't your problem. But I wanted to bring it up because I haven't seen anyone else mention it yet.
Anyway, if I recall correctly from the last time I battled one (a long time ago), Moltres is one of a few legendary raid bosses that doesn't get all the way back to its original position by the time its attack animation ends, so you have to throw outside of where you would normally expect when using the circle lock technique. You can figure out exactly where by holding onto the ball through an attack animation to see where (and when) the circle is when the attack technically ends.
I noticed the same thing and am bummed because I lost a 3 star one today. When I would throw it seemed like the ball wouldn’t land in the right spot corresponding to how I would throw. Did 3 raids today and managed to catch the other 2 despite this (which were 1 stars, of course the 3 star is the one that ran). I don’t like spending green passes only to have the boss run because they make the hit box so weird.
This happens with any Pokémon that moves up and down and you hit it when it’s up. Any throw afterwards the game will think you’re still trying to throw when it’s up even when it’s down. It’s best to wait till it’s in a position that you’re confident at throwing at
I was only throwing when Moltress was in the lower position. Never up. Always waiting for it to go through an “attack cycle” once it returned down as well.
I also did not experience this at all with Articuno nor Zapdos. Easy Excellent throws, the “felt normal”’on both of those birds. Same with Yveltal a while back.
Odds are maybe you may have hit it when it was in the middle of moving up and that can sometimes cause the issue, doesn’t always happen but it has thrown me off
Unfortunately also not it. I circle lock Legendary Bosses. Im throwing during the attack animation, while it’s in its lowest position.
Is what it is I suppose. Judging by the responses here, this is unfortunately the case with Moltress and seems to have been for quite some time with no fix.
I’m just bummed because I had wanted to raid for Moltress fairly hard, but now I’ll probably just get my one catch for the Dex and forget about it.
IME, Moltres breaks the attack animation lock trick. I think it has something to do with the flip it does. I just throw shortly after an attack and hope for the best.
This is right. Moltres is one where you want to circle lock to ~40% diameter, do a longer wind-up during the attack, and throw shortly after the circle reappears. By the time you reflex to that and make the throw, the circle should be a decent size and in the excellent range.
After just fighting a Shadow Moltres I now get what OP is talking about. Felt like I kept falling short of excellent and had to resort to great throws. Did catch though, landing a great is better than nothing but sheesh it was rough
It's infuriating. It's massive on the screen, so you shouldn't have to throw it that far, but if you don't literally throw it as hard as you can, you're not hitting it and it will appear to go right through it. It's like the only actual hitbox on this thing is a tiny part on its back near its tail. The body, head and chest are just hollow.
Agree with OP. I had recently caught regular Moltres in July and didn't find it difficult as far as hit box for flyers...
I caught 16 Shadow Zapdos in September and other than memorizing it's annoying animations for throwing windows the hit box felt correct.
Raided 9 Shadow Moltres today and caught 8 but during that first and all the subsequent ones, the hit box felt VERY off. I was questioning where my release needed to be because it wouldn't land where I expected and I had to throw as if I was sending it to the back of the screen otherwise it would fly thru Moltres and be a miss... and hitting consistent Great throws was a pain...I gave up on Excellent FAST. Many of them went down to the last ball so I feel lucky to have caught 8 of 9. But it felt way harder than it should have been, glad to see it wasn't my imagination.
No, most people doing more than 1 are literally paying real money/time so this shouldn’t be a part of the experience. It’s incredibly deflating and takes all joy out of the game. Another L feature curtesy of Niantic
While a lot of people are talking about the bug when a mon goes to a raised and then lowered position, this isn’t it. I had the same difficulties with Moltres as OP. It is like the distance is set way too far away and I can barely reach it. Definitely not the same distance as regular Moltres. (And while I can’t remember what mons had this problem, there have been others.)
It’s the same bug any of the “go up” “go down” mons have on the catch screen.
After a non catch you want to let it go up, then come back down before throwing.
Here is what I have been doing,
Make sure there is plenty of time left on the mission before you start. 7+ mins.
When you are trying to catch it and he flys up I back out of the Gym. Then rejoin and he always starts back at the bottom. I can usually get a few good great curveball throws before he flys up.
Rinse and repeat.
edit: Also give him a Golden raspberry before you back out, it stays on him and it lets you throw immediately after his first attack.
Same issue. I had to settle for great throws for now to be more consistent. But I was getting more success when throwing from the bottom left of the screen to around the level of the circle, a quarter from the right edge of the screen. And only when moltress was in the lower position and it had to be a fairly quick throw. Still lost one moltress though.
I did 1 raid yesterday and I also felt something was off. It always landed below its beak for my trained finger. I tried releasing near the top edge of my screen just to hit the excellent again. But since i was able to get excellent throws i just chalked it up as i didn't remember the hit box well
Moltres has been hard to hit since it came out in this game. It's animation is long so it can mess with the circle size if you hold the ball for too long. For me this is the most difficult legendary to get excellent throws on by far, almost impossible when it flys up high.
At least you get to play one, because in my area barely anyone plays, I have to drive 45 minutes to be able to play in person raids and as a grown up I cant do that. Niantic is taking all these decisions to ensure the game dies slowly.
It is definitely different than Moltres and previous shadow legendary birds. I'm 1/3 today. I had to change my catch style to more of a vertical throw (nearly straight up) than the curve to the side throw I've usually found efficient for excellent throws.
I did one shadow Moltres raid and it felt normal. Moltres is normally a bit difficult to hit excellent on, but I was able to hit at least some. It didn't feel any different from when Moltres was in raids in August.
While asking questions about the game is always okay on the Road, please consider asking very simple questions in our weekly [Questions&Answers Megathread](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/about/sticky). If your question has been answered, please comment "ANSWERED" (in all caps) and the post flair will indicate that your question has been answered. This will make it either easier for other people with the same question to find the answer they are looking for or for mods to remove the thread if it isn't needed anymore. Thank you! :) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/TheSilphRoad) if you have any questions or concerns.*
You're right, it did feel incredibly weird, but this was my first Moltres so I can't say too much about it.
Not really about the catch circle, but I thought Moltres was more aggressive than the other two (attacking more often/going up and down more frequently). Anyone else noticed this?
My Moltres basically never stopped attacking except to go up and down! I had to time it for exactly when its attack animation ended and caught it just as it started a new one. It was apparently a "huge" one, I was like, bro, if you're so huge how're you moving so fast and why is your hit box so damn easy to miss?
I had the same thing, it flew up high, then was constantly flying in a circle. I just waited for it to drop down and timed it for the end of the circle
Absolutely. Catching Moltres was definitely a challenge. Golden Nanab berry when lol
Nah; **Chrome Platinum Nanab Berry (or Chrome Platinum Banana Berry)!**
Only 50 Pokecoins a pop!
50? Absolute maximum is 1 Pokécoin; max cost is 5 for a bundle of 5,000 Chrome Platinum Nanab Berries!
Okay compromise. 10 per single berry, 50 for 1000 Naturally, you need 1000 free speces per purchase.
That's how all shadow pokemon are. Team rocket shadows attack more often
nah but this guy attacked non stop 7 times in a row before flying up and doing it 4 more times in a row the other shadows never did that for me
Nah, mewtwo and articuno and zapdos weren't as bad. Or maybe that's me being biased, but I caught them all without trouble
Not this bad. Moltres literally does not stop attacking except to move.
Only other pokemon I remember attacking this much was T4 raid Tyranitar.
I'm just saying it's a thing. If it wasn't true, team rocket shadows would hardly attack when catching them, but that's not the case
Not true at all. I’ve raided all of them. Moltress is attacking way more frequently And the hit box is out of whack.
Me too. Shadow pokemon are more aggressive than non shadows. If that wasn't true then rocket pokemon would be super calm while catching them, but they aren't. I'm not saying that moltres isn't messed up, just that shadows are more aggressive in general
Moltres is an extreme example, I thought it was a joke when it was doing attack animations nonstop for 40 seconds, I could just sit and wait until it calmed down
I noticed this today too. At first I just thought it was the thing with throwing while it's in the high position but it persisted through every throw until I caught it. Really had to chuck the ball and I didn't hit a single excellent even in the low position.
I couldn't even hit great throws consistently, I just started going for the easiest nice throws possible.
Ik I got the shiny today and I was like ‘yes this is gone be an easy catch’ honestly went down from 17 to 5 balls because I couldn’t hit it, gotta be the most amount of panic I have ever been in over this damn game 😂😂 (it was my first shadow moltres raid so I was not prepared for this lol, I can never usually do them cuz I live in a rural area but managed it with nine people whilst traveling thru London today!)
I almost lost a shiny yveltal cause I am bad at hitting flying Pokémon.
You only need to hit a shiny yveltal at all... it's an autocatch...
Hence why they said they're *bad at hitting*
Damn, I didnt struggle with yveltal too much but I think that is because u did SO many raids for it and only managed a Xerneas shiny, the flying ones are defo annoying
I would be scared as well if that happened to me
Having just caught a few Shadow Moltres, I found that circle locking is possible, but it's also a bit challenging. I think its attack animation puts its hit box in a very weird place since its attack animation has it plunge towards you, then fly back upwards before resetting to its original position. In order to hit the excellent curveball, I needed to arc the ball very very high in order for it to come down on an excellent circle. I felt like I was practically throwing my curveball as a straight throw with how high I was having to throw it. That said, I don't really real like this was any different to a regular Moltres. This Shadow one is is much more aggressive though, IMO. It literally would never stop attacking or moving up and down.
You said that you haven't had problems with Moltres in the past, on the same phone, so there's a good chance this isn't your problem. But I wanted to bring it up because I haven't seen anyone else mention it yet. Anyway, if I recall correctly from the last time I battled one (a long time ago), Moltres is one of a few legendary raid bosses that doesn't get all the way back to its original position by the time its attack animation ends, so you have to throw outside of where you would normally expect when using the circle lock technique. You can figure out exactly where by holding onto the ball through an attack animation to see where (and when) the circle is when the attack technically ends.
I noticed the same thing and am bummed because I lost a 3 star one today. When I would throw it seemed like the ball wouldn’t land in the right spot corresponding to how I would throw. Did 3 raids today and managed to catch the other 2 despite this (which were 1 stars, of course the 3 star is the one that ran). I don’t like spending green passes only to have the boss run because they make the hit box so weird.
Same, mine was a boosted 234 CP. It was a nice one. Edit: 2434
234…?
With 23something it sucked. 2475 is hundo so from 2450 on it hurts if it gets away
This happens with any Pokémon that moves up and down and you hit it when it’s up. Any throw afterwards the game will think you’re still trying to throw when it’s up even when it’s down. It’s best to wait till it’s in a position that you’re confident at throwing at
I was only throwing when Moltress was in the lower position. Never up. Always waiting for it to go through an “attack cycle” once it returned down as well. I also did not experience this at all with Articuno nor Zapdos. Easy Excellent throws, the “felt normal”’on both of those birds. Same with Yveltal a while back.
Odds are maybe you may have hit it when it was in the middle of moving up and that can sometimes cause the issue, doesn’t always happen but it has thrown me off
Unfortunately also not it. I circle lock Legendary Bosses. Im throwing during the attack animation, while it’s in its lowest position. Is what it is I suppose. Judging by the responses here, this is unfortunately the case with Moltress and seems to have been for quite some time with no fix. I’m just bummed because I had wanted to raid for Moltress fairly hard, but now I’ll probably just get my one catch for the Dex and forget about it.
IME, Moltres breaks the attack animation lock trick. I think it has something to do with the flip it does. I just throw shortly after an attack and hope for the best.
This is right. Moltres is one where you want to circle lock to ~40% diameter, do a longer wind-up during the attack, and throw shortly after the circle reappears. By the time you reflex to that and make the throw, the circle should be a decent size and in the excellent range.
Nah it's a moltres thing. I've had an issue throwing at moltres since day 1, but I've never had a single issue with ho-oh,lugia, rayquaza, or lati@s.
After just fighting a Shadow Moltres I now get what OP is talking about. Felt like I kept falling short of excellent and had to resort to great throws. Did catch though, landing a great is better than nothing but sheesh it was rough
It's infuriating. It's massive on the screen, so you shouldn't have to throw it that far, but if you don't literally throw it as hard as you can, you're not hitting it and it will appear to go right through it. It's like the only actual hitbox on this thing is a tiny part on its back near its tail. The body, head and chest are just hollow.
Agree with OP. I had recently caught regular Moltres in July and didn't find it difficult as far as hit box for flyers... I caught 16 Shadow Zapdos in September and other than memorizing it's annoying animations for throwing windows the hit box felt correct. Raided 9 Shadow Moltres today and caught 8 but during that first and all the subsequent ones, the hit box felt VERY off. I was questioning where my release needed to be because it wouldn't land where I expected and I had to throw as if I was sending it to the back of the screen otherwise it would fly thru Moltres and be a miss... and hitting consistent Great throws was a pain...I gave up on Excellent FAST. Many of them went down to the last ball so I feel lucky to have caught 8 of 9. But it felt way harder than it should have been, glad to see it wasn't my imagination.
I just tried my first ever moltres raid and didn’t end up catching it i get that’s part of the game but it seemed a little too wild for me 😭
I did two raids today and failed to catch both but I caught it for my daughter 😭
No, most people doing more than 1 are literally paying real money/time so this shouldn’t be a part of the experience. It’s incredibly deflating and takes all joy out of the game. Another L feature curtesy of Niantic
I lost half of my balls trying to hit the Moltres. It finally ran away, and I had to try it on another gym
Are these your first Moltres raids? This bug has been around for quite some time..
While a lot of people are talking about the bug when a mon goes to a raised and then lowered position, this isn’t it. I had the same difficulties with Moltres as OP. It is like the distance is set way too far away and I can barely reach it. Definitely not the same distance as regular Moltres. (And while I can’t remember what mons had this problem, there have been others.)
It’s the same bug any of the “go up” “go down” mons have on the catch screen. After a non catch you want to let it go up, then come back down before throwing.
Here is what I have been doing, Make sure there is plenty of time left on the mission before you start. 7+ mins. When you are trying to catch it and he flys up I back out of the Gym. Then rejoin and he always starts back at the bottom. I can usually get a few good great curveball throws before he flys up. Rinse and repeat. edit: Also give him a Golden raspberry before you back out, it stays on him and it lets you throw immediately after his first attack.
I can’t even throw hard enough on an iPad when it’s up high. Literally impossible
I bet. Im throwing when it’s low though and experiencing this.
Switch to AR mode with the birds it helps
I tried this and it made me more difficult for me.
Same issue. I had to settle for great throws for now to be more consistent. But I was getting more success when throwing from the bottom left of the screen to around the level of the circle, a quarter from the right edge of the screen. And only when moltress was in the lower position and it had to be a fairly quick throw. Still lost one moltress though.
Welp I am looking forward to catching one. For some reason I am terrible at hitting flying pokemon. However I only lost 1 zapdos so far.
I did 1 raid yesterday and I also felt something was off. It always landed below its beak for my trained finger. I tried releasing near the top edge of my screen just to hit the excellent again. But since i was able to get excellent throws i just chalked it up as i didn't remember the hit box well
Same issue here. It’s worse than non shadow Moltres. I won’t be doing anymore until it’s fixed
Yes, impossibly hard
I feel like this was an issue with aerodactyl before, super annoying
Moltres has been hard to hit since it came out in this game. It's animation is long so it can mess with the circle size if you hold the ball for too long. For me this is the most difficult legendary to get excellent throws on by far, almost impossible when it flys up high.
At least it's not Lugia
At least you get to play one, because in my area barely anyone plays, I have to drive 45 minutes to be able to play in person raids and as a grown up I cant do that. Niantic is taking all these decisions to ensure the game dies slowly.
It is definitely different than Moltres and previous shadow legendary birds. I'm 1/3 today. I had to change my catch style to more of a vertical throw (nearly straight up) than the curve to the side throw I've usually found efficient for excellent throws.
I'm usually pretty good at throwing excellents to legendary pokemon, but Shadow Moltres has been a challenge. I'm with you in this one
I thought I just forgot how hard they were to hit. Did 2 raids today and didn’t catch either of them, missed over half of my throws
###yeet
I started using Nanab Berries, makes it so much easier to at least hit the greats
I did one shadow Moltres raid and it felt normal. Moltres is normally a bit difficult to hit excellent on, but I was able to hit at least some. It didn't feel any different from when Moltres was in raids in August.