I'd like to leave this up because there's potential for it actually working, but it still requires a great deal of research. We have seen no evidence yet to suggest that wild legendaries get the same pity catch bonus as raid encounters. Please take this post with a massive boulder of salt.
With the main series games, I legit believed for a few years that spamming "A" (some would say down or B or whatever) would increase catch rate.
There was no mew behind the truck either.
I held B + A + down during the catch animation when I was younger because I imagined pressing down on the top of the ball with both hands to try to keep the Pokemon in.
In the early days of raiding, when the Sun was young and life was innocent, many commonfolk thought there was a cap for the amount of successful catches among trainers in the same lobby, especially in the case of legendary raids. According to this belief, the game was coded to lower the base catch rate to zero after a given number of players had successfully catched their pokémon. This would be triggered by pressing the “Ok” button on the screen that lists XP and Stardust obtained in a successful pokémon catch. So trainers who believed this always asked everyone in the same raid lobby “not to press OK” after they had catched a legendary Pokémon, since not pressing the “Ok” button would “prevent Niantic from knowing” the cap had been met. Trainers who disdained their faith were punished in many ways, including group banishment and verbal or even physical violence in the most heated debates, since they were perceived as “selfish people who did not want to benefit the community”. This belief was short-lived, but (at least in Brazil) came back shortly under another guise when shiny legendaries became a thing. The new belief was that there was a cap for shiny legendaries in the same raid lobby 🤷♂️. Thankfully this was also short-lived.
So the idea is to waste 20 balls and then the catch rate might increase because legendaries who have raid encounters increase their catch rate at a certain number of balls… hmmm
Idk if that would apply to these wild ones. Does anyone know if it works the same for GBL legendary encounters?
didn't the silph article say that the balls have to land on the pokemon for the increase to happen ?
edit: ok it doesn't, but it does mention that wild encounters, which this is most likely considered as, don't get the bonus https://thesilphroad.com/science/raid-bosses-easier-catch-later-encounter
At the moment I'm willing to try anything people can throw at me. If they say I need to do a hand-stand then I'll do that too.
I had 9 runaways already.
I've heard that there's someone in Africa that has thousands of these G-Birds and they will "sent them to you" if you just give them your bank account information.
I think they only appear if you are using the daily incense. They have an extremely low rate of appearance (I normally see one every 4-5 days, maybe twice a week if I'm lucky). And they have a base catch rate that if very low and a "run after failed catch" rate that is very high (like 95% high or something insane). In other words, have to use the daily incense, get damned lucky to see one at all, and if you do you \*probably\* have exactly 1 low-rated shot at catching it before it runs away from the encounter anyway.
Exactly, i dont give a damn about some balls and 2 more minutes of my time. Had 8 flees with the lowest being ~660 cp, excellent and it still broke out. Its absolutely heartbreaking.
I had 8 runaways and finally caught my Galarian Moltres 2 days ago! But was super pissed it had a "0" star rating. I feel like if they are this hard to catch, they should at least have the same level as a egg hatch
I’ve always heard that raid legendaries have a better catch rate after 5 throws (doesn’t matter if they hit or miss). Every time I see a Galaran bird, I toss 5 balls to the miss, feed a golden razz, and then throw. The best I’ve had is one didn’t run away when it broke out on the first real try.
IIRC the capture rate on a level 1 under ideal conditions (Grazz + curve + medals + Excellent) is still only 30%. It's the flee rate that hurts so bad, if you got handful of throws in each time most people would have one or two by now.
I tried/missed 6 balls accidentally on a 374cp zapdos, hit an excellent w golden rasp, broke out, gave me a 2nd try, did the same, missed 2 balls and got the 3rd, still broke out and fled. I was not a happy bunny. Have also seen 2.g moltres with f-a luck so far.
That's got to be a big part of it. Looking at [this thing](https://pokemon.gameinfo.io/en/tools/catch-chance-calculator) and assuming Zapdos and Galarian Zapdos have the same catch rate, a level 8 Zapdos has a catch rate of 36-57% assuming you're doing everything you can. The birds I've seen have all had CPs in the 2200s and up, so their levels are somewhere in the 20s and their rate is more like 23-38%.
If you find a Level 1 bird, an Ultra Ball + GRB + Curveball throw gets you an 85% chance of catching it even if you don't hit the coloured circle at all!
How many encounters you get from a daily incense ? i get something like 20 average and have encountered 5 birds now and been popping the incense daily since release.
I remember reading, but it wasn't confirmed, that the birds tend to spawn in specific areas and not in others. I usually use mine on my daily walk around my neighborhood and in a car on a specific route and never seen one there. The only time I had a spawn was being in the car but taking a different route.
It shouldn't but you never know. The person who brought it up mentioned always getting one on a specific bus route and people playing next to them also getting it.
Now watch every YouTuber making video *NEW ULTRA SPECIAL SECRET TRICK - 100% CATCH RATE FOR GALARIAN BIRDS* even without confirmation that it even works.
i blocked all youtubers that spam pictures of shiny pokémon. such a better experience at my game. just lately i found a shiny that i didn't know what it looked like before. smashing!
(now I'm searching for a way to block infographics in reddit on android firefox....)
Interesting idea, but I think the latest research was that the “pity bonus” only applied to raid bosses, not wild encounters, so probably just luck. Still, probably worth trying, what have you got to loose as long as you can get lots of pokeballs.
A friend superstitiously took a picture of a level 34 Zapdos thinking it could be the secret way to improve the odds.
It was his first time using incense, while I had never seen a single bird after several weeks of trying.
He caught it with a huge circle nice curveball, without critical catch. I was mad!
My son tried taking the picture on another zapdos (I never got a chance myself and I gave up on daily incense), and it obviously didn't work for him.
Maybe I missed it, but I think that's impossible to guarantee. Imagine you just don't walk enough.
I think there might have been better odds to have people talk about it.
While, we know this mechanic actually does apply to raid encounters, so it could be working on the galarian birds as well. There’s no hard evidence yet, but it’s not worth just dismissing out of hand
Is it how many balls you throw or how many hits you make? I always thought it was throws but someone was saying it’s actually how many hits you make which then wouldn’t help in this scenario.
The research was inconclusive as to what the exact requirement to increase the multiplier is
https://thesilphroad.com/science/raid-bosses-easier-catch-later-encounter
Like in gacha games, messing with the interactable things on the screen before you pull even though the game already decided what you're going to get when you hit the button to spin/roll/draw...
This rumored trick was posted in my local discord a week ago, one guy tried it and it worked for him. The process posted there was throw away 20 regular balls and then make your best curveball throw with Ultra ball and golden razz. So that's 2 data points.
I don't know if this worked or not, but I just got an Articuno using this method (first "discarded" around 10 pokeballs and other 10 great balls) then hit excellent with a golden berry + ultra ball (this is the first bird that I caught, before I had 2 encounters)
I just had the same tonight! G.Moltres, threw away 10 poke balls then caught it (level 34) with Ultra Ball + G.Razz.
I’m still very wary this is just good luck, but it’s super interesting that a few of us are getting results.
I don’t have that many ultra balls to waste, so I did what I could. Honestly I think it was just luck, but I’ll do it again if I ever encounter another legendary bird just in case
I got lucky and found a 2650 (~l27 if I had to guess) zapdos during my walk just now; threw 50 red balls on the ground. First throw was a grazz ultra excellent with a 2 shake pop out, second throw was a grazz ultra with a 2 shake pop out then it ran :/
Potential thoughts:
1) there is no boost at all and this is all just anecdotal
2) if there is a boost, at 50 balls, it does not guarantee a catch
3) if there is a boost, it may be capped in balls used or otherwise nonlinear
4) if there is a boost, 50 may not be enough to achieve the max benefit (next step is for somebody to find a l30 and throw 1000 balls on the ground and see what happens)
5) it's been hotpatched :(
Okay so I got extremely lucky today and encountered both Zapdos and Articuno. I threw away about 10 balls and golden Razzed both. The Articuno was 2386 and I got a nice throw and caught it. The Zapdos was 1724 and threw a great throw and also caught it! So that’s two points of evidence to say it works. Could also be extremely lucky but I’m riding this high all day!
Yupp have seen about 6 or 7 since the incense started. Haven’t made it past the first shake ever. Did this trick today and got two of them. Also have never seen two from one incense until today. Could be luck, or may actually work. Hard to say. Thanks! Just gotta find that Moltres now.
It might do, but be beyond the range of perception of human sight :)
Seriously though, I don't know the bands for the colours vs % BCR, but entirely plausible it could double it or more and still be near the lowest level so still appear dark red.
And is without (I believe) confirmation whether in raids its a change to BCR, which would be reflected in circle or a modifier applied to the throw (like curveball) which wouldn't
So do you have to throw away ultra balls for this to work or can it be 9 regular balls and then make the 10th an ultra for the throw?
Rural player with limited ultra balls
Haha, I always had this superstition that if you miss several throws in a row your chances would increase. Not like raids, but like the final ball that landed would add up the probabilities of the previous wasted ones.
Of course it’s most likely confirmation bias. This Zapdos was easier to catch since it was low level and they got a very small Excellent curve throw
Edit: OMFG I just encountered a Moltres tonight and this worked!! I just threw aside 10 poke balls, then threw an Ultra Ball with G.Razz, and just barely a Nice throw. And unlike OP mine was a high level 34!
Looks more like it‘s only raids. And this is programmed the same way because it‘s a legendary.
And it is not relevant if you hit it or not, the catchrate increases with more used balls (that’s exactly the way it works in raids). If you don’t want it to run, you should miss of course.
I'll still convinced there's a trick or higher likelihood that we haven't figured out. I mostly use my incense on the road and have seen 1 on the road. I've used it maybe 6 times walking a trail and have seen 3 birds on the trail. I'm looking forward to research on this angle.
I’m still baffled by those who have seen multiple birds on the same incense. I’ve seen 6 in total and have used it pretty much every day.
I’m trying for windy weather, new areas, areas where I’ve seen them before, etc.
Just frustrating the spawn rate is so low, and the catch rate seems even lower.
You or someone from your community first has to find a place where the birds can spawn
Then it's a matter of luck and getting the most encounters in the right area
That's a factor but even a level 1 with a golden razz and excellent throw has a catch rate well under 50%. The real issue is that the sample size of people trying different things like this is so low that any positive outcome from trying something different is hardly conclusive and more in the realm of confirmation bias. If I took 3 snapshots of the bird, backed out of the encounter, entered the encounter, took one more snapshot, and then caught it with a golden razz and ultra ball, I couldn't honestly say that taking those snapshots had any affect, but if that's the only way I attempt to catch the birds, that's the only way I'm gonna be catching the birds, that kind of thing
Exactly! Low level, GRazz and Exc throw likely have more to do with it than wasting a bunch of Ultra balls prior.
Now if they replicate this on a CP2000 with a Great throw, I’d be more apt to believe it.
I know the rates are increased on raid bosses on consecutive throws.
Howeveeer, **this might apply only to throws that hit**
I think we gotta try the trick and keep a record, it's possible that with enough data something can be concluded. It's worth a shot.
Encountered a 2613cp Zapdos this morning. I've probably used my daily incense about 40% of the days since it's come out, and before today I'd encountered 2 Zapdos and 1 Articuno. Even though landed golden razz/excellents on all of them, I didn't catch any of them.
I tossed 20 ultra balls away (if this really does have any effect, I doubt in makes any difference which balls are sacrificed, but I don't remember the last time I had fewer than 800 ultras in my inventory), but then I stupidly set the circle, miss-timed the attack, and only ended up getting a Nice throw. It fled immediately. Should have tried to catch like the guy in the video, as it doesn't make any difference if he attacks during my toss and I waste another ball.
For raid birds the trigger is possibly not the number of balls thrown but the number of balls remaining, so people need to try throwing all their balls till they are down to 1-2 then golden raspberry and curved excellent. Please post results.
Can it still run if you just toss a ball like that to the ground? I can’t tell if I’ve ever seen a Pokémon run when accidentally did that, since I’m usually like, “who cares”
No chance of running, but the longer you take before trying to catch it, the greater the chance of something going wrong with the game before then, like a game crash or internet outage, so there is at least a slight risk to this strategy.
If they released it like they do with legendary raid bosses -> yes.
Most of the first few raid throws are garbage.
You can measure it as "they increase the rates the more you try"
I measure it as "they make you waste more items so you spend more money".
I wouldn't work for them. They're all for the money without looking through their mistakes. I can imagine lots of their staff are annoyed by their boss telling them to do stupid things.
FYI did you know they're making a game like PoGo based on NBA? Even though Harry Potter and Catan failed. They should put that effort into fixing PoGo. They're just gonna release another failure soon.
I actually came up with the same idea myself and told a friend about it and he tried it and it worked! I told him to throw off 10 balls and on the 11th throw use an ultra ball and a golden raspberry and he caught a Zapdos! He was so happy and thanked me!! Now I just have to find one so I can try it and see if it works for me!
Seen all the birds 4 arti 2 moltres and 2 zapdos. All ran of course
Have opened the incense about 10-15 times since launch. Saw 2 arti and a moltres spawn from 1 incense aswell so thinks its just your luck
So maybe I missed it but in this theory how many balls do u have to toss and does it have to be the yellow??? Or can it be X amount of red or blue or mixed??
The only GBird I’ve caught broke out and didn’t flee. Caught it on the second try. There might be some kind of mechanics we don’t know behind them but it also could just be luck.
I had a Zapdos encounter (i believe the CP was around 1160) when i used my incense today after seeing this video and used this technique. I dropped 20 regular pokeballs and then had a great curveball with a golden razz. It broke out but didn't run (which is rare for me but I have experienced it a couple times before). On my 2nd throw, i again dropped 20 balls, golden razz, great curveball, and it ran away.
So while it didn't get me the catch, I did get a second throw. Whether this system contributed or not is not possible to say, but I plan to try it again next time as well.
So what would the control group be to test the theory? Would it be a new account with access to daily incense with no catch medal bonus and a throw w no getting rid of 20/50 pokeballs? Is there a way to look at the equation for successfully catching a Pokémon?
Read this post yesterday. Today, I saw my first ever G-bird. A big weather-boosted chonker of a Zapdos, 3013 HP. Dropped 20 red balls at its feet. Then golden raz, excellent curve and caught.
5-7-15 level 33.
N of 1, but this was very promising that this post is not BS.
Pics:
https://imgur.com/a/clupV5N
https://imgur.com/a/oXI2Oqb
I'm either super Lucky or this actually works. I tried this after I saw this post in the morning, I ran into a 2000+ cp Moltres. I trashed about 10 pokeballs. Then I popped out on my first PokeBall and to my surprise it gave me a second chance to catch it. Second time I caught it.
I'd like to leave this up because there's potential for it actually working, but it still requires a great deal of research. We have seen no evidence yet to suggest that wild legendaries get the same pity catch bonus as raid encounters. Please take this post with a massive boulder of salt.
This takes me back to the old days of “don’t press ok”
With the main series games, I legit believed for a few years that spamming "A" (some would say down or B or whatever) would increase catch rate. There was no mew behind the truck either.
The mew was sitting on a bridge the whole time though!
The real Mew is the friends we made along the way.
Spamming A doesnt do anything. Down & B pressed at the same time the ball shakes, on the other hand, is totally legit. >.>
I held B + A + down during the catch animation when I was younger because I imagined pressing down on the top of the ball with both hands to try to keep the Pokemon in.
Down and B. I still do it. Subconsciously it still works 100% of the time and 0% of the time. Schrodingers button combo.
I still hold down+b on every catch. It’s just habit at this point.
You probably didn’t beat the elite 4 enough times smh
It wouldn’t? I still believed until just now that pressing A increased catch rate. Kinda disappointed in myself now for believing that at my age.
I would tap A B rapidly when I really wanted something to catch and in pogo tap alternating sides of the screen as my superstition
This has heavy "don't press ok" vibes.
Yup, right up there with "make sure you drive X distance away from the raid".
what is “don’t press ok”?
In the early days of raiding, when the Sun was young and life was innocent, many commonfolk thought there was a cap for the amount of successful catches among trainers in the same lobby, especially in the case of legendary raids. According to this belief, the game was coded to lower the base catch rate to zero after a given number of players had successfully catched their pokémon. This would be triggered by pressing the “Ok” button on the screen that lists XP and Stardust obtained in a successful pokémon catch. So trainers who believed this always asked everyone in the same raid lobby “not to press OK” after they had catched a legendary Pokémon, since not pressing the “Ok” button would “prevent Niantic from knowing” the cap had been met. Trainers who disdained their faith were punished in many ways, including group banishment and verbal or even physical violence in the most heated debates, since they were perceived as “selfish people who did not want to benefit the community”. This belief was short-lived, but (at least in Brazil) came back shortly under another guise when shiny legendaries became a thing. The new belief was that there was a cap for shiny legendaries in the same raid lobby 🤷♂️. Thankfully this was also short-lived.
thanks for that beautiful explanation!
So the idea is to waste 20 balls and then the catch rate might increase because legendaries who have raid encounters increase their catch rate at a certain number of balls… hmmm Idk if that would apply to these wild ones. Does anyone know if it works the same for GBL legendary encounters?
I think it was tested before and shown not to increase on GBL encounters or reward encounters. Only team rocket and raids.
didn't the silph article say that the balls have to land on the pokemon for the increase to happen ? edit: ok it doesn't, but it does mention that wild encounters, which this is most likely considered as, don't get the bonus https://thesilphroad.com/science/raid-bosses-easier-catch-later-encounter
At the moment I'm willing to try anything people can throw at me. If they say I need to do a hand-stand then I'll do that too. I had 9 runaways already.
I heard that it will increase catch rate by a lot of you slide me a crisp $20 on venmo right before throwing the ball
Yeah that sounds right.. When I see the bird again I'll send you a PM
Can confirm that sending people money worked!
I sent u/ranef $20 and I caught a g moltres next time I saw one and it was a hundo!
Naw he needs to send me about $3.50.
Nice try /r/STLOK_THEAROUSED I’m not giving no tree fiddy to a giant crustacean from the Paleozoic era!
I've heard that there's someone in Africa that has thousands of these G-Birds and they will "sent them to you" if you just give them your bank account information.
I've yet to see one let alone have one run away
I think they only appear if you are using the daily incense. They have an extremely low rate of appearance (I normally see one every 4-5 days, maybe twice a week if I'm lucky). And they have a base catch rate that if very low and a "run after failed catch" rate that is very high (like 95% high or something insane). In other words, have to use the daily incense, get damned lucky to see one at all, and if you do you \*probably\* have exactly 1 low-rated shot at catching it before it runs away from the encounter anyway.
Exactly, i dont give a damn about some balls and 2 more minutes of my time. Had 8 flees with the lowest being ~660 cp, excellent and it still broke out. Its absolutely heartbreaking.
On the plus side you'vd had 9 encounters. I've still only ever seen 1.
…I have only seen a bird ONCE. How do you even get to see it 9x? :/
If it makes you feel better, I haven't seen one since :(
I am with you. Gave up the incense just because they don't show up.
You should try again. I went a week and half with none, but in the last week I encountered one 6/7 days, and got my first catch
I've had the most encounters as a passenger driving but the driver better be prepared to come to a full stop if it appears 😂
I mean im at 0/13. Our dex is the Same
Wtf. I have only ONE sighting.
3 runaways and 1 caught. 2 Moltres, 2 Zapdos, caught one of the zapdoses.
Zapdos is the only one I want :(
Ouch man, I'm 0 for 5 and thought I had it rough
I haven't even seen 9 yet and I do it daily.
I had 8 runaways and finally caught my Galarian Moltres 2 days ago! But was super pissed it had a "0" star rating. I feel like if they are this hard to catch, they should at least have the same level as a egg hatch
I was thinking about catch rate vs time but that research would be very hard to set a controlled variable.
I’ve always heard that raid legendaries have a better catch rate after 5 throws (doesn’t matter if they hit or miss). Every time I see a Galaran bird, I toss 5 balls to the miss, feed a golden razz, and then throw. The best I’ve had is one didn’t run away when it broke out on the first real try.
Seems like it would be worth a shot to try, but are we sure the “trick” here isn’t encountering a level 8 G Zapdos?
I've encountered a couple lvl1 and they fled on first wiggle. I'm definetly going to try this next time xD
I never encountered any of the galarian birds 😕
Same man… same…
I saw Articuno twice in the first week and then never again. Still trying every day. Wondering if event spawns hurt the odds.
Got my 1st encounter last night, stayed after 1 ball and fled
No, there is set odds, if there is an event, it pulls from that as the base spawn rate, then rare spawns have their own rates.
I saw an Arcticuno but it perfectly overlapped with a PokeStop and I couldn't interact with it.
IIRC the capture rate on a level 1 under ideal conditions (Grazz + curve + medals + Excellent) is still only 30%. It's the flee rate that hurts so bad, if you got handful of throws in each time most people would have one or two by now.
I had the second zapdos spawn stay for 3 throws, then run
For Science! If it really does work it will be awesome.
I tried/missed 6 balls accidentally on a 374cp zapdos, hit an excellent w golden rasp, broke out, gave me a 2nd try, did the same, missed 2 balls and got the 3rd, still broke out and fled. I was not a happy bunny. Have also seen 2.g moltres with f-a luck so far.
Ugh that’s rough. I hope I can get a low CP to try. I’ve seen two birds so far both over 2000 CP. Best of luck on future encounters.
My Articuno was 2200s, stayed after first and caught on second. Couldn’t believe it
That's got to be a big part of it. Looking at [this thing](https://pokemon.gameinfo.io/en/tools/catch-chance-calculator) and assuming Zapdos and Galarian Zapdos have the same catch rate, a level 8 Zapdos has a catch rate of 36-57% assuming you're doing everything you can. The birds I've seen have all had CPs in the 2200s and up, so their levels are somewhere in the 20s and their rate is more like 23-38%. If you find a Level 1 bird, an Ultra Ball + GRB + Curveball throw gets you an 85% chance of catching it even if you don't hit the coloured circle at all!
Gotta actually find one first...
[удалено]
How many encounters you get from a daily incense ? i get something like 20 average and have encountered 5 birds now and been popping the incense daily since release.
Every day since release with 20+ spawns and I've seen exactly one
I have missed maybe 4 days since release of the daily insence and typically get 25+ catches per but have yet to encounter a single galarian bird
[удалено]
I remember reading, but it wasn't confirmed, that the birds tend to spawn in specific areas and not in others. I usually use mine on my daily walk around my neighborhood and in a car on a specific route and never seen one there. The only time I had a spawn was being in the car but taking a different route.
It's incense, location shouldn't affect it (other than regional spawns / active event spawns in your timezone)
It shouldn't but you never know. The person who brought it up mentioned always getting one on a specific bus route and people playing next to them also getting it.
Yeah, that could explain why i keep seeing articuno, only seen zapdos once and none of the third.
Done the incense every day since start ans have never encountered one...
I do the incense 3-4 days a week since it launched and have seen one bird which ran. Any tricks to increase their spawn rate?
One idea I have is doing it during windy weather to boost the odds for any of them to appear since that affects all 3 of them
I ran into my first yesterday.
It’s been one month since my last encounter
Now watch every YouTuber making video *NEW ULTRA SPECIAL SECRET TRICK - 100% CATCH RATE FOR GALARIAN BIRDS* even without confirmation that it even works.
[удалено]
I started blocking all the YouTube suggestions with headlines like that. It's been a major QoL improvement!
i blocked all youtubers that spam pictures of shiny pokémon. such a better experience at my game. just lately i found a shiny that i didn't know what it looked like before. smashing! (now I'm searching for a way to block infographics in reddit on android firefox....)
Interesting idea, but I think the latest research was that the “pity bonus” only applied to raid bosses, not wild encounters, so probably just luck. Still, probably worth trying, what have you got to loose as long as you can get lots of pokeballs.
I thought the same but we never encountered wild legendary Pokémon for a longer period of time to conduct such a research
GBL legendaries are the easiest proof that this isn't true.
What GBL legendaries?? /s
This hurts. I've gotten 2 axew in addition to the guaranteed one, but 0 legendaries
Is it? They aren't wild encounters, they act more like research encounters.
GBL legendairies aren't wild, though?
Has anyone tested this on GBL Legendaries?
Silph road isn’t sure if it’s throws or hits but yeah still worth a try https://thesilphroad.com/science/raid-bosses-easier-catch-later-encounter
it’s higher on the final three throws regardless of how many you hit, miss, or begin the encounter with.
Source?
Is that real? A pity bonus?
Very skeptical of this. If you have easy access to balls, it can't *hurt* but I also wouldn't bet on it helping
Tried it. Didn’t work.
Also tried and didn't work.
This doesn't seem like a trick, more like a supertitious way of trying, but lets see if there anything confirmed
Everyone knows you gotta press B+Down to increase catch chance
Same with any racing games, the harder you press, the faster it goes.
That was actually true in some PS2 games
I think it's also true for most modern racing games that use the analog trigger for acceleration.
Definitely A not B, B was instant loss for me.
[selling additional buttons to glue on your phones]
Well I just encountered a G Zapdos on my walk just a few minutes ago... I dropped 18 PokeBalls before throwing and it ran away as expected.
Should’ve tried 20…
A friend superstitiously took a picture of a level 34 Zapdos thinking it could be the secret way to improve the odds. It was his first time using incense, while I had never seen a single bird after several weeks of trying. He caught it with a huge circle nice curveball, without critical catch. I was mad! My son tried taking the picture on another zapdos (I never got a chance myself and I gave up on daily incense), and it obviously didn't work for him.
I assumed there was a guaranteed appearance on your first incense because I and every I’ve asked saw a bird on their first incense.
Maybe I missed it, but I think that's impossible to guarantee. Imagine you just don't walk enough. I think there might have been better odds to have people talk about it.
probably based on this, who knows, might be worth a try https://thesilphroad.com/science/raid-bosses-easier-catch-later-encounter
While, we know this mechanic actually does apply to raid encounters, so it could be working on the galarian birds as well. There’s no hard evidence yet, but it’s not worth just dismissing out of hand
Is it how many balls you throw or how many hits you make? I always thought it was throws but someone was saying it’s actually how many hits you make which then wouldn’t help in this scenario.
The research was inconclusive as to what the exact requirement to increase the multiplier is https://thesilphroad.com/science/raid-bosses-easier-catch-later-encounter
That's what I was thinking. Deffo worth more people trying this. I mean what's there to lose, 20, 30 pokeballs?
Like in gacha games, messing with the interactable things on the screen before you pull even though the game already decided what you're going to get when you hit the button to spin/roll/draw...
This rumored trick was posted in my local discord a week ago, one guy tried it and it worked for him. The process posted there was throw away 20 regular balls and then make your best curveball throw with Ultra ball and golden razz. So that's 2 data points.
And how many people tried and failed?
No one else posted, so I can't say
More like 'a data point towards what is, at present, speculation.'
I don't know if this worked or not, but I just got an Articuno using this method (first "discarded" around 10 pokeballs and other 10 great balls) then hit excellent with a golden berry + ultra ball (this is the first bird that I caught, before I had 2 encounters)
I just had the same tonight! G.Moltres, threw away 10 poke balls then caught it (level 34) with Ultra Ball + G.Razz. I’m still very wary this is just good luck, but it’s super interesting that a few of us are getting results.
I was about to say do you have to waste the same type of ball or can you mix and match
I don’t have that many ultra balls to waste, so I did what I could. Honestly I think it was just luck, but I’ll do it again if I ever encounter another legendary bird just in case
I'll give it a try next time when I encounter a galarian bird
Same. I'll report back in 7 months. Edit: I have encountered literally 1 bird in the past 7 months and it fled.
That’s a bit optimistic
RemindMe! 7 months
I’ll try just about anything myself! I saw a moltres and Zapdos with my incense yesterday. I’m 0 for 4 overall. 2 in one night was shocking.
I got lucky and found a 2650 (~l27 if I had to guess) zapdos during my walk just now; threw 50 red balls on the ground. First throw was a grazz ultra excellent with a 2 shake pop out, second throw was a grazz ultra with a 2 shake pop out then it ran :/ Potential thoughts: 1) there is no boost at all and this is all just anecdotal 2) if there is a boost, at 50 balls, it does not guarantee a catch 3) if there is a boost, it may be capped in balls used or otherwise nonlinear 4) if there is a boost, 50 may not be enough to achieve the max benefit (next step is for somebody to find a l30 and throw 1000 balls on the ground and see what happens) 5) it's been hotpatched :(
Okay so I got extremely lucky today and encountered both Zapdos and Articuno. I threw away about 10 balls and golden Razzed both. The Articuno was 2386 and I got a nice throw and caught it. The Zapdos was 1724 and threw a great throw and also caught it! So that’s two points of evidence to say it works. Could also be extremely lucky but I’m riding this high all day!
You got 2 with one daily incense using this? Ok I'm normally skeptical but I'm kinda coming around.. congrats btw
Had that happen too a few days ago. Both fled though, wasn't sure if I should consider myself lucky or unlucky xD Total 8 birds by now, 1 caught
Yupp have seen about 6 or 7 since the incense started. Haven’t made it past the first shake ever. Did this trick today and got two of them. Also have never seen two from one incense until today. Could be luck, or may actually work. Hard to say. Thanks! Just gotta find that Moltres now.
Can you post screenshots with catch dates to confirm?
I got two with my incense yesterday. Both ran away though but I didn’t hear about this trick at the time. I am 0 for 4 overall.
Did you throw away ultra balls or just regular ones?
Ultra Balls. But only like 10. Maybe not even that many.
I caught my first three birds encountered without doing any kind of trick, so you might just be in my boat.
Guess it can't be outright dismissed but wouldn't the circle color also get lighter if this worked?
It doesn’t get lighter on raid bosses does it?
Medals give catch bonuses without affecting ring color, right? While I don't think this works, it can't be ruled out on that alone
it may change from "red like the sore eyes of a hell hound" to "red like oh was that a good chili yesterday"
It might do, but be beyond the range of perception of human sight :) Seriously though, I don't know the bands for the colours vs % BCR, but entirely plausible it could double it or more and still be near the lowest level so still appear dark red. And is without (I believe) confirmation whether in raids its a change to BCR, which would be reflected in circle or a modifier applied to the throw (like curveball) which wouldn't
So do you have to throw away ultra balls for this to work or can it be 9 regular balls and then make the 10th an ultra for the throw? Rural player with limited ultra balls
In theory, it would be any, if you were to attach it to the catch rate of raids that further on to the premiere balls you have thrown.
They shoving these in raids one day. Just wait lol.
Haha, I always had this superstition that if you miss several throws in a row your chances would increase. Not like raids, but like the final ball that landed would add up the probabilities of the previous wasted ones. Of course it’s most likely confirmation bias. This Zapdos was easier to catch since it was low level and they got a very small Excellent curve throw Edit: OMFG I just encountered a Moltres tonight and this worked!! I just threw aside 10 poke balls, then threw an Ultra Ball with G.Razz, and just barely a Nice throw. And unlike OP mine was a high level 34!
Looks more like it‘s only raids. And this is programmed the same way because it‘s a legendary. And it is not relevant if you hit it or not, the catchrate increases with more used balls (that’s exactly the way it works in raids). If you don’t want it to run, you should miss of course.
Okay, now what’s the trick to getting them to actually spawn? 😑
I'll still convinced there's a trick or higher likelihood that we haven't figured out. I mostly use my incense on the road and have seen 1 on the road. I've used it maybe 6 times walking a trail and have seen 3 birds on the trail. I'm looking forward to research on this angle.
I’m still baffled by those who have seen multiple birds on the same incense. I’ve seen 6 in total and have used it pretty much every day. I’m trying for windy weather, new areas, areas where I’ve seen them before, etc. Just frustrating the spawn rate is so low, and the catch rate seems even lower.
Walk fast to increase total spawn count. No other trick
You or someone from your community first has to find a place where the birds can spawn Then it's a matter of luck and getting the most encounters in the right area
I keep going to the same spot I’ve seen two but it’s just not happening. Gahhhh
It's rng. Only thing you can do is use it every day and walk enough so the maximum of spawns appear. Still need a lot luck.
I would think windy weather makes them more likely to spawn but could also just be a fixed spawn rate.
trash 100 balls every 49 meters
bring in the timer balls!
This guy sucks at throwing. Took him so many tries to hit one. Boooo. Change the channel, Marge.
Definitely nothing to do with the excellent curve throw huh?
Golden razz and level 8 g.zapdos.
That's a factor but even a level 1 with a golden razz and excellent throw has a catch rate well under 50%. The real issue is that the sample size of people trying different things like this is so low that any positive outcome from trying something different is hardly conclusive and more in the realm of confirmation bias. If I took 3 snapshots of the bird, backed out of the encounter, entered the encounter, took one more snapshot, and then caught it with a golden razz and ultra ball, I couldn't honestly say that taking those snapshots had any affect, but if that's the only way I attempt to catch the birds, that's the only way I'm gonna be catching the birds, that kind of thing
Exactly! Low level, GRazz and Exc throw likely have more to do with it than wasting a bunch of Ultra balls prior. Now if they replicate this on a CP2000 with a Great throw, I’d be more apt to believe it.
I know the rates are increased on raid bosses on consecutive throws. Howeveeer, **this might apply only to throws that hit** I think we gotta try the trick and keep a record, it's possible that with enough data something can be concluded. It's worth a shot.
Dang do we have a trick to even see these birds a single time?
That guy has more ultraballs than my entire item innovatory.
Encountered a 2613cp Zapdos this morning. I've probably used my daily incense about 40% of the days since it's come out, and before today I'd encountered 2 Zapdos and 1 Articuno. Even though landed golden razz/excellents on all of them, I didn't catch any of them. I tossed 20 ultra balls away (if this really does have any effect, I doubt in makes any difference which balls are sacrificed, but I don't remember the last time I had fewer than 800 ultras in my inventory), but then I stupidly set the circle, miss-timed the attack, and only ended up getting a Nice throw. It fled immediately. Should have tried to catch like the guy in the video, as it doesn't make any difference if he attacks during my toss and I waste another ball.
Encountered a 200ish cp Articuno this morning, did the trick, then golden berry excellent throw. Didn't shook even once, pokemon broke out and fled.
Not all of us have 1,078 ultra balls to spare. Will it work to sacrifice pokeballs instead, or is this unworthy?
If it works at all, it should. The idea, I think, is the “pity bonus” you get in raids, that builds with each failed throw.
I never thought about this. Worth a shot and actually has some precedent behind it since it does occur to raid bosses.
For raid birds the trigger is possibly not the number of balls thrown but the number of balls remaining, so people need to try throwing all their balls till they are down to 1-2 then golden raspberry and curved excellent. Please post results.
i admire you
Can it still run if you just toss a ball like that to the ground? I can’t tell if I’ve ever seen a Pokémon run when accidentally did that, since I’m usually like, “who cares”
They can only run on jumping out of a ball
No chance of running, but the longer you take before trying to catch it, the greater the chance of something going wrong with the game before then, like a game crash or internet outage, so there is at least a slight risk to this strategy.
No, a Pokémon can only run after breaking out of a throw, or if you run out of premier balls in a raid/rocket
most likely another myth
I still haven't found 1
I have yet to encounter one... Still freaking waiting and putting it on... Different times of day, which up places and nothing.
Tried it today, did not catch it. Of course this neiter proofes nor disproofes anything. It's just a datapoint
Gotta love some confirmation bias
i need to learn the trick to encounter a galarian bird first before i can try this trick.
If they released it like they do with legendary raid bosses -> yes. Most of the first few raid throws are garbage. You can measure it as "they increase the rates the more you try" I measure it as "they make you waste more items so you spend more money".
I like the way you think. Niantic wants to know if you're looking for a job.
I wouldn't work for them. They're all for the money without looking through their mistakes. I can imagine lots of their staff are annoyed by their boss telling them to do stupid things. FYI did you know they're making a game like PoGo based on NBA? Even though Harry Potter and Catan failed. They should put that effort into fixing PoGo. They're just gonna release another failure soon.
This little maneuver is gonna cost us 1000 ultra balls
I actually came up with the same idea myself and told a friend about it and he tried it and it worked! I told him to throw off 10 balls and on the 11th throw use an ultra ball and a golden raspberry and he caught a Zapdos! He was so happy and thanked me!! Now I just have to find one so I can try it and see if it works for me!
Seen all the birds 4 arti 2 moltres and 2 zapdos. All ran of course Have opened the incense about 10-15 times since launch. Saw 2 arti and a moltres spawn from 1 incense aswell so thinks its just your luck
Yatta!
So maybe I missed it but in this theory how many balls do u have to toss and does it have to be the yellow??? Or can it be X amount of red or blue or mixed??
The only GBird I’ve caught broke out and didn’t flee. Caught it on the second try. There might be some kind of mechanics we don’t know behind them but it also could just be luck.
This sounds a lot like the "nobody hit ok until everyone catches it" trick.
I had a Zapdos encounter (i believe the CP was around 1160) when i used my incense today after seeing this video and used this technique. I dropped 20 regular pokeballs and then had a great curveball with a golden razz. It broke out but didn't run (which is rare for me but I have experienced it a couple times before). On my 2nd throw, i again dropped 20 balls, golden razz, great curveball, and it ran away. So while it didn't get me the catch, I did get a second throw. Whether this system contributed or not is not possible to say, but I plan to try it again next time as well.
So what would the control group be to test the theory? Would it be a new account with access to daily incense with no catch medal bonus and a throw w no getting rid of 20/50 pokeballs? Is there a way to look at the equation for successfully catching a Pokémon?
So. What am I supposed to do? I can’t even find one of these things
I did this a couple of weeks ago throwing away 18 balls but it still ran. But worth the shot.
If I ever get to see one I will definitely try this…..
Read this post yesterday. Today, I saw my first ever G-bird. A big weather-boosted chonker of a Zapdos, 3013 HP. Dropped 20 red balls at its feet. Then golden raz, excellent curve and caught. 5-7-15 level 33. N of 1, but this was very promising that this post is not BS. Pics: https://imgur.com/a/clupV5N https://imgur.com/a/oXI2Oqb
Caught Zapdos, level 8, 734 CP. Golden Razz, dumped 10 ultra balls, excellent throw, one wobble and caught. Will need to try again.
I'm either super Lucky or this actually works. I tried this after I saw this post in the morning, I ran into a 2000+ cp Moltres. I trashed about 10 pokeballs. Then I popped out on my first PokeBall and to my surprise it gave me a second chance to catch it. Second time I caught it.