Pokemon Go

Hmm, I see Seviper more than Tauros in central Ohio these days.

The regionals I have access to are Seviper, Tauros, Illumise, and (at the moment) Solrock. Solrock is always an uncommon spawn, though I generally find one if windy and/or partly cloudy weather persists more than 4 hours. Seviper, Tauros, and Illumise depend on various conditions - I find each spawn more when the generation of their debut is currently in rotation for more frequent spawns. Also, Seviper is up at the moment because its shiny was just released, as usual.

I've yet to run into any shiny Sevipers, though I don't consider it that big a deal because I kind of like Seviper's regular color scheme more.

I managed to get the World Tourism Day research that requires you to give 25 gifts to friends. That one is going kind of slowly because quite a few people on my friend list still haven't opened the gifts I sent them. I'll chug along though; apparently the reward for this task is a Lapras?

That is correct. Chance for a cool purple palette, too.

NewRocket Goons have been discovered. Looks like thes3 guys are gonna be admins...

I haven't run into a shiny Seviper myself, but I was out raiding this past weekend with someone who caught one while we were on our way to a Tier 5 - only tangentially related, I soon caught two different shinies myself (the next raid, I got lucky and got shiny Giratina-O, and about 15 minutes later, I got shiny Patrat).

As for the latest revelations on Twitter... I know quite a few locally who are bummed, because they thought that "weird computer glitches" were going to be how the game introduced Rotom (on the theory that October is the perfect month to release a Ghost type). Of course, Rotom might still be related to these GO Rockets, but it seems we're going to see the next step in that game phase.

As a side note - it might just be coincidence, but I wonder if the fact that they've revealed three named Rockets means that they'll be Foils for Candela, Blanche, and Spark.

A datamine of the most recent update also found something interesting:

"A ticket to access the "A Colossal Discovery" special event on {0} from {1} to {2} local time, wherever you are."

Along with a bunch of other stuff for "global ticketed events". And also "live event shop". Are we going to have to pay for Regigigas now? Whatever the case, it seems to be set for November 2nd, with the ticket obtained in advance and can be activated between 11:00 and 19:00.

Oddish is shiny now for some reason.

Oh no wonder I got a random shiny Oddish.

Also I wonder why they still haven't allowed overseas trading.

Can I just say I am so annoyed by how the game distributes evolution items? I have over a dozen worthless Metal Coats taking up space in my inventory, plus about half a dozen each of King's Rocks, Upgrades, Sun Stones and Dragon Scales. That's it, other than a single precious Sinnoh Stone.

They say black market, but that's going to be a problem regardless of the system. Greatly inconveniencing their players is the unfortunate result of them trying to circumvent that.

It's a cyclical thing. Gen 2 stuff is much older, so they're given out more easily. I usually just toss all except one copy of each item. Sinnoh Stones are much newer, so they're stingier about distribution, though if you grind PvP and leader battles, you can eventually get all that you need. The Unova Stone is currently the most inconvenient, with seven-day research being the primary distribution point and not even guaranteed. Unfortunately, there's little to be done about it, since that's just how the gacha FOMO strategy works.

Wish you could trade around stones, even if it meant dust.

Ran into and caught a Shiny Oddish. It's not a very good Oddish, but I will treasure it all the same.

Also ran into a task where you have to make 5 Great Curveball throws in a row. I'll probably have a hard time pulling this one off, but I'm going to try for it anyways.

Haven't found a shiny Oddish yet, but I did find my second shiny female Nidoran today.

Also, is it just me, or did they change spawn locations? I've been to a number of places where I typically bring Go out and the Pokémon were appearing in completely different places than they usually did.

That task will get you a Spinda.

Yes, the spawn points got shuffled for reasons unknown.

..Huh. Should've known they'd give Spinda a "throw curve balls" task.

So far, the only inconvenience for me is that I'm still learning the new spawn points. It seems that they're roughly at the same density, just shuffled around a bit by a couple hundred feet. That said, I've heard that in some areas, it's more extreme.

The one that I find humorous is that one that appeared on my house. I am pleased with this, even if it's only given me Com Mons so far.

Ah, tasks with curve throws. The best advice I can give is that it depends on which way you make circles when you play. If you move your finger clockwise (which I do), make your circles in the bottom-right corner of your device. If you move your finger counter-clockwise, make your circles in the bottom-left corner of your device. Other than that, it's about learning to judge where in the spin to release your throw based on how close the 'mon in question is standing to you (this is mostly to say, screw you, Zubat and Yanma, you're too far away and you have that erratic dodge).

Another good trick is to find a common task for a Mon you know you can consistently land Great curves against. Complete the task, but run away in order to stack a bunch of them up. Once you've got at least 5, burn through your stack to complete the task (using Nanabs on each of them, if need be). Alternatively, legendary raid bosses are a great source of easy Great curve hits, since their circle tends to be massive and they're prone to breaking out.

Slightly related, if you can find an area where something that's easy for you to hit with curveball throws is nesting (for example, I find Ponyta is one of the easier ones to hit with Great/Excellent curves), go there, but that's obviously much more subject to the whims of fate.

My only caveat about the Tier 5 and/or 7-day research reward method is that the perversity of nature takes hold. Right when you want them to break out for easy great/excellent curved hits, you'll get a "first throw" catch almost without fail (or, relatedly, you luck into a shiny out of the tier 5 raid). It's Finagle's Law in action.

I will take any lucky breaks I can get, even if it means that 5-in-a-row great curveball task sticks around longer. I'm not one to say no to a Shiny Legendary.

Speaking of Shiny Legendaries, I still have yet to meet a Shiny Giratina. Giratina has a shiny palette I actually like, but I'm not going to be too bummed out if I never meet one since I managed to catch a Giratina that has perfect IVs. Are those considered even rarer than Shinies?

Generally speaking, at any equivalent level, yes. A raid 100% has a 1/216 chance of occurring, while a legendary shiny has a 1/20 chance of happening (1/10 on the 3-hour raid days). It's still typically better than the rate for Mons that don't typically appear in the wield (Absol, Mawile, etc.), who have somewhere from a 1/50 to 1/75 shiny chance.

A wild, non-boosted catch's chance of 100% is 1/4096. Even a boosted wild catch is still only 1/1728. Meanwhile, most wild shiny chances are about 1/450.

Practical experience bears this out for me - while I've caught over a hundred shinies, my 100% crew is rather small (and even that's mostly due to recent catches, and most of those have come from raids, which as noted above are the most likely source of 100% catches - my two most recent are Gengar and Mawile).

While on the subject of shinies, I had the weirdest luck with them last month. I somehow managed to catch three shiny Onix all within the span of two weeks (along with a shiny Patrat, Wingull, and Sentret).

As far as 100% mons go, I still only have three. (Incidentally, my most recent one was also a Gastly (which is now a Gengar).)

Edited by kablammin45 on Oct 4th 2019 at 5:06:17 AM

My funniest Shiny story is that the very first Pineco I ever ran into in Pokemon Go was a Shiny. I haven't run into any other Pineco since that Shiny.

So I just got back from my first EX-raid with my first Shadow Ball Mewtwo. I was kind of blown away by the sheer number of people who showed up.

I also thought it was kind of neat that the "victory marker" for an EX-raid is a black emblem with Lugia's head on it, as opposed to the usual orange with Rhydon's head.