Pokemon Go and the Chances of Getting a Better Fish

After what felt like a small eternity, Cresselia has left our Legendary Raids, swiftly replaced by the badass water beast known as Kyogore. Cresselia’s return brought with it the chance to find a Shiny Cresselia from raids, but the fact that Cresselia is a somewhat boring boss to fight (a tanky psychic type meaning nothing but Tyranitars) and that she’s just not that cool a person meant that getting people to do raids was tricky.

Even I wasn’t that enthralled, I just wanted to get a shiny one and call it a day. But I also would have liked a chance at getting a slightly better Cresselia, since the best one I had was 91% and I could do better. Best I got ended up being about 96%, but I also managed to get a 93% shiny Cresselia, so nyah! That being said, bringing my brother out to to raids was mostly pointless once he’d gotten a shiny, because the very first Cresselia raid we did (last year!), he got one with perfect 100% IVs. That being said, Cresselia doesn’t have much use, because there’s already a ton of psychic type Pokemon that are worth spending candy on, so none of my Cresselias have been powered up.

Kyogre on the other hand is probably the best water type Pokemon in Pokemon Go, and it’s a badass glowing whale creature. Kyogre is a cool Pokemon with a bright pink shiny form and a bunch of cool moves and is just otherwise really fricking cool. Kyogre has also been available for longer, meaning that some people have 1. managed to obtain a shiny one and 2. managed to power up the Kyogres they like.

This puts us in a somewhat weird position.

Do you go out and try and catch more Kyogres, which may be superior to the ones you have, or do you just kinda ignore Kyogre and wait for Groudon to arrive, because you’re content with the Kyogres you already own and have probably already powered up?

I mean, sure, you might have a Kyogre with 95% IVs but you could do better, right? You could try and go for a perfect one. Or even a shiny, perfect one! But what if you’ve already powered up some of your best Kyogres? How much candy and star dust will you end up almost wasting if you get a better one? Powering up legendary Pokemon is expensive, after all!

But the rabbit hole (Pikachu hole?) goes deeper. And I have a great example of it. I spent a long time walking a Cranidos with good IVs and a really high CP, and I evolved it into a Rampardos which is great. But literally a few days later, I got a better, luckier Cranidos and guess what? I had 1 Cranidos candy left. I’d basically wasted that candy and it’s going to be a while before I can evolve this other Cranidos.

This happens all the time. You get a Pokemon, you care for it, you nurture it, you feed it candy and evolve it and power it up and boom, now there’s an event and you end up finding a better Pokemon. Or worse, you work hard and evolve a Pokemon only to find that there’s a Community Day for it or it’s going to get a new move or something.

It gets worse though. Rayquaza came back for two weeks, but he didn’t come with any of his signature moves. Sure, I managed to get a 97% Rayquaza, but I’ve got one that doesn’t have great moves, meaning I’m going to have to go and catch MORE Rayquazas when Niantic eventually release Rayquaza with a special move AND shiny Rayquaza. In the mean time, I went and powered my best one to 3000 CP and… that’s basically a waste.

Even now, Kyogre and Groudon coming back to raids is cool, but at some point they’ll come back with THEIR signature moves, Origin Pulse and Precipice Blades. Rendering the ones I already have, including a perfect Groudon, obsolete.

My point is, sometimes it’s just not worth holding onto some Pokemon. Because there is ALWAYS a better version of said Pokemon 3-6 months down the line…