On The Difficulty of Level 50 Pokemon
As of writing, the Pokemon with the highest CP I own is a 100% IVs Rhyperior, at level 49. Obtaining XL candy for this Pokemon has been nothing short of slow and random. Thankfully, in the Season of GO, Rhyhorns have been relatively common, especially in sunny weather. Weather that I see all the time. Still, even with walking the former 100% Rhydon for candy, it’s taken a good chunk of this season to even get this far. Simply put, level 50 is a hard target to reach.
There aren’t many other Pokemon that I’ve evolved past level 40. I have a few Pokemon at levels 41-42 but nothing special. And while I might have the candy for some Pokemon, I don’t see a need to level up a Raichu past level 40.
Walking helps
The most consistent way I’ve been getting candy is by walking a high level Pokemon. That’s part of what I did with my 100% Rhyperior, I walked it until we reached best buddies, then walked it some more. But the candies were only nearly guaranteed because my Rhyperior was level 40 to start with. And there’s the bigger issue that you can only walk one Pokemon at a time.
Catching Pokemon in the wild has the same problem. It’s random whether you get an XL candy or not. The higher the Pokemon, the better, but it is still mostly random. The bigger problem is getting candy for whatever Pokemon aren’t in the current season. The Season of GO had Rhyhorn and Ponyta as common and uncommon spawns, for two Pokemon I need and like. But I need Houndour XL Candy and Houndour has been non-existent.
Trading Pokemon for XL Candy is genuinely pretty good, but it all depends on whether you have anyone to trade with. So really, the only way to mostly guarantee XL Candy is to walk a level 35-40 Pokemon for ages.
It’s not just the XL Candy
The star dust cost for Pokemon over level 40 is insane. At 10,000 stardust per half-level in the low 40’s, you’ll quickly be out of stardust. I’ve been considering leveling up only Lucky Pokemon, for that 50% discount, but that can’t be the answer all the time. After all, I don’t have Lucky versions of every Pokemon I want to level past 40.
It’s even worse for Shadow Pokemon. Just to get to level 40.5, you need 12 XL candy and a TON of stardust. Leveling shadow Pokemon is so expensive, that you might as well not bother.
A lot of luck
I think what annoys me a bit more is how random the candy XL can be. You are guaranteed an XL candy on any already-evolved Pokemon, but most of the time, you’re not catching evolved Pokemon. There’s a small chance that any caught Pokemon will give XL Candy, but it’s all chance. And luck. And randomness.
Raids can help with getting guaranteed candy, but that’s assuming the right species are even in raids. At the time of writing, the raid pool has been all over the place. And, unless there’s an obvious theme, Legendary and Mega Raids are also pretty random. We’re basically at the mercy of Niantic when it comes to raids. The downside is that raiding for XL candy, while it is guaranteed, it’s also stupidly expensive, unless you do just the one raid every day.
Somewhat ironically, just as I started typing that last paragraph, a Rhydon spawned in Pokemon GO and gave me 2 XL Candy.
All for nothing?
However, there’s a bigger question to be asked. Are level 50 Pokemon worth aiming for? The answer (like many other answers) is that it depends from your point of view. For casual and semi-casual players, your normal level 40 Pokemon are absolutely fine. Unless you’re trying to solo raid bosses, as long as you have enough players, any raid is beatable.
If you play PvP though, it’s a different story. With level 50 being available, many Pokemon can reach higher CPs than originally intended. This means you can get your Umbreon into the Ultra League, for example. Level 50 has given some Pokemon a second chance in the GBL. But at the same time, level 50 causes some troubles, especially when many Legendaries aren’t as accessible as they are in lower leagues. While the various rotating leagues do help mitigate this, seeing things like level 40+ Dialgas is pretty insane.
Either way though, at least getting XL Candy is a bit easier now…