Galarian Birds and Master Balls

One of my favourite things in Pokemon GO is free things. In this case, I am talking about the Daily Incense. Upon using the Daily Incense, for 15 minutes, you get one spawn a minute, assuming you are moving. The spawns are generally similar to whatever Pokemon are currently spawning, so if there’s an event, you get event spawns, if there’s no event, it’s just normal stuff. However, there are three incredibly rare prizes to be won. When your Daily Incense is on, there is a chance for one of the three Galarian Birds to spawn.

The Galarian Birds are Galarian versions of the Legendary Birds, Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres. However, rather than being flying and  ice, electric and fire types, the Galarian Birds have different looks, and are flying and psychic, fighting and dark types respectively. They debuted in Generation 8 and the Galar region in the Pokemon Sword and Shield DLCs. They debuted in Pokemon GO the same time Daily Incense came out, and are much harder to catch. In fact, they have like a 90% flee rate.

Yep, most of the time, you can’t catch these bastards. Most of the time, they break out of the Pokeball and instantly flee. That’s even with a golden rasberry AND an excellent throw. These guys are nigh impossible to catch, which is why my brother has two out of three of them. So far, despite my best efforts, I still don’t have any of the Galarian Birds.

These days though, we have a Master Ball. Or, rather, some people have a Master Ball, which was a reward for a special research back in June. The Let’s GO research rewarded a single Master Ball for completing it, with promise that we might get another Master Ball later. The Master Ball has a 100% catch rate, and throws up a warning if you try to use it, telling you that you’ve only got one. Luckily, it has a special animation, so you can’t accidentally drop it on the floor.

But is it worth using a Master Ball on these Pokemon? I don’t think so. I think Niantic are playing the long con. Because the Galarian Birds that you can (try to) catch all have random IVs. They are wild Pokemon spawns, meaning they can have any IVs between 0/0/0 and 15/15/15. They’re completely random, and most of the time, if you manage to catch one, it will most likely have awful stats. However, being Legendary Pokemon, I think they’ll appear in normal level 5 raids one day. Plus, it’s not like these birds currently have any real use. They don’t have good moves and they’re not really meta-relevant. Plus, they’ll probably get some sort of special move at some point.

My point is, there will be easier and better ways to get these birds in the future.

Then again, I have to actually see one. I use my daily incense most days (not so much lately because I’ve been busy lately) and I haven’t seen any of them. The last time I saw any of the Galarian Birds was back in June. These birds are so damn rare that I might as well not bother.

Here’s another thought though. Do you know what’s rarer? Pidgey. Thanks to all these events, thanks to all the seasonal spawns, Pidgey has basically gone extinct. A stupidly common Pokemon is currently unobtainable and thus harder to get than a Galarian Bird. This might change next season, but it’s still weird. The last time we saw Pidgey was back in the April Fools event, but it disappeared immediately afterwards. So technically, it is rarer than the birds. Funny how these things turn out.

Editor’s note: At the time of writing, Pidgey definitely was extinct. But it’s now a rare spawn in the new season.