My First Zygarde Cell
Zygarde is a Pokemon with multiple forms. It starts off as a single cell, it grows into a dog, it then evolves into a draconic snake, before changing into its 100% form, which looks like some cool humanoid monster with tassles. In Pokemon GO, while we don’t get the single cell form, the A to Zygarde research gives us a 10% Zygarde, the little doggy form. In order to evolve it, we needs Zygarde Cells, which we catch in a Zygarde Cube. But this process is… tedious.
To evolve your Zygarde 10% into a Zygarde 50%, you need 50 Zygarde Cells. To evolve your Zygarde 50% to its 100%, you need 200 Cells. This is separate from Zygarde Candy, which you need to level Zygarde up. It requires a bit of an effort.
So, the only way you can get Zygarde Cells is doing routes. As you follow a route, towards the end of it, you can see a green spot. Tapping it makes the cell get sucked up into your Zygarde Cube. That’s assuming that the cell actually spawns, because getting a Zygarde Cell from a route is not guaranteed. They’re made rarer by the fact that you can only find up to 3 Zygarde Cells a day. And, on top of that, it seems that some routes, namely looping routes, have an insanely low chance of spawning a Zygarde Cell.
The problem is, routes take time. I have a route somewhat close to me, but I need to walk there and then do the route. And doing the route takes about 10 minutes if I rush, or about 15 minutes if I walk like a normal person. Doing three routes to get your three Zygarde Cells is going to take 45 minutes. Worse, you can’t just ignore your phone, you need to have your eyes glued to it to make sure you don’t miss your potential Zygarde Cell. Assuming the best case scenario, it takes 17 days of doing three routes a day to get enough cells for a 50% Zygarde. You then need another 83 DAYS! to get that 100% Zygarde.
That’s pretty insane.
Sure, there are Pokemon that require a lot of effort. Feebas needs to walk 20km with you as your buddy but you can do that at your own pace and walk wherever you want. Cosmoem needs 100 candy to evolve it into Lunala or Solgaleo. But you can speed that process up by feeding it rare candies. There’s no way to speed up the grind for Zygarde, aside from hoping that someone makes nice, short, 500m routes near where you live. And such a route still needs to be walked by you three times a day, assuming you even get a Zygarde Cell.
Unfortunately, there are hardly any routes here where I live. The ones that do exist are incredibly long, and not particularly fun. The first route I managed to do wasn’t too bad, it traveled across town hall, and at least had some straight bits, despite needing to cross a busy road. However, I walked that route a LOT, and I never found a Zygarde Cell. I was basically looking for this strange, green blob, surrounded by tons of Pokemon that get in the way.
As for me, I have managed to get a couple of routes approved. One of them is a looping route around a park, the other is a walk around the mall, keeping you out of the boiling Cyprus sun. This mall route is actually where I found my first Zygarde Cell, it appeared at about 20m away from the end of the route. I tried walking the route again, but nothing else spawned. Considering how long ago routes came out, this is actually quite depressing. And, worse, the closest route to me is a loop, which means me farming for more Zygarde Cells is going to take forever.
I guess I’ll never be able to evolve my Zygarde. If I do, it’s going to take a stupidly long time…