Stupidly Hard To Get Pokemon That Are Also Kinda Useless in Pokemon GO
There are a lot of rare Pokemon in Pokemon GO, but just because something is rare, that doesn’t mean it’s good. Here are some stupidly rare, hard to get Pokemon that just aren’t worth the effort.
Salazzle
I really like Salazzle. It was what carried me in Pokemon Shield, and I have one on my team in Pokemon Violet as well. It’s actually not the easiest Pokemon to obtain in general though, because you need to get a female Salandit to evolve it into a Salazzle, and only 12.5% of Salandit are female. In Pokemon GO, this is even harder since you can only get Salandit by hatching 12km eggs, and you need to beat a Team Rocket leader to get a 12km egg. There’s also a LOT of trash inside 12km eggs, making Salandit even harder to obtain.
Sadly, Salazzle doesn’t have much use in Pokemon GO. It does have a good attack stat, but in the main games, it relies on high speed to always go first, and speed isn’t a stat in Pokemon GO. Because it’s so frail, Salazzle becomes very hard to use, and dies to a stiff breeze.
Noivern
The 400 candy evolution Pokemon vary in usefulness, and, sadly, Noivern is probably the most useless. It’s a glass cannon with a useless normal type special move, and its dragon and flying type moves are also not particularly good. If you want a good dragon/flying type, then Dragonite and Salamence are both far better options, and they are both easier to obtain. Especially since Noibat only gains one candy every 5km, unlike the majority of other 400 candy evolutions.
At least Noibat does occasionally spawn in the wild, and has appeared in several events, as well as having its own community day. But you can skip this evolution, outside of filling your Pokedex. It’s a shame really, because I really like Noivern.
Volcarona
Volcarona is a fire/bug type Pokemon that’s known to be a monster in the main games. In Pokemon GO though, it’s locked behind a 400 candy evolution, requiring a Larvesta. Like Noibat, it only gains one candy every 5km. Unlike Noibat though, Larvesta has never spawned in the wild. Sure, it’s available in more eggs, but it’s stupidly rare to actually hatch one.
What makes matters worse though is that there are already a lot of good fire types. Blast Burn starter Pokemon are about as good as Volcarona with far less investment, and we also have plenty of fire-based Legendary Pokemon too. Moltres, Heatran and Reshiram are all just as good and are, weirdly, more readily available.
Dusk Form Lycanroc
I like Lycanroc, and I have a Midnight Form Lycanroc on my Pokemon Violet team. But in Pokemon GO, Lycanroc is a tad too fragile and doesn’t really have any good moves. At the same time, there are already a LOT of strong rock types already. Not only does it have to fight against the powerful legendary Pokemon Terrakion, but it also struggles against the likes of Rampardos, Rhyperior and Tyranitar. All of whom also have shadow forms, which make them even better.
Dusk Form Lycanroc is an even rarer form that doesn’t really have any extra benefits, apart from, well, just being different.
Gholdengo
I kinda thought that Ghost/Steel would be a really useful type, but for the effort needed to get Gholdengo, it’s not really worth the effort. You need a fuckton of coins to evolve a Gimmighoul into a Gholdengo, but the golden Pokemon doesn’t really do much. At the very least, it doesn’t particularly stand out. There are simply too many other, better Ghost and Steel types in the way, both in PvP and PvE. It doesn’t even HAVE any steel moves, so it’s completely useless as a steel type.
Most Mythicals
The majority of mythical Pokemon generally require a lot of work to obtain. Most of them are unlocked by doing special research which often requires a lot of pain in the ass tasks. The Mew quest for example requires catching a Ditto and and evolving a Magikarp, The shiny mythical quests are even harder, but those are, to be fair, intentionally hard since they’re supposed to be valuable. However, out of all the existing mythical Pokemon, only Darkrai has some use as a dark type in PvE, and it’s outclassed by Tyranitar and Hydreigon.
At least some of them have use in PvP. Mew, Victini and Jirachi have limited play in Great League, but require a lot of candy to unlock a second charge move to make them strong enough. Melmetal at least does have a lot of use in Master League, and is probably one of the easiest Pokemon to max out, but it’s definitely an outlier. Either way, mythical Pokemon (except for Melmetal) require a HUGE amount of rare candies to be made useful, even if they are strong.
Sure, you can obtain all these Pokemon (apart from Dusk Form Lycanroc, as of writing) but it’s a lot of work and it’s not really worth the effort. You’re better off focusing on other Pokemon.