Demystifying Ditto - Rarity and Shiny Rate
Ditto has been one of the most elusive and least understood encounters in Pokémon GO since its release in late 2016. In this article, we reveal the results of a five-month-long Silph Research Group study during which Silph Researchers tracked down over 13,000 Ditto disguises in order to understand just how rare Ditto is, as well as the Pokémon's shiny rate!
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The Lucky Trade Rate Caps at 20%
Silph Road Researchers have been hard at work studying the mechanics of Lucky Trades. The question this study sought to answer: can the Lucky Trade Rate increase all the way to 100% for very old Pokémon?
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Souvenir Survey: Lone Earrings
Have you ever lost an earring? According to the world of our Pokémon buddies, it happens to a lot of us! The Lone Earring souvenir appears to be linked to real world urban areas, but could there be more than meets the eye? Join us as dive into OSM geodata, S2 spatial cells, and satellite imagery to unravel the mysteries of this unusual souvenir.
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Lucky Friend Rates
Since the Lucky Friends feature was released, Silph researchers have been busy interacting with their friends to narrow down the lucky rate attached to earning those guaranteed lucky trades. Today we're looking at their results, identifying the overall lucky rate, and finding the factors that do or do not influence that rate.
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The Effect of Day and Night Cycles on Wild Pokémon
Silph Researchers have amassed a data set of over 290,000 spawns since mid-2018 that we used to examine how day and night cycles affect the rarities of wild Pokémon. We found that a surprisingly large number of Pokémon are affected by these cycles!
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Mythbusters Part 3: Event Decay
Many Pokémon GO events have been subject to speculation about "event decay", the idea that event Pokémon spawns become less common near the end of an event. Could there be any truth to these rumors?
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A Guide to Candy XL Part 5: Evolving
Candy XL can be earned by evolving Pokémon. In case you were unaware of this Candy XL source, don't worry — we forgot too! The existence of this mechanic raises the question: is evolution a viable way for travellers to gather Candy XL, or should it be treated as no more than an occasional bonus?
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Exploring Raid Rewards
On August 27, 2020, Mega Raids were introduced, and with them a major overhaul of the Raid Battle system as a whole. Gone are Tier 2 and Tier 4 raids, replaced by new Mega raids and speed bonuses. With all of these changes, we felt it was time to update our previous findings on raid rewards!
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A Look Inside the Daily Free Box
When quality-of-life features were announced in 2020, travelers were excited by the promise of a daily free item box. Silph Researchers noticed that, initially, the Daily Free Box contents would change every ten minutes. Later, the contents became fixed: the items would change at midnight, but only if the previous day’s box had been claimed. Thanks to our Researchers’ careful tracking, we have been able to crack the secrets of this treasure box!
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Everything You Wanted to Know About the July 2021 Map Update
Starting in New Zealand and gradually rolling out to the rest of the world, July saw updated in-game map visuals. Based on data sourced from OpenStreetMap, this update completely changed the way many travelers see the world of Pokémon GO, with new roads, parks, buildings, and water features appearing. But what is OSM? Where does this map data come from and how old is it? What do the different map features actually mean?
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