Pokemon GO Special Evolution Items Are Very Rare
Evolution items were added to Pokemon GO together with the 80 or so new Pokemon added to the game in the Gen 2 update. Their purpose is basically to grant new evolutions to several Gen 1 monsters. They were meant to be one of the main selling points of the new update. However, the items are so rare, they’re already notorious for it.
How Rare are Special Evolution Items?
By all accounts, ridiculously so. Several trainers have speculated that completing the 7-day PokeStop streaks might increase your chance of getting at least one Evolution item drop, but that’s very disputable. many trainers (myself included) got absolutely no special items after completing the streak. People online are estimating the drop frequency at about 1%. You wish.
The dedicated people at GOHub are doing ongoing research on the special item drop frequency, and it doesn’t look good at all. So far, they’ve collected and organized data from 23700 spins and, according to their data, the drop rate is at a miserable 0.14% total. You can see the exact percentages below.
| Item | Drops | % of Total |
|---|---|---|
| Sun Stone | 8 | 0.03% |
| King’s Rock | 6 | 0.03% |
| Dragon Scale | 4 | 0.02% |
| Upgrade | 6 | 0.03% |
| Metal Coat | 9 | 0.04% |
| Total | 33 / 23701 | 0.14% of 100% |
To make things even more depressing, it seems that the majority of these drops happened on the first day of the Gen 2 update. According to their data the first three or four thousand spins dropped 28 out of the 33 Evolution items.
Of course, you could say that less than twenty-four thousand spins is a very small sample, and you’d be right. Except, by all accounts, it seems to be accurate. I guess it makes sense that Evolution items are rare, since they’re meant to be an incentive to play more. And, yes, they weren’t exactly around every corner in previous Pokemon games, either. But this kind of RNG really seems excessive.
What are your experiences with Evolution items in Pokemon GO so far? Tell us in the comments!
