Rarest Pokémon in Pokémon GO and how to catch them all

There are over 900 Pokémon available in Pokémon GO. Many of these are easy to get, but some are the rarest Pokémon. While a Pidgey isn’t terribly difficult to find, an Uxie is. Even more so, various forms of Pokémon can be rare, too.

Jangmo-o is extremely hard to get, but not impossible

Which Pokémon are rare in Pokémon GO?

Salazzle is one of the rarest Pokémon in the game right now. Sadly, it cannot be found in the wild, nor can its base form Salandit. The only way to acquire it is to hatch a male Salandit and evolve to Salazzle. Female Salandits do not evolve. To make matters even worse, this Pokémon only comes from 12 km eggs, which only come from defeating Team Rocket Leaders.
Scatterbug and its evolutions are hard to find, too. They cannot spawn in the wild. Rather, an encounter occurs when players save enough postcard stamps from a given region.
Kecleon debuted recently. While it can theoretically spawn anywhere, you’d never know it. It hides on Pokéstops, so unless you are paying close attention, you might spin it and not realize it’s even there.
Spiritomb was available for a Halloween event. Since then, it’s not returned to the wild, so most players don’t even have one. Meltan can spawn from the Let’s Go! boxes with Pokémon Home, but it otherwise cannot be found at all.
Jangmo-o, and its subsequent evolutions, are very rare. It can be hatched from a 1o km egg, but is one of the rarest hatches. It hardly ever spawns in the wild, though. If you see one nearby, it is advised to go get it.
Axew, which evolves into Fraxure and then Haxorus, suffers from the same rarity that Jangmo-o does. Krookodile does, too, and it doesn’t ever spawn in the wild.
Noibat just had a community day, but it is otherwise almost impossible to get. It’s a rare hatch from 10 km eggs and it hardly ever pops up in the wild. Goomy didn’t have community day, but the same logic applies.

Additionally, costumed Pokémon (usually Pikachu, but others get costumes as well) only spawn during events, so they’re rare as well.

Regionals are among the rarest Pokémon in Pokémon GO

Regionals, since they can only spawn in various places on earth, are pretty rare for players who live elsewhere. Since the game is geographically locked (unless players spoof, which is frowned upon by Niantic), these can be impossible to find.

Here are the regional spawns available right now:

Generation I

Tauros- North America
Mr Mime- Europe
Kangashkan- Oceania
Farfetch’d- Asia

Generation II

Heracross- Central/South America and Florida
Corsola- Near the equator

Generation III

Torkoal – India/South Asia
Zangoose – Europe, Asia, and Australia
Seviper – North America, South America, and Africa
Solrock – North America, South America, and Africa
Lunatone – Europe, Asia and Australia
Relicanth – New Zealand
Illumise – North America, South America, and Africa
Volbeat – Europe, Asia, and Australia
Tropius – Africa

Generation IV

Pachirisu – Alaska, Canada and Russia
Shellos – Blue variant to the east of the Meridian Line, Pink to the west in North America
Chatot – Southern Hemisphere
Carnivine – Southeast U.S
Uxie – Asia-Pacific
Mesprit -Europe, Middle-East, Africa, and India
Azelf – North, South and Central America
Mime Jr. – Europe

Generation V

Panpour – North, South and Central America and Greenland
Heatmor – Eastern hemisphere
Durant – Western hemisphere
Sigilyph – Egypt and Greece
Throh – North America, South America, and Africa
Sawk – Europe, Asia, and Oceania
Basculin (Red Stripe) – Eastern Hemisphere
Basculin (Blue Stripe) – Western Hemisphere
Maractus – Central America, South America, and the Caribbean
Bouffalant – New York City

Generation VI

Klefki- Europe
Yellow Flabebe- North, South and Central America
Blue Flabebe- Asia-Pacific
Red Flabebe- Europe, Middle East and Africa
Baile Oricorio- Europe, Middle East and Africa
Pom-Pom Oricorio- North, South and Central America
Pa’u Style Oricorio- African, Asian, Pacific and Caribbean islands
Sensu Oricorio- Asia-Pacific
Comfey- Hawaii

Currently, those are the only regionals in the game. Furthermore, the Pokédex will count you having the creature if you have one form, say for Flabebe. However, to catch a red one, you’ll have to visit Europe, the Middle East or Africa.

The rarest Pokémon in Pokémon GO

Ultimately, there are three Pokémon that are nearly impossible to catch. These are easily the rarest Pokémon in Pokémon GO. The three Galarian Birds are essentially impossible to find. To get them to spawn, players have to use a Daily Incense, which is only for 15 minutes a day. If you’re lucky, they will spawn. Unfortunately, that only happens at a low percentage as well.

If they spawn, players have a 0.3% chance of catching them with a given throw. That accounts for using an Ultra Ball, Golden Razz Berry and getting a Nice, Great or Excellent curveball. If they break out (very likely), then they have a 90% chance to flee and they’ll never be seen again.

The Galarian Birds are extremely rare catches

These are nearly impossible to catch, at least until Niantic caves and puts them in the Legendary Raid rotation. If you have one of them, or even all three, you have arguably the rarest Pokémon in Pokémon GO.

Read also: Pokemon GO Tour Hoenn – Complete Guide

Shiny forms of Pokémon

Encountering a shiny is extremely rare unless done on a community day or other special event. If you’re hunting randomly and a shiny Pokémon appears, that is a base 1/450 chance. However, certain shinies are far more difficult to come by. For example, a shiny Bronzor can be found at a 1/76 clip. On the other hand, Finneon carries a 1/1,676 rate. Here are some of the rarest shiny encounters:

Shiny Psyduck is a rare find

Psyduck 1/991
Geodude (Kanto) 1/1,043
Hitmontop 1/1,088
Taillow 1/1,930
Minun, 1/2,026
Wailmer 1/960
Spoink 1/992
Swablu 1/1,072
Spheal 1/1,102
Piplup 1/1,315
Bidoof 1/848
Panpour 1/1,065
Munna 1/920
Sawk 1/1,907
Cubchoo 1/1,351
Bunnelby 1/813

Also, these rates do fluctuate, but not much. The rates don’t drastically change unless Niantic goes in and boosts the odds, like they did with Bronzor, Onix and others.

Of course, others are also hard just simply due to lack of spawns. A shiny Axew is an incredible rarity. So is a shiny (non community day) Noibat. A shiny Riolu is borderline impossible to get since it’s in one egg as the rarest hatch and cannot spawn in the wild. Shiny regionals are also difficult since they can only be found in certain places.

Finding a combination of two rarities is also hard. For example, a shiny Trading Card Game Pikachu is very rare since it was only available for a very brief amount of time.

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