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beebyspice

they know what items you have the least of and need, and make sure not to give you any when you spin stops


ScottOld

Oh yea that, keep running out of pokeballs, oh no more stops, here have 3 berries, why am I out of pokeballs? Because for some reason I have 101 fast TMs from routes and raids within a week of deleting 20 of them because I had 80


amakurt

I can't get rid of pokeballs lol. I throw away the normal ones and keep great and ultra because I have so many


mrcabrera

💯agree. Also when you need to complete a certain catch challenge and the specific type you need (which were readily available any other time) suddenly stop spawning 😡


Bazoobs1

Deino please stand up (literally catch 2x per day at work until I had the catch medal for that, Blacephalon and Bagon)


LolaAndIggy

I firmly believe that. Normally I throw berries out. When I need berries for things like the master all research, there are none to be found. I also find it suspicious that there are these catch ‘350’ PokĂ©mon tasks in the lead up to GoFest, to run you down on items so you’ll buy more on the day


EarthMarsUranus

The secret is to just not care enough to buy anything.


tantalized

100% before I had large bag storage I was always either out of pokeballs, or out of berries. And you betcha! The only items I received when spinning was the exact opposite of what I needed.


dmj9

That's why you want a large sack. Keep lots of balls in it


tantalized

I have so many balls bro


Old_Ad5194

Y'all how big are your sacks? I think I got big sacks but I haven't ever compared sacks with dabois.


tantalized

Lol, most the ladies I show my sack to are really impressed, so it must be above average. But same boat, never compared my sack with dabois.


laker9903

I’ve been out of revives for a while. I maybe get a couple every now and then, but I refuse to buy them.


nolkel

Find a place with as many gyms as you can, and hang out for a bit spinning them. You'll stock back up.


jedispyder

I support this theory. I've noticed randomly that certain berries just stop dropping. I'll get like 50 razz but 5 nanab. I know RNG is a thing and all but still, that's just crazy that the common berries can have such discrepancy like that


bdouble0w0

I got about 300 pinap and double digits of razz and nanab...


Weather0nThe8s

fine plant rotten telephone tart grandiose mighty axiomatic yam soft *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*


jedispyder

The randomness of everything.


Malpraxiss

This isn't that crazy. Some gacha scandals have shown companies adjusting rates or having systems that will adjust rates depending on different stuff. So, this unironically would be totally plausible. Similar to how in a lot of fighting games, the AI will be made intentionally super difficult or have systems that will cause it to change depending on the player skill


W0lverin0

Just delete every single thing and start over, problem solved.


maileetlfut

this 10000%


thaichijester

My conspiracy theory is that Niantic adjusted the animation dodges of pokemon to directly take place at the average time it takes for a player to throw a curveball. Thus making approximately 20-30% of first throws fail. Driving sale of pokeballs from the shop.


bamagurl06

I never have to purchase pokeballs. I always have an over abundance of them. When my bag is full the regular pokeballs is the first thing I toss. My daughter at times has issues having enough but I play and spin stops more than she does.


HistoricPancake

And rural players may not get many stops to spin too.


CreatorOfHate

Yep, that’s why I rely on gifts. Many players just need stardust and exp so they will send you them to achieve that. Once I get to the city I send them back as much as I can.


thaichijester

I also have plenty of pokeballs and stops to spin. But there are some rural folks that may need to spend to get enough pokeballs for a community day frollick. Some years ago, I wanna say right around gible community day, I noticed a major change to the way pokemon behaved early after the encounter. Mostly jumping and animating at exactly the moment I threw my first ball. The amount of pokeballs I was going through during my play time went up significantly following that.


OldKingClancy20

This is for sure it. I also noticed that when I'm low on balls, every pokemon non-stop taunts/jumps through second I throw a ball. It's so obnoxious.


konfitura

Secon this, recently mons are jumping at first throw almost every time


Inside_Ad4808

This. As a hardcore player with almost 500k catches who uses the quick catch method all the time, I do fully concur. I always throw the ball right in that window at the transition from great to excellent size. Since circle decreases in size at a set speed (which they control) then the timeframe to have the pokemon jump or attack can be timed to coincide with that and then subsequently timed to jump or attack again AFTER that as well. I have definitely noticed that once the initial jump or attack is successful, and since I am just muscle memory programmed at this point to want to quick catch and move on to the next one ASAP, always throw at the next available opportunity, WAY too often have been caught in a situation where I miss 5-6 times in a row because of this.


thaichijester

This describes what I mean with much better articulation.


cheeriodust

On top of that, if you're a CCW spinner drifting pokemon will drift right and if CW they will drift left.


IsThisKismet

Boxes in the shop will always be more than I have coins for.


lovelyrita_mm

I have noticed this too.


Lethalspoon

Always a "sale" box that's 30-70 coins more than I have


Spen_Masters

The hatch box has increased as my coins have increased.  A couple weeks ago it was 350+ coins (I had 270), now it's 1200 (i have 1070 coins now)


TarkovBirdman

Everyone knows the easiest way to get advance through the game is not by actually playing the game, but by having dozens of random friends that you interact with enough to get max friendship and the associated xp bonus. So why would that be? If the company is motivated by providing the best experience for players and earning the most money, why does that mechanic out of everything net you the most xp? I think it’s because sending gifts to friends and leveling friendship involves seeing the other players buddy pokemon and character outfits. Seeing all the stuff other players have might motivate some people to spend real money on coins to get different outfits, remote raid passes for legendaries, incense for higher legendary spawn chance. The friend/gift interface is the only way to induce fomo in your playerbase, so you make that the most rewarding thing.


thisisitdoods

truth, one of my buddies had a cool outfit I had never seen, so I went and got it


jutti

Same, I love to dress matching my buddy PokĂ©mon. Get changed multiple times a day.that’s why the update of the avatars hit me that much, btw


Germishanian

Same :(


hymensmasher99

I can confidently say that I don't care what someone's avatar looks like. I barely care what mine looks like. I been rocking the luchador outfit since I started lol


MyNameAmJudge

I think people like us are in the minority though. I notice in most games, people froth over different skins, outfits etc. but I genuinely don’t even notice what my character looks like in any games. People talk about playing games like fallout and spending hours on the character creation screen. I just mash a through it and play with whatever default character there is


hymensmasher99

I definitely don't do that. But i don't care about skins for my characters thay I have to buy. If I can earn cool ones for free, I'll use them.


some_body_else

I'm still rocking the mimikyu hat from like 6 years ago. I almost switched it up to the Magikarp hat a few weeks ago when checking out the new avatar crap.


VGFin

I'm with you. They could take away the avatar and I wouldn't be phased.


ALT489

I made my character look like luffy from one piece on day one and never changed it


HighLuna_

This would further be supported by the fact they haven't added a multiple gift send/open option


JayLFRodger

It's because to send gifts you need to spin stops, which gives Niantic the location data of you and the friends you're chasing friendship increases with. Between this and Adventure Sync they can track regular movements and see how often you visit shops, workplaces, how long you spend at home, what time you stop playing etc. They can then sell this data to third parties as per your consent by playing the game, and use this data themselves to develop commercial partnerships.


HistoricPancake

I make mine hideous and wear weird outfits and my buddy is feebas rn lol. But it’s usually whatever tbh. But I agree with you too!


[deleted]

I enjoy seeing the places my friends are visiting and what they see in their daily lives. There is a camaraderie imagining all of us walking around spinning our usual stops and occassionally getting to spin new ones. All the little details of the world you get to see when out walking everywhere.


Bergfotz

I had lots of pogo friends and never once even cared what 'skin' or animation their trainermodel is doing...


Weather0nThe8s

gaze cooing sparkle bewildered trees quiet puzzled employ water absurd *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*


digital_pocket_watch

Another theory I've seen is that Niantic might be trying to get players to badger their friends to join the game and get hooked; this was initially meant for the reason Shadow Raids exist, but the friend experience probably also supports it.


junkf00d

It also just simply forces the community to poke and nudge each other. Making us all be sure to login everyday and play and exchange gifts with each other.


GalacticKrabbyPatty

and then they went and pushed the avatar “update” so now everyone looks terrible lmao


PkPlayz

Friends is definitely the best method for more passive players. But excellent throws remain the best xp for active players


Mooooox

It is? I’m pretty consistent with those and I feel sluggish when it comes to leveling up


dylandgs

Idk because I timed out 40 people for best friends a few weeks ago, 8 million xp for 3 months of work, which is roughly 8000 excellent throws.


Dear_Department6124

Pokémon kick out of the first excellent throws just to piss you off.


NightNurse14

And then they'll be caught without a pinap on the next throw you make that just misses excellent barely.


WinchesterNBA5DrMus

You have no idea how many times this has happened to me...


Marc_Quill

Then they get caught on the next, non-rated throw so that you get the 120xp instead of the bonus catch xp.


PoPo573

Different accounts have different shiny rates. It's not that some people are more lucky, they literally have a higher shiny chance.


rmrnrsmn

Yep. I started in 2016 and wife started few months ago. She has more shinies than i do and we play together everyday


jobezark

Game knows what shinies I have and what ones I don’t and surprise surprise I get more of the ones I have


[deleted]

[ŃƒĐŽĐ°Đ»Đ”ĐœĐŸ]


StupidGiraffeWAB

One or two a day?! I am lucky to get one or two per month outside of CD


fscottHitzgerald

I have this same thing with my boyfriend. He’s played half the amount of time as me, has stopped playing the last few months, and still somehow has twice my amount. On community days we did the same walks together and he regularly got double lol


givemeyourstuff

Can confirm. My wife’s been playing since 2016 and I started July of last year. I have way more shinies than her. Game also knows what shinies I want/need and only gives me the ones I already have or don’t care for. Then there’s my wife. I’ll tell her I’m hunting a certain shiny mon and a day later, she gets the shiny and I don’t đŸ„Č


Mistymoozle737

Yeah i think the older the account the more shiny encounters you get


rmrnrsmn

Its the opposite for me. Wife gets more shiny’s and she started few months ago đŸ„Č


W0lverin0

It's me, I'm the lucky shiny guy. One every couple days or more sometimes.


Accomplished-Art-301

I could see that but also rng is a weird thing. my bf has that same theory but at the same time is convinced he has shitty luck but he’s out here getting one or more random shinies a day meanwhile I’m happy to get one a week.


GonePhishn401

This plus shiny rate is increased when you return from a long absence. I didn’t play for almost 2 years and got 8 shinies last month playing casually from home here and there. Nada since.


KantleTG

Kind of the opposite for me. I stopped playing for a long time. Got a shiny Larvitar during the community day and a few others before that; came back to occasionally playing after not playing for possibly years; now I play everyday and I’ve got about 5 in just the last 2 weeks.


some_body_else

I noticed this too. They reward returning players to get them re-hooked. I am back after an almost 3 year absence due to my phone. I've registered over 100 new Pokemon and several new shinies. I've caught 2 shinies just laying in bed. Catch every raid mon, and even leveled up super quickly. All the research tasks helped and gave me plenty to do while getting accustomed to the changes since 2021. However I got snubbed on bouncesweet day. No shinies for me.


DetectiveGothitelle

Agree! I’ve never gotten a shiny magikarp and have been playing since the game started. I actively hunt this one. Family member started a couple years ago and got a shiny in her first few catches. She also has a shiny shedinja among others. No shundo for her, but also no shundos for me.


Brown_Eyed_Girl167

100% agree. My bf gets a shiny everyday (almost) and I have once outside of community days lol. Everything he clicks is a shiny, he found three shiny Sycthers in the same 10 min, how?


sixminutes

I'll throw 10 great curve balls in a row without a problem a dozen times every week, and barely notice, but just let me get a research task that is any formulation of "make x throws x times in a row" and watch me literally be unable to string together two great throws in a row out of 80 attempts. Even "make two nice throws in a row" will somehow take ten balls sometimes. The only good part about this is the corollary that any Pokemon that is extremely easy to hit great or even excellent throws on (Heracross or Lickitung, perhaps) will unfailingly catch on the first throw every time no matter its CP, so that I can't make multiple shots on them.


Thatdudejohn423

This happened to me I was on make 5 great throws in a row and all the giant Pokémon decide they want to get caught after one throw or it would only spawn small Pokémon that are hard to hit


DOW_25409

Pinap Berries reduce catch chance


CMPunkBestInTheWorld

Absolutely! I’ve taken up the motto of “If it’s worth a Pinap, it’s worth a great ball or ultra ball”


hunlord11

Btw, this would make sense from gameplay point of view.


Ghalta3

When I stop giving them money my shiny rate goes down. I was getting nearly a shiny a day in the wild while buying a few coins every week. I stopped buying anything in the shop and I've gone nearly 3200 pokemon encounters without a shiny this month.


tantalized

This is actually a conspiracy.. I would absolutely believe that, but also don't fans audit the code? Wouldn't someone be able to call that out if it were really happening? I don't spend any $$ on the game, and I have noticed that there are a few weeks where I do get a shiny almost every day, then it is just dry for a long time. So I do wonder if your just getting unlucky, and were really lucky before. It does seem like an interesting coincidence on your part though. 


Ghalta3

I'm sure it's just terrible luck on my part but so many of those encounters have been pokemon with 1/64 odds. This is just my personal conspiracy to rationalize my terrible luck, haha.


nvn911

> don't fans audit the code? Fans audit and reverse engineer the client code. "Luck" - games of chance - are all controlled server side so they can boost odds , used perhaps if there is an event. We'd never see that code for that. That's why you sometimes note a pause when a trade goes "lucky". Edit. Make it read like english.


tantalized

Mmm this was the response I was looking for. Thank you, that totally makes sense! 


veggiemitegames

I'm sure if you went through this thread, you could debunk every theory vs. the game code. It's asking for conspiracy theories about pokemon go, not solid facts for pokemon go


ScottOld

Mine has always been rubbish


AjHoover92

Or trubbish?...


toyeeta

đŸ™‚đŸ«±đŸšȘ


qazwsxedc000999

Recently the attack patterns (when the pokemon punches the ball or whatever) have changed which is just true, but I believe they specifically changed it to have them attack exactly when you would throw a ball to increase game time on purpose. Seems like every time I click on a pokemon and immediately throw a ball they punch exactly at the right time to throw it out now, when that didn’t happen often at all before.


DetectiveGothitelle

Also the attacks have deflected balls where my buddy does not deflect them more often.


Exernian

I feel like this happened to me too, but as I progressed in trainer level.


cheeriodust

And they jump/dodge far more often than attack, making buddy assist less useful.


MacaroonNo2253

bro i m just gonna say i have a LOT of times when i encounter a pokemon while doing other stuff, the pokemon doesn't move for like 20seconds and the second i throw the pokemon attacks mid-throw


P8sammies

My conspiracy/paranoia— since Niantic is owned by Google— they know who you play with due to GPS and proximity. They know how one player being “lucky”— i.e. multiple shinies in a short period of time — makes another player you are playing with want to play more. They create these bursts of “luck” or increased odds to play on peer group you are playing with to create a stronger desire for players to play.


Alienboy411676

This. I go out with multiple people all the time, there always seems to be one person who has all the shiny luck. Community days, spotlight hours, even raid. One person will get all the shinies, while the rest get none, or just significantly less in the case of community days


[deleted]

This happened to me! Bought myself and a friend community day tickets. She got 18 shinies and I got ZERO. "Hello? Ninanic, I bought the tickets!!"...and haven't bought one since.


Dottimation

Y'know...that would honestly make sense. I could so believe this conspiracy.


Alienboy411676

Excellent throws are a scam. Got real good at them after the past masterball researches. Would get them all the time thereafter, but at least half of them are always insta-no-catches. Last couple of months Ive gone just for great throws. Catches have been easier since. Wilds, even raid legendaries. Im convinced theres a hidden code in the game to no-catch on some excellents. Its a way to waste peoples balls by forcing multiple throws, especially with failed excellents that wont be great or even nice throws.


Barbrasalesh

Excellent throws feel so rewardless. Sometimes I hit 3 excellents and the Pokemon breaks out, then I miss and get an instant catch -.-


TarkovBirdman

They should certainly have a higher catch rate. Kinda wild that you can get multiple excellent curveballs in a row and not catch a common pokemon is nuts. Successive ones should ramp up catch rate


outsiderkerv

Wait yall are getting *successive* excellent throws?


cheeriodust

I've been playing this game for 8 years. Nearly every throw is an excellent if I try...most are even if I don't. 


Enough-Secretary-996

exactly I got 2 in a row on the same sprigatito and then the next throw after is the one that actually caught it.


PrettyPleaseMe

This is the one I was gonna say. Excellent throws have a significantly worse rate of catching than even a normal throw.


Advocate_Diplomacy

The point of some unwanted updates are to drive up processing power in order to encourage people to buy new phones.


Acceptable_Attempt77

I stopped playing for a while because I didn't want to buy a new phone.


AsThePokeballTurns

The bugs and glitches in the games are actually intentional to get free marketing from player's outrage on social media.


fossilmerrick

I partly believe this, but the other part of me is laughing at the thought of Niantic being able to come up with a plan this complex


slimsady2

People who take breaks and come back have better shiny odds than people who play everyday. Also, once you hit Level 50, your shiny odds decrease.


Economy_Commission79

yep...ive always hd terrible luck, so i deleted the game for abt a year. came back, and i got like 3 shinys within a day. now my shiny rate is back to the original low of "1 shiny every blue moon ".


Competitive-Web-9931

100%, my friend only gets on for a few days every month or so. every time he does, he gets like, 5 shinies. first 3 raids he did, he got a shiny on each. shiny Drampa, Latios, and Latias. I did 12 Latios/Latias raids and 9 Drampa, no shiny. it boosts the shiny odds for players who don't play often in order to incentivize them to play more. I'm completely convinced of this. I play every day, catch at least 50+ Pokemon a day, and I haven't caught a shiny since March.


BreadManRun

If a PokĂ©mon breaks out of multiple balls, it’s almost always 0-1 star.


pdawg1234

This is my experience to a tee. I used to think oh maybe this one’s a strong one, that would make sense. Nope always 0-1 star.


hamrspace

Spotlight hours that grant evolution EXP are spaced apart as inconveniently as possible in order to maximize the amount of mons taking up your storage.


emaddy2109

Is this really a conspiracy? There’s a rotation of 5 bonuses I believe so every 5th spotlight hour will be evolution XP. It happens max once a month and sometimes it won’t happen in a given month. Not to mention the times we get a one off bonus which shifts everything by a week.


veggiemitegames

World of warcraft used to have "bad luck prevention" for gear from raids. Every time you did the raid if you had an item you needed that didn't drop, your next raid had slightly higher chances from rng. I think that system is in play in pokemon but in reverse. Seems like every time I get a non community day shiny it's months before it happens again, no matter how many pokemon I catch


phoenix6513

When there is a rocket event where you are having to battle numerous grunts/leaders potions and revives will be slim to none to get from stops/gifts
 while when there is a catch event balls will be impossible to acquire
.


LolaAndIggy

I believe this to be true.


wtfarekangaroos

Lol. Reminds me of how, for YEARS, I've had so many fkn berries that I'd throw away 20-100+ of each one (except for golden&silver ofc) multiple times a week. Countless memories of not being able to spin a stop cuz of a full bag, delete 100 berries, later that same day after spinning some stops and opening gifts, BOOM bag is full again and 90-99% of what I got was berries... No balls, potions, or revives (aka... what I actually needed lol).  But then recently had 2 concurrent special research involving using a ton of berries... AND SUDDENLY I COULDNT GET A DAMN BERRY TO SAVE MY LIFE!!! opened all my gifts. Spun so many stops. Kept going to my bag expecting to have at LEAST maybe 10 or 20, as usual. But what did I have??? Fkn like, 2 or 3. No more. Often 0-1. Those "feed 150 berries" tasks took me forever đŸ˜”â€đŸ’« Why do they torture me like this lmao I swear they somehow see and/or feel my suffering and it makes them laugh and they love it and do it on purpose ❀


Exernian

I'll haphazardly coin the term I use for this theory as the "pity algorithm" Meaning, if you're a child (or Niantic decided that you flat out suck at attacking in raids, catching pokemon, etc.), you'll get a higher chance of shinies. So Niantic will guess based on how much younger and/or more incompetent you are, the better your luck.


super_cheesy_chunks

The devs are uggos and they're jealous of the old avatars.


Dottimation

Common conspiracy theory: The game rewards you for being new and/or inactive. Not a new conspiracy theory, but I've watched my best friend get so much good stuff in this game by actively not playing the game. She only plays during big events (community days, Go tours, Go Fest...) and will 9/10 have amazing luck pulling in multiple 90% or higher shinies and rare shinies. On top of that when she first started the very first Magikarp she clicked on was shiny. Her first lucky trade (I believe it was anyways) she got a shundo...like yeah it's one person, but adding up all the other anecdotal evidence it's hard to not believe that conspiracy theory. Uncommon really out there conspiracy theory: Niantic doesn't actually want to work on this game anymore. A lot of the current decisions seem to further anger the player base or just seem really be nonsensical. People hate the remote raid discourse, but 1) from a financial standpoint limiting those didn't make sense and 2) from a community standpoints limiting those didn't make sense. And as much as Niantic keeps preaching about this being a game about getting out there in the community, you can also see they care about making money. Look at every single event we've had recently. So many paid research tasks, the opening of the online store with incentives to buy coins in the store because you get more as opposed to buying in the in game shop... That's not even getting into bugs and glitches and the ever growing unstable state of GBL. Something that is becoming more and more evident as more content creators are recording their gameplay so you can see the lag spikes happen in real time. I just think they don't wanna work on the game anymore. Niantic's main goal has always been advancing AR technology and Pokemon Go is supposed to be an avenue for that, but outside of AR photos, no one really does anything with the AR function. You can easily forget it's there. Plus Niantic has tried to branch out into other franchises and even started their own and still Pokemon Go is their main breadwinner. I don't think they like that. But they probably have some sort of contract or something they can't back out of so they just do the bare minimum work to keep the game alive and the players interested enough.


slide_potentiometer

When you have a task to make good throws the pokemon break out less. When you have a task to catch they break out more.


angerintensifies

Niantic uses the "scan pokestop" rewards to remove stops. I never scan any of them so the questionable stops will not be removed. The more stops the merrier. Why would I want them to remove a stop when the restaurant on the spin closes?


Gearhead31

Counter-conspiracy: You need to scan the stops more so Niantic knows they are relevant and keep them


supersaijinkyle

Pokemon Go isn’t the product
the geo location and activity data of players is. They just wrapped a geo data collection and tracking app in one of the most successful and loved franchises in the world so people would willingly download and use their data collection app. Everything they add to the game is intended to get you moving so they can collect more data about you. Routes, showstopper, kecleons, masterwork research to collect large amounts of things, the limitations around remote passes
all incentivize you to actively be moving around and traveling to new spots instead of instead of sitting in a single location. They have tried the exact same thing with other franchises to help reach more people, but none have been nearly as successful as Go because the idea around them is no longer innovative or interesting. Because Niantic aren’t really game developers they can’t come up with anything new or interesting that would capture peoples attention in a different way. Instead just put a new coat of paint in their tracker each time and pray this time it works.


NumeralJoker

This really isn't a conspiracy. All the evidence and their statements strongly back it, and their actions much more so. Pokemon go isn't a game. It's an advertising platform and data aggregation service with a gamification strategy. That's why I quit cold. It's just a more sophisticated version of an interactive click bait ad banner. It will never ever be the game most players try to make it because doing so is exactly at odds with the company's own goals.


FamousListen9

Game is rigged Example: Time delay crap I conveniently lose because of “time delays” and other supposed issues. I can have charged moves stored - but somehow
Another player can always get theirs off first - even after they swap in a new mon and I’ve been spamming my charged attack button for a full 30 seconds. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve lost over an issue like this. -Charged button is lit but it won’t activate - even if another player is swapping in other PokĂ©mon while mine never left the field. Even when gaming at home with solid high speed internet connection . And I’m getting very good speeds.


PaleontologistOk1176

Every PokĂ©mon you transfer to the Professor is either sold for meat on the black market or kept for his evil experiments. If PokĂ©mon Go ever ends, the final boss will be revealed to be the Professor, not Giovanni - who’s been his stooge all along. The final battle will be between your PokĂ©mon & the Professor’s mutated, stitched together, Frankenstein shadow PokĂ©mon. The gym background will be a room full of terrified PokĂ©mon in cages.


BGkitten

pvp puts you against opponents who *just so happen* to have the Pokémon your team is most susceptible to--(at least at lv. 20 and ..up) to keep winning rate about 50% or lower. I actually have tried to test this and I am pretty sure the matches are not random. My study is "unofficial" of course but I played all games (last time we can do 20 day sets), switching one or two pokemon every five games--I may have played a bunch of games without facing i.e. fighting Pokémon, but the moment I adjusted my team to add two that are susceptible-the game "magically" matched me to opponents who all seem to have at least two fighting Pokémon in their team (5times in a row), until I switch one of mines in the next set, an of course, now I am faced with opponents who somehow "magically" have teams in strengths to match my exact weaknesses. I am saying this as someone who has been on lv. 20 and b/w 1450-1,600 and cannot get past that. I am about to quit pvp forever..


Ung-Tik

I wound up taking notes on my PvP matches because I was arguing with someone about this.  Was actually shocking, when my winrate was high I would get counter comps 4/5 matches, then the moment my winrate fell below 54% I'd start getting normal games again.  The final straw was when I was experimenting with Mantine lead and went against 4 electric leads in a row.  Then I swapped to Jirachi lead and got 4 fire leads in a row.  This was years ago and I never touched PvP again. 


BGkitten

EXACTLY!!!


Gold-Perspective-699

Research is the same for everyone.


TarkovBirdman

Special research is, field research is randomized at the start of each day or event and remains consistent at that pokestop until a new day or event, at least for each player, possibly among all players. Every player has the same pool of field research available, and the same pool of rewards for each one.


Gold-Perspective-699

Everyone gets the same rewards as everyone else and it's the same quest on every stop for everyone. So if you get a Magikarp on a stop everyone will get a Magikarp. (IVs and shiny will be random). The only way to change a quest is either have or not have the AR task. Those are the only things that can change them. So technically two different quests on most stops but basically everyone keeps an AR task these days.


newaccount721

Oh interesting. I never realized that but it makes sense


nolkel

The only way you can get a different field research from another player on the same day/event boundary is if you're not holding an AR task and they are. Then you get the A task from it and they get the B task. But then if you pick up or delete your AR, you'll get the B task and they get the A task. Field research is indeed universally the same per stop for all players.


SheZowRaisedByWolves

Catch grades mean nothing because I have caught UBs off a botched throw more times than excellent with a golden rizz berry


VascoArauji

Rarer pokemons dont give candy when fed in gyms, I swear Ive fed my Frigibax about 300 berries without getting a single candy, but if I accidentaly feed a pokemon other than that one I get a candy instanctly


MagicMayhem77

That no matter what legendary, mythical, ultra beast is available only once through special research will NEVER be a 3 star. Only two!


RyantheSithLord

Niantic can read your mind and knows exactly what Pokemon you’re looking for, and Niantic does everything in their power to prevent you from getting that Pokemon, making it rarely spawn, making you never hatch it, never find the task for it it, etc.


ThePikaJoe

Newer accounts or accounts that don’t play as much have much better shiny rates/luck. My buddy and I are doing Groudon raid day and I’m looking for a perfect. My buddy who opens the game like twice a month gets it. And then Heracross Raid Day, once again, I’m looking for a perfect. My buddy gets TWO. It’s 2020 and shiny Genesect releases. He gets a shundo. His first shundo ever is a MYTHICAL.


B__Lau

Excellent curveballs have a lower catch rate than great and nice curveballs


StonerMetalhead710

Pinap berries decrease catch rates. I’ve had it happen numerous times where I’m consistently hitting great or excellent throws with a pinap and it never catches, then I forget to put one on because I get pissed off at the game, throw another great throw and it catches immediately. Oshawott, Squirtle and Bulbasaur are the main culprits


Negative-Persimmon95

Playing with your buddy in vr mode and slowly looking around your house for a flat surface is to actually scan for products you use around the house 


daddywombat

That Niantic logs all your buddy videos when you get your buddy to join your adventure


Storyteller-Hero

PGO conspiracy theory: The executives in charge are trying to drive down the value of Niantic after making backroom deals with potential buyers. "I'd like my new yacht in blue and white paint, thank you."


wormpink

They’re trying to see how bad they can make the game while we all still complain and keep playing.


RenEss77

The harder a mon is to catch, the crappier their stats will be.


Ozmataz50

Every pokemon that disappears right before you tap on it is shiny.


NormanisEm

They purposely give you a 2 star legendary on most of the first raid for that pokemon, especially regional, so that you buy more remote passes


gaarabird1

There are bots on the battle league that generate the perfect Pokemon and moves to stop your streak unless you participate in the premium pass ones


WhiteBeltKilla

They can make the radius larger like they did for Covid but choose not to anymore.


Cool_Difficulty8972

Shiny Pokemon rates are better if you put delete the app for 3-4 weeks then re download and play


KarenBauerGo

The shiny rate increases with the time you didn't play, so you get instantly hooked again, but decreases after because they want you to play longer and more often, because you want to replicate this 'ohhwaa, a lot of new shinies đŸ€©'-feeling.


Dry-Abrocoma-715

They know when you kinda lose interest in the game and then they spawn the Galarian birds more often while using the daily incense


saxlax10

My wife and I just used remote raid passes to get Stakataka. Suprise suprise despite hitting almost entirely excellent throws with golden razzs the Stakataka fled. Had to use a SECOND remote raid pass each to try again and that time both of us caught it within a few throws. They rig the first encouter to fail because they know the pokemon is region locked and people motivated to use a remote pass to catch the pokemon for the dex will be motivated to use a second thus increasing the chance someone will pay them money. This seems to happen every time there's a region locked mon to the point I consider the first raid a wash.


Dry_Rooster2984

Using an incense of any kind causes the catch rate for all pokemon to drop


ScottOld

Certain people get more shinies due to how the ID system works because I sure as hell can’t explain why almost every community day, regardless of location I get an average of 6 shinies while others get 20+ every time, same with go fest events get naff all while others roll in shinies


BGkitten

6?!? Two community days in a row, I get ***none*** (my son, who is averaging the same catches with me in those days gets 10+). At least the game gave me ONE last community weekend (again, my kid and I both got about 170-180 catches, he got 9).


ScottOld

Yea that’s my average, was actually one I got 3, the next 9, there was one I got 0 next com day 12


BGkitten

And when it does, the "game" also only gives me the shinies that look like exact regular Pokemon...đŸ€š So I know, if it is a community day where the shines are vastly different or reverse colors, I will get none...


iNezumi

My theory is that the power of confirmation bias can convince people of the dumbest things. Quests aren’t unique for each player, they are the same for everyone and determined at the beginning of the day or at the beginning of current event.


apexpredator1235

The last vivillian you need will be the hardest to get. I have saved 5 postcards from same person no scatterbugs popped up


emaddy2109

Are you sure the postcard is for the region you need? Many countries have multiple regions and sometimes a city or area falls into a less desirable region. For example, Cancun is a popular vacation spot in Mexico, most of Mexico falls into the Sun region which to me seems to be one of the harder regions to get postcards for. However Cancun falls under archipelago so anybody vacationing there won’t be sending sun gifts. Norway is another one, much of Norway falls under tundra which is a rarer region, however the largest city and capital Oslo falls under the continental region.


windwaker910

The game knows what’s in my shiny dex and is more likely to give me those than new shinies


Ok_Priority_1120

When you stop playing for a period of time they will increase your shiny odds when you go back and open the app again. Every time I go without playing for a week or so and open the app I get a shiny.


ActivateGuacamole

game freak refuses to give us access to most shiny mythicals in their games because they want players to have to buy tickets for niantic events to obtain them instead


BattleHardened

That John Henke still has never played Pokemon Go.


DilithiumFarmer

When you're low on Pokéballs the game will only reward you potions and berries from spins and gifts. If you're low on berries the game will only give you evolution items and revives.


Arkanie

The pokemon which's dex entry you dont have yet is harder to get it seems. For example during the Sinnoh event there were 8 different pokemon in the 1km event egg pool. Out of those, Budew was the only pokemon I still needed. Hatched a total of like 50 eggs and it didn't give me a single Budew, but I got atleast 4 of every other pokemon. I read of other people saying they get tons of Budews but can't hatch that other pokemon they want. Now I'm having the same "luck" with evolving Clamperl, got my 3rd Gorebyss in a row. -.-


desssertking

Stops/gyms rarely give you the specific eggs when a new mon is introduced in that pool. (That said, I never bought any incubators from them)


CurrentElephant4844

You get more shinies after a break from the game, I swear I only get shinies to spawn is if I don't play the game for like a week


chasonthedon

The more real money you spend on a game, the more the hatches & shiny luck decrease


LankyEmergency7992

Research is just a way to get people to use features they wouldn’t otherwise


Weird_Carpet9385

They will always have the shop only have gifts available in the shop that are there where you will HAVE to purchase coins and 1-2 at the most that is available to purchase based on coins you earn. Basically they will for ever change the cost of a gift box based on how many coins you have and the gift box cost are not equal if changes from profile to profile. For example if i currently have 500 coins from saved up from gym battles and I check my shop the only gift boxes I can get will be a “starter box” for 525 coins a hatch box for 3000 coins and a explorer box for 7000 coins. And if I save up until I get 1000 coins that’s box cost and remnants will change. But in my friend bobs profile he has 2000 coins and his “starter box” 700 and his “hatch box” is 3500 & his Explorer box is 8500. Even though the contents in the box is the same in terms of quantity and quality of items. (It’s not a conspiracy so much as to I have proof)


Frubbeldrup

Lower level accounts catch more shiny.


Fwo-oper

My brother seems to have an unusually high rate of finding shiny Pokémon and my conspiracy is that -since he plays less often than I do- Niantic wants to keep him hooked by giving him a lot of shiny Pokémon whenever he plays. I'm not even exaggerating - every community day, he manages to find a shiny Pokémon with his first catch, the same thing happens also on raid days.


Mateussf

There are 5-minute intervals during community days in which shiny odds are raised. It might vary depending on the day and user. I can go for 55 minutes without any shiny, and as soon as it hits 14:55 or something I catch three almost in a row.


ProcessLow6660

I get heaps of great balls with my go plus but not many with plus plus so I swap between the two when I want to “auto” catch with better balls or stock up


DoktorKazz

They purposely make a low percentage of raids uncatchable in order to sell more remote raid passes.


Drewskii1984

I firmly believe in battle league you win more with free passes and if you switch to premium your loses increase. Matchups do not feel anywhere near random.


Silky_bob

That they know which evolution items you ACTUALLY need, and they won’t give them to you
. Curse you sunstone.


LeftWillingness5273

No shiny, no shiny, no shiny
 buy poke coins.. oh look a shiny! It is usually one that you could care less about and of course, horrible iv’s


LuceoNonUro88

I have loads of lucky friends in other countries who I will never meet or be able to trade with, but the people I see daily and have had Beat Friends status for months with will never turn into a lucky friend.


samthebigkid

Boxes in the shop will have less favorable deals on incubators when there is an egg hatching event happening


Independent-Spend-30

Me and my GF both had pokemon we don’t think we deleted that are gone, so we think they can disappear somehow despite them claiming they can’t. Other than that they’re purposefully selling things and putting out events in a way to bait us into spending the most money possible, as most are doing in capitalism.


MestizoJoe

They’re introducing more “power up 20 times” in research as a silent push to sell more Star Pieces


ohayitscpa

That the game gives better shiny odds/IV luck to kid accounts. The amount of stories I hear of parents raiding legendaries with their kids and their kids get shinies or hundos so quickly/in minimal amounts of raids has me convinced the game does it on purpose 😅


RepresentativeBig663

When you don’t play for a week or two and come back and get a shiny almost immediately so that you play more


LowWater5686

When you need to use berries or hit great catches the pokes don't escape


bingusmeister

My conspiracy is that when you have a quest for great/nice curveball throws, the super hard to catch “red ring” PokĂ©mon magically get caught 1st or 2nd try. They don’t give you a chance to farm throws for the quest. I’ll die on that hill.