Ho-Oh, one of the most fascinating creatures in the historical context of the entire Pokémon lore, has finally made it to smash hit mobile title Pokémon GO.
But players will only have a short amount of time to obtain the Legendary Pokémon: it's going to be catchable only until Dec. 12.
Pokémon GO Global Catch Event
Ho-Oh arrives as a reward after trainers around the world successfully completed the Pokémon GO Travel global catch event, catching as many as 3 billion Pokémon in the span of a week.
"Thanks to all your hard work last week, Ho-Oh will appear in Raid Battles until [Dec. 12]!" according to Pokémon GO's official Twitter account. Again, players will only have until Dec. 12 to catch Ho-Oh, or just two weeks. This is a bit disappointing since the Legendary Beasts were available for a month, while Lugia was available for two months before disappearing from the game completely. But it's better than no Ho-Oh at all.
Ho-Oh will be found in Raid Battles worldwide, which means it should be a little easier to find than previous exclusives such as Entei, Lugia, and Mewtwo, as all three of which were first released on a much more limited basis.
Ho-Oh Base Capture Rate
However, Ho-Oh won't be an easy catch. Not at all. The Legendary Pokémon has now started to appear in Gyms and players are now discovering how difficult it is to obtain the Fire/Flying type monster.
Ho-Oh, for the record, has a base capture rate of 2 percent, the same as Lugia and Legendary Beasts Raikou, Suicune, and Entei. They are among the hardest to catch in the entire game, period.
Base capture rate, for the uninitiated, is the success rate of a player who doesn't use bonuses or berries to increase their chances of obtaining the Pokémon. So by using Golden Razz Berries or hitting it with an accurate throw, the likelihood of catching Ho-Oh will increase.
With a combination of curved Excellent Throws, Golden Razz Berries, and medals earned from catching other Fire or Flying type Pokémon, players can bump their chances of catching Ho-Oh to 17 percent. That's a huge step up, but in the end, it's still a pretty low capture rate, all things considered. It's not at all surprising, though, as Legendary Pokémon have always been the hardest to catch even in the mainline games.
Good luck, Pokémon GO Trainers! Make sure to have lots of Raid battles. Thoughts on Ho-Oh? As always, feel free to sound off in the comments section below!
