8 Pokémon GO Myths that Aren’t True

With Pokémon Go being all the craze, game lovers have taken to the internet to share tips and tricks to help other players, and others have taken to the internet just to troll. Although there are a lot of useful Pokémon Go tips online, there are a bunch of others that are as fictitious as Cinderella and the Seven Dwarfs.

To make your lives easier, we tried some of the tips ourselves to filter out the good from the bad to plain useless and have made a list of all the tips out there that we wish worked, but don’t.

Myth: The Pokémon Egg Charts

We came across a number of charts detailing what kind of Pokémon you can get if you hatch 2km, 5km, or 10km eggs. These charts are no good.

The Pokémon you get when you hatch an egg is absolutely random. Although it is more likely that you will get a rare Pokémon if you hatch a 10km egg, Niantic says that there have been numerous reports of players hatching a rare Pokémon from a 2km or 5km egg and an ordinary Pokémon from a 10km one, something that we’ve also personally experienced.

Myth (sort of): Grassy-type Pokémon appear in parks and Water-types appear near water

Niantic revealed that some Pokémon may only pop up in certain climates and environments. Some water-type Pokémon, for instance, may only show up near bodies of water.

Since this is an official statement, there is ‘some’ truth to it. Notice our emphasis and that of Niantic on ‘some’. The remaining majority of the Pokémon keep popping up in random places. For instance, we keep running into water-type Pokémon in car parks.

Myth: Guides to catching legendary Pokémon

Another highly circulated, but equally untrue Pokémon GO myths are hackers and app developers claiming you can catch legendary Pokémon and they’ll help you do it. They won’t, because they can’t. Legendary Pokémon have not been released in the game yet. Although there were reports of some people catching legendary Pokémon during the early days, Niantic released a statement clarifying this was due to a glitch and all those Pokémon were revoked.

The most apps and hacks promising you legendary Pokémon can do is get you banned form the game.

Myth: Getting the Pokeball through the hoop

We’ve seen this one quite often on discussion groups. Some players claim that in order for you to catch a Pokémon, your ball needs to pass through the target hoop. This may not be true after all, because this isn’t basketball!

Niantic advises to throw the ball when the target hoop is the smallest, and to aim your throw at the Pokémon, not the hoop. When the target hoop is smallest, you can’t get the ball through it anyway.

We’ve personally experienced that best catches can be achieved if you hold your finger on the ball until the target is at its smallest and flick the Pokeball aiming at the Pokémon’s shoulders or rump. Such a throw will generally graze the top of the hoop.

We have not found any valid evidence of the claim that Great, Nice, or Excellent throw achievements can be achieved if the ball hits the Pokémon inside the ring. From what we’ve observed, these are somewhat dispensed at random.

Myth: Getting your used Pokeball back

The pain in our collective thumbs being a reminder of how many times we’ve tried it, we can say beyond a shadow of a doubt, that tapping your rolling Pokeball like a loony person after you’ve thrown it doesn’t make your ball count go back up. When it’s gone, it’s gone.

Note: There has been some claims this Pokémon GO myth might simply be very difficult to achieve. But, it has never worked for us.

Myth: You need to be on the move for incense to work

Partially true, partially not. If you’re not a big fan of moving around after a tough day at work, you’ll find that Pokémon will still be attracted to incense even if you’re lying on the couch. However, a keen Redditer analysed the code that controls Pokémon spawning, revealing that the incense will be more effective if you’re moving around, with Pokémon being attracted every 1 minute if you are on the move, and every 5 minutes if you’re not. You will be required to travel a distance of 0.2km or .12 mph to attract Pokémon quicker.

Some may argue that this code doesn’t exactly work, but from what we’ve experienced, what code suggests does work out.

Myth: Pidgey, Weedle, Caterpie and Rattata Pokémon are a waste of time and effort

The four Pokémon mentioned above are pretty useless in battle, but you can’t judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree. They’re easy to find, and easy to catch. Which means you can level up quicker if you catch a lot in a short time. If you’re picky and only catch good Pokémon, it will take you forever to level up.

Also, they are the least demanding and will evolve with just 12 candy, making it easier for you to do more evolutions and gain more XP. Saving up your evolutions for a mass-evolution and firing up a lucky egg while you’re doing it will double your XP.

Myth: You can never catch them all unless you travel the world because some Pokémon are region-specific

This is true, but there may still be hope. Players have claimed on Reddit and Youtube with videos as proof that region-specific Pokémon can be obtained by hatching eggs. The occurrences are very rare, but players have claimed that it does happen. Although this isn’t concrete proof, with Niantic keeping silence on the matter, we just have to be hopeful and keep hatching those eggs.

Do you know of any other Pokémon GO myths? Share them in the comments below.