The allure of catching rare Pokemon is shared by both die-hard Poke fans and completionists alike. For many, the feeling is very close to coming head-to-head with the mythical Unicorn. Since 2017, Pokemon Go players have cited that riveting feeling of glimpsing a notorious Pokemon in “real life” as one of the game’s strongest points.
Pokemon Go’s life cycle shows no signs of slowing down in 2024, with roughly 70 million players participating in the AR sensation. At the same time, that makes a player’s choice to buy Pokemon Go accounts economically justified, as the Pokemon Go trading market remains bustling.
Having a rare Pokemon is a very valuable asset, and here’s our selection of the most wanted Pokemon in Pokemon Go at the start of 2024!
Sandile
While its appearance might not scream “I’m a Pokemon Diva!” at first, Sandile’s fame stems from how elusive catching it turned out to be. Nowadays, the only way to have a chance of seeing one is via a Strange Egg – the 12 km kind – meaning the process will be arduous, to say the least.
Still, the chances of Sandile spawning even after walking that much ground in real life is minuscule, which is why this Pokemon earns a spot on our list. Plus, even if you do manage to luck out, note that evolving it into a Krookodile is a behemoth-of-a-task as well, given how you’ll require around 125 Candies to pull it off.
Volcarona
Catching a Volcarona is an indisputable sign of a devoted Poke-trainer, one whose determination never faltered throughout months of dedicated playing. It’s a gargantuan task involving a healthy amount of blind luck as well because hatching a Larvesta (which later evolves into a Volcarona) is headache-inducing in the first place.
The road starts with the player working on 2, 5, or 10km eggs, as all of them can hatch a Larvesta in time. Still, that Pokemon belongs to the 5th tier list, so expect a lot of failed attempts before the score. Then, you’ll have to spend a whopping 400 Larvesta candies to evolve it into a Volcarona. And that’s not something that can be done fast, even if you fully utilize the Buddy Walking mechanic.
Salazzle
A multitude of factors converge to make Salazzle one of the incredibly rare and highly wanted Pokemon to date. Released back in April 2022, the path to catching a Salazzle didn’t alter much over the last twenty months, which is what makes the eventual success such a monumental event.
Salazzle is the evolved form of the Salandit, a Pokemon you can hatch only by caring for a 12km egg. So, you’ll have to defeat a Team Go Rocket leader to gather such an egg before attempting this. Afterward, you’ll have to rely on luck to have the egg hatch a female Salandit, as male Salandits can’t evolve into a Salazzle. In mathematical probability, the chance of this happening is around 12,5%, for a single 12 km egg.
Unown
If there weren’t enough aspects for Pokemon Go completionists to worry about already, here’s the Unown – a Pokemon that appears in no less than 28 variants in the game! Hence, finding the one that’s still missing in your collection can be nightmarishly difficult.
On top of that, the only reliable way to catch whichever Unown form is through Raid Battles, and the chances are slim even then. As such, this task is definitely worthy of preserving a bag of Golden Razz Berries. You can also catch a Unown in the open fields, but the chances of that happening will be lottery-like… And all of this is assuming you’re nowhere close to having but a handful of Unown forms currently absent from your Pokedex.
Galarian Moltres, Galarian Zapdos and Galarian Articuno
All of these three Legendary Pokemon are rarer variants of more common creatures, but they do bring a lot more pizzazz to the table. For one, getting “close” to the three Galarian birds requires using Daily Adventure Incense – which places an unforgiving 15-minute period for catching Galarian Pokemon per day!
To make things worse, these Pokemon are incredibly agile as well and will disappear out of view before your Poke Ball can reach them 90% of the time. Even if it connects, the chances of the Poke Ball successfully capturing a Galarian bird are less than 1%.
Therefore, there’s no better tactic when hunting them than to spend Daily Adneute Incense every single day alongside having a proper amount of spare Master Poke Balls. It’s one of the most agitating quests you can embark on in Pokemon Go, but the sheer volume of bragging rights you’ll get afterward might just make up for the mounting disappointments. Another silver lining is that all of the Galarian bird Pokemon are incredibly sought-after, so you don’t have to hunt for a specific one.
