Getting Pokemon GO Special Items Reddit Research And Rarity Secrets

To get a handle on Special Items in Pokemon GO, players around the world have been doing intense research for the past few weeks. To wrap their brains around how and when they'll be able to attain these especially rare items in the game, they've marked their times, locations, and activities whilst spinning Pokestops. Together the folks on several Reddit forums, especially, have created a conglomeration of information that leads us to several conclusions – and a path forward.

Several users in Silph Road and r/Pokemon have reported finding Special Items at the same time of day, every day, for several days in a row. At this point it does not appear that the exact Pokestop will matter, only that they're spinning a Pokestop at the same time every day.

If what we're seeing is true with the evidence at hand, the time of day for an Evolutionary Item (Special Item) will be the same for each player. Not the same time for every single person in the world, but for each individual player. This time might be selected at random for the player the first time they attain a Special Item.

What's more likely is that there's a pre-selected time of day for each player – this since we know some players have yet to attain a single Special Item. If a player knows their special time of day, they should continue to test this theory by spinning a Pokestop at that exact same time of day for multiple days in a row. If this window for spinning is down to the minute, users without this knowledge would have a 1-in-1440 chance of getting a Special Item each day.

But there must be some other random stuff involved, since some players have gotten multiple Special Items in a single day. These items were found more than a minute apart at different Pokestops.

Another idea we've seen cropping up in a couple of comments on Special Item threads is the "Every 300 Stops" theory. Every time a 300th stop is spun, there'd be a better-than-average chance of getting a Special Item. Of course there's no good way to prove this other than counting the number of Pokestops spun between each Special Item.

And again, we know that some players have gotten multiple Special Items in a single day, so if this #2 theory is true, it'd be part of a set of rules. That might also be true – Niantic could have given more than one rule to Special Items appearances – making their appearance seem random when they're not that entirely.

Rarity of Special Items is difficult to pin down due to the relative lack of items in the world of Pokemon GO thus far. However, combined efforts of several players and a bit of common-sense tweaking leads us to the following conclusion:

Chances of getting each Special Item in Pokemon GO:• Upgrade: 12.5% chance• Dragon Scale: 12.5% chance• Sun Stone: 25% chance• Kings Rock: 25% chance• Metal Coat: 25% chance

These percentages are calculated within the chances of finding a Special Item in the first place. So if a player were to nail down a perfect pattern and know when and where to spin a Pokestop to attain a Special Item every day, their chances of getting the Special Item they want would indeed be those listed above.

The chances of spinning a Pokestop and attaining a Special Item will depend entirely on what the rules end up being – if and when we confirm them. As such, they could be anywhere from a .33% chance (if they appear every 300 stops) to .14% chance – if they rack up to what the folks at RankedBoost have found. That's pretty intense – so we're holding out hope that a pattern will be found.

We've gone over some tips for how to make the most of player's searches for Special Items in a couple of previous articles. Have a peek at our guides – full of tips for Special Items – as released earlier through #TeamPokemonGO! The first you should take a peek at is How to Get Special Items: Some Guidance. From there you shall spin – oh how you'll spin!

Don't get frustrated and burn your whole city down to send Niantic a message – that's not the way a true Pokemaster does thing here in GO! Instead, have a peek at our @TeamPokemonGO Twitter portal to stick to the feed. We're still working on this, this set of equations that lie in the darkness of Niantic's server-side code – we'll get there!