‘Pokémon Go’ Tips: Legendary Flee Rates & Shocking Wild Encounter Discovery Revealed

Pokémon Go update analysis has revealed a few interesting notes with regard to legendary flee rates and wild encounters. Based on 30,000 unique scenarios from GamePress, here are a few new tips to make the most of Niantic’s app.

First and foremost, 30,000 wild encounters were studied to determine how flee rates, or the rate at which a Pokémon leaves in a puff of smoke after escaping from a Pokéball, works. As it turns out, every single Pokémon in the game has its own unique flee value and rate. There are eight different tiers that range from 5 percent to 99 percent. Curiously, Abra is the single member of the 99 percent flee tier. The full chart can be observed here, but, in the vast majority of cases, there’s a 6 to 10 percent chance of a flee after a ball is thrown.

As for legendaries and Ditto, it appears they’ll sit comfortably at the 10 percent flee rate. That stat alone makes them reasonably difficult to catch when found, but it’s not as frustrating as the 15 or 20 percent rates of a few other monsters. Just like all stats, however, these ones are leaked via data mining and could be changed before legendaries are truly activated.

Also recorded from a sample of 30,000 individual encounters are some interesting leveling statistics about wild encounters. According to this particular group, it looks like there’s no specific method for Pokémon Go players to find high level beasts. The monsters one meets on the trail are totally random and uniquely distributed as dictated by the trainer’s level. If, for example, you’re on level 30, the chances of encountering a level 1 Pokémon and level 30 Pokémon are both 1/30 or 3.3 percent.

What this essentially reveals is that there’s no exact science to finding monsters that are suited for battle from the start. In any given number of encounters, it’s possible to find a full range of possible options with no real rhyme or reason. Training and luck are the best ways to make a gym-ready party.

It’s worth noting that these tips were discovered via close study of Niantic’s Pokémon Go API. Even though the API remains blocked by third-party tools today, the new stats were found prior to the restrictions.

Pokémon Go is available now on Android and iOS.

What do you think of these Pokémon Go tips? Do you feel more ready to catch legendaries or other wild monsters? Tell us in the comments section!