Pokemon GO introduced Ho-oh raids earlier this week after much teasing and speculation over when the character was going to be added to the game. But while many players are delighted that Ho-oh has finally arrived, it seems that actually catching the Pokemon is going to be much harder than they thought.

Pokemon GO fan and famed dataminer Chrales has now confirmed that the Ho-oh base capture rate is just 2%, meaning that players have a 1 in 50 chance of capturing the Pokemon after defeating it. Ho-oh has the same base capture rate as other legendaries such as Lugia and the legendary beasts Raikou, Suicune, and Entei. This means that Ho-oh is one of the hardest Pokemon to catch in the game.

It should be noted that players can increase their chances of capturing Ho-oh using the Golden Razz Berry method. If players have Gold medals for Fire and Flying-type Pokemon (Ho-oh is both Fire and Flying type) then this will increase the chances of catching the new Pokemon too.

Performing an 'excellent' rated throw should also improve the chances. However, Ho-oh feels especially difficult to get 'excellent' rated throws on, say fans on social media, so players should be prepared for a mighty challenge with this one. The Pokemon GO community is already scrambling to figure out if there are any special 'throwing tricks' for the new legendary. There may be a special technique that offers a higher success rate than player's default Poke Ball throwing styles.

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While most are glad that Ho-oh is in the game, many Pokemon GO players have taken to social media to voice their frustrations with the new arrival. Overall, Ho-oh feels more difficult to defeat and capture than Lugia and the legendary beasts, despite the similar catch rates.

Ho-oh's Defense and Attack stats are strong and combined with its Solar Beam move, the new legendary Pokemon makes for an incredibly tough opponent. As the Pokemon is only available to catch until mid-December, it's understandable that fans are upset with how hard it is to actually catch right now.

Ho-oh might not feel this difficult to catch forever, though. The beauty of Pokemon GO is that players are generally quite quick to figure out the best strategies for taking on a new character, often with empirical evidence. Ho-oh will be no different and so fans frustrated with the base catch rate right now only need to sit tight and wait a little longer.

Pokemon GO is available now on Android and iOS devices.

Source: Reddit