'Pokémon Go' Evolve Items: Drops rates in Gen 2 are too low. Here's how to fix them.
Pokémon Go evolutionary items are one of the more interesting mechanics to come to the Gen 2 update. When Pokémon Go launched it simply required you gather candies for your Pokémon to level it up and change its form. With the Pokémon Go Gen 2 update, special items like sun stone, upgrade and dragon scale were thrown into the mix to evolve certain monsters. And they're rare. A little too rare.
Pokémon Go update: Evolutionary items are too damn rare
Since Pokémon Go was updated on Feb. 16, I've swiped every single PokéStop I could find for the last 18 days. And despite my luck, I've only managed to scrounge up two evolutionary items: one king's rock and another king's rock.
Some people have noted that Pokémon Go's special items tend to reveal themselves during the seventh-day spin bonus. Spin a PokéStop once per day for seven consecutive days and you'll be rewarded. While my first king's rock came from the result of a day seven bonus, the other did not. Upon spinning for my second seven-day bonus, no evolutionary item appeared. Disappointment, I choose you.
Pokémon Go evolve items: A solution to make special items more fun
There are a couple of ways this can be solved.
In addition to letting Pokémon Go players acquire the items by chance — if at all — Niantic can enlist the help of events. Global challenges like what we've seen from Pokémon Sun and Moon show that game-wide missions can be a fun way to get everyone playing all at once, rallying around a common goal to obtain whatever reward lies at the end. For Sun and Moon's cousin game, Pokémon Go, this reward could be the evolutionary item of your choosing.
Or, keeping with the trend of Pokémon Go, Niantic may choose to theme this global challenge around a holiday. As a successor to the Valentine's Day, New Years and Christmas events, Pokémon Go players could be encouraged to play on those days off or other festive times. It may be a while before we get confirmation about any new holiday perks. Though perhaps an upgrade to our St. Patrick's Day is in the works after all.
More Pokémon Go news and coverage
If you're booting up the game for the first time in a while to get ready for Gen 2, be sure to check out Mic's guides on how to get stardust, how to determine how long it will take you to reach level 40, the kind of Pokémon you get from 10-kilometer eggs, how to create new PokéStops, how to maximize your chances of catching Pokémon and how PokéStops distribute Pokémon eggs. Also check out how to catch Gen 2 baby Pokémon, our analysis of post-balance update Chansey and Rhydon and everything you need to know about finding the long-awaited Pokémon Ditto.
