"From NYC to LA and a quarter of the way back": Pokemon GO player remarks about Gen VI Legendary level-up requirements

In Pokemon GO, some rare Pocket Monsters don't appear often and this makes acquiring candy for them particularly difficult. This was made evident by the player u/CallMePoro on Reddit, who shared that to level up 10% Forme Zygarde, they needed to travel 5,360km to collect the candy. This led them to say it would ask a player to go "From NYC to LA and a quarter of the way back":

u/CallMePoro laments the walk distance to get enough Zygarde candies for leveling up in Pokemon GO (Image via u/CallMePoro/Reddit)

10% Forme Zygarde is only obtained in Pokemon GO by completing a step of the "From A to Zygarde" Special Research questline which means trainers can't collect candies for it by catching it in the wild, raid to catch, or other in-game activities. This primarily leaves players with walking and collecting candy with Zygarde as their buddy Pokemon or farming and using Rare Candies on it.

Many Pokemon GO trainers pointed out that Rare Candies can be incredibly useful since they can provide free candies to any Pokemon and can be obtained as a PvP/raid reward. This can help reduce the distance that players have to walk to power up Zygarde in any of its forms, but it can still take a substantial amount of candy to power up Zygarde with so few candy collection methods available.

Pokemon GO players suggest tactics to help power up Zygarde (Image via Reddit)

Other players suggested the use of Poffins, which can maximize a buddy Pokemon's affection meter and halve the distance required (normally 20km for Zygarde since it's a legendary species) for it to find candies. Still, even with Rare Candies and Poffins, it takes effort to acquire enough candies for powering up Zygarde enough to give it enough CP for battle situations.

Rare Candies may be one of the few options for collecting steady Zygarde candies in Pokemon GO (Image via Reddit)

Fans continued to point out the collection of Rare Candies from raids and PvP as one of the few options u/CallMePoro had. While accepting that they didn't care for PvP, they stated that they may have to dip their feet into it to collect the candies to power up Zygarde. It's unfortunate for trainers who own Zygarde, but the candy options are limited compared to other Pokemon.

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Should Niantic add more ways to get Zygarde candy in Pokemon GO?

Collecting candy for Zygarde isn't an easy task in Pokemon GO (Image via The Pokemon Company)

Since Pokemon GO trainers are having trouble getting candy to power up Zygarde, should Niantic step in and add additional methods to get candy for this relatively recent addition to the game? One could make the argument that Niantic could add new candy-gathering methods for Zygarde, but it would have to be in a way that doesn't give it an immense advantage over other legendary Pokemon.

Another notable idea may come in the form of the Routes gameplay that trainers use to collect Zygarde Cells to allow Zygarde to make progress toward its Complete Forme. The NPC Mateo can be met when players complete in-game routes, and he can provide trainers gifts containing several rewards. Perhaps Zygarde candies could be added to these gifts in small quantities?

However, this method would have to be restricted in some way to prevent players from simply farming routes ad nauseam to rack up tons of candy. Maybe Mateo can provide one gift per day that rewards Zygarde candy, or some other limitation that prevents intense amounts of farming that would cause Zygarde to power up too quickly.

Since so many other legendary Pokemon appear in raids and events more regularly than 10% Forme Zygarde in Pokemon GO (who can only be received in a one-time research questline), the Kalos region creature could certainly use a little help so players aren't left walking immense distances or grinding raids and PvP just to make this legendary a little stronger.