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Pokemon GO players may have initially been excited for the recent "An Instinctive Hero" event, but the way Niantic handled the debut of Larvesta and Volcarona has upset more than a few fans. Trainers remarked that they had an incredibly difficult time hatching eggs to get a Larvesta during the event, making evolving it into Volcarona a nigh-impossible feat for all but the most dedicated or lucky players.
In a Reddit post on the official Pokemon GO subreddit, the player u/Jachael123_ shared an image of a notification about An Instinctive Hero asking them if they had evolved Larvesta into Volcarona. Given the difficulty of doing so, Jachael shared the screenshot with the caption, "They have to be trolling, right?"
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Given the difficulty of hatching and evolving Larvesta in Pokemon GO, many fans voiced their displeasure in the comments.
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Pokemon GO players discuss their frustrations with Larvesta's hatch rate
Despite Volcarona being quite popular among members of the Pokemon community, it appears that Niantic made acquiring one incredibly difficult. Based on metrics provided by the Pokemon GO community group The Silph Road, Larvesta possessed less than a 1% chance to hatch from eggs during An Instinctive Hero.
Considering Larvesta requires 400 candies to evolve into Volcarona and couldn't be caught in the wild, this resulted in a vanishingly small number of trainers being capable of getting Volcarona without walking thousands of kilometers or paying for Super Incubators.
In the comments of Jachael123_'s Reddit post, Pokemon GO players lamented An Instinctive Hero as just another mismanaged event forcing trainers into a cash grab. Considering Larvesta and Volcarona aren't even legendary or mythic Pocket Monsters, the fact that a single Larvesta has lower than a 1% hatch rate from eggs during its debut event is head-scratching, to put it lightly.
Some players even accused Niantic of encouraging gambling for new Pocket Monsters since they didn't publicize just how difficult it would be to obtain Larvesta, much less evolve it into Volcarona.
From a purely income-based perspective, Niantic's decision would make some sense. Making Larvesta's acquisition and its evolution into Volcarona incredibly grindy means that players who wish to acquire them will spend more time in Pokemon GO and will be more willing to spend real-world money on Pokecoins to obtain Super Incubators. However, Niantic doesn't appear to notice that the confirmation of Larvesta's incredibly low hatch rate makes many players feel as though obtaining the creature isn't worth the effort at all. The Silph Road was only able to acquire one Larvesta in over 200 eggs in its study, so many trainers likely decided not to bother.
Fear of missing out (FOMO) is certainly a very strong force among Pokemon GO's most fervent hardcore players, and they may be willing to shell out tons of real-world money for a chance to acquire Larvesta and Volcarona. However, most players are much more relaxed in their gameplay, which makes the two Bug/Fire-type Pokemon nigh-impossible to acquire without incredibly good luck.
However, the players willing to pay as much as they can to acquire the two species are likely who Niantic is targeting, and this small portion of trainers provides the highest amount of financial incentive for the developers at the cost of upsetting a wider swath of fans not willing to dole out as much money.
Niantic could have used some positive community relations in recent months after the string of controversies surrounding remote raid nerfs and the botched Pokemon GO Hoenn Tour Live event. However, the confirmation that Larvesta and Volcarona aren't realistically obtainable likely just rubs salt in the wound of many former fans who have turned their back on the game or uninstalled it entirely.
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