Pokémon GO contains all of the original 151 Pokemon from the green, blue, red and yellow versions of the game for the original Game Boy (no, you cannot get Missingno or M in this game). While they are not officially designated as such, some Pokémon are definitely considered rare; far rarer than others are. Players generally organize them into lists, divided into uncommon, rare, very rare and epic Pokémon. Nobody would mistake a Pidgey for a rare, but a Gyarados, for example, is a hell of a lot less common. A Ditto? Even more rare. Read on for some tips and tricks on how to get rare Pokémon in Pokémon GO!
Let’s get one thing out of the way first: There is absolutely no actual rarity list in Pokémon GO. There are plenty of rarity lists online, but these are made by very enterprising players who have built their own lists based on their collections and their experiences. None of these lists are official though, because there is no official rarity list.
The first, foremost and most effective way to increase your instance of rare Pokémon appearing is to gain experience levels. The Pokémon that appear are in direct proportion to your experience level, so the higher your level, the more rare Pokémon you will come across. While this can be very tedious to do, this is the most sure-fire way of getting more rares to appear.
However, the absolute best way to punch above your weight and get super rare Pokémon at a lower level is to hatch a 10KM egg. In fact, go through great pains to hatch every single egg that you get so that you can make more room for 10K eggs. Sure, you’ll be running marathons when you’re done, but you’ll be a marathon runner with a ton of rare Pokémon. 5K eggs tend to contain rares fairly frequently as well, but not to the degree that 10K eggs do.
Go to a crowded area loaded with Pokéstops. The more crowded the area and the more Pokéstops that it has, the higher the chance that you will find rare Pokémon there, just because there will be more Pokémon there in the first place. Especially go to an area where someone has dropped a Pokémon lure, as these areas tend to swarm with Pokémon, and the chances of rares appearing will increase exponentially.
This, plus evolution, should take care of all of the rare Pokémon in the game, or at least most of them. One Pokémon, Ditto, is known to be completely absent from the game for some bizarre reason. Ditto is in the source files of the game, though, according to hackers – expect it to be added to the game with a coming update. The Legendary Pokemon are a whole different story.