Pokemon Go players frustrated with Alola Pokedex spawn rates: “More like Season of Birds”
The Pokemon Company / NianticAfter years of anticipation, Niantic finally added 2016’s Sun & Moon Pokedex to the popular mobile title. Not every fan has been happy with the Season of Alola, though, which kicked off in March 2022.
Since the Gen VII event went live, some players have complained that they can’t actually find the new Pokemon. The criticism follows backlash that was sparked after Pokemon Go overhauled Incense the same week.
The Pokemon Company / NianticPokemon Go Seasons of Alola sparks backlash
Days after the Sun & Moon Pokedex was pushed into Pokemon Go, players began taking to social media platforms to voice their complaints. Over on the r/PokemonGo forum, a thread titled “Anyone else feel like it is the “season of birds” instead of alola” covered the criticism.
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A handful of users confirmed that they were mostly seeing birds such as Taillow or Starly in their area following the update, rather than Alola favorites such as Litten or Popplio.
Other fans revealed that their experiences had also been similar and hit out at the game’s lack of spawn variety.
“Instead of alola, we’ve been transported to galapagola, the islands of slightly-varying finches,” one player jokingly commented.
Another said, “Niantic has strayed from what Pokemon is about. VARIETY.”
One fan allegedly even saw over 400 of the same ‘mon: “Yup, all I see are birds. I have actually seen 496 Starly’s.”
The February 6 debut of Dragon-type Jangmo-o sparked similar criticisms on Twitter, with a user writing, “I still haven’t seen a single one of these either. The only Alola Pokemon I’m seeing a lot of are Popplio and Yungoos.”
Many of the complaints from the Pokemon Go player base have stemmed from Niantic’s decision to drastically cut the Incense spawn rate on March 1, 2022.
While it’s unclear if this is the cause of Trainers having less variety of ‘mon encounters on their map, the change did reduce the overall amount of characters spawning in.