Niantic has just hidden two important Pokémon stats from the infamous Game Master file – the Base Catch Rate and Base Flee Rate. According to Pokéminers, this change is going live for all accounts as we are typing this.
The Game Master file is a file that the game downloads in the background, and it contains information about the Pokémon and their stats. Some of the stats are attack, stamina, and defence, but also a plethora of other, less important, statistics we use to build our database website, and provide you with day to day analysis and news for all Pokémon GO things.
It seems – at least at the moment – that Niantic is removing encounter-specific stats from the Game Master, including the base Catch and base Flee rates for all Pokémon.
What’s changing?
Given this information, or more accurately, lack of this information, you can expect the following changes going forward:
- We won’t be able to provide our readers with accurate Catch Rates for each Pokémon, only approximates
- We won’t be able to tell if a Pokémon has been made easier, or more difficult, to Catch
- We won’t be able to tell if a Pokémon’s flee rate has been adjusted or not
- We won’t be able to see any issues with Community Days’ catch rates
How will this affect me?
Currently known BCR and BFR values will be preserved on the GO Hub Database.
If you are using any online catch rate calculator, be it our own, or someone else’s, it is likely that the accuracy of it will be approximate. Moving forward, GO Hub will use the following base capture rates for new Pokémon:
- 20% as a default base catch rate for most Pokémon
- 50% as a default base catch rate for more common Pokémon
- 10% for evolved Pokémon like Ivysaur, Charmeleon, Wartortle
- 5% for last stage evolved Pokémon like Venusaur, Charizard, Blastoise
- 2% for Legendary and Mythical Pokémon
We are currently working on a new version of our Database website, and you will see there if the Catch Rate is actual, or approximate.
As for Base Flee Rate, if we don’t have have accurate data, we will use 15% for non-evolved Pokémon, and 7% for evolved Pokémon, since a huge portion of the current Pokémon can be approximated to those values.
