Recap: Ultra Unlock Week 2 Enigma

Image Credit: The Pokemon Company, Niantic

A quick recap on Enigma week 

Enigma week came and went in Pokemon Go, there was some cool parts about it and some parts that could've been better. We had the new appearance of Elgyem to Pokemon Go, new shiny Pokemon featured of Staryu, Starmie, and Deoxys, uniquly Enigma-themed raids, and increased spawns of Pokemon that would be more frequent in the wild. Here is my take on Enigma week:

Special Research

First off, let me begin with saying how extremely disappointed I was when I realized that there was no special reseach tasks and objectives to complete during the week. I was so hoping that there would be tasks to give you special rewards maybe rare candies or Elgyem candies. I was also hoping to see special research encounters with Elgyem or a potential shiny Pokemon. Something? This week brought none of that. Dragon week was interesting because it had a special research and you could get rare candies, and trainers also had two special research encounters with Deino. I was very disappointed that this feature of Ultra Unlock week did not make it to week 2 Enigma.  

Spawns 

Enigma week had Clefairy, Jigglypuff, Staryu, Lunatone, Solrock, Baltoy, Bronzor, and the new Pokemon Elgyem to be frequent in the wild. This lineup is decent. They all fit the mysterious and misunderstood theme of Enigma week. The spawn rate though from this week went like this: 

1. Baltoy 25%  

2. Staryu 20% 

3. Clefairy 15 % 

4. Solrock 10 % 

5. Lunatone 10% 

6. Jigglypuff 10% 

7. Elgyem 7% 

8. Bronzor 3%

This week's spawn rate compared to Dragon week was very healthy. For Dragon week it was virtually a 0.1% to catch a Deino in the wild and like a 5% chance to catch a wild Gible. I feel like the Baltoy spawn rate was insanely too high, would have been cool if Claydol spawned in the wild instead of just raids as well. Whenever I put on a lure or incense I was seeing a Baltoy 25%-30% of the time. I think it would have been cooler to see this more equalled out with the other 7 featured Pokemon. Elgyem, in my opinion, had the perfect spawn percentage. Not very high, but enough to catch one and enough spawned to evolve one. One cool thing from the spawns was that Beldum spawned more frequently in the wild, which is cool to see Beldum and a shot at a shiny Beldum. Many people were excited about the new shiny Staryu that was released during this week. I wasn't really. It looked cool, but I knew it was going to be rare to encounter. I shiny checked 500 Staryu over the week and battled in five tier 1 raids with Staryu in it and had no luck. I saw other people were catching shiny Staryu, which is great! I am glad that it did not turn into the Shiny Deino experince (or lack thereof) everyone had.

 Raids

The Deoxy raids were the biggest highlight of Enigma week for me. I battled in four Deoxys raids until I encountered a shiny, then battled in another 8 or 10 raids after that. Really fun. I noticed two things with Deoxys raids, though.

One: I think that the Deoxys raids were a lot easier to defeat than the Rayquaza raids during Dragon week. For instance, I got invited to a raid where there were 4 trainers in total. Me (level 32), as well as a level 31, a level 26 and level 25 trainer. We won and it was not by the skin of our teeth--we had a strong 112 seconds left on the clock and defeated Deoxys with ease. Another raid I did was with just three people; myself, a level 31, and a level 40 trainer. Again, we won with about 80-90 seconds left in the raid. No way three people (unless, maybe, if they had the perfect lineup) could take on Rayquaza and have 90 seconds left to go. During Dragon week I was doing raids with at least 5-6 other trainers, and having about 30-45 seconds left on the clock. 

Two: I think that the shiny rate was higher for Deoxys than Rayquazas. I encountered a shiny on my 4th raid. Maybe it was because I got invited to a raid in Canada, and it was just chance, but on twitter I definitely saw more shiny Deoxys than shiny Rayquaza.

I was very upset about how there was not a single Unown raid in Atlanta, Georgia, that I saw. I was looking all over and would see tier 2 eggs hatch into Gothita, Solosis, and Elgyem. So pissed! Why would I want a Gothita or Solosis? I understand Elgyem, but I think it should have been a tier 1. Tier 3 had Lunatone, Solrock, and Claydol, which is also pretty lame in my opinion. I battled in one Unown letter "L" raid this week from an invite outside of my area. I just thought that was weird not seeing a single raid of Unown but having Unown featured in promotions and posts leading up to the week. The only reason for this that I can think of is that Niantic is just trying to make certain letters of Unown rare. I think Tier 2 raids should have been all Unown raids. One thing I did like was the tier 4 raids-- Marowak, Togetic, Metagross, and Bronzong. That's a cool lineup and it is just neat to see Metagross in raids and having Beldum spawn more frequently in the wild.

In conclusion 

This week I had fun catching and battling against the new mythical, and somewhat mysterious, Deoxys. It was overall a neat experince. I was very disapointed with the Unown raids and that Enigma week did not have any special research. Comparing this week to Dragon week, after dragon week I ended up with 800 Dratini candies, a shiny Horsea, an evolved Swablu, 2 Deinos, and a few Rayquazas. I also had fun playing the timed special research. During Enigma week I ended up with far too many Baltoys and Staryus to count, and only one Unown. I did get a shiny Deoxy, but I am still giving the win to Dragon Week.

Let me know which one you thought was better and what your thoughts were on Enigma week! Follow @SimplePokemonGo for more updates and tips on PokemonGO.

 

Image Credit: Niantic