Ho-Oh Will Be Pokemon Go's Hardest to Catch Pokemon

Pokemon Go's newest Legendary Pokemon won't be a cakewalk for trainers to catch.

Earlier today, Pokemon Go announced that Ho-Oh will appear in the game between now and December 12th as an extra prize for beating last week's Global Catch Challenge.

Ho-Oh officially started to appear in gyms about an hour after the announcement and now Pokemon Go players have discovered just how hard it will be to catch this powerful Fire/Flying dual-type Pokemon.

Ho-Oh has a base capture rate of 2%, which officially ties it with Lugia and the Legendary Beasts Entei, Suicune, and Raikou as the hardest to catch Pokemon in the game.

The base capture rate is the success rate of a player catching a Pokemon using a PokeBall with no bonuses or berries. Players can increase the likelihood of capturing Ho-Oh by using Golden Razz Berries or hitting it with an accurate throw. Players will also get catch bonuses for earning medals by catching other Fire and Flying-Type Pokemon.

If a Pokemon Go player hits Ho-Oh with a curved Excellent Throw, fed it a Golden Razz Berries, and has the Gold Medals for Fire-Type and Flying-Type Pokemon, they'll have about a 17% chance of catching Ho-Oh per throw.

It's a bit surprising that Ho-Oh has such a low capture rate, as Ho-Oh will only be available for a two week period. The Legendary Beasts were all available for a month and Lugia was available for two months before they disappeared from the game.

Due to Ho-Oh's low base capture rate and the short amount of time it'll appear in Pokemon Go, players should be prepared to hit a lot of raids over the next two weeks. Good luck on capturing this powerful new Pokemon before it disappears!