Pokemon Go Nerfs Mewtwo's Catch Rate

Pokemon Go players might have a hard time capturing Mewtwo over the next month, thanks to a drastically lowered catch rate.

The popular mobile game officially added Mewtwo as a regular Raid Boss yesterday, after over a year of the powerful Pokemon existing solely as an EX Raid Boss accessible to only a handful of players. However, Pokemon Go made some major changes to Mewtwo as part of the Pokemon's new, more mundane role in the game, including scrapping some of its most effective moves and apparently radically lowering its catch rate.

Originally, Mewtwo had a base catch rate of 9% before bonuses were added in. That meant, short of some really bad RNG luck or inaccurate throws, most players had a very good chance of capturing Mewtwo after every encounter provided they hit Mewtwo consistently with Poke Balls.

However, it appears that Mewtwo's catch rate has lowered to 2%, which means drastically lowered odds for players looking to capture the Legendary Pokemon for the first time.

While disappointing, the lowered catch rate isn't exactly surprising. All Legendary Pokemon have had catch rates of either 2% or 3%, in part to force players of trying their hand in multiple raids. While Pokemon Go is free-to-play, they still need to make money and one of the easiest way is by getting players to purchase Premium Raid Passes for more chances to capture Mewtwo before he disappears next month.

The good news is that Mewtwo has a huge catch circle, so players should be able to hit Great or Excellent Curve Ball throws with relative ease. Mewtwo does jump and attack a lot, so try to time your throws or else you'll waste a lot of balls.

Players have until mid-October to capture Mewtwo. Meanwhile, the Mythical Pokemon Deoxys will become the next EX Raid Boss and will likely have a much higher catch rate.