Which Pokemon Are Still Missing in Pokemon Go?

Pokemon Go players around the world have an opportunity to fill another hole in their Pokedex with the (temporary) worldwide release of Farfetch’d as part of the Global Catch Challenge.

Now that most players have crossed Farfetch’d off of their “to catch” list, there’s one less new Pokemon species to find in Pokemon Go. With the release of Legendary Pokemon over the summer, there aren’t many Pokemon missing from Pokemon Go, although there are still a couple of Pokemon that haven’t been added to the game.

So which Pokemon are still missing from Pokemon Go, and when can we expect to see them? We’ve got a rundown of all of Pokemon Go‘s unavailable Pokemon, so keep scrolling to see which Pokemon still haven’t popped up in the game:

Ho-Oh

The biggest Pokemon missing from the game is the Legendary Pokemon Ho-Oh. One of Pokemon Go‘s most powerful Pokemon, Ho-Oh is a powerful Fire/Flying dual-type Pokemon and the “mascot” of Pokemon Gold. 

Due to its popularity and sheer power, players have clamored for Ho-Oh for months and it looks like their requests could finally be answered. Earlier this weekend, Japanese players spotted two Ho-Oh raids on public trackers. While no one could access these Ho-Oh raids, players who investigated the raids in person found gyms with the “Pokemon Go Travel” logo, a sign that Niantic is using Ho-Oh in their new video series. 

It’s looking more and more likely that Ho-Oh will appear in Pokemon Go by the end of 2017…if not a lot sooner. Don’t be surprised if Ho-Oh appears as part of a November surprise for Pokemon Go players. 

Smeargle

Smeargle is a strange Pokemon that has the ability to permanently copy any Pokemon move it sees in battle. While it’s not a particularly powerful Pokemon, Smeargle is popular in the competitive Pokemon scene because it can use almost any move, giving it unbridled versatility and adaptability.

The issue with Smeargle is that its unique ability doesn’t really translate well into Pokemon Go. While normal Pokemon games offer players the chance of customizing a player’s moveset, Pokemon Go‘s Pokemon are limited to just a handful of moves. 

There’s two potential options on how to deal with Smeargle’s unique abilities. The first is allowing Smeargle to temporarily copy its opponent’s moves, similar to how Ditto can temporarily take the shape of an opponent. The other option is to somehow permanently give Smeargle the first moves it encounters in battle, which would probably require a lot of changes to Pokemon Go‘s code.

We originally thought that Pokemon Go might release Smeargle during Thanksgiving (just like they released Ditto last year). Now that Thanksgiving has passed, it’s honestly anyone’s guess as to when Smeargle could appear in Pokemon Go. 

Delibird

While Smeargle probably won’t appear in Pokemon Go anytime soon, there’s a pretty good likelihood we’ll see at least one more new Pokemon in the game by the end of the year. 

Delibird is a special holiday-themed Pokemon that gives out special presents from a large sack it carries with him. These presents can act as attacks, but they can also occasionally heal an opponent too. 

There’s two reasons why Delibird likely hasn’t appeared in Pokemon Go yet. Pokemon Go doesn’t have a mechanism for in-battle healing, so Delibird’s “Present” attack could potentially cause headaches in the game. But the other reason is that Delibird is the closest thing the Pokemon franchise has to a “Christmas” Pokemon, which means that Pokemon Go is likely waiting to add the Pokemon until this year’s holiday season. 

Pokemon Go will be wasting a pretty obvious opportunity if they don’t release Delibird in the next few weeks. Expect to see Delibird make an appearance during this year’s holiday event!