'Pokemon Go' Player Shows the Cost of Getting This Popular Pokemon

A Pokemon Go player has calculated that it would cost the average player between $50-$60 dollars to obtain the popular Pokemon Lucario. Yesterday, "u/Fruitymcdoo" posted a lengthy explanation about the cost of obtaining a Riolu on r/TheSilphRoad, one of the biggest Pokemon Go communities on the Internet. The post explained the odds of obtaining Riolu, the pre-evolved form of Lucario, from a 7 KM or 10 KM egg. Currently, players have only a 0.7% of obtaining a Riolu from an egg, which means that players will have to, on average, hatch 143 eggs to obtain a single Riolu.

While players can hatch eggs using their single free incubator that comes with the game, it's much more efficient (and quicker) to hatch Pokemon using either Super Incubators or limited use Incubators, which both cost PokeCoins. It would take 48 Incubators to hatch 143 eggs, which would either cost $50-$60 in real world money or 7,200-9,600 PokeCoins. And while players can earn PokeCoins from having their Pokemon in gyms, they'd need to max out their PokeCoins for at least 192 days to collect enough PokeCoins to purchase that many Incubators from gyms.

While players don't need to buy Incubators to obtain Riolu and by extension Lucario, the Reddit post was a sobering illustration of how Pokemon Go is using one of the Pokemon franchise's most popular Pokemon to try to encourage player spending. Lucario is not only a signature Pokemon from Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, it was also featured in its own movie, made a notable appearance in Pokemon X & Y, and is a recurring playable character in the Super Smash Bros. franchise. While Pokemon Go can certainly do what it wants, it seems a little...odd that it has put such a major barrier on obtaining this popular Pokemon.

Do you have a Riolu? And did you have to spend money to hatch it? Let us know in the comment section or find me on Twitter at @CHofferCbus to chat all things Pokemon!