8. A Thrilling Gyardos Encounter! (WITH VIDEO CAPTURE)

Magikarp:  It’s orange. It’s small. It only knows splash, a useless attack that does no damage. It’s generally seen as a useless Pokémon for most of the history of the Pokémon Franchise.

Gyardos: It’s Blue. It’s massive.  It’s angry.  It knows powerful attacks, like Hydro Pump, Outrage, and Crunch.  It’s a very useful Pokémon in Pokémon GO.

But when you see that it requires 400 Candy to evolve the measly Magikarp into the monstrous Gyardos, and how they rarely ever spawn in the wild, most players can barely see one in their distant future, IF they squint.

Pokémon GO has released a few events that make farming enough Magikarp candy easier, but it still requires about 100 Magikarp caught, or 50+ using a Pinap Berry on each one, to save up enough candy to evolve. 

This is one of those times.  The annual “Water Festival” in Pokémon GO greatly increases the number of Water type Pokémon that spawn in the wild, and as such, Magikarp are everywhere right now…But wild Gyardos are still extremely hard to find, most would never see one, even during this increased spawn event…

Not me:  I got so lucky one afternoon, upon returning home early from my usual cluster spawn clean-out, as to find a wild Gyardos waiting for me, nearly at my front door.  I pulled into my neighborhood, and glanced down at my phone.  Nothing. As I approached my house, the nearby list refreshed, and the lone Pokémon on that list was none other than the might Gyardos.  My heart raced.  I know the timer of the spawn point in front of my house, so I drive quickly the remaining few dozens meters to my house.  Sure enough, he’s sitting right there to greet me.  Looking at the time, I realize that there is only about 5 minutes left before this awesome, lucky, and rare spawns de-spawns. Tapping it quickly, I turn on my screen recording, and this happens.

TIP: When capturing rare spawns like this one, I always use the "Set Circle" Trick.  Check my Blog for my post on how to do this trick.

I’m not special; This could have happened to anyone.  I was just in the right place, at the right time….My house.

To learn more about the Water Festival, and any upcoming events, PokemonGoHub is an excellent resource, and they are usually the first to report on any new findings or announcements in the game.  Giving you tips to succeed in special events is kinda their thing:

https://pokemongohub.net

Also, here is the direct link to their article on the Pokémon GO Water Festival, 2018! Get those tips when you need 'em...now!

https://pokemongohub.net/post/news/pokemon-go-water-festival-2018-shiny-kyogre-and-everything-else-you-need-to-know/