Goldens give a much bigger multiplier bonus, but the catch rate of legendaries is so low that you'll still be seeing very low numbers when using them when compared to normal rasps and using no berries at all, but everything adds up and sometimes an increase of even only 2% in the catch rate can make a difference when the RNG dice rolls. Still, it rounds down to luck. I've successfully caught legendaries using straight shots hitting outside of the shrinking circle with no berries, but I've also had cases of only first-shake breakouts when throwing excellent curveballs using golden rasps. Since it boils down to absolutely nothing but chance, I've set up a rule for myself to only use golden rasps when the raid boss appears to be high in IVs or I just want the catch for any other reason (collecting every Hidden Power suicune variant atm). Otherwise, I just use pinaps.
are golden raspberries really better than raspberries?
After a few weeks of raids (legendaries only) with very small Golden R. inventory,I started using regular R. Since I started, I've caught many legendaries with regular R so now I always start with 3 R before throwing GR. Here are my last 5 five raids, all throws excellent or great:
- Rx2 caught
- Rx3, GRx8 ran away
- Rx3, GRx5 caught
- Rx1 caught
- Rx3 caught
regular R: caught 3/12
GR: caught 1/13
I know you need much larger numbers to have good statistics, and it's not always the case that I get a series of catch with R like this, but honestly, I do think that since they fixed the curveball bug, my catch rates with R and GR have been about the same. I think I've caught about a third of my raikou and entei with R. I still use GR for high CP because I know GR are supposed to be much better... but has this been really verified? on actual catch numbers?
Answers
I half-agree with you that it's a lot about luck. But people have calculated catch statistics, and they are higher with GR....
Oh wait, I just checked. It's 16% max with a GR and 10% max with a R. An excellent R is like a nice GR...
OK I remembered it as the difference being much bigger, so GR is only 60% better than R, so I'm satisfied with this.
Bear in mind, the percentage of the circle that counts as a "Great" throw is far larger than either a "nice" or an "excellent" one, making it by far the most reliably useful throw to go for. And if you get to the point where you can reliably solo tier 3 raids, you'll quickly see your stock of golden razzes increase dramatically.
I was using pinaps some but if you look at the article here on gamepress you can see that the math actually supports using golden berries for maximum candy gains. Essentially your catch rate is so much lower with a piano that you'll average catches less than half of the time you would with GR so you end up losing out.
The bottom line is there is a small percent chance you will catch any legendary. All we can do is increase those odds through berries and curve throws. At best you're looking at a less than 20% chance to catch every throw. The amount of balls you can throw is probably the most significant factor in whether or not you'll catch something.
Use GR for boss CP less than 25CP away from the maximum. This is usually the case that it is a 90% perfection or above.
Feel free to pinap or normal razz the rest as they will be below 90 and you shouldn't be too fussed about them (unless it's your first one)
If you are not hitting at least 10 shots GR curve excellent and the boss runs away, it's on you. Do that and it still runs, is bad luck. Do less than that and get it, it's good luck.