Do you think that walking a buddy increases your chances of seeing him in the wild?
I have walked a Dratini/Dragonaire/ Dragonite off and on for over 800KM. In between, I have walked many other Mons.
I know for a fact that I have encountered many more Dratini in the wild when walking one, than not. But, that can be justified by the amount of time that I walk them.
But, I walked Grimer for a total of 2 days, and caught the only wild Grimier that have ever seen while I had him as my buddy.
I needed 6 Abra candy to get Alakazam, and made him my buddy. Caught an Abra within 2 hours.
I walked Lapras to get 12 candies to power one up, and caught the only wild Lapras that I have ever seen.
Yesterday I made a Snorlax my buddy, and this morning I caught the first wild Snorlax that I have seen since October.
Has anyone else had this type of experience? Do you think that making a Mon your buddy increases your chances of finding that Mon in the wild? Is this just pure stupid luck and coincidence on my part?
Answers
Not convincing. How do you know what a particular wild spawn is suppose to be? Unless you are a Niantic programmer.
So maybe buddying a Snorlax increased the overall chance of Snorlax spawning in your 50km radius. A study would have to be done to definitelively count out buddy-to-spawn relationship. i.e. Take a whole country or whole state's Snorlax spawns for consecutive months to get an avg per month total. Have everyone in that country or state change all their Buddy to Snorlax for a whole month. Then check whether that month's Snorlax spawn was more, equal or less.
Look at the Philly pokemap, the Vegas pokemap and the Boston pokemap. I don't need to do a PhD thesis to know that these spawns have nothing to do with the buddy.
You literally won't see a Snorlax in downtown philly but you'll see 10+ in the suburbs. Do you really think that nobody is using Snorlax as a buddy downtown but everybody is in the burbs? And nobody in downtown Boston (where Snorlax is super rare)? All my friends who play the game in Boston has Snorlax or Dragonite as a buddy but they are still extremely rare.
So maybe buddying a Snorlax increased the overall chance of Snorlax spawning in your 50km radius. A study would have to be done to definitelively count out buddy-to-spawn relationship.
What you want is pretty unrealistic. For the studies that have already been made, some determined players had to do something special (e.g. getting egg only at one specific pokestop, recording detailled information for every single catch,....); For your studie, you would have to take all players in one specific region into account, forcing them to use another buddy or at least having them to tell you which buddy they are walking.
You name a 50-km-radius. Please tell me how you are planning to adress all players in such a region, let allone telling them what to buddy, or making them change their buddy.
You had to setup a control group, with another region.
I think, i can stop here. Have you got a more convincing setup? I think, the most promising way to get an information here is to bribe a niantic-programmer. :-)
Grimer did 99kms with me, and I never saw a single one.
Lax walked with me for 130kms, and did not see a single one
Dratini is up to just over 110kms and I did hatch one just after he started as my buddy (my only dratini hatch) but I am yet to see one in the wild as I walk him.
Lapras has done 75kms and I am yet to ever see one in the wild.
I can see why you would question it, but I believe it is all just coincidence.
I wish I could catch the things I most desperatley need candy for, at the time I most need it.
I hope your luck continues for you.
I have the same feeling, when I buddied Lapras at early days, I got more Of it (wild & hatch). I got 7 Lapras between July - October, only 1 after that.
After the cp adjustment and also I got better Snorlax movesets, I buddied Snorlax most of the time, then I got 8 Snor (Nov-now), (July-Oct got 4).
When I try to get the last Dratini candies for evolve, I buddied it, and I saw them here and there. Nowadays I saw roughly none.
Believe it or not, really up to you....
