Pokemon GO: Is Heracross Region-Exclusive?
By Dalton Cooper 18 February 2017
Evidence compiled by Pokemon GO players seems to suggest that Heracross is the only region-exclusive Pokemon added in the game’s new Johto region update.
If someone wants to fully complete the Pokedex in Pokemon GO, they have to travel to other continents in order to capture region-exclusive Pokemon like Tauros and Farfetch’d. So far, it seems as though most of the new Pokemon added in the game’s latest update are available worldwide, with the possible exception being the bug/fighting-type Pokemon Heracross.
Heracross, who once had a prominent role in the Pokemon anime series, is arguably one of the most popular second generation Pokemon, making it a desirable catch for Pokemon GO players. Unfortunately for players that live outside of the Americas, though, there’s some evidence that suggests Heracross is region-exclusive to North and South America.
Reddit user Wolfssoul has compiled data that show Heracross being captured in areas like southern Florida and parts of South America. There have been reports of players capturing the elusive pocket monster in other regions, but they haven’t been confirmed. Since there were many false reports of Pokemon GO players capturing region-exclusive Pokemon outside of their respective regions when the game originally launched last summer, it’s possible those claiming to have captured Heracross outside of the Americas aren’t being truthful.
If Heracross is region-exclusive, it would be odd that it would be the only region-exclusive Pokemon of the 80 second generation Pokemon added in the game’s Johto region update. Previous region-exclusive Pokemon were spread out across the globe, giving players a chance to catch one regardless of where they lived. It would be unfair of Niantic to have only one region-exclusive Pokemon this time around, and it would also be inconsistent with how the company has handled region-exclusive Pokemon in the past.
So, the more likely scenario is that Heracross is not region-exclusive, despite the evidence suggesting it is, but rather, it is simply rarer in certain regions than others. It’s also possible that Heracross is just rare in general, like the alphabet-inspired Unown, and players in the Americas simply got lucky when they found and captured it.
But if we assume for a moment that Heracross is the only region-exclusive Pokemon from the Johto update, as the evidence seems to suggest, there could be one explanation as to why Niantic would do this. Perhaps the long-awaited Pokemon trading feature is going to be added to the game soon, which would theoretically allow players from all over the world to the capture region-exclusive Pokemon much easier than they were able to before.
Pokemon GO is available now for iOS and Android mobile devices.
