'Pokémon Go' Legendary bird release off to a rough and problematic start

Niantic just recently introduced some new legendary Pokémon into its highly popular augmented reality video game, "Pokémon Go." However, the way they were introduced into the game may have been off-putting for some as the launch of the Legendary birds were met with an assortment of issues and technical problems.

Botched event

The company recently held its first in-person event, called the "Pokémon Go Fest," which saw the attendance of hundreds of active players and Pokémon fans.

Unfortunately, due to connectivity issues, the company's newly launched cooperative raids were mostly unplayable, leaving a lot of festival goers frustrated. Following the event, Niantic then announced that it would be giving all of the attendees a $20 refund for their tickets as well as free Pokécoins worth $100. To further appease the frustrated players, Niantic is offering up a free Lugia Legendary Pokémon to all players that were present at the event.

Too powerful

Other players who were not able to attend the live event were given their own chance of catching either of the two Rare Birds, namely Articuno and Lugia.

Players can fight against and catch the Legendary Pokémon through several cooperative raids spread across different locations around the world. However, it has to be noted that the rare birds do have very high CP, which means that they cannot really be taken down with just a couple of players even if they have powerful Pokémon.

This is, of course, a big problem for areas without many active players as it may be too difficult to find enough players to participate in a raid. Powerful players can probably take down a Rare Bird with 7 or 10 participants. However, most players will likely need to have at least 15 to 20 players with relatively powerful Pokémon.

Small percentage and technical issues

Even after the rare bird is taken down, there is still the task of actually capturing it.

Players are all given a limited number of Premiere Balls to catch the Pokémon. Unfortunately, data miners have discovered that the capture rate during the first throw is only around 2 percent. The catch rate does increase with the use of berries, but it isn't that much. Some players have also reported minor glitches and network issues during the co-op raids, with some experiencing hang-ups and freezes during the capturing process. Given that the feature is still relatively new, Niantic may still have some ways to go before its makes the entire system work flawlessly.