"'Porygon Biome': Data from >1700 spawns tracked manually inside one level 14 S2 cell"

#PokemonGO: I'm posting this now in case it proves helpful for anyone who still needs to find themselves a porygon before the end of the event. I'm up to more than 500 data points from the event itself, so it should be accurate enough to be useful. TLDR: Porygon are 8% of spawns in a pidgey/rattata/spearow biome that normally has just 2% magnemite. All 11 spawn points that were monitored have spawned at least one porygon. Jigglypuff at 14%, also spread across spawn points. Pidgey and rattata spawns down 7-8% each and spearow down 4%. This reduction is proportional to their incidence in the original biome. Background:I started monitoring spawns in my local area just under a month ago, aiming to check my theory that there were differences between the quality of spawn points. The data has in fact shown that the majority of spawn points in the area are very similar. I collected more than 1600 data points before the Valentine's event started, 1228 of which were from just 11 spawn points within the same level 14 S2 cell. This has given me a good basis for comparison when porygon started spawning in my area during the event. Method:I collected all the data manually. 2 of the spawn points are visible from my house, and were monitored by catching (or attempting to catch) every pokemon that spawned whilst I was awake at home. These were logged in the journal and I periodically transcribed the data. The remaining 9 spawn points are visible on my nearby tracker and can be reliably identified by time of spawn. To track these, I took screenshots of the nearby tracker every 5 minutes for extended periods of time. I then periodically went through the screenshots and entered the pokemon into a sheet that tracked them by time and location. Since both methods relied on me actively using my phone, there are some gaps in the data even from when I was at home. Of course there is no data from when I was asleep or out at work. Selection of spawn points:This report only details data from 11 spawn points, all of which are located within the same level 14 S2 cell, and all of which exhibited very similar spawn behaviour prior to the event. None of the spawn points have shown any nest behaviour.1227 spawns were recorded from these points before the event. The lowest number of recorded spawns was 89, and the highest was 120.During the event, 507 spawns have been recorded so far. The lowest number from a single point is 30, and the highest is 47. The biome before the event:This was a fairly unexciting biome before the event, as you can see from the table below: PokemonPercentagePidgey36%Rattata33%Spearow15%Mr Mime2%Magnemite2%Krabby1.5%Zubat1.5%Gastly1.5%Jigglypuff1%OthersAll <1% Porygon were not unknown here - I have caught them in the wild - but there were no recorded porygon spawns out of the 1227 from before the event. There were just 4 recorded voltorb spawns in that same time-frame. The magnemite at 2% gives a hint of electric biome, but nothing similar to the high-magnemite-and-voltorb biomes which are traditionally called electric biome. The biome during the event:Jigglypuff and porygon have both been added in at a significant spawn rate: PokemonPercentagePidgey28%Rattata26%Jigglypuff14%Spearow11%Porygon8%Magnemite1%OthersAll <1.5%With the smaller data set, variations in the 1-2% level don't really mean much, so I haven't given percentages for the pokemon in this range apart from magnemite. These uncommon pokemon still appear to be drawn from the same stock, e.g. zubat & krabby, and are still be seen in a similar ratio to before the event. Tentative analysis:It looks from the data as though spawn rates remain unchanged for all except the three most common pokemon. Pidgey and rattata spawn rates have been reduced by twice as much as spearow, and they were twice as common in the original biome. This seems like it must indicate something about the way spawn points roll which monster to spawn. I hope this is helpful and/or interesting! via /r/TheSilphRoad http://ift.tt/2lHzIlg