"Catchin’ in the Rain - what I learned from hunting Lotad for half a day"

#PokemonGO: I live in Northeastern USA, and we got an unseasonal rainy day today. Knowing we may not have rain for another 3 months (snow season setting in), that this might be the last chance in a while to farm rare water mons, I decided to brave the rain and hunted water pokemon for 5 hours.what I learned:Lotad: Lotad is farmable if you have the right biome + right weather effect. Today I played in my city’s CBD, which is (using pre-gen 3 terminology) a mixed electric + machop biome. In my city this is the “good stuff” biome, with occasional Mareep, Larvitar and Chansey spawns. Turns out under rainy conditions, this is the (or one of the) correct biome for Lotad - in 5 hours, I managed to farm just enough candies to evolve Ludicolo. In contrast, I see no Lotad in my home biome (pidgey/rattata/sentret/murkrow biome).of course, it’s worth noting that the entire area has been lit up with 6-hour lures, which helped a ton. Without those lures, it’s probably impossible to catch so many in half a day.Other rares: while Lotad has reasonable availability given the right biome and weather, the same cannot be said about other rare gen 3 water mons. During those 5 hours, I did manage to catch 1 Carvanha, 1 Barboach, 2 Corphish, and 0 Feebas (but hatched one from a 10km egg). This is in stark contrast to the 19 or so Lotad that I caught.Maybe this isn’t the right biome for those other rares? I don’t know. Will try the waterfront next time for a river biome (bad weather + out by the water was just too much, so didn’t go today).IRL lessons learned for pokemon-hunting in the rain:stock up on as many pinabs and balls as possible. Phone screen getting wet = much harder to accurately throw. I cannot count how many times I wasted balls and/or pinabs because my throws were off due to the wet phone screen.wear water-resistant or waterproof shoes. Mesh-top sneakers, dress shoes, etc will cause SE water damage to your feet. It will be very hard to last several hours in the rain in those shoes. And be extremely careful about slippery surfaces.not as critical as shoes, but still important: waterproof jacket with a hood to keep your head and hair dry.when stopping to catch pokemon, don’t stand at the edge of the sidewalk - otherwise you risk getting splashed by cars passing by.watch out for people who wave their (closed) umbrella like a sword, or point the metal tip anywhere but down. Some people are just inconsiderate like that.most importantly, play safely and judge the weather conditions for yourself. Obviously don’t go out under dangerous conditions, or to areas where bad weather could lead to physical harm. To be honest, it kind of sucks that the abundance of water mons is now tied to weather unconducive to going outside.... via /r/TheSilphRoad http://ift.tt/2zntI7T