Review Special Rates

I thought I had posted in support of this before but I guess I didnt' - whoopsie qwq Personal disclaimer, I am a free to play (F2P) player because I can't afford hypermode and ubercharms. I appreciate the changes to the shiny charm so everyone can recharge it instead of just those with a shiny charm box, it really does help. That all being said, right now with the rates at where they are, it does not seem worth it to hunt for specials as a F2P. I love hunting for my favorite mons in shiny and albino forme (a melan hunt is waaaay too long for me to do lol). I shelved a Bagon hunt recently because I was going weeks without hatching a single special, even with as many boosts as possible. A sei day + a shiny charm + a long chain bonus yielded no shinies. A level 7 albino radar + a dragon z-crystal yielded no albinos. I understand that it's all RNG, nothing is guranteed, and I do not expect specials to be handed out willy nilly even with boosts. That being said, it is incredibly demoralizing to go weeks and weeks without getting a single special despite all the boosts being applied. When you're almost 2k eggs in and you still haven't gotten all the ones you need, it really gets to you. As Niet said earlier in this thread, the two complaints seem to be at odds - that people say specials are too rare, but that specials also oversaturate the market. I think no matter what you do, the latter is always going to be true. There is a surplus inventory from when the old special raters were in effect, but reducing the rates to where they are has not seemed to get rid of that problem. Additionally, the reduction in rates doesn't quite seem fair to the newer players who want to hunt specials but weren't around for the higher rates. I think a good compromise would be to increase the rates a bit. I don't think they should go back to where they were before, but as it stands right now special hunting seems more like a chore rather than fun work as a F2P. It just doesn't seem worth it to grind for weeks to get a single special to increase my shiny/albino dex when instead I can make progress towards getting Arceus rank or upgrading my Wishforge badges instead.

Does anyone recall when the DP clicks for someone not logged into a PF acct was raised from 1 to 5? I feel like that had a huge influence on DP prices too but I can't remember when exactly that was implemented. But if we're judging specials' prices on their DP value I think that's important to the conversation.

This has been bothering me for a little bit so I'm finally swinging by to properly voice my support. There are players who have been here much longer and have played with whatever the old rates were; I have not, so I only have my own perspective. As someone who does hunt with all shiny-related boosts essentially all the time, shiny rates are fine to me. Sometimes there's dry periods and they don't feel great, but it does feel like if I keep at it they'll pop up eventually. Albino rates, however, feel utterly sparse to the point of being demotivating even with every boost. I regularly go weeks and 500+ eggs with no albino regardless of z-crystals and type race bonus - this past type race I got a single albino in just over 600 eggs, and it wasn't even my chained egg. I know chains don't effect albino odds but that still felt like insult to injury and discourages me from hatching anything outside my chain whenever there is a type race or tournament allowing it. I've given up on hunts I was trying to persevere through for one more albino (or one at ALL) on almost every hunt I've done. Anecdotal evidence aside and tl;dr shiny rates feel mostly fine and worth it to keep at it albino rates badly need a boost or a pity timer (which I know has been rejected as a suggestion so won't be happening)

Bump, hope this isn't too early?

i sorta support maybe if they revisit the rates it mightmake it easiar to get specials or might make it even harder but ima go with support

I can't really say if I support or not as someone who has only been here for a month, but I will say something feels...off about the Albino odds. Even with a level 5 radar for a majority of my play time, I have only gotten two Albinos. One by randomly hatching things with no rhyme or reason and during my Wurmple hunt via the evolution tourney where I got four shinies and only one Albino when I was hatching a ton per day. This isn't even acknowledging the fact I've had several five day or so hunts (I'm impatient I know) with even more hatches with no Albino period, but it'd be common for me to get two shinies. I'm not asking to be given the rate or anything, I know the reason for that is because then people would have an exact number to rant about, but maybe it could be lightly improved. I'm ok with Melans being rare since getting an improved odd is meant to be a promotion for Arceus rank (which has its own issues with the whole "shiny hunters probably aren't happy getting interupted for tournies to keep their ranks/odds" but this ain't the place for that), despite not owning a Melan, don't think altering that is needed, just Albino if there IS a way to raise base Albino without it messing with Melan odds.

Bumping this to see what everyone thinks since the new amulets have been released for a little while now c:

This opinion WILL vary from others because I haven't got the colbat amulet yet (+ no hypermode when it was implemented) and I am not sure how that works, but I do very long hunts for shinies and albinos (for type race or just because I feel like it) and the amulets feel like they are just.. there? I'm not sure how to explain it. Like when Sei day happened a day or two ago, I made sure I boosted all my shiny and albino odds as much as I could, and I only ended up with 1 albino and no shinies. Last month TR i believe i only hatched some albinos + 1 shiny before i got worn out of hunting honedges since I felt discouraged. The last shiny I hatched was the 11th and it just feels like the gold amulet just doesn't do anything for me. maybe thats just because im a lil impatient or unlucky on these things, since these are RNG based. As for the silver amulet, it's okay. I've hatched about 3 albinos so far since hunting G. Yamasks, which makes me happy from the lack of shinies. I think the very small issue I have are that albinos feel more common to obtain than shinies sometimes, even with having a low radar. I only use level 7s on sei days, but I still hatch albinos with 6 or even 5 sometimes. I know that'e because level 6 boosts up to 2,176%, when without hypermode is a much bigger chance than the shiny chain bonus, 1,958.3%. I do enjoy the better albino odds, do not get me wrong; the permanent boosts feels great, unlike how z-crystals run out after 3 days and other albino boosts usually run out at some point. But the shiny amulet just feels like it's lacking a little with it's effectiveness. Again, I know it is RNG, and I could even hatch 2 shinies back to back at this moment if Sally felt like it, but it still feels like how it was before and is just very hit or miss for me. And it usually ends up with me feeling discouraged to hunt sometimes.. ^^' I would love to hear others opinions though, since others have the cobalt amulet + hypermode and this is a personal experience! :3c I'm curious how the amulets affect you guys! Sorry for writing so much I wasn't sure how to completely explain my feelings about them in my words so I tried being descriptive :'3