In the main series of Pokémon games, it’s always been pretty clear what sorts of Pokémon will appear where: Water types appear in water, Electric and Steel types appear in industrial locations, Fire types appear in warmer areas, and it goes on thusly. Overall, Pokémon appear where you’d probably expect them to, but does this also apply to Pokémon Go?

Players have been trying to figure this out, and Reddit user RotomGuy thinks he has the answer with his Pokémon Go rarity chart:

While the chart may be relatively accurate for most players, Reddit commenters have pointed out that this data isn’t applicable to all areas, as different Pokémon are far more common in different places. Some users claim to see Pokémon categorized as Rare of Epic a lot more often than Pokémon that have been deemed as more common.

Some excellent research conducted by The Silph Road sheds more light on why this may be the case. The YouTube channel had over 300 field testers working with a beta version of Pokémon Go go out in the world and just play, all the while collecting 82 points of data for over 2,600 Pokémon spawns. It’s unclear if the game has since changed in a way that renders this data insignificant. Regardless, The Silph Road’s research is impressive.

For example, they found that spawns of Ground, Rock, Fire, and Fighting types tended to appear more in dry, hot climates, and that Water types are more likely to spawn near riverbanks, wetlands, and similar aquatic environments.

Both of these projects are interesting points of reference, but it’s hard to call either of them conclusive. We suppose that means we just have to go play the game and find for ourselves what’s really out there.

Featured Image: Niantic/The Pokémon Company

Image: RotomGuy/Reddit