In Pokémon GO, you can get Crypto-Articuno. So, theoretically, if the raid works. And even then, there is no guarantee, as MyMMO author Max Handwerk noted.
It’s weekend time! And that means Crypto-Articuno is returning to the 5-star Crypto Raids in Pokémon GO. The raids have been available for a few weeks now, but in case you haven’t checked them out yet:
- The Crypto Raids take place in gyms that have been taken over by Team Rocket
- The opponent is an enhanced Crypto monster that can also switch into an angry mode during the battle
- Then it deals even more damage and also takes noticeably less damage
- To calm it down, you need redeemed gems that can be used in battle
- And to build it, you first need Crypto shards
In short: The Crypto opponents in the raids can be quite difficult, and the 5-star boss Articuno is not easy to beat. You definitely need several trainers on-site to defeat it.
Unfortunately, I hardly had the opportunity to run around with several trainers and start raids against Articuno in the past weeks; the weekends were full. But last Sunday, an opportunity finally arose.
I stood with a few friends at the train station in the morning waiting for the train. As luck would have it, Crypto-Articuno suddenly appeared here. And because three of my friends also play Pokémon GO, the opportunity was finally there: The battle against Crypto-Articuno began.
But the hoped-for catch did not come to pass in the end.
Team Rocket is currently heavily active in Pokémon GO:
How the much-anticipated Crypto Raid against Articuno went
We were all excited to finally have a team that could realistically challenge Articuno – or so we thought. It turned out that we were not as well-prepared as we thought. We had some of the top counters against Articuno, but we were noticeably lacking redeemed gems. Exactly one was used in the battle.
The consequences were painfully felt, as Articuno consistently iced our Pokémon well. Time and again, the teams had to be revived, which was not very helpful under time pressure. And when Articuno got cranky and switched to angry mode, we thought it was over. The health bar barely wanted to decrease despite attacks from four directions.
Only towards the end of the battle did the monster calm down a bit on its own. Then we struck and ended up defeating it – with precisely two seconds remaining on the clock.
But the joy of victory quickly turned into disappointment, as the ice bird showed itself noticeably unimpressed by the premium balls thrown, at least in my case. I thought, ‘this can’t be, it will definitely stay in the ball’, but it was not meant to be: It fled and was never seen again.
All the effort of the battle, all the revives and potions, finally enough people, and then a narrowly won raid – everything seemed to come together. And yet it didn’t work out in the end.
A bitter result, as it is uncertain when the opportunity will arise again to challenge the monster as a group. It is noticeable here when you do not have a super-active community nearby – as raids like this will be very difficult to solve on-site, especially since they are not always available. A problem, that my MyMMO colleague Franzi Korittke has also had to deal with.
Let’s see – maybe it will work out again this weekend! Have you been able to solve the Crypto Raid against Articuno? Let us know in the comments!
