Pokemon GO: Top 5 rarest Pokemon in 2022

Although Niantic has made strident efforts to make many Pokemon accessible in Pokemon GO, some are still quite difficult to obtain in the grand scheme of things.

Certain Pokemons in Pokemon GO are simply difficult to obtain for multiple reasons. While some may have meager rates to spawn in the wild, others may only appear during events.

Some even still are locked outside of certain global regions. Whatever the reason, some Pokemon are incredibly rare within the mobile game's confines, even if they may not be in other Pokemon titles.

As 2022 kicks off, there are many Pokemon that stand out as some of the rarest in the entire game.

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Pokemon GO: Rarest Pokemon as of 2022

5) Pancham

Pancham is only obtainable from eggs or raids and has not yet appeared in the wild (Image via Niantic)

Introduced in Pokemon GO's Luminous Legends X event, the brawling panda Pancham is an incredibly tough find even among the notoriously tough-to-acquire Kalos region Pokemon.

Currently only obtainable from 12km Strange Eggs and occasionally as a raid boss, Pancham's current hatch rate is hovering around 4.4% according to most metrics. This gives it one of the lowest hatch chances in the entire game.

Throw in that it requires significant effort to evolve into Pangoro, and Pancham can be a handful for collectors.

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4) Goomy

Goomy has essentially vanished since the Luminous Legends event (Image via Niantic)

A famous Kalos region Dragon-type Pokemon, Goomy made its debut in the Luminous Legends event and has fallen off the face of Pokemon GO since. It's still technically hatchable from 10km eggs, but it has an incredibly low chance of hatching and isn't in the egg pool rotation very often.

Hopefully, the adorable little Dragon-type is on Niantic's radar for upcoming events, as evolving the Pokemon into its final form Goodra is even more difficult than obtaining Goomy, to begin with.

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3) Tirtouga/Archen

Pokemon that originate from fossils, especially Tirtouga and Archen, are tough to encounter (Image via Niantic)

Although fossil-based Pokemon are tough to come across in Pokemon GO in general, Unova natives Tirtouga and Archen might be the toughest in the group to find. While both have been capable of spawning in the wild since 2010, the odds of actually finding them in the wild seems incredibly small compared to most other Pokemon.

Both can also be found in eggs, albeit with small hatching chances. Field research used to result in both Pokemon appearing as a reward, but that hasn't occurred again since 2020.

Both fossil Pokemon deserve a little more attention, to be sure, but it's not clear if that's in Niantic's plans for the moment.

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2) Axew

Axew has remained rare for years with little movement to improve its appearance rates (Image via Niantic)

A Pokemon saw so little in Pokemon GO that some trainers have joked it doesn't exist and is a product of the Mandela Effect. Axew is, in fact, in the game but incredibly difficult to obtain. It possesses a hatch rate of less than 2% from 10km eggs and likely has a similar appearance rate in the wild.

Even as a Dragon-type Pokemon, Axew has been left off many Dragon-themed events such as Dragonspiral Descent. This is even more perplexing when one considers that the Dragonspiral Tower that the event was based on is housed in the Unova region, the same region Axew lives in.

Is this Pokemon bait to get players to hatch more than 10 km eggs and drop money on high-quality incubators as a result? Some trainers have theorized as much. Getting Axew is tough on its own, and evolving it into Fraxure and Haxorus is likely a massive undertaking.

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1) The Lake Trio

The Lake Trio of Legendary Pokemon remain region locked (Image via Niantic)

Although they've seen some recent appearances in Pokemon GO events, acquiring all three members of the legendary Lake Trio is much more complicated than it might seem.

This is due to Azelf, Mesprit, and Uxie being region locked based on a player's location. Azelf can be found in the Americas and Greenland, Uxie in Asia-Pacific, and Mesprit in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

This essentially divides the Lake Trio into three major segments of Earth between the west, the east, and the center.

Without some great trading partners, trotting the globe to catch all three of these Pokemon is undoubtedly a ton of trouble logistically. This has led to an increase in location spoofing by some trainers, who argue that regional exclusives are unfair to longtime players who cannot visit other countries.