Starters are some of the most miserable Pokemon to catch in spite of how common they are in the overworld. They have naturally low catch rates demanding the use of Great or even Ultra Balls backed with a Razz Berry if you want to guarantee the catch.
When it comes to catching wild Pokémon, attempting to catch the evolved forms of Com Mons is a massive Difficulty Spike compared to catching their pre-evolved forms, as they have much lower catch rates. This goes even further if you decide to catch a fully evolved starter outside of an event—even a Golden Razz Berry-powered Ultra Ball throw won't be enough to make the catching circle orange, if not yellow, if their level is high enough.
When the species first debuted in 2017, Murkrow was one of the hardest to acquire since it has a pathetic catch rate of 30 (compared to the 255 of most other com-mons and rival Johto bird Natu's 190). Once you unlock Great and Ultra Balls, they'll be downright required to catch the crow if you don't want to pray for RNG or don't have type bonuses for Dark and Flying-types.
Fellow Johto mon Aipom, while not as common as Murkrow, also has a catch rate only a few points higher than Murkrow's: 45.
Cherrim. Cherrim has the same catch rate as Machamp and Ivysaur, but unlike them it has an abnormally high spawn rate. Catching them gives you 300 dust but they will take ad infinitum to catch unless you waste valuable resources such as Gold Razz Berries and Ultra Balls on them.
The Kalos Fairy-types Swirlix and Spritzee became semi-common spawns following their introduction in mid-2021, and similar to Murkrow they have low catch rates, resisting all but the most powerful of catching equipment unless you get really lucky.
The addition of Blissey in the Gen 2 update meant the introduction of a Stone Wall that can be nearly impossible to force out of a gym. Her high health, the limited timer, and the revamp of the battle system slowing everything down means that Blissey is likely to survive anything you can throw at her, timing out the battle and scoring an automatic win for herself. The only saving grace is that Blissey is a lot harder to earn than Vaporeon, but the Valentine's Day event just prior to the update made sure to give players a chance to get their hands on one.
GO Rocket and Shadow Pokémon
Bug type Grunts. They only pack two types of Shadow Pokemon, 1-2 Shadow Scyther and one Shadow Scizor as their ace, but don't underestimate them. First off: These specific Shadow Pokemon are fast. The Scythers pack Air Slash and, due to their abnormally inflated CP and attacking speed, anything that doesn't resist them will be cut to shreds. The Scizors are even nastier, as not only are they Elite Mook versions of the Scythers, packing CP up to the 6 thousands while keeping the lightning fast attacking speed, they now only have one weakness! True, they both have 4x weaknesses to Rock and Fire, respectively, but you better exploit it and fell them quickly, as otherwise the mons you're using to fight them will take a serious beating, if not KOed. Thankfully, this is mitigated in current reshuffles, where you'll only meet a Scizor at the end of the line while the front 2 mons are way easier ones such as Skorupi and Weedle, and even then it's possible to meet the way easier to deal with Pinsir or Forretress instead of a Scizor.
Shadow Pidove is a deceptively nasty opponent when fielded by a Normal-type Grunt. You will probably be deploying a Fighting type to easily take down the Grunt's Normal-type Pokemon, only to find that the Normal/Flying type Pidove is not weak against Fighting moves, and has a type advantage against Fighting with Flying moves.
Shadow Dragonite are a very nasty midboss type to deal with. Dragonite is already commonly used in Gyms for its gargantuan CP, and they're already High-Tier Scrappy denizens due to this. Now imagine this power ramped up and gaining a big attacking speed boost. What you now have is an absurdly powerful tank on par with some Raid Bosses that can take a beating, even from Ice charged attacks. while smashing your monsters into a fine paste. When you see the Grunt display the message that indicates they'll use Dragon types, you better pray to Arceus they don't have a Dragonite on them. And unlike the similar-yet-less threatening Shadow Gyarados, they have a ton of resistances. In earlier rotations, sometimes you'll even encounter both. To make matters worse, some Flying-type Grunts have a Dragonite as their third and final Pokemon.
Shadow Hippowdon is a common third opponent for Ground-type Grunts. It tends to have five-figure CP, lots of HP and fairly good attack. It will most likely outlast at least one of your mons, even if they have an advantage over it.
Certain types of Shadow Snorlax Grunts can become a mixture of this and That One Boss. Snorlax is already a pain to deal with. A Blissey has immense health, but as a tradeoff, is onlykindacapable of beating you up badly. Snorlax is like that, but worse. Their Shadow Snorlax gains a massive increase in its already impressive health, and its already high Attack rises even higher, meaning it isn't completely crippled and therefore pigeonholed into defender status. So you have to dig away at its health, slowly but surely, while it's taking sizable chunks of your health. And you'll possibly have to deal with Shadow Poliwrath or Shadow Gardevoir followed by the aforementioned Gyarados and Dragonite, or even multiple Snorlax in a row after knocking it out, which, with your now probably very weakened mons, will be like trying to stop a meteor strike with a baseball bat. There's a reason these Grunts say "they've already won" before you fight them. At least you get to catch it unlike the Scizors, Dragonites and Gyarados, and it usually has very high CP for Snorlax standards once Purified. Have fun!
