One of the most sought-after items in Pokémon GO is the Evolution items, introduced in Gen 2 update and are used to evolve certain Gen 1 Pokémon. Due to its rarity, a lot of players have been formulating theories in order to exploit its drop rate. One of the emerging theories is the relevance between a user's local time and the corresponding drop rate of each Evolution item. But is there really truth behind this speculation?
Pokemon GO : Time and Evolution Items
The theory first emerged on Reddit after several players noticed that the majority of their Evolution items were obtained on a specific time of the day. As seen on this thread, the poster pointed out that during 11:01-11:02 pm, the dropped rate of Evolution items tend to increase dramatically.
Soon after, other players tried their luck and surprisingly, one user detailed his experience regarding the local time theory. As presented in these two images, the user visited two different stops on varying days but at the same exact time. The results were quite intriguing. On one instance, the user received Sun Stone and King's Rock and on the other, he received Dragon Scale. He then proceeded to claim that Evolution Items are indeed, dropped at a specific time of the day.
Is There Any Truth Behind The Time Theory?
With the theory becoming widespread across the web, fans have tried their luck regarding the time theory. However, there are countless results, which also falsify the theory. Here's one example: a post submitted by Kraven420 shows that spinning on the same given time, even on the same Poké Stop, doesn't guarantee Evolution item. Based on the data, he received two Evolution item on one instance while on the other, received none. The spins were done on the same Poke Stop and on the same exact time.
Bottom line is, while players may receive evolution items consecutively during a specific time, it doesn't necessarily prove that there's any pertinence between local time and the items' drop rates. The drops are still purely RNG, which is roughly around 0.03-percent per item.
