How to get the Galarian birds in Pokémon GO

Last updated 2026-09-11

There is exactly one way to find Galarian Articuno, Galarian Zapdos and Galarian Moltres: Daily Adventure Incense. They don't spawn in the wild, they don't hatch, and they aren't in raids. One free incense a day, fifteen minutes, and a very small chance any of them shows up.

They aren't regional. All three appear worldwide, so where you live doesn't affect your odds.

Unlocking Daily Adventure Incense

You need the Special Research called "An Intriguing Incense Part 1". It's granted automatically and takes one tap to complete. Claim the reward and you're done. After that you get one Daily Adventure Incense free every day.

How the incense works

• One per day. It resets at midnight local time. You can only hold one at a time, so using it isn't optional if you want the next one.
• Fifteen minutes. Shorter than a regular incense.
• You have to walk. Standing still produces almost nothing. Movement is what drives the spawn rate.
• It doesn't take bag space and disappears from your inventory once used.
• It won't stack with a regular incense or a Mystery Box.
• The spawn pool is unusual. It includes Pokémon that normally only come from raids or eggs, alongside the three birds.

Getting the most out of your fifteen minutes

Catch everything. The instinct is to tap each spawn, check for shiny, and flee if it isn't one. Don't. A spawn that's still sitting there is occupying a slot. Catching it clears the slot faster and gives the next spawn, possibly a bird, room to appear.

Don't spin PokéStops. Interacting with a stop is widely reported to reset your incense spawns. Players have lost a bird mid-encounter by opening a stop to restock on Poké Balls. Load up before you start.

Keep moving, but not too fast. The incense rewards walking. Move fast enough that the game reads you as driving and any legendary will flee on sight regardless of what ball you throw.

Walk in a straight line. Doubling back over ground you've already covered appears to produce fewer spawns than continuous forward movement. Long trails and unbroken stretches of path work better than loops around a block.

Don't use an auto-catcher during the session. A Go Plus+ or similar device will throw a standard Poké Ball at the bird with no berry and no curveball. Given the catch rate below, that is very close to a guaranteed loss.

Why they're so hard to catch

Two numbers explain the whole problem, both from community datamining rather than Niantic.

The base catch rate is reported at 0.3%. For comparison, a legendary from a raid sits around 2%. Even with a Golden Razz Berry, an Ultra Ball and an Excellent curveball throw, you are unlikely to catch one in any given throw.

The flee rate is reported at 90%. Every time the bird breaks out of a ball, there's a nine-in-ten chance it's gone.

Put those together and you effectively get one throw. Make it count: Golden Razz, Ultra Ball, curveball, and the best throw accuracy you can manage under pressure.

If you have a Master Ball, this is what it's for. It's the only way to guarantee a catch.

Shinies are different

Shiny Galarian birds arrived on 4 October 2024. If you encounter one, the rules change in your favour: shiny legendaries in the wild are widely reported not to flee. The catch rate stays brutally low, so you may be throwing for a while, but you can keep throwing.

The exception is speed. If the game thinks you're moving too fast, a shiny will flee like anything else, and a Master Ball won't save it. That's a deliberate safety mechanic, not a bug.

Before you throw: check the CP

Because the birds are wild spawns, they roll levels 1–30 with no IV floor, or 6–35 with a 4/4/4 floor if weather boosted. That's a 1 in 4,096 chance of a perfect 100% IV, and it also means the CP on the encounter screen tells you something before you commit your best items.

A 100% IV bird can only have one of about thirty specific CP values. If the CP you're looking at isn't one of them, it definitely isn't a hundo. And at the top of the range, one CP per bird is only reachable by a perfect spread:

• Galarian Articuno: 3077 unboosted, 3334 weather boosted
• Galarian Zapdos: 3042 unboosted, 3295 weather boosted
• Galarian Moltres: 2715 unboosted, 2941 weather boosted

See that and it's a guaranteed hundo. Check any CP with the hundo checker →

Charts for each bird

• AGalarian Articuno Psychic / Flying · boosted by Windy 3077 unboosted 3334 boosted Guaranteed hundo CPs and full charts →
• ZGalarian Zapdos Fighting / Flying · boosted by Cloudy or Windy 3042 unboosted 3295 boosted Guaranteed hundo CPs and full charts →
• MGalarian Moltres Dark / Flying · boosted by Fog or Windy 2715 unboosted 2941 boosted Guaranteed hundo CPs and full charts →

Frequently asked questions

Can you get Galarian birds from raids?

No. Daily Adventure Incense is the only source.

Are the Galarian birds region-locked?

No. All three appear worldwide, so where you live does not affect your odds.

How often do they appear?

There is no published rate. Most players go weeks or months of daily incense sessions without seeing one.

Can you use a regular incense instead?

No. The birds only spawn from Daily Adventure Incense, and it cannot be stacked with a regular incense or a Mystery Box.

Is a Master Ball worth using on a Galarian bird?

For a non-shiny it is the only guaranteed catch. Whether it is the best use of yours depends on what else you are saving it for. Checking the CP first tells you whether you are looking at a guaranteed 100% IV bird, which is the strongest case for spending it.

Do shiny Galarian birds flee?

Community consensus is that shiny legendaries in the wild do not flee, with the exception of moving too fast, which triggers a flee regardless of what ball you throw.