Pokemon Go players angry with “cash grab” Vanillite for being too hard to catch

Pokemon Go players have expressed their frustration over how difficult it is to catch Vanillite, with some comparing it to catching a rare Legendary.

Vanillite is an ice-type Pokemon that was first seen in the Unova region in Pokemon Black and White. It was introduced to Pokemon Go on December 22, 2020, as part of the winter celebrations, and it’s already causing problems.

Despite it being one of the more basic Pokemon, players are wasting countless Pokeballs and berries trying to get their hands on Vanillite, and many are simply giving up and ignoring it after multiple failed attempts.

It’s even more frustrating because most players don’t like Vanillite (it’s arguably one of the least popular Pokemon in the game), but they need to catch them and evolve them into Vanillish and Vanilluxe to complete their Pokedex.

Pokemon Go fans think Vanillite is too hard to catch

Multiple threads about Vanillite on the Pokemon Go subreddit have gone viral with tens of thousands of upvotes.

Players are complaining about how difficult Vanillite is to catch, with some accusing Niantic of purposefully making it hard in a “cash grab” attempt to get players to buy more items and packages from the store.

“I feel like all ‘mons are slowly getting harder to catch. I can just tell you it’s because they want money,” wrote one frustrated fan. Another accused Niantic of making Pokemon harder to catch as “an intentional decision to try and force people to spend”.

• Read More: 13 of the worst Pokemon designs of all time

One thread jokingly titled “I don’t understand… It’s just an ice cream cone” featured a mockup of the game illustrating how many Pokeballs the player had to go through in an attempt to catch a Vanillite. It’s received almost 40,000 upvotes.

What was initially meant to be a humorous post ended up sparking hundreds of comments from players genuinely frustrated over the issue.

“I have a special kind of hate for this stupid ice cream cone,” wrote one frustrated player, while another added: “On top of being a pain in the ass, you need 150 candy to get a set [of all three evolutions]. F**k that ice cream b*stard.”

Many people on the Reddit thread agreed that they wouldn’t mind Vanillite being so difficult to catch if it was at least a decent Pokemon, but most of the Vanillites players are finding are zero or one-star rated.

“I wouldn’t even care if it was hard to catch if it was at least good,” wrote one player. “I’m definitely evolving it for picture and dex purposes but other than that it’s not really worth much to me.”

• Read More: The creepiest Pokedex entries of all time

In another popular Reddit thread complaining about Vanillite, someone questioned why the ice-type Pokemon is so difficult to catch in Go when it has an identical catch rate to Ratatta and Spearow in the main series.

A third Reddit thread labeled the “comically unpopular” Pokemon species “infuriating” in the game, with one player explaining: “I’ve had easier times catching Legendaries than some Vanillites lately.”

Some players had more luck, though. One wrote: “I see all these posts complaining about how difficult they are but I tend to get them with regular ol’ Pokeballs, no berries needed. Of course, now that I’ve said that I’ll be cursed to never catch one again.”

It’s the latest in a string of frustrations aired by Pokemon Go players in 2020. Many are getting annoying with Pokemon Go locking special edition Pokemon behind paid events, while others have complained about the endless “lazy” Pikachu costumes.