I want to familiarize myself with the Pokewalker a bit more before I get HeartGold. Are Group A Pokemon just as common as the other groups, or are they rarer than that? Because I'm trying for a Doduo from Refreshing Field, and I want to know what kind of headache I'm in for.
Basically anything on
this page that is not listed as "Very Rare" is relatively easy to find. From my experience, group A Pokemon that are easy to find make Group B Pokemon really annoying to get (because you keep constantly getting the group A Pokemon to come out). These are the rates for Refreshing Field:
A) Kangaskhan -
50
A) Doduo -
70
B) Nidoran♀ -
75
B) Nidoran♂ -
75
C) Pidgey -
100
C) Sentret -
100
I'm almost positive that the way this works is that depending on how many steps you have taken it will random a Pokemon and work it's way down to C. For example say I have taken only 300 steps and then used the Pokeradar. Neither group A or B can be out yet because the step count is too low, so then it randoms a number on group C, which is a 100%, so it is the group C Pokemon that comes out. Now let's say that we have 5,000 steps worked up. That's enough for either group A or B to show up as well. First it would look at your group A Pokemon and random if it would appear or not (you have a 70% chance for Doduo)... if it doesn't, then it will move onto group B and random to see if you get a group B Pokemon or not. Both group B Pokemon have a 75% chance, so if you were to miss it then it will move onto group C which has a 100% chance as a failsafe. The same should apply to the dowsing machine as well. This way, the earlier courses actually make it hard to get Pokemon from group C and sometimes even B when the appearance rate of the A pokemon is so high. In the later on courses however it's a lot harder. Take Yellow Forest for example:
A) ♂ Pikachu (fly) -
2
A) ♀ Pikachu (surf) -
3
B) ♂ Pikachu -
35
B) ♀ Pikachu - (Volt Tackle) -
8
C) ♂ Pikachu -
100
C) ♀ Pikachu -
100
As you can see, once you get enough for even group A, you have a very low chance to get the A group Pokemon and a very low chance to even get the group B Pokemon. That's why most people keep getting group C Pokemon in most cases on Yellow Forest
To put it short though, finding a Doduo should be easy lol