Pokemon Go
players are still anxiously awaiting the release of Legendary Pokemon, but recent reports suggest that they might have to wait until later this summer to catch a Zapdos, a Mewtwo or a Celebi in-game. In the meantime, an update to how wild Pokemon encounters work seems to indicate that the long-awaited addition of Shiny Pokemon could be right around the corner.
We got our first taste of Shiny Pokemon earlier this year during the Water Festival event, when Niantic added Shiny Magikarp and Shiny Gyarados to the game. Not only were these Shiny Pokemon incredibly hard to find, but a wild Magikarp that was shiny in one player’s game might not be in another’s.
Before today, that wasn’t the case for standard Pokemon. Each individual Pokemon had the same stats and moves for every player that encountered it. The only thing that changed was the combat power, which was typically higher for players who had reached higher levels. That’s no longer the case.
Pokemon Go Hub began receiving reports from players over the past 24 hours that wild Pokemon now have different stats and moves for everyone who encounters them. So a Pikachu on my game will have a different IV, height, weight and set of moves that the same Pikachu on your screen.
Niantic has yet to officially comment on the change, so we don’t know for sure why it happened. That said, a logical guess would be that Niantic is planning to release hundreds of Shiny Pokemon into the wild in the near future and this is part of the preparation for that plan.
Players have yet to report finding any Shiny Pokemon other than Magikarp so far, but we’ll be keeping an eye out for any updates over the coming days and weeks. It shouldn’t be long now.
