Pokemon GO has few true secrets, but one of the most elusive legends in the game is its shiny Pokemon. Shiny Pokemon have existed since Generation 2 of the main series games as off-color versions of regular Pokemon, known for …
Pokemon GO has few true secrets, but one of the most elusive legends in the game is its shiny Pokemon. Shiny Pokemon have existed since Generation 2 of the main series games as off-color versions of regular Pokemon, known for their extreme rarity. Niantic has gradually added them into Pokemon GO, but given how difficult they are to find, many people are still unsure as to how they work. Fear not–they’re simpler than they sound, and here’s everything you need to know about them:
Here is a list of all current shiny Pokemon in the game. New ones are being added constantly:
Shiny Pokemon are different colors than regular Pokemon, which can vary from being a stark difference (Gyarados) or a subtle one (Pikachu). But you can’t tell from the overworld. You can only tell when you enter a battle with them, and that shininess is unique to you–it won’t necessarily be shiny for your friend who checks the same Pokemon. If a Pokemon is shiny and evolves, the evolution will also be shiny.
There is nothing else special about shiny Pokemon beyond their coloring and rarity. They are not stronger than any other Pokemon (or, rather, that’s determined by the same factors it’s determined for with every other Pokemon).
Community Days are the best time to get certain specific, shiny Pokemon that are released on those days, as the likelihood of finding one goes up. That said, usually, Community Days feature only one Pokemon and don’t up the shiny rate for all the others.
If you’re after a very specific shiny Pokemon, there are two things you can do: find a nest, and wait for the weather. Sunny, clear days bring out more grass-types, for example, so Bulbasaurs will be more common. If you know of a local Bulbasaur nest (information you can gather by looking for local Pokemon GO groups on social media networks) you can visit there on sunny days for more Bulbasaurs, and go on a catching spree. You’re even better off if there are PokeStops nearby to lure or fill your Pokeball supply continuously.
Lugia is one exception, as Lugia is a raid boss. Lugia cannot be hatched from eggs, and it cannot be caught normally in the wild. You’ll get a shiny Lugia on the catch screen if you are very, very, very lucky after defeating Lugia as a raid boss.
You can! Unfortunately, there’s no good way to control this. Shiny Pokemon come out of the same eggs their non-shiny counterparts do, so for example, a 2km egg has a certain chance of holding a Togepi, and if it holds a Togepi, there’s a very, very low chance that Togepi is shiny. Couple that with the randomness of what eggs you get from PokeStops and the expensiveness of incubators, and hatching eggs for shinies is entirely a matter of luck. Celebrate if it happens to you, but don’t try to farm for shinies like this. You’ll only be disappointed.
