Most fans of the Pokemon gaming franchise are familiar with shiny Pokemon from one experience or another. They were introduced in Generation II for
Pokemon Gold and
Pokemon Silver, where most players will remember battling and catching a Red Gyarados, likely to have been their first experience with a shiny Pokemon.
In Pokemon Go, shiny Pokemon are also included, although despite the game having released in 2016, the shiny versions didn't start becoming available until March of 2017, with Niantic releasing seemingly random shiny versions here and there, so to keep the players coming back. The first two released were shiny Magikarp and shiny Pikachu, as they would garner the most attention due to the Red Gyarados tie from Generation II and the massive popularity of Pikachu.
So what's the deal with the shinies in
Pokemon Go, and how do you catch them? Eurogamer is a site that guides trainers who hope to catch 'em all, and they have quite a few suggestions. First, you can tell if a Pokemon is shiny because it will be different in color than the rest of it's counterparts of the same species. However, the shiny color will only be reflected upon pressing and encountering the Pokemon. What that means is that if you are looking at a Pokemon on your screen in your area, the color it shows is not necessarily the color it actually is.
Keeping in tradition with the mainline series, gamers have reported that you are more likely to encounter a shiny Pokemon by continually running into the same species over and over, uninterrupted. For instance, tomorrow during the Community Day event, if you seek a chance at capturing a shiny Larvitar, simply avoid the other Pokemon that appear within the three hour window of the event, and you will have the best possible chance. That isn't a necessary technique, as they will already be showing up left and right, but it helps. For example, during last month's
Pokemon Go Community Day event, I caught not one, but two shiny Charmander and I wasn't even avoiding other Pokemon.
For those trainers who play with friends, it's important to keep in mind that while you will both encounter the same Pokemon like usual, that does not mean that both of you will get a shiny each time it appears for one of you. Shinies are exclusive to the player who finds them, making them even more special and worth hunting. It's also a good note to remember that just because a Pokemon is shiny, that doesn't mean it will have good statistics, for those of you who train and collect your Pokemon based on IV. An added feature has been added that asks you another time before allowing you to transfer your shiny Pokemon, which is a great thing for newer players who may not be familiar with the color scheme of all of the shiny Pokemon available, though we have them listed in the picture below, courtesy of Pokemon Go Argentina.
What do you think? Do you have what it takes to catch a shiny Larvitar? Or does being a Pokemon Master not appeal to you? Drop your thoughts below!