Summary
Despite Niantic adding the series' staple of shiny Pokemon toPokemon GOback in 2017, the mobile app is still short of a crucial update to these rare coveted forms to bring it up to the same standard as the mainline games. From their introduction all the way back inPokemonGoldandSilverto the present-day, shiny Pokemon have become a widely enjoyed feature of thePokemonseries among players. But between fans predicting or designing their own shiny Pokemon forms toPokemon ScarletandViolet’s shiny sandwich recipes,Pokemon GOis still missing a key change the mainline games made several generations ago.
From thePokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu!andEevee!remakes of the original Gen 1 games onward, thePokemonseries has gradually broadened into open-world design with free-roaming Pokemon instead of traditional tall grass encounters. Alongside this, Game Freak seems to have adapted shiny Pokemon encounters to keep pace with its new open-world approach; shiny Pokemon can be spotted by players before entering a battle.Pokemon GOhasn’t adopted this feature even though it has the most to gain from doing so, forcing players to resort to patience and luck just to find their own shiny Pokemon.
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Shiny Pokemon Appear in the Overworld Now
After Nintendo’s transition to a hybridized home-handheld console with the Switch, Game Freak has slowly but surely evolvedPokemon’s design to the open-world standard like many other games. This transformation wasn’t as smooth as players might have liked betweenPokemon Legends: Arceusand the Gen 9ScarletandVioletgames, but there were certain areas that Game Freak successfully adapted into its new open-world design. More specifically, thenew approach to shiny Pokemon encountersensures that players don’t miss out on these rare forms without random battles in tall grass.
After first changing how shiny Pokemon can be seen prior to a wild encounter inLet’s Go, Pikachu!andEevee!, Game Freak maintained this approach inPokemon SwordandShieldand thenLegends: Arceus. By the timeScarletandVioletwere released, the new method of spotting shiny Pokemon in the wild had become a standard for the series as opposed to experimental game design. This was even strengthened byScarletandViolet’s new Auto-Battle featurepreventing shiny Pokemon from being accidentally knocked out, adding yet another consideration to players and their shiny hunting efforts.
Pokemon GO Needs to Updates its Own Overworld
However, despite the mainlinePokemongames changing and improving the approach to shiny hunting over several generations, Niantic has failed to keep pace with Game Freak with its own overworld encounters. This is particularly pressing withPokemon GO’s gameplay, which requires that players directly choose Pokemon they wish to encounter which is often determined by plenty of different factors from trying to collect certain candies to seeking out less common Pokemon. Attempts toshiny hunt inPokemon GOcan be uniquely difficult when players have limited control over which Pokemon they can encounter and their odds of being shiny.
The recentPokemon GO’s XXL- and XXS-sized formsadd even more complicated odds for shiny Pokemon encounters, providing yet another reason for Niantic to fall in line with the rest of thePokemonseries. Given thatPokemon GO’s own Buddy feature demonstrates that shiny Pokemon can appear in the overworld, Niantic shouldn’t put off letting players see wild shiny Pokemon in its overworld any longer. In doing so,Pokemon GOwould align with the rest of the mainline games and give players a better chance of spotting rarer shiny Pokemon without relying on luck.
Pokemon GOis available now for Mobile devices.
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