‘Pokemon Go’: How Many Shiny Pokemon Are in the Game So Far?

pokemon go shiny

How many Shiny Pokemon are in the game so far? (Niantic)

Pokemon Go just started a special water event and, in conjunction, has released some shiny Pokemon into the wild. But how many and which species of shiny Pokemon have been spotted so far?

Here’s what you need to know. We’ll update this story as we have more information.

So far, only two species of shiny Pokemon have been seen. It’s possible that we’ll only be seeing shiny water species in celebration of the water event, but we will likely be seeing more. In the latest APK mine by Silph Road, it was discovered that Shiny gender icons now appear next to all standard Pokemon gender icons. This means that shinies could be available for many different species eventually. However, in the main game, they’re supposed to be pretty rare (at about 1 in every 4,096 Pokemon.) Although it seems like the shiny Magikarp are spawning in greater numbers than that, maybe other shiny species will be rarer.

If you want to catch a shiny Pokemon, try for every possible shiny that you see on the map. The Pokemon Go tracker won’t indicate to you on the map if a Pokemon is shiny or not. You won’t know until you try to catch it and are taken to the capture screen.

Also note: according to trainers, just because a Pokemon appears shiny on your capture screen doesn’t mean the same Pokemon in the wild will appear shiny when someone else tries to catch it. It also appears that you won’t be getting special IV stats from your shiny Pokemon. Their IVs appear completely unrelated to whether or not they’re shiny, according to Pokemon Go trainers who have caught them so far. So shiny Pokemon are essentially just Pokemon of different colors.

The shiny Pokemon seen so far are:


Shiny Magikarp

People are capturing shiny Magikarp all over the place, and in different countries.  They sparkle in the animation and are yellow in color. If you try to transfer them, you’ll get a message asking if you want to transfer a shiny Pokemon. (Note: some trainers are saying they didn’t get this message.)


Shiny Gyarados

Some players have also reported evolving their shiny Magikarp into shiny Gyarados. This Pokemon appears red in color and has sparkles around him in the animation.

Have you seen other species of shiny Pokemon? If so, let us know in the comments below.

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