Pokemon Go player finds “accidental” Shiny before official release
The Pokemon CompanyOne lucky Pokemon Go player shared that they’d managed to catch a pre-release Shiny Shadow Pokemon thanks to an “accidental” early release.
As a live service game, Pokemon Go receives regular updates to push new content out to the playerbase, usually in the lead-up to upcoming events.
At the time of writing, Pokemon Go’s Taken Treasures event is set to begin in the coming days. The event will focus on Team Rocket and will see the return of plenty of Shadow Pokemon.
However, one lucky player shared that they were able to snag an “accidental” Pokemon that wasn’t meant to be made widely available just yet. What’s more, the Pokemon they caught was surprisingly rare.
Pokemon Go player snags early Shiny Shadow monster
A post from a trainer on TheSilphRoad subreddit highlighted the lucky catch, in a thread titled, “Accidental Shadow Zubat (Shiny) Release.”
The OP shared a screenshot that showed an X post, where a trainer’s mother caught a Shiny Shadow Zubat. For those who may not know, Shiny Shadow Zubat is not currently in the game or announced.
However, many have speculated that either Cliff, Arlo, or Sierra will be using Shiny Zubat in their lineup, and developer Niantic accidentally made it available on the Grunts a bit too early.
“I wonder if they accidentally turned on all the grunts early ahead of the next event,” guessed one player. “They mention this in the description: ‘Also, Pokémon rescued from Team GO Rocket Grunts may be Shiny Pokémon—if you’re lucky.’
As noted by some players in the comments, this isn’t the first time a Pokemon has been released early in the mobile game.
“Shadow Skorupi, Swinub and Poochyena (Shiny) were accidentally released too, before a new rotation. But they never went out since,” the trainer said.
Others were impressed at the amount of luck the trainer must have had to get such an encounter. “Shadow Shiny, not released, and XXL? Damnnnn,” said one fan.
Niantic likely corrected the mistake before other players were able to snag Shiny Shadow Zubats of their own. As such, it seems this trainer’s mom was indeed very lucky.
