Pokemon Go trainers want one major feature added for Shadow Pokemon

Chris Studley
Giovanni and Shadow Regice in Pokemon GO

One Pokemon Go trainer suggested that Niantic implement a safety gauge, in order to avoid an accidental purification of highly-powerful Shadow Pokemon.

In Pokemon Go, trainers have the opportunity to wrestle special Shadow Pokemon out of the hands of Team Rocket.

When captured, Shadow Pokemon can give players boosted attack — which can be highly useful for those who want to try their hands in PvP.

However, one change that some Go players would like to see is some sort of protection, in order to avoid an accidental purification.

shadow snorlax pokemon go

Pokemon Go players suggests a purification lock

On the Silph Road subreddit, a user by the name of “Some-Ostrich-4997” posted that Niantic should add a “purification lock” for Shadow Pokemon and stated that “I am in constant fear of accidentally purifying them.”

Several players agreed and shared their experiences accidently purifying, rather than powering up a Pokemon.

One trainer stated, “Meant to power up… but instead purified my shadow sacred fire [Ho-Oh].”

Another added, “I was powering up my hundo shadow Houndoom…[o]ne night when I was sleepy I didn’t realize I had tapped the purify button instead. Depressed me from the game for a good 2 months.”

Other users suggested that Niantic should have better implemented Shadow creatures — which receive an attack boost, but reduced defense and a weak Charged Move in Frustration — in the mobile game and not made them better options than purified ‘Mon in some cases.

Rather than having strong Shadow Pokemon with little incentive to purify them, a trainer suggested that Niantic should have made these creatures like the ones in Pokemon Colosseum and XD: Gale of Darkness.

“[T]he Shadow Pokémon in these games are purposely made terrible at battling so you’re incentivized to do the right thing and purify them. Not sure why this isn’t the case here.”

In other Go-related news, one trainer recently had a very strange experience with attempting to catch a Shadow Regirock.