Pokemon Go newbie’s “unbelievable” Shiny luck triggers wild fan theory
The Pokemon CompanyIn a game fueled by RNG and chance, Pokemon Go players often get far luckier than others, but this disparity has triggered the emergence of a wild fan theory.
It’s no secret that Shiny Pokemon are extremely rare. Though the exact odds vary, most wild encounters in Pokemon Go have a Shiny encounter rate of around 1 in 512 (0.2%).
Given this, you would expect it to take quite a while for newcomers to encounter their first Shiny, but that isn’t always the case. This fact of life was discovered by a dad who shared on Reddit, “After years of watching me play, my son finally asked for an account. Immediate shiny. Unbelievable.”
Attached was an image of his son’s Shiny Yungoos that the young trainer caught at just level 7. It was only the 14th Pokemon caught by this player, which means if they caught every Pokemon they encountered, this player’s luck was a staggering 36 times better than expected.
For the most part, the community was supportive, commenting the likes of, “And it’s a Yungoos! They are so cute!” and, “Lil man’s just built different.”
However, the lucky encounter did raise some theories about how Niantic gives new players special treatment, with one trainer conjecting, “Beginner players have boosted shiny odds, at least that’s what it seems to be.”
Others showed support for this theory, replying, “That and returning players, has to be. Have dropped PoGo and come back months later, several times now, to suddenly get shiny after shiny. Then nothing but one or two for months,” as well as, “It does seems so. My daughter caught a shiny Magikarp first day.”
A different user even gave a personal example, explaining that they, “created an account for the first time on March 1st this year,” and received a Shiny Togepi from their “1st egg hatched,” on the account.
There is no real evidence that new Pokemon Go accounts receive hidden benefits like increased Shiny odds. These anecdotes are more likely the result of RNG, which dictates that for every trainer who gets remarkably unlucky, another will get extremely lucky. However, given enough time, everyone’s Shiny luck should level out to a similar level.