Pokemon Go player uses “Shiny Swap” technique to land epic catch
Niantic/The Pokemon CompanyFor a lot of Pokemon Go players, it is already hard enough to find a Shiny version of your favorite Pocket Monsters. However, a clever trick is making shiny hunting easier.
One Pokemon Go player has shown off an amazing catch, where after finding a Shiny during Community Day, they wait and perform a difficult ‘Shiny swap’ to change the type of Shiny Pokemon that appears. It’s difficult, but can be very helpful if pulled off correctly.
In a Reddit post, Go player YOLTZsean shared a video of them finding a Shiny Goomy just before the end of Community Day at 4:59 PM local time.
Then, as the time swapped to 5:00 PM and Community Day ended, the Pokemon spawned on the map changed, but the one that was in the place of the previous Shiny was still Shiny despite being a different Pokemon.
In this case, the post’s author managed to swap their Shiny Goomy for a Shiny costume Slakoth, a rare find from the Pokemon Go Slumbering Sands event, much rarer than the Shiny Goomy. This is not an official technique, so instructions are vague at best, but it’s still an interesting idea.
Other Pokemon Go players in the comments shared a mixture of admiration and amazement, with many asking how exactly to pull off this difficult technique.
One person asked, “Wait what is a swap?” Then, another comment explained, “A Shiny swap is when you encounter a Shiny and don’t catch it. So when the spawns regenerate you can have another Shiny when you catch the Pokemon that replaces that Shiny.”
It’s not quite as simple, though, as the person and many other comments added the detail that this swap technique only works if “the Shiny odds of the 2 Pokemon are the same.” Another person explained, “The swap doesn’t work with community day Shinys. You had a 1/512 chance for this to happen and you did it!”
Meanwhile, plenty of other players just congratulated the author on the catch, and the Shiny costume Slakoth. “Damn, I really wanted that Slakoth shiny. Congrats!” said one comment, while another added, “Wow congrats !!! I tried it this time and I wasn’t so lucky, maybe next month.”
If you want to keep up to date with Pokemon Go, and all the latest events so you can bag yourself a Shiny, be sure to check out our guides covering the Pokemon Go Shared Skies season, and the Pokemon Go Scorching Steps event.