Pokemon Go player’s gym altered by Arceus-like “space time distortion”

Chris Studley
Tyranitar roaring in front of Pokestop

One Pokemon Go player’s Tyranitar might be eligible to collect Social Security soon due to a hilarious glitch.

Glitches have become a time-honored tradition in video games nowadays. One Pokemon Go player encountered quite a glitch in a gym and saw his Tyranitar age a considerable amount in just a short period of time.

This isn’t the first time that Pokemon Go players have encountered a glitch around Tyranitar, as recently players reported that his attack was putting him into a compromising position.

But there have been plenty of glitches that have led to awkward screenshots, but this latest one may have broken the fabric of time and space itself.

An aging Tyranitar in Pokemon Go

On a post on the Pokemon Go subreddit page, an individual by the name of schoie01 posted a screenshot of the player’s Pokemon that are currently defending gyms for the user.

Thanks to a rather obvious glitch in the time-keeping system, the game recognizes that the Tyranitar that belongs to schoie01 has been in the same gym for 19,507 days and counting. Schoie01 calculates that would be about 53 and a half calendar years.

One Redditor commented highlighted that the Tyranitar must have been affected by a “spacetime distortion,” a subtle nod to the Pokemon Legends: Arceus and Diamond & Pearl franchises.

Another commenter noted that the glitch likely has to do with incorrect counting via the Unix Epoch system. If the game has an error with tracking time, the timestamp could default to the first day of the Unix Epoch count, which falls on January 1, 1970, which is 53 years in the past.

The Tyranitar stuck in the gym for 53 years — regardless of the circumstances — is rather impressive, but let’s not forget about that Starly. Starly is certainly not the strongest Pokemon out there, but the same post indicated that stoie01’s Starling bird has been in a gym for 32 days. That’s not too shabby, either.

There’s a lot going on in Pokemon Go at the moment, including the Old Friends New Beginnings Timed Research tasks. If needed, here’s a look at some of our guides to make life in the virtual Pokemon realm a bit easier:

Best Pokemon in Pokemon Go | Pokemon Go type chart | How to catch Ditto | Best Eeveelutions | Field research rewards and tasks | Promo Codes | How to get Pinap Berries | Spotlight Hour schedule | Current Raid bosses