Pokemon Go trainers beware: Ditto is now pretending to be Shiny Pokemon

In Pokemon Go, Shiny ‘mon are excluded from Ditto’s transformation pool. So you can imagine one Trainer’s surprise when their Shiny Drowzee transformed into the Gen I creature, despite it being impossible.

We all know the thrill of clicking on a random ‘mon in Pokemon Go and seeing the familiar sparkle animation that means it’s a Shiny. It’s one of the best feelings you can have as a Trainer, especially if they’re a monster you love or one with a cool alternate color.

But what if your exciting encounter was suddenly snatched away from you, only to be replaced with a Ditto? Of course, a Shiny version of the Gen I critter is nothing to sniff at, but the transformation is something that shouldn’t even happen in the first place.

Weird Pokemon Go bug turns Shiny Drowzee into Ditto

On September 26, Pokemon Go Trainer u/DaRk_ViVi reported on the r/TheSilphRoad subreddit that after encountering and successfully catching a Shiny Drowzee, it turned into a Shiny Ditto.

This would be normal behavior if it was a regular ‘mon, but the rare variants are supposed to be excluded from the shapeshifter’s transformation pool and should have been impossible.

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“Just caught a shiny Drowzee that transformed into a shiny Ditto. Wasn’t a shiny Pokémon excluded from the Ditto pool?” they asked alongside two screenshots showing the two ‘mon before and after being caught.

Fellow players were also baffled until it came to light that it appears to be an oversight by Niantic, who seems to have accidentally missed the daily spawn encounter when enforcing the Shiny Pokemon Ditto rule.

The daily spawn is a Pokemon with a white ring around it that stays on your overworld map until you catch it or it runs away during your encounter and was implemented so that remote Trainers won’t lose their daily catch streak if no other ‘mon show up that day.

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“Maybe the daily spawn is an edge case they didn’t account for when checking if it’s disguise can be shiny? That’s the only thing I can think of,” player u/BKoldcuts responded. “It’s been a month since shiny Ditto was released in the wild and I think this is the first known case of this happening, that might explain why it’s not been reported yet.”

Of course, the daily spawn encounter is just a theory and hasn’t been confirmed, but Niantic has not revealed any changes to the Ditto mechanic so it is more than likely just a bizarre bug.

While Shiny Drowzee isn’t in the Gen I ‘mon’s disguise pool, here’s a definitive list of the Pokemon that are.