Shiny Pokemon Discovered In Pokemon Go

Don't hang up your walking shoes: even if you've caught every single Pokémon in Pokémon Go (and yes, that's something that people have totally done), you're not finished quite yet. After installing the latest Pokémon Go update, dedicated Pokémon trainers have discovered that the rare Pokémon variants known to fans as "Shinys" are appearing in the wild.

Officially, Pokémon Go developer Niantic Labs hasn't said anything the addition of Shiny Pokémon, but posts on fan forums and Reddit tell the whole story. According to videos and screenshots making their way across the internet, shiny versions of both Magikarp and Gyarados (which Eurogamer notes is the "first canonically recognized Shiny Pokémon") have been discovered during the past 24 hours. Both of those Pokémon are water-type creatures, and given that Niantic just kicked off Pokémon Go's limited-time Water Festival, well, it's probably not a coincidence.

There is a catch, of course. A few players have managed to find and capture Shiny Pokémon, only to have them transform into decidedly not-shiny (dull?) Dittos after post-capture. That is, of course, what a Ditto does—it disguises itself as a different Pokémon in order to frustrate and surprise players. But victims of this prank confirm that, yes, it's pretty annoying.

In addition, players say that there's no way to tell if a Pokémon is shiny or not from the map screen. If you want to catch a Shiny creature, you'll have to enter the battle screen and check the color of the Pokémon for yourself.

If you're not up on your Pokémon lingo, Shiny Pokémon are just regular Pokémon with a different color palette, and they don't technically provide any extra benefits to the player other than some well-earned bragging rights. Shinys also sparkle when players first encounter them—hence, the name.

So, with Shinys appearing in Pokémon Go, one unproven Pokémon myth has finally come true. Next? We're hoping that MissingNo shows up. Fingers crossed!