Much like the rest of the world, Pokemon GO has had a rollercoaster of a 2020. Given the game’s inherently exploratory nature, Niantic has had to improvise lately to make sure its fans can safely enjoy their beloved AR passtime while still providing content as engaging as the real-world adventures players have grown used to.
This has largely translated as nearly constant passive bonuses, along with a series of creative events that bring the Pokemon GO fun to players at home, rather than inviting them out and about. For example, Team GO Rocket opponents now float across the in-game sky in hot air balloons, allowing players to find and challenge Grunts, Leaders, and even Giovanni, from the comfort of their own homes.
One of the game’s recent announcements revealed that yet another Team Rocket-themed will be coming to Pokemon GO before the year’s end, and although the official post framed this Team GO Rocket event as the major highlight, fans quickly began to realize the true prize introduced by this event: Shiny Celebi.
Team GO Rocket will be featured in a new event beginning December 14, 2020, and the notoriously incapable Jessie and James will be returning to Pokemon GO in honor of this. From December 14 until a to-be-announced date, players will be able to complete a limited-time Special Research story pertaining to Shiny Celebi, and to make this even more special, Professor Willow won’t be guiding Pokemon Trainers through this Special Research. To mark the game’s first Shiny Mythical Pokemon, Team Rocket’s Jessie and James will be taking charge and leading players through the accompanying Special Research.
The overall celebration is essentially a promotion for the movie, Pokemon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle, so it makes sense Jessie and James are popping in again, considering the movie revolves around Shiny Celebi and the usual Pokemon anime cast, including Jessie and James. That said, now that Shiny Celebi has been confirmed, many Pokemon Trainers can’t help but speculate when the next Shiny Mythicals are set to arrive.
Mew, Celebi, Jirachi, Manaphy, and nearly all of their Mythical kindred are generally beloved by fans for possessing one of the ideal Pokemon dualities: cuteness and power. These Mythical Pokemon are all exceedingly adorable and powerful by design. They may not be as strong as Regigigas or other dedicated damage-dealers, but considering their rather whimsical non-threatening appearances, it’s a surprise they can hold their own against most standard Pokemon. Needless to say, this makes their Shiny forms all the more popular.
Even Legendary Shiny Pokemon, though cool, are functionally the same as their standard counterparts. They simply exhibit an incredibly low encounter rate, a unique color palette, and sparkles upon entering battle. This makes understanding Shiny value quite straightforward, in that it’s directly tied to a Pokemon’s existing utility, appearance, and/or popularity. If a Pokemon is popular, powerful, or deemed to be “cool,” their Shiny will surely be seen as valuable. By this logic, it’s clear to see why Pokemon Trainers are concerned with the arrival of Shiny Mythical Pokemon.
Pokemon GO already boasts an impressive collection of Shiny Pokemon for players to find, but as veterans of the game know, Niantic has been trickling out their release quite slowly. Despite hundreds of Pokemon being available for capture in the game, Trainers can only encounter Shiny Pokemon of a relatively select pool of species. Unfortunately for collectors, many of the game’s missing Shinies are, naturally, some of the game’s rarest or most popular Pokemon.
Niantic often relies on large-scale events to attract new players and engage its existing players, so it isn’t particularly surprising that Shiny Pokemon have been released slowly over time. With the inclusion of Community Day events, players have had a very unusual path to Shinies in Niantic’s game, though it has been expected due to Pokemon GO‘s unorthodox gameplay. Still, even bearing this in mind, Mythical Pokemon have always presented a conundrum when considering the Shiny question in Pokemon GO.
Mythical Pokemon have almost exclusively been introduced to Pokemon GO as part of their own respective Special Research stories. At first, these quests tend to be introduced as a keynote feature of GO Fest, one of the game’s largest yearly non-virtual events, with other players being given access at a later date. Now that several Mythical Pokemon have been released, however, the sets of Special Research are generally unlocked by players as they progress through the earlier stages of Pokemon GO. Upon completion, players are offered one sure-fire chance to catch the Mythical Pokemon in question. This started with Mew, then Celebi and Jirachi, and is expected to continue as such through the rest of the established Pokemon “generations.”
In light of that mechanic, though, many players wonder what this implies for Shiny variants of these Pokemon. Specifically, one has to consider the added implications of them being Mythical. Namely, these Pokemon cannot be traded, so players are unable to exchange them to potentially improve stat, or create teams of multiple Mythical Pokemon. In addition to this, players thus far have only received one chance to catch each Mythical. Even players who receive the Special Research at its initial release don’t get to catch another Mythical Pokemon when the Research is officially (re)released; instead, they’re offered a bundle of Candy for the Pokemon.
If Pokemon Trainers are only given one shot at Mew, and Mew cannot appear as Shiny, how will they ever get their hands on a one-of-a-kind baby-blue Mew? Mythical Pokemon don’t appear in Raid Battles, they can’t be found in the wild like some Legendary Pokemon, and they also cannot be traded among players. So if Shiny Mew, or any Shiny Mythical, were to be released at a later date, it would presumably be un-tradeable, which means that Niantic would be faced with a unique Pokemon decision to make. Will all players get a second chance at Mythicals, or will Shiny Mythicals be even rarer than before?
Shiny Celebi’s release not only means that Shiny Mew will someday likely join the pool of should-be-available Pokemon that continue to go unseen in Pokemon GO, but also makes its eventual release all the trickier. Rather than offering clarity, this has left Pokemon Trainers even more confused, as it means that a Shiny Mew release may require a conveniently timed movie or product release. Otherwise, it implies that the release of Shiny Mythical Pokemon in the future will have to be altered in some way, shape, or form, as though there’s much to be confirmed, one thing’s for certain: many Pokemon Trainers want more Shiny Mythicals, especially given this month’s bright pink onion-fairy, Shiny Celebi.
Pokemon GO is available now on the App Store and Google Play.
![\"IT電腦補習](\"http://itteacheritfreelance.hk/test/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/logo2-2.png\"){kind=logo}
www.itsec.hk
www.itsec.vip
www.itseceu.uk
Leave a Reply