Have Niantic changed shiny rates for regional exclusives in Pokemon Go?

As part of the Ultra Bonus Challenge, all regional exclusive Pokemon can be found in 7km eggs – but that’s not all, you can get their shiny forms, too.

Up until September 9, Farfetch’d, Kangaskhan, Mr. Mime, and Tauros were only available in specific continents, which made getting hold of all them rather difficult. In addition to hatching from eggs, it has been reported that that the regional exclusives can also be found in the wild.

However, it has been confirmed that your particular region’s exclusive Pokemon can be found in the wild as a shiny. For example, Mr Mime can be found in the wild as a shiny in Europe.

How frequently shinies will appear, be it in the wild or from an egg, has been a hot topic recently. Some Pokemon Go trainers have suggested that the shiny rates are lower than normal, with some claims of 1 in 150 – less than a 1% chance.

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Niantic actually responded to these claims on Reddit. “We wanted to comment on this directly to provide an update on this situation. To start, I can confirm that there have been no changes to the encounter rate of Shiny Regional Pokémon,” the community manager said.

They went on to confirm that they have conducted multiple, thorough reviews to all changes made to Pokemon Go in accordance with the Ultra Bonus Challenge. The results showed shiny rates were in line with their expectations, although they didn’t confirm what that rate was.

“All of this investigation affirmed that there have been no changes to the rate at which Shiny Regional Pokémon appear. We understand that Shiny Pokémon are exciting and highly sought after, but changing this metric in the middle of an event is in direct conflict with our company values and something that we would not intentionally do.”

Some analysis from Silph Road provided an estimate as to what the shiny rate for regional exclusive shinies are.

• Wild shiny rate: 1.7% – 1 in 59
• Egg hatch shiny rate 3.0% – 1 in 33

This was based on an excess 3,000 observations, meaning the data provides a high degree of certainty.

Make the most of these shiny chances, trainers, as this particular bonus finishes on September 23.