The rate at which Pokemon Go players are able to encounter Shiny Pokemon has reportedly been nerfed, making the chance encounters with the rare Pokemon even harder to come by.
Since Pokemon Gold and Silver, Shiny Pokemon have become one of the most lucrative and sought-after pieces of content in the franchise. In essence, a Shiny Pokemon is simply the same as any regular Pokemon, except that the design is altered in some way, typically changing its color.
For example, the first major Shiny to become easily accessible was part of a scripted encounter in Gold and Silver, where players were given the chance to catch Shiny Gyarados. Rather than sporting the typical blue look, Shiny Gyarados is red.
Now in modern-day releases, there are many varieties of Shiny Pokemon to encounter and catch. However, the odds of doing so are few and far between and completely random at that.
For Pokemon Go players, the odds of encountering a Shiny Pokemon in the wild have reportedly dropped dramatically. This news was posted on a new Reddit thread using the data from a Japanese aggregative community website that tracks players’ ability to catch Shiny’s in the wild.
The initial post of the Reddit thread wrote how “Reports from a user aggregated site have indicated that the shiny rate for the legendary trio is 1/125 if done remotely.”
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Players have since filled the Reddit thread with comments of frustration and annoyance, with many confused why devs Niantic would potentially make it harder to find Shiny Pokemon. After all, it is already a massive feat for players and requires hours upon hours of grinding.
One commenter wrote, “Niantic could just release rates instead of having us do all of this investigating.”
Another added, “So not only are remote passes more expensive, but they also give worse rewards and now a less shiny chance. This seems more like a push to get more people cheating than getting people out and about.”
For all the latest Pokemon Go news and updates, be sure to check out Dexerto’s full coverage here.