Posted in: Games, Mobile Games, Niantic, Pokémon GO | Tagged: Niantic Labs, ninatic, pokemon, pokemon go, wobbuffet

Shiny Party Hat Wobbuffet & Raticate Confirmed In Pokémon GO

This past weekend, we reported that there had not yet been authenticated verification of trainers encountering Shiny Party Hat Raticate and Shiny Party Hat Wobbuffet in Pokémon GO. This came as a surprise due to their widespread availability in last year's New Year's 2020 event, which left trainers with two options to consider: either Niantic had forgotten to turn the Shiny capabilities on for these two, or they dramatically decreased the Shiny rates. Thankfully, verification of these two came in soon after our report, which I suppose means, at the bare minimum, that those who spent raid passes on these festive Pokémon weren't doing so wastefully. Now that we know that the problem has been fixed, if there even was one to begin with, we're left to ponder something that has been a sticking point for many trainers: Why is Niantic so unclear about Shiny rates?

Here's what I personally believe should happen. The same way that we see the Shiny symbol next to a Pokémon's sprite in our storage, we should see that symbol next to the raid of Shiny-capable species. Love it or hate it, Shiny hunting is one of the major modes of play for many trainers and is one of, if not the absolute top, determining factor if many will spend money on raid passes. In addition to this, as Mega Raids have been introduced, a new level of confusion has been introduced for casual players.

While many of us do research and will follow reports to determine Shiny rates for new kind of encounters (for example, the Shiny rate for any Pokémon that has been featured in a Mega Raid now seems to be approximately one in 60 regardless of where they are encountered, whether in the Mega Raid or in the wild), the casual player will not do this. Many casual players, in fact, will not know that most evolved forms of Shiny-capable Pokémon are incapable of being caught in their Shiny forms through direct encounters. These players aren't at fault. We, as hardcore players, have become accustomed to search for actual research about the game due to the small amount of data provided by Niantic.

I love Pokémon GO dearly and I think Niantic does a terrific job but, in this respect, I believe we deserve more and have for quite a long time.

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