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Posted in: Games, Mobile Games, Niantic, Pokémon GO | Tagged: kyurem, pokemon, Timeless Travels
The White Kyurem & Black Kyurem Incident In Pokémon GO
Niantic mistakenly released White Kyurem & Black Kyurem as Pokémon GO Battle League encounters before removing them from the game.
Article Summary
- Niantic mistakenly released White Kyurem & Black Kyurem in Pokémon GO.
- These forms were previously unavailable and removed shortly after being found.
- White & Black Kyurem might be treated as different species without form changes.
- Players disappointed by the accidental pull-back, craving an exciting game update.
Kyurem is currently in Tier Five Raids in Pokémon GO. Kyurem has been available in Raids for quite some time, arriving for the first time over three years ago on July 7th, 2020. The following year, Shiny Kyurem was released as part of the Winter Holiday Event 2021. It has since featured in both subsequent Winter Holiday Events in 2022 and 2023 with no further updates. Well, no updates that were released on purpose. When Kyurem was about to arrive in Raids, Niantic accidentally released White Kyurem and Black Kyurem through GO Battle League encounters. At first, this was interpreted as a fun and sneaky secret drop… until Niantic quickly admitted it was a mistake and fixed it, making White Kyurem and Black Kyurem no longer available, much to the chagrin of excited Pokémon GO players. What does this incident mean for the future of the game?
First, let's take a look at what White Kyurem and Black Kyurem are. In the main series games, Kyurem can be altered by a mechanic called Absofusion, where it can essentially absorb Reshiram to become White Kyurem or Zekrom to become Black Kyurem. This is a temporary fusion.
Now, the fact that White Kyurem and Black Kyurem were actually encountered locked into their White and Black forms suggests that these Pokémon will be released like Giratina's Formes rather than Hoopa. What I mean here is that Giratina has two Formes: Altered and Origin. They are treated in Pokémon GO as different species and cannot be changed back and forth. They can only be caught and kept in the form they are in. Hoopa, on the other hand, has a button that activates its "Change Form" mechanic, allowing it to switch back and forth between Hoopa Unbound and Hoopa Confined. The same is true for Sky Forme Shaymin and Land Forme Shaymin. The form-locked encounter of White Kyurem and Black Kyurem is very telling here.
Pokémon GO fans were annoyed by the fact that this release was accidental and ended up being pulled back. They would've liked the surprise, and I completely agree. Winter Holiday Legendary Raids have been boring for the past two years, and this would've spiced it up. It seems likely, though, that there is a reason that Niantic didn't follow through with this release once these two were leaked. Could there be a plan? There likely is, but would it have been more exciting than pulling an unannounced drop? I don't think so.
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