New Shiny Boost In Pokemon GO

This week it would seem that after the BUG OUT event, several Shiny Pokemon are hitting harder than usual in Pokemon GO. This is a sort of non-event or secret event, if you like – the sort that aren't announced by normal means. Instead, this is the sort of thing that goes viral only if enough people realize what's happening in-game, and take advantage as it happens.

We got the tip earlier today thanks to a post on SilphRoad on Reddit. There, several intrepid users had a hunch there was a modification going on this week in Pokemon GO. They decided to do some work, keeping track of their checks with each Pokemon as they appeared, marking down Shiny Pokemon as they appeared – not necessarily captured.

Each account found approximately 2 Shiny Pokemon per 115 seen, give or take a few seen. This isn't the hard-and-fast rule, of course, but it's interesting compared to the general rate of one in 450. Pineco and Aerodactyl seem to have much more frequent Shiny rates at the moment – and so does Scyther!

If Shiny appearance rates are standard right now, that'd mean a 1/450 chance, or a 0.2-percent chance each time you see a Pokemon. That Pokemon needs to have a Shiny version in the game, of course, and you must assume that Niantic is actually using the same rate as they've been using since the beginning of the Shiny craze.

In short – there's no knowing exactly what Niantic's got up their sleeve, but it would SEEM that an inordinate amount of people are attaining Shiny Scyther right this minute. If you head out to play Pokemon GO this week, try to keep track of how many Pokemon you encounter, and how many are Shiny, and we'll put the lot down in a spreadsheet and figure this out!