Pokemon GO Update: Water Event Postmortem And Shiny Easter Secrets

Overnight masses of Magikarp have disappeared from the game Pokemon GO, and fish-hunters everywhere have fallen to their knees in despair. Why, they ask, why wasn't I one of the select few to find a Shiny Magikarp? Why couldn't I find that Gold Magikarp so I could make a Red Gyarados? How do I get a Red Gyarados now?! The answers lie in the water, my friends – and in how well Easter will treat the world of Pokemon all around the world.

Niantic has confirmed and SlashGear can verify that Shiny Pokemon – starting with Shiny Magikarp and Shiny Gyarados – will remain in the game past this week. This Water Festival event brought Shiny Magikarp and Shiny Gyarados (otherwise known as Gold Magikarp and Red Gyarados,) but it won't be their demise. They'll be sticking around from now on – for the foreseeable future.

This does not mean they'll be super easy to find or catch. Both of these Shiny Pokemon seemed to appear in big numbers during water event due to the massive increase in Water Type Pokemon spawns all around the world, in every biome. What we've found, however, is that the appearance of the rarity of the Shiny Pokemon was different from reality.

With Magikarp spawning all around the world and the first big Shiny Pokemon craze afoot, of COURSE they seemed common. Every person who found a Shiny Pokemon was bound to share it, and post and re-post it. In reality, only a few hundred Shiny Magikarp were likely caught.

Based on our research combined with the research of such science heroes as MJZuurman and Waldo56, we find that the odds are inside the range of 1 Shiny per 215 Magikarp encountered. This research was done with several hundred Pokemon GO players and thousands of Magikarp caught. Research wasn't perfectly scientific, but it'll suffice for this event.

The odds will likely stay the same for Shiny Pokemon appearing in Pokemon GO after the Water Event is over. We won't likely see so many Shiny Magikarp in the future for several reasons.

• Gamers will care less about this rare monster over time• Magikarp now only appear near Water Biomes• Lack of Water Biome players will slow research

Over the next few weeks we'll continue to push for additional research for the Shiny Rate of Magikarp in Pokemon GO. However, unless we hear direct from Niantic, we might never know the appearance rate of this or any other Shiny Pokemon as long as they both shall live.

I need to keep telling myself that this Ruby Red beauty isn't any different from the Deep Blue Gyarados, and that it's OK that I've not yet attained one. That won't stop me from trying, of course – and that's one of the reasons why Shiny Pokemon won't be going away any time soon. The added mystique of having an alternate-colored Pokemon and the inability to predict where they'll be makes the game all the more enticing to play.

For Easter we're to understand that Niantic is considering several possibilities.* It's quite likely that we'll see some sort of repeat of Special Event abilities, including one or more of the following items.

• Double XP• Double Stardust• Increased Spawn Rate for certain otherwise-rare Pokemon• Halved Pokemon Egg Distance Requirements• New spawning of new Pokemon• New spawning of Shiny versions of already-released Pokemon

Honestly we'd be happy with any combination of the bonus bits listed above. Events in Pokemon GO are clearly what makes this game stay popular – and a bit having to do with the fact that this brand is internationally mega-popular and has been for a few decades. *Our source on this information is the anonymous kind, from a source with information on the subject.

We've received a tip on when and/or how Legendary Pokemon will probably be released, when they're released this year. While Legendary Pokemon will be slightly more common than a mega-rare Pokemon type like Unown, they won't necessarily appear randomly.

Does that mean they'll appear the same way it's indicated in the legendary Pokemon GO trailer? Not necessarily – though a group battle against a Mewtwo in Times Square would be pretty massively epic. If I was a betting man, my money would be on a Limited Time Availability – meaning a Legendary Pokemon would be out in the wild for 24 hours only, and only one day out of the year. If you didn't catch Zapados on the 16th of April, 2017, wait until the 1st of April 2018!

Also – and this is completely unofficial – but I'd eat my hat if Niantic didn't release Delibird on or around Christmas of this year.