Pokemon Go Guide: How to Catch Shiny Pokemon

Shiny Pokemon have finally been added to Pokemon Go, starting with Magikarp and Gyarados and hopefully moving on from there. A select few players have been lucky enough to catch these extremely rare characters, and they’ve shared enough info that we feel it’s time to start collecting it all in one place. We don’t yet have a clear answer, but let’s start compiling everything we have on how to catch shiny Pokemon in Pokemon Go.

The biggest thing to keep in mind is that we don’t yet know how many shiny Pokemon are out there. So far the only confirmed ones are Magikarp and Gyarados. With how rare it is to find one of these, with only a handful of people having encountered them out of likely millions of players, there could be more that just haven’t been caught yet. Check back for updates as more get confirmed.

The trick to catching any Pokemon in Pokemon Go is to find them first, and here is where there’s some bad news for all the trainers out there looking for shiny Pokemon. It seems that the Pokemon appear normally on radar and map screen. You will see a regular Pokemon until you actually tap it to go to the encounter. At this point you should be able to tell it is a shiny based on its coloring and the small bursts of light that emit right at the beginning.

If you have any doubt about it, make sure you catch it, because then you can make sure. Pokemon Go thankfully issues you a warning when trying to transfer shiny Pokemon, so if the fact that it looks totally different from any other Magikarp you’ve caught isn’t enough, you can hit the Transfer button and watch for the warning.

Shiny Pokemon will evolve into their shiny counterparts at higher levels. So if you want a shiny Gyarados, just catch a shiny Magikarp and evolve it.

And that’s the info we have so far on how to catch shiny Pokemon in Pokemon Go. This is an evolving guide, so be sure to share any info or ask any questions in the comments below and we’ll keep it updated on all the latest that is out there.