Pokemon GO fans are in the middle of some very exciting times. The game just launched the first wave of Gen 5 creatures, which means there's a whole new batch of Pokedex entries to collect and Candy to stock up on for new evolutions and power ups. In addition to that, the ongoing Ultra Bonus Rewards are still happening and players are reaping the rewards of some well earned end of summer bonuses.
Although the Pokemon GO bonus rewards have been very well received overall, there has been some drama surrounding the current round of rewards. One of the reward tiers offered the chance to hatch Kanto regional exclusive Pokemon from Eggs once again, but this time there is a chance that they will be shiny. Completionists have gone wild at the idea of shiny regionals and the hunt is on. The problem came a few days ago when parts of the community started to suspect that the shiny rate for hatched regionals had actually been nerfed a few days into the event. As you might expect, fans were not happy.
After a few days of angry Reddit posts and Twitter comments piling up, Niantic has actually responded to the accusations. A confirmed community manager for the company issues a lengthy post explaining what the rates actually are and confirming that they have not changed since the reward kicked off.
“Hi Trainers, we wanted to comment on this directly to provide an update on this situation. To start, I can confirm that there have been no changes to the encounter rate of Shiny Regional Pokémon.
This discussion was flagged to us, and we’ve taken extensive action that I’ll detail below to rule out anything that could have either directly or indirectly impacted the rate at which Shiny Regional Pokémon can be encountered.
To that effect, we’ve conducted multiple, thorough reviews of all changes to the game made over the past 72 hours. Part of these reviews included looking back over our event rollout procedure, all changes associated with the Ultra Bonus unlock, and the implementation of fixes for recent changes that resulted in in-game errors. Additionally, we’ve reviewed gameplay records and have found that the actual encounter rate for Shiny Regional Pokémon matches our settings.
All of this investigation affirmed that there have been no changes to the rate at which Shiny Regional Pokémon appear.
We understand that Shiny Pokémon are exciting and highly sought after, but changing this metric in the middle of an event is in direct conflict with our company values and something that we would not intentionally do.
We appreciate the passionate discussion on this topic over the past few days and wish you the best of luck in your quest to catch Shiny Regional Pokémon.”
Although fans who didn't hatch any shiny regionals may still be unhappy, it's great that Niantic is being so transparent and communicating clearly about this issue. This is the sort of thing that would've been met with silence during Pokemon GO's messy first year and it's really a sign of how far the game's team has come in terms of community engagement and communication after some dumb Pokemon GO fails.
So, what does all of this mean for the actual shiny rates? Basically this message debunks the theory that shiny regional hatch rates were in the 1 in 150 range. Instead, the rates are in the originally reported 1 in roughly 31-51 range. That is much more acceptable and, although players still needed to hatch a ton of Eggs for the best odds, it's a lot more realistic to walk away with a few considering the difference in those odds.
Despite the drama towards the end of the event, this Ultra Reward bonus has been incredibly popular. There's always a risk that some fans are going to be left unhappy when the most exciting part of a reward is left up to chance, but hopefully players who really want these shiny creatures can acquire them through trading or through a later event if they missed this chance.
Collecting shiny Pokemon doesn’t give the trainer any kind of advantage in battle, but it is still a fun additional challenge to add into the game. Shiny Pokemon are perfect for leaving in Gyms to show off to the rest of the community.
Be sure to check back for more Pokemon GO news, updates, and strategy guides in the coming days. Until then, good luck out there, trainers!
Pokemon GO is currently available in select regions on Android and iOS devices.