Pokémon Go Shinies - how to catch Shiny Magikarp, Red Gyarados, and what we know about other Shiny Pokémon

Publish date: 2022-02-27

Shiny Pokémon were first introduced in March 2017 with the surprise reveal of Shiny Magikarp and its evolution, the red Shiny Gyarados.

More recent months have seen the reveal of new shinies, including Shiny Pikachu, with more unique variants over time.

Shinies are notoriously rare, as any veteran of the main series will gladly tell you, so what do we know about Pokémon Go Shinies, and how do you catch them?

On this page:

How to find Shiny Pokémon such as Shiny Magikarp and Red Gyarados Pokémon Go

Shinies are found by simply trying to catch Pokémon and seeing if they display as an alternate colour in the battle and post-battle screens.

They won't appear as a different colour in the field, so you have to attempt to catch them first.

They of course can also appear in anywhere you'd find a Pokémon, not just the wild - so that includes hatching Eggs, Research task rewards and Raid bonus challenges.

A Shiny creature is extremely rare, so it's simply a case of checking every one you are looking for - such as Magikarp - in the hope it will be a different colour.

Often, the variation is somewhat subtle. You can see the difference in Magikarp in the above comparison image, courtesy of Silph Road subreddit user skinnysnorlaz.

Pokémon Go Shiny list and rarity tier list

Around five months after Shiny Magikarp was first sighted, we started to see the first sign of other shinies.

Though the list has expanded greatly since the arrival of Magikarp and Red Gyarados, the number is small compared to the number of non-shiny creatures in the game.

At a glance, here is every possible shiny creature you can get in the game right now (aside from additions since early February - you can see a more up-to-date list in chronological order later in the article) and their rarity according to a user survey (thanks to AirbenderProdigy on reddit for the research and image):

When and how every Shiny was added to Pokémon Go

Magikarp and Gyarados: The first Shiny Pokémon in Pokémon Go were Magikarp and Gyarados in March 2017 which were a callback to what was, for most players, the first Shiny they ever caught: the Red Gyarados at Pokémon Gold, Silver, and Crystal's Lake of Rage.

Shiny Pikachu: August 2017's Pokémon Go Park event in Japan revealed the second set of Shinies.

Those within the event radius had a chance of catching a Shiny Pikachu, which much like the Red Gyarados, could also be evolved into a shiny Raichu.

These have since been made available around the world, and was expanded on with a shiny hatted Pikachu as part of the 2018 Pokémon Day.

Shiny Gen 3 Ghosts: As the Halloween event in 2018 - which introduced the first Gen 3 creatures - rolled on, shiny variations of all five new creatures (Duskull, Dusclops, Shuppet, Sableye and Banette) started to appear.

Here is a video of shiny Duskull in action:

Shiny Gen 3 Raids: With the arrival of 50 Gen 3 creatures in December 2017 came two Raid-specific catches, both of which offering Shiny versions. The remaining 48 also have Shiny models in the game code, though none have been found so far.

Shiny Gen 3 Desert update: The Aron family of creatures all have shiny variants as part of their release in the Janary 2018 Gen 3 Desert update.

Shiny Gen 3 Dragon update: Swablu is one of the few creatures available as a shiny Pokémon, changing its blue body colour into yellow.

Evolving into Altaria will keep that same yellow colour scheme, as shown in this video by Cychreus Gaming:

Valentine's Day 2018: Alongside increased Luvdisc spawns came a shiny version:

It's Valentines Day in Pokémon Go and I got a peepee-coloured heart
💛 pic.twitter.com/qVHa4p2BJq

— Tom Phillips (@tomphillipsEG) February 14, 2018 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settings

Otherwise, there are no other signs more Shinies will be added. The main games had shinies for every single creature, so there's a chance every one in Pokémon Go will offer them at some point, but it makes sense Niantic would want to drip feed them for special occasions and make them more of an event.

Lunar New Year event 2018: The increase in dog and dog-like spawns saw the introduction of a shiny Poochyena:

Community Day: The creature a Community Day focuses on will release a shiny version at the same time. So far we've had:

My #PokemonGOCommunityDay haul:
- 147 Dratini caught
- 1x 100% IV and 1x 98% IV catches
- 4 shinies
- 96k XP
- 78k Stardust 👌 pic.twitter.com/jrGh9TRuEa

— Matthew Reynolds (@Crazyreyn) February 24, 2018 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settings

2018 Shinies came thick and fast, including:

Meanwhile in 2019, we've seen:

2020 saw the introduction of these shiny Pokémon:

In 2021, the following shiny Pokémon were released:

During 2022, the following shiny Pokémon were released:

The Season of Go has arrived! The Pokémon TCG Crossover event is here, which includes the release of Wimpod and Golisopod. While Go Fest 2022 may be behind us, there are still three special research quests you might be working on - Pokémon Go Fest 2022, Rhi's Arrival and A Radiant World. Meanwhile, the Great League and Great League and Great League Remix are currently running in the Go Battle League Season 11. This season has also seen the lowering of the level requirement for Candy XL and introduced the first Ultra Beast, Nihilego.

Other things to know about Pokémon Go Shinies - independent Shinies, Shiny Ditto and more

Aside the from the basics, there are a few other important points to note about Shiny Pokémon and the way they operate:

That's all the important info you need - the rest of it is down to good old fashioned luck, so it's time get searching!

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