Data Miners Have Found Shiny Pokemon In Pokemon GO, And Gen 2 May Be Ready For Release!

Yesterday was a massive day for Pokemon GO. First, we got a new update which added the ability to transfer multiple Pokemon at once. A few hours later, Niantic drop a nuclear bomb and announce that on the 12th of December, some juicy info regarding “new Pokemon” will be revealed. And now, just when we thought it couldn’t get any better, data miners have found shiny Pokemon in Pokemon GO.

What an awesome couple of days it’s been. As well as finding shiny Pokemon in the new update’s code, the data miners also found a whole bunch of other little goodies hidden within. And, while this is still absolutely not confirmed, it really does look like we’ll be getting Gen 2 very, very soon.

Here’s what the data miners found when taking a look through the latest update. Note: none of these “features” are available in-game yet and we currently do not know when they will be.

• Shiny Pokemon. This is something that we knew would probably be coming at some point, but now it seems that Niantic have finally actually added them to the game. No word yet on when they’ll be made available to the public, but when they are, you’ll know.
• Pokemon Costumes. According to the miners, there is now code in the game that will allow Pokemon to wear costumes. And more specifically, there is a reference to a “holiday” costume, which might have something to do with Christmas.
• Pokemon Genders. This is also something that we know would probably make its way from the mains series to Pokemon GO, we just weren’t sure when.
• Avatar Customization. There appears to now be more character customization possible, as well as potentially having the ability to buy certain clothes/features through the in-app shop, which could add another revenue stream for Niantic.
• Gen 2 Pokemon Cries. This is the one that really hints towards an imminent Gen 2 release, as there is nothing that needs to be added now before Gen 2 Pokemon would be functional.

These new findings bring up a whole host of new questions. The biggest question on my mind is how will shiny Pokemon be implemented into the game? Will it be the standard 1/4096 chance of encountering one as it is in the main series? And what will happen to all of our already-caught Pokemon? Will any of them spontaneously become shiny?

Aaronponniah from the Pokemon GO subreddit has a simple solution for the implementation of shiny Pokemon: make all Pokemon with perfect IVs shiny. This would make it super easy to identify Pokemon with perfect IVs, and the odds of getting a Pokemon with perfect IVs in Pokemon GO is 1/4096; exactly the same odds as getting a shiny in the main series.

The addition of the cries for all 100 Gen 2 Pokemon is huge, and as far as I can tell, was the last piece of data that needed to be added to the game before the new Pokemon would be ready to roll out. With the cries now inside the game code, Niantic could “flip the switch” at any moment and we’d be out there catching Gen 2 Pokemon.

So in conclusion, data miners have found shiny Pokemon in Pokemon Go and Gen 2 might be right around the corner. December is shaping up to be an epic month for Pokemon GO, and we’re immensely excited for December 12 so we can finally find out what’s in store for us for the rest of the year.

But what do you think about the secrets uncovered through data mining? Is there anything listed above that you’re particularly excited for? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below!

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