Shiny Pidgey and Rattata are now in Pokemon Go!
Hope you weren’t feeling burnt out by all these last-minute events in Pokemon Go, because Niantic just announced another one!
https://twitter.com/PokemonGoApp/status/1100139961750298625
Today is Pokemon Day, the 23rd anniversary of when Pokemon Red and Green first came out on GameBoy in 1996! To celebrate, Niantic’s taking a walk down memory lane by dedicating an event to the Pokemon that players encounter at the beginning of those games. From February 26 to February 28th, Kanto legendaries are returning to raids (probably the birds, though I’m crossing my fingers for Shadow Ball Mewtwos), Pikachu and Eevee spawns will be wearing flower crowns, and most importantly, Pidgey and Rattata can now be discovered in shiny form!
Shiny Rattata looks awesome, with its green fur and purple tongue, but shiny Pidgey leaves something to be desired. If it weren’t for the yellow beak, I’d be completely unable to tell them apart. Luckily, if you read this old article you could probably guess that I’m here for the Rattata. I have a thriving Rattata collection in Pokemon GO, with rats from over a dozen cities and 3 different countries!
I’ve been eagerly awaiting shiny Rattata since it’s pretty much the only thing I still need to complete the collection. My shiny Rattata will instantly become part of my trio of favorite rats, along with Ratlas and this ultra-rare Lucky egg-symbol Rattata:
Rattata were removed from the egg pool in November 2016, long before the egg icon was added to the game. Ashwin quit the game for a couple years, which is why he happened to have a Rattata to hatch all the way in 2018!
While Chrales’ data mining suggests that both shiny Rattata and shiny Alolan Rattata were added to the game in the most recent update, this unfortunately does not guarantee that shiny Alolan Rattata will be available during this event. When Niantic added shiny Geodude to the game, they also added shiny Alolan Geodude even though they weren’t (and still aren’t) available anywhere in-game. (BTW they did this because the Pokedex has a button for viewing Alolan forms, and they need the model to be present if the player checks that form with a shiny Geodude in their Pokedex).
A few other exciting things came out during this update; there’s now a chance that Smeargle will pop out during your AR+ photography sessions and give you a chance to catch him! The Silph Road data seems to be showing that Smeargle can be encountered once a day, and he’ll inherit the moveset of whatever Pokemon you were photographing when he appeared.
Happy Pokemon Day everyone! Say hi to every Rattata and Pidgey you meet, you never know which ones will be shiny!