Distracted by Something Shiny – A Free Shiny Celebi
The other day, I mentioned how shiny Mew would be locked behind a €12 ticket for a Pokemon GO event. Shiny Mew is insanely rare and nigh impossible to get a hold of legitimately. So selling it seems kinda weird. At the very same time though, a tie-in with the latest Pokemon Movie has been released, and comes with another shiny. Shiny Celebi, another mythical Pokemon, is the reward for a Special Research called Distracted by Something Shiny.
A special research with Jessie and James!
I was actually kinda surprised to get a vaguely animated cut scene sort of thing when starting this special research. Even more surprising is that it’s not with Professor Willow either. The animated cut scenes feature Jessie and James, looking ever so slightly better than they did in their first appearance.
Okay, sure, they still look terrifying. And the way they bob in front of each other to speak is also slightly creepy. But it’s cool to have Jessie and James hanging around. Even if they think you’re their assistant and then immediately call you a twerp when they realize they’re wrong and you’re just some random person. After completing part 3, they literally say “what’s that behind you?”, point out that it’s a shiny Celebi and then blast off again. Then again, that’s pretty accurate Team Rocket nonsense.
The Event Tie-In was godawful though.
Alongside the special research, we got a small event, called Secrets of the Jungle. This is the much more obvious tie-in with the Pokemon movie of the same name. Honestly though, it sucks. There’s a grand total of about 8 different Pokemon spawning. The most useful of this event is Drilbur, but we also have Diglett, Hoot-Hoot, Cottonee, Roggenrola, Woobat and rare Nuzleaf spawns. There’s an Explorer Pikachu as well, a new costumed form, but it can’t evolve so it’s useless in my eyes. However, these spawns wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t completely overwrite normal spawns!
Seriously, in the week that this event has been around, I’ve seen a grand total of 4 other wild Pokemon that aren’t the 8 event Pokemon. And two of them were Volbeat. The raids also haven’t been amazing. Chansey, Pinsir, Lickitung and Flygon in 3 star raids mostly. 1 star raids have been exactly the same as the event Pokemon, with the addition of Mawile. Rufflet was also supposed to appear but I’ve seen a grand total of, uh, one Rufflet raid.
The ONLY good thing about this event is the fact that Jessie and James are back in Team Rocket balloons. They’ve also brought one of my favourite Pokemon as a potential shadow shiny – Scyther – alongside also-vaguely-popular-bug-type Pinsir. Knowing my luck with shinies, I probably won’t get a shiny shadow Scyther though. I’ve done over 2300 Team Rocket battles and only ever obtained two shadow shinies, Ekans and Sneasel.
This quest was far, far easier than a Ripple in Time
It’s three stages with really simple tasks. A Ripple in Time on the other hand requires far, far more effort. It requires a gold medal for Johto, as well as evolving both an Espeon and an Umbreon and hatching 9 eggs. On the flip side, the Something Shiny research’s hardest task is catching 10 grass types, evolving 3 grass types and hatching 3 eggs. It’s also only 3 stages plus one free stage, compared to A Ripple in Time’s 7 stages plus one free stage.
Really, the only thing that makes the Distracted by Something Shiny difficult is the small window in which to claim the research. If you don’t open Pokemon GO during the Secrets of the Jungle event, then you don’t get the research. Once you have the research, you can complete it whenever you want. Be warned though, the last stage requires beating Jessie and James twice, and they’ll only be spawning in balloons during December.
Oh well, can’t complain about a free shiny mythical Pokemon! Unless you bought a bunch of incubators to hatch eggs, I guess.