More Shinies for Everyone

I was browsing a Pokemon GO subreddit the other day, and in one thread, someone was bitching about shinies. However, they weren’t complaining because they didn’t have any. The opposite, they were arguing that shinies are way too common in Pokemon GO. According to them, shinies should be a super rare experience and we should have to WORK for them. But what this person seemed to forget is that Pokemon GO isn’t a main series Pokemon game.

If anything, collecting shinies is a core part of Pokemon GO.

Think about it. We have PvP, yes, but it’s very different from the main games. We have PvE, but it’s absurdly simple with enough players. But before either of those were truly established, Pokemon GO’s core gameplay was, well, catching things. And what was the rarest thing to catch? A shiny of course.

Shinies make collecting more interesting. After all, once you have enough candy to evolve a Pikachu, you don’t really need to catch more, do you? What about after you’ve powered one up? The chance to get a shiny Pikachu will mean that you’ll at least tap on a Pikachu to shiny-check it, rather than ignoring it completely.

Shinies are one of the bigger rewards!

Whenever a new event comes around, the biggest reward is often a new shiny. Sometimes it’s a new move, sometimes a new Pokemon, but a new shiny will drive similar crowds. In fact, shiny Pokemon are often the main attraction for new events. They’re the selling points used to attracts new players. While the main series games’ features are new Pokemon to collect, a new world to explore and a new story to experience, Pokemon GO is kinda just… selling walking to you. And the shinies are just a very small part of those games compared to Pokemon GO.

This is vastly different to the main games. Older games had events to get Mythical Pokemon, or unique Pokemon with special moves. If they had events at all. Newer events are closer to DLCs. But along the way, the main games are single-player experiences selling stories and the like. Pokemon GO is a free-to-play game that has to keep itself afloat differently.

Nothing wrong with people having too many shinies.

After all, they’re just differently coloured Pokemon. They don’t make any difference to gameplay, aside from the nice sparkly effect. Since shiny Pokemon are basically cosmetics, why not hand out shinies more regularly? People seemed to always like new costume Pokemon (even if I have complained about them in the past) and shinies are an extension of that.

And honestly, Community Days are really nice because of the high shiny chance. Being with a group of people (at least, in the past) and catching Pokemon, you can see whenever someone gets a shiny. Their faces always light up. Just let people have that little moment of joy, rather than complaining that people have too much.

“But Phovos! These shinies ruin their value!”

What value?

Okay, that’s an odd thing to say, since you can end up paying for shinies. After all, I spent money on the Kanto Tour and got a shiny Mew. One I promptly forgot about. But the average Pokemon? The money spent on eggs and incubators and raid passes have some value, yes. However, they are just chances of getting a shiny. You are not guaranteed a shiny, just a Pokemon from an egg, or the rewards from a raid. Money-wise, there’s no value at all.

If rarity concerns you, well, maybe the main games are more your cup of tea? Pokemon GO’s shiny chances are approximately 1 in 450. The closest you can get in a main series game is about 1 in 500, and that’s with a myriad of bonuses, like having a full Pokedex, and encountering the same Pokemon over and over.

But on top of that, long, long before Pokemon GO came out, we’ve had the ability to hack and modify Pokemon Games to give ourselves any Pokemon we want. All Pokemon GO does is allow people to get some shinies with slightly more ease than the main games.