Zorua Is Both Here and Obvious

After a very, very long wait, Zorua is finally available in Pokemon GO. Debuting in the Halloween Event Part 2, Zorua had a rocky start and was initially disabled, but it was released towards the end of the event, ready to disguise itself. Because that’s what this familiar, well-loved Pokemon does. And who does it disguise as? Our buddies, of course.

Zorua is very obvious.

Normally, spawning disguised as your buddy sounds pretty cool. Especially if you’re walking something like a Noibat or perhaps a Deino. Seeing something rare on your Pokemon radar will make you rush over to it. But that rare Pokemon is just Zorua disguised as your buddy Pokemon. So both good and bad, but at least somewhat sneaky. Personally, I’d prefer the buddy Pokemon over a Zorua though.

However, if you are walking something legendary, well, Zorua is stupidly obvious. As of writing, my buddy Pokemon is a Dialga (called About Time). It turns out, Zorua doesn’t care what Pokemon you have as your buddy, it will still appear disguised as them. Even if it makes no sense what so ever. So when I went out on my walk and saw a random wild Dialga, it was obvious what it actually was. I suppose, as a plus side, at least Dialga made it very easy to catch wild Zorua.

Zorua’s disguise also appears shiny in the overworld, again making it even more obvious. When I tried walking a shiny Wurmple, I had a Zorua spawn disguised as a shiny Wurmple both in the overworld and the catch screen. Once caught, you get that Oh? and the Zorua isn’t shiny.

It’s basically just a Ditto.

A very obvious Ditto. Zorua also has a very similar catch screen. You get the same Oh? and then the the Pokemon turns into a Zorua, pretty much the same way Ditto does, except with less purple. The IVs are all over the place as well. One Zorua, disguised as a 44CP Dialga, ended up having 500 CP, way higher than the disguise. The main difference is just what the Pokemon is disguised as; Ditto has a small list of Pokemon to spawn from, while Zorua will always just be your buddy. Unless you walk a Zorua as your buddy and any wild Zorua won’t bother wearing disguises.

That being said, apparently, if you have a Ditto as a buddy, then Zorua can spawn disguised as your Ditto, and turns into the Zorua after you catch it. Which is pretty cool, I guess.

No idea if they’re useful or not.

Thing is, we already have a TON of good Pokemon for both dark and ghost types. With ghost types, the mighty Giratina works alongside Gengar, a Pokemon that is still relevant even today. As for dark types, Zoroark is the glassiest of glass cannons. Even more so than Weaville, the ice/dark type best known as being a glass cannon. But you’re really better off just using a Hydreigon with Brutal Swing, which kinda nabbed the top spot during its community day. Zoroark is so insanely squishy that it’s not worth using at all.

Unfortunately, Zorua won’t be sticking around. Once Halloween is gone, it too will disappear. Unless it gets a Community Day or something, we probably won’t see Zorua or Zoroark for a long, long time. I’m hoping that they’ll bring back Zorua properly, but from what I can tell, just like Giratina’s new move, Zorua will disappear and be unavailable until next Halloween. Which is totally something I can imagine Niantic doing. After all, they already do the same thing with Yamask…