Pokemon Go Adds Two More Shiny Pokemon

Pokemon Go has added two more Shiny Pokemon, this time in celebration of the Lunar New Year.

Yesterday, Pokemon Go announced a new three day event to celebrate the Lunar New Year. As Friday marks the beginning of the Year of the Dog, Pokemon Go has increased spawns of Growlithe, Poochyena, Electrike, Snubbull, and Eevee (all of which are dog-like Pokemon) in the wild. Players will also get extra Stardust whenever they catch any of these Pokemon.

But Pokemon Go snuck in one more surprise for players. Players also have a chance of finding a Shiny version of Poochyena in the wild. That means that Shiny versions of Mightyena are also available via evolution.

Shiny Pokemon are variant colored versions of Pokemon that are typically extremely rare. While there's no advantage to having a Shiny Pokemon in battle, many Pokemon trainers love Shiny Pokemon due to their rarity. Shiny Poochyena and Shiny Mightyena have gold fur instead of the light grey fur possessed by their non-Shiny counterparts.

Pokemon Go has added five different Shiny Pokemon over the last few days. In addition to Poochyena and Mightyena, Pokemon Go has also added Shiny versions of Swablu, Altaria, and Luvdisc to the game in conjunction with various in-game events. Aron, Lairon, Aggron, Pichu, Pikachu, Raichu, Magikarp, Gyarados, Shuppet, Banette, Absol, Mawile, Snorunt, Glalie, Sableye, Duskull, and Dusclops also have Shiny variants available in the game.

There's a possibility that Pokemon Go will add even more Shiny variants in the coming weeks. There's a Safari Zone event in Taiwan held in conjunction with the Chiaya Lantern Festival later this month that prominently features Chinchou and Lanturn, which some think is a sign that Shiny versions of those Pokemon will appear soon. There's also a Community Day event featuring Dratini, which could be a way to add that Shiny Pokemon variant to the game.

Of course, your chances of finding ANY Shiny Pokemon is pretty rare, so you'll have to do a ton of Pokemon catching to find one. Luckily, Poochyena is spawning in increased numbers through Saturday afternoon, so take advantage of the event for your best chance of finding a new Shiny Pokemon friend!