A New Shiny Pokemon Found in Pokemon Go's Backend

Pokemon Go may be preparing to release a new Shiny Pokemon.A dataminer on /r/TheSilphRoad has [...]

Pokemon Go may be preparing to release a new Shiny Pokemon.

A dataminer on /r/TheSilphRoad has found a 3D asset for a Shiny version of Cleffa on Pokemon Go's server. Only the 3D asset for Shiny Cleffa is live, which means that Pokemon Go isn't ready to add the new Pokemon into the game.

You can check out what Shiny Cleffa looks like in Pokemon Go below:

Shiny Pokemon are super-rare versions of Pokemon with alternate coloration. While there's no benefit to having a Shiny Pokemon competitively in Pokemon Go, they're still highly prized by their fans for their extreme rarity.

Pokemon Go has slowly added Shiny Pokemon to the game throughout 2017, beginning with Magikarp and Gyarados. Shiny versions of the Pikachu family (Pichu, Pikachu, and Raichu) were added over the summer and several Ghost Pokemon got Shiny variations during last month's Halloween event.

Dataminers have found other Shiny Pokemon assets on Pokemon Go's servers before that have gone unused....at least so far. All of the Legendary Pokemon have Shiny variants lurking on Pokemon Go's servers, as does the Gastly family of Pokemon.

Notably, the dataminer hasn't found Shiny versions for Cleffa's evolved forms Clefairy and Clefable, so it's clear that Pokemon Go still has a little more work to do before Shiny Cleffa can go live.

So why would Pokemon Go add Shiny Cleffa to the game? It's possible that the Baby Pokemon could be a secret stretch goal for beating the Global Catch Challenge. Pokemon Go also has a special Safari Event coming up this weekend in Japan, so we could see them add Shiny Cleffa as a special bonus for fans who attend that event.

We'll have to see if Shiny Cleffa is officially introduced to the game this weekend, or if this is just another Pokemon Go feature that will remain buried on its servers.

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