Shiny Ho-Oh Returns to Pokemon Go

Pokemon Go will be ending this month's Johto event with the return of a fan-favorite Pokemon and its Shiny form.

The popular mobile game announced that Ho-Oh will return as a Raid Boss through August 27th, which coincides with the end of their Johto Festival event.

Attention, Trainers! For a limited time until August 27, the Legendary Pokémon Ho-Oh is returning to Raid Battles. This will be your chance to end Johto Week with a surprise, as you just might encounter its Shiny form! pic.twitter.com/mvMFhkngcC

— Pokémon GO (@PokemonGoApp) August 24, 2018

Ho-Oh is the mascot of Pokemon Gold and has periodically appeared as a Raid Boss over the last year or so. The powerful Fire/Flying-Type Pokemon has an incredibly high CP, but is held back a bit in the metagame due to its lack of strong STAB (same type attack bonus) moves. It's a tough raid boss due to its high stats and ability to counter Rock-Type and Water-Type Pokemon with its Solar Beam attack, but it's lack of a Fire-Type fast move makes it less relevant than other Fire-Type Legendaries like Entei or Moltres.

Pokemon Go first added the Shiny version of Ho-Oh to the game earlier this year, and it made headlines as the first Pokemon that game developers acknowledged could appear in Shiny form.

The Johto Festival began earlier this week in conjunction with the start of a new Special Research quest, which will allow players to encounter and capture the Mythical Pokemon Celebi. In addition to Pokemon from the Johto region spawning in greater numbers, there are also several new Field Research tasks that involve Johto Pokemon. The game also added Shiny versions of Sunkern, Natu, and Pineco, along with their respective evolutions, to celebrate the event.