Pokemon Sword and Shield Celebrates New Year's With Shiny Magikarp Raids

Pokemon Sword and Shield players can ring in the New Year by participating in some Magikarp raids, with a chance of finding a Shiny Magikarp. From now until January 3rd, Magikarp will be appearing in more Max Raid Battles in the Wild Area, with players earning Nuggets as a reward for defeating it. Players also have an increased chance of encountering a Shiny Magikarp during one of these Raid Battles, making the event your best chance of obtaining one of these usually rare variant Pokemon. Per the Pokemon database Serebii, players have about an 8% chance of finding a Shiny Magikarp in a special event den, while a normal Magikarp appears about 52% of the time. Unfortunately, players will need to actually start the Max Raid Battle to find out if they're fighting a Shiny Magikarp or a normal Magikarp. Please note that you'll need to connect to the Internet in order to have Magikarp start appearing in more Raid Battles.

Shiny Pokemon have variant colorations than normal Pokemon and usually have an appearance rate of about 1 in 4000. There are two types of Shiny Pokemon in Pokemon Sword and Shield - one features the usual Shiny animation (which features star-like twinkles appearing around the Pokemon) and the other features a new Square Shiny animation. As of now, it's believed that all Shiny Magikarp found through Max Raid Battles will have the Square Shiny animation. Pokemon captured in Max Raid Battles also have a higher chance of having Hidden Abilities or having high IVs, which make them stronger than standard Pokemon.

Shiny Magikarp have gold scales instead of their regular orange scales. It evolves into a Gyarados with red scales instead its usual blue scales. Notably, the Red Gyarados made a famous appearance in Pokemon Gold and Silver (and the remakes Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver) as part of Team Rocket's plans in the Lake of Outrage.

The event will last until January 3rd. Let us know your luck with Shiny Magikarp raids in the comment section or find me on Twitter at @CHofferCBus to chat all things Pokemon!