Hard as it is to believe, this week marks the ninth anniversary of Pokemon Go, which was released on July 6th, 2016. Niantic’s yearly celebration is now underway, and it adds a pretty exciting new Shiny Pokemon to the game. For the first time ever, players will be able to encounter Shiny Gimmighoul in its Roaming Form, which can only be caught in Pokemon Go. That is cause for excitement, but Niantic has also released a new costumed variant for Gimmighoul. And since Gimmighoul is a pretty tiny Pokemon, some players aren’t noticing right away that the Shiny ones they’re finding are actually Shiny costumed versions.
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That wouldn’t be a big deal if not for one thing: Shiny or not, no costumed Pokemon can be transferred to Pokemon Home, or the mainline games. So players might encounter a Shiny Gimmighoul and not realize right away that it’s a Shiny costumed version that has to stay in Pokemon Go. That restriction has caused frustration for players in the past, and it’s even more frustrating when you can barely tell the difference between a standard Gimmighoul and the costumed version.

As can be seen in the picture above, Roaming Gimmighoul has a coin on its back. The costumed version has a “9” on the coin for Pokemon Go‘s anniversary. It’s barely perceptible, so the easiest way to tell the difference happens after Gimmighoul has already been caught. The costumed version can’t be evolved, and it will have a special background. The special background is actually really nice looking, featuring a (much bigger) version of the ninth anniversary coin. While the background is disappointing a lot of players that want to transfer a Shiny Roaming Gimmighoul to Pokemon Home, at least it looks kind of cool!
Adding to all of the confusion surrounding Shiny Gimmighoul, Niantic did not add the standard version of Shiny Gimmighoul to the game until well after the anniversary event started in Pokemon Go. This led to some players mistakenly believing that only costumed versions of Gimmighoul are capable of being Shiny. We now know that’s not the case, but the rollout of this event has been messy, and could have used a little more clarity on the part of Niantic.
Hopefully the developers will learn from this whole situation and stick to costumed Pokemon that are easier to identify in the game. Costumed Pokemon can be a lot of fun when they’re handled well, and we’ve seen a lot of great additions over the last 9 years, including the recent version of Falinks that was added to the game. It’s a lot less fun though when you can’t actually tell if it’s costumed, especially if you’re someone that likes being able to transfer your Pokemon over to games like Scarlet and Violet.
Have you been looking for a Shiny Gimmighoul to send over to Pokemon Home? Have you encountered one with a costume, instead? Share your thoughts with me directly on Bluesky atย @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram atย @Dachampgaming!