Pokemon Go: What Are Lucky Pokemon?

Pokemon Go is teasing a brand new kind of Pokemon in their new update – Lucky Pokemon.

Earlier this weekend, Pokemon Go started their roll out a new update that added some sorting functionality to the friends’ screen and some other minor changes. However, dataminers discovered that the biggest change was hidden in the code – references to “Lucky Pokemon,” complete with their own Pokemon screen background.

Pokemon Go‘s Twitter account then teased fans about Lucky Pokemon, showing an image of Lucky Pokemon in an otherwise mundane tweet about trading with friends:

The image above also serves as a hint as to what Lucky Pokemon are. As you can see above, the Blissey in the image above needs only 1,250 Stardust to get leveled up. Lucky Pokemon are Pokemon that can be powered up for half as much Stardust a normal, non-Lucky Pokemon.

According to the dataminer Chrales (who first discovered the existence of Lucky Pokemon in the code), Lucky Pokemon get a 50% discount on Stardust cost when you power them up. They also can’t be mass transferred, similar to Shiny or Event Pokemon.

However, we still don’t know how players can obtain a Lucky Pokemon. It could be by random chance, similar to players finding Shiny Pokemon in the wild, or it could be linked to trading, as the tweet above seems to hint.

Lucky Pokemon could also be a sign of what’s to come in Pokemon Go. Stardust is one of the major resources in the game and a lack of Stardust can stymie new players trying to bring their Pokemon up to speed with more experienced or higher level players. Lucky Pokemon could be a way to help close that gap…which could make Raid Battles or even PvP battles a little easier.

Players can expect to see the new Pokemon Go update later this week and to hear more news about Lucky Pokemon soon.