Following on from Niantic's tease during the Pokémon GO Fest event in Germany, the troublesome Team Rocket has now started to invade the game, giving players a whole new reason to load up the app and get catching.
Since yesterday, players have been discovering black PokéStops which act in a very different way to your usual, item-grabbing stations. When you spin the disc on one of these altered PokéStops, a Team Rocket Grunt appears to take you on in a battle; win this fight, and you can catch a Shadow Pokémon.
Shadow Pokémon are a little different to your usual 'mon; you'll notice that they have a shadow aura surrounding them and red eyes, and that they have lower-than-usual CP. You can choose to purify the Pokémon if you wish, with Candy and Stardust being used to boost its stats and return the Pokémon to normal.
Pokémon in the Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, Rattata, Zubat, Snorlax, Dratini, and Mudkip evolution chains have already been spotted in Shadow form, although we expect more will appear over time.
Have you encountered many of these mysterious PokéStops? Happy to see a new feature in the game? Let us know with a comment below.
[source eurogamer.net, via serebii.net]
Comments 20
What, no way. I won't cleanse mine!
What, Evil Bulbasaur ?!
Seeing Shadow Pokémon makes me wish they’d make a sequel to Colosseum and XD. I’m sure it’s mostly nostalgia talking here, but I loved those games.
@thesilverbrick Nah, XD was a genuinely good game having gone back and replayed both. Colosseum... not so much, but clearly a sequel should keep what XD fixed.
This is cool! I've wanted a return of the Shadow Pokemon mechanic for some time!
Not quite how I'd have done it, for Team Rocket, but still cool!
(If it were me, I'd make it so Team Rocket takes over any gym that's been controlled by one team for more than 24 hours, then give different rewards for liberating it.)
The pokemon are weaker? Aw man. Wonder if there's a benefit to evolving them. I remember in the TCG dark evolutions from the Team Rocket expansion were pretty good.
@Riderkicker
Yeah, shadow Pokémon are weaker in general, they have low levels, lower than average IVs, and know a very ineffective move called Frustration.
Upon purifying them, they reach a higher level, gain +2 points to each IV, and learn a more effective (though normal type) move called Return. They also get a small discount on powering up, evolution, and learning a second move.
Interestingly, you can trade Shadow Pokémon, and they can become lucky. Due to lucky Pokémon having a 12/12/12 IV floor, purifying it effectively raises the IV floor to 14/14/14, making it much easier to get 100% Pokémon.
When Pokemon Go is more interesting than Sword and Shield, you screwed up
Hopefully this mechanic makes people interested enough for Nintendo and TPC to release another console game featuring Shadow Pokemon.
...Or at the very least encourages them to port or remake both Colosseum and XD.
@thesilverbrick as long as its not being made by gamefreak, SnS isn't even on the orre games level with animation currently
@thesilverbrick
If GameFreak let Genius Sonority do another game, they'd have no excuse for the poor animations in the main series.
Beside that current meme, I really want Genius Sonority to make a new game.
Colosseum is a refreshing experience where you only get access to 42 shadows, Espeon/Umbreon, and a Plusle by the time the credits role.
It makes for a very unique team-building challenge when the Cipher admins are actually fielding full teams with good double-battle strategies, and you have limited resources to defeat them.
Same basic idea to XD, with a bit more choice, and a less tedious purify mechanic.
Spandex leotard sightings IRL......this is disturbing, indeed....
Prepare for trouble when your game crashes everytime you find a Team Rocket pokestop if you're under lv 40. Hopefully that gets fixed soon.
@Kalmaro If you cleanse your Gengar it will turn Shiny!
LOL
@javiboy2 I’m Level 31 and have caught Shadow Rattata and Snorlax with no problems.
@Reigestugatensho If only...
@Markiemania95 Did you do that today? Cause yesterday every rocket stop I found crashed on me but my lv 40 friend was able to do them fine. (I'm lv 30 Btw) I had heard that a lot of others weren't even able to see the stops or were also crashing.
Shadow Riolu maybe?
@javiboy2 I did do that today, so there is a possibility that it was patched since the feature debuted.
I've seen ZERO Team Rocket Pokestops and I work in city centre where there are hundreds.
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