Lucky Pokémon Go Player Captures a Shiny Before Its Official Release

A lucky Pokémon Go player has shared that they managed to capture a pre-launch Shiny Shadow Pokémon thanks to an early “accidental release” .

As a live-service game, Pokémon Go regularly receives updates to push new content to the player base, usually in preparation for upcoming events.

At the time of writing, Pokémon Go’s Stolen Treasures event is about to begin in the coming days. The event will focus on Team Rocket and will see the return of many Shadow Pokémon.

However, one lucky player shared that they managed to “accidentally”catch a Pokémon that wasn’t supposed to be widely available at the moment. What’s more, the Pokémon he caught was surprisingly rare.

Pokémon Go player catches Dark Shiny monster early

A post from a trainer on the subreddit TheSilphRoad highlighted the lucky capture, in a thread titled “Accidental Release of Nosferapti Obscure Shiny.”

Accidental Shadow Zubat (Shiny) Release byu/ArmsofMingHua inTheSilphRoad

The original poster shared a screenshot showing an X post, where a trainer’s mother captured a Shiny Dark Nosferapti. For those who might not know, Nosferapti Obscur Shiny is currently not in the game or announced.

However, many have speculated that Cliff, Arlo, or Sierra will use Nosferapti Shiny on their team, and developer Niantic accidentally made it available on Minions a little too early.

“I wonder if they accidentally activated all the Minions early before the next event,” one player speculated. “They mention this in the description: ‘Also, Pokémon rescued from Team GO Rocket minions can be shiny Pokémon – if you’re lucky.'”

As noted by some players in the comments, this isn’t the first time a Pokémon has been released prematurely in the mobile game.

“Rapion Obscur, Marcacrin and Medhyèna (Shiny) were also accidentally released, before a new rotation. But they have never been released since,” the trainer said.

Others were impressed by the amount of luck the trainer must have had to get such an encounter. “Obscur Shiny, not released, and XXL? Damnnnn,” one fan said.

Niantic likely fixed the error before other players could catch their own Shiny Obscure Nosferapti. So, it seems that this trainer’s mother was very lucky indeed.