>> Pokémon GO - TO SPOOF OR NOT TO SPOOF (part 5)

Just when you think you are done with a blog series; a new update comes out with new Pokémon.

Niantic just released a new update to Pokémon GO (0.59.1 for Android and 1.29.1 for iOS) with a short list of changes, but a data mine over at TheSilphRoad reveals a lot more under the hood, namely the "shiny" pokedex buttons. In conjunction with the water event launched just recently - a special type of Pokémon are being made available to trainers, reports are coming in everywhere.

The new addition are indeed 'Shiny' Pokémon - regular Pokémon but with different colors/skins.

A full list of the Generation I and II Pokémon has been published - but only two are known to have been turned on at this point, Magikarp and Gyarados which can only be caught in the wild. There are a few nice little tweaks that Niantic did however which is relevant to spoofing, kinda.

First of all, unlike existing Pokémon spawns - shiny Pokémon are individual, meaning that two users catching the same Pokémon can result in one being shiny and the other normal - yet the CP and IV's remain the same. It has been argued that this is Niantics way to battle GPS spoofing, making it harder for trainers to "catch them all" - now luck comes into play.

Interestingly; in previous Pokémon games - IV's had a lot to do in regards to determining shiny.

In Generation II, Shininess is determined by the IVs of a Pokémon. If a 
Pokémon's Speed, Defense, and Special IVs are all 10, and its Attack IV 
is 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 14 or 15, it will be Shiny. 

This information is available here - if this was how it is implemented, it would mean you would need to find Pokémon with 15 defense IV and the attack and stamina IV's matching one of the other numbers listed. Based on confirmed reports of shiny Magikarp being posted - they didn't use this determination, instead there is a one in 8192 chance of catching a shiny Pokémon.

I was so looking forward to searching for 78% (15/10/10) IV Magikarps.

On a more technical note; someone has looked into the code and found elements specific to shiny mechanics - I would expect more deeper digging would be required to find out exactly how it is determined. I am sure it will be figured out and posted online in the near future.

I do however feel bad for all those users who encountered a shiny Magikarp only to have it turn into a Ditto. One user on discord was so upset he put his phone away for a few hours. It seems a few people came across this and are furious - they may never see another shiny Magikarp for a while.

Time to start farming all those 100 IV Magikarps - I surely wouldn't want a crappy shiny Magikarp.