Pokemon Go players concerned about Shadow Pokemon bugged stats

Lucas Simons
Shadow Pokemon

The Pokemon Go community is expressing some concerns about a Shadow Pokemon-related bug that seems to be causing some stir in the current Meta. Here’s what the players are saying about it.

Pokemon Go is going through the Timeless Travels season, which brought a lot of changes to the competitive Meta, as well as brand new game mechanics. However, some major bugs and glitches are causing some stir among the Pokemon Go community, especially one related to Shadow Pokemon stats.

The Shadow Pokemon bug that affects IV spreads (which determine the stats of a Pokemon) and also causes species to not show the proper stats, is causing some featured species to be harder than normal to obtain with viable stats for PvP/PvE.

This bug in particular has several Pokemon Go fans discussing why this happens, and the community is sharing information to help recognize which Shadow Pokemon are affected by this bug.

Reddit user ‘DanielHorta10’ opened the debate with this statement: “Shadow Pokemon seem to be bugged, with their IVs being more frequently on the lower floor, below 15/45, below 33%.”

Then, the OP explained: “It seemed weird to me, so I printscreened the IVs of the last 50 shadow Pokemon I caught and found out that the average of their IVs distributions was 12/45. I am aware that shadow Pokemon have 0/0/0 as their minimum IVs, but shouldn’t their IVs follow a more consistent distribution, with an average of 50% IV = 22/45?”

They also stated that this bug was preceded by a similar one back in 2016, where the IV distribution of Pokemon closer to the cap number in the Pokemon Go Pokedex had more even IV spreads.

The community agreed to collaborate in analyzing more specimen data to pinpoint which Shadow Pokemon are truly bugged and which aren’t. User ‘rxt0’ offered to help: “If you want, I can give you a sample size of a few 100s or even 1000s.” And another user answered: “That would be appreciated by the community.”

However, it would seem that the majority of the community, and even Niantic, are still unaware of this bug, and according to members of TheSilphRoad subreddit, it will take some time to measure up all the affected Pokemon.

We will let you know in the unlikely case that Niantic announces a proper fix, and in case the community manages to identify each Pokemon affected by this bug.

In the meantime, trainers are preparing for the upcoming Rowlet Community Day and also for the next Raid Day featuring the debut of Hisuian Typhlosion.

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About The Author

Lucas is a Games Writer for CharlieIntel, specializing in covering Pokemon, including Pokemon Scarlet & Violet, Pokemon Go, and Pokemon TCG. A former Game Reviewer and PR Liaison for HD Tecnologia (ARG), Lucas is also an Audiovisual Media Producer, Game Designer, Narrative Designer, and author, having published several books including Press Start, a guide to video game writing and world building. You can contact him at [email protected].