Pokemon Go players left searching for shiny that doesn’t exist after dev mistake

Niladri Sarkar
shadow archen and a team rocket balloon in pokemon go

Niantic mistakenly announced a new shiny Shadow in Pokemon Go, only for players to grind hard for the catch and realize it’s not released at all!

The Adventure Week: Taken Over event debuted new lineups of Team Go Rocket, featuring several Shadow Pokemon up for grabs. Shadow Archen is among this lot, but players were baffled when the devs posted on X about its shiny availability from the Grunts.

A Shadow species from a Grunt can only be shiny if it was previously featured in the lineup of any Team Rocket Leader. Since Arlo, Sierra, and Cliff never had Archen at their helm, its shiny Shadow shouldn’t be available.

So, when Reddit user ‘TrainerDaasC’ shared the X post and asked fans if Niantic made a mistake, plenty of players responded to confirm.

Shadow Archen is the lead in the lineup of the Rock or Flying type Grunt, and you can capture it after you beat any of these two villainous NPCs.

Since the Adventure Week event focuses on Fossil Pokemon like Shadow Archen, it is widely available from the Grunts. However, trainers worldwide couldn’t find its shiny version as expected.

Soon, Pokemon Go’s X account deleted the wrong info and made another post on Shadow Archen, this time without any mention of its shiny.

Fans called it “beyond embarrassing” and “ridiculous” as they tried hard to get the rare catch. A trainer wrote, “Just got one from an encounter with a rocket team pokestop battle. But didn’t get a shiny.”

While the shiny of Shadow Archen is not in the game yet, its regular version can be shiny. In fact, it is available with boosted odds from the Field and Timed Research tasks of the Adventure Week event, running until August 12, 2024.

After you beat the Team Rocket Grunts and Leaders, be prepared to battle their Boss Giovanni, who has Shadow Cresselia as the Legendary in his team.