The Team Rocket Invasion of Pokemon Go has stopped for the time being, but fans are expecting to see the return of more discoloured PokeStops in the near future.
Niantic has not revealed why they ended the very short Team Rocket event, only telling fans on Twitter: “Professor Willow has noticed that sightings of discoloured PokeStops and Pokemon enshrouded in a shadowy aura have…suddenly stopped? Hmm… This phenomenon keeps getting more troubling the more we investigate it.”
The strange event allowed Pocket Monster fans on Android and iOS to battle the Team Rocket Grunts, while also getting the chance to capture Shadow Pokemon and Purify them.
This unlocked the special ‘return’ move and also provided some great bonuses for that Pocket Monster.
Purifying a Shadow Pokemon will make it stronger and reduce the amount of Stardust and Candy required to Power Up, Evolve, or learn a new attack.
However, this process costs a combination of Stardust and Candy, depending on what kind of Pokemon you’re purifying.
The more evolved the Pokemon, the higher the cost, some Trainers are finding.
So it makes sense that these new Pokemon can be quite precious, considering what some Trainers are putting into the event. But there’s one massive shortfall in the planning that Pokemon Go fans are warning each other about.
According to those who played through the new Team Rocket event, it was possible to mass transfer a purified Pokemon.
Trainers receive Candy in exchange for transferring a Pokemon, but you can’t get your Pokémon back after you’ve completed the process.
So imagine how frustrating it was to lose a newly purified Pokemon by mistake.
Niantic has made it impossible to transfer Buddy Pokémon, favourite Pokémon, or Pokémon assigned to Gyms.
But it doesn’t appear that this safety extended to Purified Pokemon, as of yet.
The Mass Transfer feature is very popular, and the best way around this problem would be to favourite the Purified Pokemon you want to keep.
“This will likely change, but as far as I’m concerned the more you can mass transfer the better,” one Pokemon Go player writes.
“By now you can filter out almost any category you might want to not mad transfer with the search string (legendary, shiny, 100%, shadow, purified, lucky, costume, et.c.) so I’d be happy if we could mass transfer everything and I could decide myself with a search string what to exclude.
“Another option if they really want the warning is to let us select everything but have an “X Pokémon you selected are deemed special by the Niantic overlords, are you sure you want to transfer?” message. At least I’d only have to accept it once then.”
The good news is that Niantic could quickly fix this oversight and remove the chances of losing purified Pokemon through the mass transfer system, even though it might prove a sticking point for some when the event begins again.
But until that happens, gamers should keep a careful eye on what Pokemon are being shipped out. And when it comes to the official list of Shadow Pokemon available in-game, it appears Niantic is adding more.
Making additions throughout the week may make it hard to put together a complete list of Shadow Pokemon, but here is what has been spotted so far:
- Full Kanto Starters list
- Rattata
- Gengar
- Zubat
- Oddish
- Venonat
- Psyduck
- Growlithe
- Poliwag
- Abra
- Grimer
- Drowzee
- Cubone
- Hitmonchan
- Scyther
- Magikarp
- Snorlax
- Dratini
- Houndour
- Larvitar
- Mudkip
- Ralts