One Pokemon Go event has left a lot of players fuming due to a Shiny mistake, which made their effort feel like a waste after hours of hunting.
Being able to catch a Shiny Pokemon is always a satisfying feeling, given how rare they are. Unlike their regular counterpart, a Shiny has a different color that makes them look even more distinct, making them a valuable find for players.
In Pokemon Go, these special variants can be encountered in various events, the Catch Mastery event being some of the most recent ones.
During this limited-time event, it was advertised that players would have increased chances of finding Shiny Omanyte and Kabuto in the wild – but it turns out there was a mistake that left many in the community beyond frustrated.
Pokemon Go acknowledges the Shiny rate issue for Omanyte & Kabuto
The Catch Mastery event took place on Sunday, March 16, 2025, and it only had a ten-hour window for those who wanted to participate. As seen on the official site, it was originally advertised to feature Omanyte and Kabuto as Wild Encounters, with chances of encountering a Shiny one for both if you’re lucky.
That said, as suggested in a post on X on the same day, it appears that Niantic admitted the mistake of not increasing the chances for the Shiny Omanyte and Shiny Kabuto as intended.
A lot of players on social media were immediately furious, given all the effort they had put in, only to be met with this announcement. One user wrote: “I caught probably 800 between the two of them and not a single shiny. Now it’s too late to get one. Not fair.”
A different user said: “HOW MANY TIMES TILL YOU GET THIS RIGHT SERIOUSLY? A WHOLE DAY OF SHINY OMANYTE HUNTING, AND IT WAS DISABLED FFS.”
“In Sydney, it’s currently 37 degrees Celsius, and we’re dealing with overheating phones and auto catchers just to find out that the boosts weren’t even active,” said another.
Even after the devs said they had resolved the issue, some players in different time zones have claimed that they still encountered the same problem of not encountering a single Shiny for both Pokemon despite hunting for hours.
“You guys never fixed it, 0 shinies playing for 6 hours with 2 friends. Out of the 3 of us we got 2 shiny Archens, 0 Kabuto, 0 Omanytes,” one of them said.
