Can Popplio be Shiny in Pokemon GO? – Answered

Popplio is the lovely Water starter from Alola, and was introduced back in 2022 alongside various others creatures from its region in Pokemon GO. The starters were all featured at one time in the usual Spotlight Hour, and this might happen once again in the near future. Popplio was obviously one of those, and players had boosted chances of finding it. But was it possible to shiny hunt for this small Sea Lion Pokemon?

Can Popplio be Shiny in Pokemon GO? – Answered

Popplio cannot be found as shiny in Pokemon GO. The same goes for every Alola starter, and their back-to-back Spotlight Hours were mostly for getting/strengthening them than actually finding their alternative-colored version. This has been the case since their introduction back in 2022, and there is currently no set date for when they’ll actually be available in their alternative colors in the wild.

So if you spent some time hunting for it or any other shiny starter in the last few days, I hope that you at least got a good amount of Candy and at least a few high CP Popplios for your collection. This is the ultimate objective of Spotlight Hours after all, since they won’t affect shiny rates. But of course, since you’re repetitively finding the same Pokemon at a higher rate, eventually you’ll come across its shiny version, if there’s one available in the game. 

Related: How to Get Shiny Lugia in Pokemon GO

Your best chance is to wait until Popplio eventually gets its Community Day, where it will probably debut in its shiny colors just like Chespin did in January. There’s no schedule on when this might actually happen, and its fellow Alolan starters could get those honors first. They were first in line for the Spotlight Hours, after all.

They will all be eventually added as shiny to GO at one time, but it might still take a while before it actually happens. Hopefully it will happen before the eventual Sun and Moon remakes.