Most Pokemon fans are familiar with Staryu. This generation one Pokemon gained widespread renown thanks to being a staple on Misty's team in the Pokemon anime. Understandably, Pokemon GO fans were excited to get the chance to catch a shiny Staryu, but something strange is happening with these Pokemon. For reasons unknown, some players are encountering a glitch in the game that causes the shiny Staryu's central gem to remain red instead of changing to the blue color it should be for a shiny Pokemon. The rest of the body stays the proper shiny colors, though, making an interesting mix of the two designs.
For those that aren't up to speed with what this means, a shiny Pokemon is one that has a slight color variation compared to its standard form. Although these Pokemon aren't any stronger than their normal counterparts in Pokemon GO, they are much rarer and often coveted by players. In the case of Staryu, the Pokemon is normally brown and gold with a red gem, but the shiny version is a darker color and has a striking blue gem instead.
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Several players have reported the strange glitch, but it doesn't seem to be affecting everyone. Some people are still finding regular looking shiny Staryu with their blue gems, while others are getting this strange mixture. Since the models for both are exactly the same other than color, the glitch is probably a simple swap of the gem color on accident, but it has created an entirely new and rare breed of Staryus. Many players are seeking out red-gem shiny Staryus for themselves, and some even say that they have Shiny Starmie that kept the red gem.
The exact cause of this bug is unknown, but speculation seems to link it to the most recent Pokemon GO update, version 0.215.0-S-64. One player reports that their shiny Staryu had a blue gem until they updated, at which point its gem changed back to red. If this is the case, it will likely be patched out of the game, and any Staryu that the player catch that do have red gems will go back to being blue.
If by some chance this is an intended feature, it could have major implications for the future of shiny hunting in Pokemon. Typically speaking, Pokemon have their normal form and their shiny form, but there are some interesting things that could happen if players were able to find Pokemon with mixed and matched colorations. This is extremely unlikely, though, so players definitely shouldn't get their hopes up.
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