New shiny Pokémon have started appearing in 'Pokémon Go'

You know what's better than having a badass Gyarados?

Having a badass red Gyarados.

Code for "shiny" Pokémon has been gradually appearing in Pokémon Go for awhile now, but the latest update -- and the resulting data mine -- made it seem closer than ever.

Well, it turns out it was closer than we thought.

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Since the start of the latest Pokémon Go event on Thursday (the one increasing water spawns), people have been sharing screengrabs of shiny Magikarp on Twitter.

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The best part? What happens when you evolve one.

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Why are these "shiny" Pokémon suddenly appearing?

In the GameBoy games, shiny Pokémon were first introduced in Gen II along with additional Pokémon, genders, etc. We know from previous data mines that Niantic has been planning to implement "shinies" in some form for awhile now -- we just didn't know when, or how.

From the looks of things, though, they've kept loyal to the original games. The most iconic shiny Pokémon, in the likes of Gold and Silver, was a red Gyarados that players encountered at the Lake of Rage -- the introduction of shiny Magikarp and Gyarados in Pokémon Go appears to be a homage to this.

So where are these shiny Pokémon hiding?

It's worth noting that the only shinies that appear to be available in the game, at least at the time of writing, are Magikarp and Gyarados. Chances are the rest will be rolled out soon, but for the time being -- probably until after the water event is over, if we had to guess -- it's just those two.

The other thing to note is that shiny Magikarp appear to look the same as regular Magikarp until you've tapped on them (you won't know they're a different color until you enter the capture screen, in other words).

Happy hunting!