List of the shadow Pokemon found among Team Rocket arriving on Pokemon Go

Niantic teases the Rocket team on Pokemon Go and a dated data list may have revealed that it would implicate Pokemon Shadow.

Hot air balloons sporting Team Rocket's famous red "R" logo have been seen at the Pokemon Go Fest in Dortmund, which augurs well for the upcoming arrival of the villainous gang.

Shadow Pokemon arrive

It remains to be seen how they will fit in Pokemon Go, but they will definitely be there to cause problems.

Part of this problem could be related to Shadow Pokemon, because various references to these Pokemon, used for wrongdoing, have been discovered in the game code.

Shadow Pokemon have been discovered for the first time in Gamecube, Pokemon Colosseum and Gale of Darkness, two titles derived from the early 2000s. They are essentially emotionless versions of their equivalent equivalents and can therefore be used by Team Rocket at diabolical ends.

Much of the history of these titles saved these Pokémon, also known as "Dark Pokémon", and purified them. The purification process was also found in the Pokemon Go code.

Depending on the code extracted, the following Pokémon will have shaded shapes:

• Rattata and Raticat
• Zubat, Golbat and Crobat
• Bulbasaur, Ivysaur and Venusaur
• Charmander, Charmeleon and Charizard
• Squirtle, Wartortle and Blastoise
• Dratini, Dragonair and Dragonite
• Snorlax
• Mudkip, Marshtomp and Swampert

Another code was found to include various references to Grunts – Team Rocket's low-level agents. Presumably, you will have to fight against these Grunts and given the information above, this is where the Shadow Pokémon can enter the fray.

How will Shadow Pokemon work?

Further analysis of several datamines also shows how encounters with Shadow Pokemon can take place. Different types of PokeStop have been found in the code, including: POKESTOP_NORMAL, POKESTOP_ROCKET_INVASION, and POKESTOP_ROCKET_VICTORY.

This suggests that when rotating a PokeStop, there will be the normal interaction that occurs now and sometimes an invasion by Team Rocket. This invasion may also allow the Rocket team to be victorious, which may suggest that it will not be easy to fight them. Of course, at this point, the exact nature of the battle is unknown.

There is also reference to "PokemonPurifiedNumBalls" which could be a mechanism similar to the Premier bullets seen in raiding battles. This is an assumption, but an invasion of Team Rocket could behave the same way.

This also raises the question: what will be the frequency of these invasions? It would not be feasible to enter something similar to a raid battle every time you turn a PokeStop, so these encounters may be more rare.

In addition, it could also mean that the PokeStops could indicate if they have been overrun by Team Rocket, rather than a random encounter.

Team Rocket Datamine

The complete code referencing Team Rocket and Shadow Pokemon is available on Reddit with an interesting breakdown.

There is often no smoke without fire and it seems that Niantic is preparing Pokemon Go for one of his most substantial updates in a while – stay tuned.