Xerneas has made its grand return to Pokemon Go, and some trainers who are extremely lucky are finding themselves face-to-face with the downright glorious Shiny variant of the Life Pokemon. This is always a thrill as not only does this mean that it's possible to add a Shiny Legendary Pokemon to your team, it also means that you get to skip the stress of trying to catch the thing, as Shiny Legends have a 100% Catch Rate... right?
Well, as Reddit user Dlanx reports on The Silph Road, that may not be the case this time.
Users on the thread are debating different reasons for this phenomenon, but no one has posted proof to the contrary as of this article's posting, so it's probably best to assume that it's true. If you happen to encounter a shiny Xerneas on your travels, then make sure that you use the utmost care when trying to catch it! There's nothing more heart-breaking than having a Pokemon that you genuinely want break out of that last ball, so be aware of this issue.
As of this posting, Niantic has not addressed this issue. If they step in and give an announcement, we will update this article to reflect the new information. In the meantime, best of luck with Xerneas!
Why Is My Xerneas Blue?
One question that seems to be floating around the community centers around the fact that there seem to be four unique variants of Xerneas in Pokemon Go right now, with two of them being the golden-antlered deer that we've come to know, and the other two being blue-antlered variants. So what exactly is going on with Xerneas?
The answer here is actually simple: if your Xerneas is blue, then it's actually a fake Pokemon!
Just kidding, of course. The change from golden to blue is a little quirk that's unique to Xerneas, actually. We're all familiar with the concept of a Forme Change by this point, where a Pokemon takes on a different appearance and may also have different stats/typing/moves as well. Well, Xerneas has something similar to that, in that it has two "modes". The first is its Active Mode, which is the gold-antlered variant that we see in raids and when Xerneas battles on our behalf. Meanwhile, the blue-antlered variant is known as its Neutral Mode, which basically means that Xerneas is running on a low-powered mode and isn't ready to jump right into battle.
So what does this mean in Pokemon Go? Just that Xerneas is blue when in our box and doing non-battle activities, and gold when fighting. It's nothing more than a visual flavor that's unique to Xerneas.
