Remember that weird-looking thing that was appearing for players of Pokemon Go!? The thing that had people confused about whether it was a glitch, a bug or actually a brand-new Pokemon?
Well, turns out it was the latter, as confirmed by the official Pokemon Go! website.
The Go! blog states: “A mysterious Pokémon suddenly began appearing all over the world in recent days. Have you spotted it yet?
“Ditto all over the world have been transforming into this Pokémon, which has now been identified as the Mythical Pokémon Meltan!
“It seems that Professor Willow has already contacted Professor Oak in the Kanto region, and the two have been cooperating in their investigation of Meltan! Please check the Pokémon YouTube channel for more on their efforts!
“Sightings of Ditto that have transformed into Meltan are still being reported. If you haven’t encountered one, it’s time to get out there and GO!”
It gets even better, as Meltan will be the newest Pokemon introduced in the upcoming Let’s Go, Pikachu and Eeevee! games, which release later this year.
This new Pokemon, who is confirmed to be a Legendary, appeared following a community day, where for a few hours a new-to-the-app or rare Pokemon appears in local communal areas. Taking advantage of these events can even grant the players special moves and in-app bonuses.
Players of the immensely popular augmented reality game took to Twitter to report sightings of the elusive new Pokemon. It would appear normally on their ‘nearby radar’ but upon capture it would transform into either a Ditto or second-gen Pokemon, Chikorita. Further sightings documented the Pokemon in the app’s AR mode, even by Niantic’s own community manager.
???#ポケモンGO pic.twitter.com/LFLtB12qJH
— Kento Suga(須賀健人) (@kentosuga) September 22, 2018
Initially this was assumed to be an error, and players theorised that the Pokemon may be a placeholder for later third-gen additions to the game. Some players claimed to see Kecleon, who also turned into a ditto upon being captured.
Increasing the mystery, a data miner revealed that the Pokemon’s Pokedex number was 891. The current generation of Pokemon only reach 807 in the Pokédex, supporting the theory that this never before seen Pokemon could be part of the next generation. This data miner also took to Twitch to show off the new Pokemon’s unique idle animations and character model.
