Ava Brooks 
Jan 06, 2024
The Pokemon Go community has raised concerns regarding a bug linked to Shadow Pokemon, sparking significant discussion within the current Meta. Let's delve into what players are expressing about this issue.
As Pokemon Go's Timeless Travels season introduces new competitive elements and game mechanics, various bugs and glitches, notably one concerning Shadow Pokemon stats, have unsettled the community.
This bug specifically affects IV spreads, determining a Pokemon's stats, and leads to discrepancies in the stats displayed for certain species. Consequently, obtaining Shadow Pokemon with viable stats for PvP/PvE purposes becomes notably challenging.
Players have taken to platforms like Reddit to share their observations and understand the root cause of this anomaly. One Reddit user, "DanielHorta10", initiated the conversation by noting, "Shadow Pokemon seem to be bugged, with their IVs frequently falling below 15/45, below 33%."
Further analysis by the original poster revealed an average IV distribution of 12/45 among the last 50 captured Shadow Pokemon. This inconsistency is puzzling, considering the expectation of a more consistent distribution around the 50% IV mark, ideally 22/45.
Additionally, the community drew parallels to a prior 2016 bug, where Pokemon closer to the maximum number in the Pokemon Go Pokedex exhibited more even IV spreads.
Collaborative efforts are underway within the community to collect and analyse specimen data to identify the Shadow Pokemon affected by this bug. Users like "rxt0" have volunteered substantial sample sizes for analysis, demonstrating the community's collective endeavour to resolve this issue.
Despite these efforts, the majority of the community, including Niantic, appears unaware of this bug. Members of TheSilphRoad subreddit anticipate that assessing all affected Pokemon will require considerable time.
Should Niantic provide an official fix or the community successfully identify each affected Pokemon, we will update you accordingly. Meanwhile, trainers are gearing up for the Rowlet Community Day and an upcoming Raid Day featuring the debut of Hisuian Typhlosion.
