Pokemon GO Player Shows Off Extremely Lucky Trade

One fortunate Pokemon GO player has recently taken to social media to show off an extremely lucky trade that left them with a perfect shiny Kyogre specimen. The image of this exceedingly rare Pokemon GO shundo prompted everything from congratulatory messages to open envy among the fandom.

Every single spawn in Pokemon GO comes with three unique stats called Individual Values (IVs) in the series’ jargon: Attack, Defense, and Stamina, which some UI elements also refer to as HP. Those attributes are rolled randomly and fall on a spectrum of 0 to 15 points. Each species in the game also possesses fixed base stats, which are combined with Pokemon GO IVs to determine a given creature’s combat prowess. Trading Pokemon with friends always rerolls their IVs, so that even the worst specimens have some value and can still turn out great, just not for their original owner.

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And while some Pokemon GO players habitually bemoan their shockingly bad luck when it comes to rolling good IVs, others are commonly counting their blessings, with that group also including Reddit user lil-hernia. Namely, this fortunate player recently traded with their girlfriend for a shiny Kyogre, which not only rolled perfect IVs, but also ended up being Lucky. For reference, Lucky Pokemon boast halved Stardust costs for powering up, thus being much more accessible for competitive use.

The image of this Kyogre shundo eventually emerged on the front page of the r/PokemonGO subreddit, prompting dozens of responses from fans. And while some of the players reflecting on this extremely lucky trade congratulated lil-hernia for securing such a rare specimen, others said they were envious, bemoaning the fact that they’ve been playing the game for years without securing a single shundo, nevermind one that also happens to be among the best Lucky Pokemon in Pokemon GO. Acknowledging some of those comments, lil-hernia wrote that their girlfriend’s collection is also free of shundos, and that she only received a “not-so-great Rayquaza” in return for this amazing Kyogre specimen.

Friendship Effects on Traded Pokemon IV Ranges in Pokemon GO

The player did not reveal whether this fortunate trade was guaranteed to produce a Lucky Pokemon or not. For clarity, each interaction with a Best Friend in Pokemon GO comes with a small chance that the player’s friendship with them will be elevated to a Lucky status. Lucky Friends are guaranteed to receive Lucky Pokemon on their next trade, which will then revert them back to Best Friends.

But even trades with non-Lucky Friends can yield Lucky Pokemon, with the chances of that happening ranging from 5% to 20%, depending on how long a given creature sat in its original owner’s collection. Pokemon that are at least three years old have the maximum chance of that happening, as one in five of them will be Lucky when traded.

Pokémon GO

After a test run via an April Fools’ joke on Google Maps, Pokemon GO was released to the public in the summer of 2016. The AR mobile app saw unparalleled success and continues to be one of the largest mobile games in the world, pulling in billions for developer Niantic.

Franchise

Pokemon

Platform(s)

iOS, Android

Released

July 6, 2016

Developer(s)

Niantic, The Pokemon Company

Publisher(s)

Niantic

Genre(s)

Augmented Reality

Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer

Engine

Unity