The Case of the Missing Pokemon in Pokemon Go, Why These Pokemon are not Released Yet

One of our readers, Joe Autrey currently Lvl 35 in Pokemon Go has an awesome theory on why some Pokemon are not yet released in the game and he shared it with us, and we decided to share it with the rest of the Pokemon Go community.

Here is what Joe Autrey has in mind:

“This is all theory and can easily be not the cases for these Pokemon, I personally thought Castform wasn’t going to appear right away, but it did. These are my personal thoughts on why these Pokemon haven’t been released yet.

From Generation 2 we have Smeargle. This Pokemon can only learn 1 move every 10 levels. The move is called Sketch, an attack that, when used, will permanently copy the last attack used against Smeargle. This means if a Pokemon uses Water Gun against it, Smeargle will forever learn Water Gun. Now normally, Sketch is not stackable. So unless Sketch has used by the next 10th level, it won’t learn it again. Smeargle, in the main series, cannot learn attacks from TM’s, so you become pretty much stuck with what you have until it can learn Sketch again by leveling up and able to override any previous moves (which won’t happen until level 41!). With this in mind, in Pokemon Go, it would seem pretty awesome to have another Pokemon that can use any move (as Mew is the only other Pokemon that can learn anything). This is probably where Niantic could be hitting a few walls. In Pokemon Go we have Fast Attacks and Charged Attacks, in order for Smeargle to learn moves, it would have to have the attack as both Fast and Charged, which so far, is unheard of, even Ditto, who is basically a one trick pony, gains a different move when charged. So now Niantic has to figure out how to make two separate styles of the same attack. Not to mention the fact that if not done properly, Smeargle may end up with two Fast Attacks where, in example, you’d have to charge for a Water Gun… That you’ve been using. So Niantic has to have the second Sketch set up for only Charged Attacks…That’s where we run into another problem. In the main series of games, Smeargle does not have the greatest stats. It has a max stat of 250 and divided into the 6 stats, HP and Speed are the highest at 55 and 75. Smeargle wouldn’t last long enough in a normal battle in order to learn that Charged Attack unless a Pokemon is REALLY low on Stamina. So Niantic is probably trying to figure out how to compensate for it and can’t figure it out.

Generation 3 has quite a few Pokemon that have yet to be released.

Kecleon: a chameleon style Pokemon that can blend into its surroundings. This one is probably the only one I don’t understand, but there are two possibilities. Niantic may be wanting to incorporate that camouflage ability into Pokemon Go, essentially hiding it in plain sight, but hasn’t figured it out since we just got Mew that does this in the catch screen only. Going on this alone, Kecleon may already be in the game for all we know, we just can’t see it. Another idea is Niantic could make this into another Regional where Pokemon Go hasn’t been released yet or doesn’t have many Players yet.

Spinda: this little bear looking thing has one detail about it that is probably stopping Niantic in its tracks. No two Spinda are alike. When I say that, I mean appearance wise, the patterns they have seem somewhat regular, white head and bellies with arms and legs wrapped in red. But it’s the spots covering the white portion that differ. This was really seen in full bloom with Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. Even in a horde battle, no two Spinda had the exact same markings. Let’s look at it this way, say Gamefreak puts 1000 different designs for Spinda into a single cartridge, they’d be able to copy that for every game as… Well, who would seriously catch 1000 Spinda? But in Pokemon Go, if Spinda is meant to be unique in its spots, that would mean that two different Pokemon Go Players going after the same Spinda, the pattern would have to be different. So far in Pokemon Go, NOTHING is different when it comes to individual Pokemon. A 100% Pidgey in the wild for you will be a 100% Pidgey for any other Player. Even though this scenario might be a bit out there, it would keep with the lore where no two are alike. Even if catching the same Spinda resulted in the same design, the next one that spawned would have to be different. The only, and I mean only, way this could work is if Niantic had that 1000 (example) different designs and duplicate them among the major regions of the world. That alone could be taking a bit of programming for a mobile game, but the number would have to be increased greatly. Any time a new Pokemon appears, Players are jumping at the chance to get it, so this would quickly eat into the number of different designs used. Niantic might get away with releasing copies of patterns as most trainers would probably keep their best ones, transfer the rest, and forget what patterns they’ve found (as even in the main games, the Pokedex doesn’t keep track).

Clamperl: this clam Pokemon probably wouldn’t be on this list if it wasn’t for one major fact, it’s evolutions. Clamperl has two different forms to choose from, Huntail and Gorebyss. Now we have seen split evolutions, even choosing that evolution in Pokemon Go with Gloom and Poliwhirl. But, when Gen 2 rolled out, we were introduced to Evolution Items like the Sun Stone and Kings Rock. I have a feeling Niantic liked it enough they may continue requiring items for future Pokemon that need them in the main series. That being said, many veteran trainers will notice that Poliwhirl and Gloom require two different items to evolve into their final stage, for Gloom it is using the Leaf Stone for Vileplume and Sun Stone for Bellosom and for Poliwhirl we need the Water Stone for Poliwrath and Kings Rock for Politoad. Here is where things get technical. When Pokemon Go was first released, there were no evolution items, these two Pokemon could and still evolve into their final form with just candy. This leads us back to Clamperl. In order to get its evolutions, both require an item, DeepSeaTooth for Huntail and DeepSeaScale for Gorebyss. If Niantic keeps the Evolution Items in the mobile game, Clamperl will be the first Pokemon in Go to require two separate items for Evolution. This may be taking a toll on the programming of this Pokemon.

The last 3 Pokemon are all connected. Nincada, Ninjask, and Shedinja. It isn’t so much Nincada and Ninjask that are the problem, it’s Shedinja. In the main series of games, Nincada always evolves into Ninjask at level 20 and only evolves into Ninjask. Now if the player has only 5 Pokemon in their party (Nincada included) and a spare Pokeball when Nincada evolves into Ninjask, that sixth slot gets taken up. Shedinja mysteriously appears in the Players Team. That alone could be causing a problem with programming for the mobile game. See, the only way to increase the number of Pokemon you have in storage is by catching or hatching a Pokemon. Now we can also decrease that amount by transferring. I’ve noticed when I transfer a mass amount of Pokemon, roughly around 100 at a time, the game pretty much freezes until that god awful noise comes out of my speaker. The game is trying to calculate how many you had, the amount you’re transferring, and the end result. Shedinja’s sudden appearance in the roster is enough to cause some problems, like what if the player has maxed out their limit, do they lose Shedinja or would the game go over by that 1…2….3…..however many Nincada are evolved. There is also the fact that Players are going to have the given empty slot, so Shedinja won’t be that uncommon when Players catch enough Nincada. But there’s also the candy issue when a new Pokemon is caught or hatched, we get candies. What about a Pokemon that mysteriously appears? We probably won’t get candies for Shedinja joining our roster because it is technically evolved. So Niantic is probably trying to find a way to stop that part of the game from responding to the new edition.

The other part about Shedinja is, no matter what level it is trained to, its HP never increases. From the get-go, it has 1 HP. Now Shedinja isn’t a pushover, in Gen 3 we were introduced to abilities or special effects that each Pokemon has. In example an Electric Type has the Static ability, if hit with a physical move, the attacker becomes Paralyzed. For Shedinja, it is the only Pokemon with the Wonder Guard ability. This makes it immune to “super effective” attacks, which in this case is every single aggressive attack in the game. The only way to defeat a Shedinja is by using passive attacks that cause Status Conditions such as Poison or Burn or by using moves like Sandstorm and Hail that damage Pokemon between turns.

In Pokemon Go, we don’t see any of this. All attacks are aggressive in nature, doing just damage. Even though some moves from the Poison and Fire Types would have a chance to cause a Status Condition, they don’t in Pokemon Go. As for moves like Sand Storm and Hail, there aren’t really “turns” In the battle system of this game, it tap as much as you can to attack. Abilities are also not present in Pokemon Go, so Shedinja would be left with absolutely no defenses.

Without implementing Wonder Guard, Shedinja would be nothing more than a Dex filler because of that 1 HP. If they gave it its Ability, it would become godly, being unaffected by any current attacks in Pokemon Go. If they bring in status conditions and moves for it, it would require a MAJOR overhaul of the game. Pokemon would probably need to be able to learn a 3rd or 4th move to have attacks where at least 1 is a passive one. That would lead to needing other Status inflictions and even Stat effecting moves. Plus everything would have to turn into the Turn Base game that the main series is known for, possibly causing people to lose interest because they have to sit longer at a gym to take it. The only option left would be to break the tradition of the games and give Shedinja more than 1 HP and treat it like any other Pokemon, which probably won’t happen.

Now, this is all just in theory, but then again, look at the track record for Niantic. Ditto took forever to come out because of its Transform ability. Delibird didn’t arrive until AFTER Gen 3 was already here because of its signature attack. Even Mew came way after the game’s release and probably because it can learn the move via TM. So it’s not as farfetch’d to think these Pokemon haven’t been released yet due to programming issues.”