Pokemon Go Adds New Kinds Of Shadow Pokemon

Team Rocket recently made their long-teased debut in Pokemon Go, and the villainous trainers have brought with them Shadow Pokemon. Only a handful of these dark Pokemon were initially available when Team Rocket began their invasion, but the evil trainers have now expanded their lineup.

The official Pokemon Go Twitter account revealed that Team Rocket will have a variety of new Shadow Pokemon in their possession. Up until now, the team has only had Shadow versions of Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, Rattata, Zubat, and a few other Gen 1 Pokemon, but players will begin to encounter Shadow Poliwag, Muk, Scyther, Houndoom, and several other monsters. You can see all of the new Shadow Pokemon coming to the game below.

Players can encounter Team Rocket grunts at certain PokeStops. When you spin the Photo Disc at one of these stops, the Rocket grunt will emerge and challenge you to a Pokemon battle. If you defeat them, the grunt will leave one of their Shadow Pokemon behind, giving you an opportunity to rescue them.

You can choose to either keep Pokemon in their Shadow form or spend Stardust and candy to "purify" them, but the latter is definitely the more appealing option (provided you don't prefer the way Shadow Pokemon look). Not only will the monster's stats increase after it is purified, you'll notice a few other benefits to the process: Purified Pokemon will require less candy to power up, and they'll all have the attack Return. You can read more about the process in our Shadow Pokemon guide.

In other Pokemon Go news, the Legendary Rayquaza has returned to Raid Battles until September 2, and this time, you can encounter its Shiny form. Pokemon Go's August Community Day also recently took place this past weekend. The featured Pokemon this month was Ralts, and players who managed to evolve it all the way into Gardevoir or Gallade by the end of the event were able to learn the special attack Synchronoise.