Shiny Pokémon

Shiny Pokémon are rarer versions of regular Pokémon that have a different color scheme and gain 50% more EXP than non-Shiny Pokémon.

They are characterized by a color scheme that differs from their normal coloration, as well as a sparkle in their sprite. The change varies from drastic, e.g. Shiny Gyarados, to more moderate, e.g. Shiny Pikachu, to almost unnoticeable, e.g. Shiny Persian.



At the moment, there's no knowledge of what appearance rate shiny Pokémon appear. But in v0.7, it had a 1/8000 chance of being Shiny. Shiny Pokémon always have a red life bar, so you can catch them without having to lower its HP, preventing accidental KO's. An alert will present itself the instant before a Shiny Pokémon appears. During this alert, the game pauses until you click on the screen. The screen reverts the play speed back down to x1 to help you make sure you don't defeat the Shiny.

In Alpha 4.8 Shiny Pokémon were removed from the wild, but were returned to the wild in version 4.9. You can also obtain Shiny Pokemon from Trading and Mystery Gift codes.

Alpha v3.0
gato

v0.8
v0.9

Role in the Game
Something of a hidden extra, Shiny Pokémon are not a necessary part of the game. Due to their rarity, in fact, it would be easy for a player to not encounter any. However, as they are typically the rewards for deciphering Mystery Gift clues and beating Challenge mode games, it is not terribly difficult to obtain at least a few. Shiny Pokémon are inspired by the creatures of the same name in Nintendo's original games. Both feature special aesthetic effects. In the original games, unlike the Tower Defense version, they gain no extra experience. As with the Nintendo games, Shiny Pokémon are especially valuable to collectors and others who see a "coolness factor" in their rarity and are as such great bargaining chips in trades.

Trivia

 * Mew and Missingno. the only Pokémon programmed to never be shiny in the wild, the latter not even avaiable for catch in Regular form.