Can Bulbasaur be Shiny in Pokémon GO?

Here’s a fun fact: Pokémon graphic artist Atsuko Nishida created the original design for Bulbasaur after creating the designs for Ivysaur and Venusaur. She started with the large, jungle-y frog thing that is Venusaur, and simply made it smaller and cuter. That might be why its more toad-like characteristics aren’t quite as pronounced as Venusaur’s. Anyway, that’s enough trivia, let’s cut to the punchline: can Bulbasaur be shiny in Pokémon GO?

Bulbasaur’s shiny coloration, and by extension Ivysaur’s and Venusaur’s, is fairly similar to its regular appearance, albeit with the usual soft blue-green of its skin replaced with a brighter, more vibrant shade of green. The bulb on its back is a slightly dark shade of green to maintain a nice contrast.

Can Bulbasaur be Shiny in Pokémon GO?

Bulbasaur’s shiny form is available in Pokémon GO, and has been since the third Community Day event back in March of 2018.

As for catching one, well, unfortunately, you may have just missed your best opportunity. This past Tuesday’s Spotlight Hour was on Bulbasaur, which also made it the best opportunity to track down a shiny one, as spawn rates were boosted. 

Even if you missed your chance on Tuesday, though, you can still get a shiny Bulbasaur. It’s just probably going to take you a lot longer. Any wild-spawning Bulbasaur has a small chance to be shiny, so you can look for them wherever Grass types typically spawn, such as parks, forests, or anywhere with a lot of plant life. If there happens to be a PokéStop in the vicinity of one of these locations, it also wouldn’t hurt to pop an Incense. If you live in a less green spot, you can also hatch Bulbasaurs from 2KM eggs, though that’s alongside every other Pokémon that can hatch from a 2KM egg, so again, there’s going to be some trial and error there.