Pokemon Go’s final Spotlight Hour event of October was set to feature the surprise debut of a new Pokemon, but a newly discovered bug has scuppered those plans.
As players in other regions discovered on Tuesday, the dark-type Pokemon Zorua briefly appeared in Pokemon Go for the first time during the game’s Shuppet Spotlight Hour event. The new fox Pokemon would disguise itself as the player’s buddy Pokemon, but this has caused issues within the game.
“Trainers, we are aware of a bug where Zorua, a Pokemon with a planned surprise encounter during October 25th’s Shuppet Spotlight Hour, retains stats such as the height, CP, and attacks of the Pokemon it originally took on the form of,” game developer Niantic tweeted.
As a result of this bug, Zorua’s debut has been pulled from other regions. The Shuppet Spotlight Hour event will continue as originally scheduled, but without the chance to get Zorua.
The Zorua surprise that occurred in time zones including and prior to GMT+13 will not occur in time zones after while we fix this. Shuppet Spotlight Hour will still occur.
— Niantic Support (@NianticHelp) October 25, 2022
There’s no word yet on when Zorua will appear again in Pokemon Go, but the game is in the midst of its annual Halloween event, which has introduced Mega Banette along with shiny versions of Noibat and Galarian Yamask. The second part of the Halloween event kicks off Oct. 27 and adds new costumed versions of several older Pokemon, including Vulpix, Gengar and Pumpkaboo.