5 Secret Easter Eggs You Didn’t Know About Pokemon GO

Still trying to catch em all in Pokemon GO? You may not have “caught” these five awesome easter eggs hidden in the game.

With a video game that spans the entire world, it’s tough to hide easter eggs. Anything location-based would be impossible for enough people to find (I’m looking at you, region-based Pokemon!). But Niantic has managed to squeeze in a few gameplay-related easter eggs along the way. Some of them are newer, and others have been around since the game launched. Some are more commonly known than others, but you may be surprised at a few others! Here are five Pokemon GO easter eggs for you to discover in game as you travel:

Credit: Niantic/The Pokemon Company

Pikachu can be your starter; ride on your shoulder

As the mascot of Pokemon in general, it is to be expected that the little mouse would get special treatment. Pikachu actually has two easter eggs in Pokemon GO, and both are a bit tricky to find. The first is that Pikachu is actually one of four starter Pokemon you can catch immediately upon starting the game for the first time. If you walk away from the initial Charmander/Squirtle/Bulbasaur given to you, the three will follow you and pop up again as you move. But if you walk away enough times, eventually, Pikachu will appear among them for you to catch.

The second easter egg for Pikachu is somewhat less impactful, but cute nonetheless. If you own a Pikachu, you can set it as your buddy Pokemon like any other monster and walk about with it. However, if you manage to earn a total of 10 candies while walking with a Pikachu as your buddy, it will hop onto your shoulder in your trainer portrait and ride there. Too bad you don’t get to see it like that on the overworld!

Credit: Niantic/The Pokemon Company

The secrets of Eeveelution

You probably have heard by now about the original three Eeveelutions: Jolteon, Flareon, and Vaporeon. You know you can get one of them at random from evolving Eevee, and you may have even heard that by naming your Eevee Rainer, Sparky, or Pyro (after the Battling Eevee Brothers from the anime!), you can be guaranteed a Vaporeon, Jolteon, or Flareon when it evolves, respectively. But did you know there’s also a guaranteed way to get Espeon and Umbreon, too? Heck, do you know how to get them without the nicknames?

Espeon and Umbreon, unlike the other Eeveelutions, cannot be caught in the wild at all. To evolve an Espeon or Umbreon, you’ll need to pair an Eevee as your Buddy Pokemon, then walk with it for 10km–or, until you get two Candies. Then, evolve your Eevee either during the day for Espeon, or at night for Umbreon.

Also, for one time only per Eeveelution, you can evolve an Espeon or Umbreon without walking an Eevee 10km by nicknaming the Eevee either Sakura (Espeon) or Tamao (Umbreon) and then evolving it normally.

Chaining PokeStops

You probably already know about the “Streak Bonus” gained from spinning any PokeStop on seven days in a row. But did you know that there’s another way you can gain massive bonuses from PokeStops? If you’re in an urban area with a lot of PokeStops in a small radius, you can get a bonus by spinning ten unique PokeStops in a row, with only about a ten minute or less gap between each one. The tenth one you spin will give you a large amount of items, and 100xp instead of 50xp, so you’ll know you did it right.

Though it doesn’t quite match the guaranteed evolution item bonus you get for finishing a seven-day streak, these extra items can be very helpful and make a good goal if you’re in a downtown area and after Pokemon. Take the extra few minutes to walk out of the immediate area to find a few more PokeStops!

Credit: Niantic/The Pokemon Company

Shiny Pokemon

Don’t get too excited. Not every Pokemon can be shiny. In fact, only Magikarp and Gyarados can, despite what you may read elsewhere on the Internet. Though other Shiny Pokemon may be in the cards for Pokemon GO’s future, the current state of the game only includes the two.

But that’s still a plus. Many may think that the shiny Gyarados and Magikarp were exclusive to Pokemon GO’s water festival event, but they are still present in the game and can be found with about the same amount of rarity. That may not be promising if you don’t live near a nest, as the gold Magikarp and red Gyarados are insanely rare–though if you can find the Magikarp, you can evolve it into a Red Gyarados. But that just ups the incentives (which were already quite high) to capture every single Magikarp you encounter! Gotta get those 400 Magikarp candies somehow, right?

Credit: Niantic/The Pokemon Company

Ditto

You might already know that Ditto is available in the game. If you catch certain Pokemon, they may turn out to be a Ditto after you’ve already got them in a Pokeball–there’s no way of knowing until the deed is done! But if you’re concerned that your rare Dragonites or Blastoise captures will turn into Dittos, fear not. It seems that only common Pokemon become Dittos–very specific ones, as a matter of fact.

Next: 10 Things to Know if You’re Picking Up Pokemon Go Again

The Silph Road has so far confirmed that Pidgey, Rattata, Zubat, Magikarp, Sentret, Hoothoot, and Yanma are all Pokemon that can transform into Dittos. If you don’t have a Ditto in your Pokemon collection yet, get out there and chuck some Pokeballs at these common finds until you get the “Oh?” message above your capture. Good luck!