Niantic wanted to surprise fans by introducing Zorua into Pokémon Go in a unique way, but the implementation was a disaster and the developers had to pivot after just a few hours of the new Pokémon being added to the game.
As a special part of the Shuppet Spotlight Hour, which is running on Oct. 25 from 6 to 7pm local time, players could encounter Zorua in a unique way.
While participating in the event, the plan was for players to occasionally see a duplicate of any Buddy Pokémon if they had one active on the field throughout the day. Encountering and capturing that duplicate will reveal it to be a Zorua—though it was only going to be available for the first and last five minutes of the Spotlight Hour.
Unfortunately, due to a bug that likely derives from how complex this new mechanic for Zorua encounters is, this surprise element of the event will no longer take place and the Tricky Fox Pokémon isn’t available to encounter in the game for the time being.
After appearing for players in New Zealand to start the Shuppet Spotlight Hour, Niantic quickly disabled and removed the ability to encounter Zorua due to noticeable bugs. Specifically, captured Zorua were not properly reverting back to their normal stats but rather kept the CP, height, and moves of whatever Pokémon it was appearing as originally.
As a result, Niantic banned Zorua from being encountered in Pokémon Go, transferred to Pokémon HOME, traded, or used in the Go Battle League. The special surprise part of the Spotlight Hour also won’t be included in any additional regions, though the event will still go on as per usual.
No timeframe has been given for when this mess will be resolved, if a makeup surprise will be announced, or how Zorua will be implemented into the game after this. Anyone who captured a Zorua will be able to keep the Pokémon, but the stats will be updated once a fix is pushed live.
