Can you get shiny Pokemon in Pokemon Unite?

Pokemon Unite has been a part of the Pokemon franchise for a few years now, and there are still new content additions being made all the time. However, a recent question was posited by the community after a video by the content creator Spragels was released: can shiny Pokemon be obtained in Unite? Currently, the answer is no, but Spragels' video sparked a conversation about it.

In the video, Spragels was playing on the Public Test Server and noticed a gold-colored Hoopa in the battle. Since Hoopa's shiny form in the Pokemon series is also gold, this has led some Pokemon Unite fans to think that shiny variants may make their way to the MOBA title.

However, after discussing the matter with Pokemon Unite leaker ElChicoEevee, Spragels agreed that the Hoopa coloration was likely a bug.

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Could shiny Pokemon work in Pokemon Unite?

While the golden Hoopa mystery turned out to be a bug, that doesn't mean it didn't create some conversation among Pokemon Unite's players.

Shiny Pokemon have made an appearance in just about every franchise title since their debut in Pokemon Gold, Silver, and Crystal. Shinies have a different coloration from their standard counterparts and are often marked by sparkles when they appear, which is typically a rare occurrence.

But could these special Pokemon variants work in the spin-off mobile title? It can be tricky to envision at first since Pokemon Unite doesn't exactly have any capture mechanics in the game that could be compared to the original series. However, given the title's abundance of cosmetic options available to players, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to think that they could be offered as a new cosmetic option alongside the selection of holowear items.

The only problem that might surface is that if shiny Pokemon are introduced as costumes, could holowear be placed over them?

It would seem as if TiMi Studio Group would have to re-code the game's current roster of Unite Licenses and all of their outfits to accommodate shiny variants. However, perhaps as an alternative, a Pocket Monster's shiny form could simply be made into its own holowear, negating the need to do any restructuring for existing Unite Licenses.

Shiny Pokemon may even be capable of popping up in other areas of the game. Perhaps wild Pokemon could occasionally appear as shinies, allowing trainers who defeat them to earn bonus points for taking them down.

This would certainly present something of a balance issue for standard and competitive play. However, a shiny wild Pokemon roaming the map could make for an interesting new game mode or map objective for a more casual mode in general.

Obviously, all of these assumptions are speculation at best. However, if the fanbase is vocal about its desire to see shiny variants in the game, the developers may very well hear them out.

Shinies may not work in Pokemon Unite as they would in the original series of games, but having them in the MOBA title would likely be considered a win for fans anyway.