"What is this purple swirl"—Pokemon GO player left confused by strange overworld effect

Pokemon GO players can catch some pretty unusual occurrences so often, and it's understandable for them to share these anomalies online when they crop up. Such was the case on July 9, 2024, when the Redditor 3SidedDie shared a post to the game's subreddit showing a purple effect around their character on the overworld map leaving them to ask,

"What is this purple swirl under my character?"

Posts from the pokemongo community on Reddit

Many Pokemon GO fans immediately noticed the swirling purple effect as the byproduct of the Adventure Effect Spacial Rend, an ability only afforded to Origin Forme Palkia. However, as many fans confusedly pointed out in the comments, 3SidedDie very clearly didn't have the Adventure Effect active, as there would normally be a timer shown on-screen depicting Origin Forme Palkia.

Pokemon GO fans deduce the visual effect is created by a Spacial Rend glitch (Image via Reddit)

Plenty of players joked that perhaps 3SidedDie's trainer smelled bad, was being sent to the Shadow Realm, or was becoming a Shadow Trainer. However, it appears the answer to the original question is the Spacial Rend effect's visuals were activated due to a glitch without Spacial Rend actually being used. But the source of why this bug occurred seems unclear at best.

Some fans had a more jovial response to the Spacial Rend bug (Image via Reddit)

A quick scan of the Pokemon GO subreddit post showed many similar comments of players experiencing the Spacial Rend visuals without activating the Adventure Effect or even having access to Origin Forme Palkia at all. The actual effects of Spacial Rend (increasing the encounter distance for wild Pokemon) seem present despite the purple swirling effect clearly being in place.

Whatever the case, this particular visual glitch doesn't appear malicious. It might be a little inconvenient to have purple swirling energy around one's trainer avatar, but fans haven't reported the visual bug to cause any gameplay-related issues. Since Adventure Effects are still relatively new in GO, it's somewhat understandable that glitches related to them might crop up in-game.

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The Spacial Rend glitch in Pokemon GO seems relatively harmless

Origin Forme Palkia activates Spacial Rend in Pokemon GO (Image via Niantic)

While it appears that a few Pokemon GO players are experiencing the visual effects of Spacial Rend due to an in-game bug, it doesn't seem to be harmful to the overall gameplay experience. The semi-transparent purple swirl might add a little more clutter to the screen, but fans should still be able to see various Pokemon, gyms, and Pokestops in the environment quite easily.

Additional player reports may indicate an actual gameplay-related problem due to the fake Spacial Rend effect, but so far this hasn't been the case. However, players who do encounter it may want to file a bug report with Niantic, so the developers can at least address the glitch sooner rather than later in the off chance it might be harmful to the gameplay experience.

In the grand scale of Pokemon GO bugs, this Spacial Rend bug doesn't seem to be all that bad. Ideally, Niantic will fix it quickly, but compared to other immensely problematic bugs that still exist in the game, it may not be the highest priority.