When is Shiny Pancham coming to Pokemon GO?

Pokemon GO's Season of Hidden Gems continues, and Niantic appears to have more than a few things in store for the player base. One such example is Pancham's shiny variant, which will arrive as part of Team GO Rocket's return during the Solstice Horizons event.

Specifically, from June 21-June 25, 2023, Pokemon GO players will be able to battle a refreshed Team GO Rocket. However, this return also signals a change in Team GO Rocket's battle parties as well as the egg pools for 12km eggs obtained by defeating three leaders in the organization.

Put plainly, for the time being, Pokemon GO players will need to lean on their egg incubators to acquire a shiny Pancham during this Team GO Rocket return.

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Where can Shiny Pancham be found in Pokemon GO in June 2023?

As part of the Team GO Rocket revival during Pokemon GO's Solstice Horizons event, the egg pools have been refreshed for 12km eggs obtained by defeating GO Rocket leaders like Arlo, Cliff, and Sierra. Some players are likely aware that Pancham has been a hatchable Pokemon from 12km eggs for quite some time.

For all intents and purposes, this remains true. However, after June 21, 2023, at 12:00 am local time, players will be able to hatch a shiny Pancham if they're lucky. The exact hatch rate of shiny Pancham has yet to be confirmed, but it's likely to be quite low. Regardless, trainers will want to collect and hatch as many 12km eggs as possible.

The plan of attack to snag a shiny Pancham should be defeating Team GO Rocket's leaders Arlo, Cliff, and Sierra via Rocket Radars and either occupied Pokestops or Rocket Balloons. Once beaten, the leader will bestow players with a 12km egg, which they can pop into an incubator.

Once players have traveled 12 kilometers by default (some incubators reduce the time), they'll hatch the egg. Keep in mind that Pancham is competing with 11 other monsters in its egg pool, so it's likely that trainers may not get Pancham right away. Even when Pancham does hatch from an egg, a shiny variant is highly unlikely to appear on the first hatch.

With that in mind, Pokemon GO players will want to repeatedly defeat Team GO Rocket leaders to rack up 12km eggs as much as possible during the event window. It may also be a good idea to use some Pokecoins and purchase Super Incubators if possible, as these will vastly increase the speed players hatch eggs over time.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to luck. If Pokemon GO players are regularly hatching 12km eggs, they could get a shiny Pancham early on or quite a while later. More hatches mean more opportunities to hit that very small chance that a shiny Pancham emerges, so a high volume of eggs is really the only solution.

Regardless, it's possible that the 12km egg pools won't shift much even after the Soltice Horizons event comes to an end. If that's the case, Pokemon GO players can ostensibly continue to hatch these Strange Eggs and eventually obtain the shiny Pancham they're hunting for in the Season of Hidden Gems.