Pokemon Go players are in a tizzy now that an Articuno has been spotted guarding a gym.
Articuno is one of the three Legendary Birds in Nintendo Co., Ltd (ADR) (OTCMKTS:NTDOY) Pokemon franchise. While many fans of the series have been waiting for their release in Pokemon Go, along with other Legendary Pokemon, they’ve been left waiting.
The Articuno showed up at a Pokemon Gym located at 1355 E 2nd St Franklin, OH 45005. Several other trainers have posted screenshots of it online to social media website. This has lead some users to believe this is a legitimate version of the Legendary Bird.
The owner of the Articuno claims that they were gifted it by Pokemon Go developer Niantic. They said they didn’t know why it was gifted to them, but that they thought it was part of some strange promotion strategy, reports Siliconera.
While the Articuno owner’s story certainly sounds fake, there may be another reason that the Pokemon is guarding a gym. A recent glitch has been discovered that has Pokemon in the game transforming once they’ve been caught.
Players have reported catching a Pokemon, such as a Pidgey, in Pokemon Go and having it turn into something completely different once in their inventory. The transformed Pokemon retains its stats it had while on the field, but players get the bonus experience for catching a new Pokemon. This could be how the player actually got their hands on the Articuno, Comicbook.com notes.
It also possible that the player could have used a hack to obtain the Articuno. One known hack lets Pokemon Go players change the skins of Pokemon to different ones, and this could be the case here. Another player online has also shown up with an Articuno, but it hasn’t been seen by other trainers in-game, yet.
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