Back in October 2018, Pokemon GO developer Niantic added shiny Krabby and Kingler to the mobile ARG. But according to a collective of worried players, there hasn't been a confirmed sighting since November 2018. This has led to much speculation about what has happened with the water-type Pokemon, with some crying "conspiracy" with the fact that several threads related to this issue have been taken down.

Now, it's worth mentioning that this isn't a small subject pool, as players are reporting checking social media and discord groups 15,000+ strong. In these groups where shiny Pokemon are frequently posted, multiple people have reported not seeing a single Krabby since November. There has been one or two Pokemon GO players reporting that they've caught one, but the images associated do not fully confirm this statement.

It's possible that this is a regional issue or that Pokemon GO has, for whatever reason, removed the shiny Water-type from the game. Speculation as to why has ranged far and wide, from Niantic removing the shiny by mistake up to intentionally removing it to re-release it as a Community Day event. For the latter, players have been referring to the discovered, but never used, Crabhammer move in the game, suggesting that it would be the exclusive move with the repackaged Shiny.

That theory seems incredibly unlikely, as shiny spawn rates are rare enough that many would still be excited to catch more during a Community Day event. It is worth mentioning, though, that shiny spawn rates are not so rare that it explains the missing Krabby. Others have suggested that it was a rollback bug, which is when new content introduces a bug that "rolls back" old content. If this is the case, it would explain a lot and why it has taken so long to be noticed.

All things considered, it's hard to say for sure what's going on. It's not out of the realm of possibility that Krabby's rate has been drastically reduced, but at the same time, a bug seems more likely. Hopefully, Niantic will comment on the issue, giving players exact details as to shiny Krabby's status in Pokemon GO. But until then, the case of the missing shiny Krabby is still open.

Pokemon GO is available now for Android and iOS devices.

Source: The Silph Road