Famous red Gyarados among the first Shinies added to Pokémon Go in latest update
Plus gold Magikarp! Water Festival! A stupid hat!
Shiny Pokémon have arrived at last in Pokémon Go.
There are only two available for now: the gold-coloured Shiny Magikarp, and it's evolution, the Shiny red Gyarados.
Players will likely recognise the Gyarados in particular from their time with Pokémon Gold, Silver, and Crystal in the main series: red Gyarados is the first canonically recognised Shiny Pokémon, appearing in the anime series as well as at the Lake of Rage in a scripted encounter within the games.
Rumours of the Shiny Magikarp's existance began to float about on the internet last night, after the latest update went live under the guise of a Water Festival event.
In fact there hasn't been any official word from Niantic just yet on their existence, with confirmation instead coming from a variety of user screenshots and videos - credit for the image above to Silph Road subreddit user Varamyr7skins.
We were a little bemused at the event's announcement at first - it turns out the Water theme ties in with World Water Day on 22nd March (thanks commenters!) - but it seems as though this was also something of a way to sneak the two Water-type Shinies into the game at the same time, for the die-hard fans to discover.
The Water Festival itself will bring an increased number of Water-type Pokémon to the game for a limited period, finishing on 29th March, and working in a similar way to the Valentine's Day and Halloween events that went by over the past few months.
Standouts there are the super-rare Lapras, along with starters like Squirtle and Totodile, too.
There's also a snazzy Magikarp hat for your avatar, which is free to wear and makes you look rather dapper if we do say so ourselves.
For a little more granular detail, we've put together a guide for everything you need to know on the Pokémon Go Water Festival event, alongside a page with all the mechanical details and nitty-gritty facts of how Shinies like Magikarp and Gyarados work in our guide to Shiny Pokémon in Pokémon Go, too.