In addition to its ever expanding library of Pocket Monsters, the Pokemon franchise has also introduced variants of established creatures with their own respective sets of alterations and abilities. With color variants first debuting the idea of altered Pokemon in Pokemon Gold and Silver, Pokemon Black and White introduced the concept of Shiny Pokemon variants, denoted by the sparkly aura given off these variations in comparison to their traditional counterparts.
Just as the evolved first generation starter Pokemon Charizard received a shiny variant, so did its fellow original starter Bulbasaur, available in the popular mobile game Pokemon Go. As with the holographic cards that inspired the concept of shiny Pokemon, the shiny variants and their corresponding cards are worth quite a bit of money.
SHINY BULBASAUR IN POKEMON GO
The shiny version of Bulbasaur can be found across multiple mediums in the Pokemon franchise including the Nintendo Switch titles Pokemon: Let's Go, Pikachu and Let's Go, Eevee, the mobile game Pokemon Go and trading cards based on the video game series.
While the shiny plant Pokemon has no major difference in ability, catching one is a major accomplishment for hardcore collectors. Physically, the shiny Bulbasaur is a bit visibly paler than its standard counterpart with the shiny variants' signature sparkly aura. As Bulbasaur evolves and the bud in its back begins to grow and blossom, the bud becomes more yellow than standard Ivysaurs and Venusaurs.
WHERE CAN YOU FIND A SHINY BULBASAUR
All shiny Pokemon can be found in the same general area as their standard versions and shiny Bulbasaur is no exception. The only place wild Bulbasaur can be found in Let's Go, Pikachu and Eevee is Viridian Forest, the wooded area early in the game by Route 2. To increase the likelihood of encountering a shiny Bulbasaur in the wild, it is a good strategy to chain Pokemon to the player which generally works on attempting to find all shiny Pokemon.
Find a shiny Bulbasaur in Pokemon Go, unfortunately, is considerably more complicated than on the Nintendo Switch. As with Pokemon: Let's Go, shiny Bulbasaur can be found in the wild with normal versions but source code from the mobile game reveal that the shiny incarnations are encounter at a rate of 1/450 in comparison to the standard counterparts. Periodically the game will offer community events to increase the likelihood of encountering certain Pokemon and limited time field missions that reward those that complete them with an encounter. The field missions are a set of challenges players must complete within a certain window of time and there have been ones focused on encountering shiny Bulbasaur in the past.
HOW MUCH IS A HOLOGRAPHIC BULBASAUR POKEMON CARD WORTH?
As a starter Pokemon, Bulbasaur never received a widely circulated holographic trading card like his evolved counterpart, Venusaur. As such, a regular Bulbasaur can be bought for as little as $1.30 online. However, the original, first generation holographic Venusaur trading card from 1999 can sell in the hundreds.
In 2002, a reverse foil Bulbasaur was released as part of the Pokemon Trading Card Game Legendary Collection. That card is one of the rarest Bulbasaur cards and has fetched as much as $100 on the secondary market, however it can usually be found for about half that.
As one of the rarer Pokemon, shiny Bulbasaur is quite the catch for an aspiring Pokemon trainers. With timing, patience and luck, dedicated players can get their very own shiny plant Pokemon and evolve them to their more powerful Ivysaur and Venusaur forms; all it takes is committed sense of due diligence.