Can Smeargle be shiny in Pokemon GO? (March 2023)

With only a couple of days left in Pokemon GO's Festival of Colors event, trainers may feel that there is a specific creature missing from their collection. Due to the process in which this entity can be encountered, a lot of players overlook it and end up with an empty spot in their Pokedex. This is far from ideal if one is a Pokemon collector.

Smeargle, the Painter Pocket Monster, is one of the most unusual creatures in the franchise. It has access to every attack in the franchise, yet this creature has failed to see competitive relevance in years. Even as this pick made its way to Niantic's mobile game, it failed to find a niche of any kind. However, its rarity and unusual encounter method still leave many trainers longing to add it to their collection.

While many players would just be happy to have a completed page in their Pokedex, others may want to step things up a notch by trying their hand at finding Smeargle's shiny variant, which indeed is available in Pokemon GO.

---

Tips for finding shiny Smeargle in Pokemon GO

Smeargle as it appears in the anime (Image via The Pokemon Company)

On its own, Smeargle is the most unusual encounter in Pokemon GO. It is the only creature to use the snapshot feature to see. This feature is a mechanic where players can choose to take AR pictures with the creature they currently have registered as their buddy. Gamers will need to register a Buddy Pokemon before hunting for Smeargle.

Outside of events that boost the chances of encountering this Pokemon, players can usually only face one. On the official Pokemon GO website, it is not revealed how many encounters one can have with Smeargle, only stating that it appears "a limited number of times." As such, farming for a shiny Smeargle is even harder than hunting for a regular shiny Pokemon.

It is also confirmed on the Pokemon GO website that the shiny version of the creature will not be available forever, like any other entity with the same exclusive form. As stated on the game's official site, shiny Smeargle will only be available during certain events where the normal version of this Pokemon has an increased encounter chance. That said, players can find a shiny version of the creature right now and as long as the Festival of Colors is around — which is March 14.

The only way players can farm for this exclusive creature is to keep taking snapshots with one's Buddy Pokemon. Once the encounters with Smeargle run out, the only thing to do is to wait until the next day before trying again. With only two days left till the Festival of Colors event comes to an end, players will need to be really lucky if they want to add another shiny to their collection.

Since Smeargle's encounter rate is not tied to manipulatable factors like weather or wild spawns, gamers cannot increase the chance of finding this creature through consumables like Incenses or Lure modules. Maybe Niantic will give players a better opportunity to grind for a shiny version of this entity at a later date.