While you can already battle standard, Mega, and Legendary Pokemon in Raids, there are currently no Shadow Pokemon Raids in Pokemon GO. However, it looks like these could be coming to the game soon.
Shadow Pokemon deal more damage and take more damage than standard Pokemon and are used by Team GO Rocket. Currently, the only way of catching them is by defeating Team Rocket members, whether that is a grunt, the leaders Arlo, Cliff, and Sierra, or the boss Giovanni.
However, a new datamine indicates that Shadow Raids could be coming to the game soon!
Pokemon GO Datamine Reveals Shadow Raids
Datamining group PokeMiners found several images and audio clips for Shadow Raids in the latest Pokemon GO update files.
These assets include new graphics for a Team GO Rocket stadium and crowd, as well as SFX for Debuff, Enrage, and ‘Shadow Gem Constuction‘. This could be a new item that allows players to participate in Shadow Raids or a reward for completing them.
We do not know what Shadow Pokemon could be Raid bosses yet, but we expect they will be Shadow Legendaries. Players can currently catch Shadow Regice by defeating Giovanni, but Shadow Raids could be a way for Giovanni’s previous Shadow Legendaries to return to the game.
Additionally, this could be a new level of challenge for Pokemon trainers and may be more difficult than Elite Raids!
All of these additions show that Niantic is, at the very least, preparing to add Shadow Raids to the game. However, as there has been no official announcement about them yet, we don’t now know when they will arrive.
Alongside the Shadow Raids, PokeMiners also found new information about Master Balls. That’s right – it looks like Master Balls could be coming to Pokemon GO!