Xerneas is making its debut to Pokémon Go during the Luminous Legends X event. The event will be starting on May 4 at 10 AM in your local time zone, and it continues until May 17. During this two week period, the legendary Pokémon, Xerneas, will be available in five-star raids. You’ll be able to battle it with your friends, and you’ll need to work with them to prepare to take this mighty Pokémon down and capture it. You’ll have increased chances to raid against it each Wednesday, on May 5 and the 12, during the raid hours. We break down the best moveset for this Pokémon, if it’s good, and how to beat it in five star raids. Unfortunately, don’t expect any surprises after beating this Pokémon, especially for players eager to claim a shiny Xerneas.
A shiny Xerneas will not be available after you beat it in five-star raids. No matter how many raids you choose to participate in, and win, a shiny version for this Pokémon is not set to appear. The assets for the shiny version were uploaded to the game, but Niantic won’t make them available. It happens for every new Pokémon added to the game.
Whenever a Pokémon makes their debut, they’re featured in a weekly event, and all players have increased chances to capture them. However, Niantic releases the Pokémon, but not the shiny version at the same time. We can expect Pokémon’s shiny version to appear in a future weekly event. For Xerneas, it’ll probably happen in a year, so we shouldn’t expect it to show up for another year, sometime in 2022. This happened with Tornadus, Landorus, and Thundurus. They arrived in Pokémon Go in early 2020 and received their shiny forms during the start of the Season of Legends in March 2021.
It’s always unfortunate to have to wait for the shiny version to release, but it’s to be expected. Niantic does this almost every time, and veteran players have become accustomed to it.
