Summary
- Pokemon GO players can catch Zorua by paying attention to Buddy Pokemon in the game's overworld, even though it appeared as a surprise encounter in the Shuppet Spotlight Hour event.
- A bug caused Zorua to retain the stats of the Pokemon it was replacing, but Niantic quickly fixed the issue, allowing players to catch Zorua without any potential stat problems.
- The extremely heavy weight of a captured Zorua has puzzled players, with some speculating that it may be a glitch related to Cosmoem's weight. The exact cause of the bug is still unknown, but it doesn't affect battles and catching Zorua is still possible.
A Pokemon GO player catches an incredibly heavy Dark-type Zorua while exploring in their local area. Zorua made its Pokemon GO debut in October 2022, and players may still capture the Pokemon by paying close attention to Buddy Pokemon in the game's overworld.
Pokemon GO's Shuppet Spotlight Hour introduced the Dark-type Pokemon as a surprise encounter for those participating in the event. However, an annoying bug caused Zorua to retain stats of the Pokemon that it was replacing in the overworld. Fortunately, Niantic quickly fixed the bug, allowing players to carefully examine and catch Buddy Pokemon without potential stat irregularities. Sometimes, Zorua will appear as a shiny Pokemon on the map, quickly giving its location away since Pokemon normally do not appear in their shiny form in the overworld. Zorua is just as elusive as Ditto due to its transformation ability, but patient Pokemon GO players will be able to catch it and evolve it into Zoroark with 50 Candy.
While exploring their surroundings, Pokemon GO player Fataky encountered a very light Cosmog that turned out to be an extremely heavy Zorua. The newly captured Zorua nicknamed "XXL" weighs a staggering amount at 1324 kilograms, which is roughly 2919 pounds. Fataky proceeded to close and restart the Pokemon GO application to see if the Zorua would revert to its average weight of 15.6 kilograms, but its weight remained unchanged. After various restarts, the user proceeded to ask the online Pokemon GO community about how a heavy Pokemon like this could be possible.
Fellow Pokemon GO players are just as puzzled by Zorua's weight, but Reddit user A_MAZ_ING believes this may be a glitch or bug involving Cosmog's evolution. Psychic-type Legendary Pokemon Cosmoem is one of the heaviest Pokemon in the entire series since it weighs over 1000 kilograms, so A_MAZ_ING thinks the Zorua may have accounted for Cosmoem's weight instead of Cosmog's. This would explain the discrepancy in weight between Fataky's Zorua and the average Zorua, but the exact cause of the bug remains unknown.
The Pokemon GO bug appears to be limited to weight, but it's reminiscent of the bug that altered Zorua's stats in the Shuppet Spotlight Hour event from one year ago. Although Niantic corrected the stats bug, it's possible that a lingering problem affects Zorua's weight calculations as it replaces a Buddy Pokemon on the map. At the very least, Pokemon GO players may still catch Zorua in the wild and battle other Pokemon without worrying about the possibility of Zorua's stats hindering a battle's outcome.
Pokemon GO is available now for Android and iOS.