But you won’t find the clever shape-shifter on the in-game map.

In the days immediately following Pokémon GO’s release, gamers were happy to get their hands on any and all Pocket Monsters they could find lurking in their surroundings. With time, though, they began to fill up their Pokédexes, and even with dozens of species to capture, eventually Pokémon Trainers started running into the same creatures they’d already seen several times before.

The clever candy game mechanic helped ward off monotony, since you can trade in weaker Pokémon for extra items to help evolve the remaining members of your stable. But after roughly half a year of playing Pokémon GO, isn’t it sort of hard to get excited about running into yet another wild Pidgey?

Not in Japan, at least as of today. Some Pokémon GO players who encountered Pidgey during their monster hunting on the morning of November 23 found that what they ended up capturing actually wasn’t the much-derided flying Pokémon, but instead the long-anticipated shapeshifter Ditto in disguise!

▼ “Wait…the Pidgey turned into Ditto!!?!

Aside from Pidgey, Japanese Pokémon Trainers have caught Zubats, Rattatas, and Magikarp that also revealed themselves as Dittos after being captured.

▼ “Got Ditto.”

Ditto’s in-game description reads:

“Able to rearrange its cells and transform. It does this while trying to recall things it saw in the past, so it ends up looking a little different from the real thing.”

The arrival of a new Pocket Monster to catch is great news for Pokémon GO players, and seems to have just about everyone happy. Well, except this guy.

▼ “I caught a Pidgey, but it changed into something called Ditto! Where’d you go, Pidgey? So confused.”

Don’t worry, Pidgey fan, because if there’s one thing Pokémon GO has taught us, it’s that there’ll be another one of the little birds nearby before you know it.

Source: Jin