Research underwent its announced shakeup a few hours ago, and some extra surprises came along with it. Let's dive into a roundup of today's news!

RAIKOU  HAS  RETURNED

The Legendary Pokémon Raikou has returned! It is now the encounter from Research Breakthroughs, replacing Snorlax. This Pokémon is expected to be the encounter for the entirety of August 2018, so make sure to take advantage of this opportunity to catch this phenomenal Electric-type attacker.

SPINDA'S  HERE!

You may remember that many non-Legendary / non-Mythical Pokémon remained unavailable after the final wave of Generation 3 went live. One of these Pokémon became obtainable today; the Spot Panda Pokémon, Spinda. This Pokémon is, as it currently stands, available exclusively from the "Make 3 Curveballs in a Row" research task.

Spinda is known for its multitude of different spot patterns. In fact, it is said that there are about 4.2 billion different varieties in the main-series games. Don't worry, as Niantic has drastically simplified it for Pokémon GO. In this game, there are eight pattern varieties. Currently, only Pattern 8 is available. We'll make sure to update you has more variants become available.

NEW  SHINY  POKEMON

In addition to the release of Spinda, we had another surprise release today. The Shiny variants of Houndour and Snubbull have been released. Snubbull can be found as the reward for the "Catch a Skitty or Poochyena" quest, and Houndour can be found as the reward for the "Evolve a Meowth" quest.

You may have noticed some of the new research tasks have a cat-and-dog theme. If we had to take a guess as to why, it might be a subtle nod to the debate over whether the Legendary Beasts are hounds or wildcats.

Thanks for reading, Trainers!

SOURCE: Community Reports