Pokemon Sword & Shield fan stuns community with Surprise Trade miracle

Brent Koepp
pokemon sword shield rillaboom

A Pokemon Sword & Shield player went viral after finding his long lost Rillaboom. The trainer recovered the Gen VIII starter through a random and miraculous Surprise Trade.

The Pokemon franchise was ushered into its eighth generation with the release of Sword & shield. The Nintendo Switch title introduced players to the Galar region for the very first time.

A fan of the game went viral on Reddit after they shared their incredible story about their long lost Rillaboom. The epic starter was recovered after it was given away by accident in a Surprise Trade.

reddit pokemon lost poster
The long lost Rillaboom went viral on Reddit in July.

Pokemon player reunited with lost Rillaboom

Back in July, a post went viral when player ‘Kashoot_Myself69‘ asked the community for their help locating a lost Rillaboom. According to the user’s story, their friend had accidentally traded the gorilla away by accident during a Surprise Trade.

The post gained over 6.2k upvotes, as hundreds of players sympathized with the Trainer and wanted to help. The Grass-type was called ‘Funky Monkey’ by its owner, and was traded while holding Dark Glasses. The Redditor even created a lost poster for the monster.

On August 31, the user had an update and revealed that his friend had actually recovered the lost Rillaboom. “It pleases me to inform you all he has been found! Thank you to anyone who tried to help the search,” they said.

rillaboom pokemon sword shield
The lost Rillaboom was returned to its owner.

Incredibly, the user explained that his friend had gotten the Pokemon back through another Surprise Trade: “About a month later, he was wonder trading in hopes of finding him, and by some amazing string of luck, he actually got him back via wonder trade. It was extremely lucky that he actually got him back!”

When someone asked how they knew it was the exact same gorilla, the Trainer said: “When you get a pokemon from a trade, it says “Take good care of (Pokemon Name/Nickname)!” But when you recieve a pokemon that you’ve previously traded before,like when you do a trade back to evolve pokemon, it will say “Welcome back (Pokemon Name/Nickname)!”

reddit comments

Despite the happy ending, the player also explained that some people with good intentions tried to send them faked versions of the Rillaboom that were hacked. “There were a few funky monkeys who were not so funky, as they were hacked into the game by people trying to help in the wrong ways.”

This isn’t the first time that players have sent away a special Pokemon by accident, so if nothing else, let this be a lesson to look twice before confirming a trade.

Despite releasing at the end of 2019, the Sword & Shield has already gone on to become the third highest-selling title in the franchise. Proof that Pokemon has never been more popular.

About The Author

Brent is a former writer at Dexerto based in the United States, who covered topics such as Pokemon, Gaming, and online Entertainment.