There’s no doubt that Pokemon Go has become a phenomenon. With over 75 million downloads and Nintendo’s stock skyrocketing (then quickly falling as people realized Nintendo didn’t make Pokemon Go) the game’s popularity is the stuff of legends.

Namely these three.

And, as usually happens with popular video games and certain holidays in April, there are legions of easter egg hunters. Developer Niantic has loaded the game to the brim with throwbacks, callbacks, so many backs! Some eggs have been found by accident, while others have taken collaboration to find. It is that collaboration that is currently being used to seek out one of the most elusive Pokemon in Go: Ditto. But we’ll come back to Ditto in a minute. First, we must understand the easter eggs that have been found in order to understand the search for Ditto.

Pikachu as A Starter

When a player begins his or her journey in Pokemon Go, the trainer is given the option of three starter Pokemon: Charmander, Bulbasaur, and Squirtle. However, walking away from these starters triggers a callback to the Pokemon anime. Upon return, the three starters are joined by a Pikachu, the series’ mascot, and Ash Ketchum’s first companion on the show.

Eeveelutions

Some of Pokemon’s most popular monsters are the many evolved forms of Eevee. However, in Pokemon Go there is seemingly no way to determine which form any given Eevee will evolve into. This is especially frustrating for more serious players, as Vaporeon has the highest stats of the three by a wide margin. But using the anime as a guidebook, players have been able to way to control Eevee’s growth and development in a way that’s decidedly less creepy than I just made it sound. By nicknaming Eevee one of three names, trainers can choose its next form.

Based on these three tight-wearing triplets from the anime, the names are Rainer, Sparky, and Pyro for Vaporeon, Jolteon, and Flareon respectively.

Hitmonlee Guards Its Namesake

Two of Pokemon’s most oddly humanoid monsters are Hitmonchan and Hitmonlee, the fighting Pokemon named after martial artist/actors Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee. Sadly, Bruce Lee passed away in 1973, but his grave is defended by none other than Hitmonlee himself. Lee’s gravesite, Lake View Cemetery in Seattle, is a spawn point for Hitmonlee. This means that, at any given time, there are three to six Hitmonlee patrolling Lake View Cemetery, keeping their lord safe even in the afterlife.

The Hunt For Ditto

Other than Legendary Pokemon, all Pokemon in the game have been found. All, that is, except for Ditto. Now, this is peculiar, as every other non-legendary exists in the wild. There are a few explanations for why the pink blob might be evading our grasp. Besides looking like a melted Kirby, Ditto’s trademark ability is its transformation. One of only two Pokemon that can transform (the other being the Legendary Mew), Ditto can appear as any other Pokemon. This has led players to believe that they may already possess Ditto but don’t know it. The full list of Ditto-related ideas can be found in this Reddit post, but I’ll quickly summarize.

In the Nintendo 64 game Pokemon Snap, Ditto appears as a dopey looking Bulbasaur.

This, coupled with the fact that Pokemon Go’s color scheme directly correlates to Pokemon Snap’s Pester Ball, means that there could be a connection.
Players have tried to follow the Eevee naming convention by naming their Bulbasaurs “Ditto” and many permutations thereof. Similarly, Ditto’s first anime appearance was as a Pikachu, but naming a Pikachu “Ditto” also proved futile. Every attempt at naming other Pokemon has also failed.

There is, however, another, much simpler reason for why we have yet to find Ditto. Ditto is a failed clone of Mew. In the Pokemon movie, a group of scientists are attempting to clone Mew in a lab in the jungle (resulting in the Ultimate Pokemon, Mewtwo). Since some Pokemon are region exclusive (Tauros, Kanghaskhan, Mr. Mime, and Farfetch’d), Ditto may be the exclusive Pokemon for the as-of-yet unreleased South American version of Pokemon Go. As South America contains many jungles, this would make sense.Or maybe Ditto is one of us.

What do you think? Do we already have Ditto and just don’t know it, or does the little guy live in South America? Let us know in the comments below.

Images: The Pokemon Company/CryoWolfV5