Pokelog build 034 adds support for shadow/purified pokemon. Namely, selecting the shadow/purified form will automatically select the appropriate charge move. For Niantic, adding all these special forms and moves to the Game Master file is probably a nightmare. The JSON file, which started under 1 MB, now surpasses 2 MB. Parsing the file into Pokelog now takes a few seconds. Unfortunately, it seems unavoidable, and the file will continue growing.

Now that I have caught a shadow pokemon, I can verify the purify mechanics, and it seems costly in stardust, to me. Purifying a pokemon costs either 2k, 5k, or 10k stardust, but it becomes level 25 and knows the powerful charge move Return. However, power up costs get a 10% discount. Comparing with a caught pokemon at level 25, the purify cost is recouped if you intend to power up to at least levels 28, 31, or 34, respectively. Otherwise, shadow pokemon are time and resource intensive ways to catch pokemon. Aside from satisfying special quest tasks, I will most likely pass.

July 31 update: Purify costs were adjusted to 1k, 3k, or 5k. Now stardust is recouped if you power up to at least levels 27, 29, or 31. At the 1k level, saving 3.4k stardust is nice. At the 3k level, saving 1.4k stardust makes up for the time and resources to satisfy the special quest tasks. Otherwise, mostly a pass for me.