A Green Pikachu?! What Are Shiny Pokémon and How Do I Find Them?
From a very young age, I’ve been obsessed with the Pokémon franchise. Plushies, cards, anime, and games. If it was related to Pokémon, I wanted it. Even as an adult, I keep up with Pokémon releases to this day, watching each Nintendo reveal show with bated breath. For many gamers, however, there is one major problem with the Pokémon games; they are simply too easy. As an adult, these titles require little concentration and unfortunately, lose their sense of replayability once you have become the champion and “caught them all”.
But what if I told you there was a way to make Pokémon games extremely difficult, something that took patience, where a single lapse in concentration could mean losing hours of work? Welcome to the niche world of Pokémon shining hunting.
When I was a teenager playing Pokémon X and Y for the first time, I came across a Quagsire hiding in the deep mud of the Laverre Nature Trail. However, unlike the rest of the species who are completely blue, this one was a beautiful shade of pink and sparkled when I first encountered it. Not knowing any better I caught it, oblivious to the world that I had just been launched into.
You see there is a one in 4098 chance that each time you encounter a Pokémon, it will be a different colour and play a special sparkling animation when it launches into battle. For most, this may just be a cool little coincidence that happens every now and again. But for shiny hunters; this is the most exciting thing that you can do in a Pokémon game. Today, we’re diving into three of the most common ways Pokémon players can shiny hunt, how you can do it yourself, and analysing if these brutally difficult methods are actually worth the time investment.
Shiny Resets:
The most common and difficult method to shiny hunting is what’s called resets. In preparation for this article, I reset for a shiny starter in Pokémon: Brilliant Diamond, which took me a very lucky 169 resets. Resets can be done on any Pokémon that you receive as a gift, through a cutscene or otherwise have a guaranteed chance at encountering, To do this, simply play the game normally until you’re about to enter the cutscene where you meet your first Pokémon. Then save, turn off battle animations, and set the text speed to fast. Then, enter the cutscene, mash the ‘a’ button and choose the starter you want. Once the starter comes out of the Pokéball, check if it is shiny, and if it’s not, simply close the game and load it up again. Congratulations you’ve just spent around two minutes on your first reset.
I mentioned this was supposed to make Pokémon games brutally difficult, and that a lapse of concentration could result in hours of work going to waste, but so far this has seemed quite easy right? After all, all you need to do is press ‘a’. However, considering the odds of a Pokémon being shiny (one in 4098), you can see just how difficult this could be. Assuming 1 reset takes around 2 minutes, it would take on average, 137 in-game hours for a Pokémon to be shiny. 137 hours is a long period to be fully focussed, and with such a menial task, it’s easy for your mind to wander elsewhere for just a split second too long…
Chain Hunting:
If you want something a little more engaging, there are other methods of shiny hunting that also happen to increase your odds. Known as “chain hunting”, many Pokémon games, starting in generation 4 and reappearing from generation 6, have a system which allows you to encounter the same Pokémon consecutively, with each subsequent encounter having greater odds of being either a shiny Pokémon or Pokémon with rare stats or abilities.
In Pokémon: Brilliant Diamond, you can use the PokeRadar to begin a chain. Once you start a chain, patches of grass around you will begin to shake, these contain Pokémon. To begin, you select a shaking patch of grass and either faint or catch the Pokémon inside. Then, when the battle is over, a new set of grass patches will begin to shake. There are very specific rules that determine which patch of grass you should choose to avoid encountering a different species of Pokémon and thus breaking your chain. While there is some discourse around which of these rules are 100% true (and it differs from title-to-title), the general rules are as follows:
1. Always choose a patch of grass at least four patches of grass away from you
2. Avoid patches of grass that are directly on the outside of the grass border (for example, there is no additional grass patch to the left or right of it)
3. Pick the patch of grass that is shaking the most
4. If none of the patches match the criteria, use the PokeRadar again to create new shaking patches
Unfortunately, even if you follow these rules exactly, there is still a chance that the chain will break randomly. This is especially true if you choose to only faint the Pokémon you encounter, rather than catch them. However, if you manage to make it to a chain of 40 encounters, each reset of the PokeRadar gives you around 1/100 chance to find a shiny grass patch, which guarantees a shiny Pokémon.
This, to me, is the peak of shiny hunting. Having to make decisions as to where you move, which grass patches you search as well as ensuring you have the right items to avoid otherwise avoidable chain breaks. I also find this method to be substantially more fun, as it creates a situation where you need to be actively engaged at all times, rewarded with better odds and thus, more shiny Pokémon.
The Masuda Method:
While there are other methods specific to certain games, there is one other method popular with shiny hunters which also happens to have some of the best odds and fastest possible shiny outcomes. Named after Junichi Masuda, an influential developer of the Pokémon games, the Masuda Method is initially difficult to set up but VERY rewarding. To encourage people to trade Pokémon with people from around the world, a very unique interaction was created for instances of Pokémon from different regions breeding together.
For those unaware, all modern Pokémon games involve a Pokémon nursery, where you can leave two Pokémon in the same egg group (which is essentially a list of compatible Pokémon), who, after a while, will make an egg appear. Hatch the egg by walking around with it in your party, and a Pokémon of the same species as the mother will appear. However, if you breed two Pokémon from different regions, the resulting Pokémon has a roughly 1 in 682 chance to be shiny. With this method in mind, all you have to do is put two Pokémon in the nursery, one of which being from a different region and then bike back and forth, picking up the eggs as they appear. This is made even faster by putting a Pokémon with the flame body ability in your party, which decreases the time it takes eggs to hatch by a significant amount.
While again, this method isn’t exactly the most engaging- it is the easiest. In fact, I spent my time shiny hunting while watching videos, listening to music, and editing the visuals for this article! So, if shiny hunting feels like a big commitment, perhaps try your luck with the Masuda method while going about your day.
My Boy! Shiny Turtwig After 169 Resets!
So, we know how to shiny hunt, but is it really worth it? Well for most, I would probably say no, especially not the first “full odds” method. But, if I’m honest, when I saw that Turtwig sparkle, there was a true sense of exhilaration, awe, and excitement that is hard to replicate. Sure, it may only be a Pokémon with a different colour to most, but for me, it represents dedication, triumph, and memories playing one of my favourite games of all time, and to me, that is priceless.