Shiny Hunting for Beginners

Edit: Thank you all for the feature! I spent so much time on this and I feel so honored to have earned a spot on the featured feed! ;w;

Hello, hello! Shiny Pokémon have been around since the release of Pokémon Gold and Silver. The ever-growing popularity of shiny Pokémon has been grabbing the attention of younger and newer fans. But what I have noticed on this Amino is these new hunters don’t know where to begin or how to hunt. So as a seasoned hunter I wanted to create a massive guide for new hunters and go into detail on what being a shiny hunter is like. There are also a lot of different terms that shiny hunters use so watch this video to get a stronger understanding of it. For the sake of my own sanity I will only be covering main series game. So I won’t be explaining any of the Rumble games, Magikarp Jump, or Pokémon Quest. I also won’t be covering any gift shiny Pokémon like the Red Gyrados because they’re gifts. The point of hunting is to find a shiny Pokémon and gift shiny Pokémon will ALWAYS be shiny. You can’t hunt what’s already a shiny.

Shiny Pokémon are rare Pokémon with alternative colors. Some are very noticeable while others are not that noticeable. Regardless of their color scheme, a shiny Pokémon is rarer than a regular one. In order to really go into detail I am going to separate the different ways to hunt by generation. I will also list the shiny odds of that game and what determines if a Pokémon is shiny or not.

Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow

Technically shiny Pokémon didn’t exist in these games. But there is a slight chance that a Pokémon will become shiny when you trade it to a generation 2 game or transfer it to a 3ds game. What determines if they change into a shiny Pokémon is by their stats. A Pokémon has to match a very specific IV spread in order for it to become a shiny. If one number is off the Pokémon won’t be a shiny. This website can tell what IV’s are needed for a specific Pokémon. I personally don’t recommend hunting in these games since it takes a lot of time and a lot of trading.

Pokémon Gold, Silver, and Crystal

The odds in these games are 1 in 8,192. The shiny status is determined by stats as well(which is why trading from a gen 1 game can make a shiny if the stats are correct). Because of this you can’t find a female shiny starter because what determines if the starter is female is also stats. The stats to be a female will never be the same as the shiny stats. There isn’t any real way to raise your shiny odds in these games(except for one specific way that I will explain later.) I personally recommend hunting in the console versions that you can by in the game store on the 3ds. These older games do have a chance of their internal battery dying, so getting the console version keeps you from losing any shiny Pokémon via a dried battery. Once a battery dies the game will erase itself. I also want to quickly mention that certain kinds of Pokémon are able to flee from you in these games so keep a close eye on that. Keep an eye on your boxes too, if the box is full the Pokémon you catch can’t be sent to it and it becomes completely deleted. You don’t want to risk losing a shiny because the last box you had open was one that was full. There are four different ways to get shiny Pokémon in these game.

1. Soft Resetting. Soft resetting is done when you save right before a specific encounter and constantly reset the game until the Pokémon becomes a shiny. These soft resets can be done for the starters, legendary encounters, overworld Pokémon like the Sudowoodo that blocks your path, and prize Pokémon from the game corner. Oh, you can do it with fossils too. Just check the Pokémon’s summary before resetting the game to see if a receivable Pokémon is shiny or not. Resetting is an attempt to get that 1 in 8,192 chance to encounter a shiny. If this is a legendary encounter make sure you have the right items and right team to keep yourself from failing.

2. Random Encountering. Random encountering Pokémon gives you a chance to run into a wild shiny Pokémon. The easiest way to do this is to just run around in the grass until you happen to run into a shiny Pokémon. Same with fishing, surfing, or running in a cave. As long as you encounter it you run the chance of it being shiny. You can also get a shiny Pokémon from headbutt trees.

3. Breeding. You do have a chance to hatch for a shiny Pokémon in these games. Unfortunately there are no abilities in these games so you can’t really make eggs hatch faster. There is one exploit to this method though. If you breed a regular Pokémon with a shiny Pokémon your odds will increase. This post breaks it down further so you can better understand how breeding with a shiny works. The best thing you can do is make sure you get a male shiny Gyrados when you get to the Lake of Rage.

4. The Odd Egg in Pokémon Crystal. Pokémon Crystal added the odd egg to help promote baby Pokémon. You also have a 14% chance of the egg being a shiny. So your odds go from 1 in 8,192 to 1 in 1,146.88. The issue is that as soon as you receive the odd egg it’s determined if it will hatch as a shiny or not. So make sure you save before receiving the egg so you can start over if it doesn’t hatch as a shiny. This hunt does take some time since you are constantly rehatching eggs, but it’s the only real method for this game. The Pokémon you can get from the odd egg is igglybuff, cleffa, pichu, smoochum, magby, elekid, and tyrogue.

As a bonus here’s some hunt ideas for Gold and Silver and some hunt ideas for Crystal.

Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald

The odds in these games are still 1 in 8,192. I am going to go ahead and say it right now, these games are really broken. And no, not in a good way. They’re broken in the “sometimes your save file doesn’t let you get a shiny” kind of way. If the internal battery is dead for your Ruby or Sapphire you may never get a shiny starter. The bright side is that unlike Red, Blue, Yellow, Gold, Crystal, and Silver the internal battery running dry doesn’t mean your game will become deleted. It just messes with your shiny odds. But if you do have a game with a working internal battery then you can soft reset for a shiny starter. And unlike Gold, Silver, and Crystal, your shiny starter DOES have a chance to also be female. The problem with Emerald is that the RNG is broken. I don’t really know how to explain it so here is a video with the math of it. But long story short your Emerald game will act as if the internal battery is always dead. You CAN get a shiny starter in Emerald, but in order to get one you have to constantly create a new save file. Every 50 resets you are going to have to reset your copy of Emerald, create a new file, and do another 50 resets. This is rather annoying. Despite these complications you can still find shiny Pokémon in these games regardless of save battery. The methods are;

1. Soft Resetting(if your game allows it). Same as before, save right before you start the encounter and keep resetting until you get a shiny. I would like to mention that if you are hunting a shiny starter you do actually have a chance to instead find a shiny Poochyena or Zigzagoon. You can’t catch either of these. These are dubbed as the shiny uncatchables and your only option is to continue resetting. You can soft reset for legendaries and other receivable Pokémon if the save battery allows it.

2. Breeding. You don’t have lowered odds in these games and breeding a shiny Pokémon to get a shiny egg doesn’t exist anymore, but you still run the chance of hatching a shiny Pokémon. Just keep in mind that as soon as you get an egg it’s determined if it will be shiny or not so you can’t constantly hatch the same egg over and over to try and get it to be a shiny. You would just have to hatch one egg after the other until one hatches as a shiny.

3. Random Encountering. You can still encounter shiny Pokémon in the wild even if your internal battery has run dry. I was unable to get myself a shiny starter, but I did find myself a shiny Skarmory on my Pokémon Ruby. So if you’re feeling really lucky you can run around in the grass until you find a shiny Pokémon. And random encountering isn’t limited to just grass. You can fish, surf, and run in a cave until you find a shiny. Keep in mind that shiny Pokémon can run from you in the Safari Zone.

Pokémon LeafGreen and FireRed

The odds in these games are still 1 in 8,192. Blub explained to me that FireRed and LeafGreen don’t have an internal clock like Ruby,Sapphire, and Emerald so you don’t have to deal with battery antics. You can hunt whatever starter or legendary you want without the battery effecting your shiny hunts. So the methods are about the same as Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald since all five of these games are Gameboy Advanced games. The methods would be;

1. Soft Resetting. Just save your game before the initial encounter and soft reset if the Pokémon isn’t shiny. You can soft reset for overworld Pokémon and the gift Lapras as well. Say, you’re in the Team Rocket hideout and you see those Voltorbs you have to fight? They can actually be shiny and you can constantly encounter them to get one to be shiny.

2. Breeding. There are no ways to increase your odds of getting a shiny while breeding. Just keep in mind that the egg is determined if it will be shiny or not as soon as you receive it so you can’t constantly hatch the same egg over and over to get it to be shiny. You would just have to hatch one egg after the other until one hatches as a shiny.

3. Random Encountering. Same as the previous games, you just run around in grass, caves, or fish until you happen to run into a shiny Pokémon. Keep in mind that you can run into shiny Pokémon in the Safari Zone so be careful. A shiny Pokémon can still run from you in the Safari Zone.

Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum

The odds are still the same 1 in 8,192, but this is when some methods started entering the main series games. There is even a new key item specifically made for shiny hunting! Gamefreak also strayed completely away from internal batteries so your game can no longer delete itself and you don’t have the same problems with Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald. Unfortunately there is one small glitch that can either make or break your shiny odds. This is called the cute charm glitch. If you have a Pokémon with the ability cute charm in the front of your party it can either give you a shiny every other encounter, or completely stop you from encountering a shiny Pokémon. I don’t personally recommend this unless you know what you’re doing because you don’t want to ruin your chances of encountering a shiny. Of course this glitch doesn’t happen if you move the Pokémon with cute charm out of the front slot of your party. So keep that buneary far away from the front! Other than the cute charm glitch there are five other ways to shiny hunt in these games.

1. Soft Resetting. Getting a shiny starter in these games are completely possible thanks to the lack of internal batteries. Much like uncatchable Poochyena and Zigzagoon, the Starly you fight when you first get your starter does have a chance to be a shiny. Again, it’s uncatchable so your only option is to soft reset over it. You can soft reset for legendaries as well and if you manage to figure out how to enter the old mythical events into your game you can even soft reset for a Shaymin, Darkrai, or Arceus. Just keep in mind that if you hunt for a roaming legendary like Cresselia you have to save before releasing it to roam and not after. Once it’s in the wild, that’s it. If it’s not shiny it stays not shiny so you have to restart the event that lets it roam around and check if it’s shiny before you save. If it’s shiny it stays shiny as it roams around. Just save and chase that shiny around the region until it stays in the ball. Don’t forget about overworld Pokémon like Drifloon and Spiritomb, you can soft reset until it’s a shiny. You can also soft reset in front of Honey Trees.

2. Random Encountering. You can get a random shiny in the wild(unless cute charm stops you from finding one) in caves, the grass, surfing, fishing, smashable rocks, and through sweet scent. Keep in mind that you can run into shiny Pokémon in the Safari Zone. Shiny Pokémon can still run from you in the Safari Zone so heed the warnings, you may fail if you attempt a Safari Zone hunt.

3. Double Encountering. There are some areas in these games where you will have to help an NPC get through the area. They follow you until you complete the mission. Because of this, if you encounter a wild Pokémon the trainer next to you ALSO encounters a wild Pokémon. And example of this is Eterna Forest. The NPC trainer is too scared to proceed and needs your help. This is a good method because you are encountering two Pokémon at once as long as you have that trainer stapled to you. Just make sure you have a Pokémon that’s super effective to her Chansey because the NPC’s don’t care if there is a shiny on that screen. Her Chansey will take it out if given the chance so make sure you wipe her off the field before you attempt to catch the shiny. The downside to this method is that once you complete the quest the chance to do double encounters in that area goes away for good. Just make sure you don’t overlevel yourself to the point where your Pokémon start to disobey you. Here are all the areas you can double encounter in.

4. Breeding. Now this is actually the first game that the Masuda Method was added into! The Masuda Method was created by Junichi Masuda. It’s when you breed one Pokémon from one country with another Pokémon from a country completely different from your own. By doing this your shiny odds go from 1 in 8,192 to 1 in 2,048. It’s near impossible to get a foreign Pokémon these games since you can no longer trade online. Unless you know someone who has a foreign Pokémon or you know how to manipulate another ds to think it’s from another country with a different copy of these games to trade yourself a “foreign” Pokémon you probably won’t be able to take advantage of this method. Regardless, you can still breed for a shiny without doing the Masuda method. Breeding a shiny does not increase your chances of hatching a shiny and you can’t soft reset the same egg over and over until it’s shiny. Thanks to abilities though you can speed up the hatching process and run through eggs faster. If you have a Pokémon with the ability flame body or magma armor in your party as you’re hatching an egg it will cut down the amount of steps you have to take to hatch eggs.

5. Pokéradar. This is a hard method, but a great way to try and get a shiny. Here is a video to best explain it which I highly recommend you watch. The pokéradar is picky and you can only continue the chain by going into very specific patches so the video will definitely help. Long story short, the pokéradar helps you chain the same Pokémon over and over until you manage to run into a shiny version of it. This only works if you can keep the chain going so make sure you have repels to keep away other encounters. Also, don’t run from Pokémon during the duration of this. Running breaks the chain. And so does encountering a patch of shaking grass containing a different Pokémon. And so does leaving the route and so- just. Just watch the video it’s so much easier to understand that way.

Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver

The odds in these games are still 1 in 8,192. Much like Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum the cute charm glitch still exists so be careful in these games. These remakes are so good in my opinion. I also think they’re the best games to hunt starters in. When you go into Professor Elm’s lab to pick your Pokémon you can view all three starter Pokémon. What makes this a big deal? Well, unlike every other game, you can see if a Pokémon is shiny BEFORE you pick it. So you can scroll through all three options and soft reset if none of them are shiny. No rival battles, no wild Pokémon to fight, no summary screen, and no cutscene. You know right then and there if one of them is a shiny. I found myself a shiny Totodile this way! He just so happens to be on the opening image for this guide as well. So what other methods are in this game? Well the pokéradar isn’t a key item in this game anymore so that’s out of the question. There also isn’t the 14% odd egg that Pokémon Crystal has. I think there might be a way to get shiny Pokémon with the pokéwalker, but since it’s hard to get one because they’re mad expensive and rare I decided not to do any research about it.

1. Soft Resetting. Yeah, like I said you can hunt the starters, but you can soft reset for other Pokémon as well in this game like overworld Pokémon, gift Pokémon, game corner Pokémon, and legendary Pokémon. Roaming Pokémon can be shiny as well. Once you release Entei and Raikou into the wild they both have a chance to be shiny. But much like Cresselia, if they aren’t shiny when you first see them they stay that way. Save before letting them roam and encounter to see if they’re shiny before resetting the game. And don’t worry, if one is shiny and it runs away from you it STAYS shiny. So you can just run around and chase that shiny doggo down until it decides to stay in the ball.

2. Random Encountering. Same as before, just run around and encounter Pokémon until one of them ends up being shiny. You can also find shiny Pokémon in the Safari Zone, but they’re able to flee from you so don’t go hunting in there unless you are fine with the chance of failing a shiny.

3. Headbutting Trees. I guess this is an extension of random encounters, but it’s a different way of encountering so I wanted to specify it. There are certain trees that you can use the move headbutt on to make a Pokémon fall out of the tree. There are certain Pokémon you can only get from headbutting trees and only during certain times of day.

4. Breeding. Masuda method is also in this game, but you cannot trade online with these games anymore. So you are very lucky if you can get a foreign Pokémon on these games. Of course you don’t have to do the Masuda method to get a shiny, it just increases your odds. You can’t use the Lake of Rage shiny Gyrados to breed for shiny Pokémon in these games. The abilities flame body and magma armor still help make it easier to hatch shiny Pokémon. Just keep in mind that you can’t constantly reset and rehatch the same egg over and over. If it doesn’t hatch as a shiny the first time it won’t ever hatch as a shiny.

Pokémon Black and White

These games are still the odds of 1 in 8,192. I am going to do Black2 and White2 on a separate entry so don’t yell at me yet. Those two games have one major difference than the regular versions which is why I want to separate them. Pokémon Black and White had a lot of great innovations, but it was also the creator of my worse enemy. The Shiny Lock. For those of you who don’t know what a Shiny Lock is it pretty much means that the game is programmed to keep certain Pokémon from ever being shiny. So before you go hunting locked Pokémon I’m going to list what’s locked to save you some trouble. Luckily there are only three locked Pokémon in this game; Reshiram, Zekrom, an Victini. So let’s get down to the methods.

1. Soft Resetting. Save before an initial encounter and soft reset until you get a shiny. Of course since the box art legendaries are locked you cannot hunt them, but you can hunt the starters and any other obtainable Pokémon or legendary.

2. Random Encountering. A go to method that appears in every single game. Wherever you encounter a Pokémon you have a chance to encounter a shiny Pokémon. A lot of people use a Pokémon with the ability illuminate to encounter Pokémon more often.

3. The Dark Grass. Remember how in Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum we went over the Double Encounters? Black and White brought it back, but you don’t have to have a trainer stapled to your side. Instead, there are areas of darker green grass that allows you the chance to encounter two Pokémon at once. A lot of hunters do random encounters in the dark grass to increase their chances of finding a shiny Pokémon. This doesn’t apply to caves or surf encounters though.

4. Breeding. Masuda method is still in this game, but again you can’t trade online anymore. You would be very lucky to get ahold of a foreign Pokémon. Abilities like flame body and magma armor still help you hatch eggs faster. Breeding shiny Pokémon does not increase your odds of hatching a shiny Pokémon and you can’t constantly hatch the same egg to get a shiny Pokémon out of it. The odds while using the Masuda method was changed to 1 in 1,365. You don’t have to do the Masuda method to find a shiny, it just makes the odds of hatching a shiny go up.

Pokémon Black 2 and White 2

The odds in these games are still 1 in 8,192. Soooo why did I want to put these two games separate from regular Black and White? That’s because of two very important key items that will be included in every game proceeding this one. And those items are the Oval Charm and the Shiny Charm. The Oval charm makes eggs appear in the daycare faster for breeding and the Shiny Charm increases your chance to find a shiny by cutting the odds down. You get the Oval Charm by completing the Unova Pokédex and you get the Shiny Charm by completing the National Pokédex. Nowadays it’s harder to complete the nationaldex’ since you can’t trade online with Black 2 or White 2, but at the time where you could trade it was a nice prize to get your hands on. The only Pokémon that are shiny locked in this game are Reshiram and Zekrom. The methods are the same as regular Black and White so I am going to quickly gloss over them.

1. Soft Resetting. The same as Black and White.

2. Random Encountering. The same as every other game ever. The odds with the shiny charm become 1 in 2,731. Don’t forget a Pokémon with the ability illuminate.

3. The Dark Grass. The same as Black and White.

4. Breeding. The Masuda method odds are still 1 in 1,365 and when combined with the shiny charm makes it even easier to hatch a shiny Pokémon. I can’t figure out exactly how easy it is with the shiny charm, but it’s possible it’s about 1 in around 500. Same rules from Black and White apply to this as well.

Pokémon X and Y

The shiny odds in these games took a tremendous leap! The odds changed to 1 in 4,096. The odds with the Shiny Charm turn into 1 in 1,365. To get the Shiny Charm you have to complete the National Pokédex and talk to the professor to receive it. Luckily for us, you can still trade online, but only with other people who play X, Y, Omega Ruby, or Alpha Sapphire. You can get the Oval Charm from the Professor after completing all three Kalos Pokédex’s. The pokéradar also made its grand return. Luckily for both of us you can just watch this video that goes over every single shiny hunting method in Generation 6. I will still go over all the methods anyway for you guys. Also there are a lot of shiny locks in this game. The locked Pokémon are; Xerneus, Yveltal, Zygarde, Mewtwo, Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres. They also locked the snorlax on the bridge so don’t bother with that one. Now for the methods.

1. Soft Resetting. It’s a little pointless in this generation. Thanks to shiny locks and that giant THREE MINUTE cutscene before you get to check your starter to see if it’s shiny, SRing in this game seems a little pointless. I would only suggest it for the fossil Pokémon that you can revive.

2. Random Encountering. Just run around until you can manage to run into a shiny Pokémon. Can be from ambush encounters, smashable rocks, grass encounters, surfing. If you can encounter it, it can be shiny(if it isn’t locked of course.) a Pokémon with the ability illuminate in the front of your party will help you encounter Pokémon more often.

3. Horde Hunting. This method is a hybrid of random encountering and double encountering on STEROIDS. Horde encounters give you not two, but FIVE encounters at once. All of them have a chance to be shiny an it’s very easy to start a horde encounter. All you need is a Pokémon with sweet scent and every time you use it you will attract a horde to yourself. Only downside is that you can’t call a horde while it’s raining. Honey can also call a horde, but using honey uses the item up completely. All you have to do is run and call a new horde until you find a horde with a shiny. Just make sure you don’t knock out the shiny one.

4. Chain Fishing. A lot of people don’t like this method because it’s easy and you can find a shiny after a chain of around 30-80 Pokémon. How you do it is you have to have a Pokémon with the ability suction cups or sticky hold in the front of your party. Then you have to fish in an area close to rocks. If you switch rods or move from the spot you’re at you will break your chain so stay put while you’re chaining. A Pokémon getting away before you reel it in will also break your chain. You can either run or knock out whatever you are encountering until you find a shiny.

5. Breeding. You can still do the Masuda Method in this game and with internet trade being available it’s fairly easy to get a foreign Pokémon. The odds for Masuda Method are 1 in 683 without the Shiny Charm. With the Shiny Charm the odds become 1 in 512. Flame body and magma armor still help hatch eggs faster in these games. You can also use O powers to hatch eggs faster. You still cannot breed a shiny to get a shiny or soft reset the same egg over and over for a shiny from that egg. You don’t have to use Masuda to get a shiny, you can get one without it.

6. Pokéradar. Good old radar makes its return, yet it’s as complicated as ever. Here is a video going over how to use the pokéradar in X and Y.

7. Friend Safari. This method is completely unaffected by the Shiny Charm because the Friend Safari has its own set shiny odds. The odds are 1 in 512, it’s as if you’re doing the Masuda method with the shiny charm. You can’t use the pokéradar in the Friend Safari either. The amount of safaris you can go to is reflected by how many friends you have registered on your ds. You will always encounter two kinds of Pokémon in each Safari. If your friend has beaten their copy of X or Y then their safari will contain three Pokémon. Unlike the Safari Zone, these Pokémon cannot run from you(unless they know a move that allows them to flee like teleport.) You just run around the grass until you land yourself a shiny.

Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire

The odds in these games are still 1 in 4,092 and 1 in 1,365 with the Shiny Charm. You can get the Shiny Charm after completing the National Pokédex and talking to the professor. You can get the Oval Charm by completing the Hoenn Pokédex and talking to the professor. Oh joy, now you can hunt the starters without the hassle of the internal battery. These soft resets are fast and easy, and not to mention there’s a GOOD shiny lock in this game. The Poochyena you encounter when you pick your starter no longer has a chance to be shiny. That demon can no longer hurt you. Wally having a chance to get a shiny Ralts is no longer possible as well. The other shiny locked Pokémon are Kyogre, Groudon, Rayquaza, and Deoxys. The methods are about the same as X and Y, except there is no Friend Safari or Pokéradar in these games. The methods for these games are;

1. Soft Resetting. The starters are very easy to reset for in these games. You may not be able to hunt the main Hoenn legendaries, but Hoopa antics now allow you a chance to find other legendary Pokémon. Once mirage islands start appearing around the region you can save in front of the Hoopa hoop and then start Soft Resetting for a shiny. You can also SR for static encounters or gift Pokémon.

2. Random Encountering. The same as every other game. Just run around wherever you can encounter Pokémon. Using a Pokémon with the ability illuminate still helps you encounter more Pokémon.

3. Horde Hunting. Exactly the same as X and Y, except you can sweet scent in the rain now.

4. Breeding. Masuda method is still possible and you can still use the Shiny Charm for this. Odds with Masuda without the Shiny Charm is 1 in 682 and is 1 in 512 if you have the Shiny Charm. Every other rule listed in the X and Y section still applies here

5. DexNav. This is really similar to Pokéradar, but instead of multiple shaking patches there is only one. And you have to slowly creep towards the shaking grass. You really need repels for this method. Here is a video explaining everything since it’s hard to explain how to DexNav without any visuals.

6. Chain Fishing. The same as X and Y.

Pokémon Sun and Moon

The odds in these games are still 1 in 4,092. The odds with the Shiny Charm are still 1 in 1,365. There is no National Pokédex in this game so all you have to do is complete the Alolan Pokédex to receive a Shiny Charm from Heahea city in the Gamefreak room. You can get the Oval Charm from Heahea city after beating the game director in the Gamefreak room. Much like Black 2 and White 2, I am going to do the ultra games separately because their use of wormholes deserves its own separate entry. The Pokémon that are shiny locked in Sun and Moon are; all of the Tapu Pokémon, Cosmog, Cosmoem, Solgaleo, Lunala, Necrozma, all of the ultra beasts, and Zygarde(why can’t I hunt you). The methods for these games are;

1. Soft Resetting. Oh boy. Much like X and Y, Sun and Moon also have a long cutscene before you can choose your starter. Hunting the starters in this game are relatively hard. You can soft reset for fossil Pokémon still and for the Type:Null you get from Gladion. There aren’t any legendary Pokémon you can hunt in these games, so other than gift Pokémon like Porygon you don’t have much to reset for.

2. Random Encountering. Same as every other game except you can no longer fish wherever you want. You have to fish from specific fishing holes now. Having a Pokémon with the ability illuminate in the front of your party still makes encountering more Pokémon happen. Suction cups and sticky hold still work for fishing spots.

3. Breeding. The Masuda Method still exists and is still affected by the Shiny Charm. Odds when using the Masuda Method are 1 in 682 and with the shiny charm it’s 1 in 512. Since this is the most recent generation available a lot of people are trading online so foreign Pokémon are fairly easy to obtain. You don’t have to use the Masuda method if you don’t want to, it just helps your chances of hatching a shiny. Flame body and magma armor still help speed up the hatching process. Sun and Moon also added the Poképelago which includes a hot spring. You can add up to 18 eggs there. After a couple of hours they will hatch when you click on them. There is also an exploitable trick to breeding in these games. Once you put two Pokémon in a daycare together the game randomly generates the number of eggs it takes until you get a shiny. So what some people have been doing is they add the first Pokémon, save, and then add a magikarp into the daycare and then hatch until they get a shiny Pokémon. They use Magikarp because it’s one of the fastest Pokémon to hatch. Then they count how many eggs it took and reset the game and add the actual Pokémon they want to hunt. Instead of hatching all of those eggs they only hatch the number that was a shiny before resetting the game. So if they got a Magikarp in 289 eggs they would only hatch egg 289 for whatever their actual target is. I’m not sure if this has been patched or not.

4. Poképelago. The area with the bean tree allows you to add wild Pokémon to your team. These Pokémon do have a chance to be shiny! So what you do is save your game before going to check on the new wild Pokémon. If they aren’t shiny you can soft reset until it does become shiny. Just wait awhile and before entering to collect it just save your game again on the off chance it doesn’t stay in the pelago. If it’s not there just soft reset until it’s back and add it to your team. I’m not sure if this has been patched or not.

5. SOS Chaining. This is a pretty easy method once you know what you’re doing. It’s pretty complicated to get it set up, but I will actually go into major detail to help you all out since this is a method I use a lot. Make sure you have plenty of healing items for yourself and adrenaline orbs. First thing you want to do is get ahold of a Pokémon with the ability harvest and the moves skill swap and trick. You can watch this video here to help learn how to do that. My go to Pokémon is a Trevenant. The reason why this is so important is because you don’t want the Pokémon you are using to chain to be able to struggle to death. At the start of the battle have the Trevenant come out and skill swap its ability onto the target. Then trick a leppa berry on it. What this does is create a scenario where the wild Pokémon will never run out of moves. Granted this doesn’t work on certain Pokémon like Mimikyu because you can’t steal its ability, but you can use it on most Pokémon. Next, what you want to do is switch into a Pokémon that knows false swipe to knock the Pokémon down to 1HP and set up an adrenaline orb to make the Pokémon call for help more often. Then knock out whatever is called in for help until you find a shiny. Please note that you should try planning around what you’re hunting. For example, if you’re hunting a Pokémon that has the ability sturdy, set up some stealth rocks. Whatever Pokémon is called in for help will take stealth rocks damage which will break the sturdy. Or you can use a Pokémon that knows a multi-hitting move to break the sturdy and then knock it out. If the Pokémon you’re hunting knows sand attack try having a Pokémon with the ability keen eye out as you’re chaining. If you’re hunting a Pokémon that knows take down try having a ghost type out to keep the Pokémon from using the recoil move. You can also have out a Pokémon with the abilities intimidate or illuminate to have the Pokémon call for help more often. If a Pokémon doesn’t call for help, don’t worry. You can use this time to heal your Pokémon. If they don’t need to be healed you can just click an adrenaline orb again. This doesn’t waste the orb, but clicking it will use up a turn so you can try to make the Pokémon call for help again. When a shiny is called in you need to paralyze it(or put it to sleep if it isn’t affected by paralysis). You want to do this because a Pokémon with a status condition won’t call for help. This will cut the chain short and keep the shiny from spamming help. You wouldn’t want the shiny to somehow struggle to death or to call in another Pokémon that can risk damaging it(like how Mareanie will attack Corsola even if it’s a shiny Corsola). A Pokémon with a status condition is also easier to catch. It’s easy to SOS if you have a team designed to keep an endless chain going for a target.

Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon

These games are the same odds and same locations for the Shiny Charm/Oval Charm. What makes these games different is the use of the Rotom-Dex. Rotom now allows you to get special items that can help you out. That, and they’re is also wormholes. The locked Pokémon in these games are the Tapu Pokémon, Cosmog, Cosmoem, Solgaleo, Lunala, Necrozma, the Totem Pokémon you receive from Professor Oak, and Zygarde(WHEN WILL I EVER GET A CHANCE TO HUNT YOU!) The methods are about the same. The odds in the wormholes do change so be aware of that. The shiny chance changes depending on how far out you are and how many rings a wormhole has. Here’s the chart;

Here is also a list saying what Pokémon is available in each version and in what color wormhole So now let’s get into the methods.

1. Soft Resetting. All of the previous legendaries are split between these two games and you have a chance to hunt them in the Ultra Wormholes. You can find an unlimited amount of ultra beasts(this does not include Poipole, Stakataka, or Blacephalon), but you can only find one of each legendary. So if you mess up a legendary you lose your chance to hunt it again. However, you can leave the wormhole that contains a legendary as long as you don’t start the encounter with it. If you see it’s a legendary you don’t feel like hunting just soft reset to a point before you checked what it was and leave the wormhole. You can always go back to it later as long as you don’t save after running, knocking it out, or saving. You can use Roto-Catch to make it easier to catch a shiny legendary. You can use the Harvest/Trick strategy to keep the shiny legendary from struggling to death.

2. Random Encountering. The same as Sun and Moon, but you now have the Roto-Encounter to run into more wild Pokémon.

3. Breeding. The same as Sun and Moon, but now you have the Roto-Hatch which makes eggs hatch faster. This is stackable with flame body and magma armor.

4. Poképelago. Exactly the same. No knew additions were made.

5. SOS Chaining. The same as before except you now have access to Roto-Catch which makes catching Pokémon easier.

6. Blacephalon, Stakataka, And Poipole. This isn’t a method I just wanted to mention them really quick. You are first offered Poipole after defeating Ultra Necrozma. Just decline the offer so you can later Soft Reset for it. If you try to SR for it right there that means you would constantly have to fight Ultra Necrozma before being able to check if the Poipole is shiny. You’re better off declining and returning to the city after you beat the game to SR for it that way. Stakataka and Blacephalon don’t have their own wormholes and you only have two chances to catch your version exclusive. I personally preferred soft resetting each time I checked if the Pokémon was shiny or not, but I heard you can run from them nonstop until one becomes shiny. I don’t know how true that is, so I chose to SR each encounter in the off chance that the other method was false. I really didn’t want to risk messing up. After you catch two of your version exclusive that’s all you can get for the rest of the game. So if you caught two non-shiny Blacephalon that’s it, you don’t have a chance to hunt it after that.

Pokémon Let’s Go Eevee And Let’s Go Pikachu

I will be 100% honest with you all, I have never played these games. I had no interest in them. Regardless, I felt I should still talk about these since I’ve mentioned every other main series game. The odds are still 1 in 4,092 and the Shiny Charm is available after you complete the Kanto Pokédex. There is no longer breeding in this game so that method is completely gone. I guess I should go over whatever methods there are in this game, but keep in mind that I haven’t done any of these myself. I also want to mention that your partner Pokémon(Pikachu and Eevee) are shiny locked so you cannot begin your adventure with a shiny starter. The Mew from the Pokéball plus is also shiny locked. Also, get all the items you need before hunting. You need lures, pokéballs, and berries. Please remember that shiny Pokémon are completely able to flee from you and it’s very easy to fail a shiny in these games. So stock up on berries to help make it easier to catch and get some ultra balls. Also, if you use two controllers to catch a Pokémon it makes them more likely to stay in the ball so make sure you use the two player mode to keep a Pokémon in the ball. Since it’s a little unfair for me to talk about a game I have never played here is a video that can help you a lot more than I ever could.

1. Soft Resetting. Even though you can’t reset for the starters, you can still reset for the legendaries. Although it’s not really soft resetting anymore, you have to turn the entire game off now. This method takes awhile since you are going to the home menu and shutting the game off and rebooting it. I personally think you should try hunting for the legendaries in different games.

2. Route/Area Resetting. This is pretty simple. You just run back and forth between routes or go up and down a ladder to keep resetting all wild Pokémon in the area. By resetting you can change all the Pokémon nearby and have a chance of one being shiny.

3. Catch Combos. If you get a catch combo above 31 the shiny odds will increase. Unfortunately, this increases for all Pokémon in the area and not just the one you were catching over and over. Usually people use Lures for this method. Lures are reverse repels, they make more Pokémon spawn in the area.

4. Running from Pokémon. If you encounter a Pokémon and run from it that will cause the Pokémon to leave the area completely. This gives the chance for new Pokémon to appear in the area in hopes that one will be shiny. It’s pretty much a slower version of route and area resets.

[Edit]5. Alolan Trading. There are trainers scattered around the Let’s Go games that will trade you the Alolan forms of certain Pokémon. They actually have a chance to be shiny as well! So what a lot of people have been doing is getting a bunch of Kanto forms in bulk, saving in front of the person who trades the Alolan forms, and then spam trade until they get a shiny. If none of the Alolan forms they receive happen to be shiny you can just reset the game and start to bulk trading all over again. You will instantly know if an Alolan form is shiny because it shows you the shiny sprite during the trade animation. Unfortunately there isn’t a way to increase shiny odds during this hunt, it’s still an interesting one to do.

What you might need for shiny hunting and what you need to keep in mind.

•Patience, and LOTS of it! Remember, the odds don’t guarantee that you will get a shiny. The fastest shiny I have gotten with Masuda Method was in 2 eggs, but the longest was almost 1,900 eggs. Sometimes you get the shiny easily, sometimes you don’t. You aren’t guaranteed a shiny unless it’s an event shiny that Gamefreak hands to you.

•Repels. These are useful for methods like Pokéradar and DexNav. You want repels to keep from breaking chains.

•A calculator. A lot of people like to count how many times they encountered a Pokémon to show just how long a specific hunt took. You don’t need any fancy apps or websites, a regular dollar store calculator or the calculator on your phone is fine. As long as it can add you will be fine.

•Pokémon with specific abilities. Some examples are Pokémon with Flamebody/Magma Armor make it easier to hatch shiny Pokémon. Pokémon with illuminate draw Pokémon towards you if you want constant encounters. Pokémon with intimidate can help with SOS chaining. Suction cups and sticky hold helps with fishing.

•Be gentle. If you encounter a shiny I recommend not lowering its HP under half. Paralyze it or put it to sleep to make it easier to catch. A lot of people fail a shiny because of a critical hit.

•Pokéballs. The last thing you need is to fail a shiny because you ran out of pokéballs. I usually grind a bunch of money up to make sure I have at least 50 of every kind of pokéball I can buy in my bag at all times.

•Specific moves. Some examples are headbutt for the headbutt trees in Johto. Sweetscent for horde battles. Trick to give Pokémon berries when SOS chaining. Thunder wave to make it easier to catch a wild Pokémon.

•Breaks. Don’t forget that you need time to cool down when you start getting frustrated. If you get bored just come back to the hunt later. You don’t always find the shiny the first day you start hunting it.

•Healing items. The last thing you want is to fail because all of your own Pokémon fainted from fighting a legendary or struggled from running out of PP. Get plenty of revives, hyper potions, and leppa berries

•Pay close attention and take your time! A lot of people fail shiny Pokémon because they reset over it or they accidentally faint it. Make sure to always check the Pokémon before resetting or knocking it out. Some people will flee from shiny Pokémon as well because they weren’t paying attention. I know it becomes a little repetitive when you do the same encounters over and over, but your lack of attention can cost you a shiny.

•Learn about the Pokémon you are hunting! Some Pokémon know moves like take down that will cause the shiny to eventually faint itself. Some Pokémon know explosion. Some know whirlwind or teleport and can flee from you. Some know final gambit or momento. You need to know what you’re up against before you try to make an attempt. Figure out what moves it has at the level range you are hunting it at. Figure out how much PP it has as well. You need to find out how much time you have before the Pokémon starts to struggle to death.

•Remember, the Shiny Charm and Oval Charm are key items. They are not tradeable so if you don’t have one you have to obtain it by filling the Pokédex.

Some tips for blogging about shiny Pokémon

A lot of people, much like myself, will create content revolving around their hunts. If you wanted to join in on the fun and look as professional as possible let me give you a few pointers about what I’ve been doing.

•The background story. Say what game you found your shiny in. Mention if you have the shiny charm or not. It may seem meaningless, but there are two different kinds of hunters. Full odds, and method hunters. By explaining what you are will make you more relatable and give more context to the type of hunter that you are.

•The number of encounters it took. Whether it’s hatching, soft resetting, or chaining, people are interested to see just how many Pokémon you went through. While not the most necessary, it makes it interesting to know. If you find a shiny in 32 soft resets it’s interesting because it was a fast hunt under odds. If it’s a high number like 9,473 it becomes interesting because you went through a tough and tiresome hunt and still found the shiny. It also gives people an idea of the time you spend on the hunt. It looks really impressive if you find a shiny well under odds. It also looks just as impressive if you show you have sheer determination to get a shiny Pokémon despite how long a hunt took. If you don’t want to count exactly how many encounters you did you could set a timer to see how much time you spend hunting.

•Pictures, pictures, and more pictures. Much like art posts, posts about shiny Pokémon need to be filled with proof. Why? Well, because of genning and hacking you have to prove that you are in fact, a shiny hunter. What pictures do you need? First, the initial encounter.

People love to see you first encountering it in the wild. This proves that you did encounter it and not hack it in, and it’s also a beautiful shot if you manage to capture the sparkles in the shot. If you hatched it you can still take a picture of it first hatching. Next, the summary screen.

For further proof, they get to see the OT trainer is you. If the name and ID matches every other shiny you have found in that game it makes you look even more credible. This also draws the attention of competitive people. Battlers love to see shiny Pokémon with good natures, perfect stats, and useful abilities. Even if the Pokémon isn’t good for battle, showing the summary shows the uniqueness of your own shiny. Someone else may have a shiny Marowak, but mine has this nature and this ability. After the summary you wanna show off the shiny in either battle or out to be played with.

This helps show off how cool it is having a shiny Pokémon on your team, or shows off their model outside of battle. It’s nice to see shiny Pokémon in different angels as well so if you want to do the photo shoots on Melemele island you totally can. While not necessary you can also take pictures of your Pokémon in the box.

I took a picture of the shiny Miltank I hatched in the box with the rest of the Miltanks I hatched before it. This helps emphasize the amount of work that went into finding my shiny.

•Also, be creative with the post. Put your own little spin on it that other people don’t do.

•Most importantly, give context. Don’t be vague with your post. Just posting you found a shiny and only one picture doesn’t really catch any sort of attention. If you nickname your Pokémon something unique give some sort of explanation on it. For example, I named my shiny Marowak Bonetrousle because that’s the battle theme of Papyrus the Skeleton from Undertale.

Of course you don’t have to do any of this if you don’t want to. It’s only some tips for people who love to post shiny Pokémon, but haven’t been getting a lot of likes for it. If you don’t get a lot of likes and don’t care if you do that’s also fine, I won’t force you to do anything you don’t want to do. At the end of the day it’s your own shiny blog and you can put as much detail and pictures as you want.

:sparkles: :sparkles: :sparkles:

I do not own any of the YouTube videos I linked in this blog nor do I own any of the pictures that aren’t of my shiny Pokémon. If there is something I missed feel free to mention it so other people can see what I forgot to put in. I also don’t own any links for specific websites. Also special thanks to 8bit for being encouraging and giving some sweet input.

:sparkles: Happy hunting and may the odds be forever in your favor :sparkles: