Shiny Pokémon Theories

Shiny Pokémon Theories

Shiny Breedings Theory
I have wondered since 7th grade if Pokémon can be bred shiny. Using a pundit square, I determined that it might be possible with 4-8 breedings. The problem was, do Pokémon carry genes? And if they do, do they carry shiny genes? I've only done one test, but I will do more to come.

Test #1 Result:
My first test was breeding a shiny male Gyarados with a normal female Gyarados. After 4 eggs, none were shiny. I will repeat this test soon and continue it on.

Shiny Pokémon Gender Differences Theory
I have noticed that most shiny Pokémon found without cheat codes appear to be males. In my HeartGold game alone, I have obtained 5 shiny Pokémon without cheats:
Slowpoke- male
Machoke- male
Gyarados- story event- male
Raiko- Gamestop event- genderless
Entei- Gamestop event- genderless

Notice a pattern? I will conduct further research with my Pokémon Platinum game to see if this theory is true.

Proven Pokémon Theories

Giratina Theory
Back before "Giratina and the Sky Warrior", I made a theory about Giratina's world. I theorized that if the Pokémon world was real, and it was opposite of our world, then Giratine lived in our world. This alone meant a way into the Pokémon world.
My theory was proven wrong at the release of the movie in America.

Re: Shiny Pokémon Theories

Yes, Pokemon can be bred shiny. It's about a one-in-eight thousand chance, though, iirc.

Re: Shiny Pokémon Theories

pokémon genetics ... don't quite work like that?

it's complicated for gen 2, but in gen n|n>2, parental alternate colouration has essentially no effect on the offspring. lake of rage gyarados was always male in gen 2, iirc, incert what for gen 4.

gender oughtn't to affect whether a pokémon can be shiny ... ignoring possible strangeness due to rng, which is linear-congruential iirc, which does not equally distribute all possible subseqences. but that shouldn't produce a noticeable effect except under pathological conditions.

Re: Shiny Pokémon Theories

Tyranidoom~ said:

Shiny Pokémon Gender Differences Theory
I have noticed that most shiny Pokémon found without cheat codes appear to be males. In my HeartGold game alone, I have obtained 5 shiny Pokémon without cheats:
Slowpoke- male
Machoke- male
Gyarados- story event- male
Raiko- Gamestop event- genderless
Entei- Gamestop event- genderless

Notice a pattern? I will conduct further research with my Pokémon Platinum game to see if this theory is true.

Click to expand...

that's hardly fair, though, because you didn't find the legendary shinies, you got them given to you at an event i.e. they are programmed to be shiny. they were always going to be shiny. This is the same with the Red Gyarados. Additionally, Machoke are male in three out of four cases, so really your Slowpoke is the only standout case of a male shiny.

anyway, this has kind of been researched pretty thoroughly.

Re: Shiny Pokémon Theories

I admire your spirit in wanting to experiment with things you don't know, but in a fan community as big and active as the Pokémon one, your default assumption should always be that somebody probably already knows, unless you've made a very significant effort to find out and failed. We have hackers disassembling the games days after they come out, and things like Pokémon attributes (such as shininess and gender) and breeding are some of the most-researched things in the games because they're important to competitive battling. Simply looking up "Shiny Pokémon" on Bulbapedia could have told you the true answers to both your experiments before you even began.

To save you the trouble, the normal chance of a Pokémon that you encounter or hatch in any game after the second generation being shiny is 1/8192, regardless of whether either of its parents is shiny; Pokémon do have "genes", of a sort, but they're IVs, which affect stats but have nothing to do with shininess (that is determined by the "personality value", which is not inherited). In G/S/C, however, shininess was determined by IVs; it was impossible to breed two shiny Pokémon, but when one parent was shiny, the egg would have a 1/64 chance of being shiny.

You can also increase the chances of wild Pokémon being shiny by chaining with the Pokéradar in the fourth-generation games, or for eggs, by breeding Pokémon originating in different-language games.

And shinies are no more likely to be either gender than other Pokémon; any trend you've noticed is a result of those particular Pokémon being preprogrammed as male, not because maleness and shininess are significantly correlated.


Pokémon game mechanics are a fascinating subject; you sound interested, so you should try reading up on game mechanics around the Internet! By analyzing the game code, people have discovered far more intricate things than you would ever be able to discover by experiment.

Re: Shiny Pokémon Theories

Tyranidoom~ said:

Shiny Breedings Theory
I have wondered since 7th grade if Pokémon can be bred shiny. Using a pundit square, I determined that it might be possible with 4-8 breedings. The problem was, do Pokémon carry genes? And if they do, do they carry shiny genes? I've only done one test, but I will do more to come.

Test #1 Result:
My first test was breeding a shiny male Gyarados with a normal female Gyarados. After 4 eggs, none were shiny. I will repeat this test soon and continue it on.

Shiny Pokémon Gender Differences Theory
I have noticed that most shiny Pokémon found without cheat codes appear to be males. In my HeartGold game alone, I have obtained 5 shiny Pokémon without cheats:
Slowpoke- male
Machoke- male
Gyarados- story event- male
Raiko- Gamestop event- genderless
Entei- Gamestop event- genderless

Notice a pattern? I will conduct further research with my Pokémon Platinum game to see if this theory is true.

Click to expand...

My shiny Raticate from Gold is female.

EDIT: Also I first thought this thread was for theories about why shiny Pokémon exist and attempts to explain their colors.

Re: Shiny Pokémon Theories

My Red Gyrados in both of my HG files were female.

Shininess in determined by a value unconnected to Pokèmon genetics (IVs) past Gen II.