IndigoClaudia
The Fool
- Pronoun
- She/Fae
This guide was taken from my website (which does not currently exist yet). This "article" is in "beta" mode so please correct me if anything seems off. I will link to this article once my website is released. Until then, enjoy it here.
Pokemon Sword and Shield Shiny-Hunting Guide
Hellooo, and welcome to the guide for shiny-hunting in pokémon sword and shield. Let’s get started
The basics
(Feel free to skip this section if you know a good amount about pokémon)
Shiny pokémon have been around since Generation 2, and players have always been trying to get there hands on shiny pokémon. People want all there favourite pokémon in shiny form (except for shiny Lucario which is disgusting... just saying). People are always trying to use hacks to get shiny pokémon as well, which is definitely a way to get a shiny… but isn’t it cheating? It’s far more satisfying to catch one yourself.
The Mechanics - Catching
Pokemon sword and shield introduces all sorts of crazy shiny mechanics.
The most basic of these mechanics is the rate of finding a shiny. If I walk into a pokémon or enter a random encounter at any moment, I have a 1 in 4096 chance of finding a shiny pokémon.
That is a very low chance!
This here probably isn’t super reassuring, but I’ve never been interested in Shinies before.
Before I got interested in Shinies, I only had 4 shiny pokémon.
Now, there is a way to find more shiny pokémon… way easier, and here’s how you do it. But be warned as it will take a while.
You will need to complete the galar Pokédex. All of the pokémon. This will take a while and you will need some friends to help you out…
but once you’re done with that there is a doctor in Chichester who will give you the shiny charm if you complete the Pokédex. And then the chances of encountering a Shiny are 1 in 1365.
This means that in my entire life, if every day I were to find 1 pokémon, I would have 3-4 shinies.
Which, let's be honest is still not great. It's fine and all... but your not likely to find many more shinies like that. That's where the complicated mechanics go.
So let me explain how encounter "chaining" works.
If you scroll over to the pokedex entries of certain pokemon (as in like in your pokedex not on like serebii), than you can see a peculiar number... it says "number battled." This is incredibly relevant to shiny hunting.
To put it simply, the more of a species you battle (knock out or catch), the higher chance of finding a shiny. But wait! There's more. The more you battle a species, the more likely you are to find brilliant pokemon too, meaning that you have a higher chance of finding pokemon with amazing stats who are also shiny, which is kind of a win-win situation.
Ok, so this is great! but there is one more element to it. ACTUAL CHAINING!! if you battle 25 or more of that specific species of pokemon in a row, without battling any other species (so you run away instantly if you find another) than this is what happens.
And one last thing. Pokemon Sword and Shield inroduced Square Shinies and Star Shinies. Guess which one is rarer?
Square (In the 60's i'm sure people would have gone out of they're way to avoid square shinies). So let me explain the mechanics. There is a 1 in 16 chance of getting a square shiny. That's not great, however, battle chaining boosts that chance up to a 15 in 16 chance witch is considerably better odds.
Great! Now we know how this all works, so lets walk you through it so your on your way to getting a shiny!
Walkthrough - Catching
Before you get started, here are some tips
So i'll have a gallade at the front of my party, and i'll have his moveset be
The next thing you should do is battle all the Wooloos/Whatever other pokemon. All of them. In a row. Run away from every other pokémon. Do nothing but this for several hours and before you know it, you should find a shiny. Aren't you so Proud?
Mechanics - Hatching
Of course, catching is not the only way. We also have hatching! Yipee!
Hatching is unique because it allows people to get pokémon with good stats, as well as the fact that you don't have to spend a ton of attention on it, it's more of an idle thing (kinda).
So, similar to wild pokémon, there is also a 1 in 4096 chance of getting a shiny with hatching. And with the Shiny Charm, 1 in 1365 chance, again. But there's one more interesting mechanic, known as the Masuda method.
The masuda method is pretty simple. Breed two pokémon from 2 different languages and there is a 1 in 683 chance of getting a shiny. With a shiny charm and the masuda method, it's a 1 in 512 chance, and it's very straightforward, and will probably save you some time. Here's a little table for this.
Alright, now that we know this, i'll walk you through hatching your first shiny
Walkthrough - Hatching
Alright, your first step is to pick a pokémon. For example, Ralts. Next step is to get a Ditto. The best bet is to catch a rare ditto at the wild area's resident Ditto Den (These ditto's all have great IV's so with any luck the other person will also trade you one with good stats). Now go online if you can, or trade with a friend who plays pokémon Sword or Shield in another language, and recive your fancy "foreign" ditto (pro tip: if your ditto is unnamed, you should name it something. My Ditto is french and i named him Pierre). Now, put the Ditto and your Pokemon (ralts?) in the daycare center. Now go get a pokémon that has the flame body ability. It should be one of the following (Tip: use the final evolution in case you run into a dangerous pokémon).
And remember, these pokémon aren't guaranteed to have these abilities so make sure to check (Also, Coalossal's pokedex entries say it is very gentle, so i think it's sweet when a coalossal is helping to incubate these little eggs). The Flame Body ability makes eggs hatch faster, so trust me, it's worth it.
Remove everyone on your team, except for the pokémon with flame body, and head back to the day care center, and run around and recieve the eggs from the woman there until you have five, enough to fill your party. Now run around, collect eggs, run around, collect eggs, and keep doing that until you have a shiny. Enjoy the shiny ;)
Experimentation & Notes
A couple things to note.
A few words
Thanks for reading this guide. I really hope you enjoy all the shinies you get. If you notice any errors, or problems with the information, please tell me. Thanks.
-Indigo
Most, if not all of the data in this guide came from Serebii.net so i think i definitely need to thank them for this information.
Pokemon Sword and Shield Shiny-Hunting Guide
Hellooo, and welcome to the guide for shiny-hunting in pokémon sword and shield. Let’s get started
The basics
(Feel free to skip this section if you know a good amount about pokémon)
Shiny pokémon have been around since Generation 2, and players have always been trying to get there hands on shiny pokémon. People want all there favourite pokémon in shiny form (except for shiny Lucario which is disgusting... just saying). People are always trying to use hacks to get shiny pokémon as well, which is definitely a way to get a shiny… but isn’t it cheating? It’s far more satisfying to catch one yourself.
The Mechanics - Catching
Pokemon sword and shield introduces all sorts of crazy shiny mechanics.
The most basic of these mechanics is the rate of finding a shiny. If I walk into a pokémon or enter a random encounter at any moment, I have a 1 in 4096 chance of finding a shiny pokémon.
That is a very low chance!
This here probably isn’t super reassuring, but I’ve never been interested in Shinies before.
Before I got interested in Shinies, I only had 4 shiny pokémon.
- A hacked crabominable I got in a giveaway
- A shiny Nuzleaf (I found in the grass randomly in Ultra Sun)
- A shiny Machamp, I found randomly in LGPE
- And finally a toxapex i traded said machamp for.
Now, there is a way to find more shiny pokémon… way easier, and here’s how you do it. But be warned as it will take a while.
You will need to complete the galar Pokédex. All of the pokémon. This will take a while and you will need some friends to help you out…
but once you’re done with that there is a doctor in Chichester who will give you the shiny charm if you complete the Pokédex. And then the chances of encountering a Shiny are 1 in 1365.
This means that in my entire life, if every day I were to find 1 pokémon, I would have 3-4 shinies.
Which, let's be honest is still not great. It's fine and all... but your not likely to find many more shinies like that. That's where the complicated mechanics go.
So let me explain how encounter "chaining" works.
If you scroll over to the pokedex entries of certain pokemon (as in like in your pokedex not on like serebii), than you can see a peculiar number... it says "number battled." This is incredibly relevant to shiny hunting.
To put it simply, the more of a species you battle (knock out or catch), the higher chance of finding a shiny. But wait! There's more. The more you battle a species, the more likely you are to find brilliant pokemon too, meaning that you have a higher chance of finding pokemon with amazing stats who are also shiny, which is kind of a win-win situation.
| Number of Pokémon Battled | Chance w/ Shiny Charm | Chance w/out Shiny Charm | Chance of Brilliant Pokémon |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | No data | No data | 1.3x |
| 50 | 1 in 1024 | 1 in 2048 | 1.6x |
| 100 | 1 in 819 | 1 in 1365 | 2x |
| 200 | 1 in 683 | 1 in 1024 | 2x |
| 500 | 1 in 512 | 1 in 682 | 2x |
Ok, so this is great! but there is one more element to it. ACTUAL CHAINING!! if you battle 25 or more of that specific species of pokemon in a row, without battling any other species (so you run away instantly if you find another) than this is what happens.
| Number of Pokémon | Chance w/ Shiny Charm | Chance w/out Shiny Charm | Chance of Brilliant Pokémon |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25+ | 1 in 455 | No data | 2x |
And one last thing. Pokemon Sword and Shield inroduced Square Shinies and Star Shinies. Guess which one is rarer?
Square (In the 60's i'm sure people would have gone out of they're way to avoid square shinies). So let me explain the mechanics. There is a 1 in 16 chance of getting a square shiny. That's not great, however, battle chaining boosts that chance up to a 15 in 16 chance witch is considerably better odds.
Great! Now we know how this all works, so lets walk you through it so your on your way to getting a shiny!
Walkthrough - Catching
Before you get started, here are some tips
- Make sure the pokémon at the head of your party is planned well, and has false swipe
- Don't use shiny pokémon while finding shinies because thats another animation right there!
- Turn of battle animations. I know, i love battle animations as much as you do but this will save you SO MUCH time... trust me on this one.
So i'll have a gallade at the front of my party, and i'll have his moveset be
- Revenge - A super effective move against wooloo, so this will knock them all out. This is intentionally placed as the top move, making things go fast.
- Slash - a Move with high PP
- False Swipe - For catching said wooloos
- Hypnosis - A similar reason.
The next thing you should do is battle all the Wooloos/Whatever other pokemon. All of them. In a row. Run away from every other pokémon. Do nothing but this for several hours and before you know it, you should find a shiny. Aren't you so Proud?
Mechanics - Hatching
Of course, catching is not the only way. We also have hatching! Yipee!
Hatching is unique because it allows people to get pokémon with good stats, as well as the fact that you don't have to spend a ton of attention on it, it's more of an idle thing (kinda).
So, similar to wild pokémon, there is also a 1 in 4096 chance of getting a shiny with hatching. And with the Shiny Charm, 1 in 1365 chance, again. But there's one more interesting mechanic, known as the Masuda method.
The masuda method is pretty simple. Breed two pokémon from 2 different languages and there is a 1 in 683 chance of getting a shiny. With a shiny charm and the masuda method, it's a 1 in 512 chance, and it's very straightforward, and will probably save you some time. Here's a little table for this.
| Regular Hatching | Shiny Charm | Masuda Method | Masuda Method & Shiny Charm |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 in 4096 | 1 in 1365 | 1 in 683 | 1 in 512 |
Walkthrough - Hatching
Alright, your first step is to pick a pokémon. For example, Ralts. Next step is to get a Ditto. The best bet is to catch a rare ditto at the wild area's resident Ditto Den (These ditto's all have great IV's so with any luck the other person will also trade you one with good stats). Now go online if you can, or trade with a friend who plays pokémon Sword or Shield in another language, and recive your fancy "foreign" ditto (pro tip: if your ditto is unnamed, you should name it something. My Ditto is french and i named him Pierre). Now, put the Ditto and your Pokemon (ralts?) in the daycare center. Now go get a pokémon that has the flame body ability. It should be one of the following (Tip: use the final evolution in case you run into a dangerous pokémon).
- Ponyta/Rapidash (NOT GALARIAN)
- Litwick/Lampent/Chandelure
- Carkoal/Coalossoal
- Centiskorch
And remember, these pokémon aren't guaranteed to have these abilities so make sure to check (Also, Coalossal's pokedex entries say it is very gentle, so i think it's sweet when a coalossal is helping to incubate these little eggs). The Flame Body ability makes eggs hatch faster, so trust me, it's worth it.
Remove everyone on your team, except for the pokémon with flame body, and head back to the day care center, and run around and recieve the eggs from the woman there until you have five, enough to fill your party. Now run around, collect eggs, run around, collect eggs, and keep doing that until you have a shiny. Enjoy the shiny ;)
Experimentation & Notes
A couple things to note.
- Max raid battles don't take Shiny Charms, Number Battled, and Battle Chain into account, so good luck getting a shiny gmax pokémon :c
- Pokémon from random encounters can be Chained/Shiny Charms/Number Battled but it's far less efficient and it's very easy to break your catch chain. At least pokémon that you battled will appear more easily.
- It's a shame but The starter pokémon are shiny locked (So are the Toxel, Charmander, Pikachu, Eevee and every other pokémon you receive as a gift). Meaning you have to breed for them. Not to mention The Legendary pokémon are shiny locked too and you can't breed them.
A few words
Thanks for reading this guide. I really hope you enjoy all the shinies you get. If you notice any errors, or problems with the information, please tell me. Thanks.
-Indigo
Most, if not all of the data in this guide came from Serebii.net so i think i definitely need to thank them for this information.
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