Pokémon Scarlet and Violet definitive shiny hunting guide

Hunting shiny Pokémon has gotten easier over Pokémon generations, and Pokémon Scarlet and Violet make it the easiest it’s ever been.

While the rate at which shiny Pokémon appear is initially very low, using things like the Shiny Charm, shiny sandwiches, or the Masuda method (which involves using foreign Pokémon to breed) will help you snag your desired shiny in no time. Using the catching methods below, we’ve been able to find shiny Pokémon in less than 30 minutes.

If you’re new to shiny hunting, we list out the best methods to do this below, including using Mass Outbreaks, picnics, shiny sandwiches, and breeding.

Shiny Rates

The base rate for finding a shiny Pokémon is 1/4096, which is miniscule. The chances of finding a shiny Pokemon are greatly increased by eating sandwiches, using the Shiny Charm and Mass Outbreaks.

• Basis shiny rate 1/4086
• Shiny Charm with a Shiny Rate 1/1365.67
• Mass Outbreak rate (after defeating at least 60 Pokémon): 1/1365.67
• Mass Outbreak rate (after 60 Pokémon) with Shiny Charm: 1/819.6
• With Lv., you can have a sparkling rate 3 Sparkling Power sandwich: 1/1024.38
• Mass Outbreak rate (after 60 Pokémon) with Lv. 3 Sparkling Power sandwich: 1/683.08
• Mass Outbreak rate (after 60 Pokémon) with Shiny Charm and Lv. 3 Sparkling Power sandwich: 1/512.44
• Shiny rates when Masuda breeding method is used 1/682.6
• Shiny rate in breeding using Masuda Method and Shiny Charm 1/512.44

If you put in the effort to grab Herba Mystica from raids (to make Sparkling Power sandwiches) and get the Shiny Charm, you will end up with lots of shiny Pokémon.

How to Get the Shiny Charm

To get the Shiny Charm, you have to complete the Pokédex, which means you have to have at least one of each of the 400 Pokémon of Paldea in your possession at one point (trading Pokémon backAnd forth between players is fine). Some regional Pokémon that are obtainable in Scarlet and Violet don’t count toward the Pokédex, such as Charmander, Quagsire, or Perrserker.

Once you complete your Pokédex, you can talk to Jacq in the biology room of your respective academy to get the charm.

Image: Game Freak/The Pokémon Company, Nintendo via Polygon

Completing the Pokédex isn’t too bad, as you can catch most Pokémon — even evolutions — in the wild. You can also get version-exclusive Pokémon fairly easily using specific trade link codes (though this method requires Nintendo Switch Online).

Shiny sandwich recipes

If you’re trying to find shiny Pokémon in the wild, using sandwiches is a must. You’ll need Herba MysticaYou can only obtain this from raids of high level. Using specific ingredients in “Creative Mode,” you can make sandwiches that both boost the encounter rate and the shiny rate to find specific types of Pokémon.

We recommend two kinds of recipe for shining hunting.

One set (which we’ll refer to as the “Simple recipe”) uses Specific Herba Mystica, mostly saltyThese recipes can be used to quickly make sandwiches if you have lots Herba Mystica.

The second set (which we’ll refer to as the “Simple recipe”) uses Almost any Herba Mystica, so if you don’t have many, you can use these recipes. That said, this set of recipes has lots of ingredients inside, so it’s easy to make a mistake while building if you’re not careful.

These recipes can be shared with your friends by creating a Union Circle. Once you make the sandwich, everyone will have the buff, so it’s a great way to minimize Herba Mystica usage. We recommend disbanding the Union Circle after making the sandwich (which won’t remove the buff) in order to maximize Pokémon spawns.

Whatever sandwich recipe you decide to use, be sure you save the file before you start making it. This way, you can just restart your game if you mess up or if you don’t find your desired shiny Pokémon.

The Nintendo Switch home button can be used to pause your time for the sandwich powers. Any active sandwich will immediately cease if you close the game or start it again.You should therefore save. Before Make the sandwich. By pressing the D-pad, you can see how long it has taken to make the sandwich.

How to find a shiny Pokémon using Mass Outbreaks

If you are interested in shiny rates, it is worth shining hunting during Mass Outbreaks. To do so, you’ll need to do the following.

1. The Mass Outbreak is what you need to shine hunt.You can also change the date of your Nintendo Switch in order to receive a new set of outbreaks. They can also be changed at midnight.
2. Keep your games safe in the event of an emergency.
3. Defeat 60 of the mass outbreak Pokémon. There is no way to 100% track this in game, so you’ll need to manually count and keep tabs on it. There will be messages that note that the number of Pokémon in the outbreak is decreasing every 20-30 Pokémon defeated, so you can use this to help keep track. When it says the number of Pokémon is “definitely getting lower,” that means you’ve knocked out at least 50 Pokémon. Be careful not to overhunt the Pokémon, as this can cause the outbreak to end. This typically requires you to defeat over 100 of the Pokémon. This will cause you to restart the game. Note that this is not a “chain” as used in previous Pokémon games. You can battle other Pokémon between the 60, run from battles, leave the outbreak and come back, etc. There is no “chain” to break.
4. Save your game again once you’re sure you’ve defeated at least 60.
5. Herba Mystica is a good choice. make a sandwich for the outbreak Pokémon’s type using the recipes above. Rates are quite high even without the Sparkling Power sandwich, so don’t stress if you don’t have any Herba Mystica.
6. Run in and out of the outbreak area to despawn and respawn the PokémonIt’s refreshing and great for shinies. If you’re hunting for a Pokémon where it’s hard to tell if it’s shiny, you can use the auto-battle feature, as your Pokémon will refuse to fight the wild Pokémon if it’s shiny.
7. If you lose too many or the outbreak stops, then close your game.

If the Pokémon is in a place where it’s convenient to set up a picnic, you can set up and then quickly take down a picnic to despawn and respawn all the Pokémon in the area, allowing you to quickly look for shinies. This method is referred to as the “picnic method,” but it obviously doesn’t work in water or on some inconveniently steep cliff sides.

Nearly every Pokémon can have an outbreak (excluding legendary Pokémon and Paradox Pokémon) according to Serebii.net. We noticed, however that certain Mass Outbreaks were more frequent than others. For example, we’ve never seen a Zangoose or Mareep outbreak, but we’ve seen tons of Flittle and Drifloon outbreaks.

If you don’t want to wait for an outbreak of your target Pokémon, you can try the method below (which we’ve had tons of success with).

How to find a shiny Pokémon in the wild (without Mass Outbreaks)

This is a similar method to the one above, but without the Mass Outbreak. This method requires you to prepare a sandwich.

1. Find an area with your desired Pokémon. It’s best if your Pokémon has a unique type in this area. For example, shiny hunting Klawf (a rock-type) in the rocky canyon area may be hard because there are other rock-type Pokémon in the area. Finding an effective spawn location is not possible for every single Pokémon, but do your best.
2. You can save your game.
3. Make a sandwich that attracts and increases the shiny rate of your desired Pokémon’s typeUse the following recipes.
4. Either auto battle the target Pokémon or despawn/respawn them (by using picnics or by just leaving and reentering the area) until you find your desired shiny.
5. You can restart your game if you don’t find your shiny object within the 30 minute sandwich time.

This method is a bit easier depending on the Pokémon, as you don’t have to worry about the Mass Outbreak going away and you’re a bit more free to choose whatever Pokémon you want. This method will also work on Paradox Pokémon, but you’ll need to make the sandwich before heading to Area Zero.

This method may still prove cumbersome, depending on where you are. For example, shiny hunting Finizen in the ocean can be a pain, as it’s only water-type, and using a water-type sandwich will boost the appearance of many other Pokémon in the ocean as well. Shiny hunting in the ocean is also very unpleasant because our frames rate constantly tank when we are in water. If you don’t want to deal with that, you can always try to breed a shiny Pokémon.

How to breed a shiny Pokémon

The “Masuda method” is a shiny breeding technique that involves breeding a foreign Pokémon with your own. This means that the Pokémon comes from a game that uses a different language, which it will say on its profile as seen below.

Image: Game Freak/The Pokémon Company, Nintendo via Polygon

It is best to utilize the Masuda Method to obtain a foreign Ditto. You can quickly do this by using the code link 4448-4448. It may take several attempts to get an English Ditto. There are many English-speaking players looking for Ditto. You may trade late in the evening or early in morning depending on where you are located. This is because players from other countries might be available to help you get non-English dittos faster.

Once you have the foreign Ditto, all you need to do is breed the target Pokémon with the Ditto. We do however recommend the following to prevent you from having too many dud eggs.

1. Get ready to host your next party only have your desired shiny Pokémon and the foreign Ditto.
2. Head somewhere that’s easy to travel around. Medali is good, as we haven’t experienced too many frame-rate drops there and it’s nice and flat.
3. Take out your boxesFind a box that is completely empty. Closing your boxes, with the empty selected box. These will become your eggs.
4. You can save Your game.
5. Open a Picnic.
6. Do anything Egg Power Sandwich. The Great Peanut Butter Sandwich is our favorite (#17).
7. Put your picnic basket down.At the bottom of the table.
8. It should be checked regularly to ensure that you still have at least 30 eggs.. Once the basket has 10 eggs, it won’t get any more, so make sure to clear it out.
9. Take the Ditto and Pokémon out of your party and replace them with a Pokémon that knows Flame BodyThis hatches eggs quicker. Talonflame is our preferred method.
10. To delete, use the minus button Pick a whole column of 5 eggs and place them in your party.
11. Run aroundEnsure that all five eggs are hatched.
12. If you did not get a shiny Pokémon, repeat step 10 until you hatch all 30 eggs.
13. You can restart the game if you don’t get your shiny yet. If you don’t mind having lots of Pokémon to release or trade, you can just start again without restarting your game.

Whether or not an egg will hatch into a shiny Pokémon is decided when the egg is created, not when it is hatched, so you need to make sure to create 30 new eggs, rather than saving and hatching the same 30 eggs.

It took us just 30 minutes to hatch 30 Wooper eggs. We were able to reduce the egg creation time (lol), and increase the egg hatching times by using the Egg Power of the sandwich. However, Pokémon that require more steps to hatch, like Bagon or Goomy, may take longer and may require multiple sandwiches.

Note that if you want specific stats, natures, or other things like that on your bred Pokémon, you’ll need to take some other measures. For more information, see our breeding guide.