Pokémon Scarlet and Violet made shiny Pokémon hunting way easier

Shiny Pokémon used to be a prized possession of Pokémon fans everywhere. These rare Pokémon that sport an alternate color scheme have a 1 in 4,096 chance of appearing in the wild in more recent games. Because of this, the special Pokémon long served as an emblem of a dedicated trainer that would put the hunt for rare monsters above anything else. Catching a single shiny Pokémon could take multiple sessions of grinding for hours at a time. But that’s starting to change, as recent mainline games have made shinies easier to find, and now it seems like everyone and their mother has shiny Pokémon.

The technical definition of a player is anyone who has ever played. Pokémon GoldAnd SilverOne shiny has been caught by either the originals or remakes. You can also catch red Gyarados in those games as part of your mainline story. In the previous generations, however, it proved difficult to capture a shiny Gyarados outside of that special Gyarados. Starting in the second generation, through to gen 5, (Pokémon Black 2And White 2), the rate of seeing a shiny was even lower than it is now — 1 in 8,192.

Of course, each game led players to develop their own tricks and strategies for getting shiny Pokémon. You can find the In GoldAnd Silver, some shiny hunters estimated that a player could achieve a 1 in 64 chance of hatching a shiny if one of the parent Pokémon is shiny. But, this requires that you start with something shiny. Those who desire to catch a shiny are advised not to use Gyarados but instead work hard and find one wild. It took a lot of work to get one from the wild, despite the relatively low chances. In the early days, items that boosted the appearance rates of shiny Pokémon didn’t exist, so if you didn’t breed you would have to cycle through encounter after encounter in the grass as you ran around and bumped into each Pokémon one by one.

Shiny hunting is becoming more popular over time. It is now easier to hunt shiny objects. DiamondAnd Pearl, we learned about the Masuda breeding method, which increases the odds of hatching a shiny Pokémon from an egg when you’re breeding Pokémon from two different languages. (Because of this, Dittos from other countries are a mainstay of Pokémon breeding. Sorry Ditto! Black 2And White 2 introduced the Shiny Charm, which effectively tripled the odds of encountering a shiny Pokémon. After that, Game Freak roughly doubled general odds of running into a shiny Pokémon inXAnd Y.

The popularity of shinies has continued in Nintendo Switch’s remakes and new games. This is In Pokémon: Let’s Go Pikachu And Pokémon: Let’s Go EeveeGame Freak made the leap from grass-spawning wild monsters to overworld spawns. Instead of seeing a single spawn in battle, we could see dozens of Pokémon walking around all at once, including shiny ones. You can combine this with in-game events, such as Mass Outbreaks. Legends: ArceusAnd ScarletAnd VioletYou have many opportunities to hunt down shinies.

Based on the odds and anecdotal evidence, there’s no doubt that this once hardcore way of monster catching has gotten easier. In 2009, I was able to try a new hunting strategy. ScarletAnd VioletWithin 30 minutes, I was able to catch a Larvesta shining in my hand. (It was something I had long wished for. BlackAnd Weiß.) Of course, a bit of luck played into my own success, but I’m not alone. TikTok is filled with accounts of people bumping into shiny Pokémon by accident without seeking them out; one viral video, according to the user who posted it, shows a person catching loads of shinies in a single day. It has become easier to hunt, according to two hardy shiny hunters.

Wafer is a Twitch streamer who hunts shinies online. It has become easier for him to hunt them in new games, even though they are more difficult than games like ScarletAnd Violet lack audiovisual clues that point out the Pokémon in the wild. (In Legends: ArceusA chime warns of the presence of a shining object. ScarletAnd Violet doesn’t have that feature, and it unfortunately can exclude colorblind players or those simply unfamiliar with what a certain shiny Pokémon looks like.)

“I have to say, I’m personally happy with the changes in shiny hunting, as I don’t have as much time to shiny hunt as I used to when I was younger and I love hearing the stories about people who have played the games for years finally getting their first shiny,” Wafer said.

Wafer acknowledges the joy that comes with getting that special Pokémon. But gatekeepers have responded by emphasizing the relative rarity in shinies across different Pokémon games. Steve Sarumi, a streamer and podcaster who runs the Pokémon podcast It’s Super Effective, noted an uptick in gatekeeping shiny Pokémon now that it’s gotten easier to catch them.

“The argument revolves around how ‘easier’ shiny Pokémon would devalue other shinies, which to me is nonsensical. On my travels in, I might stumble across a shining Koffing. Pokémon Crystal, I personally wouldn’t consider it more valuable than stumbling upon that same Pokémon in Shield. Both are shiny Koffing at the end of the day,” Sarumi said.

As catching shiny Pokémon has gotten easier over time, those wanting the extra challenge have found ways to up the difficulty of collecting Pokémon. Wafer told me he’s seen a growing number of players who are going for the “shiny living dex,”And attempting to get the shiny version of every single Pokémon in the game. So instead of going for a specific Pokémon, hunters will try to catch all 400 in games like ScarletAnd Violet.

However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t super-rare Pokémon to chase after now. Pokémon Sword and Shield introduced marked Pokémon. A marked Pokémon has a special “mark” in the ribbon submenu of a Pokémon’s summary. A mark acts as an honorific to attest the special circumstances under which it was caught by a trainer. When you send a marked Pokémon out, it will have a special title, like “Mimikyu the Sleepy.” ScarletAnd VioletThere are many marks. Serebii estimates that the most rare marks have a one in 1,000 appearance rate.

Sarumi said these marked Pokémon have become a new target for intense hunters.

“Not only do I think a marked shiny is such an incredibly fun thing to collect, but it gives that feeling of a ‘harder’ target to find without making the barrier to shiny hunting intimidating for a wider audience.”