Pokemon Sword and Shield - How to find Shiny Pokemon

Overview

A Shiny Pokemon is a rare variant with a unique color scheme that can range from subtle changes to stark differences from their regular counterparts. Despite the change in color, these Pokemon have identical stats to regular colored Pokemon.

Below, we touch on the Pokemon that can never be shiny, steps on finding a shiny pokemon, and how to raise the odds of encountering them.

Shiny locked Pokemon

As usual with models shown in the overworld, the legendaries and starters you can obtain in-game are shiny locked.

— Kurt (@Kaphotics) November 11, 2019

The term “shiny locked” describes certain Pokemon that can never be shiny. This is a feature carried over from past games. According to twitter user Kaphotics, starter Pokemon and Legendary Pokemon can never be shiny in Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield.

How to find shiny Pokemon

Chaining

Pokémon Sword/Shield give you extra rerolls to try to generate a shiny based on how many of the Pokémon you've ever battled, and how long your current encounter chain is. Shiny charm still gives +2 if obtained.

We're not sure what increments your chain counter, but this is it! pic.twitter.com/k5rX7tTcUf

— Kurt (@Kaphotics) November 14, 2019

Twitter user Kaphotics also shared a table of encounter chains. The leftmost column shows how the number of battles has an effect on raising the odds of finding a shiny. Meanwhile, the labels on the top mention that defeating the same wild Pokemon over and over without breaking the “chain” also adds to increasing the odds.

From the findings, hunting shiny Pokemon in tall grass mimics a similar process to previous versions’ SOS battles and the Let’s Go games. However, wild Pokemon don’t call for help this time around, and you’re forced to chase down another similar Pokemon wandering in the grass. Trainers must battle a wild Pokemon over and over to raise the odds of finding a shiny. The chance of finding one improves as the chain of successive battles increases.

Another factor is the “chain count.” A chain count suggests that knocking out a Pokemon counts towards a hidden value or combo. While Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu and Pokemon Let’s Go Eevee had a counter for these combos for every Pokemon you catch, they are absent in Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield. Also unlike the Let’s Go games, you don’t catch Pokemon to raise the counter. Instead, you need to make the wild Pokemon faint. That being said, nobody can tell what really breaks a combo. It was speculated that catching other Pokemon or knocking out a different Pokemon interrupts it whereas running away from a wild Pokemon does not stop the chain.

Shiny Breeding

Otherwise known as the “Masuda Method,” shiny breeding involves the use of the Pokemon nursery. There are two nurseries that exist in the Galar region. One appears quite early on route 5, whereas another lies on the rightmost side of the map past the bridge in Bridge Field. Regardless of which nursery you chose, you need to deposit two Pokemon to the handler. The Pokemon must belong to the same egg group and have different language tags. Deposit the two Pokemon into the nursery and move around until an egg is generated. Take the egg, cycle back and forth on your bike and wait for it to hatch. Do this many times until a shiny bursts from the egg.

Increasing the odds

Battle Count

As mentioned above, the higher the number of battles, the better the chances of finding a wild shiny Pokemon. So far, it was recorded that the highest chance of a shiny appearing occurs after accumulating 500 battles with the Pokemon. You can check the number of battles you’ve had with a wild Pokemon in your Pokedex. To check, open your Pokedex, highlight the Pokemon you want to view, and press A to see details. You will see a counter for how many times you battled the wild Pokemon.

Shiny charm

Another way to raise your chances of finding shiny Pokemon is to have the shiny charm. In Generation 7 and the Let’s Go games, the shiny charm was a key item that increased the odds of finding a shiny Pokemon from 1/4096 to 3/4096. You can obtain this item from the Game Freak staff in Circhester after showing him a complete Galar Pokedex. In other words, you will need to catch one of each of the 400 different kinds of Pokemon. To find it, head to the city’s plaza and go inside the first hotel. Ride the elevator to the upper floor and enter the room on the far left. He first gives you a catching charm, so if you haven’t collected it yet, you will need to talk to him again.

You can combine shiny breeding with the shiny charm to earn a huge boost in finding a shiny. To expedite this process, you can pair it with the oval charm. The oval charm boosts your chance of obtaining eggs from the nursery.

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