I asked for the latest Pokemon game for Christmas because the thought of getting shiny versions of all the pokemon really appeals to me. This has led me to looking at the other versions of the games that I have and seeing what it would take to get shiny versions of all my pokemon. A few years back I completed a living dex for gen 5. I updated it for Gen 6 and then didn't revisit it for most of Gen 7. I skipped Sun and Moon and didn't really enjoy my play though of Ultra Sun. Now that's changed because of Shiny Hunting.
Shiny Hunting Methods
I have 2 pokemon games on my 3DS right now. Pokemon Y downloaded to the system and Pokemon Ultra Sun in the cart slot. I updated my subscription to the pokemon bank so I can transfer freely between them. Each game has it's own methods to increase shiny odds.
Pokemon X & Y
Friend Safari - The conventional wisdom here seems to be that the chances are a static 1/512 chance for a pokemon to be shiny. This is really good for idle hunting and what I've used to catch at least 4 shiny pokemon in the past two weeks. Because the chances never get better it can be kind of discouraging to sink a lot of time into a hunt and not see anything. Your 5th pokemon and 500th pokemon share the same chance to be shiny. A smoke ball (orb?) for your pokemon in the first slot will garuntee that you can run each time you find a normie.
Chain Fishing - This is a thing. I haven't tried it yet.
Hoard Battles - I had the great idea to fill my ORAS play though with shiny pokemon as a way to make the game more fun. It didn't really help, but I did get a few good shiny pokemon out of the deal. For this method you have to use honey or the move Sweet Scent outside of battle in certain grass areas or caves. Each summoned pokemon get's it's own shiny check so where normal odds would be 1/4096 it becomes 5/4096. This simplifies to 1/819ish. It becomes much better with a Shiny Charm. 1 in 273.
PokeRadar - This is also a thing, but requires a ton of attention and I ain't about that life.
Pokemon (Ultra) Sun and Moon
SOS Chaining - I have no experience with this yet, but it seems that you use an Adrenaline orb, encounter a pokemon, lower it's HP, wait for it to call a friend, and knock out the friends until you get a shiny. There's a lot more finer details, but I haven't tried it yet so I'm not about to copy too much of someone else's words.
Ultra Wormholes - I tried this last night. After you beat the game you can fly to the alter of Sun/Moon and enter a fissure in space. WikiHow says there are 20 pokemon you can shiny hunt in this method. You travel as far as you can go and try to enter a worm hole with two rings around it. Based on the distance and the rings your chance for a shiny goes up. The modifier seems to increase every 500 light years you travel. I've read that this makes shiny hunting super easy so I must be really bad at it. I've only gotten one shiny Medicham so far. I hear that once you are in the worm hole the shiny check is done so if you save then you can encounter the same shiny over and over again until you get desired nature, IVs, or abilities.
Universal Methods
Breeding - Breeding a pokemon using the Masuda Method where you breed two pokemon from different regions. Serebii says that as of Gen 6 the odds of a shiny pokemon are 1 in 682.7 for this method. If you get yourself a ditto from another country that thing will breed with anyone that isn't legendary. There are many ways to speed up egg hatching if you're interested in this method. A shiny charm here ups your chances to 1 in 512!
Soft Resetting - Did you want that legendary to be shiny? Have you tried turning it off and back on again? Soft resetting is a true test of will when it comes to Shiny hunting. Even "Full odds" hunting is easier than this. Save before encountering a Legendary and see if it's shiny. If it isn't then you'll need to hold L+R+Start+Select to soft reset the game and try again. Make sure that the encounter isn't shiny locked. These are pokemon who will never show up as shiny in that instance.
Pro-Tip! Looking at the shiny sprite ahead of time can be helpful but some times you'll still run into Pokemon like this:
I might have missed 40 of these and I'd never know. I just happened to see the shiny sparkles one time and caught it.
List of Shiny's Caught so far:
I'll update this once I complete an audit.
What shiny pokemon do you have? Are you on the hunt as well?
Shiny Hunting Methods
I have 2 pokemon games on my 3DS right now. Pokemon Y downloaded to the system and Pokemon Ultra Sun in the cart slot. I updated my subscription to the pokemon bank so I can transfer freely between them. Each game has it's own methods to increase shiny odds.
Pokemon X & Y
Friend Safari - The conventional wisdom here seems to be that the chances are a static 1/512 chance for a pokemon to be shiny. This is really good for idle hunting and what I've used to catch at least 4 shiny pokemon in the past two weeks. Because the chances never get better it can be kind of discouraging to sink a lot of time into a hunt and not see anything. Your 5th pokemon and 500th pokemon share the same chance to be shiny. A smoke ball (orb?) for your pokemon in the first slot will garuntee that you can run each time you find a normie.
Chain Fishing - This is a thing. I haven't tried it yet.
Hoard Battles - I had the great idea to fill my ORAS play though with shiny pokemon as a way to make the game more fun. It didn't really help, but I did get a few good shiny pokemon out of the deal. For this method you have to use honey or the move Sweet Scent outside of battle in certain grass areas or caves. Each summoned pokemon get's it's own shiny check so where normal odds would be 1/4096 it becomes 5/4096. This simplifies to 1/819ish. It becomes much better with a Shiny Charm. 1 in 273.
PokeRadar - This is also a thing, but requires a ton of attention and I ain't about that life.
Pokemon (Ultra) Sun and Moon
SOS Chaining - I have no experience with this yet, but it seems that you use an Adrenaline orb, encounter a pokemon, lower it's HP, wait for it to call a friend, and knock out the friends until you get a shiny. There's a lot more finer details, but I haven't tried it yet so I'm not about to copy too much of someone else's words.
Ultra Wormholes - I tried this last night. After you beat the game you can fly to the alter of Sun/Moon and enter a fissure in space. WikiHow says there are 20 pokemon you can shiny hunt in this method. You travel as far as you can go and try to enter a worm hole with two rings around it. Based on the distance and the rings your chance for a shiny goes up. The modifier seems to increase every 500 light years you travel. I've read that this makes shiny hunting super easy so I must be really bad at it. I've only gotten one shiny Medicham so far. I hear that once you are in the worm hole the shiny check is done so if you save then you can encounter the same shiny over and over again until you get desired nature, IVs, or abilities.
Universal Methods
Breeding - Breeding a pokemon using the Masuda Method where you breed two pokemon from different regions. Serebii says that as of Gen 6 the odds of a shiny pokemon are 1 in 682.7 for this method. If you get yourself a ditto from another country that thing will breed with anyone that isn't legendary. There are many ways to speed up egg hatching if you're interested in this method. A shiny charm here ups your chances to 1 in 512!
Soft Resetting - Did you want that legendary to be shiny? Have you tried turning it off and back on again? Soft resetting is a true test of will when it comes to Shiny hunting. Even "Full odds" hunting is easier than this. Save before encountering a Legendary and see if it's shiny. If it isn't then you'll need to hold L+R+Start+Select to soft reset the game and try again. Make sure that the encounter isn't shiny locked. These are pokemon who will never show up as shiny in that instance.
Pro-Tip! Looking at the shiny sprite ahead of time can be helpful but some times you'll still run into Pokemon like this:
I might have missed 40 of these and I'd never know. I just happened to see the shiny sparkles one time and caught it.
List of Shiny's Caught so far:
I'll update this once I complete an audit.
What shiny pokemon do you have? Are you on the hunt as well?
