How to Catch Shiny Pokemon in Pokemon Sword and Shield | TechRaptor (2024)

Pokemon are abundant all over the Galar region including the Wild Areas. It's hard to go a few steps without hearing a rustle of grass or seeing a Pokemon walking around. Even after catching all of the Pokemon available to you in Pokemon Sword and Shield,there's the next level of rare encounter, and that is finding Shiny Pokemon. We go through the best Shiny hunting methods, Shiny Pokemon percentage chance, and quicker ways to hatch Pokemon Eggs.

Shiny Hunting

First introduced in Generation 2 of thePokemon games, Shiny Pokemon are those that have a different color palette than their original counterpart. Your Espeon might now be green if you're lucky enough to run into one of these Pokemon.

It's important to start off by saying that there's a reason you might not have encountered a Shiny Pokemon before, or even if you have, you've likely only run into them a couple of times, and that's because the chance of the Pokemon you run into being Shiny is a 1 in 4096 chance. That's a 0.024% likelihood that the Pokemon that you run into will be Shiny. Luckily for those wanting to find a Shiny in the wild or hatch a Shiny Pokemon from an egg, these odds can be increased in various ways.

Starters, Legendary Pokemon, and any Pokemon that are given as gifts like Charmander or Toxel are all Shiny Locked. This means that no matter how many times you reset your game and pick it up again, it won't be Shiny. In Sword and Shield, you will only be able to tell if it's a Shiny Pokemon after entering the encounter.

Catching Wild Shiny Pokemon

The basic method to finding a Shiny Pokemon is to get out there to keep fighting anything and everything. Surely something will show up, right? Let's look at things that we can do to make this process more effective; the first method would be chaining.Chaining is when you focus on getting the shiny of just one Pokemon so you battle that same type of Pokemon over and over again.

1. Decide a Pokemon that you want to get a Shiny of and go to where it spawns
2. Get into a fight with it and either knock it out or catch it
3. Continue this until you get a Shiny

Another easiest way to ensure you're fighting the right Pokemon is by picking a Pokemon that spawns in the overworld so you're not having to worry about incorrect encounters. Don't worry if you do get into an encounter with a Pokemon other than your target though as you can just run away without breaking your chain. To make repeating encounters with the same Pokemon more reliable it's recommended that you hunt for a Pokemon that spawns in the Wild Area overworld so you can more easily see what you're getting.

Repeating the process will actually be beneficial to you for two different reasons. As you increase your chain you become more likely to encounter a Shiny. What also comes into play is that there is a passive shiny modifier that's consistently increasing at certain milestones as you defeat Pokemon. The Number Battled isn't just affected by every encounter but instead by fighting "Brilliant Pokemon." These are the Pokemon that you see with the gold aura around them.

From the above graph we can seethat as your chain count increases to the 25+ level, you have a higher chance of encountering a Shiny. If you get that 25+ chain up but have also battled 300 of the Pokemon, then that increases your chances even higher. From just a max chain you can have the chance of encountering a Shiny Pokemon from 1 in 4,096 to 1 in 3,072. The longer you do this and get the battle count higher, that number just keeps dropping.

The chance for extra rolls that you see on the table is exactly what you'd expect. If you manage to meet the criteria then after the game calculating the 1 in 4,096 chance, you'll get another chance at that calculation where the success condition is getting a Shiny. It is similar to rolling a dice for a 6 but you're now able to roll more dice instead of just once.

Hatching Shiny Pokemon

In Pokemon, there's an increased rate of hatching a Shiny Pokemon when you breed together two Pokemon of different regions,known as the Masuda Method. If you've been Surprise Trading and you've spotted that some Pokemon have (GER) or (JPN) next to their names, then that Pokemon comes from a different region. Normally the language of the Pokemon's nickname can also give it away. The language of the game that the Pokemon is coming from is the key factor in whether the Masuda Method will kick in.

If you wereto try to hatch a Shiny Pokemon normally, you'd still be stuck with that 1 in 4,096 chance. With a foreign parent Pokemon, like a Ditto that can breed with practically any Pokemon, though, your rate is now 1 in 683. This slashes the rate down by more than a max chain after battling 500 Pokemon.

Best Way to Hatch Pokemon

There are a number of things that can be done to speed up the process of getting Pokemon eggs and hatching. While a lot of these can be done at any time during the game, note that there are some that are only available after completing the game.

1. Have access to the Pokemon Daycare at either Route 5 or Bridge Field of the Wild Area
2. Have all of the upgrades to the bike, allowing you to move faster, increasing the rate of hatching Pokemon
3. Keep a Pokemon with the Flame Body ability in your party—this cuts the hatch rate by 50%

Once you've beaten the game and watched the credits, you can go to the hotel in Circhester. Go up the elevator and to the first room on the left. Inside is a police officer who will double-battle you—all of his Pokemon are LV 60+ so be sure you're prepared. After beating him, you'll obtain the Key Item Oval Charm. This will increase the rate at which your Pokemon will lay eggs in daycare.

Combining all of the above you'll not only hatch eggs faster but collect eggs faster too. It's normally best to find yourself a set path that you'll cycle through always remembering to check back at the daycare lady. If you cycle by and her arms are by her side, then there isn't an egg; if her arms are crossed over her body, then it's time for you to add another egg to your party.

How to Get the Shiny Charm

Another method you can use to increase the chance of getting a Shiny Pokemon is also the lengthiest one to accomplish and that is obtaining the Shiny Charm. This is an item that cuts the Shiny chance dramatically. With only the Shiny Charm in play, your chances go from 1 in 4,096 to 1 in 1,365.5. The effect of the Shiny Charm will also stack with the other above methods—stacked with the Masuda Method would give you a 1 in 512 chance. That's eight times as likely because you have the Shiny Charm and have a foreign Ditto.

To obtain the Shiny Charm, you need to complete the Pokedex. This isn't just seeing all of the 400 Pokemon present in the Galar Pokedex—this is having capture data for each Pokemon. For Pokemon that have multiple forms like Alcremie, you only need to get one form, and you don't need to have all of the Gigantamax Pokemon as they don't have their own Pokedex pages. Once you've achieved a 100% completed Pokedex, you can go to the hotel in Circhester once more, this time heading into the farthest room on the left and talking to the doctor.

Ultra Shiny Pokemon

Just when you thought getting to hit that 1 in 4,096 chance was difficult enough there's now a new layer to Shiny Pokemon, that's whether they appear with star effects or square effects. In terms of random encounters, it's much more likely that you'll get a Pokemon with stars (15/16 chance) compared to the square effects. These new square effect Shinies are referred to as Ultra Shinies.

Ultra Shinies with the square effect are easier to find in the wild, while the original star Shiny Pokemon are easier to find through breeding.

Easiest Method: Link Trade

According to Optimism247's video:

• Nicknamea Pokemon with the Pokemon you want
• Entera Link Code of1247 1247, 1247 1248, or 1247 1249
• When connected, trade the nicknamed Pokemon
• You will see that the code bot will be offering the Pokemon you sought and typed as the nickname

In the video, Optimism247 shows that trading a Skwovet nicknamed "Yveltel" made a Shiny Yveltel appear.

Those are all of the methods to get a Shiny Pokemon in Pokemon Sword and Shield.

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