A Beginner’s Guide To Shiny Hunting In Pokémon Scarlet And Violet

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet have been out for a couple of months now, marking the ninth generation in the Pokémon franchise. Itt’s reasonable to assume that most people would be towards the end of the game, if not already finished with it. However, there are still a few things to do once the credits roll. If you aren’t a competitive player, you are likely to do one of two things: push on to complete the Pokédex, or start your hunt for Shiny Pokémon. In previous games, the latter option has been a real hassle, but as the series has gotten older, the availability of Shiny Pokémon has increased, and so more and more people are keen to dive into the hunt for these oddly coloured variants of the Pokémon we know and love. It’s a deep rabbit hole that can be quite confusing for newcomers, so here’s a guide that takes the confusion out of the equation and will have you collecting Shiny Pokémon in no time!

A Charming Introduction

The first part of any Shiny Pokémon hunt is knowing how to increase your odds of finding a Shiny. There are, of course, many ways of increasing your Shiny odds, but the biggest one is the Shiny Charm. The Shiny Charm is an item that is given as a reward for completing the Pokédex. By having it in your possession, your chances of encountering a Shiny Pokémon are effectively doubled.

This is not to say that having the Shiny Charm is the be-all and end-all for Shiny hunting, but it makes a huge difference. Don’t be put off by the need to complete the Pokédex either — it isn’t too difficult to fill it out now, especially now that collecting Pokémon is more fun than it has ever been. Of course, getting the version exclusive Pokémon for your Pokédex can be a little bit of a hassle, but there are ways around that, like with Tera Raids, which can create opportunities to catch these elusive monsters. Regardless, it is highly recommended that you collect all 400 Pokémon before you really dive into Shiny hunting.

Outbreak Perfected

Alongside the Shiny Charm, learning how to capitalise on the Mass Outbreak system is key to collecting Shinies with ease. If you have played Pokémon Legends: Arceus, you will be familiar with this returning system. Every day you will see a few Pokémon highlighted on the map, which denotes the location of a Mass Outbreak and which Pokémon is present.

Using the auto-battle feature, you can cull the Pokémon in question. Every 20-30 Pokémon will result in the population decreasing, and the game will tell you this. What you want to keep an eye out for is the pop-up that says “The number of <insert Pokémon name here> is definitely getting lower”, which will be the second pop-up regarding the number of Pokémon in the outbreak. Once this second pop-up occurs, your odds of encountering a Shiny variant of that particular Pokémon increase by 3x without the Shiny Charm (and 5x with the Shiny Charm) compared to your odds without them.

With these odds, you can find a good spot within this outbreak area and use your picnic as a way to force all the Pokémon to despawn, and once you pack up the picnic, more Pokémon will spawn and roll these heightened odds each time.

5 Secret Herbs and Spices

The Shiny Charm isn’t the only thing you can acquire to increase your odds of finding a Shiny Pokémon. There are other materials, like herbs, that provide a temporary benefit. With the aforementioned Tera Raids, you are able to receive one of five different kinds of Herba Mystica, which makes trying to procure these items much easier. Using these Herba Mystica in a sandwich provides the “Sparkling Power” buff, which increases the odds of a Shiny Pokémon spawning. Ideally, you would want the Sparkling Power buff to be its highest level possible, Level 3, and this is where the caveats lie. Certain Herba Mystica won’t mix, but don’t worry! Just use the ingredients/method listed below:

Step 1

Use one cucumber and one pickle as your first ingredients.

Step 2

Add three of the one ingredient for your desired type. For instance, if I wanted a Shiny Bagon, I would use three avocados. These ingredients are as follows:

• Normal – Tofu
• Fire – Red Pepper
• Water – Cucumber
• Grass – Lettuce
• Electric – Yellow Pepper
• Ice – Klawf Stick
• Fighting – Pickle
• Poison – Green Pepper
• Ground – Ham
• Flying – Prosciutto
• Psychic – Onion
• Bug – Cherry Tomato
• Rock – Bacon
• Ghost – Red Onion
• Dragon – Avocado
• Dark – Smoked Fillet
• Steel – Hamburger
• Fairy – Tomato

Step 3

Add any two Herba Mystica together. A few exceptions to be aware of:

• Mixing 1x Sweet and 1x Sour Herba Mystica will NOT work for any type
• Using 2x Sour Herba Mystica will not work for Normal, Ice, Bug, Ghost, Dragon, and Fairy type
• Using 2x Sweet Herba Mystica will not work for Normal, Water, Fighting, Bug, Dragon, and Fairy type

Step 4

Assemble your sandwich and ensure that no ingredients fall off, as this may change the results. The game is quite lenient here, however, as you do not need to place the top bun on the sandwich correctly for it to be considered a success – you could just launch that top bun into one of your Pokémon who are watching you make that sandwich like a cat watching you open a tin of wet cat food.

No Seasoning, No Problem

Much like the Shiny Charm, the use of Herba Mystica is not a requirement, but it makes a big impact on your Shiny Hunting experience. If you wish to farm these outbreaks, it is important to get the right meal powers as they will ensure that as many Pokémon of one kind spawn at once. Much like the Herba Mystica recipes, there are certain combinations that are needed for specific types of Pokémon (1x of each ingredient unless stated otherwise, a Herba Mystica recipe is included if there is no other option):

• Normal – Rice, Jalapeño, Tomato, Curry Powder, Mayonnaise
• Fire – Pickle, Olive Oil
• Water – Jalapeño, Onion, Herbed Sausage, Chili Sauce
• Grass – Klawf Stick, Tomato, Lettuce, Yellow Bell Pepper, Salt, Olive Oil, Wasabi
• Electric – Avocado, Smoked Fillet, Salt
• Ice – Smoked Fillet, Klawf Stick, Watercress, Basil, Tofu, Red Onion, Vinegar, Olive Oil, Salt, Spicy Herba Mystica
• Fighting – Tofu x2, Rice, Lettuce, Avocado, Watercress, Wasabi, Salt
• Poison – Noodles, Lettuce, Olive Oil, Ketchup
• Ground – Jalapeño, Onion, Herbed Sausage, Sliced Green Pepper, Watercress, Chili Sauce
• Flying – Egg, Cucumber, Red Onion, Salt, Mayonnaise
• Psychic – Smoked Fillet, Watercress, Vinegar, Pepper, Salt
• Bug – Prosciutto, Cherry Tomatoes, Smoked Fillet, Potato Salad, Hamburger, Salt, Vinegar
• Rock – Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato, Basil, Mayonnaise, Mustard
• Ghost – Potato Tortilla, Fried Fillet, Prosciutto, Potato Salad, Herbed Sausage, Salt, Peanut Butter
• Dragon – Avocado, Smoked Fillet, Tomato, Salt
• Dark – Avocado, Smoked Fillet, Tomato, Lettuce, Salt
• Steel – Hamburger, Noodles, Potato Salad, Rice, Klwaf Stick, Tofu, Olive Oil, Salt, Curry Powder
• Fairy – Pickle, Ham, Prosciutto, Jalapeño, Mayonnaise, Mustard

Back to The Future

If you really wish to capitalise on the Mass Outbreak system, messing with your Switch system clock will allow you to cycle your current outbreaks as much as possible. Even if by a small amount, any time that you change your system clock will force the game to reroll what the Mass Outbreaks are, which can prove to be incredibly advantageous. Done with your current outbreaks? Just roll new ones! Do keep in mind that reverting your system clock back to its original setting will reroll your Mass Outbreaks again, so do ensure that you are done before you revert back to your normal settings.

Bring In Breeding

This method is pretty simple. Every time you hatch a Pokémon egg, it has a chance to be a Shiny Pokémon. Breeding with Pokémon you have caught will find you subject to full Shiny odds, but the Masuda method comes into play. If you breed with two Pokémon who have two different languages of origin, your odds of hatching a Shiny Pokémon are increased by 5x. What makes this method even better is that the Shiny Charm still does come into play here, but Herba Mystica food does not.

While breeding, the only food you should really be worrying about is food that grants the Egg Power buff. There are two levels to this buff, but don’t worry as getting the Lv. 2 buff is easy. The ingredients for a sandwich that grants Egg Power: Lv.2 are as follows:

• 1x Banana
• 1x Peanut Butter
• 1x Butter

That’s all there is to it!

When it comes to mass hatching, it is advised that you have a Pokémon with the Flame Body ability in your party, as it halves the number of steps required to hatch an egg. This will save you a lot of time in the long run, even if it seems relatively inconsequential. Say it takes one minute to hatch one egg, and you can have a maximum of five eggs, that means instead of all the eggs taking five minutes to hatch, it only takes two and a half minutes. You can hatch ten eggs with Flame Body in the same amount of time it takes to hatch five eggs without it.

The last thing to note when it comes to hatching Shiny Pokémon is having a very cursory understanding of how Shiny Pokémon are determined from this method. The odds of whether a Pokémon will be Shiny or not are determined when you receive the Pokémon egg and not when the egg is hatched. This means that you can roll for Shiny Pokémon and if they don’t turn out to be Shiny, you can just turn your game off and on again to reset and try again. What I recommend is to save AFTER you have applied your Egg Power: Lv. 2 buff so you can just use the one buff to roll for Shinies. Turn off autosave after you have saved and then try to just breed and hatch one box-worth of eggs at a time. The benefit of doing this is that you don’t spend literal hours over the course of your Shiny breeding in order to release Pokémon that aren’t Shiny. It is far less tedious and also allows you to save money as well!

With all that out of the way, there is only one thing that you need in order to hunt for Shinies in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet – patience. It cannot be stated enough how important being patient with this is. You may get a Shiny to spawn in your first five minutes, you may have to wait for an hour. But always remember to be patient and keep your cool. If you are farming a Mass Outbreak, just remember that the outbreak in question will come back, and you can force a reroll should you choose. If you are doing the Masuda Method for Shiny hunting, then I also recommend you do something else at the same time as it can be mind-numbingly boring. Hopefully, all this can help you in finding your own Shiny Pokémon and you will be running around Paldea with oddly coloured Pokémon in no time!