Sometimes, catching ’em all just isn’t enough.
As Pokémon fans know, any time you encounter a Pokémon in the wild, there is a very small chance that monster will appear in a special colour. Known as “shinies”, these Pokémon are so rare, many fans have never actually captured one at all. To wit, in the sixth generation of Pokémon there is only a 1 in 4096 chance of finding a shiny.
Unsurprisingly, some Pokémon players have become “shiny hunters” whose sole goal is to capture as many shiny Pokémon as possible. Robert Meehan is one such player, though he holds the distinction of being a shiny hunter who has completed an entire “living Pokedex” of shiny Pokémon, all acquired without any trading whatsoever, or cheating of any kind. That is to say, Meehan has the rarest and most valuable Pokémon collection possible.
Rather than capturing a shiny Pokémon and then evolving it into something else, each and every shiny in the collection is a unique Pokémon, captured separately from each other. It’s a painstaking process, but it is one that Meehan believes adds more legitimacy to his collection, as he did not cut any corners to acquire it.
The journey began around two and a half years ago, when Meehan and a friend started collecting shiny Pokémon together. Soon, they started competing against each other to see who could capture the most shiny Pokémon, but eventually Meehan realised that he had enough shiny Pokémon to warrant finishing the Pokedex in its entirety.
Finishing the challenge wasn’t easy. Sometimes, Meehan would encounter a coveted shiny, only to fumble its capture.
“The worst part is always losing a shiny,” Meehan said. “It’s going to happen if you’re a shiny hunter, and I’ve lost my fair share.
“My first loss was a Smeargle – it only knows the move Sketch, and has a relatively low catch rate. So I threw a PokeBall at it, and lo and behold it breaks out right away. [It used] Sketch, but I didn’t use a move for it to Sketch so that failed, and Sketch only has 1PP, so the darn thing started Struggling. I couldn’t catch it and it fainted from Struggling.”
Some losses stung particularly bad. For those that don’t know, a lot of shiny hunting is very rote: one of the most popular methods requires players to reset just before an encounter happens, over and over, in the hopes that this time the Pokemon will appear as a shiny. In the middle of the process, which often takes thousands upon thousands of resets, it’s easy to get into the habit of resetting well past when you actually need to.
“The worst losses are in the old games, where the odds [of finding a shiny] are 1/8192,” Meehan said. “I soft reset over a Shiny Rayquaza, and it took me forever to find another. When I finally found a second one the damn thing wouldn’t get caught and ended up Struggling to death. Finally caught it on the third try, but it’s so heartbreaking to have this super long hunt and just have it blow up in your face.”
Funnily enough, it’s those very same disappointing experiences that make finally finding a shiny so exhilarating for Meehan.
“The endorphin rush you get is just insane,” Meehan said. “I finally found a Shiny Moltres after 28,000 soft resets and boy I was stoked when it finally showed up.
“Even in the Generation 6 games where the odds are better it can take a while. It took me like 3 weeks and 3300 eggs for a Shiny Totodile, and this is with Masuda Method + Shiny Charm – where the odds are 1/512! So some bad luck there but it’s so rewarding when you finally get it.”
You can watch Meehan show off the rest of his shiny Pokémon collection on YouTube here.
Comments
22 responses to “It Took One Fan Nearly Three Years To Obtain A Perfect Shiny Pokémon Collection”
Where’s @cannonfodderjuniour or is it @beavwa ??
Did somebody call?
Wait…
Touché
B-eavwa has a lot to answer for.
He’d b-etter do it soon, before B-ob b-eats his b-are b-ehind!
Juniour :-/
Humanity truly has no limits.
@beavwa Hasn’t he done it in less then 3 years?
I’ve got like ~100 of them. Total possible to catch / breed is just over 700.
It’s a mammoth task doing everything. I’m happy just hunting legendaries.
I like Pokemon and all, but three years? What an incredible waste of your time.
I guess the question is, what have I done in those last three years?
*looks at list of abandoned Minecraft worlds and pile of unfinished games*
I’m sure there’s a bit of life lived in those 3 years. I look back at my 3 years and it has been amazing. 3 years of pokemon catching to get a Kotaku article ain’t worth it. What a sad man. Also, I severely doubt that all his Pokemon are legit 😉
Well now I know what I’m starting when I get home… OH BTW what’s a Pokemon?
I couldn’t tell if this was referring to the card game or the video game for a good half the article =/
What, first line talking about encountering a pokemon in the wild wasn’t enough of a hint?
Don’t know about you but it’s not often that I encounter a pokemon card in the wild.
I’ve never played anything Pokemon, but for MTG some players call any card outside a pack and not in their own collection (eg. in stores, at tournaments, in play by other players) as ‘in the wild’. I figured it was a reference to that.
fair enough, I’ve never gotten into card games.
Where was shiny Mew?
Pretty sure Mew wasn’t apart of the original 150 as it was a promo.
Mew is only obtainable in shiny form from a one time event that was in Japan only.
Gotta hack an event into a GBA Emerald cart to have a shot at that.
I accidentally killed a shiny Bellsprout in LeafGreen. Never quite got over it, but I’ve had my fair share of shinies.
Damn, took me that long just to get a full dex…..