Forget legendaries. The rarest Pokemon, aside from certain event Pokemon, are shiny Pokemon — as in Pokemon with a different colour scheme from that of its bretheren.
What are they? Well, we can think of ‘shinies’ like a palette swap (like say, the famous ‘Red Gyarados’ would be one — that Pokemon is typically Blue), except finding a shiny Pokemon is so uncommon that it’s possible to play the Pokemon games for years and not find a single shiny.
Well, unless you know the trick for it. Provided enough patience and the right equipment, you, too can be the owner of a shiny Pokemon of your own. It’s a method that has existed in Pokemon for a while now called ‘chaining,’ though not only has yellowfur drawn up an easy-to-understand visual guide for it, there are some new quirks on the method present in Pokemon X & Y too.
Take a look.
First, there’s the prep — the items you need, what sorts of areas you should be looking for, what have you:
Then you gotta learn what types of grass you can and cannot go to:
And some X & Y specific things — this is especially relevant for those of you who have chained before. For everyone else, this’ll all be new.
And some things to watch out for:
If done right, it should look a little like this:
Doesn’t something like a shiny Skiddo look rad?
Of course it does. However! There are some caveats, exceptions and all that, which go along with this guide. The visual guide is mostly on-point, except that the rule of 4 and the stuff about borders isn’t quite correct. If you do everything right, you can in fact step in grass next to you and in border glass — which is good news! Reddit user T3HN3RDY1 adds some more to this guide, in terms of what does and doesn’t matter in your search for shinies:
What DOES matter is stepping in the correct grass. Make sure you get grass that is shaking in the same way every time. Look for the loudest, shakiest grass possible to be able to spot it more easily, and never use the grass that barely shakes. It doesn’t count. Ever. It ALWAYS breaks your chain.
Speaking of the barely-shaking grass. It’s hard to see sometimes. Pay CLOSE attention, never step behind sight-obstructing barriers including your head. Don’t step into the grass directly above you. I’ve broken several chains by being an idiot, stepping straight up and realising that it barely shook. I get a “There doesn’t seem to be a pokemon here” message, and the chain is broken. I lost a chain of 32 Houndours stepping on that.
Here are some other kinks you should consider while chaining:
- Here’s what to do if you get the message from your mum telling you you can’t use the Pokeradar.
- What about Pokemon who show up in small patches of grass?
And some additional things you may need to deal with while chaining, as explained/broken down by Reddit user Cpctheman:
Sometimes if you enter a patch of grass on accident that does not fit the criteria, you may still encounter the pokemon you were chaining. In this case, you are very lucky. However, next time you may not be so lucky.
“Hey, I accidentally entered a patch of grass that had a different shaking than the one I’ve been using and I still found the same pokemon!” If you happen to notice when this happens (which you likely won’t) you have two choices. Essentially, what has just happened is you have “reset” the type of grass your chain is associated with. This means you could continue the chain with the new grass shaking and everything is fine. However, if you’re like me and cannot notice one patch as well as the other, I would suggest just resetting your chain, if it’s still a pretty small chain.
After the Elite Four, you may have noticed a certain legendary bird occasionally occurring in wild grass. These guys are unaffected by repels, so many have come to believe that encountering a bird messes up your chain. THIS IS NOT TRUE, PRAISE GOOMY. The legendary bird runs away and has no effect on your chain. Zip. Nada. Zilch.
“Help! The pokemon I’ve been using to KO the others is out of PP!” Calm down. Using the menus for anything does not break your chain, even if you save. However, saving in the middle of a chain does nothing because when you reset your game a chain is broken.”My power died!” Sorry, chain broken. Next time pay attention to the lovely notification on the bottom screen when your battery is low.
And hey! There’s even a fishing chaining guide too. Since, you know…not all Pokemon are on land.
In case you think this cheapens shinies, catching shinies like this is not exactly something you can just do in a pinch — but it’s actually a legit method that doesn’t require cheating. That’s worth something, right? And the effort required to do this means that shinies are still relatively rare — they belong to either those that randomly luck out, or those that have ‘earned’ them. Just know that not all shiny Pokemon look better than the original monster — you may want to look ’em up before you commit to trying to find a shiny version of something!
Now go out there and get the awesome versions of all your favourite Pokemon.
(Want the guide in written form, instead of through a visual guide? Here’s an extensive write-up.)
Top picture: yellowfur
Comments
71 responses to “Wanna Catch Your Pokémon In A Shiny New Colour In X & Y? Here’s How.”
I’d rather be surprised at the sudden appearance of a shiny pokemon rather than go hunting for one. It’ll take away the feeling of ‘holy crap a shiny caterpie!!!’
I couldn’t agree more. Just *having* a shiny pokemon is nowhere near as cool as a sudden unexpected appearance (and catching!) of a shiny.
tis why I have trained the hell out of my caterpie/metapod/Butterfree 🙂
Same reason I have a Gogoat as my dedicated Grass Type, and I didn’t need to do some Pokeradar chaining to do it. . .
I got a shiny Purrloin in Black 2, and didn’t realise until about 3 months later. Boy that was a neat surprise.
Pokemon emerald, shiney groudon, i ran out of pokeballs before I could catch it (used my master ball) spent the next 7 weeks resetting to get it again. Having a shiny groudon is much fucking better then just running into it
groudon is shiny locked in both rse and oras.. lol
That’s ridiculous, you get the EXACT same feeling. The only difference is instead of having a 1/lolurnevergettingashinygiveupnerd chance of getting a shiny, you have a decent and reasonable opportunity to get something rare. On one hand you have a faint hope of one day getting something cool that you’ll likely never get, on the other you can work hard for something and get an awesome reward.
I totally agree. Sure, getting a shiny by chance is awesome and surprising. But getting a shiny through hard work is FAR more rewarding.
And he says you won’t get the OMG feeling. Imagine the feeling you get when you’re running around and suddenly shiny sparkles on the grass. I’d flip the fuck out just the same.
Yeaaah okay. Get back to us 3 years from now when you find your crappy useless shiny while we bask in the ambience of our awesome shinies with good natures. Plus, you can trade them for pretty much anything you want…Get some common sense.
Shinies look cool online bro
I traded my shiny Talonflame for a Xerneas (I have Y), and I’m pretty pleased with my decision. I got a Japanese one, and I like to pretend that it’s that deer-god from Princess Mononoke. I’m a seasoned pro who’s had more than his fair share of shinies, so I won’t beat myself up over my desire to catch them all. She was pretty cool though… It was caught au naturel in my first 20 minutes of playing the game. Does anyone think I chose poorly to trade away a shiny? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCUwQIn3GrU
Not really, as I understand it most people I know have caught a shiny pokemon in the same space of time (some more desirable than others)
I don’t think it’s that common. I played from 1st gen to 4th gen before I found my first shiny. 1/8192 is pretty slim, Jim.
I would have held onto the Talonflame. Xerneas is easier to come by. I think you can get the Pokedex sighting for it randomly via the terraces in the Cafes.
Although either way I think you were right to act fast. It seems like shiny Pokemon that you can find in long grass or via fishing are going to be pretty easy to come by. If you’d waited a few weeks to make the trade you might have had trouble getting something as good as Xerneas for it.
You made a HORRIBLE decision …WTF…I literally put up a LARVITAR in the GTS for a Xerneas and got one. Wow. People who lack common sense astound me. You gave up something that’s 1/8100 for a piece of crap that millions of people have. SIGH……
I got a Zygarde in GTS for my lvl 1 Bagon OMG
So are shinies actually better… or are they just colour swaps?
I mean, the whole process seems pointless if they are just different colours – it would just be better to hope you come across one naturally.
Just palette swaps as far as I know. But when you’ve been through nearly every generation and never even found one, techniques like these start to look appealing…
Yeah – but imagine how much cooler it would be to accidentally stumble up one!?
As i mentioned, though, why bother with going through the process if it’s just a pallet swap, and the whole point of shinies is to find them by chance? Kind of takes the achievement away from it.
It would be fricking cool, but it hasn’t ever happened despite finishing gold, sapphire, leafgreen, diamond and giving up on black. 1 in 8192? I’ve gotta be due, right?
Hell, even the missus got one despite only playing three quarters of ruby!
The favourite one I know of was the electrode that my brother caught in the powerplant in maybe sapphire? They normally explode straight away, but he had a master ball!!
Everyone has had a shiny in pokemon gold the first shiny you ever got was a red gyarados
I’ll say this, I have been playing since Red version, and when I got crystal I got a shiny via the red garydous (I spelt it wrong) and the 1/5 chance that the first egg hatches to be a shiny.
And then by sheer luck, after two years of playing Crystal, I ran into a shiny Smeargle. I caught it of course! And it was amazing.
However the game soon died a year later.
Now since then I never caught another shiny again. I did run into a shiny Zubat by accident and accidentally KO’d it :/
So reading this strategy to run into a shiny… it does feel like cheating, but lets face it: who has the patience to do this? I tried doing this for three hours! Every time I screwed up when I was doing so good. It made me want to throw my DS at the wall!
It’s frustrating, but if it comes through then it’s well worth it. It’s not like getting it in a trade for something (which is equally cool if you know someone who can do that for you) but nothing says you earned that shiny by hunting for it for hours on end. Its like hunting in real life, you hunted for that animal, and spent hours (or not) for your kill.
The thing that makes them cool is their unique look and rarity.
Shiny’s are basically a ‘get whatever Pokemon you want free’ card if you decide to do what l-o-quince did and put one up for trade online. Primarily because their appearance rate is normally so astronomically higher than any other pokemon type in the game, people will effectively give away anything in order to get one. As I said above I got a shiny Skiddo early in the game and I wouldn’t dream of giving it away (I like to think people have an attachment to their first shiny) however later in the game I also found a shiny Seaking, I might decide soon to see what I might be able to get for it.
Just a colour swap. It’s just a nice surprise to get one of those 1 in 8,192 special Pokemon. I got a Herdier naturally once which was pretty cool. Radar/Fishing chains are the only way to get one through any sort of focused effort.
I’m pretty sure it’s only cosmetic. It’s more of a prestige thing over anything else, and some designs are admittedly quite cool (a shiny Charizard is essentially the same colouration as Mega Charizard X is, for example).
A heads up for anyone that wants to try chaining. Patricia’s statement above will only end in heartache – while it is possible for the chain to remain unbroken when stepping in patches next to your character or border grass, it still has a significant (> 50%) chance of resetting the chain. It really is easier to avoid them.
It’s like not using a repel or doing the fishing chaining without a Inkay’s suction cups. You can do it but you’re setting yourself up for a painful failure.
I actually don’t think that’s true. When I went shiny hunting on route 5, going for the borders NEVER broke my chain. I ended up getting a shiny skiddo from it.
I’ve been playing pokemon since red and blue, since i was 10, and i have never encountered a shiny………………… starting to think they’re a myth
I hear ya bro… see my comment above.
I have definitely seen family members get them. But never myself 🙁
I’ve played every generation so far, started with Blue, and have gotten “lucky” enough to have found 3 shinies accidentally throughout the years. Except they were Pokémon NOBODY wanted 🙁 who the heck wants a shiny Ratatta, Goldeen, or Tentacool? Apparently nobody did. Sucky.
I just want to say that a lot of people would love a shinny rattata being that it was the first pokemon many people caught like caterpie or Weedle also I know a youngster by the name of Joey who would completely flip at the idea of such a top percent pokemon
Lol, the first thing I found in the Winding Woods was a shiny Jigglypuff, got an Aron off it. (I have Y)
I hear ya! In platinum, I believe the first pokemon my brother caught was a shiny Machop. What are the odds?
Slightly off-topic, Kotaku, will you ever fix the display problems with titles? “Wanna Catch Your Pokémon In A Shiny New Colour In X &” It’s fine in the article title, but in the ‘top stories’ section it doesn’t display correctly. It’s happened to many articles.
First shiny I found was a purple Drowzee in Gold. Felt so good to catch that, even if I don’t consider Drowzee or Hypno to be great Pokemon.
PokACmon X&
Got my first ever shiny just the other day through a Friend Safari. But I heard theres a higher chance of them appearing there. I dont care though, after 5 generations, 7 games, and many more playthroughs with no shinies, I’m just glad that Spiritomb showed up at all 😀
I remember catching my first shiny. It was a gyarados. I was mad happy
Not to detract from your happiness, but anyone who played Silver or Gold, if they weren’t a complete moron, had a shiny Gyarados. Unless you didn’t get the one in the Lake of Rage. In that case, I commend you.
Don’t know about that guy but I’m not gonna lie my first and only shiney was a Red Garydos caught in Saphire. Can’t remember the name of the city but you had to go underwater to get into it and I’m pretty sure the legendary was there at one point, anyways I guess hours of fishing/training for one pokemon can do that xD
Yeah I got the red one in Gold, not that one. I think it was in Emerald. No commendation needed as its pure luck.
http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Masuda_method
Even higher chance. Still possibly to go without seeing one (5 boxes of Dratini eggs later…), but no chain reset heartache.
I did this too. Hatched 180 Fennekin for 3 days straight. It’s tiring and disappointing.
My friend has being doing the same thing for a shiny ghastly. He has filled almost 10 boxes and still nothing. The first day I tried this method, I got a shiny skiddo, my first shiny ever. Soo much better than waiting for the stupid game to hand me one out of the blue.
It’s actually less expensive to use Super Repels instead of Max Repels.
I’ve yet to get one yet but I’m getting my own little ideas on extra things that help:
-I’m finding differentiating the types of shaking patches hard in grass, but if you listen to it, it’s much easier to hear when a large rustle takes place
-DONT DO IT IF AN ODD AREA IS MOVING-like a garbage can shaking in pokemon village-It seems to always break my chains
-4 to 5 patches must be shaking when going for a patch-5 is fine from what I’ve gathered so far
If you haven’t gotten a shiny yet with this method, try using it on the big purple field on route 5. I caught my first shiny, with this method, there.
I found a shiny floatzel while surfing in one of the caves and accidentally killed it.. I was mortified..
holy shit me 2, but i caught it in frost cavern 🙂
Caught a shiny zweilous in victory road whilst grinding in Pokemon Y. I heard somewhere that tipping supposedly increases the appearance rate, but I’ve got no evidence of that. Still, it was the first shiny I’ve ever seen in the wild in any Pokemon game I’ve played, and I always tipped at least $500…
I just realised how awesome Wonder Trade is!!
… and that one of the nicest things I can do is trade Pokemon with something rare, namely, Pokerus!
if u want a shiny that badly, just get an Action Replay (i know they suck and they break) if ur tired of waiting and waiting… i did that and got a shiny kyerum-cant wait till pokebank/transfer come out-im gonna have the rarest, shiniest, strongest pkmn team ever! no on will beat me! MWAHAHAAA
Lmaooooo sorry to say but hacked pokemon won’t be allowed to transfer
Sucks for you
i used to use action replay too. i stoped using it and stoped playing the hacked save file because it was boring. having all the shinies and legendaries you want just takes away the fun and sence of acheivement. what would be the purpose of going on if you always get what you want when you want it? you’d have no goals or dreams to fulfil and everything turns into having no purpose.
Hacking is pretty much the lamest thing you can do.
Seriously. I didn’t need an AR to find my first shiny in Emerald. Best part is, it was a spinda. Legit one of a kind. And I’m not hacking my X to bring it back either. Hackers are pretty much the ones who suck way too much without their hacks 😛
I caught a shiny Golett few days ago while trying to catch a female Eevee. Last shiny I caught was a green Pelipper in Emerald. That feel when it makes the noise and does the shiny animation… Ahh…
I came across a horde of Mime Jr’s the other day, and one of them was shiny. First one I’ve ever seen. Couldn’t just try and catch it though because of the horde so I had to kill the other four. Went to weaken it a bit… CRITICAL HIT!
Only shiny I’ve ever seen.
LOL!
That really sucks man. Sorry to hear it. My motto? Always carry quick balls!
Of course you’re going to say that catching it by random luck is cooler than working for it. If you save up your paychecks and at the end of the year have a million dollars, that’s awesome, but finding a million dollars ? Incomparable.
So, how often does one just stumble upon a million dollars ? Pretty much never. How many shinies have I encountered since I started playing Pokemon a decade ago ? Exactly one, a shiny Wooper. Which was pink. Who the HELL would ever want a pink Wooper/Quagsire ?
So yeah. I don’t think using this method to catch your shinies fair and square takes away the novelty. Because I’ve been doing it for the past 2 days and still no luck. The closest I came was a chain of 47 Croagunks, which was no easy feat.
You’re doing it wrong. It’s not that difficult. Stop chaining after you hit forty. Then just keep refreshing the poke radar. If you can consistently chain 40, you are guaranteed a shiny.
First shiny I came across, I knocked out by accident. The second, I caught in Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness, and my ex transferred it to his copy of emerald… So I’ve never had the joy in getting one. Even this method though, my chain breaks constantly no matter what rules I follow…
The only shiny I ever found was a shiny Solosis in Pokemon White, and man was that awesome! Totally caught me by surprise 😀
the last shiny I found was a ponyta back in heart gold. recently traded a petilil for a xerneas though so i’m happy.
He’s a member of team flare!
It was so sad, i was playing pokemon emerald cause i felt like it, and before i even had any pokeballs, i found a shiny wurmple.
Same here except in Soul Silver It was a shiny Sentret
Happened to me in sapphire with a zigzagoon…
the only shiny pokemon i’ve got was a shiny zorua using masuda method , of course i have a lot more pokemons from trades and such
just hit a chain of 40 scythers, cant find a shiny patch, what gives?
I’ll let you know my first shiny was in Pokemon Fire Red when I was in the safari zone trying to catch Chanseys I hoping one would be holding a lucky egg. 6-7 hours of catching 12 out of 100 Chanseys I happened to run into a shiny one and it ran away :’c.
But Yesterday I ran into a horde of 4 Nidoran Male and one Female and one of the Male was a shiny and now I have a shiny Nidoking on Pokemon Y. it’s a really good feeling.
I’ve gotten two shinies in my pokemon career. Shiny Blitzle and Shiny Sigliyph. This was just by chance no grinding
I caught a shiny psyduck (it’s blue) using chaining and a shiny glameow (it’s purple) using the chaining…o so satisfying…..what was awesome is there is a game on the wii that you can send all your pokemon to from your d’s games, so I transferred them there…..and they were still shiny in the wii game…..it was awesome seeing that blue psyduck wattling around!
I remember that rush of nostalgia of catching a shiny lol I was six and just got a new game and my friend told me about them found my self a shiny noctowl off route 5 the episode where ash caught his shiny noctowl just came on and I alnost had a tiny lil heart attack I recon …. now adays all theas ways of cheating is bull this is ur childhood treat the game like u did when u were a kid like nintendo was pupming pure magic and cocain straight inside lol I still treat it like that and I had a nostalgic boner when I hatched and caught my shinys and I did it cause I diddent let the magic die so be that 10 year old agin and start your journy leaving your single mother with that old man lol rejoice and prais those wonderful days
lul wut
My FC is 5069-4511-2780 add me and send yours for added Safari fun and Swapnote
<(‘.'<) <(‘.’)> (>’.’)>
I caught 5 shinys within 2 hours
I caught a shiny Machop,Geodude,Zubat and Meowth but I caught a shiny Machop,Geodude and Zubat in a same cave the one in FireRed/LeafGreen and I found a shiny Meowth near Culurean city where the Water type gym is and in Sapphire/Ruby/Emreald I came across a wild shiny Girafarig in a Safari zone and it fled in a battle I was so mad that day 🙁
And I also caught a wild shiny Magikarp by fishing
In RSE I was so happy.
I caught a wild shiny Magikarp by fishing in RSE. It made me so happy 🙂
2079- 7154- 5324 is my FC
you stated that Max repels are a must have. I suggest instead using Super repels as they are the cheapest option if you are looking at steps/pokedollar. Unless of course Shinies only appear when using max repels, then continue what you’re doing, but for now, i’m trying with super repels
In the Friend Safari Zone I caught a Shiny Growlithe,
Shiny Ninetales and a Shiny Larvestar at the moment im trying to find a Shiny Ditto in the Normal type Zone.
GOT SHINY DITTO IN FRIENDS SAFARI!!! I’m going to breed shinys now first one to be breed is to be Bulbasaur hopefully this should work ; ).
Yeahhh!!! I Just found 6 shiny pokémon via chain fishing! All in a days work.
On SoulSilver, I encountered my first zubat in the game and it was a shiny. What are the odds of that? Also, on pokemon Y, I’m trying to hatch a shiny pichu. I got a light ball to get Volt Tackle on it and the nonshiny pichus which have volt tackle are wonder traded. Some lucky trainer gets one.
Oh I mean Pokemon X.
IF i go shiny hunting i usually go safari because you still get the’OMG I FOUND A SHINY’ feeling. have already found 6 shiny`s there (nosepass,riolu,kirlia,charmeleon,gyarados,fennekins evo)
its still is about 1/2000 tho
Doesn’t work I tried it and it fails to other Pokemon even shakes are four a way if green it
So don’t try it it’s gonna strike different Pokemon if you know where it’s worthless
Doesn’t work all your gonna get something strike back if you follow this guide it’s gonna hit a different Pokemon even if you think where is at gonna fail
I went to reset my chain when I accidentally went into a not really shaky grass and I broke my chain of 2…