Ever-popular shiny Pokémon are back in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, and there are ways to speed up the process. Here’s how to shiny hunt in the new Pokémon game.
Shiny Pokémon aren’t actually shiny — rather, they’re Pokémon that come in different colors than their typical forms. Finding these in the wild are pretty rare; around 1 in 4,096 Pokémon found are shiny. Still, there’s long been a huge community of Pokémon players dedicated to understanding and breaking down the process to make it a bit more approachable.
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet continue the tradition of shiny hunting. There’s even a tracker in your character profile dedicated to how many you’ve battled. What’s more, in The Pokémon Company’s ninth-generation game, shiny Pokémon are visible in the overworld, meaning you’ll be able to pick them out from a crowd instead of entering hundreds of blind battles. Catching a shiny Pokémon is no different than any other Pokémon. Increasing your chances for them to spawn in the first place is the biggest challenge.
Dedicated Pokémon players have already figured out how to increase spawn rates for shiny Pokémon, and the first method involves Pokémon outbreaks. According to Shiny Pokémon expert Sibuna_Switch, you can increase your shiny spawn rate by clearing Pokémon out of outbreaks — clearing 30 to 60 Pokémon increases the rate to 1/2,048, while clearing more than 60 brings that shiny rate to 1/1,365, according to their math.
Odds get better when you include other methods, like using a Shiny Charm or eating a shiny boost sandwich.
