User:Missingno. Master/The Shiny Hunter's Guide
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Welcome to Missingno. Master's Guide to Shiny Hunting! It is a comprehensive guide to the art of shiny hunting. No shiny hunter will be complete without following this guide. So, without further ado, Missingno. Master's Guide to Shiny Hunting!
Contents |
Introduction
Hello. I am Missingno. Master. And this is Missingno. Master's Guide to Shiny Hunting. So, the first question we must ask ourselves is, what is shiny hunting? Put simply, shiny hunting is the practice of actively seeking out, capturing, and collecting shiny Pokémon. Obviously, this is no easy feat. As any experienced shiny hunter will tell you, the odds of any given Pokémon generated by the game being shiny is 1 in 8192. You have better odds of finding a Chimecho on Mt. Pyre's peak. However, despite these obviously unfavorable odds, shiny hunting remains a popular sport.
What we must now ask ourselves is, why hunt shinies? Simple. Shiny Pokémon are extremely rare, as pointed out before. Many shiny hunters regard them as trophies, or rewards for their patience and/or diligence. Some just hunt shinies because they look cool. Others do so because they love rare Pokémon, and it doesn't get much rarer than shinies.
Chapter 1: The Basics
There are many methods of shiny hunting, but there are some basic criteria a good shiny hunter should meet before going out to hunt shinies.
1: Poké Balls. Even if you're not going out to hunt shinies, no right-minded trainer steps into the tall grass, Surfs on the sea, or sets foot in a cave without a good number of Poké Balls in their bag. I made the mistake of going through the tall grass once with an empty Poké Ball bag and found a shiny Zigzagoon. Now I never travel without a good number of Poké Balls of various varieties. Ultra, Quick, and Dusk Balls are especially good varieties to carry. Try and carry a Master Ball, in case of an extreme emergency. You never know when you'll run into that Abra when your Wynaut or Wobbuffet was just KO'd. Or when you'll find something with Explosion that just locked your Suction Cups Octillery into battle, preventing you from switching in your Damp Pokémon. Actually, any situation which requires the Master Ball is rather, well, situational, but try and keep at least one handy all the same.
2: The right Pokémon. You should be prepared for any given situation that would cause the battle to end. Namely, Teleport, Roar, Whirlwind, Selfdestruct, Explosion, Curse, Memento, and any move that gives recoil.
| Move | How to prepare | Possible Pokémon |
|---|---|---|
| Teleport | Lead with a Wynaut or Wobbuffet. Shadow Tag prevents Teleport from working. | Abra, Natu, Ralts, Kirlia |
| Roar | Have handy a Pokémon with Suction Cups or Soundproof, both of which prevent Roar from working. Shadow Tag does NOT PREVENT ROAR OR WHIRLWIND FROM WORKING! | Raikou, Entei, Loudred, Whismur, Growlithe, Vulpix, Houndour, Houndoom, Poochyena, Mightyena, Aron, Lairon, Electrike, Manectric, Luxio |
| Whirlwind | Have handy a Pokémon with Suction Cups, which prevents Whirlwind from working. Shadow Tag does NOT PREVENT ROAR OR WHIRLWIND FROM WORKING! Soundproof does NOT BLOCK WHIRLWIND! | Pidgey, Pidgeotto, Beautifly, Dustox, Masquerain, Makuhita, Hariyama, Tropius, Starly, Staravia |
| Selfdestruct | Have handy a Pokémon with Damp, which prevents Selfdestruct from working. | Geodude, Graveler, Voltorb, Electrode, Koffing, Weezing, Pineco, Baltoy |
| Explosion | Have handy a Pokémon with Damp, which prevents Explosion from working. | Geodude, Graveler, Voltorb, Electrode, Koffing, Weezing, Pineco, Lunatone, Solrock, Baltoy, Skuntank |
| Curse | Have handy a Pokémon with Taunt, which prevents non-damaging moves like Curse. Note that it is only a danger among Ghost-types. | Gastly, Haunter, Gengar, Shuppet, Banette, Duskull, Dusclops |
| Memento | Have handy a Pokémon with Taunt, which prevents non-damaging moves like Memento. | Koffing, Skuntank |
The only recoil move shiny you are likely to have trouble with is Beldum, because all it knows is Take Down, and has the capture rate of Arceus. Very bad combination. With other Pokémon, they would generally know one recoil move, if any at all. My only solution is, if it uses Take Down 20 times and you still can't catch it, chuck a Master Ball.
3: The means to weaken wild Pokémon. You want the capture to be as smooth as possible, am I not right? For that, you need to weaken the target. Good moves for this purpose include Sleep Powder/Hypnosis/Spore, and False Swipe. Do NOT, NOT, NOT poison, burn, or Leech Seed the shiny. And especially, do NOT have a Ghost-type use Curse on the shiny. Because the damage will keep going. It's best to either sleep or paralyze it, and leave the damage to False Swipe. You might want your False Swiper to know Foresight or Odor Sleuth, in the event of a shiny ghost.
4: Common sense. Don't weaken a shiny Paras by having your Arcanine use Flamethrower. Don't send in an Abomasnow against a non-Ice-type shiny you've already False Swiped to 1 HP.
Chapter 2: Advanced Shiny Hunting Techniques
While simply seeking out wild Pokémon or hatching them and hoping for a shiny is one of the main methods of shiny hunting, there are more advanced techniques that actually increase one's odds of encountering shiny Pokémon.
First is the Poké Radar. This magnificent device, which you obtain in Professor Rowan's lab upon obtaining the National Pokédex, allows you to battle continuous streams of wild Pokémon, these streams called "chains". Here's how it works: When the Poké Radar is used, four patches of grass will respond. If a patch shakes mildly, it probably contains a common Pokémon. If a patch shakes wildly, it probably contains a rare Pokémon. If a patch glows with a pulsing light, it contains a shiny. Defeating or capturing a Pokémon within one of these patches will continue the chain, or start one, as the case may be. Note that entering a patch that is less than 4 or more than 7 tiles away from where you were when it shook, shakes differently than the last one you entered, or else entering a patch that borders a non-grass tile could result in the chain ending. The sole exception is the shiny patch, which seems to automatically continue the chain. If a chain successfully reaches 30, the chance of finding a shiny begins to increase. This caps at a chain of 40, which allows the player a 1/200 chance of finding a shiny. Finally, and most importantly, a chain will break if you use your bicycle, walk out of range of any patches that have shaken or glowed, or if you encounter a wild Pokémon that was not in one of the patches that had responded to the Poké Radar. Obviously, the constant usage of Repels are pretty much a necessity, as well as having your lead Pokémon being at a higher level than any wild Pokémon in the area.
There is a new development in this area. It has recently been discovered that battling a fished-up Pokémon while chaining not only will NOT break your chain, but it will cause the current Radar'd patches to re-react. Including the possibility of turning a normal patch into a shiny patch. Additionally, patches that stay the same after several of these "fishing resets", especially if all the other patches change, have a very good chance of advancing your chain. Bear in mind, however, that just like Radar'd Pokémon, you still have to defeat or capture what you fished up. Credit for this discovery goes fully to kirkeastment of the serebiiforums.
Second is the Masuda method. This involves breeding two Pokémon of different countries of origin. Breeding, say, an American male Scyther with a Japanese female Ninjask, will therefore yield a 1/2048 chance of shiny offspring. This will NOT work with 2 parents from the same foreign language, nor will it work with the Meister's German Magikarp, because it is generated by your own game. Undoubtedly it was implemented as an additional incentive to use the GTS.
Conclusion
Well, there you go. I hope this guide is a help to all you shiny hunters out there. Now, if I somehow missed anything that would fit in this guide somewhere, by all means, tell me!
