Ready to start your shiny pokemon hunting adventure? Here are some tips for shiny hunting in Pokemon Legends: Arceus.

Catching all the pokemon is even more enticing in Pokemon Legends: Arceus, thanks to the many ways to fill out the Pokedex. Arceus has a smaller pokedex than the other games, but it makes up for that with new and unique ways to earn your stamps.

The rarest pokemon in the game continue to be shiny pokemon – rare variant colors that can appear. Hunting shiny pokemon is a task that requires a lot of patience, but there are some things you can do to increase your odds. Let’s take a look at some of the best ways to help your shiny hunting endeavors in Pokemon Legends: Arceus.

What are shiny pokemon?

shiny combee

Shiny pokemon are alternate color variants that have a very rare chance of appearing while adventuring. The combee in the image above is orange, where usually combee is yellow. Every pokemon species in Pokemon Legends: Arceus has a very small percentage chance to appear. And unlike previous games, you can spot a shiny pokemon in the wild before engaging it.

Thanks to some diligent data-crunching from Pokemon fans on Twitter, we have some idea of how rare shiny pokemon are. The base chance for a shiny pokemon to appear in the game is a 1 in 4,096 chance. The rate can be improved dramatically, if you know what to do.

How to Hunt Shiny Pokemon in Pokemon Legends: Arceus

how to hunt shiny pokemon

A big part of shiny hunting is guaranteeing success when you do find one. Before we delve into the nitty gritty of improving your odds, when you do encounter a shiny pokemon – here’s what you need to do.

  1. Immediately turn off the game’s auto-save function.
  2. Create a manual save immediately.
  3. Initiate the encounter with the Shiny Pokemon.
  4. If you catch the pokemon, congrats!
  5. If not, reload your manual save until you do.

It is possible that shiny pokemon can escape from battle or you might accidentally KO them. Turning off auto-save and manually saving means you can try as many times as you want to catch the shiny pokemon. Now that you know what to do when you encounter a shiny pokemon, let’s talk about improving your chances.

Improving Shiny Pokemon Odds of Appearing

You can vastly improve the odds of a shiny pokemon appearing by timing your hunting and using items. Mass Outbreak events, the Shiny Charm, and Pokedex research levels are how to improve your shiny pokemon odds.

The Shiny Charm

The easiest way to improve your Shiny odds is to get the Shiny Charm item. To unlock this item, you have to reach research rank 10 for every single Pokemon in the game. The requirements for obtaining the Shiny Charm aren’t easy, but it gives you a permanent boost. You can work towards this goal while employing the other two methods.

Pokedex Research Levels

Part of working towards that Shiny Charm is filling out your Pokedex. For each specific Pokemon you research to rank 10, you can halve the odds of catching a shiny pokemon. Those odds from from a 1 in 4,096 chance encounter to just 1 in 2,048.25. This basically doubles your chance of encountering a shiny pokemon of that species.

If you complete that pokemon’s pokedex entry to ‘Perfect,’ you can get those odds down to a 1 in 1,024 chance of appearing. That’s a much more realistic chance of encountering a shiny compared to no modification at all. You should focus on getting your research rank up for the shiny pokemon you want to encounter most.

Mass Outbreaks

what are mass outbreaks in pokemon legends arceus

Finally, mass outbreaks can drastically increase the chance of encountering a shiny pokemon of a specific species. These random events trigger upon leaving Jubilife Village, so you can leave repeatedly until a mass outbreak occurs. If a mass outbreak is happening, you’ll see an icon on your map with the pokemon type above the region.

A mass outbreak alone with no other modification increases the odds of a shiny pokemon appearing to 1 in 158.02 chance. They are the best way to hunt for shiny pokemon, even though the species they highlight will be random each time. You can also combine the methods here for even greater odds.


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