If you wanted a bit of help grabbing Shiny Pokemon, then you’re in luck, as Game Freak themselves have confirmed an essential Shiny hunting trick in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet.
One of the most difficult, but most fun parts of any Pokemon game is Shiny hunting. But, there are a few methods to make the astronomically slim odds a little bit better.
While fans occasionally have to confirm these themselves, and generally it takes a lot of guesswork and later clarification from the community, in this one occasion Game Freak has confirmed something only presumed until now, making Shiny hunting a lot easier moving forward.
Pokemon player u/finn_shavocado has shared a post to Reddit, detailing the mechanic, and it’s good news for anyone that Shiny hunts using Outbreaks. The person behind the post shared the comment, “The Pokemon Company posted this article YESTERDAY… what???”
They share an excerpt from this article from The Pokemon Company, which goes into detail on Shiny hunting methods in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet.
Within the article, The Pokemon Company shared some information, explaining, “You’ll have the highest chance of encountering a Shiny Pokemon when you receive the message that says ‘There are not many [Pokémon] left from the original outbreak…'”
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However, while this may seem like new information, it is actually just a clarification of an existing mechanic, as many other players explain in the comments.
One person says, “The statement isn’t wrong. Each message triggers somewhere between 20-30, so it would be rare (possibly impossible) for the second message to trigger at 60 Pokemon. So the third message is the one with the highest shiny chance. 60 KOs is still when it caps out.”
Another message adds, “That message is the 3rd notification which does mean at least 60+ KOs have been made.” To which, another Pokemon player replies, “So it’s not that we were wrong about the count, we were just wrong about the messages that appear at each amount.”
Right now, it seems that while nothing has been changed, Pokemon Scarlet & Violet players are pleased to get some actual confirmation from Game Freak, meaning they know exactly the right time to deploy a helpful Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Shiny Sandwich and bag a Shiny ‘mon.