Shiny Pokemon in Scarlet and Purple: How to Find and Catch Them

Nothing worth having in life comes easy. If you want a shiny Pokémon, you’re going to have to work on it! Fortunately, it’s actually easier to catch shiny Pokemon in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet than in previous games — but “easier” doesn’t mean “easier”.

When Pokemon appear in Scarlet and Violet, they have about a 1 in 4,000 chance of being shiny. These ratings are not good, but can be improved by three methods. Two of them are only available in the Pokemon Scarlet and Violet postgame, but a strategy can be exploited early on.

If you want to hunt shiny Pokémon in Scarlet and Violet, here’s what you need to know.

Pokémon outbreaks are your friend

Here is the basic Shiny Hunt method in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet that you can do regardless of when you start the game.

First of all you have to research pokemon outbreaks. If you look on your world map, you’ll see Pokemon icons scattered across Paldea. These denote an outbreak, where an area is flooded with the Pokemon in question. (Note that if you see a question mark on your map, it’s an outbreak of a Pokemon you’ve never encountered before.)

If you are not satisfied with the proposed Pokémon, you can rotate the selection by performing a dubious move. Go to your Change settings and change date and time to be a day in the future. A new day brings new outbreaks of Pokémon.

Say you’re looking for a Magneton and found an outbreak in Glaseado Mountain. Now you have to kill Magneton – a lot of them. Press ZR to activate Let’s Go mode, at which point your primary Pokemon will pop out of its ball, then seek and destroy. It’s much more efficient than engaging Pokemon one by one in standard battles. Yourthe chance of finding a Shiny Pokémon increases once you kill 30 of them – and increases even more once you kill 60.

Be sure to keep a count in your head, phone, or computer. After downing 60 of a certain Pokemon, the chance of finding a shiny version of that Pokemon goes from around 1 in 4,000 to just over 1 in 1,000.

Once you’ve killed 60, it’s time for the Shining Hunt. Explore the area for the shiny ones. If there isn’t, prepare a picnic then pack the picnic. This resets the Pokemon in the area, giving you a new set of Pokemon for a shiny to hide in. Keep going until you find your prize.

It’s crucial to note that finding a shiny Pokémon often means inspecting it closely. There is no bright glow around them in the open world, nor any sound or other stimuli that indicates their presence. Only once you initiate a battle with a Shiny Pokemon will it be shrouded in sparkles during its opening battle animation.

Brilliant Elemental Boost	Sandwich recipe
Shiny Normal Sandwich	1x Chorizo, 2x Herba Mystica Salty
Brilliant Battle Sandwich	1x pickle, 2x salted Herba Mystica
Brilliant Fire Sandwich	1x Basil, 1xSweet Herba Mystica, 1x Salty Herba Mystica
Brilliant Water Sandwich	1x Cucumber, 2x Salty Herba Mystica
Brilliant Poisoned Sandwich	1x Noodles 2x, Salty Herba Mystica
Shiny Ground Sandwich	1x Ham, 2x Salted Herba Mystica
Shiny rock sandwich	1x Jalapeno 2x Salty Herba Mystica
Shiny Psychic Sandwich	1x onion, 2x salty mystical herbs
Brilliant Electric Sandwich	1x Yellow Pepper, 1x Herba Mystica Salty, 1x Herba Mystica Spicy
Shiny Black Sandwich	1x Smoked Fillet, 1x Herba Mystica Sweet, 1x Herba Mystica Salted
Shiny Dragon Sandwich	1x Avocado, 2x Salty Herba Mystica
Brilliant ice cream sandwich	1x Klawf’s Staff, 2x Salty Herba Mystica
Shiny ghost sandwich	1x red onion, 2x salty mystical herbs
Shiny Steel Sandwich	1x Hamburger, 1x Herba Mystica Salty, 1x Herba Mystica Sweet
Shiny Fairy Sandwich	1x tomato, 2x salty mystical herbs
Brilliant Insect Sandwich	1x Cherry Tomato, 2x Salted Herba Mystica
Shiny Flying Sandwich	1x prosciutto, 2x salted Herba Mystica
Shiny Weed Sandwich	1x Lettuce, 1x Herba Mystica Salted, 1x Herba Mystica Sour

This method works and can be done early in the game. But your chances of finding a Shiny Pokemon can increase dramatically once you beat the main storyline.

You will have to Tera Raid

If you’ve played Pokemon Scarlet and Violet for a while, you’ve probably been on a few Tera Raids. These are essential for hunting shiny Pokémon. Once you’ve completed the games’ three main quests, you’ll gain access to five-star Tera Raids. In these boss encounters, you’ll face level 75 Pokémon made even more powerful by their terastalized state, harnessing the chaotic crystalline energy that flows through Paldea.

To maximize your chances of finding a shiny Pokemon,ou need to collect the ingredients for the Herba Mystica sandwich. Once you have the right combination, you can make sandwiches that increase your chance of finding a shiny Pokémon by 300%. To collect Herba Mystica ingredients, you must participate in five-star Tera raids.

Unfortunately Scarlet and Violet don’t drop them exactly – I must have done about six of these high level raids before I got my first Herba Mystica. Note that you can also receive six-star Tera Raids Herba Mystica, which you unlock after beating all Paldea Gym Leaders for the second time and winning the Academy Ace Tournament, but your chances of getting them don’t seem any higher. So it’s best to stick with the easier (but still difficult) five-star Tera raids.

To give you a good chance of completing these five-star Tera raids, you’ll need a crew of Pokémon around level 80-90. Head to the Delibird Presents stores around Paldea and pick up items designed to be held at the fight. The Choice Band and Choice Specswhich significantly improve your attack and special attack, respectively, and the Metronomewhich allows a move if you do it multiple times in a row.

Once you’ve completed a few of these five-star Terra Raids, with luck you’ll collect Herba Mystica. They come in several varieties – sweet, salty, spicy and so on. If you make a sandwich with the right combination of ingredients, you will increase your encounter rate with a shiny Pokémon by 300%. The catch is that each recipe corresponds to an element of Pokemon. So, for example, I wanted to hunt a Shiny Magneton, which is an Electric-type Pokémon. So I created a sandwich that increases the probability of finding a shiny electric Pokémon.

And to further increase your chances of finding a shiny Pokémon, you can use Shiny Charm item. But to get it, you must first complete your Pokedex by catching Paldea’s 400 Pokémon. If you’ve caught all of the Pokémon in Scarlet and Violet, talk to Jacq in your school’s biology lab to get the shiny charm.

Pokemon outbreaks + sandwiches = brilliant success

Now is the time to put it all together. Once you’ve found an outbreak and killed 60 of the same Pokemon, it’s time to get serious hunting. First, pause the game, go to options and turn off autosave. So, manually save your game. Finally, prepare your sandwich using your precious Herba Mystica ingredients.

Sandwich buffs in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet only last 30 minutes. The reason you turn off autosave and then save before making the sandwich is so that if you don’t come across any shiny Pokémon within 30 minutes, you can close your game and restart it. before you have used up your scarce Herba Mystica resources. If you fail, you can then reset it after killing 60 Pokemon, meaning you won’t have to repeat this laborious task again.

As you’ll see once you’ve assembled your sandwich, you’ll get a 3x buff for Sparkle Pokemon of a certain type (see image above), depending on the recipe you used. Now is the time to employ the same method above: search for Pokémon in the area, restart the Pokémon in the area by setting up and closing a picnic, wash, rinse, and repeat until you find your bright.

The hardest part is collecting Herba Mystica from the five-star Tera Raids. Once you’ve done this, you can usually find a Shiny Pokemon in about an hour if you follow this method. Good luck!