Shiny Pokemon In Pokemon Legends: Arceus Explained

"Pokemon Legends: Arceus" changed the "Pokemon" series and shook the community up with its open-world design, RPG elements never-before-seen in a "Pokemon" game, and an incredible storyline. Critics raved about the game, and despite the fact that spoilers were coming out left and right before it was released, there were still plenty of secrets left to uncover. Many fans had questions about one particular part of every "Pokemon" game: shiny hunting.

For those who don't know, there are some Pokemon in "Pokemon" games with unique color schemes called Shiny Pokemon, and they're pretty hard to find. In fact, the odds of finding them in newer "Pokemon" games, including "Pokemon Legends: Arceus," is one in every 4096 encounters (via Anubis on Twitter). When players are looking specifically for these Shiny Pokemon, it's called Shiny hunting, and it's a sport in and of itself.

While the encounter rates might be the same in a lot of "Pokemon" games, there are still mechanics and tips unique to each game. For example, Pokemon breeding is a fairly common Shiny hunting tactic, but since breeding doesn't exist in "Pokemon Legends: Arceus" — according to leak information obtained by The Gamer – fans will have to come up with alternate tactics. Luckily, there are other tricks to help players obtain these special Pokemon.

When you're out exploring in "Pokemon Legends: Arceus," Pokemon will be popping up in the wild without you having to actually encounter them. This is extremely similar to the Wild Areas in "Pokemon Sword" and "Shield." The Pokemon that appear before you encounter them are generally called overworld Pokemon.

In "Pokemon Sword" and "Shield," overworld Pokemon didn't show if they were Shiny or not — players had to actually start the encounter to find out. While it was exciting to encounter a random Shiny this way, it made Shiny hunting in these games take much longer. The animations and dialogue to get in and out of a Pokemon encounter amounted to wasted time.

However, "Pokemon Legends: Arceus" shows off Shiny Pokemon in the overworld, which makes catching these Pokemon easier than before, since players can simply avoid non-shiny Pokemon. This same system existed in the "Pokemon Let's Go" games. As YouTuber Austin John Plays explained, this makes it feel like it's easier to find Shiny Pokemon, since running through the overworld consistently spawns Pokemon, adding to that "encounter" number of one in 4096.

Despite the ease of Shiny hunting in the overworld, there are some Pokemon that players just can't get in their Shiny forms — at least right off the bat. These Pokemon are commonly referred to as Shiny-locked, and each game in the franchise goes about it a little bit differently.

In "Pokemon Legends: Arceus," the three starter Pokemon are among the first Pokemon players encounter. However, these Pokemon will always be the regular versions of themselves, making it impossible for a player's very first Pokemon to be Shiny (unlike the Shiny starters in "Pokemon Brilliant Diamond" and "Shining Pearl.") Other Pokemon that can't be shiny include Legendary and Mythic Pokemon that are encountered through the story and any other Pokemon that are only encountered once. 

While starters might be Shiny-locked, Alpha Pokemon aren't. These special Pokemon are both larger than normal and have boosted stats — getting a Shiny version of any of them would be quite the feat. Luckily, the game allows you to do just that according to aDrive, a popular "Pokemon" YouTuber.

Just like in previous "Pokemon" titles, there are some settings that players can change to help them Shiny hunt. While they won't help the encounter rate or anything like that, they will make identifying and catching Shiny Pokemon easier than ever.

YouTuber PhillyBeatzU explained that it's important to turn off auto-save. The best way to learn what not to do can sometimes be experience, and PhillyBeatzU showed off his own unfortunate Shiny encounter where he didn't save beforehand. While he was trying to focus on catching the Shiny Pokemon, a nearby aggressive Pokemon attacked him, causing him to blackout and lose the Shiny. Saving beforehand would have allowed him to go back, and turning off auto-save would've made sure that the game didn't try to save after he was KO'd.

Another YouTuber, aDrive, gave another piece of settings advice: turn up your volume. Shiny Pokemon make a fun little noise when they pop up in the overworld, and having your volume up will ensure that you don't accidentally miss one as it comes up.

Considering that any Pokemon popping up in the overworld chips away at that 4096 Shiny number, the odds of finding a Shiny Pokemon already seem pretty high. However, there are several things players can do to increase their odds even more.

Twitter user Anubis shared a graphic of the different ways to increase Shiny odds, including updated numbers. According to their claims, there are three things you can do to increase shiny odds: getting your Pokedex to research level 10, getting your Pokedex to "Perfect," and receiving the Shiny Charm. Each of these adds what Anubis called "extra rolls" to the Shiny odds, meaning that any one of them will add to the first number in the Shiny odds (plus one, plus two, and plus three respectively.) Ultimately, this means that a player can get up to a seven in 4096 chance to encounter a Shiny.

There are also Mass Outbreak encounters in the game, which spawns multiple of the same Pokemon instead of just one in the overworld. Because a player is encountering seven of the same Pokemon instead of just one, this is another great way to increase Shiny odds. Combining all of the things above with Mass Outbreak encounters can bring your Shiny odds down to 32 out of 4096, or one in 128, according to Anubis' math.