The Complete Guide to Shiny Hunting in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

There are few things more exciting than finding a shiny Pokémon, especially if it happens to be one of your favorites. Fans have been figuring out ways to crack the shiny code and drastically improve the chances of finding one of these rare Pokémon for years, and Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are no exception.

There are actually multiple ways to farm shiny Pokémon in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, and these methods can be stacked to even further increase your chances of success. If you’re trying to farm shiny Pokémon in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, you will find everything you need in this guide.

What Are the Odds of Finding a Shiny Pokémon in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet?

Shiny hunting has been a hobby of many Pokémon trainers since the Gen 2 Pokémon games. Shiny Pokémon can be found in any Pokémon game after Gold and Silver and have even made their way into many of the best Pokémon companion apps. It is a relief to see this long-running tradition continue with Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.

When searching for a shiny Pokémon in any Pokémon game, it’s helpful to know your odds. If you are playing through Pokémon Scarlet and Violet without any charms or luck-boosting abilities, you have a one in 4096 chance of encountering a shiny Pokémon. That means that for approximately every 4096 Pokémon you encounter either in battle or in the overworld, one of them could possibly be shiny.

The odds of finding a shiny Pokémon are stacked against you, and finding one organically is extremely rare. Thankfully there are several ways to boost your chances. With the right techniques, you can get these odds down as far as one in every 512.

How Can I Increase My Chances of Finding a Shiny Pokémon in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet?

There are two key ways to increase your chances of finding a shiny Pokémon in Paldea. These items are both unlocked in the late game, so you can’t get your hands on them at the beginning of your adventure. But they are well worth working towards and make your chances of encountering a shiny skyrocket.

How to Get the Sparkling Power Sandwich in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

The first of the late-game shiny boosts you will want to utilize is the Sparkling Power sandwich. The Sparkling Power sandwich is made with two types of Herba Mystica, a cucumber, a pickle, and three of another ingredient to boost the chances of finding a shiny Pokémon of a particular type.

This may sound easy, but the Herba Mystica is an extremely hard ingredient to get your hands on. To gather Herba Mystica, you must prevail in a five or six-star Tera Raid Battle. Five or six-star Tera Raid Battles only become available once you reach a high level, so you won’t begin collecting Herba Mystica until particularly late in the game.

How to Get the Shiny Charm in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

The second item that you should add to your shiny hunting kit is the Shiny Charm. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are the latest in a long history of exclusive Nintendo Switch games, and the Shiny Charm has been helping trainers find shiny Pokémon since the beginning of the franchise. But it does come at a cost.

To unlock the Shiny Charm, you must complete your Pokédex. This means you have to catch every single Pokémon in Paldea. You can then talk to your Biology teacher, who will reward you for your struggles with the Shiny Charm.

What Are Mass Outbreaks in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet?

Pokémon outbreaks are daily events that happen in random places around Paldea. During an outbreak, a large quantity of the same Pokémon will spawn in an area. You can find Pokémon outbreaks by searching for Pokémon icons on your map. If the outbreak is a Pokémon you haven’t registered in your Pokédex yet, it will appear as a question mark.

To farm outbreaks for shiny Pokémon, you first have to make your way to the outbreak location and start defeating them. Once you defeat 30 Pokémon, your chances of finding a shiny become one in 2048 or one in 819 if you have treated yourself to a tantalizing Sparkling Power sandwich.

These odds are already looking much more fruitful. But if you defeat 60 Pokémon, you can raise your chances again to one in 1365 or one in 683 with the Sparkling Power sandwich boost. If you couple the Sparkling Power sandwich boost with the shiny charm and defeat 60 Pokémon in a mass outbreak, you have a one in 512 chance of encountering a shiny. These are the best odds you can get.

There is a trick to using mass outbreaks to farm shiny Pokémon. The Pokémon are not infinite. If you defeat them all, the outbreak will be over. So once you have killed 60 Pokémon, you want to stop there. At that point, you can start setting up a picnic or briefly run out of the area to respawn the Pokémon until your shiny appears.

How to Use the Masuda Method in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

The mass outbreak technique shines because of the late-game boosts. But if your Pokémon adventure has just begun, don’t worry. There are ways to farm shiny Pokémon in the early game as well.

The first of these is using the tried and true Masuda Method. The Masuda Method involves breeding Pokémon to increase your chances of hatching a shiny one. In previous games, your Pokémon would lay eggs at the Pokémon Daycare. But in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, you can breed during picnics.

To use the Masuda Method in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, you will need two Pokémon of different genders and the same egg type in your party while you have a picnic. There is a second picnic basket at the end of the table. This is where your eggs will spawn. Check it periodically, and once you have an egg, you can walk with it in your party until it hatches.

If you’ve only got one of the particular Pokémon you want to breed, Ditto can be a stand-in for any gender or egg type.

If you use two Pokémon of different languages, your chances increase dramatically to a one in 683 chance of hatching a shiny. You can get your hands on a Pokémon of a different language by completing surprise trades or, even better, trading with a friend who lives in another country.

Can I Use the Let’s Go Feature to Shiny Hunt in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet?

If you’re worried about your Pokémon accidentally defeating a shiny Pokémon while auto-battling, don’t be. If a shiny Pokémon is present in the overworld and your Pokémon happens to cross paths with it, it will automatically trigger a battle, so you won’t miss out on the chance to catch it.

Auto battling is a great quality-of-life improvement in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet and takes a lot of the tediousness out of grinding. So if you are shiny hunting and are too nervous to use it, you can rest easy knowing that your chances of catching that ever-elusive shiny will not be quashed by using the Let’s Go auto-battle feature.

Use These Techniques to Shiny Hunt Your Favorite Pocket Monsters in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

Catching a shiny Pokémon is many a trainer’s dream. You might get lucky and find one wandering around the overworld. But the best way to shiny hunt is most definitely to eat your Sparkling Power sandwich, set off with your shiny charm in hand, and make your way to a mass outbreak.

If you’re still in the early game, try your hand at breeding. If you are serious about shiny hunting, using any of these methods will greatly increase your chances.