One of the main parts of Pokemon is the never-ending hunt for Shiny Pokemon. If you’re new to the franchise, Shiny Pokemon have different colors than their basic counterparts — for example, a Charmander will be black instead of orange. Shiny Pokemon are rare, and have a 1/4096 base rate of appearing — but don’t worry, you will notice them when they spawn due to their sparkly aura and sound effects. If you’re wondering how to find shiny Pokemon in Pokemon Legends: Arceus, look no further.
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How to Farm Shiny Pokemon in Arceus
First, some behind-the-scenes information from the game. The moment you leave Jubilife Village, a “Map Seed” is generated in the game’s code, randomly deciding what Pokemon will spawn and where. For example, if you are hunting a Buizel: once you leave Jubilife, the game generates several Buizel’s in a queue and spawns them accordingly. If you don’t see a shiny Buizel, you can advance the queue by defeating or otherwise despawning the existing Buizels. However, there is an easier way to force repopulation of an area.
Camping is your biggest friend while Shiny Hunting. Every time you advance the game forward a day by sleeping at a camp, the game forces a repopulation of all areas based on the existing Map Seed. This means that if you camp while three Buizels are spawned, the game will despawn those three and respawn the next set of three from the queue. The only way to completely reset and randomize the queues is to revisit Jubilife Village.
Note that Alpha Pokemon require two in-game days to pass before repopulating, but they are not shiny-locked.
Now that we understand the mechanics behind Arceus’ Pokemon spawning, here are some tips to help you locate a shiny:
- If you aren’t tracking a specific shiny, flying around the map will spawn the most Pokemon the quickest, and so you can cover large areas of ground to try and find a shiny fast.
- If you do want to laser in on a specific Pokemon, the method above of populating an area, defeating or despawning the non-shiny targets, or camping to force a repopulation will work.
- Outbreaks carry a higher chance of shiny Pokemon appearing. You need at least Rank 4 to start seeing Outbreaks.
- The Shiny Charm, which boosts Shiny Rates to 1/1365, can be obtained in the game, but it requires Rank 10 Research on every Pokemon in the Pokedex — this is a grind, so strap in for a long haul.
- The only Pokemon that cannot be shiny ever are the three Starter choices at the beginning of the game and Arceus. Every other Pokemon has a normal chance to be Shiny in the wild.
If you’re looking for the most efficient use of your time, you may just want to wait until you’ve unlocked the Shiny Charm before you go grinding for a complete Shiny Pokedex. That’s something the game supports by the way! There’s a toggle which will only display your shiny collection.
