Beginner Friendly Shiny Hunts
These Shiny hunts aim to be ones that are accessible for users that are newer to shiny hunting. Characteristics of these hunts include being able to guarantee the pokémon you encounter, minimal risk of losing the shiny pokémon, fast encounters or generous shiny odds. These hunts should overall take the least amount of time to complete.
Generation One Legendary Pokémon
Shiny Pokémon were first introduced in generation two, however they are still obtainable in generation one, the shininess of a Pokémon is determined by their Determinent Values (DV's for short), numbers ranging from 0-15 that determine a Pokémon's stats, the only way to check these stats is to use an external tool using a high-leveled pokémon's stats, with only the legendary Pokémon having high enough stats to accurately determine shininess.
Link to a generation one Pokémon DV to shiny calculator
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Odd Egg
The Odd egg in generation two is a strange egg given to you by the day care owners in "Pokémon Crystal" this egg is very special as not only is it capable of hatching into many different species, the chances of obtaining a shiny from this egg are extremely high, at 50% for the japanese version and 14% for international versions. All of the Pokémon that can hatch from this egg include: Pichu, Cleffa, Igglybuff, Tyrogue, Smoochum, Elekid and Magby.
Link to for more information about the odd egg
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Random Encounter
The simplest form of shiny hunting; random encounters are simply encountering as many wild Pokémon as possible. Random encounter are at their fastest in generation three, however there are a variety of ways to influence random encounters such as abilities that affect wild Pokémon rates and repelling Pokémon of lower levels.
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Run Away
Run away hunts are similar to random encounter hunts as you encounter wild Pokémon until a shiny is obtained, however, run away hunts involve continuously encountering a single static Pokémon instead of randomly encounter Pokémon in designated encounter tiles. Generation Three has some desireable run away targets including Groudon, Kyogre, Rayquaza, Regirock, Regice, Registeel, Sudowoodo and Snorlax.
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Johto Starters
Unique to Pokémon Heart Gold and Pokémon Soul Silver, the starter selection screen shows whether a starter is shiny, this means that when choosing a starter Pokémon, all three can potentially be shiny, effectively tripling the encounter rate. Because of this, the cutscene for choosing a starter Pokémon can be entirely avoided, speeding up this hunt dramatically.
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Wild Double Battles
Generation three introduced double battles where they were exclusive to trainer battles, in generation four double battles are now available in the wild, effectively just random encounters with two Pokémon. Due to an oversight, if both wild Pokémon are shiny, the game crashes due to being unable to handle both shiny sparkles, the chances of this are 1/8192*1/8192 or 1/67,108,864, incredibly low (but has still happened at least once!). Locations where wild double battles are possible can be seen here. (just make sure your partner doesn't faint the shiny or better yet, the game crashes!)
Link to a (un)successfull double shiny game crash. (featuring a glitch to increase shiny odds).
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Poké Radar
The Poké Radar is an item that was added in Pokémon Diamond, Pokémon Pearl & Pokémon Platinum and returned in Pokémon X and Pokémon Y, It allows for the user the spawn grass patches that are guaranteed to spawn a Pokémon when stood on, whilst using the Poké Radar, Pokémon that are either fainted or captured are counted as part of a "chain", this chain can only consist of Pokémon of the same species. Once a chain of 40 is reached the shiny odds for each patch of grass generated by the Poké Radar is 1/200, this chain also does not end once a shiny Pokémon is caught, meaning multiple can be obtained from the same chain, therefore making this the most efficient method of getting many shiny Pokémon of the same species quickly (getting to a chain of 40 is the real problem!)
Link to more information about the Poké Radar
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Double Grass
Generation five's double grass is mostly the same as generation four's wild double battles, except you are no longer forced to pair with non playable characters (NPC's), this removes the chance of an NPC accidentally fainting the shiny, and also allows you to use two of your own Pokémon making captures much safer. Thankfully the glitch that crashed generation four wild double battles has been patched, however you can only catch one Pokémon per wild encounter, meaning only one can be caught.
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Masuda Method
Although Masuda Method was added in generation four with a shiny chance of 1/1638, the shiny chances of Masuda Method were increased to 1/1365 in generation five and further increased to 1/683 in generation six, Masuda Method also requires a Pokémon from a foreign region, which became much more accessible in the generation, because of this and improved encounter rates in newer generations, this is the generation where Masuda Method became a common shiny hunting method.
Link to more information about Masuda Method.
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Horde Battles
Horde battles are a new form of wild encounter introduced in generation six, horde battles are almost exactly like random encounters and double battles, except five Pokémon are encountered at once, increasing encounter rates by 5X, like double battles, only one shiny Pokémon may be caught in one encounter.
Link to more information about horde battles.
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SOS battles
SOS battles are a new type of battle introduced in generation seven, Pokémon are able to call in allies which turns the battles into a 2 versus 1, by continuously fainting one Pokémon, the other will call in more Pokémon, eventually after enough Pokémon have been called in, the odds a shiny Pokémon being called in will increase.
Link to more information about SOS battles.
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