Shiny Pokemon got their infamous debut in 1999 with Pokemon Gold & Silver for the Game Boy Color. Ever since then, capturing one of these oddly colored creatures has become one of the most treasured achievements in the entire franchise. For nearly every single core-series game, there's an embedded method that makes coming across a shiny much easier. Pokemon Scarlet & Violet are no exceptions, with the two introducing a couple new methods exclusive to the new games.
Fortunately for both casual players and shiny hunters alike, coming across shiny critters in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet is rather easy even if players aren't going out of their way to hunt for them. The base game shiny odds in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet are 1/4096, and that's without the shiny charm or boosted shiny rates from making sandwiches. Since there are multiple Pokemon spawning in wherever the player goes—as opposed to wandering around in the grass and encountering one at a time—the odds of a shiny spawning even with the base game rates is much higher than it's been in the past.
Tip 1: Obtain The Shiny Charm
Naturally, one of the most straightforward methods to increasing your shiny odds in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet is getting the infamous shiny charm. Obtaining this luminous charm is no easy feat, as it requires the player to fully complete the Paldea Pokedex. That includes owning or capturing all 400 unique Pokemon that are available in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet. That number excludes any Pokemon that are exclusive to Tera Raid events, so thankfully players are exempt from having to obtain anything that would've been acquired through that.
After completing the Pokedex, all players have to do is travel back to Naranja Academy and talk to Professor Jacq in the Biology Lab. Once he sees the completed Pokedex, he'll award the player with the Shiny Charm. This item is extremely rewarding, especially for shiny hunters, as it increases the base game's shiny rates from 1/4096 to 1/1365.67. This essentially triples the chance that shiny Pokemon will spawn in the wild, and that's without the help of other shiny hunting methods stacked on top of it.
Tip 2: Hunt For Pokemon Spawning In Mass Outbreaks
If players don't have the means to obtain the shiny charm, have no fear! Another relatively easy method to hunt for shiny Pokemon that players can do— regardless of their completion of the main story of Pokemon Scarlet & Violet—is shiny hunting in mass outbreaks. On the map of Paldea, sometimes sprites of certain Pokemon will appear in different areas to signify that a mass outbreak of that particular Pokemon has started there.
Similar to shiny hunting hoards in Pokemon X & Y, all players have to do to efficiently shiny hunt in mass outbreaks is knock out anywhere between 30 and 60 of the Pokemon in the mass outbreak, exit the area, come back, and repeat. By doing this, players are increasing their chances that a shiny will spawn within that mass outbreak. This method can also be stacked with the shiny charm to further increase the rate of finding a shiny within any mass outbreak.
Tip 3: Eating Sparkling Power Sandwiches
One of the features unique to Pokemon Scarlet & Violet are the sandwiches that players can make while picnicking with their Pokemon. This feature is similar to the player's ability to cook while camping with their Pokemon in Pokemon Sword & Shield, however the newest games up the stakes of satisfactory culinary creation by adding different effects that can be triggered by eating particular sandwiches. These effects can range from anything to increasing the chances of finding eggs during picnics, to bonus items being collected at the end of Tera Raids. But, more importantly, creating sandwiches with the "sparkling power" can increase the game's shiny odds.
There are three levels to the sparkling power sandwiches:
- A sandwich with Sparkling Power Level 1 doubles your shiny odds to 1/2048
- A sandwich with Sparkling Power Level 2 triples your shiny odds to 1/1365.67
- A sandwich with Sparkling Power Level 3 quadruples your shiny odds to 1/1024.38
All the rates listed above exclude any further help from the shiny charm or mass outbreaks, which means the shiny rate can be raised to a whopping 1/512.44. That said, hunting for shiny Pokemon may still take a while even with those insanely high odds, as at the end of the day the chance of shiny Pokemon appearing is entirely up to the game's RNG.