How To Get Shinies In Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

NPC gifts this time out include the starters, Sibuna_Switch indicated, so continuously soft or hard-resetting your game won’t impact them. Static encounters, too, include the “four sublegendaries, Koraidon/Miraidon, the ex-Titans, and all Gimmighoul,” so that’s a lot of shiny red tape. But you can fast-forward to shinies of all kinds by using what fans solemnly refer to as the Masuda method or by making chance-boosting sandwiches.

Shiny? Sandwiches? Yes, I’m confused, too. Let’s break it down.

What is a shiny Pokémon?

A “shiny” Pokémon does not gleam like a diamond ring, but instead appears in a rare colorway. The fire-type starter Pokémon Fuecoco is usually tubby red dinosaur, but its shiny version is a tubby taffy pink dinosaur. Yes, that’s the only difference between a normal Pokémon and a shiny Pokémon, the color. It ain’t much, but it’s an honest difference. And so-called shiny hunters are willing to labor for it—one Redditor said it took them 35,000 soft resets and five years to get a shiny Torchic in Pokémon Sapphire.

Collecting shinies mostly comes down to having this type of humble patience and a lucky touch. If you’re hoping to nab some of your own shinies in Scarlet and Violet, come prepared with both—it’s reported that Scarlet and Violet shinies have that familiar one out of 4,096 base rate.

But I can use the Masuda method to breed Pokémon Scarlet and Violet shinies, right?

Correct—with the Masuda method, which refers to breeding two Pokémon from two foreign copies of the game, your base rate improves to one out of 683. You can also introduce a shiny charm to the mix, an item that boosts shiny odds, so that the rate gets even better, one out of 512.

You said something about…sandwiches?

Scarlet and Violet are maintaining the cooking mechanic also found in Generation III, IV, and Pokémon Sword and Shield. Just set up a picnic and begin your 10-minute window to create a certain kind of sandwich which, when consumed, should help you obtain certain types of shiny Pokémon in the wild (sandwiches don’t work on Tera Raids or eggs, Sibuna_Switch said). One batch of Cherry Tomatoes combined with two Salty Herba Mystica should help you find a shiny bug-type, for example. Yummy.

Now we’re all on the same shiny page. Great. Your hungry hunt begins when Pokémon Scarlet and Violet is out, on November 18 at 12 am Eastern time.