Pokemon Legends: Arceus Shiny Hunting Guide

Pokemon Legends: Arceus is only just in the hands of players but even as you set out on the start of your journey any Pokemon trainer knows that they should be keeping an eye out for any shiny pokemon. Shiny Pokemon are a rare occurrence, traditionally a 1/4096 chance to find them, but there are a number of new elements that are new or returning that when stacked will exponentially boost your chances at finding a shiny Pokemon. In this Pokemon Legends: Arceus Shiny Hunting Guide we'll explain each of the different mechanics that can increase shiny chances and what your final chances will look like.

Pokemon Legends: Arceus Shiny Hunting Mechanics

There are four different circumstances that allow further chances for a shiny Pokemon to spawn. An explanation of each of these is listed below:

Pokedex Research Level 10

Each Pokedex entry of a pokemon you catch will have a variety of tasks that you need to complete. These might be to catch the Pokemon a certain number of times, catch them under certain circumstances, defeated them with specific moves, or even see them use certain attacks. Each of these tasks you complete will increase the Research Level in your Pokedex to a maximum of 10. You do not need to complete every task to obtain Research Level 10.

Once you reach Research Level 10 your chance of getting a shiny will slightly increase, and you'll get a Pokeball symbol next to the icon on the Pokedex.

Pokedex Research Perfect Clear

The next step from Research Level 10 is to completely clear every Pokedex objective for a Pokemon. This will again increase your chance of getting a shiny variant of that Pokemon.

Once you obtain a Perfect Clear the Pokeball symbol next to the icon on the Pokedex will now have stars on it.

Shiny Charm

Originally introduced in Pokemon Black 2 and Pokemon White 2 the Shiny Charm has made its return. The Shiny Charm, once acquired, will be the next large step in increasing your chances of obtaining a shiny Pokemon. If you're interested in finding out how to obtain the Shiny Charm in Pokemon Legends: Arceus the requirements are listed below.

Mass Outbreaks

Another new mechanic being added to Pokemon Legends: Arceus is the Mass Outbreak. There are NPC that you'll run into around the world that will tell you that they've heard reports of a mass outbreak of a certain species of Pokemon appearing. They'll likely also comment that they were pretty sure that one of them was a different color. Here is where luck will still come into play, a Mass Outbreak is the largest contributor to the increase in your chances to catch a Shiny Pokemon so you just need to hope that it's a Pokemon that you actually want to catch.

What are the odds of catching a Shiny Pokemon in Pokemon Legends Arceus?

Thanks to @Sibun_Switch on Twitter who has crunched the numbers we know that the chances of catching a Shiny Pokemon while you have a Pokedex Research Level of 10, Perfected your research, have obtained the Shiny Charm, and are at a Mass Outbreak drops the chance from 1/4096 all the way down to 1/128.49.

By far the largest contributor to this is the Mass Outbreak, even if you only have Mass Outbreak your chance of a shiny Pokemon encounter are 1/158.02 so if you hear about a mass outbreak and it's a Pokemon you want to see in its shiny form it's definitely worth checking out.

With every criteria fulfilled except for Mass Outbreak your chance is 1/585.57, it's a lot higher than the alternative but the trade off is that you can encounter that Pokemon anywhere in the world, and more reliably so you might encounter it 585 times much faster than waiting around for the Mass Outbreak.

How do you acquire the Shiny Charm in Pokemon Legends: Arceus?

In order to obtain the Shiny Charm you need to have complete the game, filled your Pokedex, and obtained Research Level 10 with every Pokemon. This will be a long journey but by that point shiny Pokemon is likely your main aim. Once you've completed your Pokedex you can then return to the Professor and have him rate your Pokedex. Once he sees your accomplishment you'll obtain this key item.

What Pokemon CANNOT be Shiny in Pokemon Legends: Arceus?

Unfortunately, there are a number of Pokemon that no matter how many times you try to reset your game will not be shiny. The Pokemon that cannot be shiny are listed below:

• Your Starter Pokemon when you first encounter them
  Note: You can catch more Cyndaquil, Oshawott, and Rowlet later in the game, these have a chance of being Shiny like any other Pokemon
• Any Single-Encounter scripted pokemon such as Legendary and Mythical pokemon

The general rule of thumb is that if it's something that can be encountered repeatedly then it will have a chance of being shiny.