PAGE 777!!
2315 Spiritomb.
I had some questions about soft reseting for starters. I've heard little bits and pieces on how it works, but I'm not 100% sure. I've noticed that after a while, I seem to keep getting identical Squirtles to ones I've already gotten. After reseting my save file and trying again, I start getting different Squirtles. I've heard it has something to do with the RNG of the third gen games, but I'm not sure if reseting the save file every once in a while is something I should do. One popular shiny hunter on youtube says that about 35 soft resets is about as high as you should go before starting a new file. Is there any truth to this? Would it overall lower my chances to stay on the same save file? I've also heard the term "shiny frame" thrown around. Is there something about being on the exact right frame for it to be a shiny? I just want to make sure I'm doing things correctly. I'd love to get my green shelled Squirtle sooner than later. It only takes about a minute to get back to Oak's lab after starting a new game, so it's not like starting a new file takes long. I've also heard the term "early shiny frame" when it comes to starters. Would it be better to choose a default name rather than take the time to spell out a name of my own?
Any info would be appreciated. Maybe if there isn't one already, a "frequently asked questions about shinies" section on the first post may be a good idea. :)
Voila! Thank you for backing up what I had thought, haha.
In fact, there's been some debate as to what's going on with this, with one side saying that the FR/LG RNG is flawed and the other claiming that it's perfectly fine. Normally I'd preface any advice I give on this topic with the qualification "this is what I believe, but a lot of people strongly disagree and I can't promise that I'm right about this," but if you really are getting identical Squirtles, that's really powerful evidence to back up what I'm saying. So what I'm about to tell you I can say with a higher degree of confidence than before, "lol."
Basically, the FR/LG RNG works fine and there are multiple factors that go into determining the features of a Pokemon, but unlike R/S/D/P/Pt/HG/SS/B/W, real time is not one of the factors. Therefore, saving in front of a Pokemon (like Squirtle) and SRing isn't going to change its shinyness, since the information that the RNG is drawing from is the exact same, since nothing relevant has changed since you last saved. That being said, there is a degree of variation, and you can get in a variety of different values in each SR "batch." The number that I've seen is 25, although 35 isn't too far off and both are probably estimations. After 25 SRs, you should shuffle up the RNG by resaving. I like to take a few steps and spin my character for a couple of seconds just in case, but I'm not 100% sure if it's necessary to take steps or if the RNG will be reset from just resaving. I take a couple of steps to be on the safe side, but you might be able to get away with just saving again.
It's possible to get a shiny in FR/LG from simply SRing over and over (I got my shiny Bulbasaur without resaving at all), but you'll probably continue to see identical Pokemon with the same stats, etc. You'll eventually get your shiny, but you'll waste a lot of time with reused duplicates from the RNG pool.
The thing about "shiny frames" is a problem from Emerald, whose RNG is by far the worst of any Pokemon game. The RNG in Emerald is set from the beginning of when you start your game, so you'd have to pick a whole new character, ID number, etc. each time you reset because the sole factor in the RNG calculation is amount of time since you turned on your game. You'll see a certain set of characteristics (shinyness, nature, etc.) for every Pokemon you see 1 second after turning on the game, another for every Pokemon you see 2 seconds after you turn on the game, etc. This means that it's possible to hunt in Emerald in the wild as long as you leave your game plugged in and just run around in the grass endlessly. In my Emerald, I have a shiny frame around 5 hours in and another about 9 hours in. For SRing things like the starters, you would have to SR, wait a second, encounter the Pokemon, SR, wait 2 seconds, etc., and once it gets to the point where you have to wait a minute between SRs, it's not really worth it. If you're lucky (/unlucky) enough to have a shiny frame, say, 55 seconds in, that means that every single Pokemon you encounter 55 seconds after turning the game on will be shiny. So technically, you could get every SRable Pokemon shiny if you can time your shiny frame, although you might have to wait several hours to do it, "lol." It's a really cheap method and the Club only counts one shiny per frame to prevent you from abusing the method to get all the Emerald shinies, "lol."
FR/LG, on the other hand, have a perfectly fine RNG compared to Emerald's. You don't have to restart your whole save file each time; simply taking a step and saving will mix it up just fine. :) For all other games, you don't have to resave or anything, since everything except for E/FR/LG use real time as a factor, meaning every SR you do will naturally mix up the batch.
(I'm not entirely sure about the following part since I've never tried it, but this is how I understand the name rumors: ) The name thing only matters in Emerald, as there's a way to calculate your shiny frame by using a cheating method that factors the letters in your name, your ID number, and your hidden ID, which isn't available in the game and can only be found by using an external device. For all intents and purposes, the name thing has no merit and doesn't affect your shiny hunting. There's something like certain names change your chances from 1/8192 to either 1/8191 or 1/8193, but the difference is so small that it's negligible in the grand scheme of shiny hunting. :)
TL;DR: Resave after every 25 SRs on FR/LG and never play Emerald. Everything else is fine. :cer_smile:
And the idea about a shiny FAQ in the first post is a really good idea! That sounds like it would be pretty helpful, so maybe I'll make it when I have some more free time (or if someone else wants to, you're more than welcome).
Well since my last post I have hatched 4389 Torchic eggs and SR over 10,000 spiritombs. Really hoping to get Spiritomb soon as I have been after it for a long time.
Wow, those are really long hunts! I'm hunting for Spiritomb too, but I'm about 7700 behind, "lol." Would you like to race?
everyone else hunts really fast :)
*looks at the 15 Spiritomb since his last post*