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5th Gen Why is it so hard to find a shiny?

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  • Seen May 17, 2013
I've been playing Pokemon since blue and red and I'm playing black 2 for the third time and never caught a shiny. The only shines I have are the ones I got in trade.

So my son plays white 2 for the first time and running through the grass after his first badge he catches a shiny Psyduck.

Is it really all about luck?
 
5,616
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13
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  • Age 35
  • Seen May 15, 2023
Pretty much. The rate of finding a shiny in any game is about 1 in 8000. Unless you know how to abuse the internal system like with RNG or have incredible luck, you could play through every generation and every game and never find 1 Shiny.

B2W2 have an item that makes finding shinies a little bit easier and you can breed them at a lower rate using the Matsuda method.
 

hiff8

Gotta Derp em all
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14
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  • Seen Apr 4, 2015
I've caught one shiny throughout my 14 years of Pokemanning, and it was a piggeotto that I no longer have, I've also spent 10 hours trying to hatch a shiny, and this thread is going to be closed in 5, 4, 3...

Wait, what Item makes shinies easier to find?
 
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5,616
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13
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  • Age 35
  • Seen May 15, 2023
You have an Item called a Shiny Charm which drops the rate by or to 33.33% I believe is was.

Increases the chances of encountering Shiny Pokémon. The chance of encountering Shiny Pokémon in the wild is changed to 1/2730. The chance of an egg producing a Shiny Pokémon via the Masuda method is changed to 1/1024.
 

Zekrom1066

Master of Ideals
71
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10
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The chance of finding a Shiny Pokemon without the Masuda Method or Shiny Charm is 1/8192 to be exact. It is due to the fact that shiny IV lineups only have a 1/8192 chance of occuring, thus explaning the rarity of Shiny Pokemon up till today.
 
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XanderO said:
You have an Item called a Shiny Charm which drops the rate by or to 33.33% I believe is was
And to add on to that, the only way to get the Shiny Charm without hacking is to complete your entire National Dex (minus event Pokemon, I believe) and then receive the item from Prof. Juniper. It's a lot of work to still have a 1/2730 of finding a wild shiny, but I'd still take those odds any day of the week compared to 1/8192.
 
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I've caught two shinies in Gold (Flaaffy and Noctowl), a Tentacool in R/S, a Spearow in HG, and a Woobat (who is now Monster the Swoobat <3) in Black. I think that's about it. I only still have the last two mentioned, sadly.

I also remember finding a shiny once but not having any pokeballs...
 
128
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11
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1/8192 odds. That's it. It's all luck unless you manipulate the RNG.

I am sad to say that I have never found a Shiny in the wild in my entire Pokemon life. The only ones I've ever encountered were through cheating and through in-game events, like that Red Gyarados in SS, the shiny Gible in Black 2 after beating Benga, and the shiny Haxorus in Black 2 after completing the Unova Dex.
 

tabor62

[b][color=#CADB5A]W[/color][color=#C8DA4F]h[/color
1,659
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15
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Yes, catching a shiny is based purely on your luck. There are a lot of people who have been playing for years and have never even seen a random one like you. The best way to hunt them in my opinion is to do the Masuda Method while using the Shiny Charm which cuts 1/8192 (0.01%) all the way down to 1/1024 (0.1%). While it is still a very slim chance, that is your best bet.

I myself have only encountered two random shinies and Masuda'd two.
 
1,814
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12
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  • Age 29
  • Seen Jan 2, 2016
It is all about luck when it comes to finding random shinies. I've been playing since G/S/C and I still have yet to find a random shiny. All the shinies I have now are from trading or RNG Abusing them myself. I still hope to stumble across a random shiny someday though...
 
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Like what the others said, it's all down to luck when finding a Shiny Pokemon. I've been playing since R/S/E and I found a shiny in almost every game I played since, except the fact I have yet to encounter a shiny in Black 2. There's also stuff like the Masuda Method and the Shiny Charm, which can increase the likelihood of getting them, as well as the popular use of the RNG.
 

Boilurn

Scald Pokémon
612
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11
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I've never caught a shiny before, but there is one which will be available to you if you defeat Benga in the White Treehollow or Black Tower (Only or B2W2 players). That's what I'm doing at the moment. Can't wait to get my first Shiny!
 
200
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17
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The recent shiny I ran into was a female shiny tangela on my White Version, but I didn't feel like catching it for some reason and now I regret it.. hopefully I find some shiny pokemon on my Black 2 Version once I buy it and start playing
 

Birthday Thunder

Venus (Event Archivist)
247
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13
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You want to talk about good luck with shinies? Ive recently been playing pokemon X D gale of darkness and thought to myself, why not EV train some of my UT purified shadow pokemon on emerald version? Well, I did and specifically in attack for my scizor I evolved from the shadow scyther. Lo and behold, after around twenty encounters, up pops a shiny mightyena. I was like, wow nice, that's a shiny I don't have yet. Awesome! So I continue training and a few more encounters later, a freaking shiny poochyena comes around. I could not believe my eyes. I thought maybe I had a shiny frame or whatever because of emeralds broken RNG. I went and checked the natures of both my shinies after I cought 'em, and they were completely different. The pooch was adamant and the mighty was hardy or something.

But the luck didn't stop there.....I yet again go out to continue training the scizor and about an hour later (mind you I don't have pokerus on that game, so EV training takes forever), a shiny oddish appears. I was speechless. Completely and utterly speechless. Suffice to say, I was just extremely lucky, but three shinies in a figurative row? I'll take that any day. It hasn't happened since, even though I've probably been through thousands of encounters since.
 

Creame

Dreams take you higher ♥
71
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11
Years
I never ever occasionally run into a shiny.. I did once, in Pokémon Sapphire .. And at that time I didn't even know about shinies!

So I will wait for the moment when I run into a shiny on my White 2 game :)
 
5,616
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13
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  • Age 35
  • Seen May 15, 2023
Going to close this thread. It wasn't about what shinies you have. We have a thread for that already. It was about the difficulty of attaining shiny pokemon. If you want to continue with what you found, I believe we have a discussion for that. If not here, then check pgc.
 
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