6th Gen DexNav Shiny Chaining and Perfect IV Guide. (Updated V.1)

I will confirm that chaining is indeed a thing. I was hunting Sandshrew yesterday and got them from the Lv. 15-18 range to the point that they (and other occasional random sneakups) were appearing at Lv.24-27 on average, and with the level boost periodically up to Lv.37, one which I found with Counter and I believe has several (yet unknown) perfect IVs.

I selected a Lv.29 and a Lv.27 one, both found before this particular chain and whose IVs I now know after sending clones back to X, to sit in my team area while I determine the better one to use. I like the Lv.29 because it knows Night Slash, but the Lv.27 entry has Rock Climb, which can have usefulness later as well. Other catches will be saved to my Bank where I am saving all Egg Moves, and any IVs among them can be examined later once I have the Battle Resort open.

ALL OF THIS SAID...it is possibly to enter the Route and the first thing you sneak up on is ten levels higher than normal. That doesn't require chaining. Chains let you get them higher and higher, even for standard catches. Extremely long chains can result in you having levels in the 90s if you keep at it (I presume this can be done), and that really helps for training. Of course, it's advised to grow a bounty of Leppa Berries if you intend to have moves available to use by that time.

(Update: If you Dexnav search a pokemon and it escapes before you encounter it this DOES NOT reset your chain. Just keep searching until you encounter your desired pokemon!)

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From my experience, this felt like it's false, because after the Eevee I was chaining ran away (that damn youngster was blocking my way), I walked around again and waited for another tail to pop up, since the dex nav couldn't find an Eevee. The new 'mon was lv8 again. :/

Regarding chaining for shiny Pokemon, this (smallish) sample suggests that there's no evidence that a higher chain/search level does result in a shiny Pokemon. On the flip side, dexnav in general may give a higher chance, just that it doesn't depend on chaining. People saying they encountered shinies doesn't mean there is a chaining method, but I suppose more testing needs to be done to know for sure.

Hey all! Here is the TL;DR of the data from the doc linked above:
TL;DR -- The DexNav does not use a chaining system to increase shiny chance the way the PokeRadar did. Instead, it seems to just increase the shiny encounter rate generally, like the XY Friend Safari did. The DexNav search shiny encounter rate this data suggests is 1/308, but that rate is probably too high.
If you want to know how this was determined, read the doc in the original post!
EDIT: Just to make a couple of big things a little clearer:
The data shows that chain length DOES NOT matter -- it's a misnomer to call this "chaining" at all.
The data shows that search level DOES NOT matter, either.
The only thing that matters is using DexNav search in the first place, because it increases your shiny chance in general (the same way the Friend Safari does in XY).

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I thought the stars are for poke contest potential :(

I've read that thing about there being no actual proof of the chaining, although there is speculation that using Dexnav in general slightly increases your chances of getting a shiny. Counting your chain apparently has no relevance to your encounter rate of a shiny Pokemon. I'm guessing the search level is only to indicate good potential, abilities, etc.

Reading that link provided above, it seems from the document that this person proved the myth wrong of shiny chaining. I just hope there can be legitimate facts in all of this because they still use words like "it seems" and "suggests" which can't mean it's 100% true.

Lunarose said:

I've read that thing about there being no actual proof of the chaining, although there is speculation that using Dexnav in general slightly increases your chances of getting a shiny. Counting your chain apparently has no relevance to your encounter rate of a shiny Pokemon. I'm guessing the search level is only to indicate good potential, abilities, etc.

Reading that link provided above, it seems from the document that this person proved the myth wrong of shiny chaining. I just hope there can be legitimate facts in all of this because they still use words like "it seems" and "suggests" which can't mean it's 100% true.

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That's because that even with a sample, there's a (slim) chance that they were just unlucky and there really is a thing such as chaining. However, a sample of at least 70 is not a bad starting point at all, and more people contributing will add to the data.

Well this thread was rather disappointing.

I tried 'chaining' (or what I thought was chaining) earlier today on Vulpix, got around 50-60 deep and broke it when I startled one by coming in too fast. Got several Vulpix though that 2 potential and some hidden ability ones as well. Hopefully my Modest sync worked so I can at least get a decent Ninetales out of it or some breeding parents.

Will be watching the thread for more updates on if we do/don't have shiny or any chaining in ORAS... hopefully we do. :P

Just one question, this whole process is new to me, so if I want to capture a blue Ralts then how many chains must I do if any? Also when can I use this technique? Is it after the national pokedex or wtv it is called?

Tohos said:

Just one question, this whole process is new to me, so if I want to capture a blue Ralts then how many chains must I do if any? Also when can I use this technique? Is it after the national pokedex or wtv it is called?

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It seems the search lvl or the chains don't affect your chances to get a shiny pokemon. You just need lots of patience and some luck.

You can use it as soon you have you dex navigator.

I apologise to all. I havent been here in over 2 weeks now. In all honesty if anyone wants a reason i have medical issues dealing with a certain something in the back of my head which i'd rather not discuss :) but thats why i've been away but i'm back so once i get a spare moment which isn't at 3 in the morning i will do a serious update to the guide because things have been proven and disproven and there have been a few new discoveries aswell!
So please all bear with me!

Since this is dying, and almost at the point of expiry, I want to quickly chime in some information of my own.

I caught my first Shiny in OR the other day while working on the Mesprit trio (which are all in regular Poké Balls BTW). It was a Pelipper I encountered while doing some quick training to regain friendship. It is the only hidden encounter Shiny I have seen so far, and right after catching this, I went and caught Mesprit to finish off that trio.

I plan to Shiny hunt the trio in my other game, but that's another discussion.

Can't someone please sticky this? It's very useful.

Wanted to thank you for the guide! c: I tried it out to try and get a shiny cottonee but I broke my chain twice so hopefully I can do some more tomorrow on it and maybe have better luck.

Quick question, hope it's OK to bring this up:

So what if your chain goes up to 100? I understand that the level is reset but is the chain broken as well?

LaVida said:

Quick question, hope it's OK to bring this up:

So what if your chain goes up to 100? I understand that the level is reset but is the chain broken as well?

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It won't break :)

After several chains of 100-300 and not a single shiny showing up, I kind of doubt that shiny chaining actually exists in OR/AS. I can't find current information on this but I found some stuff from 2 months ago where people more or less disproved shiny chaining. Does anybody have an update on this?

So I haven't tried to shiny chain yet but I have gotten the gist of how to get my search level up here. But I don't know if I will attempt to chain or not, maybe after I get the Shiny Charm. But it is good to know that once i'm at 25 search level it makes things easier finding good ones of what I need.

Thanks for this, so useful!