o___O
o____O
o______O
^___^
I explain most things in the video (still uploading), but I like to type so I'll put it here, too. For the past week and a half, I have been hatching for a secret target on both my Black and White versions. I don't think I told anyone explicitly about this hunt. I may have hinted at it in the past, but I have not revealed who my target was to anyone recently. I'm part of the school of thought that believes that a secret target is one that is kept -- for lack of a better term -- a secret! I never understood the desire to proclaim that one is hunting for a secret target. It sort of defeats the purpose of having a secret target! Moving on...
I was watching Naruto Shippuden Episode 208 on the internet while hatching for Growlithe. This time around, instead of hatching eggs in a continuous stream-like fashion, I decided that I would first collect 90 eggs in both Black and White, then proceed to hatch all 90 eggs. After checking their IVs, I would replace parents as necessary and release all the unsuitable Pokemon. At the point of me making this decision, I had hatched approximately 360 eggs: 180 on Black and 180 on White.
As expected, the eggs on Black yielded nothing. Then I began hatching on White. It felt like the eggs were taking forever to hatch...riding back and forth on Route 3 was becoming more monotonous than a college history class, and by the time I got to the last 10 eggs for the day, I was wondering how in the world I would find the strength to collect 90 more eggs on BOTH Black and White before the day was over.
So I collected 5 of the last ten eggs in my White version and went about hatching them.
The first egg? Red Growlithe, of course. There's no way I'd hatch a shiny Growlithe so soon.
The second egg? Its contents were the same as the other 500+ eggs.
And then, out of the blue, a golden retriever hatched out of the third egg of the second to last batch of the day.
That explains the o_O at the beginning of this post. Heh.
Most people react instantly when they find a new shiny. I, on the other hand, sat in a catatonic stupor for a good minute and a half. It took me quite a while to fully accept that I had just hatched a SHINY GROWLITHE.
So yeah, to make a long story even longer, I hatched a shiny Growlithe after something like 533 eggs.
BUT WAIT!!! It gets even better.
For some reason, I am low-key obsessive about breeding Pokemon with really good IVs. I mean, I don't even battle competitively with any sort of regularity (I prefer to commandeer my brother's battles on Pokemon Online), but for some reason, any time I decide to breed for a shiny, I go crazy over trying to make sure it has stellar IVs. I did it for all of my previous egg shinies, and this time was no different; in fact, I began my preparations for this hunt by a breeding tri-flawless female Growlithe on HG/SS months before Black and White were available in the US. Eventually, a LOT of a luck and a little bit of time allowed me to obtain a pair of quad-flawless Growlithe parents. I cloned them so that I could have two sets of parents; this would allow me to breed on both games. Of course, I also took advantage of the Everstone and a Power EV Item to increase my chances of hatching a competitively viable shiny. Annnnnd the parents were both from English carts, so I didn't exactly have the luxury of 1/1366 odds to work with.
Given the natural laws of inheritance and the amount of planning that went into this particular hunt, I was very excited to check out the nature and IVs of my shiny Growlithe.
Adamant - Intimidate
HP :: 16
Atk :: 31
Def :: 20
SAtk :: 31
SDef :: 12
Spd :: 31
Needless to say, I felt euphoric upon seeing those IVs. I feel that the ^_^ at the beginning of this post is now self-explanatory. Heh.
So basically, I am on a cloud right now. Why? Allow me to recap.
-- I got a fire type shiny. Only seven more to go!
-- I got a dream shiny. Arcanine is magnificent, sublime, majestic...the list goes on.
-- I hatched yet another 1/8192 shiny! It is my 70th.
-- It is competitively viable, even though Flash Fire > Intimidate for sweeping sets.
-- This was a VERY quick hunt
I cannot stress enough how thankful I am for this shiny. I say that egg hunts are my favorite kind of hunt, and I mean it. But at the same time, they are pretty stressful. The amount of preparation they can require compounded with the fact that they naturally last longer than most hunt calls for a certain fortitude that not many shiny hunters have. Thankfully, my dedication was not challenged at all; an egg hunt of less than 600 eggs is like stumbling upon an oasis at the beginning of a journey of an uncharted desert. Even though one is mentally prepared for an arduous journey, the relief one feels from receiving early respite is nothing short of bliss. I will always be grateful for this stroke of luck, that's for sure!
If you took the time to read this verbose description, then I hope, at the very least, you have a thorough understanding of the incalculable happiness I'm experiencing right now. If you were entertained, then that's just icing on the cake. But all in all, thank you for allowing me to share my joy with you.
And if, for some reason, you don't find this post endearing or in good taste, it's probably because you're allergic to my new golden retriever.
:p
Note: it turns out that I hatched 273 eggs on Black, 264 eggs on White, and 10 eggs on HeartGold for a grand total of 547 eggs. This discrepancy is due to the eggs I hatched to get the quad flawless parents.
Oh, and Profile: I just want you to know that I accept my strike fully. No hard feelings ^_^
Good luck to all!