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Pokémon: Sword & Shield

Shiny Pokémon

By
Ben Chard
&
Vincent Lau
1 Comment

Unlike Let’s Go, Shiny Pokémon are not visible from the overworld.

These are the infamously rare Pokémon introduced back in Gold and Silver. When you encounter a wild Pokémon or hatch a Pokémon egg, there’s an incredibly small chance that the Pokémon will be “shiny”. These Pokémon have a different colour palette and they will also sparkle when they’re sent out in battle.

You can also identify shiny Pokémon by a star symbol to the right of their name when checking your boxes or to the left of their markings when checking their status screen. Besides the rarity factor and the different colour, shiny Pokémon are no different to normal Pokémon. So they aren’t stronger or anything.

The Shiny Charm requires obtaining all 400 Pokémon in the Galar region.

The standard rate for finding a shiny Pokémon is 1 in 4096. However, there are multiple ways to increase the rate.

  1. After completing the Galar Pokédex, you can receive the Shiny Charm from a Game Freak employee in an upstairs hotel room in Circhester. This key item will provide 2 additional rolls, boosting the rate to 1 in 1365.3.

  2. If you breed a Pokémon with another Pokémon that has a different language tag (what fans refer to as the “Masuda Method”), you’ll get 5 additional rolls, boosting the rate to 1 in 682.7 without the Shiny Charm (or 512 with).

  3. Similar to Brilliant Pokémon, the chance of finding a shiny Pokémon of a particular species will permanently increase as you keep defeating that species of Pokémon. At the time of writing, because of a bug, the increased chance itself has a chance (which is small).

Number defeated Chance of increased rate Increased rate (with Shiny Charm)
50~99 1.5% 1 in 2048 (1 in 1024)
100~199 2% 1 in 1365.3 (1 in 819.2)
200~299 2.5% 1 in 1024 (1 in 682.7)
300~499 3% 1 in 819.2 (1 in 585.1)
500+ 3% 1 in 682.7 (1 in 512)

Stars or Squares?

To further complicate matters, Sword and Shield have introduced a new variety of shiny Pokémon. Normally, shiny Pokémon have star-shaped sparkles when you send them out, but these new ones have square-shaped sparkles instead. People generally call them “Square” or “Prism” shinies. Again, this has zero bearing on the Pokémon’s performance.

Now, Square shinies were intended to be rarer than the old ones. In fact, they have a 1/16 chance of appearing if the Pokémon is shiny. This holds true for Pokémon that you breed. However, at the time of writing, there is a whopping 4095 in 4096 chance of a wild shiny Pokémon being a square variant, due to yet another bug.

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The shiny rate was calculated to be wrong. The number of Pokémon you defeated only matters with Pokémon that are brilliant Pokémon. That is why it feels much worse than what it is.

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The shiny rate was calculated to be wrong. The number of Pokémon you defeated only matters with Pokémon that are brilliant Pokémon. That is why it feels much worse than what it is.

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Guide Information
  • Publisher
    Pokemon Company International
  • Platforms,
    Switch
  • Genre
    RPG
  • Guide Release
    15 November 2019
  • Last Updated
    21 March 2024
    Version History
  • Guide Author

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Welcome to our comprehensive strategy guide for Pokémon: Sword and Shield, the latest entries in the Pokémon video game franchise. Our guide also incorporates all the DLC, including the Isle of Armor and brand new Crown Tundra DLC.

In Sword and Shield, you explore the Galar region, based on the United Kingdom, alongside rivals Hop, Bede and Marnie, with the aim to dethrone the Pokémon League Champion.

The games introduce several new features such as Dynamaxing and Gigantamaxing, functions that increase size and change forms of certain Pokémon; the Wild Area, a large open world with free camera movement; and raids with co-op battling. They also reintroduce features previously seen in Sun and Moon and Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee!, such as regional variants and roaming Pokémon depicted in the overworld.

Brand New October 2020:

Version 1.2

  • A Complete Walkthrough of the Isle of Armor.
  • Details of all 16 new Wild Areas, including Pokémon encounter rates.
  • All the new Max Raid Dens: Locations and Featured Pokémon.
  • Images and Locations of All 150 of the Missing Diglett.
  • The Isle of Armor Pokédex (featuring 100 Returning Pokémon).
  • Recipes for the Cram-o-matic.
  • A Full Walkthrough featuring Pokémon encounter rates.
  • All Gym Encounters and Strategies.
  • New Items: Mints & Natures Explained.
  • Post Game content including Champion Cup.
  • Dynamaxing and Gigantamaxing.
  • The Galar Region Pokédex (featuring 400 Pokemon).

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