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Want to boost your chance of getting a shiny? The Masuda Method is for you!

Prerequisites

Benefits

How To

The Masuda method , seemingly named for Junichi Masuda, a person involved in the development of the Pokémon series, has one notable benefit: Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiny Pokémon! Shiny Pokémon are not extremely notable on a level of depth. Their movesets and the like are the same as their non-Shiny counterparts.

But the one thing that makes them so desirable is their coloration. Pokémon often look different when Shiny - a Shiny "Gyarados" IconGyarados is red instead of blue, a Shiny "Sceptile" IconSceptile is cyan instead of green, a Shiny "Moltres" IconMoltres is pink instead of yellow/red, a Shiny "Salamence" IconSalamence is green not blue, a Shiny "Rayquaza" IconRayquaza is black instead of green, etc.

Under most circumstances, Shiny Pokémon are extremely rare. The odds of finding them are 12 in 65,536, commonly rounded to 1 in 4,096, about 0.0244% .

Think about that for a moment. You might go through 500 wild battles in a relatively completionist playthrough X/Y, yet that’s barely 1/10 of the way to the 1 in 10,000 a Shiny Pokémon will appear in. Normally, finding Shinies requires tedious looking in an area.

Additional methods to increase the rate of Shinies have been brought in over the years - like forced encounters (Shiny Gyarados in Gold/Silver/Crystal), special items (Shiny Charm, Black 2/White 2, tripled rate), and PokéRadar chaining (DS Pokémon games, 40x more effective at best).

Wonder Trade can net you foreign Pokemon or you can make foreign friends!

Of course, all of them still require some level of work. The one with the least true “work” involved is the Masuda method of Pokémon breeding. In it, you will need two Pokémon, each from a different region - that means you can have one of your own, and one from elsewhere.

The region is denoted on the Pokémon’s status screen by some form of abbreviation where yours are normally blank. (Plus, Japanese/Korean characters are a dead give-away. =P)

Basically, you breed the two together … and that’s it. There’s nothing special involved with this method that you don’t want to be - if you’re just looking for a Shiny, without desiring certain IVs or moves or nature or whatever, you can just breed them, but this otherwise still falls under normal breeding doctrines.

The chance of finding Shiny Pokémon like this is 1 in 1,366 - about three times more effective than random hunting/breeding. It’s not much, but it’s practically the only way to, for example, get Shiny starter Pokémon!

Keep in mind Wonder Trade for this - lots of people use that. U.S. players can expect to get foreign Pokémon 40% ~ 50% of the time, which means residents of other regions are very likely to get something foreign (if just because the U.S. dominates half the market).

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Guide Information
  • Publisher
    Pokemon Company International
  • Platforms,
    3DS
  • Genre
    RPG
  • Guide Release
    1 November 2013
  • Last Updated
    11 July 2022
  • Guide Author
    Daniel Chaviers

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Become the ultimate Pokémon champion with our greatest Pokémon strategy guide yet. Inside we cover:

  • Everything that’s new to Pokémon X & Y.
  • 5 amazing tips to get your Pokémon collecting off to a blistering start.
  • Every single route, trainer battle and hidden shortcuts are covered.
  • What Pokémon can be found on what routes (both versions).
  • How to beat every single gym leader without breaking a sweat.
  • Where to find all those hidden items.
  • The locations of every single legendary Pokémon!
  • Where to find all of the amazing Mega Stones.
  • Pokémon-Amie, Super Training, Battle Chateau etc all covered!
  • Accompanied by over 240 super high-quality screenshots!
  • Additional details on the elusive event Pokemon distributions.
  • Encounter rates for finding wild Pokemon.
  • Videos for all the Gym Leader and Elite Four battles, plus legendary and shiny Pokemon.
  • Dozens of additional tips and reminders throughout the main walkthrough.
  • How to solve crime with the Looker Bureau in the post-game.
  • Full breakdown on how to breed the perfect Pokémon of your dreams!
  • How to catch those insanely rare Shiny Pokémon!
  • List of all the really helpful (and free) O-Powers.

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