How to Shiny Hunt in Pokemon Go: Shiny odds, methods, & more

❘ Updated: 2024-02-23T17:11:41

Pokemon Go fans love to hunt for Shiny Pokemon, and while they are still incredibly tough to find, the odds are a little different than in other games, so it’s best to learn exactly how rare those Shiny Pokemon are.

The mainline Pokemon games can be pretty brutal when it comes to Shiny hunting. Players deal with base odds of either 1/4096 or 1/8192 and have to perform different – often time-consuming – methods to lower these odds to a reasonable amount.

But this act of doing the same thing over and over until a different colored sprite appears has become an addicting hobby for Pokemon fans, and luckily Pokemon Go allows trainers to hunt on the go.

While the Shiny odds for Pokemon Go haven’t officially been revealed by Niantic, a community of players has thoroughly tested the game’s mechanics to come up with a solid estimate for the base Shiny odds as well as a number of raised odds.

What are Pokemon Go Shiny odds?

The base odds of finding a Shiny in Pokemon Go is 1/500. That means most Pokemon that can be encountered in the wild have a 1/500 chance of being Shiny. However, there are some Pokemon that fall into different groups that have higher odds.

Medium-rate Pokemon are rare spawns that have an increased chance of being Shiny. Their odds are raised to around 1/125. However, according to The Silph Road, this group of Pokemon is limited to Gible, Shinx, Meltan, and Galarian Stunfisk.

There is another group called Permaboosted Pokemon that has an incredibly low Shiny rate of around 1/64. This is a decent-sized group of Pokemon including Absol, Rockruff, Riolu, and more. A full list can be found on The Silph Road’s website.

What are the Pokemon Go Community Day Shiny odds?

Every Pokemon Go Community Day so far has had their Shiny odds set at 1/25. This could change in the future if Niantic wants to raise or lower the odds, but it’s safe to assume Community Days going forward will share these 1/25 Shiny odds.

Pokemon Go Legendary Raid Odds

The highest odds of finding a Shiny Pokemon in Pokemon Go can be found in five-star raids. That’s because Legendary Pokemon have a 1/20 chance of being Shiny.

That being said, players will have to use Premium Battle Passes or Remote Raid Passes in order to battle in Raids, and they will have to find enough players to take down these incredibly strong Pokemon. Successfully defeating a Legendary in a Raid gives players the highest chance of finding a Shiny.

How to Shiny Hunt in Pokemon Go

Hunting Shiny Pokemon in Pokemon Go is actually pretty simple. All trainers need to do to check if they’ve found a special variation is click on a Pokemon to see its colors on the 1-1 battle/catching screen. If it’s not what you’re looking for, back out of the encounter and tap on the next Pokemon.

However, there are quite a few Pokemon that are Shiny locked (Pokemon that cannot appear Shiny). These include almost every second and third-stage evolution as well as a handful of first-stage Pokemon. As a rule of thumb, most newly introduced Pokemon can’t be Shiny until later.

That being said, there are a few Pokemon that might actually be a Shiny Ditto in disguise. Here is a list of all the Pokemon Ditto is currently using as a disguise. It might be worth catching these just to make sure you don’t miss any blue blobs.

Other Pokemon Go Shiny hunting methods

There are a few particular methods that will help trainers find a Shiny Pokemon faster than normal. However, there is still a lot of luck involved with these methods.

The first is fighting and defeating Team Go Rocket leaders. These include Arlo, Cliff, Sierra, and their boss Giovanni.

By using a Rocket Radar, players can fight these tough trainers and capture a Shadow Pokemon. Shadow Pokemon from these Team Leaders have an increased chance of being Shiny: 1/62.5. However, they need to have a currently available Shiny form, or else it won’t appear.

The second method is one we’ve already discussed. Legendary Raids are by far the most reliable method of hunting as they offer the highest odds and are always accessible via the use of Remote Raid Passes.

The issue here is that players will have to spend money on raid passes and they will need to team up with trainers strong enough to take down the boss.

The third method is by hatching eggs, as there is a chance the creature hatched will be Shiny. The odds can be increased if you use multiple incubators simultaneously.

Finally, the best way to find Shiny Pokemon is during events. Whether this be Raid Day/Hour, Pokemon Go Community Day, Go Fest, or Region Tours; Shiny hunters won’t want to miss these events.

They often offer the best chance of getting dozens of Shiny Pokemon in a single session of play and you can keep track of which event is next by checking out the official Pokemon Go event calendar.

For more helpful guides, check out our Pokemon Go coverage below: