Longtime Pokemon player finally encounters a Shiny after 20 years of searching

Eleni Thomas
Pokemon Shiny header

A Pokemon player has finally encountered a Shiny Pokemon out in the wild after playing each and every game in the franchise over the past 20 years.

Since Pokemon Gold and Silver, Shiny Pokemon have become one of the most lucrative and sought-after pieces of content in the franchise. In essence, a Shiny Pokemon is simply the same as any regular Pokemon, except that the design will be altered in some way, typically changing the color of the design.

For example, the first major Shiny to become easily accessible was part of a scripted encounter in Gold and Silver, where players were given the chance to catch Shiny Gyarados. Rather than sporting the typical blue look, Shiny Gyarados is red.

Now in modern-day releases, there are many varieties of Shiny Pokemon to encounter and catch. However, the odds of doing so are few and far between and completely random at that.

For one longtime Pokemon player, the chance to encounter a Shiny Pokemon was finally made a reality in Scarlet and Violet, with the fan posting the moment on Reddit.

Pokémon Scarlet violet shiny
Each Pokemon has a Shiny variant that changes the color of the design

“I’ve played every game since Red and today I encountered and caught my first shiny!” The Pokemon fan captioned the post, alongside an image of the shiny Zweilous they found. 

While the typical design of Zweilous is mostly blue and black, the siny alternative swaps out the blue for green.

Other Reddit users have flooded the comments with their thoughts on the moment. One Reddit user wrote, “That is statistically impressive.”

Another added “Same here as OP. A little longer playing time as I started with Diamond and Heartgold but still, it was a long time before getting one.”

Others also congratulated them on the moment, “Congrats! I got a shiny Weedle back in original Gold and was very confused about what happened.”

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About The Author

Eleni is a Melbourne-based journalist. Having completed her Bachelor's in communication (Journalism) at RMIT University, Eleni is now a Senior Writer for the Dexerto Australia team. A big Nintendo fan (with a Triforce tattoo to prove it) and a lover of the zombie genre, Eleni covers gaming, entertainment as well as TV and movies for the site. She is also passionate about covering Queer and female representation. Contact Eleni at eleni.thomas@dexerto.com