One of the main goals of Pokemon is to catch every species of Pokemon available. I've talked about this before in my post about the National Pokedex. But, it's possible to take this a step further. These days, for every Pokemon, there is a 1 in 4096 chance that it will be Shiny. A Shiny pokemon is a rare variant that appears in a different color.

Recent Pokemon Games have had methods of increasing the odds of getting a Shiny Pokemon. Since the beginning of the pandemic, I've been streaming video games on Twitch. And, in particular, I've been streaming hunts of Shiny Pokemon through these methods. When streaming on Twitch, I have HTML overlays in OBS that shows my progress of catching all Shiny Pokemon in the game, so I can keep track of what I have left to catch.

I've been streaming Shiny Hunts in Let's Go Eevee, and recently with the release of the excellent Pokemon Legends Arceus. Additionally, Pokemon Go makes it VERY easy to catch Shiny Pokemon. Not only is there is an increased base Shiny catch rate of 1 in 512, but often there are events that increase the odds as much as 1 in 20. So, I made a similar list to track my Shiny progress there, too.

You can view copies of these lists from the following links:

With all these lists keeping track of Shiny Pokemon, I was curious about my Shiny Progress across all Pokemon games. I have caught a few Shiny Pokemon in the main games, too, through events and randomly (though, rarely) in the wild. Combining all the counts from the above lists and the main games, I made an overall Shiny list.

These lists are mostly up to date, but because I am manually entering data, it's really easy for them to get out of date. The index page for all of these lists has the date of when they were last updated.

Also, all of these lists are part of the schlock-bot project in git-hub.

I became interested in Shiny Hunting thanks to Let's Go. While watching various YouTube videos during the pandemic, one video showed that you could find a Shiny in about 20 minutes by catching the same Pokemon over and over again. I tried it out, and it worked! I caught my first Shiny Magikarp.

In Let's Go, you can increase your chances of getting a Shiny by doing three things. One, when you complete the Pokedex, you'll get a Shiny Charm. This will give you 2 extra chances for a Shiny. Two, when you use a Lure in the game, it'll give you 1 extra chance. And Three, the biggest one, when you catch the same Pokemon, you build a Catch Combo. When that combo reaches 31 and above, you'll get 11 extra chances for a Shiny. With all three combined, this gives 15 chances out of 4096, the equivalent to 1 in about 274.

It was incredibly satisfying to start up a stream, and usually have a shiny appear once every hour.

While streaming, I would record my shiny catches using schlock-bot, and use that above overlay to display my progress.

I am in absolute love with Pokemon Legends Arceus. Since its release two months ago, I've been streaming the game, and shiny hunting has been pretty easy.

Much like Let's Go, there are several methods of increasing chances for Shiny pokemon to appear. One, the Shiny Charm will give 3 extra chances this time. Two, the overall goal of the game is to complete the Pokedex. You do this by more than just catching Pokemon, though. If you complete an entry, you'll get 1 extra roll. But, if you perfect the entry, you'll get another 2 extra rolls. With all of these combined, you'll 7 chances out of 4096, the equivalent of 1 in about 586. Just in the wild!

Additionally, there are Mass Outbreaks and Massive Mass Outbreaks of Pokemon. Including all of the above, Pokemon in mass outbreaks have a Shiny chance of 1 in about 128! In Massive Mass Outbreaks, chances are 1 in about 216. These chances are even better than Let's Go!

Pokemon Legends is my favorite Pokemon game of all time, it is incredibly satisfying to fly around and collect Shiny Pokemon. Much like Let's Go, I recorded my shiny catches using schlock-bot, which updated the above display lists.

People have been Shiny Hunting on Twitch and YouTube forever, but I don't think it became mainstream and accessible until Pokemon Go. As mentioned above, the overall base Shiny rate is increased to 1 in 512. I think this was their incentive to keep people playing because if you play for 3-4 hours straight in a day, you have a pretty high chance of finding a Shiny pokemon.

Furthermore, Pokemon Go often has events that make Shiny hunting easier. One way is increasing the spawns of particular rare Pokemon, which gives you more to catch and more chance for a Shiny to appear. Another way is increasing the base odds of a Shiny appearing. The most common of these events is the Community Day, which boosts the odds up to 1 in 20! You are virtually guaranteed to catch several during the event!

Because of Pokemon Go, I think Game Freak has made Shiny hunting more accessible in the main games, too. Also with Pokemon spawning in the overworld (instead of random battles), you can easily see whether a Pokemon is Shiny. You can check WAY MORE pokemon these days than you could before.

In my free time, I still stream on Twitch, and usually I'm playing Pokemon. So, feel free to stop by and say hi!