Pokémon XY Shiny Hunting Guide

Pokémon XY Shiny Hunting Guide​

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Have you ever found or seen a Pokémon with a different color scheme that sparkled when it appeared in battle? Then you've found yourself a shiny! Shiny Pokémon are differently colored Pokémon, and are highly coveted by many Pokémon fans, and for good reason. Their extreme rarity and different coloration make them an awesome addition to any team or collection.

In previous generations, the chance you would encounter a shiny was 1 in 8192, or 0.0001%. Now in Pokémon X and Y, the shiny rate has been raised to 1 in 4,096, or 0.0002%. Even though the chance you'll find a shiny is higher, they are still extremely rare, and you can play for hundreds of hours and not find a single one. In this guide, I'll be outlining each of the different ways to find shinies in X and Y, to hopefully inspire you to go out and find one (or several) of your own!

There are quite a few methods of hunting shinies in the 6th generation; some have been around for generations, and some have just been introduced. I'll be covering them all in detail in this guide. The current methods of finding shinies are-

1. Wild Encounters
2. Horde Battles
3. Masuda Method Breeding
4. Consecutive Fishing
5. PokéRadar Chaining

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To add to the methods above, there is also the return of the Shiny Charm in X and Y. This charm is a key item that was first introduced in Black 2 and White 2 that raises your chances of finding a shiny even more. However, you can only get it by completing your National PokéDex (minus the event-only Legendaries), so it is very hard to get. It is worth mentioning, though, as it helps with many of these methods.

 

Wild Encounters​

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This is a common method used by many shiny hunters, although it is very time-consuming. It's essentially just walking around in the wild until you find a shiny Pokémon. Just choose the route or cave that you would like to hunt in, and start biking! I recommend using the bike, since it is much faster than walking or using the roller skates.

To start with, the Friend Safari is a fantastic place to hunt, as it has a wide variety of Pokémon to choose from, and many rare ones. All of the Pokémon in the Friend Safari also have at least 2 perfect stats (31 IVs), so if you're looking for some potentially competitive-viable shinies, this is a great place to start. There are also rumors of a potential raised shiny rate in the safari as well, although it hasn't been confirmed as of yet.

While it is straight-forward, this method does get boring very fast, so I highly recommend you do something else while you hunt. I personally enjoy watching movies or videos while I look for shinies, and it's worked very well for me so far.

To help with your hunt, there are a few abilities that some Pokémon have that will make your hunt easier. If a Pokémon with the No Guard ability is in the front of your party, the wild encounter rate is raised to 150%. Likewise, a Pokémon with the Illuminate or Arena Trap abilities raise the encounter rate to 200%, doubling the rate of wild encounters. This makes encounters faster, and could make your hunt shorter as you don't have to run around in the grass as much.

If you're looking for specific types of Pokémon, the Magnet Pull and Static abilities will raise the encounter rate of Steel and Electric types, respectively. If a certain nature is what you're after, if you have a Pokémon with the Synchronize ability that has the nature you want, it has a 50% chance of passing that nature on to the wild Pokémon.

And finally, if you're looking for a Pokémon with a certain gender, the Cute Charm ability will raise the chance of finding a Pokémon of the opposite gender to 66.7%, regardless of species. So if you have a male Cute Charm Sylveon, for example, the chances you will find female wild Pokémon are much higher.

For these abilities to work in the field, the Pokémon with the ability must be at the front of your party. These abilities also do not stack, so you can't have a Synchronize Pokémon out front and a Cute Charm Pokémon right behind it. It also doesn't matter if the Pokémon is fainted or not- as long as it's at the front, the field effect will activate.

These abilities work for all of the shiny methods I've listed in this guide, except for breeding. So you can use these tricks whether you're hunting in Hordes, or even Chaining!

 

Horde Battles​

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A new addition to the 6th Generation, Horde Battles are where 5 Pokémon attack you at once, and you have to fend them off with a single Pokémon. This isn't as hard as it seems, as Hordes are at a lower level than the other Pokémon found in that route. It is a great way to EV train your Pokémon, though- and an excellent shiny hunting method.

Hordes don't actually increase the shiny rate, but since you're encountering 5 Pokémon at once, the chance you will find a shiny is 5 times higher than a normal battle. So instead of the chance being 1 4096, it's about 1 in 803, which is significantly higher.

To initiate a Horde Battle, all you need is a Pokémon with Sweet Scent, or a large amount of the item Honey. They both trigger Horde Battles 100% of the time, but Sweet Scent is more reliable since it's not a consumable item. Basically, just go into the grass or cave you want to hunt in, and use Sweet Scent over and over again. Eventually, if you're patient, you'll run into a shiny!

A couple warnings about Horde Battles, though- not all routes have hordes in them, so you'll have to look up which routes have them, and which horde Pokémon are on those routes. You also cannot use Sweet Scent if it's raining on a route, which is a bit of a pain. If it does start raining in the middle of a hunt, you could simply switch to another route.

If you do find a shiny, make sure to not KO it while trying to get rid of the other Pokémon in a horde! Make sure to take a note of the shiny's position in the horde, and faint the Pokémon around it. This can get confusing at times, but if you encounter enough hordes, you should get used to it.

You can also use the same ability tricks I told you about in the wild encounters method (Synchronize, Magnet Pull, etc.) to try and get the perfect shiny.

 

Masuda Method Breeding​

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This method of breeding was originally introduced in the 4th Generation, named after Game Freak director Junichi Masuda, who originally introduced the method. The method itself is quite simple- all you have to do is leave 2 breedable Pokémon of different nationalities in the daycare together, and the chance that you will hatch a shiny increases. (ex: Japanese Ditto + English Charizard)

Thankfully, it is fairly easy to tell if a Pokémon has a different nationality than the Pokémon in your game. If a Pokémon has a black box with white lettering near its species name on the status screen, then that means it's a foreign Pokémon.

All there is to this method is let those two Pokémon breed, and hatch out any eggs you get. In the 5th Generation games, the Masuda Method shiny rate was about 6 times the regular rate; so if the 6th Generation games follow that same pattern, then the shiny rate in XY is about 1 in 682.

There are a few tricks to breeding the perfect shiny Pokémon, though. First is to look up any egg moves the Pokémon you want to breed can learn, and try to breed those moves onto that Pokémon before attempting to Masuda Method. That way you can get a shiny Pokémon with some unique moves! You can also attach an Everstone to one parent to pass down the nature of that parent to the child. This is very useful, since otherwise the hatched Pokémon would have a random nature, and it might not be a very good one.

You can also give the other parent a Destiny Knot to transfer the IVs of 5 stats from either parent down to the child, but that's mostly for competitive Pokémon. If you don't understand IVs, don't worry, they're not neccesary to obtain a shiny Pokémon.

Another useful tip is to have a Pokémon with the ability Flame Body or Magma Armor at the front of your party when hatching eggs. This makes the eggs in your party hatch twice as fast, which is very useful when hatching large amounts of eggs. Pokémon such as Volcarona and Talonflame are fan favorites for this, since they can also use the move Fly to travel to other locations.

This is a very time-consuming method, but it is definitely the most reliable in terms of stats. If you're looking for a good-natured shiny Pokémon with rare moves and possibly perfect IVs, then this is the method for you.

 

Consecutive Fishing "Fish Chaining"​

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This is another new method introduced in X and Y, and it is possibly the easiest shiny hunting method on this list. There aren't a huge amount of Pokémon you can obtain using this method, but for beginners, it's an excellent start, and a fun pasttime as well.

The object in fish chaining is to land consecutive bites using the fishing rod without moving from your spot. Note that you do not need to faint every Pokémon you reel in in order for this to work. Simply running away will be fine. This is normally very hard to do, but a couple tricks can make it easier. If you have a Pokémon with the ability Suction Cups or Sticky Hold at the front of your party, then the chance you will land a bite is raised quite a bit. Also, if you fish in a spot that is surrounded on 3 sides by land, then you are also more likely to get a bite. If you combine these two tricks, then you will be able to catch a Pokémon with the rod almost 100% of the time.

Using this method, the shiny rate goes up with each Pokémon you reel in, eventually capping at the 40th Pokémon, with the maximum rate being 1 in 200. After you hit the 40th 'chain', all you need is patience. You can get a shiny on the 3rd bite, or you could not get one in 300 bites. It's all luck in the end, but you will most likely get your shiny between 30 and 70 bites.

There are a few things that will break your chain, though. Moving from your spot while using this method will end the chain. Failing to reel in a Pokémon (either pressing A too fast or too slow), or the message "Not even a nibble" appearing will also break your chain. Once you find a shiny Pokémon, that means your chain is over, and the shiny rate resets back to normal.

Overall, this is the quickest shiny method out of all of the methods in this guide, and it is very similar in theory to an older shiny hunting method, which I will be covering next.

 

PokéRadar Chaining​

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This method was introduced in Diamond and Pearl, with the inclusion of the PokéRadar key item in the games. It was since removed from the 5th Generation games, but it's making a comeback in X and Y. It is rather complicated, but if you can get it right, it is a very useful and fun shiny hunting method.

To use this method, you need the PokéRadar, which you can obtain after beating the Champion for the first time in X and Y. After doing so, visit Professor Sycamore's lab in Lumiose City, and go to the second floor. A scientist on the right will give you the PokéRadar item, and you can start chaining!

Before you start, though, you will need a few things. First is a lot of Repels, since they are needed for this method to work. Second is a high-level Pokémon with attacking moves that have at least 40 PP total. Since you need to faint every Pokémon you find in a chain, it is essential you have a lot of moves available (or Ethers/Elixers if you happen to run out). You can also use the same ability tricks I told you about in the wild encounters method (Synchronize, Cute Charm, etc.) to try and get the perfect shiny.

Now, you have to choose a spot to chain. It's recommended that you chain in a large patch of grass or flowers, since that makes chaining a lot easier. For practice, you could use the large flower field in Pokémon Village, or one of the large patches in Route 5. Also keep in mind that you must use the D-pad while chaining, as using the circle pad activates the rollerskates and breaks the chain. Using your bike also breaks the chain, so make sure to use the D-pad at all times.

Once you have found your perfect spot, first use a Repel, then activate the PokéRadar. To use the PokéRadar, you first have to charge it up by walking 50 steps. You also have to be standing in grass or flowers where wild Pokémon can appear. When you use the radar, a few patches of grass around you will shake. Those shaking patches have wild Pokémon, and you step into that patch to trigger an encounter.

After you defeat or capture a Pokémon that you found in a shaking patch, the grass around you will shake again. Ignore any slowly shaking patches of grass or patches close to you/at the edge of the grass patch, as those do not have any Pokémon in them, or will likely have a different Pokémon that will break your chain. Try to aim for a fast-shaking patch that is at least 2 to 3 steps away from you, and if you don't see any good patches, walk 50 steps to reset the Radar and try again. If you find the same type of Pokémon in the next spot, the grass will shake again after you defeat or capture it, and the chain will continue.

The longer you chain, the more likely you are to encounter a shiny. The shiny probability caps out at 40, so after that, you just need to reset the rader until you see a Shiny Patch. You will notice a Shiny Patch by the sparkling effect it makes, and it also sounds different than the regular shaking patches. If you see a patch like this, then congrats, you have successfully chained a shiny Pokémon!

Also, if the background music speeds up while chaining, that means there is a higher chance of you finding a shiny patch during that time. Try resetting the Radar when this happens, and you may get lucky with a Shiny Patch!

PokéRadar Chaining is a very tedious method, but with enough practice, you can become very good at it. Since this part of the guide was rather lengthy, here is a quick recap of the chaining method-

• Bring lots of Repels and a high-level Pokémon with lots of attacking moves
• Choose a large patch of flowers or grass
• Use a repel and activate the PokéRadar
• Encounter a Pokémon in a shaking patch, and KO it (or catch it)
• During your chain, only enter fast-shaking patches of grass at least 2-3 spaces away, and not at the edge of the patch you are chaining in
• When in doubt, reset the Radar
• Do not use the rollerskates or bike
• Make sure to keep using Repels, as encountering a Pokémon not in a shaking patch will break your chain
• Do not leave the area or save and restart from where you left off
• Your chain maxes at 40, and a shiny patch is very likely to happen after that

As with all the other shiny methods, make sure you have enough PokéBalls on you, as running out/fainting a shiny you worked so hard to find is a terribile thing to happen. Always be prepared!

That concludes this shiny guide for X and Y! I hope you learned something in this guide, and I wish you luck in your future shiny hunts. If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to visit the forums here at Lake Valor and ask around for advice.