Scarlet/Violet Shiny Hunting Tips & Resources (WIP)

writing a shiny hunting guide speedrun any %

Fundamentals of Shiny Hunting

Spawning

Understanding how Pokémon are spawned and despawned makes a huge difference in effective shiny hunting.

How Pokémon are Generated

In Legends Arceus, every Pokémon on the map was generated when you entered that specific map. The attributes of everything you encountered in that instance was predetermined. This includes shininess/species/gender/nature/IVs.

In Scarlet and Violet, Pokémon are generated once they're within your "line of sight". More accurately, they're generated and spawned in a radius around your character (from all directions). When they're despawned, they're permanently banished to the abyss, and new Pokémon can then spawn in their place. This quick despawn-new spawn is the foundation of efficient shiny hunting in Scarlet and Violet.

Spoiler: beautiful diagram

Spawning Mechanics

15 Pokémon can be on screen at any given time. For new Pokémon to appear, an equivalent amount of the current 15 must perish. Freeing up the 15 'slots' can be done by moving out of range, entering a city, starting a picnic, or catching/KOing the Pokémon.

There are two types of encounters:

• Individual
  Pokémon that spawn one by one. An individual needs only 1 of the 15 slots. There are a couple of types of individual spawns:
  • Dynamic
    Dynamic spawns can be any Pokémon pulled from the location's spawn pool. This is random.
    
  • Static
    Static spawns, fortunately, are rare. They'll be in the same place for every player. Wild terastallized Pokémon are also static spawns. They take up 1 slot. Static shiny hunting won't be covered in this guide, as the rate is always full odds (1/4096) and I don't enjoy suffering.
• Families/Packs
  there's nothing stronger than family
  Families/packs of Pokémon spawn in groups of five. They need 5 of the 15 slots. If 5 slots are not available, families/packs will not spawn. Knowing this is important in maintaining your mental health, especially for shiny Roaring Moon.

Shiny Rate Boosts

Unless you're a full-odds (1/4096) hunter, you'll want to boost your shiny rate. There are a few ways of doing this.

Shiny Charm

The shiny charm adds two rolls to each encounter. This is obtained by catching every non-event Pokémon in Pokédex. Beside static spawns, your base shiny rate becomes 1/1365.67.

Mass Outbreaks

Mass outbreaks will increase your odds as you KO or catch Pokémon. 30 Pokémon defeated adds one roll, and 60 defeated will add another roll, for two rolls total.

Sandwiches

Scarlet & Violet Shiny Sandwich Recipes by Papa Jefé
All recipes in the above link and in this post are from YouTuber Papa Jefé.

Spoiler: Sparkling 3/Title 3/Encounter [Type] 3 Recipes

Sandwiches are the most significant boost in fun/hour when shiny hunting because of the methods it opens up. The Sparkling power significantly increases your chances of finding a shiny. The Encounter power (99%) guarantees that if there's a Pokémon with the matching type in the area, only that Pokémon will spawn. Changing biomes (i.e., going from grass to desert or grass to a river) can cause other Pokémon to spawn until you move back.

Herba Mystica are required for every level of the Sparkling power. Salty and Spicy Herba Mystica are used in making the most simple versions of the sandwiches, but other kinds will work as well.

Getting Herba Mystica sucks, but if you have a friend who has them, you can get the boosts for 'free'. Make sure your friend turns autosave off, and saves right before making the sandwich in Union Circle.

Using the Group Sharing Shiny Sandwich recipes (fourth image in the Imgur album and above spoiler tag) will give everyone who contributes to making the sandwich the shiny hunting trifecta: Sparkling 3/Title 3/Encounter [Type] 3. After the sandwich is made and everyone's received the effect, the friend/host can close the game. They'll keep their ingredients, and you'll keep the powers for 30 minutes.

Note:
Closing/restarting the game will get rid of powers immediately. Powers only last for 30 minutes. To save materials, save before making the sandwich and reset if you don't get the shiny.

Methods are a WIP

pls forgive me i am sleepy

Misc. Tips

• Save before fighting a shiny. You can reload if anything goes wrong, the shiny will still be there.
  
• Have a dedicated catching Pokémon.Technician Breloom with False Swipe and Spore, paired with a Lumineon that knows Soak for Grass or Ghost Types.
  
• Check what moves your shiny knows before you fight it. Some of them have moves with recoil or self-KO moves.
• If you're breeding for a shiny Pokémon, use the Masuda method (one Pokémon in your game's language, one in a different language, much higher shiny chance).
• Don't make sandwiches for Egg Power 2. You can get it at a restaurant slightly northeast of the Cascarrafa (West) Pokémon Center.
• Egg Power helps with hatching eggs too. It stacks with the Flame Body/Steam Engine ability.