How To Catch Shiny Pokemon In Brilliant Diamond And Shining Pearl
Who doesn't love a good shiny Pokemon? With the release of "Pokemon Brilliant Diamond" and "Shining Pearl" — which was leaked ahead of time on Twitch — players were quick to find out the statistics of shiny Pokemon and how best to catch these cute creatures. Luckily, it's not as difficult as previous game entries have been.
Shiny Pokemon, the name for special color variants of Pokemon, are special because of their rarity and how great they feel to find. In fact, there's a term coined for the activity of seeking out these rare beauties: Shiny Hunting. Shiny Hunting has existed in every "Pokemon" game, and it's one of the main activities people love to do once they finish the main campaign.
There are several ways you can obtain Shiny Pokemon, and catching them in the wild is only one of them. If you're about to start your Shiny Hunting journey, then there are a few things you should know about how to increase your chances of encountering these special-colored Pokemon.
The best ways to catch Shiny Pokemon
The hardest part about catching a shiny Pokemon is finding a Shiny Pokemon. There are some important numbers to know if you're trying to do this, and the numbers can be influenced by a few things.
First, Shiny Pokemon have different encounter rates depending on whether or not you have an item called the Shiny Charm. According to DOT Esports, you can get this once you complete the game by becoming the Pokemon Champion, which takes around 30 hours. You'll also need to see every Pokemon in the Sinnoh region at least once in order to unlock the Poke Radar, another vital tool for Shiny Hunting (via YouTuber Daedra PKMN.)
Without these two things, you can expect to find a Shiny Pokemon in one out of every 4,096 encounters (via Ranked Boost.) However, if you use the Poke Radar and Shiny Charm to do what's called Chain Hunting, you can drastically lower that number.
The Poke Radar lets you control what Pokemon you want to encounter in the wild. When you're Shiny Hunting, encountering the same Pokemon over and over again increases the odds of encountering a Shiny Pokemon. If you're using both the Shiny Charm and the Poke Radar, you can start increasing your odds to one in 97 encounters (via Ranked Boost.)
Obtaining Shiny Pokemon in other ways
Finding Shiny Pokemon in the wild isn't the only way to obtain a Shiny Pokemon in "Pokemon Brilliant Diamond" and "Shining Pearl." You can also breed Shiny Pokemon and get a Shiny starter Pokemon — something that's not possible in other games in the series.
Shiny Hunter and Pokemon YouTuber Puffin discussed how to get a Shiny Pokemon as a Starter Pokemon. However, there's only a one in 4,096 chance of getting a Shiny starter, and it requires resetting your game over and over again until you finally find one.
If you're looking to breed a Shiny Pokemon, there are a few things to know. While all eggs have a chance to give you a Shiny Pokemon, you can increase the odds by using a Ditto from a different language copy of the game. For example, if your "Pokemon" game and Switch are set in the North American region, you can use a Ditto from a Japanese copy of the game.
If you're not lucky enough to have a Ditto in a different region, then Marriland pointed out the odds are the same as finding a regular Shiny Pokemon: one in 4,096. However, if you can obtain a special Ditto, then the odds drop to one in 683. Marriland also pointed out that the Shiny factor is determined before the egg hatches, so make sure to save when you pick up the egg instead of hatching the same egg hundreds of times.