Any number of things can serve as a personal distraction Pokémon Legends: Arceus, but one thing I’m sure a lot of people will enjoy is shiny hunting. Search with these alternating colored pocket monsters is half the fun of these games for many hardcore fans, and Arcus offers an interesting way to do this with its mass Pokémon outbreaks.
Although the franchise formula has been reshuffled in various ways, Pokémon Legends: Arceus still contains Shiny Pokemon. The added benefit of the open-world format, with wild animals roaming freely around the environment, means you don’t have to waste time participating in battles to check if Pokemon are shiny or not. They even make a unique sound when they spawn so you don’t miss them on your outings. But what really excites shiny hunters are mass bursts.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus‘ Mass Outbursts are unique events where, similar to swarms in previous games, large numbers of the same species appear in an area for a short period of time. When they are informed of an outbreak on the world map, the smart game is reportedly an iterative process of saving in the field and trying to spawn a Shiny by catching and/or defeating the Burst types until they don’t spawn again.
Unless, She Reset your game, return briefly to Jubilife Village (reload when the outbreak goes away) and return to the area with the outbreak. This way you refresh the Pokemon in the field and you have several chances to find an elusive Shiny.
From all Pokémon Legends: Arceus Mechanics that increase your chances of seeing shiny bursts offer the greatest boon. As noted below by Pokémon Scientist Anubis, Shiny spawn rates improve dramatically during Mass Bursts. And that only adds up to you fill out your Pokédex and equip the Shiny Charm, which the game rewards for each Pokemon after reaching Research Level 10.
Oh, and as soon as a shine appears, you should immediately go into settings, turn off autosave, and save manually just in case it’s running or you turn it off. The rare Pokemon will also be waiting for you when reloading. There have also been claims of shinies flashing and disappearing for no apparent reason, so better safe than sorry.
Shiny Pokémon were first introduced in the 2000s Pokemon Gold and silver as extremely rare variations on the typical color schemes of Pokémon species. This was long before the concept of regional shapes, or even gender differences, changed the face of Pokémon and added a new level to the “catch ’em all” mentality promoted as the franchise’s slogan. It was no longer enough to completely fill out a Pokédex; Players were now keen to get a full catalog of Shiny Pokémon as well, which was easier said than done.
The odds of encountering a Shiny Pokemon vary from game to game. Casual players can expect to encounter one of these rare monsters once in every 8,192 Gen 2 Pokémon random encounters (gold and silver) to Generation V (black and White). From generation VI (x and Y) the ratio improved to 1:4,096. That is, techniques like that Masuda method and concatenation are mostly used by dedicated hunters to make finding Shiny Pokémon less dependent on luck.
With people still experimenting with the feature, it may take some time before we get a clear picture of the perfect sequence or technique to maximize shiny odds. But for now, mass breakouts seem to be by far the best way to ensure you find these rare Pokemon in time. Well, apart from guaranteed gigs like that shiny ponyta, Naturally. Happy hunting!
.
