Pokemon Legends Arceus guide: Shiny hunting in PLA (2023)

If you’ve ever found a Shiny Pokemon in the wild at random or you finally get one after grinding your way through thousands of encounters, you’ll know just how gratifying of an experience it can be, especially if it’s for your favorite ‘mons. Like a Eureka moment, catching these rare variants is a staple in the franchise, and that’s still true even in Pokemon Legends Arceus. The newly released title has brought many changes to the mechanics we’ve come to know, including some ways to make Shiny hunting a lot easier. From Shiny charms to Mass Outbreak events, here’s a guide on how you can improve your chances at finding Shiny Pokemon in PLA.

Pokemon Legends Arceus: How to find Shiny Pokemon

Spotting Shiny Pokemon in PLA

With the release of Pokemon titles on the Switch, Game Freak made it so that encounters have become more “transparent”, if you will. No longer are trainers heading into tall grass without a clue as to what wild creatures they might encounter. Instead, even as far back as Pokemon Sword & Shield for example, the Pokemon appear on the overworld, allowing you to walk up to the specific ‘mons you want to catch or fight. But even then, players couldn’t tell if these were Shiny, having to actually engage in battle to see if the Pokemon has the alternate coloring.

In Legends Arceus, however, spotting Shiny Pokemon has never been easier. Their character models in the overworld will already show you if they have the Shiny color scheme. Moreover, they sparkle when they spawn plus you’ll hear a little jingle or sound effect when the Shiny Pokemon are nearby so you won’t miss them.

Just like previous Pokemon games, the Shiny encounter rate in Legends Arceus stands at one out of 4,096 or 0.02% — meaning they are very rare ‘mons indeed. Think of it as rolling a die; a regular six-sided die gives you a 1/6 or 16.67% chance of getting a five, for example, in the same way that if you roll a 4,096-sided die, there’s just one chance of landing on a Shiny Pokemon.

But with PLA’s new features, trainers have now gained a bunch of different ways to boost their odds at finding a Shiny, making hunting them down potentially less time-consuming or frustrating but just as rewarding nevertheless.

Improving Encounter Rates for Shiny Pokemon

Thanks to Anubis (@Sinuba_Switch on Twitter), the dataminer has crunched the numbers on Shiny encounter rates in Legends Arceus, breaking down exactly what trainers have to do in order to raise the likelihood of spotting the Pokemon they want.

Shiny hunters will enjoy Pokémon Legends: Arceus! Along with the Shiny Charm, many new mechanics can further improve your chances of finding a shiny from the base 1/4096 rate.

Here are your shiny rates as of version 1.0.1. pic.twitter.com/gw4dswDMHS

(Video) SO BEKOMMT IHR SHINY POKEMON in Pokemon Legenden: Arceus! - Shiny Hunting Guide V.1.0 - 1.0.2

— Anubis (@Sibuna_Switch) January 27, 2022

Complete vs Perfect Research Levels and Pokedex Entries

From the 1/4096 spawn rate at the start of the game, the chances of encountering a Shiny Pokemon gradually improves as players rank up in terms of their Pokedex research stage. This allows trainers to unlock separate rolls, so that the game essentially casts the die an additional time, like checking the possibility of a Shiny twice or several more times. At the “Complete” Dex Research stage, or Research Level 10, you get a second roll and increase your chances to 1/2048 for a given Pokemon. (You’ll know if you research this level when you see a Pokeball icon beside the Pokedex entry for that ‘mon after completing 7 square takss.)

If you then accomplish all the tasks on the Dex page and see stars on the Pokeball icon, that means your Research level is now at the “Perfect” stage for that Pokemon in PLA. Achieving this would grant players two more rolls, bringing it to +3 additional rolls, or four total rolls if you count the base roll. Overall, this boosts the Shiny encounter rate to 1/1024.

Now, that may still seem like a very rare spawn rate, so Legends Arceus actually gives trainers even more options to aid them in their Shiny hunting. The two ways that give players a huge benefit is through getting the Shiny Charm item as well as taking advantage of Mass Outbreak events.

Boost Your Odds With Shiny Charm And Mass Outbreaks

The Shiny Charm and the Mass Outbreak are valuable additions, perhaps even more beneficial than trying to reach the Perfect research level. If you combine a Complete research level with a Shiny Charm, you’ll already improve your odds to one shiny Pokemon for every ~820 encounters, or five times more likely to appear than normal. Do note, though, that you’ll need to complete every Pokedex entry before you can obtain the Shiny Charm and it can only be equipped for Dex pages that are already at Research Level 10.

Arguably the best way is trying your luck with Mass Outbreaks. A newly introduced feature in Legends Arceus, swarms of a single Pokemon will spawn in a random location in Hisui. Even without getting Research Level 10, if you head to a Mass Outbreak, you’d already have a 1/158 or 0.6% chance of finding a Shiny Pokemon — essentially as good as having +25 extra rolls or 26 total rolls. It presents a huge opportunity to catch a Shiny ‘mon for players who may not have the time to complete the Dex to get the Shiny Charm. Trainers will definitely find this method more worthwhile than trying to achieve the Perfect research level.

Of course, all of these methods stack up in PLA. You can improve the chances to 1/128 or a 0.8% Shiny encounter rate with the combination of Complete, Perfect research, Shiny Charm, and Mass Outbreak. However, one downside or limitation with the Mass Outbreaks is that it appears at random so you can’t control what Pokemon actually spawn for these events. As such, if you really want to get the Shiny variant of one specific Pokemon, you might have better luck trying to finish the Dex tasks and improving your research level.

Finding Shiny Pokemon At Mass Outbreaks in PLA

Players already unlock Mass Outbreak or swarm feature at the start of Legends Arceus. This can help you find a Shiny Pokemon even in the early stages of your Hisui adventure.

• Head over to Jubilife Village and save your progress.
• When you exit Jubilife Village, talk to the security guard so you can see the Hisui map. Look for a Pokemon icon, which marks the specific area where a Mass Outbreak is unfolding.
• Travel to the location of the Mass Outbreak and sneak up on the group of Pokemon.
  • Throw Pokeballs at them to try and catch them.
  • In case you have to battle, defeat each wild Pokemon one at a time so that you trigger more of the creatures to spawn in the area.
  • Remember that if the Pokemon is a Shiny, you’ll notice it immediately based on the sparkle special effect and the jingle sound.
• After the Pokemon stop spawning and you haven’t found a shiny, shut down the game and reload your save file.
  • By resetting PLA, you’ll find yourself back at Jubilife Village but the outbreak will be happening at the same place.
  • However, the encounters could change, because this would only be determined when you arrive at the Outbreak location on the map.
  • This is a good way for you to try and get a different Shiny Pokemon to spawn if you’re not particularly interested in the first group of creatures that you find.
• Keep resetting the game until you find a Shiny. You can also do this in combination with the Shiny Charm and Complete or Perfect Research levels.

What PokemonCan’tBe Shiny?

Most of the Pokemon in the Hisui Dex will be available to catch as a Shiny if you’re dedicated to hunting them down. However, some ‘mons will be “shiny-locked”, specifically the starter trio and the Legendary Pokemon. Trainers won’t be able to find them as shinies at all. They count as “static encounters”, meaning that whatever you do in the game, you’ll always encounter them in the adventure/storyline.

The developers may have designed Legends Arceus this way to avoid players resetting their game at the start just trying to get a Shiny starter Pokemon. Besides the Legendaries and Rowlet, Cyndaquil, or Oshawott, the other Shiny-locked ‘mons include: Unown, Spiritomb, Alolan Vulpix, and the Chimchar that you get from completing Research Request 20. Also, in the post-game, you’ll be given the other two starters that you didn’t pick, but these also won’t be Shiny.