How to catch a Shiny Pokémon (updated for X and Y)

Catching a shiny Pokemon
Shiny Pokémon are the rarest types of pocket monsters you can catch, and have become somewhat of a Holy Grail for fans and collectors of the series.
To celebrate the release of Pokémon X and Y, we explain how to catch one of these highly sought after shiny specimens. However, don’t read on unless you have an extraordinary level of patience and bags of free time.

We reached out to Nintendo for any information on how to grab a Shiny Pokémon in the new X and Y games, and although they declined to help, we’ve updated the below for you using various new sources of information.
How can you tell if a Pokémon is Shiny?
They are coloured differently to the standard Pokémon and are accompanied by a gleaming sparkle effect upon appearing.
For example, check out this Shiny Giratina from Pokémon Diamond and Pearl:

Shiny Legendary Pokémon

Here’s a standard Giratina:
Giratina non-Shiny
How to catch a Shiny Pokémon: The lucky way
We’ve got some good news and bad news for you. The good news is that Shiny Pokémon simply appear randomly from wild encounters in grass, caves, water and more. Legendary and starter Pokémon can also be shiny. They appear in all versions of Pokémon other than the first generation games (Red, Blue, Green and Yellow).
The bad news? The chances of seeing a Shiny Pokémon is roughly 1 in 8,192 (or 0.012207%).
If you’re not that bothered about catching a Shiny Pokémon, just progress through the game as it was intended to be played. You never know, you may get lucky and come across one by chance.
How to catch a Shiny Pokémon: The hard way
If you really want a Shiny Pokémon, find the area where your Pokémon appears and grind. If you have the patience of the world’s slowest tortoise, you will eventually catch one. Good luck.
There’s also the soft reset method. If you want a Shiny Pokémon that is a one-off character in the game, such as a starter Pokémon or legendary, find the area where the Pokémon appears. Save the game. Now walk until the Pokémon appears or talk to the relevant character to summon it. If it’s not shiny, soft reset the DS by pressing and holding L+R+Start+Select. Try again. Rinse and repeat.
How to catch a Shiny Pokémon: The Masuda method

The director of Pokémon developer Game Freak, Junichi Masuda, originally revealed this technique of increasing the chances of obtaining a Shiny Pokémon.
Simply trade a Pokémon with someone who owns a copy of the game from a different region (such as Japan, America or Europe). For example, if you own the UK version and your trading partner owns the US or Japanese version.
Next, mate their Pokémon with one of your own. From the egg that is produced, there is a 1 in 2,048 chance that it will be a Shiny Pokémon (some reports say it’s actually around 1 in 1,365.3). Yes, we know, those odds still suck.
It’s a good idea to use the Global Trade System in-game to find a Ditto (these can also be caught in the Pokémon Village towards the end of X/Y), which will make it easier to breed the Pokémon of your choice. Simply drop the Ditto and the Pokémon you want a shiny version of into the daycare centre (located on route 7). After travelling for a while, the guy outside the daycare centre will give you an egg. After biking around some more, it will hatch. Just remember you need a male and female Pokémon to get an egg!
How to catch a Shiny Pokémon: The expert way (chaining)
There is a Pokéradar you can unlock later in the game (you get this in Sycamore’s Lab, 2F, from the scientist to the right after beating the Elite Four). This allows you to track monsters before they appear to help you catch the one you want.
By chaining together kills of the same Pokémon over and over again, the chances of a Shiny Pokémon appearing increases. After a chain of 40 kills, the odds stand at around 1 in 200 (or 0.5%). Note: Do not use your skates for this method, walk around as usual.
Again, you’ll need bags of patience for this method, but in the right hands it can reap rewards.
For more in-depth info, check out this chaining tutorial and the below video guide which explains how to find Shiny Pokémon this way:

You can also chain fishing to find a Shiny Water Pokémon.
How to catch a Shiny Pokémon: The easy way
If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again cheat. At Leet we don’t usually recommend cheating in video games, as it can spoil the reward of achieving something decently. But at the same time, it’s a 1 in 8,000 chance of catching a Shiny Pokémon. Go figure.
If you really must have a Shiny Pokémon and don’t have the time or patience to catch one, then there’s always the Action Replay cheat codes. First you’ll need to buy an Action Replay cartridge, then head on over to Ehow.co.uk’s Shiny Pokémon Action Replay cheat guide.
However, there are no codes for Pokémon X and Y at the time of writing.
General tips

  • Always carry plenty of Pokéballs. You never know when you’ll come across a Shiny Pokémon.
  • Carry lots of Super Repels and berries that restore your PP
  • Find out where the Shiny Pokémon you want appears. Grind in an area with a high appearance rate to maximise your chances.
  • There are no other tricks or cheats to get shiny Pokemon (excluding the Action Replay method). If you’ve heard that if you fly to Celadon City 500 times and push the truck off of the old man, you will get a Shiny Pokémon, don’t believe it.

For more advice, check out this guide on Kotaku.
There’s another good video guide here:

Share your Shiny Pokémon
We’re a fan of Pokémon here at Leet and want to know if you’ve caught a Shiny Pokémon. Please post a description or image of your Shiny Pokémon in the comments box below, or share your tips on how you caught it.
And if you haven’t already, check out our top five Cool Pokémon.
Image courtesy of Ken Sugimori, copyright 2001

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DaDi
DaDi
13 years ago

Must be the lukiest guy ever! Haha, just bought pokemon black and first time i turned the game on my Tepig was a shiny! Awesome

x-thief-x
x-thief-x
13 years ago

i once caught a shiny zubat lol

coregame
13 years ago

polemon))

danthegardner
danthegardner
13 years ago

I remember in Gold I caught a shiny Noctowl. i thought it was the coolest thing.

Kimin
13 years ago

How about black and white series?

alfie
alfie
13 years ago

shiny budew and shiny zubat
my sister got a shiny ariados 2 days ago

alfie
alfie
13 years ago

shiny zubat is too comon i’ve had 2!

_stella_
_stella_
13 years ago

I caught a shiny camerupt in diamond ^_^ it’s black and yellow…..BLACK AND YELLOW BLACK AND YELLOW BLACK AND YELLOW

Simon
Simon
13 years ago

I once caught a shiny Ursaring in gold.

me
me
13 years ago

with chaining i caught 3 shiny bagons 2 shiny larvitars and a shiny shinx 😀

mathew
mathew
13 years ago

i have a shiny charizard through breeding mahahahahaha its black >.>

browsergamer
13 years ago

Some excellent tips there, thank you! I was never aware of the Pokéradar, but my interest has definitely been sparked!

seth
seth
13 years ago

i catch shiney pokemon all the time im a pokemon freak probaly the biggest i beat all the turnaments i got shiney pokemon every where its most comman if you have black white diamand peril platinum heartgold soulsiver

times a little jacked up on this web site
times a little jacked up on this web site
13 years ago

read my name

zorualover
zorualover
13 years ago

I really want a shiny pokemon!!!!! My bro caught a shiny stunfish. o by the way i have a lot of zoruas if any one wants them email me if you do! my email is [email protected]

Boye
Boye
13 years ago

I catch a shiny horsea =)

seth and taylor
seth and taylor
13 years ago

hey bitches

ian
ian
13 years ago

golbat at gold,and aipom at esmerald 😉

zoroark(pronounced zor-oo-ork) lover
zoroark(pronounced zor-oo-ork) lover
13 years ago

i traded my suicune for a zorua lv.1 and i do not care about my lv.40 suicune, cause i already had a stronger one

Anonymous
Anonymous
13 years ago

i have a shiney porygon-z!i talked to this guy behind the veilstone pokemon center and gave me a shiney porygon(maybe by dumb luck im not sure)

DaShinyMaster
DaShinyMaster
13 years ago

i have a shiny ponyta, swablu, Krookodile, and Gyrados (one i found in the wild fishing, not the one in HG & SS @ Lake of Rage).

\\\\\\\\\\
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12 years ago

I have all the legendaries shiny with out cheating it took for ever!

Anonymous
Anonymous
12 years ago

i just caught a wild shiny yamask with a pokeball

Anonymous
Anonymous
12 years ago

ive played pokemon my whole life and never once saw a shiny……

jjjjj
12 years ago

i hate how tough it is to get one of these.

cam
cam
12 years ago

In pokemon soul silver i got a shiny zapdos! good job i kept my master ball lol. anyway i also was breeding my red gyrados and got a shiny majikarp 🙂

matt
matt
12 years ago

too bad they dont have poke radar in black i caught tons of shinys that way

zach
zach
12 years ago

i just went to route 18 and encounterd 3. 3! shinies and fled i didnt know they were shinies ):

Anonymous
Anonymous
12 years ago

i caught a shiny mareep in heartgold, and mareeps are one of my favorite pokemon so it was amazing

Jr
Jr
12 years ago

Im trying to find a shiny tyrogue in black my Sis found a shiny kricketune in pokemon pearl I can’t find any shiny

jack
jack
12 years ago

i have seen 13 shiny pokemon and cought 11

Halolah
Halolah
12 years ago

Shiny mew and charzard beat that

Kaye
Kaye
12 years ago

I’ve seen one shiny Gurdurr and got a shiny Absol and Arbok through trade

Legend
Legend
12 years ago

I caught a shiny Joltik in Chargestone Cave on Black. On Platinum, I saw my first shiny ever, a Yanma. Of course it had to be in the Safari Zone, though, and it fled. DX
But then I successfully chained and got a shiny Absol. 😀

andy
andy
12 years ago

shiny rapidash has black fire

josh
josh
12 years ago

in leafgreen i was about to walk out of the pokemon mansion and one step away from exiting a shiny raticate appeared i named him beast

josh
josh
12 years ago

i also have a shiny venusaur

Devil
Devil
12 years ago

I have played poemon ruby sapphire emerald fire red platinum soul silver heart gold white and NEVER EVER SEEN A SHINY POKEMON EVER!! …..SOBS…

pot
pot
12 years ago

i caught a kyurem

pot
pot
12 years ago

I want a shiny victini

seirru
12 years ago

i have a shiny jellicent and shiny hydreigon legit on white found them in game it was sick

Jirir
Jirir
12 years ago

I captured a shiny Jirachi in my pokemon leaf green!!

Anonymous
Anonymous
12 years ago

I am sad because I found a shiny graveler and then he used self destruct

Anonymous
Anonymous
12 years ago

i caught a shiny purloin. it was dark blue instead of light purple.

epic man
epic man
12 years ago

i have shiny arceus deoxys dialga palkia girat tine etc. it took ages tho

Anonymous
Anonymous
12 years ago

🙁 Im sad because my stupid friends deleted one of my favorite pokemon that was shiny : POLIWRATH. Hes light blue when shiny and my Blue Voltorb he was cool too …. Im going to try and get a Shiny Victiny!

Jess
Jess
12 years ago

I was just making my way through the cave before Victory Road and I encountered and caught a shiny Boldore. Instead of being yellow eyed, blue bodied and with red gems, it is red eyed, purple bodied and has light blue gems. It’s really cool, too, because in the Pokedex I never seen a regular Gigalith (evolve form of Boldore) and when I evolved my shiny Bolder the Pokedex doesn’t show the original colored Gigalith. Instead it shows the shiny Gigalith as the picture of it.

Dimitriye98
Dimitriye98
12 years ago

Biggest Sucker Ever!
I had a shiny Zubat in Pearl and didn’t know how rare it was, shortly after defeating elite four, reset game. 🙁 ’nuff said

Luis
Luis
12 years ago

I got so lucky because on black before I even got my first badge i found a shiny pidove.

Wantsashiny.please
Wantsashiny.please
12 years ago

Never. Not once have I caught a shiny. The only one I have is the Red Gyrados from Heart Gold… I’m sad. He sucks. Anybody want to trade? I have 25 Zouras from breeding. Used to have fifty but released some of them. Plus I train alot of my Pokemon to be really strong. I will trade for a shiny 🙂 email me at [email protected]