Pokémon Sword and Shield – How to breed and capture Shiny Pokémon

So you want to be a master? Pokémon! So you want to be number one? Pokémon! Sure, you could be the best at battling on the Pokeblock, but nothing says superior training more than Shiny Pokémon. They’re rarer than people who don’t believe that Epstein killed himself, they automatically make you better than the rest of the rabble and sweet Arceus I need one now.

Here’s the trick: Even if you plug a hundred hours into Pokémon Sword and Shield, you may never see a Shiny Pokémon outside of that one bloke who imported all of his rare critters into the game from back in the day when he exploited the QR code functionality of Pokémon X and Y. That guy totally isn’t me. There are ways to get a Shiny Pokémon though, primarily through breeding and wild encounters. By default, Pokémon Sword and Shield has a 1 in 4096 chance of spawning a Shiny whose capture you’ll presumably cock up. Here how they work.

Shiny charm

The best item to have for increasing your odds of finding a Shiny, the Shiny Charm is awarded to a player…Once they’ve completed their Pokedex. So good luck on that. Once you do have it, your chances of finding a Shiny will skyrocket to 1 in 1365.33. Not bad!

Breeding

Let’s say you want to play the Shiny lottery and breed Pokémon until you get a Shiny. That’ll take forever, but you can increase your odds by breeding with a Pokémon from a game in another language. This will leave you with 1 in 682.7 odds, and with a Shiny Charm equipped that number will drop to 1 in 512. Be prepared to still do a lot of cycling though.

Wild encounters

Let’s say you’re out in the Wild Area, engaging in some Shiny Hunting. The concept is simple: By only encountering the same Pokémon every single time, you increase the rate at which a Shiny might pop up, a trick that has been used since the days of Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. It’s easier than ever to do this now, as you can see which Pokémon are hiding in the long grass in Sword and Shield.

Said odds are still high with the numbers breaking down like this:

50 Pokémon battled

• 1.5% encounter rate
• 1 in 2048 without a Shiny Charm
• 1 in 1024 with Shiny Charm

100 Pokémon battled

• 2% encounter rate
• 1 in 1365.333 without a Shiny Charm
• 1 in 819.2 with Shiny Charm

200 Pokémon battled

• 2.5% encounter rate
• 1 in 1024 without a Shiny Charm
• 1 in 682.6667 with Shiny Charm

300 Pokémon battled

• 3% encounter rate
• 1 in 819.2 without a Shiny Charm
• 1 in 585.1429 with Shiny Charm

500 Pokémon battled

• 3% encounter rate
• 1 in 682.6667 without a Shiny Charm
• 1 in 512 with Shiny Charm

Happy hunting!

Last Updated: November 22, 2019