If you’re one of those trainers that have never had the patience to hunt Shiny Pokemon, you’re in luck. Shiny Pokemon are always touted as these rare and highly sought-after Pokemon because of their different color scheme. With your initial odds of running into them around 1 in 4,096, it’s normal never to encounter one, even after you’ve finished the main storylines. Well, that’s all about to change in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. As you know, the games are mired with glitches and destructive bugs, and you know what that means—yep, exploits. This time, I have not one but two exploits to share with you all on how you can encounter Shinies unorthodoxly and possibly even make an army with them.
The Shiny Picnic Reset Method
YouTuber PhillyBeatzU, the man behind the exploit, describes the glitch as the “Shiny Picnic Reset Method” in a recent video. You first have to go to an ongoing Mass Outbreak since it’s where the same Pokemon spawn in copious amounts in one area. You can find Mass Outbreaks by looking at your overworld map. The Mass Outbreak icon has a specific Pokemon with a glowing red symbol.
Once you’re at the location, you’ll need to defeat at least 60 of the same Pokemon. You can battle them normally if you’d like, but I find it easier to use the Let’s Go feature with the strongest Pokemon on your team. But before you annihilate the Pokemon there, make sure that at least one of your Pokemon has the False Swipe move. False Swipe is a normal-type move that prevents the target from fainting. Even if your lead Pokemon is overpowered compared to the wild Pokemon in the Mass Outbreak, they’ll always be left with 1 HP when you use this move. It’s a neat move to learn temporarily that’ll prevent you from downing a Shiny Pokemon.
Once you’ve knocked out more than 60 Pokemon, your chances of finding a Shiny have increased to 1 in 1,365. You must then find a spot within the outbreak, save your game, and set up a picnic. After that, pack your stuff up again and exit the picnic area. You’re doing this because every time you pack up, you reset the spawns for dozens of Pokemon at a time, thereby refreshing your odds of getting a Shiny Pokemon. If you don’t see a Shiny after packing up and running around the outbreak area, you can repeat the process as often as you’d like until you find one.
Duplicate Your Shiny Pokemon
Another recent exploit has been discovered that if you encounter a Shiny Pokemon under certain conditions, you could ultimately catch it repeatedly. If that doesn’t sound broken, then I don’t know what is. Shared on YouTube by Austin John Plays, he states that the glitch only applies to areas that don’t have a loading screen when you enter it, like open towns.
First thing first, if you recently caught a Shiny Pokemon, make your way toward a town with an open space. Once you’re there, save and turn off the game. When you load back into Pokemon Scarlet/Violet again, the Shiny you caught will still be in your Boxes or team, but when you return to the field, the Shiny Pokemon you recently got will be there. You can then try to catch it, go back to the town, save the game, and then repeat the cycle to catch multiple of the same Shiny.
Austin assumes this glitch happens because Pokemon Scarlet/Violet only refreshes when you leave the town when wild Pokemon are nearby. Saving the game before you leave the town still keeps a “memory” of the Pokemon you already caught beforehand. Then, when it reloads again, the game still has that “list” (including the one you just caught), spawning the same set of Pokemon again. You can do this with Shiny Pokemon and any type of Pokemon you’d like to have more than one of. If you’ve ever dreamed of building an army of Shiny Dragonites or a herd of Gogoats on your team, this exploit is your best bet.
Get On the Trend While You Still Can
Many sources, such as Polygon, Newsweek, and Kotaku, have confirmed that these exploits do work—for now. There’s no telling when Game Freak would decide to patch things up and remove these glitches altogether, so if you’ve wanted a Shiny Pokemon for a while, now’s your best chance to jump on it.
