Single post in Guide on Shiny Hunting

Do you have your PokéRadar ready? Are you hyper for the next month? (Wow, that one was horrible.) Did you treat yourself with some nice Upgrades? Then there is only one thing you need:

Eggs. Lots of Eggs.

Shiny Hunting is all about hatching Eggs. But to hatch Eggs you will first need to get them. We already understand that you can get them from the DayCare and the Shelter, but someone has to get them there and most of the time this someone has to be you. Breeding is a really important part, because without breeding there's just not enough Eggs in the Shelter for everyone. I won't explain the details on breeding, because there's already a Guide for it. But there are some things concerning Shiny Hunters that I want to say myself.

• If you're taking Eggs from the Shelter then give it Eggs back. The Eggs you're picking up are all bred and released by users, show your gratitude by releasing some Eggs yourself! You literally only have to put in a breeding pair in your DayCare, the Pokémon breed while you interact with others. So please take the few minutes to put a breeding pair into your DayCare, it's just fair towards other user.
• Paying other for breeding is not allowed. You can ask friends if they're nice enough to help you, but don't offer payment for it and don't offer your DayCare yourself for any payment in return.
• Do not, under any circumstances, PM someone because they picked up your Eggs. Eggs that went into the Shelter are free to take for everyone, you have no right to forbid people from taking them. This is SPAM and SPAM is also forbidden. (It's also really rude.)

But now for something nicer:

Tips for people who breed for their Shiny Hunt!

Depending on how rare your Eggs are in the Shelter, breeding is either something you leave to its own devices or a very painful experience. In some cases the interactions you do while trying to hatch your Eggs are simply not enough to get a decent amount of Eggs, in that case a Mass-Click list is necessary. You can look at the Statistics page for Biggest Pokémon Hoard to find someone who has a lot of Pokémon to click, fields that are sorted and stacked are the easiest to mass-click. Or you can join the Mass-Click Association. Other tip: Watch something while clicking those fields! Sorted and Stacked fields don't have to be looked at while clicking, so you can do something else while interacting as long as it doesn't need your hands. A good breeding pair helps a lot with getting more Eggs. A guide for 90%+ Breeding pairs can be found here. You can also buy a breeding pair from someone. The content of the Shelter updates approximately every 15 minutes, so you should release your Eggs 10-15 minutes before you start looking for them in the Shelter. That way you run the risk that someone picks them up before you, but at least you don't spend 15 minutes looking through the Shelter for Eggs that aren't there, yet.

Now how do I get these Eggs hatched?

Click, Click, Click, Click! Otherwise people won't click you back and this is what you need to hatch your Eggs. The more important decision is: Party-click or Field-click! For hunting itself clicking a users party is enough, the more people you click the more people might click you back. A nice feature for this is the Multi-user page, it opens parties of many users in one page for easier interacting. You can use the multi-user pages on your VIP list, your "Today's Interactions", you can open them on the Users Online page or just click on "Jump" next to the "X users online" display. Another option is to join a click group or to create a click group with your friends. A click group is usually an off-site chat where people can post their parties and the members of the group click you. Click groups are sometimes advertised in the About Me section of users. But sometimes party-clicking isn't enough. The first exception is when you need more Eggs that party clicking gives you. In that case a Mass-Clicking List could help, just collect the names of some people who have many Pokémon in their field, so you won't have to go clicking around people with a random amount of Pokémon that are sorted different from what you want to click. Second exception: Pokérus. Pokérus can give you a lot of attention for 15 minutes, I usually hatch at least 1 party during this time, 2 or 3 parties are the usual number, though. I haven't had Pokérus in forever, those are the numbers from when we had a lot less active users. I have no idea how many parties you can now hatch during Pokérus, but I've seen numbers that look more like 5-10 parties. Which also means that it's very hard to get. A lot of people try to get Pokérus and in the end it's all up to chance. So Good Luck! (More Information on Pokérus in the Wiki.) Additional help can be provided by the Bonus Counters! Make yourself familiar with them and make sure to check the progress of important ones regularly! Bonus Counter that are especially helpful for Shiny Hunting are:

• Sei: the Sei counter literally boosts your chances of a Shiny! What else could you want for a hunt?
• Niet: the Niet counter makes it easier to hatch your Eggs. This is especially useful if you have trouble getting enough clickbacks or if you hunt something with a large amount of EXP needed to hatch.
• Shazi: the Shazi Counter allows you to adopt more Eggs from the Shelter. Great if you don't have an especially high Shelter Pass or if you're really fast with hatching Eggs.

Also don't forget about the Fabulous Friday! With this each week at least one Bonus Counter that is wanted by the community gets activated.

Now that you have a Chain you also need to keep it!

In most cases it is not wanted to break a chain when Shiny Hunting (except, of course, when starting a new hunt). Theoretically it is very easy to keep your chain, don't hatch an Egg without owning a PokéRadar and don't hatch a different Pokémon than the one you're hunting. I want to add that trading away the PokéRadar does NOT break your chain, hatching an Egg without PokéRadar is what breaks the chain. But especially the last point, to not hatch a different Egg than the one hunted, seem to make people some problems. So I'm going to explain in full detail what includes "different Eggs".

• Hatching a Legendary breaks your chain. This is a relic from PF1, where hatching a Legendary did not break your chain. It DOES break your chain on PFQ.
• Hatching a different Forme of your hunted Pokémon breaks your chain. If you're hunting Unown A then hatching any other letter than Unown A breaks the chain. This counts for Eggs where different formes have different EggDexes. All Unown letters have their own EggDex and therefore break each others chain. Both Basculin formes share one EggDex, so hatching a different Basculin isn't a problem.
• The only special Eggs that don't break your chain are the Eggs you win from the Tournament. If you buy an Egg from the Tournament, then it will break your chain.
• Buying an Egg Pass allows you to hatch an Egg without breaking your chain You can also keep one in your inventory to prevent accidentally breaking the chain. It will stop you from hatching an Egg that isn't part of the chain and will allow you to either use the Pass, cancel the Hatching or to Hatch the Egg and break your Chain.

Now you're finally ready to keep your hunt going! So get that Shiny and be proud of your hard work! Oh wait you already got one? Awesome. Now sell it (to me). Just kidding, you can keep it, but in case you actually want to sell it:

What do I need to consider when selling a Shiny?

There are no fixed prices for Shinies. Sure, there are already some rough value that people developed, but in the end the actual price of a Shiny is completely up to the seller and the buyer. Other than that of course follow the Rules.

I want to offer Shiny Hunts in my Trade Shop!

Go for it! But first: prepaying is forbidden. That means you can't ask for people to give you Credits for a PokéRadar so that you can hunt the Shinies for them, you need your own PokéRadar in the first place. Other mistakes I often see people make: Don't overburden yourself with future hunts people already offer on. Your work/school schedule might change, you might not be able to afford Shiny Hunting for a long time or you might just lose interest in it at all. Take this into consideration and don't open too many hunts for people to offer on! When I first started out I only made 3 or 4 hunts, now I would recommend people who start out to only open 2 in the beginning. Offers on future hunts don't give you ANY advantage because prepaying is not allowed. It only brings problems like people going inactive, people losing interest or even the item they offered. Restrict the amount of spots for your hunt. You can always hunt extras to put Up For Trade later, but spending weeks on a hunt because you're still missing 3 Shinies is no fun at all.