Guide on Shiny Hunting

Welcome to the wall of text, let me be your guide. Information this Guide includes: First Post: Information on Shinies, necessary Items to Shiny Hunt Second Post: Information on Breeding, Interacting, not breaking your Chain, trading with Shinies Third Post: Useful Resources, Frequently Asked Questions

What is a Shiny and how do I get it?

Have you ever looked at a Pokémons name in a party or it's summary and seen a nice little Star? I'm talking about this one: ! This is the mark of a Shiny Pokémon, a Pokémon that has a different colour than other Pokémon. You want an example? Well look at this graceful Gardevoir: What is so special about it, you ask? Not much. But now look at this graceful Gardevoir: It feels like it's shining, doesn't it? (And you can also visit her Summary to see the star!) This is a Shiny Pokémon, a Pokémon with a different colour than others. Some colour changes are obvious, like this one, but sometimes it has nearly the same colour. Except if you're colour blind, then I'm not sure how obvious the colour change is. Now you sure want one on your own, don't you? So how do you get a nice little Shiny? Mostly with luck. People say a lot of things but in the end it's just pure luck. You can of course raise the chances, but seriously in the end it's just luck. Still, rising the chances is a very good idea when trying to Shiny hunt. Some people might find a Shiny with luck alone, but after hatching 1,000 Eggs without one I'm pretty sure I'm not one of them. So instead people like me have to raise their chances drastically to get one of these nice little Pokémon, luckily it is possible. But first.

Read the Wiki. Love the Wiki.

Or at least tolerate it. Read the Wiki page on Shiny Hunting! I won't explain some things, like what is a Chain and the effects of site-wide boosts in this guide. I'm more focusing on how to hunt and not on explaining how it all works, so read it if you're not familiar with the mechanics at all.

What do I need to Shiny Hunt?

There isn't anything you actually need per se, like I said it is possible without any boosts. But let's be honest, you're not asking for the kind of Shiny Hunt where the chance is maybe one in a thousand (actual numbers unknown) to hatch one. You want one now, so how do we get a decent chance to hatch one? Important: I said chance! You're not guaranteed to hatch a Shiny after any number of Eggs hatched! It's still up to luck to hatch one. So let's list the items you need for a Shiny Hunt:

• PokéRadar
• Optional, but recommended: Hypermode

Now that was pretty short, and only one item is absolutely necessary. You can't start a chain without a PokéRadar, you only get the base Shiny chance without one and that one isn't very high. With the PR you can chain Eggs and your chances of a Shiny increase up to a ~1,300% boost after you reach a chain of 38. If you get HM in addition to PR, you can get a ~4000% boost to your base chances. In my opinion, very worth it. It's possible to hunt without HM, though. You could also switch the HM for an Übercharm, that doubles your Shiny Chances. It won't be quite as good as HM, but is a lot cheaper.

Is there anything else I might need?

Oh yes! The list above is just the bare minimum to start a hunt. Now to actually chain you will need a lot of Eggs of the same species and where do you get them from? Please don't say Lab. The lab is nice and all, but for a Chain you will need a lot of Eggs of the same kind (like a lot of Eevee Eggs!) you won't be able to get them from the lab. Not even with Lab Reloaders! During Shiny Hunting two places will be you biggest friend: the DayCare and the Shelter. So upgrades for both are suggested! Suggested Upgrades for the Shelter:

• Shelter Pass: (Price varies) Let's you adopt more Pokémon each day. Please don't try to Shiny Hunt with your Shelter Pass C, only being able to adopt 6 Eggs + the 6-12 Eggs from the DayCare (depending on Hypermode) is very far from effective Shiny Hunting. You don't necessarily need the Shelter Pass ★, but A (24 adoption) or S (36) adoptions would be a good start. Of course only if you're active enough to actually use them! If you're only planning on hatching 1 or 2 parties each day, then Shelter Pass C or B are fine enough. Though the Hunt might take a while.
• Black Flute: (500 GP) Shows only Eggs in the Shelter, which makes finding your Eggs a lot easier. Advice for people who can't afford it: Press Alt + 1, this makes the Shelter smaller and Pokémon only appear as icons. Finding Eggs is a lot easier this way.

Suggested Upgrades for the DayCare:

• Matchup Checker: (100 GP) It let's you see how compatible your breeding pair is. This isn't absolutely necessary and you can also lend it from someone to find a nice breeding pair or buy a breeding pair that already has a high compatibility.
• SpyGlass: (20 GP) It shows you what Eggs you have in you DayCare. This one is mostly necessary when breeding with a mixed pair or hunting a Pokémon that gives different Eggs, but an alternative is to release all Eggs without picking one, so it isn't necessary in that case. It is necessary when breeding and hunting Event Pokémon.
• Optional: Red Gigaremo: (2,000 GP) The Egg Cycle gets halved from 64 interactions to 32 interactions, but it lowers the Pokémon' happiness (which in return lowers how many Eggs they produce!). I only use this when I'm way too lazy for my own good, but it isn't necessary at all.
• Semi-Optional: DayCare Passes: (Price varies) Lets you take 1 Egg each Pass from the DayCare. Necessary when hunting for Event Pokémon.

These are suggested Upgrades, I don't think any of them are actually necessary when hunting for normal Pokémon, but I do like the Matchup Checker a lot! Suggested Premium Upgrades:

• Übercharm: (200 ZC) It doubles your chances for Shinies and Albinos for the whole duration of 28 days! This is really worth considering buying one. (It is also possible to sell a Shiny for ZC or an Übercharm, just saying.)
• Optional: Shiny Charm: (150 ZC) Also doubles your chances for a Shiny but only for 24 hours. It also disappears after these 24 hours if you don't own a Shiny Charm Box. I'd only consider buying them on a special day (Niet + Sei bonus, as an example) or while doing an annoying hunt (hunting for exclusive Pokémon or Eggs with a very high EXP.) But when owning a Shiny Charm Box they're definitely a nice addition to the Übercharm! If you have a Shiny Charm Box, then you need at least 5 Shiny Charms to be charmed 24/7.
• Optional: Shiny Charm Box: (2,000 ZC) Shiny Charms turn into Dead Charms instead of disappearing. Dead Charms can be recharged using Gold Poké. For everyone who considers hunting for longer than a month or so this is definitely worth considering. If you have enough GP you can literally stay charmed with Übercharms and Shiny Charms the whole month without spending any ZC on the Shiny Charms. (You will still need to buy the Übercharm, though!)

Again, none of this is actually necessary to Shiny Hunt. They are just a very nice addition and make it a lot easier. Suggested EXP Boosts:

• EXP. Share: (450 GP) Can be useful to get some EXP on Eggs while mass-clicking for Eggs. Not that necessary, though. You're not missing out much if you can't afford this.
• Pokémon of the same evolution line in Party: (no cost) That's not really an Upgrade, but I have no idea where else to list it. Keeping the a Pokémon of the same evolution line in your party (for example a Gardevoir when hunting Ralts) will boost the EXP Eggs are receiving. The Party Bonus stacks up to 3 Pokémon, having 1 Pokémon in your party gives a boost of 40% (the same boost Hypermode gives!), 2 Pokémon give 70% and 3 give 110% EXP boost.
• Optional: (Super) Lucky Egg: (Price varies) I don't use them at all, because I don't like mass-clicking. But if you mass-click a lot, then this certainly helps your party hatching faster.

I personally have been using the following since 2015: Basics: PokéRadar DayCare: SpyGlass, Machup Checker, sometimes Red Gigaremo. Shelter: Shelter Pass X, Black Flute. Premium Upgrades: Hypermode, Übercharm, Shiny Charm Box, Shiny Charms And since EXP Boosts have been released: EXP. Share, 1 Pokémon of the same species in Party

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.

Useful Resources

Rules

• General Site/Forum Rules
• Trade Forum Rules. They also apply to trades outside of the Forums.

Wiki Pages:

• Shiny Hunting
• DayCare, information on Breeding included
• Exclusive Pokémon, breeding information can be found on individual pages

Guides in the Forums:

• The Beginner's Guide to the Shelter
• A Pokémon Breeder's Guide to the DayCare
• Guide to Easy Clicking
• Guide to egg hatching and gem hunting
• Clicking for Dummies™
• Your Guide to 90%+ Breeding Pairs
• Guide on Albino and Melan Hunting
• Not necessary for Shiny Hunting but the List of all Pokémon in PFQ's 'Dex Order lists different formes of Pokémon as separate entries, which can help to not break a chain by hatching Pokémon with multiple formes.

To-Do (this doesn't even go here):

• Detailled info on Hunting for Exclusives?
• More info on hunting Legendaries?

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a Summary to this impossibly long amount of text? Sure, here it is. Where do you have that information from? I've been an active hunter on PF1 and am hunting on PFQ since December 2014. I have a history of my hunts. I also am friends with many people who Shiny hunt, visit the forums a lot and the Wiki. Oh, and I'm a Mod. How much is a Shiny XY worth?? Please don't discuss the worth of a Shiny here. It is pretty much up to the people trading, so there isn't much to discuss. You can look through Trade Shops to get an impression on how much something's worth. My chain broke! What did I do wrong? Read again through the "Now that you have a Chain you also need to keep it!" part and then tell me what exactly you were doing when it broke. I already hatched 200 Eggs and no Shiny, yet. What am I doing wrong? I feel your pain but there's not much that can be done. Shiny Hunting is based on chance and sometimes you just lack the luck to hatch a Shiny. You can try with Upgrades like an Übercharm or a Shiny Charm but otherwise there's not much to do than just hatching more Eggs and hoping that the next Party will finally have that Shiny. I want to hunt an Early Bird Natu/Shinxel/Seasonal Turtwig/other exclusive! How does it work? The only difference will be, that you need DayCare Passes to get your Eggs. Exclusive Eggs can be bred, but the chance of them landing in the Shelter after releasing them is 1%. So you will need to use DayCare passes to pick them from your DayCare after breeding the exclusive Eggs. You will also need the SpyGlasses to see which Eggs that you bred are actually the exclusive ones. I saw some Shiny Legendaries, how did they get them? It is possible to Shiny Hunt a Legendary, but you need either a lot of Summon Items or a lot of Credits for the Egg Supplier. For each Egg you would normally pick up from the Shelter or the DayCare, you will need to use a Summon Item instead. (Or order an Egg from the Egg Supplier.) Your question here? I will try to help! Thank you for reading through the Guide (or for reading through parts of it, maybe even only the FAQ)! If you have any questions or suggestions then feel free to post here. I will do my best to help you out!

Just want to mention, having an Egg Pass in your inventory will add a confirmation box when hatching something that would break your chain. This is great for avoiding accidental breakage. You can always give the Egg Pass to a Pokémon to hold if you want to disable these confirmations, say if you stop hunting to do Dex completion.

Seeing as the PokeRadar+ is out, you should also add some details for users who can't afford hypermode. ^^ Specifically in the what one needs and Chaining sections.

I know it does say so on the wiki too, but the Shiny Huntin pages makes it look quite different? I'm doing my first shiny hunt and using only the Pokeradar, without hypermode and it says: Current chain: 19 / 35 — approximately 99% boost! So that's some inconsistent information on the shiny hunting page? I mean I am aware it doesn't boost much (and I hatched shinies in-game using the Matsuda method without a shiny charm, so I am a patient one) but I can see where that "common mistake" comes from?

I deny everything I said and claim the opposite. I was sure I didn't buy the Pokeradar+ I checked my inventory now, and yes it's there. Wow. I feel really dumb now...

Yes, the part about Hypermode needs updating because of the Pokéradar+. Now I just need to find the motivation time to write something up. I'm sorry for the inconvenience!

Thanks for all the info. I don't have much experience hunting and enjoyed all the pointers. Maybe my next few hunts will get better (and hopefully i'll have more luck... or shiny charms.)