A myriad of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet players are finding Shiny Pokémon near the beginning of their adventure.
Many Pokémon players have shared screengrabs on social media of early-game Shiny Pokemon that they’ve encountered. A search for “Pokémon early Shiny” on Twitter and Reddit nets hundreds of results from players who encountered Shiny versions of Lechonk, Mareep, Psyduck, Tarountula, Azurill, and more within their first few hours in the game.
The number of players finding and sharing Shiny Pokémon early on in Scarlet and Violet prompted one Reddit user to ask if developer Game Freak had increased the chances of coming across a Shiny. This does not appear to be the case, though.
In a tweet posted on Nov. 17, a day before the game’s launch, Shiny hunter Anubis shared a chart detailing Scarlet and Violet’s Shiny odds through all potential methods. The odds of coming across a Shiny Pokémon with no additional assistance from items or methods is one out of 4,096, which is the same as Pokémon Sword and Shield.
Shiny Pokémon have traditionally been very difficult to obtain legitimately, with many players resorting to thousands of hatched eggs, random encounters, and encounter chains to find the Shiny of their dreams. Many of these methods are still viable in Scarlet and Violet: players who want to increase their odds can use the Shiny Charm item, random mass outbreaks, the well-known Masuda Method, or Sparkling Power to find Shiny Pokémon faster. Even so, none of these methods feel quite the same as randomly coming across a full-odds Shiny Pokémon in the wild right as you start your adventure.
