Pokemon Sword and Shield have been out for well over a year now and the latest entry in the long running series is still going strong on Nintendo Switch. Sword and Shield reached an impressive milestone in regards to sales in August 2020, and both games are continuing to sell well on the Switch in Japan and the US.
Additionally, despite the games being in player’s hands for more than a year, many players are still discovering new things about Pokemon Sword and Shield. Now, Seribii.net founder Joe Merrick is reminding players that the way shiny Pokemon encounters work in Sword and Shield is completely different to how the mechanic worked in past entries.
There are a lot of new elements that Pokemon Sword and Shield introduced that may end up changing core elements of the series going forward. Perhaps one of the biggest changes involves Pokemon Sword and Shield‘s Wild Area location. The Wild Area is an open-world location that is filled with wild Pokemon that spawn around the overworld. A few days ago, Merrick sent out a tweet reminding players that in Generation 8, all random stats for a Pokemon’s gender, IVs, and even Shiny chances are determined when a Pokemon spawns in the overworld, not when a Pokemon is encountered.
In past games, all of these stats were rolled when a player encountered a random Pokemon in tall grass, as Pokemon didn’t freely or frequently spawn in the overworld like they do in Sword and Shield. This means that there are many opportunities for players to completely pass up shiny Pokemon in Sword and Shield‘s overworld without even knowing that they are doing so. Naturally, this revelation has rubbed a lot of Pokemon players the wrong way, as it completely twists the tried and true shiny hunting methods of past games. This new way of handling shiny Pokemon encounters is made even more frustrating due to the fact that Pokemon in the overworld never appear shiny, despite being so in the game’s code.
Even if a Pokemon is rolled as a shiny Pokemon when it spawns into the overworld, players have no visual indication of it whatsoever. This new realization will also no doubt make those arduous shiny Pokemon hunting sessions just that much more agonizing for Sword and Shield players. On one hand, it makes sense that Game Freak would want to keep that incredible feeling of rarity that comes with a shiny Pokemon encounter intact. On the other hand, not giving any sort of visual indication for an already determined shiny Pokemon feels more than a little unfair from the player’s perspective.
It’s a strange situation all around, as it really wouldn’t have made much of a difference if Game Freak had just left the previous system in place. Now, players will just have to come to terms with the fact that they may be missing potential shiny encounters constantly. Still, it will be interesting to see if any more new shiny hunting methods spawn from this revelation. Hopefully, all of those Sword and Shield shiny hunters don’t lose faith in their hunts going forward.
Pokemon Sword and Shield are available now for the Nintendo Switch.
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