Oooh...It's So Shiny!

One of my secret shames in Pokémon is that I'm a huge fan of shiny Pokémon! Out of all my creatures including EV training projects, RNG abuses, and perfect IV'd legendaries, nothing compares to the love I have for my shiny Pokémon. Shiny Pokémon are simply just an alter coloration of regular Pokémon, but the chance of finding them is rare. Long story short, the chance of encountering a shiny Pokémon is 1 in 8192 chance. That's approximately a .01% chance of encountering a shiny each time you run into a Pokémon. I've had the fortune of catching 12 of them! Each one has their own story.

My First Shiny!

I remember catching this guy back in the summer of 2007 when Pearl just came out. My grandpa was taking us to Kemah, the boardwalk attraction in Galveston, that day. While my brother was getting ready for the day, I caught a normal Regigigas. I was about to save when I decided I should go for a shiny Pokémon. So, on the car ride to and back, I kept on soft resetting with no luck. As me, my sister, and my brother were watching some old movies, this baby showed up! Hesitant to lose my first shiny, I chucked a Master Ball at it and caught it! It doesn't have any noteworthy stats or nature, but I still love it.

Immediately after catching Regigigas, I went after Rotom. I was hunting for this guy for two weeks without any luck. Being a huge Simpsons fan, I was excited to go to the midnight premiere of the movie. Unfortunately my grandpa got really sick so I spent the night at his place making sure he was ok. As soon as I got there, I soft resetted and encountered the beauty pictured here! Missing the Simpsons Movie premiere wasn't a big deal, my grandpa quickly recovered and I got a new shiny Pokémon to boot.

First Firered Shiny!

This was by far the quickest obtained shiny by far. It was now 2008 and I haven't caught a shiny in about a year. Right as soon as I got up, I turned on my DS and was at the Power Plant in Firered. I got to a Poke Ball, pressed A, and an Electrode appeared. Wanting to get a shiny one, I saved in front of it and kept on shiny resetting. 30 minutes later while I was brushing my teeth, shiny Electrode appears!


This guy...man it took a long time! I remember soft resetting for this guy for an entire year. In my Firered game, I would soft reset for him off and on at Route 12. About a month after I caught Electrode, I got Snorlax. It put up quite a fight and broke through three Timer Balls before I caught this guy. Being one of my favorite Pokémon, I was glad I caught a shiny Snorlax.

A few days after I caught Snorlax, I was shiny resetting in Pearl at the Valley Windworks while playing Pokémon Colosseum. It was shiny, but I wasn't really excited when I caught it. It's not like Drifloon looks ugly shiny; I absolutely love it. I guess it was that I just caught a shiny a few days ago so it wasn't a big deal. I
still caught it pretty easily, although it did break out of the first Repeat Ball I threw.

My First Random Shiny

This actually came as a surprise. While EV training my Blissey in Firered, I ran into a shiny Tangela! Luckily I had an Electabuzz who knew Swift, so I was able to weaken it and paralyze it with Static to catch it. Tangela was also my first shiny of 2009 and the first I got in college.

Wooper was another shiny I caught while EV training in Pearl. It was right before we got off for Christmas Break when I caught this cute guy in a Heal Ball. Nothing really special about this shiny, but you can't resist a pink Wooper! They look so cute!

First Heartgold Shiny

It was Spring Break when Heartgold came out. Less than ten minutes into the game, I ran into this shiny on Route 30! Luckily I didn't run into it any sooner or else I wouldn't have had any Pokeballs. Unfortunately I lost the original game where Pidgey came from, but I traded it to Pearl before then so at least I still have it.

Giratina took possibly the longest time to catch. I started shiny resetting for it back in the summer of 2010. My Platinum game was just sitting in front of Giratina for about six months until school started back up after Christmas. Right before I was going to the TSTV station, this guy showed up! Granted, a Quiet nature isn't the best, but after six months I didn't care. I quickly chucked a Master Ball at it and caught it! Not only was Giratina my first and only shiny in Platinum, it was also my first shiny of 2011.

Patrat was a total surprise to me. I was hunting for some synchronizing Munnas when a Shiny Patrat appeared in the Dreamyard! Luckily I had my Galvantula with me, so I paralyzed it and caught it with a Premier Ball. I love my first shiny in Black! I even recorded a video of me encountering it, but that won't see the light of day...

My personal favorite shiny Pokémon. I was hunting Latios at Pewter City for about two weeks. Me and my sister were driving up after spending Easter Sunday with our family. I pop open my DS, start shiny resetting, and bam! Shiny Latios appears! It was pretty stubborn and I almost wasted all of my Pokeballs to catch it. I finally snagged it with a Fast Ball. My synchronizer worked and Latios had a Timid nature. I EV trained it and plan on getting as many ribbons as possible for it.

Bidoof is probably the most perplexing shiny Pokémon I caught to date. After I went out to eat with a friend, I looked up some info on how to use the Pokeradar in Pearl to get a shiny. Apparently, if you use the fishing rod and defeat the Pokémon you lured, you can reset the grass shakes to get the desired patch. After a chain of two, I ran into a shiny Bidoof! However, I don't remember seeing the shiny patch. The next Pokémon I ran into was a Starly and my chain broke. So even to this day, I still don't know whether Bidoof was from a shiny patch or just a random encounter.

And those are my shinys I caught to date. Currently, I'm hunting for Rayquaza in Emerald, Suicune in Heartgold, and Spiritomb in Pearl. Maybe I'll get another shiny to add to this list soon enough. Good luck to all of you shiny hunters out there. Make sure you always carry Pokéballs with you; you never know when you'll encounter a shiny!