Greetings subjects of loyalty.

For your being reading of this, I am thinking you are wanting for to be having the great successes of the catchings of the Pocket Monsters of shining! Is nice!

This is my super awesome fantastic chocolatey-fudge-coated mega guide for using the Poke-radar to catch many shiny Pokemon.

This guide almost definitely only works for Pokemon Platinum. As far as I know the mechanics of the Poke-Radar in X and Y are fairly similar, but I can't speak from experience on that. I understand all you casual gamers are busy playing your Pokemon W's and Pokemon Z's, but everyone knows those aren't real Pokemon games.

So yeah. Shiny hunting guide.


There's a lot of guides and stuff about this, but frankly a good proportion of them just give silly superstitious little rules that don't actually have any impact at all.

If you've played Platinum, you probably know kind of how the Poke-Radar works, although you might not know how useful it can be. When used properly it can increase your chances of encountering a shiny from an ugly 1/8192 to a sexy 1/200.

That's right. 1/200. Sexy.

The catch is that you have to encounter that exact same Pokemon in a chain of grass patches 40 times in a row in order to obtain that chance.

The Basics

1- Location

In order to hunt the shiners for the great success, you want to have a nice, large patch of grass, preferably at least 9x9 tiles big. It's acceptable to have a patch slightly shorter or thinner than this in some places, but generally the larger, the safer.

2- Being prepared

You're gonna want lots and lots of repels, at least 100 max repels just to be safe, and some Pokemon leading your team that'll be able to easily sweep through lots of wild 'Mons in a row, and is a higher level than any of the wild 'Mons in your area. You're also gonna want a decent amount of free time to shiny hunt, as you can't save your game mid-way through a chain. Something around the same level or slightly lower than what you intend to catch, with weak or status moves to help you catch it easier wouldn't be a bad idea. You're also going to want balls for the capturifying of the shiners.

And you're going to need your Poke-Radar of course.

3- Doing stuff

Stand roughly in the centre of your large patch of grass. You want to be sure that the 'Mon you intend to catch is actually available in that area. Once you're ready, activate one of your many repels and then use the Poke-Radar.

If you're standing in the centre of an area of grass which is at least 9x9, then four patches of grass will shake, possibly with different sparkly effects. If the area is smaller, then there's a chance you might see fewer than four. You will, however, never see more than four.

I think it's important at this point that I explain exactly how the patch-rustling works, as it's pretty important.

See this highly scientific diagram:

There are four rings of grass around the player, as represented by the pretty, colourful lines. When the Radar is activated, the game chooses one tile from each of those rings which will be the rustling patch. The thing is, it chooses which tile independently of whether or not there is grass in that tile. This is important and I'll come back to it later.

Now, you want to pick a patch that rustled and walk into it, being careful not to step into any of the other patches that rustled. For some patches, the rustling intensifies, indicating that there may be a slightly rarer Pokemon in that patch. This isn't always reliable though. Regardless of which patch you enter, you need to make careful note of what the animation it produced was, so that you can remember it for future rustles.

Once you enter it, you'll be put into a battle with a Pokemon. If this is not the Pokemon you want a shiny of, then ignore it and just run away from the battle, then run around to recharge the Radar and repeat the steps above.

Once you manage to get into a battle with your desired 'Mon, kill it or capture it. It is important that it faints or is caught, running away will ruin it.

Once the battle ends, be on your guard, as the Radar will automatically activate again. This means you have started a chain. If you're on D/P/Pl, then you can use your Poke-Radar Poketch app to show how many in a row you have encountered, so it's easier to keep track.

Now, when choosing which patch to enter this time, you want to make careful note of a few things-

-Animation-

Aim for a patch with the same rustling as the first one you entered. If it was a weak rustle, go for one with a weak rustle. If it was an intensified rustle, then aim for an intensified rustle. It's imperative that you look out for the rustling intensifying.

"But Great Leader EpiArtifex," I hear you cry. "There are no matching patches in this one! Am I doomed already?"

Hahaha, you're so stupid.

No, so long as you avoid stepping in any of the rustling patches, then you can retry that chain. Simply run around until your Poke-Radar is recharged and then activate it again, and a new batch of tiles will rustle intensely without resetting your chain.

-Distance-

The best tiles to aim for are those which are in the furthest ring from you. Remember my scientific diagram? It's literally just up there. Lazy butt.

In the outermost ring, you have the greatest chance of re-encountering the chained Pokemon. Ideally, you want to go for both the fourth ring AND a matching rustle. If that does not happen, I recommend you retry the Radar until you get an ideal one. Patience pays off when it comes to shiny hunting, nothing hurts more than getting to 39 Ralts in a row and then getting a Roselia.

Fricking Roselia.

-Edges-

This is a common misconception in many guides for this kind of thing. They would have you believe that if you go on a tile which is on the edge of the grass patch, you're likely to break your chain and thus break your heart. This is kind of true. While it isn't any less likely that you'll encounter the 'Mon you want on that tile, what's important is what happens AFTER that tile.

Remember how I said that the game calculates which tile will rustle, regardless of whether or not there's grass on it? That means that if you are standing in such a position that none of the rings are completely full of grass tiles, there's a small chance that the game will accidentally pick a tile for each ring which does not contain grass, and thus your chain will be unable to continue and will end there and then, seemingly for no reason.

If you're willing to take the chance, then on your head be it.

4- Great Success!

Once you've managed to get to 40 in a row, that means that you now have a 1/200 chance of encountering a shiny in one of your patches. As there can be up to four patches at any one time, that's a whopping 1/50 chance per scan.

"But EpicArtifex senpai, isn't every patch just one more chance to break my chain? How will I know if there's a shiny in it or not?"

Hahaha, what a moron.


If there's a shiny in a patch, it will sparkle. It'll be different to the other rustling patches. If you do a scan, and a patch glows white with little sparkles, then you know there's a shiny in there. If you enter a shiny patch, then there's no chance of it breaking your chain (unless you positioned badly and the game picks invalid tiles for your next scan).

What this means is that, once you reach 40, the safest way of acquiring heaps upon heaps of shinies is to simply run around and reset the Radar repeatedly until you see a shiny patch, then enter it, catch it, and repeat.

That's the main process of the technique laid out. In actual fact, it is not completely necessary to get to 40 in the chain. The chance of a shiny increases exponentially with each successful encounter, however it only spikes to noticeable levels at around 30+. If you'd much rather play it safe than risk losing your chain after 30, then you still have a 1/2185 chance per patch, which is pretty huge compared to 1/200, but still much better than the usual rates.

-General tips-

- Encounter rates still have an impact, so while it's more likely to get a matching encounter in a more distant patch, it's not guaranteed; luck plays a part as well.

- Furthermore, more common 'Mons, or outbreak 'Mons, will be easier to chain and encounter than rarer 'Mons.

- There are certain locations in D/P/Pl where you can catch extremely rare Pokemon only by using the radar.

- Groudon is better than everything else.

- If you are looking for a steel or electric type, then having a Pokemon at the front of your party with Magnet Pull or Static as their ability will increase your chances of chaining that successfully pretty significantly.

- This method will not work on water or in caves, it is restricted to Pokemon you can capture in grass. Furthermore, riding your bike or saving your game will break your chain.

- So far I've used this method to catch a shiny Machop, Corsola, five Zigzagoons, three Bagons, a Beldum, a Luxio and a Loudred.

- If you're standing in a spot where the first, closest ring is completely full of grass, but you don't see any of the shake, then don't walk directly upwards. There's a good chance the patch above you shook, but you didn't see it because your character blocked it.

- Make sure you bring plenty of repels and balls. If you're playing it safe, you can be walking for a while, and you can catch many shinies of the same type in one chain.

- Short of RNG abuse or fancy complicated breeding methods, this is the most reliable way of not only getting shinies, but shinies with half-decent stats, as you can catch enough to choose the best one to train.

And so concludes my glorious guide for the marvellous great success of the capturifying of much Pocket Monsters of shininess. Is nice!