Shinies are my favourite thing about Pokemon, and with Pokemon Go’s much lower shiny rate and monthly Community Days, this affection has only grown. Unfortunately, there’s a clear hierarchy amongst Pokemon’s shinies, which means all the excitement and drama of a shiny is lost on a good chunk of the roster forever doomed to have terrible ones.
This isn’t just because we all have our own personal preferences – Umbreon’s shiny sprite is bad and I will not apologise for that. Some Pokemon are just doomed to have absolutely terrible shinies, and when you think of how much a great alternate form can revitalise an otherwise boring ‘mon, this feels like a huge shame.
Next: I'm Sorry To All The Pokemon I Ever AbandonedShinies are just like ordinary Pokemon except they come in a different, especially rare colour. There’s no corresponding stat boost – they just look different. Originally introduced in Gen 2, the first ever shiny Pokemon was Gyarados, whose blue tones were transformed into a glowing blood red. Gyarados is a great shiny, because there’s a clear difference between its two forms, and yet the new colour looks just as natural as the original. This introduction is not typical of shinies though – Red Gyarados (the word ‘shiny’ was not used when it first appeared) is a story Pokemon in Gold & Silver, waiting for you to do battle with it in the Lake of Rage much like a Legendary Pokemon might. This opened the floodgates for true shinies to come later, and that’s where things really got interesting.
Until Pokemon Go, it’s pretty likely that Red Gyarados was the only shiny you ever encountered. I’ve played every mainline Pokemon game ever, and I’ve only naturally encountered one other – believe it or not, it was a Magikarp, which then evolves into a Gyarados, making the whole thing a little pointless. I've found so few because initially the shiny rate was 1/8192, meaning for every 8192 Pokemon you found, one of them should technically have been shiny according to maths. In later generations, this was halved to 1/4096, but that still doesn't seem especially generous. With various lures, a shiny charm, and catch combos (catching the same 'mon over and over again increases the odds the next one will be shiny), the rate can drop as low as 1/273.07. Better, but those are still some tough odds, especially when you consider the effort required to manufacture them.
This is why it's so disappointing that so many of them are garbage. When done well, shinies are amazing. Red Gyarados is cool. Charizard gets a charcoal black makeover, Ponyta's flames turn blue, and Metagross gets a new silver tone with gold accents everywhere. Pikachu on the other hand goes from yellow to, um, a slightly different yellow. Pokemon isn't playing favourites here – if it was, Pikachu wouldn't have the worst shiny of the lot. It seems entirely random whose shiny is going to be good and whose will stink. Everyone forgets about Gigalith even though it has a stunning shiny form, while Bruxish, almost universally hated despite its photogenic looks, has a fantastic shiny that leans even further into its chaotic design. Pikachu is a slightly different yellow. Answers on a postcard, please.
Pikachu is not the only one this fate befalls. Garchomp's shiny and regular form are essentially identical, as are Slaking's, Blaziken's, and Persian's. They're all pretty popular Pokemon, especially compared to the middle of the road 'mons like Granbull, Pinsir, and Armaldo, who all get amazing ones. When most players would be lucky to encounter just one in their lifetime, having so many brilliant Pokemon draw the short straw on shinies sucks. That's before you even get into how many of them are an obnoxious alien green that doesn't suit their design at all. Aye, I'm talking about you, Marowak.
Thankfully, Pokemon Go – the best game this century, don't you know – changes things up a little bit. There, the base odds are 1/450 for wild Pokemon, and while there are no shiny charms or combos to drop that rate, for egg Pokemon it drops as low as 1/50. During Community Days, this is lowered to 1/24, although only for that specific Pokemon. Still, given how much more frequent catches are in Pokemon Go, and the massive spawn rate boost Community Day Pokemon get while the 1/24 rate is active, chances are you'll get more shinies than you'll know what to do with. I currently have over 100 – I've traded some away or even trashed them on Community Days before.
While some might argue that this devalues shinies a little, shinies have no real value anyway. Their stats are identical, it's purely aesthetic, and you can still have the thrill of finding shinies in the base game, where the rate remains 1/4096. Plus, most people are never going to hunt them in the main games, and having them in Pokemon Go – a far more casual version of Pokemon – allows everyone to participate in the joy of shiny-hunting. Pikachu's is still terrible though. Sorry Pika.
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