How to catch a Shiny Pokemon in Sword and Shield

Completing a Pokedex and becoming the champion are the two main goals of most Pokemon game players. However, there is another highly respected challenge: attempting to catch the Shiny versions of Pokemon.

The odds of encountering a Shiny Pokemon are very minuscule compared to average Pokemon. However, trainers will be pleased to know that there are a few ways to increase the chances of catching highly desirable Shiny Pokemon.

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How to catch a shiny Pokemon

Battle Pokemon of the same species

Shiny Toxtricity (Image via The Pokemon Company)

The best way for a player to increase their base odds of 1 in every 4096 encounters being a Shiny is by battling the same Pokemon species repeatedly.

When a Sword or Shield player battles the same Pokemon 50 times, the odds of seeing that specific Pokemon's Shiny version is doubled. At 100 encounters, the trainer's chances will be three times better.

The probability of encountering a Shiny for one species of Pokemon increases in this fashion all the way up until a player has battled it 500 times. This is as far as the method goes, however. The 500 milestone will cap-out the increased odds of the Shiny appearing at a 6x higher likelihood.

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Complete Pokedex to receive Shiny Charm

The Shiny Charm item (Image via The Pokemon Company)

The other way to increase the odds of finding Shiny Pokemon is just as, if not more, demanding than the first tactic. Once a player has caught and registered every single Pokemon in the game (400 in Sword and Shield) they can travel to Circhester to receive the Shiny Charm from a man in the Hotel Ionia.

Having Shiny Charm increases the base odds of seeing a Shiny from 1/4096 to 1/1365. Those are still pretty slim chances, but they're a lot higher than just hoping to randomly cross a Shiny Pokemon.

The best way to catch a Shiny Pokemon is to use both methods in unison. That way, a player will get the combined effect of each tactic, increasing their odds. This makes the overall chance of finding a shiny much more probable.