How To Catch And Breed Shiny Pokemon Update 12 / 2024

Updated at: 29-03-2023 - By: Leo Hall

This is the complete guide to capturing and breeding Shiny Pokémon in Pokémon Sword and Shield. If you want to see it, check out this helpful guide.

Any self-proclaimed Pokémon expert has probably tried to capture or breed a Shiny Pokémon at some point. There is a 1 in 4096 chance of coming across a Shiny Pokémon in Pokémon Sword and Shield, the same as in previous generations.

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These extremely rare variants are identical to standard Pokémon in all other respects, including their stats, moves, evolutions, and natures, but have different color schemes.

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This is not a hobby for the impatient or the weak-hearted, as catching and breeding Shinies is not a simple task.

Finding a Shiny Pokémon in Sword and Shield can be difficult, but there are a few tricks and strategies you can use to improve your odds.

This guide will explain the best methods for increasing your chances of encountering a Shiny Pokémon, whether you’re out in the wild or trying to hatch an egg.

It’s important to keep in mind that the Shiny version of some Pokémon is unavailable, including the starters, legendaries, “strong” Pokémon in the Wild Area, gifted Pokémon like Charmander, and in-game NPC trades like Toxel.

But even after you’ve unlocked all the Fossil Pokémon, you can still catch a Shiny if you’re lucky.

What Are Shiny Pokémon?

Shiny Pokémon are extremely rare variants of the standard monsters encountered in the game. Their coloring often deviates drastically from the “normal” variety, even if the differences are subtle.

These Pokémon aren’t necessarily more powerful in battle, but they are highly sought after by collectors because of their rarity and scarcity. After all, having something that’s hard to come by has always been cool, ever since kids started trading Pokémon cards in the playground.

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See a standard Wooloo on the left and its shiny counterpart on the right in the image below. There are a few exceptions, but Shiny forms of nearly all Pokémon can be caught. When a Shiny Pokémon is discovered in the wild, one of two sparkle animations will play around the Pokémon before battle begins, and a special shiny marker will appear on its Summary page after capture.

How To Catch Shiny Pokémon

Shiny Pokémon are no longer visible in the overworld, which may disappoint players coming from Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee.

Initiating a battle with a Pokémon is the only way to discover whether or not it is Shiny; if you’re lucky enough to face a Shiny, you’ll see a sparkling effect.

Pokémon Sword And Shield - Best Ways To Catch And Breed Shiny Pokémon - Guide | Nintendo Life

Battling

One simple strategy for raising the odds of encountering a Shiny is to repeatedly engage in battle with Pokémon of the same type, or “chain.” To use this strategy, you should first find a grassy area where the Pokémon you want to catch tends to congregate.

The next step is to confront the target Pokémon in battle. If you faint a Pokémon during battle, it will reset your chain.

Once you’ve returned to the overworld, continue your search for that Pokémon and repeat the procedures from before. Your chances of finding a Shiny Pokémon will increase slightly after encountering the same Pokémon 25 times. Bear in mind that starting a fight with a different species will always restart your streak.

This strategy works best when combined with Sword and Shield’s in-game battle tracker, which keeps track of how many times you’ve faced off against each Pokémon. For this, open your Pokedex and look under “Number Battled” for the Pokémon you’re interested in.

If you’ve been fighting and defeating a lot of them, you might be lucky enough to stumble upon a Shiny or one of the other uncommon occurrences listed in this official Nintendo table:

Shiny Charm

The Shiny Charm is the simplest way to improve your Shiny odds in Sword and Shield. You can’t get this item until you’ve caught or defeated all 400 Pokémon in Sword and Shield.

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After you’ve collected all 600 Pokédex entries, you should travel to Circhester and check into the hotel on the left side of the town square. Guests should take the elevator to the appropriate floor. As soon as you exit the lift, turn left and enter the room at the end of the hall. There’s a doctor in there, and if you help him out, he’ll give you a Shiny Charm as a reward.

Simply possessing a Shiny Charm increases your chance of encountering a Shiny in the ways detailed in the following table.

Combat Engagements	Multiplier	Base Odds	A Charming Unlikelihood
<50		1/4096	1/1365
50	2x	1/2048	1/1024
100	3x	1/1365	1/819
200	4x	1/1024	1/682
300	5x	1/819	1/585
500	6x	1/682	1/512

How to Breed Pokemon Basics

In theory, Pokemon breeding shouldn’t be too difficult:

I want you to pick a male and a female Pokemon.
See to it that they get along well.
Drop them off at the Pokemon Nursery on Route 5 or at the one in Bridge Field in the Wild Area.
At some point, they’ll lay an egg that you can retrieve from beyond the Nursery.
Don’t let the Egg leave your group until it’s ready to hatch!

However, a lot of work is involved. Finding a compatible pair of Pokemon is the first step toward hatching an egg.

Ditto

breeds with all Pokemon of the same gender, making it the go-to choice for lazy breeders. If you want to know how to capture a Ditto with high IVs, which will have an effect on its offspring’s abilities, check out the guide How to Catch Ditto.

Rotom and Golurk, two genderless Pokemon, can only breed with Ditto. Same goes for Pokemon like Hitmonchan and Sawk that are monotheistic and have no corresponding sexless counterparts. Dittos are completely inbreedable and must be caught in the wild.

Unless there is a compelling reason not to use a Ditto, you will need to find two Pokemon that belong to the same Egg Groups, with one of each gender present.

Egg Groups

Amorphous
Bug
Dragon
Fairy
Field
Flying
Grass
Human-Like
Mineral
Monster
Undiscovered
Water 1
Water 2
Water 3

To view the Pokemon that belong to each Egg Group, click on the appropriate group. You can also look at our individual Pokedex entries to see which Egg Groups each of us falls under.

Vulpix and Growlithe (Field) or Charizard and Duraludon (Dragon) are good examples of Pokemon that can breed because they resemble one another visually. Wailord and Wooloo (Field; yikes) are two examples of atypical pairs that work.

Pokémon Sword & Shield Guide: Catch & Breed Shiny Pokémon

What’s In the Egg?

The offspring of a Pokemon breeding between different species will be genetically identical to the female parent. The offspring of a Ditto breeding will always be a close match to the parent Pokémon.

Although it will be an evolutionary step forward, it will not be the pinnacle of life. A Charmander of either sex can be produced by breeding a female Charizard with a male Duralodon.

Unlike the majority of Pokemon, Braviary and Mandibuzz are not gender-neutral but instead have opposite-gender counterparts. There is a 50/50 chance that the egg will be of the same species as the mother or the father.

Breeding is the only way to get some Pokemon. The parent may need to be in possession of an Incense in order to create one of these Pokemon Babies while in the Day Care, though this is not the case for all Pokemon Babies. View the Pokemon that can breed Incense in Sword and Shield.

How to Hatch Eggs Fast

When the conditions are right, the eggs will hatch, and the time it takes depends on the type of Pokemon inside. While riding the Rotom Bike is the quickest way to rack up steps, there is another way to hasten the process of an egg hatching.

To reduce the time it takes to hatch eggs by half, add a Pokemon to your team that has the Flame Body or Steam Engine ability.

Pokemon with Flame Body or Steam Engine

Rolycoly
Carkol
Coalossal
Litwick
Lampent
Chandelure
Sizzlipede (Instinctive Talent)
The Centiskorch, or Secret Skill.

Get the Oval Charm

It is recommended that you acquire the Oval Charm before engaging in any serious Breeding, as its application is automatic and will increase the likelihood of an egg being created at the Nursery.

In the hotel in Circhester, go up to the second floor and enter the second room on the left. Just talk to the cop and he’ll reveal himself to be Morimoto from GAME FREAK.

Take the Oval Charm from him by defeating his team of six potent Pokemon.

How to Pass Down Individual Values (Destiny Knot)

A Pokemon’s Individual Values can range from 0 (Very Bad) to 31 (Extremely Good), and they have an impact on the creature as a whole. With a few exceptions, you should aim for the Pokemon’s Best value for most of its stats. A low Attack or Speed, for instance, can be an asset for certain Pokemon.

To learn more about this crucial element of catching exceptional Pokemon, check out our Individual Values Guide and How to Unlock the IV Checker.

About Hyper Training

You don’t have to breed perfect Pokemon if you have a Bottle Cap because you can use it to Hyper Train a Pokemon’s stat as if it had a value of 31 (Best). These Hyper Trained abilities, however, will not be inherited by future generations. Here you can learn more about using bottle caps for Hyper Training.

On average, a Pokemon will take on three of its parents’ total 12 IVs. The likelihood of success is low.

Good news: there is a way to share your favorite IVs with others. There are three things you need to do first:

To view a Pokemon’s IVs, you must first unlock the IV Checker.
Find a Pokemon with high Best IVs and capture it. You can do this by capturing Pokemon with a Brilliant Aura, which guarantees three of the best IVs, or by participating in a 5-Star Max Raid Battle, which guarantees four of the best IVs.
Locate a Knot of Fate.

If you’re looking to start a breeding program, the Gift Gigamax Eevee or Pikachu you receive will provide the ideal foundation. Both belong to the Grass-type Field Egg Group; Pikachu is also a member of the Fairy-type. For more information, check out How to Acquire Gigamax Pikachu and Gigamax Eevee.

How to Get a Destiny Knot

As a held item, it guarantees that a Pokemon will receive five arbitrary IVs from both parents instead of the usual three.

If you have a flawless Ditto and a parent with a Brilliant Aura, you can breed a Pokemon with excellent stats by having one of them hold a Destiny Knot in the Nursery.

A Pokemon with the Pickup Ability, such as Linoone or Zigzagoon, can locate the Destiny Knot. The Pokemon Center in southern Hammerlocke sells it for 10 BP.

Although there are other breeding items that can be used to ensure that only a single IV is passed down to the offspring, the Destiny Knot is compatible with all such items, making it the preferred method. In any case, you need a Pokemon with multiple Best IVs.

How to Pass Down Natures (Everstone)

Having a Pokemon with a good nature is also crucial. Learn more about Natures by exploring the link.

Give a Pokemon an Everstone to carry to preserve its traits for future generations. All future generations of Pokemon will share the Nature of the Pokemon currently holding the Everstone.

Changing a Pokemon’s Nature with a Mint will not cause it to have any breeding consequences. Only the original Nature will be passed on.

To the right of Turfield Stadium is where you’ll find an Everstone.

How to Pass Down Hidden Abilities

It is possible for some Pokemon to possess multiple Abilities. Possibilities of acquiring a specific Ability from a Pokemon caught in the wild are equal. However, some traits can be passed down from generation to generation.

There is an 80% chance that a child of a Pokemon mother will have the same Ability as the mother. This holds true even if the Pokemon species has more than one possible Ability.

Many Pokemon can also have the extremely rare Hidden Abilities, and the only way to obtain a Pokemon with a Hidden Ability is to capture it in a Max Raid Battle.

Hidden Abilities can only be passed down within the same species of Pokemon, and only if both parents possess the ability.

There is a 60% chance that a Pokemon will inherit its mother’s Hidden Ability if that Pokemon has one. In order for a male or genderless Pokemon to pass on the Hidden Ability, it must be bred with a Ditto.

After Breeding

Now that you have a Pokemon with the ideal IV, AB, and N stats, you need to give it the proper training so that it can reach its full potential. You can learn everything you need to know about Effort Values and EV Training your Pokemon right here.

How to Pass Down Egg Moves

A Pokemon that has just hatched will be level 1, but it might already know moves that it wouldn’t be able to learn at that stage. It is possible to pass on three distinct Attacks through breeding:

For a Pokemon to be able to learn an attack from a TM or TR, the father must know the move. To be effective, the move must be one that a baby Pokemon would normally be able to learn.
If both of a Pokemon’s parents know a move that is normally taught at a higher level, the offspring will be able to learn it at a younger age. This won’t always be applicable.
Pokemon have the ability to learn special moves, known as Egg Moves, that are only passed down through generations of breeding. If you breed a Togetic that knows Wish with a Pikachu, you’ll end up with a male Pichu that also knows Wish. You should evolve it into a Pikachu and then breed it with a female Eevee. Because Wish isn’t normally something an Eevee picks up through experience or TM, you should get one that already knows it.

Transferring Egg Moves between Pokemon is also much simpler thanks to Sword and Shield. Just place one Wish-knowing Eevee and one non-Wish-knowing Eevee in the Nursery. The new Eevee can pick up Wish from the other Eevee at the Pokemon Nursery.

Please take note that all of these Pokemon must be of the same species. For instance, you can’t train an Eevee to become an Umbreon and vice versa.

How to Pass Down the Same Poke Ball

The type of Poke Ball used to capture the female Pokemon will determine the type of Poke Ball used to contain the baby Pokemon when it hatches.

However, if the Pokemon are the same species, the baby will be born into one of two Poke Balls at random.

The offspring of a Ditto mating will appear in the Poke Ball containing the other parent.

None of the Master Balls, Cherish Balls, or Friend Balls will be handed down from generation to generation.

The offspring of Pokemon that evolve through breeding and have the Friendship trait in common will have their Friendship stat increased by an instant 100 points if the female Pokemon was caught in a Luxury Ball.

How to get shiny Pokémon using Masuda Method egg breeding in Sword and Shield - Dot Esports

How To Breed Shiny Pokémon

Those who don’t wish to take on the challenge of completing the Pokedex may instead try their luck at hatching a Shiny Pokémon. There is a way to increase the likelihood of a Shiny Pokémon’s offspring being shiny, but it doesn’t involve breeding with a Shiny Pokémon.

Masuda Method

You’ll need a Ditto and the Pokémon you want to evolve into a Shiny form to use the method given that name by Game Freak director Junichi Masuda. This strategy only works if the two Pokémon come from games with different language settings, as opposed to simply being from different regions.

When you have two different language Pokémon that are compatible with each other, you can put them in a Nursery and start hatching eggs. Rather than having a 1/4096 chance of hatching a Shiny Pokémon, you’ll have a 1/682 chance. Shiny Charm owners can increase this fraction to 1/512.

Checking the Pokémon Summary page is a quick way to see if you have hatched a Shiny Pokémon. There will be a small starburst in the upper left corner of the screen if the Pokémon is Shiny.

Tips For Shiny Hunting

You understand the fundamentals of the Masuda method, so here are some pointers to make your hunt go more quickly and easily:

The three abilities of Flame Body, Magma Armor, and Steam Engine are essential for hatching eggs. Having a Pokemon in your party with one of these skills will halve the time it takes to hatch an egg. Talonflame is popular among trainers due to its versatile Fly ability.
One issue faced by Masuda method users is that their eggs hatch faster than they can replenish their supply. Since Black and White 2, the Oval Charm has been available to help with this problem. You can speed up your Pokemon’s egg production with this charm, which can be obtained by completing a region’s Dex up until ORAS (and then again as a reward for defeating Morimoto).
After completing the National or Regional Pokedex, respectively, in Pokemon Black 2 and White 2, players will be able to obtain the Shiny Charm, a new Key Item introduced in these games. This charm not only boosts the chance of finding a shiny Pokemon, but it also multiplies the effect of the Masuda method, making it even more likely to hatch a shiny Pokemon. Your chances of hatching a shiny Pokémon are reduced from 1 in 1024 in Black and White 2 to just 1 in 512 in X and Y, and from there on down to 1 in 256 in all subsequent games thanks to the shiny charm.

List of Incense Breeding Pokemon in Sword and Shield

Hulbury is home to a market where you can pick up incense, which has more than one purpose. Incense can be used to induce the hatching of eggs from Pokemon that normally wouldn’t give birth.

You can get an Egg containing the Parent Pokemon’s pre-evolved form by using the proper incense on the Parent.

Origin Pokemon	Incense	A Newborn Is the Result
The Roseliads and the Roserade	Incense made from Roses	Budew
Snorlax	Maximum Incense	Munchlax
Wobboffet	Flaccid Incense	Wynaut
Sudowoodo	Stone Fragrance	Bonsly
Nicknames: Mr. Mime and Mr. Rime	Incongruous Incense	Mime Jr.
Mantine	To Send Off Incense Like A Wave	Mantyke

As to the peculiar approach, why? These Pokémon belonged to generations prior to the introduction of pre-evolved versions of the same species! Since they normally reproduce by reproducing with one another, a new technique was developed to obtain both. Some Pokemon, like Pikachu, will, oddly enough, lay Eggs of their un-evolved forms without any special aid, such as Incense.

Pokémon Sword and Shield – Shiny Chance Rates

So that you know what you’re getting into (thanks, Serebii), let’s quickly review the odds of finding a Shiny Pokémon under any and all conditions. We compare Wild encounters in the first table to breeding success in the second.

How Many Pokémon Were Fought	Judgement in the Absence of Glamour	Give a Rating of Shiny Appeal
<50	1 in 4096	1 in 1365.33
50	1 in 2048	1 in 1024
100	1 in 1365.333	1 in 819.2
200	1 in 1024	1 in 682.6667
300	1 in 819.2	1 in 585.1429
500	1 in 682.6667	1 in 512