While simply playing through the campaign, catching everything you can, is enough for most Pokemon players, many are more dedicated than that. Shiny hunters are who I’m talking about. The die hard group of fans who want the alternate color variant of their favorite characters. Starters are always one of the most sought after shiny forms of Pokemon. While previous titles allowed for some specific maneuvers that enhanced your chances at these highly prized creatures, things are different here. This is how to get shiny starters in Pokemon Sword and Shield.
How to Get Shiny Starters
Previously, if you wanted a shiny starter in a Pokemon game you would soft reset as much as was necessary to get one. This entailed basically rebooting the game over and over in order to get the very slight chance at a shiny starter. This is no longer possible though, as the starters are shiny locked. They cannot spawn in their shiny form. But you can still get them in your game, and you don’t even have to hack it.
Now you’re left with two options, but only one way to really get your own shiny starter: breeding. We break down how to breed Pokemon in Sword and Shield, so check out that guide for all the details. Once you know how to breed you basically just need to breed as many of the type of Pokemon you want as a shiny. For starters this process is the same, so just stick to it and eventually you may get a shiny starter. I say may because the odds of a shiny through this method are still very low, less than one in a hundred. So it could take quite a long time, but this is unfortunately the only option to get your own.
The alternative is simply to trade for one, which isn’t really what most fans want to hear. Few people will willingly part with their own shiny Pokemon unless you’re offering your own. So while it is a way how to get shiny starters in Pokemon Sword and Shield it’s not what you’re looking for if you’re reading this guide. Stick to breeding and you’ll hopefully get lucky.
