Pokemon Sword and Shield: What are the Shiny Odds?

A Pokemon shiny has been highly coveted since they were introduced in Pokemon Gold and Silver back in 1999. Catching a shiny Pokemon originally started with really low odds, but that percentage has been climbing higher every year, making the goal more attainable than ever.

How to Increase the Chance of Catching a Shiny Pokemon

You will most likely be hoping to come across a shiny Pokemon during a random encounter, and the odds for this are at 1/4096. This can be increased via one method only: by gaining a Shiny Charm. If you complete the Galar Pokedex, you will be rewarded this exclusive Shiny Charm and increase your odds during a random encounter to 1/1365—a giant leap!

The Shiny Charm also increases the odds for other methods of capture, such as the Masuda Method. This method is named after Junichi Masuda, a founder of Game Freak, who created it. With this method, you breed your regular female Pokemon with a male from a game using a different language, gained through the Surprise Trade feature. This increases the odds of finding a shiny to 1/683, or 1/512 with the Shiny Charm.

Another great odds increase comes from using the Crown Tundra DLC, which came out in late 2020. This expansion includes the Dynamax Adventures Mode, where you and rental Pokemon fight your way through the dungeon to reach the Legendary at the end. Shiny odds in this mode are an amazing 1/300, or 1/100 with the Shiny Charm! All you need to do is select a den to farm that houses the Legendary Pokemon you’d like to have as a shiny (and feel you can beat!), and capture as many Pokemon as you can. When the adventure is over, you can see which of the Pokemon you have captured are shiny. You can only keep one, so select the shiny you’d like to have or press B to leave and try again. Legendary Pokemon in this mode can only be captured once, so be aware of this if you want it to be a shiny version!

Good luck!