“Chaining” will be the death of me. If you’ve played Pokemon, you’re probably familiar with the illusive “shiny” Pokemon. These super rare creatures give your a Pokemon a shiny new color scheme and are eagerly hunted by many. What you may not know is that the odds of finding a shiny Pokemon in the wild is 1/8192. Through the magic of “chaining” you can drop your odds to 1/200, which is still less than a 1% chance. I’ve spent the last week tirelessly hunting for a shiny of my very own. No luck so far…. If you feel like sending your life into a downward spiral, Kotaku has an amazing diagram explaining the basics of chaining.
And yeah, I turned the name of the villain in X/Y into an adjective, that’s just how I roll.
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I have never caught a shiny Pokemon (I do not count that red garados in the older games). They hate me T.T
This is sad, and I hate to admit it, but in the last week I’ve spent at least ten hours chaining to catch shinys…. and still nothing….
-Mileson
NOTHING?! Man that sucks. I’ve heard some of my others friends catch them– not chaining.
My luck to you, good sir!
Yeah it’s crushing my spirit… I’ve had like 3 or 4 friends get shinys already in X and Y just by playing through the game. One of my friends didn’t even know he had a shiny Pokemon for the longest time. I shall triumph and get my shiny Swirlix, even if it kills me! Which it just might.
I was too old to get into Pokemon when it first came out. I tried playing the first few games using an emulator last year and found it really boring. Hardly any story worth a game for, and lost interest after a month. good luck though.
It’s a tough series to get into if we started with the older ones. They made a bunch of changes to the latest game that really make it feel like a modern RPG. It’s like playing Final Fantasy with 718 different playable characters.
My issue is a cost one, and has been for a few years. I cannot justify a handheld for a few new pokemon games, which is why i was playing the older games on my android smartphone via emulator.
I admire your resolute description, but i doubt the story line has grown to be mature enough and multi-layered enough to keep my interest.
One thing that has honestly surprised me about the last two games in the series, is the story. On the surface they are simplistic, childish games, but the latest game is actually political commentary about the threat of a potential nuclear war. It references things like the nuclear bombings of World War 2 and hints at the current conflict between the US and Korea.
The company embraces the fact thay many of the people who playes the games as children and grown and matured and they have matured the gameplay and storyline to adhere to that audience.
I can totally understand not buying a new handheld system for a few Pokemon games though.
-Mileson
Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device
I wish you the best?
I’d like to think that once I found a shiny I’d stop for good, but I know it would just drive to grind even more! Why!?
-Mileson
human nature is something most intriguing -w-
My first ever shiny Pokemon was a Bidoof. You all jealous yet? 😀
A Shiny Bidoof!
Where do you get off bragging like that about the elusive legendary Shiny Bidoof?!
Manners, sir, manners!
(I’m so jealous!)
I knew you’d all be jealous! Bask in the glory of his massive front teeth and slightly lighter colour!
Oh, those teeth! Those glorious teeeeth!
The teeth of a madman!
-Mileson
My God… that is the perfect shiny. Nothing says you are Poke master like crushing your opponent with a Bidoof.
-Mileson
I thought that the Kotaku method with the Poke Radar was supposed to guarantee a shiny battle after 50 fights in a row?
Never trust Kotaku.
– Kaxzc
Unfortunately there is no way to “guarantee” a shiny. They make it sound like once you hit this chain that shinys will come flying out of your ass, but no… that is not the case. Basically, the higher your chain, the better your odds are of encountering a shiny. This caps at a chain of 40. So your odds are no better with a chain of 70 than a chain of 40. Once you hit this number you are supposed to walk back and forth and keep resetting your PokeRadar until you see a shiny patch of grass. I’ve had a chain of 39 and lost it….
The out right obsession with shinys these days, I tell yah. (says the guys who has fifty shinys lurking in his other games). Sadly, I don’t have 50 “legit” shinys. I have about 8 legit shinys the others were Action Replay’s fault. those were the early days of 4th Gen. when I got bored. then realized I cheated a Shiny Arceus that doesn’t legitly exist within the franchise. Now I’m stuck with it and it refuses to leave.
Word to the wise, DON’T CHEAT IN POKEMON! I once cheated so much in Pokémon Emerald the Norman was removed from the game and I couldn’t get the 5th gym badge.
But I can never get the PokeRadar to go past chain 5. same with Fishing. its agrivating so I gave up on the radar/fishing chain bollocks.
– Kaxzc
Chaining is a major grind. The fishing one is apparently much easier, but I’ve had no luck with that one either. I’ve had fishing chains of over 60 and still got nothing. I think I might trying the Medusa breeding method next and see if I can yield any results from that. This homey plays Pokemon legit, all day errrday!
I quit cheating back in platinum. You don’t realize how much of an Idiot you were until you realize you have a legendary in the upper teens. I’ve been doing what I call “Pokémon Daily Quests”.
The Hoity-Toity Hotel, The OMG BERRY field, and the weekly Rotom and Banette hunt.
– Kaxzc
It is not simply searching for a Pokémon of a slightly different color; it is a way of life.
The fact that you can get a shiny dragonite in white 2 means I’ll never need to hunt for one =) They were pretty generous with random shinies, although I wasn’t as excited about haxorus and garchomp.
Although I wish you got the shiny charm earlier. By the time I got it, I had already caught all the pokemon (as was required to get it), and mostly just waiting for X/Y to come out… and of course I can’t transfer it over =P