Shiny Pokémon

Shiny Pokémon, having existed in the games since Pokémon Gold & Silver once again make a return in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl. However, as always there are a few tweaks. The standard rate remains at the general 1 in 4096, however in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl, there's a twist; The Shiny Charm, obtained by catching every Pokémon in the National Pokédex, does not work on wild encounters so they will always have the base rate.

However, the Shiny Charm does still work on breeding Pokémon and rates can be improved further by breeding with Pokémon from a game in another language. This changes it to 1 in 682.7 without a Shiny Charm or 1 in 512 with the Shiny Charm.

This game also reverts the addition of Star/Sparking and Square/Glistening Shiny Pokémon, with there only being one Shiny animation.

In this game, all Legendary Pokémon and the starters are not Shiny Locked. The only Shiny Locked Pokémon are the gift Jirachi and Mew from Floaroma Town, as well as the Mystery Gifts.

There are, however, a few different ways to improve your odds.

A new feature implemented into the Grand Underground is the Diglett feature. Throughout the Underground, you will see various Diglett and Dugtrio at junctions and corners. They will retreat before you can get to them but will leave some energy; 1 Point for Diglett and 3 points for Dugtrio.

If you collect 40 points in one session, then you will get a small bonus. For 4 minutes, you will have a slightly increased chance of encountering a Shiny Pokémon in the Underground, 1 in 2048 compared to 1 in 4096.

One of the first shiny hunting methods makes a return in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl. After you receive the National Pokédex, you will get the Poké Radar. This item lets you search out for various Pokémon and create a chain of encounters.

This is done by knocking out a Pokémon and moving to the next shaking spot to battle another of the same species. If you get a wild encounter before then or the Pokémon is different, then the chain breaks. The higher your chain, the better the shiny odds.

The Poké Radar isn't affected by the Shiny Charm, but the odds for Shiny with it go down to a very good 1 in 99 chance for each patch of grass. When a Shiny Pokémon is in a patch of grass, it will sparkle.