Guide To Shiny Pokemon Hunting: Masuda Method Part 1

By Jo

So I’ve been reading Pokezine for almost two months now, and have discovered that there really isn’t a lot of information on here concerning how you can get your hands on a shiny Pokemon. So I’ve decided to break it down and give you all the inside scoop on shiny hunting. Keep in mind, though, you’ll need quite a bit of patience as well as a little bit of luck.

I’ll start off with the good old Masuda Method, since I’m most familiar with it. Though, just to be safe, I’ll go over the basics of egg hatching first just for good measure. To hatch an egg, you’ll need two Pokes of opposite genders (Ditto acts as the opposite gender when you put it into the Daycare Center) that are in the same Egg Group (Ditto works, no matter the egg group). The egg that hatches will be the same type as the female Pokemon that you drop off (that fact is ignored if you put a male Pokemon the same as what you desire in with a Ditto). Egg moves and HMs are passed down through the male parent (Using a Ditto and male Empoleon that knows Hydro Pump, results in hatching a Piplup with Hydro Pump). Any other moves won’t be.

You cannot hatch eggs containing the final evolution of any Pokes unless it doesn’t evolve at all (Emolga, Pacharisu, etc.). It is not possible to hatch a Charizard from an egg, though you can hatch a Charmander which eventually could evolve into a Charizard. Legendary Pokemon are unable to breed, no matter if they have a gender or not. Baby Pokemon (Riolu, Pichu, Magby, Elekid, etc.) are also unable to breed until they evolve at least once. And some Pokemon require holding incense in the Daycare Center to give off eggs containing certain baby Pokemon. And as of Generation IV, natures of either parent could be passed down to the offspring if given an Everstone to hold while in the Daycare Center.

Now that we’ve got all of that covered, I can explain what the Masuda Method is and how you can use it to get a shiny Pokemon. The Masuda Method is a fan-made term describing a much quicker and easier way of obtaining shiny Pokemon in Generations IV and V. It is named after Game Freak’s director Junichi Masuda, who first documented in his column the effects the method had – mentioning there was a way for “rare colored Pokémon’s Egg [to] be found little easier”. In Generation IV, using the Masuda Method increased the chances of hatching a shiny by 4 times! That brings your chances from 1/8192 to 1/2048! And in Generation V, if you were to use the Masuda Method, you’d be 6 times as likely to hatch a shiny. (That’s 1/1366!) And believe me, it cuts your hatching time by a lot. Though that doesn’t mean that there still isn’t quite a bit of hatching, because there is.

Basically, the Masuda Method is breeding two Pokemon from different countries with one and other. When you use the Masuda Method it’s supposed to take less time in hatching a shiny than it would if both pokemon were from the same country.

So yeah, those are the basics of egg hatching and the Masuda Method. Hope this answers some questions you may be having about the Masuda Method as well as breeding in general. Because this is already pretty long and I haven’t even gotten started on how to use the Masuda Method, I’ll be splitting this into two parts. Make sure to look out for the second part!

Tags: Nintendo DS, Pokemon Black & White