By Matt
You would think there’s more to Pokemon than just having plain, regular ones. In fact, there are; with Shiny Pokemon. These are alternate forms of Pokemon which are colored differently. This is because they are “shiny” and their colors have been altered. I’m thinking it has something to do with complimentary colors, but that’s just a whim. Shiny Pokemon (also known as Shinies) are coveted by Shiny collectors. Well, the legitimate ones, at least. The reason I’m saying this is because with hacking programs like Action Replay or Pokesav, you can program a Pokemon to be shiny. Although I’ve only seen pictures of Pokesav on Bulbapedia, it is a very complex program that allows you to create Pokemon by inputting your own values. There is no explicit reason to why many players are drawn to Shinies so much; maybe it is because the Pokémon looks better in its new form, or that they’re just rare.
The odds of meeting a shiny Pokemon in the wild are one in 8,192. In the game, it is always computed as that; so encountering 8,191 wild Pokemon does not guarantee the next one will be a Shiny one. Shiny Pokemon are so rare, I’ve only caught two: Mankey, in LeafGreen, and Drifblim, in White version.
There are also other ways to get Shiny Pokemon, or to increase the odds of legitimately obtaining one. By breeding a Pokemon with another Pokemon from a different nation (i.e. U.S. Pokemon breeding with one from the U.K. or Japan), the odds will increase by about 75%. The new odds are 1 in 2,048, starting in Generation IV, where players were allowed to trade nationally through the GTS. This is more commonly known to players as the Masuda Method.
One of the game developers, Junichi Masada, revealed the method, thus getting the process inherit his name. For Pokemon Black and White players, the odds have been increased to 1 in 1,365, making it a little easier to breed a Shiny. Now that the methods of getting a Shiny Pokemon are done, let’s cover the base stats. Are there any dramatic changes in base stats? Can Shiny Pokemon learn exclusive moves? The answer to both of these questions is no.
Shiny is just an aesthetic feature on the Pokemon; in reality, no stats are changed. There are no moves programmed for only Shiny Pokemon; otherwise, hackers could get those moves and program it into their Pokemon. Getting them is no different; the capture rate is the same. Be careful not to put them into a terminal status condition (Poison) or accidentally knock it out. If you do, you can’t restart the game and run into it again. The only tip here is to proceed with extreme caution. But once you get one, your Pokemon will be the envy of all your friends.