Part 95: Side Note #16: All That Glitters...

Side Notes 16: All That Glitters...



Shiny Pokemon are a new feature of Gen 2, to take full advantage of the Game Boy Colour. While later gens make them just mere incredibly rare palette swaps, they have a number of interesting quirks in the generation they were introduced. Let's go over them.

Firstly, a Pokemon being shiny is determined via their DVs, to keep compatibility with Gen 1. While you wouldn't know if a Pokemon was shiny in Gen 1, since its DVs never change, it'll be shiny no matter what Gen 1 game you trade it to no matter how many times. It's pretty genius adding all these features and still letting full two generation trading. The only DV to not determine this is HP, since it's determined through the other DVs, while the Attack DV is the most variable, needing to be 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 14 or 15. Defense, Special and Speed DVs must all by 10 and voila, the Pokemon's Shiny. Therefore, a shiny Pokemon has a HP DV of either 0 or 8.

This does mean that a shiny Pokemon is above average in fighting ability, but it's not the best, obviously. Since the power creep isn't really a thing (in fact it kinda went down from last gen), it means that it's not a huge deal to use a shiny Pokemon competitively, especially if it's not a physical attacker. This is mainly due to propping up the lower stats with Stat Exp, which can do a lot to mitigate the lower DVs. However, depending on what you want your competitive Pokemon to do means it might not be the best Pokemon for the job.

There's a few interesting quirks shiny Pokemon have due to being calculated by DVs. Firstly, since gender is determined by the Attack DV and different gender ratios use different ranges of the Attack DV, so a Pokemon with a gender ratio of seven males to one female can never be female and shiny, as the highest Attack DV a female can have is 1 and the lowest a shiny Pokemon can have is 2. As I've mentioned before, only Unown I and V can by shiny due to DVs determining its letter. As Hidden Power is also calculated via DVs, the only types a shiny Pokemon can have is Grass or Dragon, with a power of either 49 or 69. There are not many Pokemon that can really make use of that. Finally, two shiny Pokemon cannot breed together as the game prevents two Pokemon from breeding if they have similar DVs.

So how exactly do you get a shiny Pokemon in this game? Well, the same way you get a Pokemon with perfect DVs: pray. It's pretty random and pretty out of your control... for the most part. The Red Gyarados has set DVs (0/14/10/10/10, for me at least), so it's pretty usable out of the gate. The Odd Egg has a 14% chance of hatching shiny in the international versions and a 50% chance of hatching shiny in the Japanese versions. Though since the Egg Ticket is no longer obtainable in Japan, it makes the point moot. Finally, as DVs are passed down through breeding in specific ways, breeding properly can give some species as high as a 1/64 chance of the offspring being shiny, though if the pair's DVs match too closely then they can't breed at all which makes it difficult to consistently pass down DVs. In all likelihood, the chance of the offspring having the same DVs as its opposite-gender parent is 1/512.

Lastly, there's just one Pokemon that cannot legitimately be shiny in Gen 2 and that's Mew. This does not count Mew obtained from the Mew Glitch, as it's like you're catching a regular wild Pokemon. But officially distributed Mew have set DVs and those were never able to be shiny. Otherwise, all other 250 Pokemon in Gen 2 can be shiny under the right circumstances, though legitimate non-Japanese shiny Celebi may not be possible due to a limited distribution in Nintendo Power and details from those early years are sketchy. Regardless, if you're lucky enough, you can find a shiny Pokemon. I did check all the Pokemon I caught in my Yellow LP and I believe none of them are shiny, though some did come close.

And that's everything to do with Shiny Pokemon. While they have some slight differences to normal Pokemon in this gen, it doesn't make them any less prized, though it's not a terrible idea to show them off in competitive battling. While you have a 1/8192 chance of finding one normally, it's still a chance. And one day, you'll find one without even trying. I know I did: a hatched Natu in Pokemon Diamond, though I didn't realize it was shiny at first, it was still a welcome surprise. I'm sure you've found one also, but if not, then you will, you just gotta keep playing.