How to Shiny hunt in Pokemon Legends: Z-A’s Mega Dimension DLC
For those playing the new Mega Dimension DLC for Pokemon Legends: Z-A, we have a new guide going over how to Shiny hunt.
Pokemon Legends: Z-A’s base game was a little bit infamous among Shiny hunters – to this day, there’s actually no way to increase your Shiny odds other than the Shiny Charm. In previous titles like Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, you could use mass outbreaks or the Masuda Method to make Shiny Pokemon easier to find or hatch. But in Pokemon Legends: Z-A, you were stuck with 1 in 1,365 odds if you had the Shiny Charm. Sure, you could soft reset or sit at benches over and over again, but that wouldn’t actually increase your odds. Fortunately for Shiny hunters, Pokemon Legends: Z-A’s Mega Dimension DLC makes Shiny hunting much, much easier. Many of the same techniques in the base game apply here, but more importantly, Pokemon spawn in bigger groups in Hyperspace Lumiose, which means there’s a bigger chance for one of them to be Shiny. Furthermore, you can also make donuts that give you Sparkling Power. With Sparkling Power 3 and the Shiny Charm active, your odds increase to roughly 1 in 585.
How to make Sparkling Power donuts
The first thing you’ll need to do to Shiny hunt is make a whole bunch of donuts. And for that, you’ll need berries. I’d highly recommend waiting until you finish the DLC’s main story to start Shiny hunting, or at the very least until you can make donuts with 8 berries at once. As you’ll soon see, making donuts is unfortunately a very RNG and reset-heavy process. Basically, each berry has a flavor and intensity that it contributes to the final donut. For the sake of Sparkling Power, you will want to use berries that contribute a lot of Sweet to the flavor. Hyper Tanga Berries each grant 95 Sweet to the flavor, which makes them best for Sparkling Power donuts. However, Hyper Haban Berries, Hyper Occa Berries, and Hyper Chople Berries also contribute a good amount of Sweet, which means they’re viable ingredients too. Mix and match these berries, and as long as your Sweet flavor has at least 420 points and the donut is 5 stars, you’re good to go. But you’ll notice that the effects you get from the donut are different every time, even if you have the same ingredients… and the game auto-saves the second you make a donut.
In many cases, even if you use the best ingredients, you will get a donut that isn’t very good – you might get Sparkling Power Level 1, or you might not even get Sparkling Power at all. Under normal circumstances, you’d have to accept the loss and go back to Hyperspace Lumiose and look for more berries, which would take a significant amount of time. However, there’s a way to preserve your berries and ensure that you get what you want out of them. Before making the donut, head to a Pokemon Center, heal up, and save. Then, head to Hotel Z, save in front of Ansha, and make your desired donut. If the effects aren’t what you wanted, close the game and reopen it. On the title screen, press Up, X, and B to access to backup save file and load it. In Pokemon Legends: Z-A, backup saves put you at the Pokemon Center regardless of where you saved, but the game state remains exactly the same otherwise. From here, travel to Hotel Z, save in front of Ansha, make a donut, and repeat this process if it isn’t what you want. In addition to Sparkling Power, sweet donuts can also give you Alpha Power. At Level 3, Alpha Power makes roughly 50% of spawns into Alpha Pokemon, which can be extremely helpful if you’re going after a Shiny Alpha Pokemon. In some cases, if you can’t get Sparkling Power on a donut, you might be good to go with just Alpha Power as long as you have the Shiny Charm.
If you’re low on berries, you can get more by breaking the floating Poke Balls within levels, as well as clearing the on-screen tasks to get the bonus ball. But you can also make donuts with a sour flavor to get bonuses that give you more items. There’s the big haul bonus, which increases the number of items you get from floating Poke Balls and bonus balls, and then there are individual boosts that increase the odds that you get treasure, berries, special items, coins, or candies. Treasure means things like Big Nuggets and Pearl Strings, which is a really good way to make fast money. Special items means evolution items like Galarica Cuffs, Galarica Wreaths, Auspicious Armor, and Malicious Armor. You’ll want to focus on the berries bonus, and if you don’t get it, you can use the backup save data trick to reroll the bonus. Again, you’ll find that resetting is a very constant part of Shiny hunting in this game. You need to reset for berries, reset for the right donut, reset to find a Hyperspace pocket you like, and then reset for the Shiny. Fun!
How to find Shiny Pokemon
Now that you’ve made your Sparkling Power donut, the most repetitive part of the process is arguably done. Now you have to find a pocket of Hyperspace Lumiose that contains a Pokemon you want to find Shiny. Every standard Pokemon in the game can be Shiny, though all the legendaries and mythicals are Shiny-locked minus Cobalion, Terrakion, Virizion, Latias, and Latios. Generally speaking, small hyperspace zones are the easiest ones to Shiny hunt in, but that doesn’t mean you should skip over a medium or large zone if it contains a Pokemon you want. The absolute best possible setup is that you head into a small hyperspace zone, and the Pokemon you want to Shiny hunt are visible from the entrance. If this winds up being the case, simply fast travel to the entrance over and over again and you will reroll all of these Pokemon every time. The game does auto-save every time you do this, but it’s an extremely powerful method that works well even if your donut is only for Alpha Power and not Sparkling Power. As soon as you see or hear that a nearby Pokemon is Shiny, save your game. Many Pokemon, like Froakie, Gimmighoul, and Tatsugiri, run away the second they hear you, and if they despawn and you didn’t save, they’re gone for good. This way, if the Pokemon breaks out of the ball, you can reset the game and try your hand at catching them again. Shiny Pokemon have an increased catch rate compared to normal Pokemon, but that doesn’t mean they’re guaranteed to be caught.
In many cases, the Pokemon you want to Shiny hunt will not be right in front of the entrance. Although rare, sometimes the bright teleportation pads on the floor can be used to Shiny hunt if they send you far away enough. This won’t always work, but if the Pokemon you want to hunt are near one of these pads, try it out and see how far it sends you. If the Pokemon completely despawn after using it, then it’s viable to press A on these panels over and over to reroll the Pokemon. But sometimes the distance won’t be long enough, and you won’t actually be rerolling them at all. Basically, keep a sharp eye on the Pokemon you’re hunting – if, after using a panel, an Alpha Pokemon from the group has spawned or despawned compared to the last time you saw them, then you are rerolling them. Another thing you can do is knock out the Pokemon you want to hunt, and then save around 57 seconds afterward. If done correctly, they should respawn in another 3 seconds. With this, you can reload the game every time the Pokemon spawn in, and every time you do there’s a chance one of them is Shiny. This also means that the Hoopa donut timer won’t go down. Speaking of which, always use a donut that is the same star level or higher than the Hyperspace pocket. If you use one that’s lower, the clock will tick much faster.
If all else fails, run around the zone and look at all the Pokemon individually, then fast travel back to the entrance and do it again if none are Shiny. This is the most inefficient method for sure, as the timer will quickly run out. Some Hyperspace zones just aren’t very good for Shiny hunting, and you can’t really tell if a pocket will be good for hunting or not until you enter it. You can also Shiny hunt inside of special scan pockets – some of the dimensions you can get include ones with all the Eeveelutions, ones with Rotom (who is exclusive to special scan), ones with the Frigibax line (also exclusive to special scan), and ones with Hisuian Qwilfish, Overqwil, and Hisuian Goodra. There are some good targets available here!
Have you caught many Shiny Pokemon in Pokemon Legends: Z-A? Let us know in the comments down below.
