Outbreak shiny hunting guide for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet

Every once in a while, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet will host limited-time outbreak events that focus on specific Pokemon spawning around Paldea, Kitakami, and the Terarium. At the time of writing, there is a specific outbreak hunting event including Water-types like Horsea, Finizen, and more. Our shiny sandwich guide for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet does outline the basics of outbreak shiny hunting, but today we’re here to go a bit more in-depth and describe everything you need to know about one of the absolute easiest shiny hunting methods in any Pokemon game.

Outbreak shiny hunting guide

The first step to outbreak shiny hunting in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet is finding an outbreak that contains a Pokemon you want to shiny hunt. Start out by opening your map and checking around Paldea, Kitakami, and Blueberry Academy. If the outbreaks present don’t contain Pokemon you want to hunt for, you’ll have to advance the date by a single day. Do that, and the outbreaks will change. It’s important to note that you might be able to affect which outbreaks appear by standing close to where the Pokemon you want normally spawns. Making a shiny sandwich may also help spawn the Pokemon you want. Some Pokemon only spawn in very specific locations, however – for example, Cyndaquil only spawns in a tiny cave in the Polar biome of the Terarium. Pokemon with a narrow spawn area are generally difficult to encounter in outbreaks, so keep this in mind just in case.

Once you see an outbreak you want to hunt, it’s time to start outbreak shiny hunting. The general gist is that you want to make a shiny sandwich that matches the type of the Pokemon you want to shiny hunt (remember to use our guide). From there, you’ll need to use auto-battle to KO at least 60 Pokemon in the outbreak. You could count these yourself, or wait for the message that tells you that there “aren’t many Pokemon left” from the outbreak. Once you see that message, your shiny odds have been maxed. If you KO more Pokemon with auto-battle, the outbreak will soon end. Instead, you’ll want to set up a picnic. When you do, all the Pokemon around you will disappear. Close the picnic, and a whole new batch of Pokemon will spawn, which easily lets you reset encounters until you notice that one of them is shiny.

Outbreak shiny hunting isn’t applicable to every Pokemon, however. Paradox Pokemon are some of the most popular Pokemon in Scarlet and Violet, and they currently cannot appear in outbreaks at all. Furthermore, they’re only in Area Zero, and it is impossible to host a picnic there to reset your encounters. One helpful tip is to bring along a Pokemon that can put opponents to sleep. Breloom can use Spore (which cannot hit Grass-types) plus False Swipe, whereas Gallade can use the less-accurate Hypnosis (which can hit Grass-types) plus False Swipe. When you do encounter a shiny, we’d recommend saving in front of it – that way if you fail it, you can reload your save file and try again. That being said, if you spot a shiny and see it running away from you, you might want to encounter it before you save, because saving might give it time to run off-screen and despawn. Be careful!

All in all, with 60 Pokemon cleared, the shiny Charm obtained, and a shiny sandwich in use, your odds to encounter a shiny Pokemon during outbreak shiny hunting are 1 in 683 or so, according to Anubis. Have you shiny hunted any Pokemon via outbreaks, or are you planning to now? Feel free to let us know in the comments.

We have plenty more guides available for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, and you can check out the full list right here if you’re interested.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are available now for Switch. Check out the official website here.