Catching Shiny Pokémon

I'm sure you've all heard of or have seen of a picture of one. Maybe you even own one... A pokémon with unusual colors. As you can probably guess (or know), this is an extremely rare occurrence. While I'd like to be able to tell you that there are some sort of special tactics to finding a shiny, the truth is that it mostly just depends on some really, really good luck. You can find them in basically any area you can catch normal pokémon, but the odds of that are about 1 in 8,191 battles. Honestly, the best way to find a shiny is just to play a lot of pokémon. And I mean a lot. But, of course, there's still no guarantee.

Since the fourth generation, however, there have several changes added to slightly assist the process of obtaining a Shiny:

• Mesuda Method - Named after game developer Junichi Mesuda, this method is the most commonly known and used. It has you breed two pokémon, but one must be of a different nationality than your game (i.e. a Japanese pokémon in an English game - you can obtain foreign pokémon through the GTS). This raises the chances of hatching a Shiny from 1 in 8,191 to 1 in 2,048 - cutting it by a whopping 75% (in Gen IV). In Gen V, however, it's boosted even further, from 1 in 8,192 to 1 in 1,365.3.
• Chaining - This method has you carry on a chain on the PokeRadar. As you battle pokemon and your chain increases, your chances of seeing a Shiny also increases (until you reach the 40th chain, where it levels out.) This is calculated by the formula Chance = (14747 - 40 * ChainNumber) / 2621440 (41 - ChainNumber). Continue the chain and you might see a grass tile glowing instead of shaking like it normally would. If this happens, there is definitely a shiny pokemon there. When you defeat or capture a pokemon you find on the PokéRadar, the chain begins and you must follow the chain to the other grass tiles to continue. A chain is broken when a different pokémon appears, or you encounter a wild pokémon outside of the set grass tiles. (So it's recommended that you use a Repel or some other type of wild pokémon prevention technique.)
• Shiny Charm - In Black & White 2, this new item was introduced. Although you can't obtain it until completing the National Pokédex, it is extremely useful when searching for Shinies. When you have the item in your bag, it increases the chances of encountering a shiny pokémon by 300% - making it a 1 in 2,730.6 chance. However, if you're using the Mesuda Method to breed, it reduces it from 1 in 1,365.3 down to 1 in 1024.

Unfortunately, while we would all would like to think that such a special looking pokémon would also have a special set of IVs, this hasn't been the case since Gen II. Shiny pokémon are always going to end up with the same odds of having good stats as normal pokémon. 

But with all this in mind, I wish very good luck to all you trainers out there searching for the perfect shiny pokémon!

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