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In Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, one of the many things to do in the Paldea Region is to hunt for the extremely elusive shiny Pokemon. These Pokemon are statistically identical to a regular Pokemon of their species and do not have a special entry in the Pokedex, but have a color swapped palette, marking these Pokemon as unique and extremely rare, while occasionally changing what the Pokemon looks like entirely.
But hunting these creatures can be quite difficult even in the best of times. Luckily, there are a few methods to make hunting shiny Pokemon less difficult than it otherwise would be. There are the Shiny Charm, fighting mass outbreaks, and breeding, but the method that this guide will focus on is on how to create a shiny sandwich to increase the player's chance at encountering a shiny Pokemon.
Shiny Pokemon
If players are new to hunting shiny Pokemon, then there are a few things they should know in order to understand why these methods work. The first is that shiny Pokemon are extremely rare. By default, with no methods to influence or the rate in any way, the chance of encountering a shiny Pokemon is about 1 in 4000. This means that, on average, a player has to battle 4000 Pokemon before they will encounter a shiny.
This is extremely time-consuming and would take many hours of play time to find even a single shiny. But in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, the game presents several ways for players to increase these odds substantially, including the afore Shiny Charm and building up a chain of Pokemon defeats with mass outbreaks. On top of these returning methods though, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet players have the ability to utilize sandwiches to increase this even further.
Sparkling Sandwiches
The method introduced in the Paldea Region is the ability to make Shiny Sandwiches when players are picnicking with their Pokemon. These sandwiches will accomplish two different things when players are hunting for specific shiny Pokemon through the meal powers Shiny Sandwiches bestow to players. The Sparkling meal power affects the rate at which a player can encounter a shiny by manipulating the random number generation that determines whether the Pokemon is a shiny. This power causes the chance that a Pokemon will be a shiny by rolling the dice an additional time per level of the meal power, to a max of 3 extra chances for Pokemon to be shiny. This gives players a much greater chance of any Pokemon they encounter to be a shiny.
Sandwich Ingredients
Alongside the information that can be found about the other ingredients in the game, the following table can be consulted to find out which ingredients are important for each type of Pokemon. Combining one of the ingredients, based on its type, plus a Salty and Spicy Herba Mystica will enable the Encounter Meal Power for that type of Pokemon, plus the Sparkling Meal Power to increase the chance that it will be Shiny Pokemon. Players can combine this effect with the encounter meal power of a specific type to hunt for specific Pokemon types.
Type | Associated Ingredient |
Normal | Tofu |
Fighting | Pickle |
Dragon | Avacado |
Ice | Klawf Stick |
Psychic | Onion |
Fairy | Tomato |
Dark | Smoked Fillet |
Poison | Green Bell Pepper |
Grass | Lettuce |
Fire | Red Bell Pepper |
Water | Cucumber |
Rock | Bacon |
Steel | Hamburger |
Ghost | Red Onion |
Electric | Yellow Bell Pepper |
Ground | Ham |
Flying | Prosciutto |
Bug | Cherry Tomatoes |
For instance, if players combine an avocado with a Salty Herba Mythica and a Spicy Herba Mythica, they will have a sandwich that increases their chance of encountering a dragon type Pokemon, as well as increasing the chance that the encountered Pokemon will be a shiny Pokemon. In fact, the rate will increase from around 1 in 4000 to about 1 in 1000. Still time-consuming and incredibly scary at times, along with being expensive on ingredients, but much a much greater chance to find a shiny Pokemon than is normal. If players also have the Shiny Charm, their chance increases even more, closer to 1 in 700 or so.
Gathering Herba Mystica
The best way to gather Herba Mystica is to challenge and defeat any 5 or 6 star raids that spawn in the map with the appropriate Raid Power meal effect active. For example, if players challenge a 5 star raid, with the Raid Power of the same type, they will increase the number of rewards that a victory will score them. This means that Herba Mythica will become easier to acquire, allowing players to farm for them more efficiently.
Turning Off Auto Save
Another important tip for players is to turn off their auto save when making Sparkling Sandwiches. If players turn off the auto save, it allows them to continually reuse sandwich ingredients to make their Shiny Sandwiches. This is useful for the fact that it allows players to try again if they make a mistake while crafting their sandwich, as dropping ingredients off of the sandwich will have detrimental effects on the meal powers in the sandwich.
More importantly, it allows players to continually create sandwiches when ingredients are limited. This means that players will be able to make Sparkling Sandwiches, hunt for shiny Pokemon, and then reset the game if they are unable to find one, make another sandwich with the same ingredients, and then try again. Players will only have to find more ingredients after they save the game, presumably when a shiny Pokemon is found. This allows the amount of Herba Mythica to be stretched much further than it would otherwise be able to, allowing more shiny hunting and less gathering of ingredients.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are available now for Nintendo Switch.