In Pokémon Sword and Shield’s Crown Tundra expansion, players are sure to be back on the hunt for Shiny spawns. Sure, they’re only color variations, but busting one out in a competitive battle is a pretty cool moment. Plus, some of them do look legitimately cool. And with the new DLC adding so many roster entries, shiny hunting for dozens of Pokémon is bound to come back in force.
There’s one other reason that people like to shiny hunt, and that’s for alternate forms of legendary Pokémon. With so many new and returning legendaries in the expansion, it’s good to refresh on how to actually find a shiny spawn.
How to catch shiny Pokémon
With any other entry aside from a legendary, you would rely on shiny chaining. That’s the process of taking a Ditto from another region and the Pokémon you wish to roll for a Shiny with into one of the daycares in the game. Over time they will spawn Eggs. These Eggs roll for a chance to be shiny when they’re spawned. The Shiny Charm can reduce the odds against you, but it’s still a slog. You would then combine this with a Pokémon that has the Flame Body ability. That will reduce the number of steps it takes to hatch an egg. This is basically the Masuda method.
You can’t breed a legendary Pokémon, so the only way to get the shiny roll is to battle them constantly. Every wild and Dynamax encounter for various Pokémon can be shiny. The Shiny Charm is vital to make this as easy as possible.
There are a few things to keep in mind when doing all this. Always be sure to have completed the base game and completed the initial 400 Pokédex entries. Go get the Shiny Charm and this will make it much easier to Shiny hunt. Having to battle potentially thousands of a legendary via the Dynamax Adventures system, or overworld spawns,
First, keep in mind that there are some Pokémon that are Shiny locked. This means that these monsters will not spawn as Shiny ever. You cannot force them to, even with the Shiny Charm. The vast majority of Shiny members that can spawn are open to do so, there are 10 legendary Pokémon in Crown Tundra that do not spawn Shiny.
- Victini
- Keldeo
- Cosmog
- Poipole
- Glastrier
- Spectrier
- Calyrex
- Galarian Zapdos
- Galarian Moltres
- Galarian Articuno
These are all of the legendary Pokémon you can catch that can potentially be shiny. It’s pretty easy to see that the only ones being locked to not be Shiny are the Galarian unique forms and some story-exclusive stuff.
- Articuno
- Blacephalon
- Buzzwole
- Celesteela
- Cresselia
- Diancie
- Entei
- Genesect
- Gialga
- Giratina
- Groudon
- Guzzlord
- Heatran
- Ho-Oh
- Kartana
- Kyogre
- Landorus
- Latias
- Latios
- lugia
- Moltres
- Nagandel
- Nihilego
- Palkia
- Pheromosa
- Raikou
- Rayquaza
- Regice
- Regidrago
- Regieleki
- Regigigas
- RegiRock
- Registeel
- Stakataka
- Suicune
- Tapu bulu
- Tapu Koko
- Tapu Lele
- Thundurus
- Tornadus
- Volcanion
- Xerneas
- Xurkitree
- Yveltal
- Zapdos
- Zygarde
