A soft reset Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl is actually kind of useful. You might think resetting your save in a JRPG like this is a bad idea, but it has a great use in some cases. So there’s one reason why you might do this, Shiny variants. The standard encounter rate for Shiny Pokémon is 1/8192 from Generation II to Generation V and 1/4096 in Generation VI onwards. And that applies to both breeding and wild encounters. There are also some static encounters you can farm for Shiny forms.
There is a way to boost chances, and you should use it. You can actually further reduce that 1 in 4096 chance of Shiny Pokémon in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl by using something called the Masuda Method. So if you’re not using the Masuda method, the best way is to get your breeding chain going, and chaining eggs. Once you get going, it becomes much faster to go for shiny breeding.
Most static encounters are Shiny-locked, so this method isn’t useful all the time. With Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, players will be able to catch any of the Legendary Pokémon in their Shiny forms. This includes Palkia, Dialga, and the other Legendaries that will appear across your quest and post-game. This is different from previous games, where Legendaries had their color scheme locked.
Here is how to soft reset Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl.
To soft reset in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl:
- Save your game before a static Pokémon encounter
- Begin the encounter with that Pokémon
- Catch the Pokémon and check its stats; if the Pokémon isn’t what you are hoping for, press the HOME button on your controller
- Shut down the game via the Home Screen by pressing the X button on the app.
- Open the game back up and reload your save to try again.
- Rinse and repeat until you get the result you wanted.
So what does the soft reset do? It makes it easier to Shiny farm for certain Pokémon. If you’re hunting for perfect IVs as well, this is an option too. Although keep in mind that most competitive play blocks Legendaries.