Shiny Hunting Isolated Encounter Method Guide How to Pokemon Scarlet and Violet
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11 min read
One of the most exciting things about the Pokemon games is the ability to hunt for shiny Pokemon. Players love to show off the different colored companions they have found throughout their adventures. The only problem is that the default odds of you finding a shiny in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are 1/4096. Therefore, some players never find a single shiny during their playthrough.
While shiny Pokemon are extremely rare, there are ways to make finding them easier. For example, you can hunt them during mass outbreaks, get the handy Shiny Charm, or use sandwiches. However, there is another way to boost your odds of finding them, and you can do it early on. This other way is by using the isolated encounter method.
This method allows you to limit the number of Pokemon that can spawn in a particular area to just one of a specific Type. The game pulls from a list of encounters every time a player loads into an area. This list helps ensure that the Pokemon that spawn are supposed to be wherever the player is. As a result, Water-Type Pokemon spawn in the water, Ice-Type Pokemon spawn in snowy areas, and lower-level ones spawn in the earlier areas. They're all pulled from this list.
Whenever you enter an area, the game pulls from the encounter list based on the location, time of day, and weather. For instance, Lycanroc has three forms based on the time of day. Therefore, you would need to hunt during certain times to get the form you want. Another example is Ghost-Type Pokemon. These Pokemon usually only appear at night. The isolated encounter method uses this information to force only certain creature typings to spawn in your location. Therefore, you can narrow down the potential Pokemon you'll meet, and so find particular shiny species.
There's more to the isolated encounter method than just showing up somewhere. If you want a stunning Shiny Pokemon, you'll have to put some work in. First, you need to ensure that you understand where Pokemon spawn, and which places only have one Pokemon from a certain Type. Once you figure this out, you can find out where to hunt for each Pokemon you want. To make this easier, Youtuber cbk zip created a Google Doc showcasing the best places to isolate every Pokemon in the game.
You'll also need the ingredients to create a sandwich that will boost your chances of finding shiny Pokemon of that specific type. These ingredients are the Herba Mystica you find throughout the game with Arven. They can be found in Five-Star Tera Raid Battles and higher.
If you wanted to shiny hunt Lycanroc, for instance, you could hunt near the Psychic Gym. Since it is the only Rock-Type that spawns there, it will be the only one that spawns, period. If you use two Salty Herba Mysticas, you'll also have the increased shiny chance buff for the Rock type. This will ensure that the game is forced to only spawn in Rock-type Pokemon, and that a shiny is far more likely to emerge.
Knowing which ingredients will get you which Shiny Type Power is essential before you create your sandwich. Via Pokemon player TTiN on GBateMP, the recipes for each Type are pretty easy to replicate for players. He found the following recipes:
Pokemon Type | Sandwich Ingredients |
Normal | Chorizo x1, Salty HM x2 |
Fire | Basil (x1), Salty HM (x1), Sweet HM (x1) |
Water | Cucumber (x1), Salty HM (x2) |
Grass | Lettuce (x1), Salty HM (x1), Sour HM (x1) |
Flying | Prosciutto (x1), Salty HM (×2) |
Fighting | Pickles (x1), Salty HM (×2) |
Poison | Noodles (x1), Salty HM (×2) |
Electric | Yellow Banana Pepper (x1), Salty HM (x1), Spicy HM (x1) |
Ground | Ham (x1), Salty HM (x2) |
Rock | Jalapeño (x1), Salty HM (×2) |
Psychic | Onion (x1), Salty HM (x2) |
Ice | Klawf Stick (x1), Salty HM (x2) |
Bug | Cherry Tomato (x1), Salty HM (×2) |
Ghost | Red Onion (x1), Salty HM (x2) |
Steel | Hamburger (x1), Salty HM (x1), Sweet HM (x1) |
Dragon | Avocado (x1), Salty HM (×2) |
Dark | Smoked Fillet (x1), Salty HM (x1), Sweet HM (x1) |
Fairy | Tomato (x1), Salty HM (×2) |
