Pokemon SwordandPokemon Shieldare wildly successful, becoming the fastest-selling Pokemon games ever released. Millions ofPokemon SwordandShieldtrainers are combing the new Galar Region, looking to catch themselves a powerful team with which to claim a championship. Only a rare few of those players will be rewarded in their tasks with the discovery of a Shiny Pokemon, a rare spawn with its own unique color scheme. But now it sounds like Game Freak has expanded on this feature, adding a new Shiny Pokemon form.
Introducing what fans are calling the “Square Shiny,” a Shiny-colored version of a Pokemon but with a different square-shaped animation instead of the typical sparkles/stars. The Star Shinies and Square Shines otherwise have the exact same colors for theShiny Pokemonitself. It’s just the animation that plays when the Pokemon is first played from their Poke Ball that’s different. It’s intended to be Game Freak’s way of making something special even more special.
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There’s just one problem with Square Shinies inPokemon SwordandShield. There appears to be a bug or a surprising quirk that’s inverting the Shiny form’s rarity. Based on early analysis ofPokemon SwordandShield’s Shiny spawn rates, Square Shinies are supposed to be 16x more rare than normal Star Shinies. However, intentionally or not, Pokemon encountered in the wild actually have these rarities inversed. In the wild, Square Shines are more common than Star Shines.
Serebii published the exact odds for players to consider for themselves. According to the outlet, when breeding a Pokemon,Max Raid battling a Pokemon, or in non-Wild static encounters with Pokemon (where they’ve been pre-set), 15 out of 16 Shinies will be Star Shinies. 1 out of 16 will be Square Shines. In the wild, these numbers are dramatically inverted. There’s a 4095/4096 chance that a wild Pokemon will have the Squares and 1/4096 chance of it having the stars.
Now, Shinies aren’t so easy to come by that these spawn rates will be much use for trainers inPokemon SwordorShield, except for one case. Basically, players will have to decide whether they want a Star Shiny or a Square Shiny and then hunt for those Pokemon in different ways. If a player wants a Star Shiny,breeding Pokemonis the best way to catch them. If a player wants a Square Shiny, finding them in the wild is the most likely watch to catch them.
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