As someone who’s spent quite a bit of time shiny hunting in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, I know how difficult it can be. But while all shiny Pokémon are rare, there are some that seem almost impossible to find. Whether it’s because of their low spawn rate, small size or just not looking very different; these Pokémon could take hours to hunt. While there are certainly Pokémon that are hard to find no matter what, hopefully searching in these locations will help you out a bit.
If you’re curious about shiny hunting in general, check out our guide on how to increase your shiny odds!
Glimmet
Both Glimmet and Glimmora are commonly found at the bottom of Area Zero. They’re not too difficult to find, especially with a poison type sandwich. What makes Glimmet harder to find is its small size and how well it blends in with its surroundings. It’s noticeable enough, but you have to pay extra attention to make sure you don’t ride past it. You can, of course, just go for either a Glimmet or a Glimmora, but not if you want a full shiny Pokédex.
You’ll want to use a poison type sandwich rather than rock, due to Garganacl also spawning in this area. This is probably the easiest of the hunts on this list, so things will only get worse from here.
Slakoth
One very difficult Pokémon to find is Slakoth. It rarely spawns in trees, which makes it very easy to overlook. Add to that the fact that its pure normal type (a very common type all throughout Paldea) and you’ve got a problem. You could certainly just look for a shiny Vigoroth or Slaking. Those going for a full shiny dex will need to do this hunt, though.
If you head to the area on the map pictured above, you’ll find a pair of trees that seem to have a higher likelihood of spawning Slakoth. To find this area, head to the South Province Area Five Pokémon Center. Once you’ve arrived at the location, head northwest and you’ll find the two trees. After that, just make a normal type sandwich and you’ll be ready to hunt.
Unfortunately, most of the spawns in the area are normal type, so Slakoth still won’t be the most common Pokémon. Your odds are definitely better, though, as I was finding them much more quickly than without the sandwich. In my testing, I was able to find, on average, one Slakoth every two minutes. Not the quickest hunt, but probably the best location to try it.
Flabébé
One of the smallest Pokémon in the game is Flabébé. This makes it incredibly tricky to tell whether or not one is shiny, especially with lots of Pokémon running around. Luckily, there’s a spot with the perfect method to find this tiny shiny.
You’ll want to get to the area marked on the map above. Head to either Icerend Shrine or the West Province Area One Pokémon Center. Between the two is a path split between grass and dirt.
Head to the very edge of the dirt path and look towards the area marked on the map above. Set up a picnic, eat a fairy type sandwich and ten or so Flabébé should spawn ahead of you. Slowly approach them and, once they notice you, take out your camera. See if any of them are shiny. If they’re all normal, head back to the dirt and quickly start and end a picnic. Repeat this process until you find a shiny.
Cyclizar
This hunt seems very easy on paper. Directly to the northwest of the North Levincia Pokémon Center, there’s a small cliff with a tree. On that cliff, with a dragon type sandwich, Cyclizar will spawn in large numbers. Seems easy, right? Well, anyone who’s tried to catch a Cyclizar before knows just how fast this Pokémon is. The reason the Cyclizar spawn so rapidly is because they almost immediately run of the cliff and despawn. Unfortunately, shiny Cyclizar will do the same.
To start this hunt, you’ll want to head to the area marked on the map above. After that, stand next to the tree. You’ll know you’re in the right spot if you’re behind a small patch of flowers. Once you’re in position, start a picnic and make a dragon type sandwich. Once you end the picnic, the Cyclizar will start to appear.
To prevent your shiny from running away and despawning, keep your menu open and and save your game as soon as the shiny appears. Unfortunately, you’ll lose the sandwich effect when you reload your game, so keep that in mind. If you don’t want to risk losing the sandwich effect, you can just skip the saving.
Frigibax
Depending on the weather, Frigibax can be a difficult shiny to hunt. The best location to hunt is shown above. But during blizzards it’s hard to see Frigibax period, let alone whether it’s a shiny or not. Luckily, in this location, Frigibax spawns in large numbers.
You’ll start by flying to Glaseado’s Grasp. If you haven’t unlocked this area yet, it’s to the southwest of the Glaseado Mountain Pokémon Center. To the southwest of Glaseado’s Grasp is where you’ll be hunting. Make yourself a dragon type sandwich and check to see if any shinies spawned. If all the Frigibax are normal-colored, set up another picnic and then end it. That will refresh the spawns and you can check for a shiny again. Rinse and repeat until you’ve gotten your shiny Frigibax.
During a blizzard, it will be hard to tell if any of the Pokémon are shiny. If you’re having trouble, you may want to wait until the blizzard is over before you eat your sandwich. Or, if you don’t want to wait, try out one of the other hunts on this list first!
Applin
Applin is a hard Pokémon to shiny hunt before you learn about this area. Applin only spawn in trees, which already makes then hard to find. Plus, needing to constantly run into trees to battle them gets annoying. If you head to the area marked on the map above, you can make this process much simpler.
To the northwest of the East Province Area Three Pokémon Center, there are two trees. Located next to the entrance to a Team Star base, it isn’t a hard area to find. Make sure you’re facing away from the fence and are in front of one of the trees. Start off with a picnic and make a dragon type sandwich. Then, send a large Pokémon like Miraidon or Koraidon to attack the Applin spawning in the tree. Your Pokémon should continue attacking each new Applin that spawns.
If you have any trouble, try knocking an Applin out of the tree first. If it still isn’t working try another Pokémon like Roaring Moon or Salamence. This hunt is pretty hands-off once you get it started. Just make sure you’re paying enough attention to send your Pokémon back out if it stops attacking.
Flutter Mane
Shiny Flutter Mane has a special place in my heart because of how difficult a hunt it was for me. A few months ago a glitch was discovered where eating a ghost type sandwich at daytime would only spawn shiny Flutter Mane in Pokémon Scarlet. It doesn’t really work in Violet, but I tried it anyways.
In multiplayer with a Scarlet player, the Violet player can find shiny Flutter Mane and it certainly is very buggy. Unfortunately, the Dreepy line will still spawn and the Flutter Mane will disappear randomly.
If you are interested in this hunt, Scarlet players can head to the bottom of Area Zero after eating a ghost type sandwich and it should be fairly easy. Violet players will have to find someone playing Scarlet who’s willing to wait around in Area Zero with them.
Aqua & Blaze Breed Tauros
There are three new forms of Tauros in Scarlet and Violet. The Combat Breed is very common, while the Aqua and Blaze Breeds are only found in hordes of Tauros. Blaze Breed Tauros is exclusive to Scarlet, with Aqua Breed being exclusive to Violet. Head to the area shown on the map above. It’s a pretty large area so doing laps around it should be more effective than picnic resets.
The area shown above is to the east of the Porto Marinada Pokémon Center. Once you’ve arrived, make either a water type sandwich for Aqua Breed or a fire type sandwich for Blaze Breed. Each horde of Tauros is now guaranteed to have either one Aqua Breed or one Blaze Breed.
It may seem like the shinies are hard to spot, but they’re pretty noticeable in game compared to images you may see online.
Tandemaus
Some of my personal favorite Pokémon are Tandemaus and Maushold. Unfortunately, their shinies aren’t very unique. This combined with just how tiny they are make them very hard to hunt. You’ll have to let your Pokémon autobattle each one if you want to be sure you aren’t missing a shiny. The area marked on the map above is the best place I found to hunt Tandemaus.
First, head to the Pokémon League. Make a normal type sandwich and up and down the pathway. If you’re battling everything you see, you don’t need to worry about resetting spawns. This was my first shiny hunt in Violet and was also the longest. Luckily, the other normal types that spawn near the Pokémon League aren’t common so you’ll almost exclusively be seeing Tandemaus.
If you’re trying to get a shiny Family of Three Maushold, you’ll probably need to do this hunt quite a few times. While it’s easy to get Family of Four Maushold, Tandemaus only has a 1% chance of evolving into a Family of Three. The evolution is decided when you catch Tandemaus, so you can’t do anything other than hope for the best.
Ditto
Ditto is a pretty difficult Pokémon to shiny hunt. It doesn’t appear as itself in the overworld, instead it will disguise itself as another Pokémon. Head to the location shown on the map above. There you’ll encounter lots of Meowth and Tandemaus, along with Ditto.
To get to the correct location, fly to the Porto Marinada Lighthouse. Once you’re there, eat a normal type sandwich and have your Pokémon autobattle anything you see. Even if a Pokémon doesn’t appear shiny, your Pokémon still won’t defeat it if it’s a shiny Ditto. Your Pokémon will, however, defeat normal Ditto.
This hunt will be very similar to the Tandemaus hunt. You can also just hold the ZR button and the game will tell you what’s a Ditto. In my experience it isn’t much faster, if at all. Luckily, unlike Tandemaus, once you’ve caught your Ditto, you’re done. No one in a hundred odds to get the evolution you want.
Zorua
Similarly to Ditto, Zorua isn’t visible in the overworld. It will always appear disguised as another Pokémon. Head to the area marked on the map above. There, the hunt is mostly the same as Ditto.
To the North of Medali, set up your picnic. After you eat your dark type sandwich you have two options. You can either autobattle everything or look for Mabosstiff. Mabosstiff, normally, will exclusively spawn in packs. When a Zorua is disguised as a Mabosstiff, it will spawn by itself. If you only go for Mabosstiff, you may miss a shiny, but it’s also a bit easier.
If you are going with the Mabosstiff route, they spawn more commonly during the day. If you aren’t the time won’t affect anything.
Starters & Egg Hatching
Finally, the starters. They may be the hardest Pokémon to shiny hunt due to the fact that you can’t use Sparkling Power to assist you. If you want one of these guys, you’re going to have to breed for them. So, what area is best for hatching eggs? There isn’t necessarily only one, so I’ll list a few.
The entry to Area Zero is good, because it’s a wide open space where you can start a picnic and nothing spawns there. Any of the Team Star bases work because of the same reasons. My personal favorite is Alfornada. You can easily walk out of the town to set up a picnic, while also having no spawns in the town. Plus, there’s a shop where you can purchase Hatching Power sandwiches.
One final piece of advice that a friend recently gave me: save before you start hatching eggs and reset afterwards. Take it from someone who had to release over 1600 eggs; you don’t want to do that.
Els
Thank you very much for this! It’s very helpful. I’m going out of my mind shiny hunting Zorua right now.