While I do not think arguing with the creator about this topic is usually justified, in this instance the fact that I got only one shiny after grinding for five hours—where I would previously have gotten around 80–100—does seem a bit extreme. This is especially true given how difficult it already is to find them with extremely rare Pokémon, which makes the process depressingly slow.
hi! Yeah previously shinys were appearing far too often. I had the odds set at 1/512 while testing just to make sure they would all spawn. Now the values are properly matching the real rates at 1 in roughly 8k. Yeah. Huge nerf.
I doubt Ill change the base rate, as I want as much of the game to be familiar to players of the main series. However, the games have ways to lower the rate, so Ill probably include those too in the future. For now all I can say is, get familiar with the routes and encounter tables and just make sure youre shiny hunting in the right place. Like Marrowak, better odds in Victory Road than Lavender even though you find it in Lavender first.
They do exist. But because you’re not insta-killing them and they have, I assume, a 1 in 8,192 chance of spawning, they’re extremely rare. If you run an instance for too long, the game starts to slow down, or Pokémon may stop appearing altogether.
Speaking as someone who’s going for a shiny dex, I run the game eight times at once (four Chrome users with four incognito windows). By doing that, I can confidently say that within two to three weeks I’ll complete the shiny dex—except for the three dogs, due to their extremely low catch rate and rare random spawns. I’ve been trying to get them for four days now and have only encountered them six times as shinies so far.
You can also use a Golem or a Mewtwo Y to two- or one-shot Zapdos once you’ve gotten some decent prestige on them.
