7 Rarest Shinies In All Pokemon Games

Key Takeaways

• Shinies in Gen 1 games were incredibly rare, as they were actually Pokemon with perfect IVs, transferred to Gen 2 to reveal.
• Event Pikachus in Pokemon GO are some of the rarest shinies, only available for a limited time, making them hard to find.
• Obtaining a shiny Spinda with the same pattern as another is virtually impossible due to over four billion unique combinations.

While Pokemon games usually always have the same shiny odds (1/8192 in earlier games and 1/4096 in the newer games), there are some shinies that are just harder to get than others. This may be because most encounters are shiny-locked, or it could be due to the rarity of the Pokemon.

Thankfully, the games have different methods to increase the odds of running into a shiny (even if some of these ways are unconventional). Here is a list of some of the hardest Pokemon to find as a shiny Pokemon and an explanation as to why they are so difficult to find.

Updated November 6, 2024, by Hamza Haq: Over the years and through dozens of different iterations of Pokemon games, it has become abundantly clear to the fan base that in terms of base difficulty, at least, these games will always be catered to children. And while there is nothing wrong with that, and gym battling can be good, clean fun, it provides literally no challenge to someone even remotely familiar with the franchise and previous games. To remedy this, fans of the franchise have come up with their own unique ways of enjoying these titles through self-introduced challenges. Some have gone the Nuzlocking route, which increases the challenge drastically, while others have chosen the shiny hunting route, making the creation of a living dex of Shiny Pokemon the whole point of the games. Even this pursuit has become easier in recent years, with Nintendo drastically increasing the odds of finding Shiny Pokemon in the newer games like Scarlet and Violet. That said, not all shiny Pokemon are easy to obtain. In fact, some of them can be downright impossible to find without jumping through some insane hoops. The list has been updated with two new entries to highlight some new Pokemon that fall into this category.

Keep in mind, this article will not touch on any of the shiny-locked Pokemon.

7 Pikachus With Hats From Pokemon GO

These Event Pokemon Are Rarer Than You Think

One of the most popular event Pokemon in Pokemon GO is Pikachu. There are countless versions of Pikachu that have been added for specific events that are wearing different costumes or hats. These may be the hats of different Pokemon protagonists or from different regions in the games, or they may just be a way to promote something, such as the Detective Pikachu Pikachu.

No matter when version of Pikachu you’re looking at, these event ones are some of the rarest in Pokemon GO, and in all of Pokemon period. This is because they are only available for a certain amount of time, and most of the time, if you miss the Pikachu, you miss it. It is rare for the game to go back and bring an older Pikachu back for an event, making it rare you find one if you missed the event.

6 Any Pokemon In The Generation 1 Games

Shinies Weren’t Really A Thing

There weren’t any shiny Pokemon during Generation 1 of Pokemon. In fact, shiny Pokemon didn’t really begin until Generation 2, and during that time, the developers called them “rare Pokemon.” During Generation 1, Pokemon would be shiny if they had perfect IVs, which isn’t an easy feat at all. Since IV calculation wasn’t a thing back then, and it isn’t like players could just train their Pokemon so that they would be perfect, they needed to naturally find them with perfect IVs.

In order to even see if your Pokemon was shiny from Generation 1, you would have to transfer it to a Generation 2 game, where it would either show as a shiny Pokemon or not. Considering the Pokemon needed perfect IVs to be shiny, any Pokemon from a Generation 1 game is rare. Plus, players would then need to transfer them to a Generation 2 game, which could’ve cost the player some shinies if they didn’t transfer their Pokemon over.

5 Shiny Family of Three Maushold

1/100 Chance Of Getting A Regular Family Of Three Maushold

Maushold evolves from Tendamaus at level 25 with two possible evolutions: Family of Four Maushold or Family of Three Maushold. Family of Three is a rare evolution and only has a 1% chance of happening. This means, on average, one out of every one hundred Tendamaus evolutions will result in a Family of Three Maushold. These are absurd odds, staggeringly so for players hoping to shiny hunt the rare Family of Three Maushold by evolving Tendamaus.

As a result, while the Shiny Family of Three Maushold is not actually time-locked or region-locked like some of the other Pokemon in this list, the process of farming for it is so incredibly tedious that only the most dedicated Shiny hunters have the patience to actually sit down and grind it out. Even in the latest Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, outbreaks are of no help because Maushold can’t spawn in the wild, and the only way to get them is to evolve wild Tendamaus.

4 Shiny Jirachi

Requires Owning Two Consoles And Physical Copies Of Now-Unavailable Games

To even begin to hunt for Shiny Jirachi, players need a way to find one. Unlike the mainline legendaries, Jirachi is not available in the mainline game. To catch a Jirachi, players will need the following items: a Game Boy Advance, a Nintendo GameCube, a Link Cable to connect the GBA to the GameCube, a copy of Pokemon Sapphire/Ruby, and a copy of Pokemon Colosseum Bonus Disk. Without any of these items on hand, there is no way to even start shiny hunting Jirachi.

Once all items are in place, players need to boot up a new save file in Pokemon Sapphire/Ruby on the GBA and progress the game until they obtain the Pokedex (8-10 minutes of gameplay). Then, connect the GBA to the GameCube with a Link Cable that is running the Pokemon Colosseum Bonus Disk and select the Special Gift option with Jirachi. Check if the Jirachi they obtained was shiny or not. If not, reset the save file and start again. Not only is this process time-consuming and draining, but it’s expensive as well; the items needed to obtain one are no longer sold directly from Nintendo and need to be purchased from a third party, which is not an insignificant hit to the wallet.

3 Shiny Team Mystic Lapras

One Single Chance Ever

Back in April of 2023, players were able to complete the quest “A Mystic Hero,” which saw Blanche, from Team Mystic, asking players for help. Upon completing the quest, players got a chance to catch her signature Lapras wearing a Team Mystic Costume. However, they could only complete the quest once per account, and they only had a singular encounter with the Lapras, so that meant that shiny hunting was nearly impossible for players.

The reason that this is such a rare shiny is that it was only available April 13 – April 17, 2023. Players needed to play during this time, and they only had one shot at obtaining this rare shiny. If they didn’t get on and complete the quest, they never would have even gotten the chance to see the Pokemon, let alone have a chance to catch one. Then, they needed that one Lapras to be shiny, which defied all odds.

2 Shiny Manaphy

The Pokemon Ranger Egg

In order to obtain a shiny Manaphy, players will need to work hard. This Pokemon, while available in Pokemon Legends: Arceus, it is a pretty rare Pokemon overall (in fact, it is one of the rarest). Players could only get Manaphy in one specific way. To get a Shiny Manaphy, players needed to own Pokemon Diamond & Pearl or Pokemon Platinum. After obtaining these games, they would need a Pokemon Ranger game that hadn’t already been used to get Manaphy.

Each game disc of Pokemon Ranger only had the ability to give one Manaphy away, meaning if players obtained the Pokemon once from a disc, they could never get it again. After beating the game, the Manaphy Egg can be transferred to the Generation 4 games, where, if players are extremely lucky, they could hatch a shiny manaphy. However, since the egg could only be obtained once, this was a near impossible feat for players.

1 Shiny Spinda (At Least Two Identical Ones)

There Are Over Four Billion Patterns

Spinda is a Normal-Type Pokemon from the third Generation of games. The Pokedex entry for Pokemon Ruby reads “All the Spinda that exist in the world are said to have utterly unique spot patterns. The shaky, tottering steps of this Pokemon give it the appearance of dancing.” Additionally, all other Pokedex entries mention that there no two Spindas alike, except for Pokemon Y, which reads, “The chances of two Spinda having identical spot patterns is less than one in four billion.”

This means that it is nearly impossible for two players to have a Spinda with the exact same pattern, and they are both shiny. Considering the insurmountable odds of having two shiny Spindas being exactly the same, it is safe to say that it is technically the rarest shiny that there ever could be. Players can safely assume that they probably have the only shiny Spinda in existence that looks just like the Spinda they have caught.