Last night, I was playing Pokémon Legends: Arceus and was fortunate enough to stumble upon a mass outbreak of Kadabra, meaning around a dozen Kafkaesque magic foxes spawned all at once, all with increased shiny odds. After catching the majority of them, I paused the game and went over to make a cup of tea — or so I thought.
Sure enough, the kettle was boiled and I poured a brew. All of a sudden, my Switch emitted a squeal — I had not, in fact, paused my adventure, and had been unceremoniously thwacked over the head with a particularly hard-hitting Psyshock. Game over, mass outbreak gone — or, once again, so I thought.
When I spawned back at the Obsidian Fieldlands’ base camp, I noticed that the mass outbreak symbol was still on my map. I knew there was only one Kadabra left when I was knocked unconscious, but I still thought it was worth catching to add to my Pokédex research. So, I climbed atop Hisuian Braviary and glided back over to the Sandgem Flats, where not one, but four Kadabra awaited me.
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This might not seem like a big deal, but for shiny hunters it presents a very interesting hypothesis: That mass outbreaks, a system that already drastically increases shiny odds, can be temporarily but consistently extended by artificial means. In plainer terms, you can pull between one and three extra Pokémon into every mass outbreak you encounter if you’re willing to make like Elliott Smith and learn how to take a fall. Too niche? Just let one of the Pokémon knock you unconscious, okay?
There is unfortunately a cost to this action in that you will lose some of the items on your person, although this is a small price to pay for the extra shiny chance. To put this into perspective — if you’ve maxed out a Pokémon’s research page, have access to the Shiny Charm, and encounter it in a mass outbreak, the odds of it appearing shiny are one in 128 (thanks again, Serebii). Mass outbreaks already typically include between four and 15 Pokémon, which means that — outside of catching chains in Let’s Go — your chances of finding a shiny in Legends: Arceus are higher than any previous Pokémon game. Having the ability to wrangle a few extra ‘mons into the outbreak obviously increases those chances even further.
Shiny odds are admittedly calculated independently, which means that you’re not going to find a shiny Luxray on your 128th try — every Luxray you meet has its own one in 128 chance of sporting an alternate coloration. It’s not as if you’re buying 128 tickets for a 128-ticket lotto — it’s more like getting 128 tickets for 128 different lotteries.
That’s still better than one chance for one lottery though, right? Particularly so when it’s only an extra couple of ‘mons, meaning the time sink necessary for executing this exploit is minimal. All you need to do is catch every ‘mon in the outbreak except the last one. If it has an aggressive disposition, allow it to knock you out — don’t battle it, make sure it hits you, the trainer, until you respawn at the camp. If it’s more timid, get out of there ASAP so that it doesn’t spot you and run away, which would cause it to despawn, ending the outbreak. In this instance, find a different aggressive Pokémon and let it knock you out. The only thing you need to do in order to make this work is be willing to get battered.
This only works once unfortunately, meaning there’s no point in whittling the mass outbreak ‘mons down to the last man standing a second time around. It’s only a couple of extra Pokémon, but if you’re grinding mass outbreaks for shinies, those extra Pokémon will pay serious dividends in the long run — this is actually how we got that shiny Purugly pictured above.
For major shiny hunters, this is a massive deal and could serve as a real means of fleshing out those shiny ‘Dexes, particularly with the lack of eggs in Legends: Arceus. Even for non-shiny hunters, it’s a decent way of filling out your ‘Dex research — particularly when the outbreaks are for rare ‘mons who are difficult to catch in abundance otherwise.
There’s also another little life hack worth sharing — in Legends: Arceus, shiny Pokémon will remain where they are until they are given reason to despawn. So, if you enter a battle with a shiny, instead of panicking and accidentally killing it or being killed by it, run from the encounter, save, heal up your party, and instigate the battle again.
Because shiny Pokémon are visible in the overworld, there’s no real panic in Legends: Arceus — you can literally just leave the battle. Don’t fast travel, rest, or leave the map, obviously. Just save, heal up, go back in, and use your hard save as a backup to repeat the encounter as many times as you want.
Between this and mass outbreaks, you’ll have that living shiny ‘Dex you’ve always wanted in no time at all. Instead of the standard 1,000 years, you should have around a tenth of it finished in just 999. We’re all about efficiency here.
In case you missed it, we also had a public service announcement the other day about how important it is to mass release your Pokémon — especially given how many you’ll pick up from farming mass outbreaks.
Written by Cian Maher on behalf of GLHF.
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