Shiny Pokémon

Discover the difference between star and square shiny Pokémon in Sword and Shield. Learn about their rarity, intended odds, and current in-game bugs affecting shiny encounters.

Hey there! So, you've probably heard about shiny Pokémon, right? The rare, differently colored versions of your favorite creatures. Well, in Pokémon Sword and Shield, things get a little more interesting because there are actually two types of shinies you can find: the classic ones with star sparkles, and a newer kind with square sparkles. Don't worry, though – this doesn't change how good your Pokémon is in battle, it's purely cosmetic!

The main thing to know is that these "Square" or "Prism" shinies were *supposed* to be even rarer than the regular star shinies. The idea was that if a Pokémon was shiny, there was a 1/16 chance it would be one of these square variants. This applied to Pokémon you breed, too. However, there's a bit of a bug right now that makes it way more likely for wild shiny Pokémon to be the square kind – like, a 4095 in 4096 chance! So, while they were intended to be super rare, you're actually more likely to stumble upon a square shiny in the wild at the moment.

Someone in the comments mentioned that the shiny rate calculation might be a bit off, and that the number of Pokémon you defeat only really impacts the rate for