Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen Player Gets Incredibly Lucky When Shiny Hunting

A Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen found a shiny Mewtwo far faster than most others, despite the astronomically-low odds of finding a Shiny Pokemon within the third generation. Considering that Shiny Pokemon encounters in Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen cannot be increased easily, encountering a Shiny variant of specific monsters can usually be a test of patience.

Known as the Genetic Pokemon, Mewtwo is a Legendary Psychic-type Pokemon that has been a Pokemon series staple since the first games. Mewtwo can use moves like Psychic, Shadow Ball, and Hyper Beam to devastating effect, and can also use Calm Mind to bolster its special attack and special defense statistics in battle. Despite its weaknesses to Bug-type and Dark-type attacks, Mewtwo is considered the strongest Psychic Pokemon in Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen due to its high stat total and versatile move pool.

Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen Player Did Not Have To Wait Long To Catch a Shiny Mewtwo

While Shiny hunting in Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen can usually take several hours to accomplish, one player shared their incredible luck with Shiny hunting Mewtwo. On the Pokemon FireRed subreddit, a user named Stankyswag shared a screenshot from their playthrough of a Shiny Mewtwo they encountered at the end of the Cerulean Cave. Stankyswag stated that it took them less than 30 attempts to encounter Shiny Mewtwo. Considering that each Pokemon encountered in Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen has a 1 in 8,192 chance (roughly 0.012%) of being a Shiny variant, the fact that Shiny Mewtwo was encountered after approximately 30 tries is quite remarkable.

Stankyswag stated that they were playing the Switch version of Pokemon FireRed when they encountered Mewtwo. In Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen, there are no ways to increase Shiny encounter odds. Players simply have to save before the Mewtwo encounter and rest their game if it isn’t a Shiny. Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen players can easily initiate a soft-reset on the Nintendo Switch ports by pressing the A, B, X, and Y buttons at the same time. However, considering that the face buttons are all closely placed together on a Nintendo Switch Joy-Con or Pro Controller, players should be very careful to avoid soft-resetting at a bad time and losing any progress made before saving.

Encountering a Shiny Legendary Pokemon Is No Easy Task

Given that Mewtwo is a stationary Pokemon when encountered in Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen, Shiny hunting for it is simply a battle of attrition and patience. Although Pokemon like Staryu can come with abilities that increase wild Pokemon encounter rates, such a method is irrelevant in Shiny hunting Legendary Pokemon with fixed encounter spots. In Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen, Mewtwo can only be found after defeating the Elite Four, becoming the Pokemon League Champion, and completing endgame quests, which are required to enter the Cerulean Cave.

Though later Pokemon titles have made it significantly easier to Shiny hunt for most Pokemon, encountering one is still no guarantee. With Pokemon WInds and Waves in development, time will tell if Shiny Pokemon hunting methods will change once Gen 10 arrives in 2027.

Systems

Released

September 7, 2004

ESRB

Everyone 10+ / Mild Fantasy Violence, Simulated Gambling

Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer

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