A Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen player manages to leave Professor Oak’s lab after 85 hours with the most prized starter. Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen have been out on the Switch and Switch 2 for a month now, and one of the most popular and yet frustrating activities for fans has been to shiny hunt their starters. Unlike most modern Pokemon games, the starters in the Gen 3 Kanto remakes are not shiny-locked, meaning you can soft-reset as many times as you like, and you’ll always get a different Pokemon. However, shiny hunting starters comes with its challenges, and it can be especially frustrating and time-consuming.
To get a shiny starter in Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen, you have to be quite lucky, as the odds are lower than in modern games. Whereas shinies normally appear in 1 out of 4,096 cases, the odds in FireRed and LeafGreen are 1 in 8,192, which means they are half as likely. On top of that, there are no Masuda Method or Shiny Charm in these games, meaning that the odds are always 1 in 8,192, no matter what. For these reasons, the fact that a player managed to get their shiny starter in 85 hours is still a big accomplishment, with an asterisk attached.
Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen’s Best Shiny Hunting Strategy is Unfortunately Version Exclusive
Shiny hunting in Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen is always with full odds, but the best trick you can use is exclusive to one version.
Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen’s Starter Shiny Hunting Method
Reddit user EggsEggsEggTentacion shared a post on the Pokemon LeafGreen subreddit showcasing their newly found shiny Bulbasaur after 85 hours of soft-resetting. This is an incredible find, as the Bulbasaur also has the Modest nature, which gives it more Special Attack and less Attack. Modest happens to be the best nature for Bulbasaur in these games and many others, with Timid also being great. The thing is that, while modern games allow players to change a Pokemon’s nature, this is not the case for the Gen 3 Kanto remakes. Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen‘s type chart also makes Grass a special-only type, meaning Modest is the best you can get.
A lot of players have been stuck in Professor Oak’s lab shiny hunting their favorite starter, and it’s unfortunately something that boils down to luck. Some fans get their shiny in 500 resets or so, and others don’t get one in over 100 hours of play. This can be quite frustrating because it’s a shiny hunt you cannot really repeat, unless you’re willing to do it via breeding eggs in Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen‘s post-game, which is probably even more time-consuming.
In the case of EggsEggsEggTentacion, 85 hours is deceptively “average,” though. A soft reset typically takes about 30 seconds to do, so you can usually see two starters per minute, meaning that the statistical average time to get a shiny would be between 68 and 69 hours. 85 hours is still over that number, but what makes this hunt all the more impressive is that EggsEggsEggTentacion said they did this on two Switch consoles simultaneously, and that they stopped counting at around 22,000 soft resets. This means that EggsEggsEggTentacion was particularly unlucky for a long time, but they finally hit the jackpot with a perfect-nature shiny Bulbasaur.
Since a Pokemon’s nature plays a big part in its effectiveness in combat, getting the right one is always a huge benefit. To get it on a 1-in-8,192 shiny is even more impressive, and it’s extremely rare in the Kanto remakes. One of the issues with shiny hunting starters in these games is that you can’t really pause within the game to do something else, as you can’t explore the region without your starter in Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen. Still, the ability to then have a rare and cool shiny starter for the entire game can be worth the hours spent in Oak’s lab — especially if you get the perfect nature for your starter, too.
Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen
- Released
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September 7, 2004
- ESRB
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Everyone 10+ / Mild Fantasy Violence, Simulated Gambling
- Multiplayer
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Online Multiplayer
