One of the biggest surprises in Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen when they first came out on GBA was that they allowed players to soft-reset their game to shiny hunt a lot of unique Pokemon, including the three starters. Since the Switch and Switch 2 ports are fundamentally identical, with just a few minor tweaks, many fans have been shiny hunting their starter since the games came out on Pokemon Day. Unfortunately, some have never left Professor Oak’s lab, whereas others managed to do it relatively quickly. As it goes with shiny hunting, Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen are all about RNG when it comes to it, but it’s actually almost guaranteed to be worse than your last shiny hunt.
The problem with shiny hunting in Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen is that you have no means to make the hunt easier. This is because the infamous Masuda Method for breeding doesn’t work (and breeding is even unlocked late in the game), and there is no Shiny Charm, so each encounter is full odds only. Not only that, but full odds means 1 in 8,192 in this case, as opposed to 1/4,096 in modern games, where you can normally also take the odds all the way down to 1 in 512. On average, getting a shiny starter in the Gen 3 Kanto remakes could take you about 70 hours, if not more.
Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen’s Rare Exclusives Are Not Equal (And One Version is Much Better Than The Other)
Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen have two rare exclusives that are supposed to be balanced, but one is more accessible and powerful.
It May Take You Weeks to Find a Shiny Starter in Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen
The best way to shiny hunt starters in Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen is as follows:
- Start a new game
- Choose your trainer’s name and your rival’s
- Immediately change the text speed to fast in the game options when you load in
- Leave your house and head for the tall grass north of Pallet Town
- Let Professor Oak lead you to the lab
- Speak to Professor Oak and go to the table where the three starters’ Poke Balls are
- Save in front of your desired starter (left is Bulbasaur, middle is Squirtle, right is Charmander)
- Pick the starter
- Skip giving it a nickname to save time
- Open the menu after your rival picks their starter
- Check your Pokemon’s summary to see if it’s shiny
- If not, press A + B + X + Y to soft-reset Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen
- Press A rapidly or with a turbo controller to skip the intro
- Choose to load into your saved file
- Press B to skip your adventure’s recap
- Rinse and repeat
Who’s That Character?
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Easy (7.5s)Medium (5.0s)Hard (2.5s)Permadeath (2.5s)
Once you have gone through the new game part and saved in front of the starters, which typically takes one minute or less to do, the process of resetting the game, choosing your Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen starter, and checking if it’s shiny can take around 30 seconds if you’re fast. Even less if you’re very fast, and you could optimize it to around 26-27 seconds total. But, with an average of 30 seconds per reset, it means the following:
- You see two starters per minute
- This means 120 starters per hour
- Since the odds are 1 in 8,192, on average, you will get your shiny starter after approximately 68 hours and 16 minutes, so between 68 and 69 hours, depending on whether you’re very fast or take slightly longer than 30 seconds per reset
It’s worth noting that hunting for Squirtle will be slightly faster than hunting for Charmander, which will be about one second faster than hunting for Bulbasaur, and this applies to each reset. This is because your rival in Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen picks their starter to counter yours, so Squirtle makes the rival go to Bulbasaur, which is closest to their position in the lab, then Charmander makes them go for Squirtle, and Bulbasaur for Charmander.
This is an average estimate, which means you may be luckier and get a shiny starter in just a few hours, or get yours after over 100. There is no exact science, unfortunately, but if you’re looking to get your first partner Pokemon shiny, keep in mind that you may have to be stuck in Professor Oak’s lab for a long time.
- 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
