YouTuber Austin John Plays has looked into a discovery by Twitch streamer akaSnuggie, and it seems that some Shiny Pokémon encounters in Pokémon Legends: Arceus (see our regular Shiny hunting guide here) may change into a different species entirely under certain circumstances. Austin John breaks it down in his video below.
This only works in versions of Pokémon Legends: Arceus before 1.1
What appears to be happening is that a spawn site may share “opposite” Pokémon — one Pokémon, such as Starly, appear during the day at the same spawn point as another Pokémon, Drifloon, during the night. If you wait outside of the spawn area until the opposite time (night to day or day to night), save, and restart your game, it seems like the game will keep the Shiny toggle “on” for the spawn, but pop out the appropriate Pokémon that should be there at that time.
Right now there’s more research that needs to be done to determine the exact parameters under which this can happen, whether weather can act the same way, what other traits may be affected (the generally unused EV/IVs in Legends: Arceus) and more. Austin John has been testing this under full odds conditions, but whether or not that includes Pokédex Research Level and completion bonus, I’m not sure.
But this could be used to “choose” a new Shiny Pokémon. From what it appears, you would either get one Pokémon or the other that spawns during an opposite time, but it still presents an interesting gameplay opportunity for trainers. We have compiled “pairs” of Pokémon that may exhibit this relationship of change if encountered Shiny.
Please understand that you may lose your Shiny Pokémon spawn by attempting to change what Pokémon has spawned. Undertake this at your own risk.
Possible Pokémon and locations that Shiny Pokémon can be switched
Based on data provided by Serebii.net for encounters, these are Pokémon that may be able to be switched if encountered in their Shiny form. The information below works on the assumption that “paired” spawns must share percentage to appear during night and day. To save page space, the areas are in toggled content blocks.
- Sandy-colored boxes indicate Pokémon that have 1:1 Day/Night spawn rate and are the absolute most likely to exhibit the Shiny switching behavior and red highlighted areas on the map are specific spawn areas where this can hypothetically happen.
- We are in the process of adding a list of other Shiny switches that may be possible based on shared spawn rates; essentially if a Pokémon has an 80% chance to spawn during the day (Morning/Afternoon/Evening) but a new Pokémon spawns at night at 40% and the original Pokémon is less likely to appear at night, say 40% now, there may be instances in which it can switch. These are listed at the end of each region.
Starly (Morning, Day, Evening) ↔ Drifloon (Night)
Map of most likely locations a Shiny switch is possible
Staravia (Morning, Day, Evening) ↔ Drifblim (Night)
Map of most likely locations a Shiny switch is possible
Starly (Morning, Day, Evening) ↔ Zubat (Night)
Map of most likely locations a Shiny switch is possible
Beautifly (Morning, Day, Evening) ↔ Dustox (Night)
Map of most likely locations a Shiny switch is possible
Rare chance of Shiny switching:
- Bidoof (All times) ↔ Drifloon (Night only)
- Kricketot (All times) ↔ Zubat (Night only) Only red highlighted areas
- Geodude (All times) ↔ Zubat (Night only) All throughout central area, not restricted to red areas
- Shinx (All times) ↔ Zubat (Night only)
- Shinx (All times) ↔ Drifloon (Night only)
- Stantler (All times) ↔ Zubat (Night only)
- Silcoon (Morning, afternoon, evening) ↔ Cascoon (Night only)
- Buneary (All times) ↔ Zubat or Golbat (Night only)
Roselia (Morning, Day, Evening) ↔ Murkrow (Night)
Map of most likely locations a Shiny switch is possible
Starly (Morning, Day, Evening) ↔ Drifloon (Night)
Map of most likely locations a Shiny switch is possible
Staravia (Morning, Day, Evening) ↔ Drifblim (Night)
Map of most likely locations a Shiny switch is possible
Beautifly (Morning, Day, Evening) ↔ Dustox (Night)
Map of most likely locations a Shiny switch is possible
Heracross (Morning, Day, Evening) ↔ Golbat (Night)
Map of most likely locations a Shiny switch is possible
Geodude (Morning, Day, Evening) ↔ Gastly (Night)
Map of most likely locations a Shiny switch is possible
Graveler (Morning, Day, Evening) ↔ Haunter (Night)
Map of most likely locations a Shiny switch is possible
Rare chance of Shiny switching:
- Paras (All times) ↔ Zubat (Night only)
- Parasect (All times) ↔ Golbat (Night only)
- Yanma (All times) ↔ Zubat (Night only)
- Yanmega (All times) ↔ Golbat (Night only)
- Stantler (All times) ↔ Zubat or Golbat (Night only)
- Psyduck (All times) ↔ Zubat (Night only)
- Golbat (All times) ↔ Golbat (Night only)
- Mothim (All times) ↔ Golbat (Night only)
- Budew (All times) ↔ Cleffa (Night only)
- Roselia (All times) ↔ Clefairy (Night only)
- Bronzor (possibly Bronzong) (All times) ↔ Misdreavus (Night only)
Swinub (Morning, Day, Evening) ↔ Drifloon or Drifblim (Night)
Piloswine (Morning, Day, Evening) ↔ Drifloon or Drifblim (Night)
Map of most likely locations a Shiny switch is possible
Gligar (Morning, Day, Evening) ↔ Drifloon or Drifblim (Night)
Map of most likely locations a Shiny switch is possible
Machop (Morning, Day, Evening) ↔ Duskull or Dusclops (Night)
Map of most likely locations a Shiny switch is possible
Ralts (Morning, Day, Evening) ↔ Drifloon or Drifblim (Night)
Kirlia (Morning, Day, Evening) ↔ Drifloon or Drifblim (Night)
Map of most likely locations a Shiny switch is possible
Rare chance of Shiny switching:
- Buneary (All times) ↔ Gastly (Night only)
- Lopunny (All times) ↔ Haunter (Night only)
- Glalie (All times) ↔ Frosslass (Night only)
- Snover (All times) ↔ Drifloon (Night only)
- Abomasnow (All times) ↔ Drifblim (Night only)
- Snorunt (All times) ↔ Gastly or Haunter (Night only)
- Aipom (All times) ↔ Drifloon or Drifblim (Night only)
- Ambipom (All times) ↔ Drifloon or Drifblim (Night only) Ambipom can only be found in the red area on the right side of the image above (east Alabaster Icelands)
- Sneasel (All times) ↔ Drifloon or Drifblim (Night only)
- Bergmite (All times) ↔ Misdreavus (Night only)
The ethics of ‘Shiny switching’
Is Shiny switching cheating? How you define that is ultimately up to you, although because Game Freak coded spawns in this manner, you may end up encountering this situation purely by accident, just like how it was discovered in the first place. At the end of the day, you can safely ignore the mechanic if it isn’t something you feel adds to your enjoyment of the game.
Let us know about your experiences in the comments or chime in on our Discord server!