Pokemon Legends: Z-A – 5 Ways Shiny Hunting Could Improve

Highlights

• Legends: Z-A may reduce excessive shiny hunting boosts, offering a new challenge for dedicated players.
• More zones in the overworld could benefit all players, enhancing the experience of resetting encounters.
• Continued outbreaks in Z-A could offer a fresh shiny hunting experience, with potential for powerful encounters.

With the next major Pokemon game, Legends: Z-A, on the horizon, players of all kinds have been speculating what additions and changes will be present in this now-established side series for Pokemon games in the form of Legends. Since Legends: Arceus brought quite a bit of change to the world of shiny hunting, the potential in Z-A following both Arceus and Pokemon Scarlet and Violet is immense.

As Legends: Arceus added many mechanics and features for both the casual player and dedicated shiny hunters to play around with, Legends: Z-A has the chance to improve even further beyond the many beloved aspects found in the Sinnoh of old. Based on what already exists in Scarlet and Violet and Legends: Arceus, possible changes, additions, and improvements in Legends: Z-A are obvious.

5 Balance Player Control

Making The Most From Sandwiches

While most players absolutely adore the ease of shiny hunting thanks to the ability to literally improve the odds with Herba Mystica and sandwiches in Scarlet and Violet, there’s a distinct subset of players that find the boost a little too excessive. For Legends: Z-A, it’s entirely possible that this ability will be reduced.

Although having the power to increase what types of Pokemon can appear is perfect and should persist through the next game, the somewhat contentious shiny boost may find itself reduced or otherwise altered. The Herba Mystica are a great reward for completing challenges, currently in the form of Tera raids, so in whatever way Legends: Z-A might allow players to control Pokemon spawns, a similarly rare item would be appreciated.

4 Making Use Of The City Plaza

The Importance Of Resets

A key component to resetting non-shiny Pokemon that have spawned in, adding more “zones” to the overworld would help almost every kind of Pokemon player. Currently utilized in Scarlet and Violet, Legends: Arceus, and the Let’s Go games through the form of entryways and the picnic table, the potential for this mechanic already exists in some capacity in the Lumiose City of Pokemon X and Y.

While the X and Y version of Lumiose City don’t feature catchable Pokemon, since the entire map of Pokemon Legends: Z-A is set within the city, using the various plazas found in the original could offer ways for players to quickly reset what Pokemon they find. As the current understanding of Z-A’s plot revolves around urban development that incorporates Pokemon into Lumiose City, the different plazas, alleyways, and canals could offer a wide variety of Pokemon – making resets even more powerful.

3 Continue Outbreaks

Attention-Grabbing Encounters

A powerful variety addition in Legends: Arceus and a perfect event addition in Scarlet and Violet,outbreaks may serve somewhat different purposes in the two games, but the general idea surrounding them remains a strong asset to the series. While a combination of the core ideas from the two versions would be ideal, any new iteration on outbreaks continuing would remain a positive mechanic.

With the massive mass outbreaks and normal outbreaks in Arceus offering smaller waves but special bonuses, such as an Alpha chance or the appearance of evolved forms, and the outbreaks in Scarlet and Violet offer a technically endless supply of Pokemon, combining the bonuses from the former and the endless nature of the latter could be a powerful new way for players to shiny hunt.

2 Return Of The Overworld Notification

A Much Loved And Much Needed Feature

Perhaps the greatest loss when Pokemon Scarlet and Violet revealed the continued presence of Pokemon appearing shiny in the overworld, the missing shiny sound notification and shiny sparkle outside of battle have been dearly missed by most players of the Generation Nine games. Acting as both a success and excitement cue for players and as an accessibility feature, the return of the shiny notification is possibly the greatest hope for most players.

Since players currently have to eyeball the difference between a shiny and non-shiny Pokemon, players who are unfamiliar or unable to tell the difference between a shiny variant and the standard form have undoubtedly lost out on plenty of rare Pokemon in Scarlet and Violet. The dramatic star-sparkle and jingle from the first Legends game returning in Z-A would be just as, if not more, exciting than that of Mega Evolution.

1 The Successor To Alpha Pokemon

The Crown Jewel Of A Shiny Hunt

Hands-down the greatest shiny find for almost every player of Pokemon Legends: Arceus, the return of Alpha Pokemon, or a similar concept, would add another layer of rarity and extravagance on top of finding a preferred shiny Pokemon. Whether Alphas would return as themselves, or as Titans or even appearing as roaming Mega Evolutions, the pure presence of massive, shiny Pokemon with glowing red eyes offers one of the coolest experiences when shiny hunting.

While the premise behind Alpha Pokemon revolves around the wild nature of Hisui, a similar idea could work with the urban redevelopment of Lumiose City, adding wild and potentially powerful Pokemon to completely unfamiliar environments. For most shiny hunters, there was little more enticing and exciting than finding a giant, intimidating ShAlpha.