What are Shining Pokémon in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet? Answered

With each new Pokémon game, players get new regional creatures and mechanics. In Pokémon Violet and Scarlet, one of the newest additions is wild, Shining Pokémon and their mysterious powers. Let’s break down what they are and why you might want to go on a few Shining Pokémon hunts of your own.

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What are Shining Pokémon?

When you adventure out into the wilds, you can sometimes come upon Pokémon that sparkle and shine. These Shining Pokémon aren’t some special higher level or have deliberately better stats. Instead, they have unique terastallization types. For example, if you trade or capture the average Pikachu, it will probably have the Electric tera type. These Shining Pokémon not only will fight you in their terastallized form, but they also often have much more unique tera-type combinations. A Sparking Smoliv is more likely to have a Fire or Electric tera-type, which can be a frighteningly potent power combined with its default Grass/Normal type. If you love to min-max your Pokémon stats and types to concoct the most powerful combinations possible, some of these rare, wild Shining Pokémon will turn into vital members of your team.

Where do you find Shining Pokémon?

Shining Pokémon can be found almost anywhere throughout Paldean. If it’s a location where random, wild Pokémon can spawn naturally, they’ll be there. The only difference with them is that you have to approach slowly, or they have a higher chance of running away. While on Shining Pokémon hunts, you might want to ditch bikes and endless sprinting for some more casual walking, just to make sure you don’t scare them off.

If you look at Shining Pokémon hunting objectively, it’s kind of similar to shiny hunting (just with a much higher encounter chance). While you won’t get the same bold color changes of shiny Pokémon, you can get unique tera combinations that put a fiery candelabra atop a Water-type Wigglet. Who doesn’t want a fireball cannon coming out of that little water noodle’s mouth?