What are Square Shiny Pokémon?

What are Square Shiny Pokémon?

If you thought that shiny hunting in previous Pokémon games wasn't frustrating enough, Pokémon Sword and Shield has introduced an even more rare form of Shiny Pokémon. Instead of shooting out sparkles like other shinies when sent out in battle, Pokémon in this new form have square or diamond-shaped particles, which has led fans to call these Pokémon "Square Shinies."

Here is everything you need to know about Square Shiny Pokémon in Sword & Shield.

Square Shiny Pokémon: Everything You Need to Know

Data miners have found that a Shiny Pokémon has a 1 in 16 chance of being a Square Shiny. Like previous games, the chance to find a Shiny in the Galar region is 1 in 4096. Combined, this means that encountering a Square Shiny is a 1 in 65,536 chance.

For any players with technical knowledge of a Shiny Pokémon, they will have squares instead of stars if your Trainer ID completely matches the PID of the Pokémon.

To increase your chance of encountering a Shiny in the Galar region, you need to complete your PokéDex and then talk to the Game Developer located in Chirchester, who will reward the player with the Shiny Charm.

A new Shiny hunting method discovered in Pokémon Sword & Shield called the "Chain Method" also makes collecting Shinies much easier. Rather than catching Pokémon to increase your "combo" like in Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee, defeating Pokémon of the same species increases your "chain" count, thus increasing your chance of encountering a Shiny Pokémon.

Good luck to any trainers trying to catch every Shiny possible in Pokémon Sword and Shield, and even more luck to any trainers trying to catch every Square Shiny!

Photo Courtesy of Game Freak