Pokemon Scarlet & Violet players are being tricked by shinies hiding in plain sight

Several Pokemon Scarlet and Violet players are losing obvious shinies due to a very unexpected reason in Paldea as well as the DLCs, and they’re left with no option but to grind harder than before.

Shiny hunting has become bigger and better than ever in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, thanks to the introduction of Mass Outbreaks, higher chances of finding shiny Pokemon at the beginning of the journey, and spawns in the unlikeliest places.

But despite grinding day and night to get these rare finds, fans have realized that they might have lost a large number of shinies. The realization came after a Reddit user named ‘rfoustizzle’ shared the ‘Is this a pigeon?’ meme for a shiny Gastly that hardly looks any different from its regular version.

Fellow trainers wasted no time in jumping to the comments section as they too had the same problem with spotting shiny Gastly during their adventures.

Users commented: “It happened to me. I did a joke with my bf and said: ‘Hey, this one is too blue for my taste.’ He doubted, I touched it… *sparkles*” and “I remember my first time seeing a Gastly in this game I was so sure it was shiny, imagine my disappointment.”

Me going up close to every gastly I see
byu/rfoustizzle inPokemonScarletViolet

This prompted others to share similar experiences with shinies they had a hard time spotting in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.

A player wrote, “This is me hurting my eyes staring at a crowd of Litwick to make sure my blues and purples are correct,” before fans mentioned Milcery, Flabébé, and Scyther among others.

But a trainer seems to have discovered the reason behind shinies playing tricks on players. “Whenever I see a Gastly, I can NEVER tell if it’s shiny because of the lighting. They really butchered the shiny in this game. Once a great shiny, now one of the worst shinies in the game,” they explained.

Others chimed in to confirm that shiny Gastly was noticeable in previous games but the lighting as well as different times of the day in Scarlet and Violet has made it a challenge.

If you’re going shiny hunting in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, check out how to get free Herba Mystica to boost your chances and you can even use the Synchro Machine feature to find nearby shinies in the Indigo Disk DLC.