Pokemon Scarlet & Violet players reveal how trainers are missing “obvious” shinies in the wild

Niladri Sarkar
pokemon scarlet and violet shiny phantump image

No Pokemon fan likes to lose shinies, especially when they faint or disappear. But Pokemon Scarlet and Violet shiny hunters have a new fear unlocked, as some players reveal how many have been missing shinies even though they’re right before their eyes.

With the release of the Teal Mask DLC of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, shiny hunting has become bigger and better than ever. Fans are now able to encounter shiny Pokemon in the weirdest places, capturing multiple of them at one go or even catching the rarest shinies on the first attempt.

Alongside these wonders, some players have also had tough luck with shinies, where they either despawn or are a nightmare to capture.

But none of the above compares to missing out on a shiny entirely, especially when they are easy to make out from non-shinies. So when a player almost lost an easily recognizable shiny Phantump in the wild, others revealed a shocking detail in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.

Reddit user ‘Puzzleheaded’ shared a post that showed a sequence of the player’s Pokemon Scarlet and Violet gameplay as they hunted for a shiny Phantump.

As the OP went through an outbreak of Phantump in the hopes of finding a shiny, they almost gave up, only to realize that the last Phantump checked was, in fact, a shiny. The OP wrote, “Oh… it’s a shiny” in the post.

This experience threw the player off-guard as shiny Phantump looks drastically different from regular Phantump, making the OP wonder how they couldn’t notice it as they added: “It’s such an obvious shiny. What’s my problem I didn’t even notice it.”

The post prompted fellow users to chime in with an unexpected revelation as they too had similar experiences in the game, as a user claimed that “the lighting in the game makes it harder to tell apart. It’s noticeable but it’s not at the same time.”

A player emphasized how the lighting could create variations in the colors of shiny Pokemon as they stated, “I had the same problem while shiny hunting Illumise, the purple seemed like yellow due to the lighting.”

pokemon scarlet and violet shiny phantump image from the anime
Shiny Phantump’s white color is easy to differentiate from the regular version’s brown color.

“Lighting totally affects the look too! Also it’s easier to notice when it’s near other normal ones, but by themselves it’s way harder. If they are farther away too, the game makes it impossible to see,” explained another player.

It seems rather surprising that Pokemon Scarlet and Violet players are possibly missing shinies that are hidden in plain sight, despite shiny graphics getting a glow-up after the Teal Mask DLC.

If you’re planning on going shiny hunting, check out all the shiny sandwich recipes and how to get free Herba Mystica in Teal Mask DLC so that you may encounter more shinies in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.

About The Author

Niladri is a Writer who specializes in Pokemon Go, Scarlet and Violet, and competitive VGC battles. With more than seven years of experience in copywriting and SEO content writing, Niladri has previously written for Pokémon GO Hub and Smogon. He has been covering Pokemon for CharlieIntel since June 2023. Niladri can be contacted at [email protected].