The new year brings new opportunities, and many of you are probably making a list of resolutions for 2015. Some of you may have decided to lose weight, learn a new language, or travel more, but what do gamers do when it comes to New Year’s resolutions? Perhaps some of you would like to embark upon a journey that you’ve put off for too long? Those who undertake this particular endeavor get bragging rights in their community. I am, of course, talking about catching a shiny Pokémon.

For those who have played all of the editions since Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue, and for those who’ve just started with the newly released Pokémon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire (ORAS), “shiny hunting” remains a pastime that’s thought to be for the select few. Many think that shiny hunters are simply pokefans with way too much time, but shiny hunting has become a more accessible challenge for any kind of player. All it takes is patience, a little time… and more patience.

I’m here to give you a simple and comprehensive guide if you want to get your feet wet in the elusive world of shiny hunting. I’m no guru, but I’ve learned from watching many PokeTubers, and accumulating tips from other tutorials. I’ll start off with the most simple strategies and then work my way up.

Chain Fishing

This method of shiny hunting was introduced in Pokémon X/Y. The main idea is to cast either the old, good, or super rod into a body of water to catch a Pokémon. The trick, though, is to do this over and over, without getting this dialogue box:

In order to maintain successful casts, you need to do the following:

Have a Pokémon with the Suction Cup ability as the first member of your party. Octillery, Inkay, Malamar, Lileep, and Cradily have this ability. It was first introduced in Pokémon Emerald, and allows for more bites to occur when fishing outside of battle.

Equip your Suction Cup Pokémon with Smoke Ball. Smoke Ball will allow your Pokémon to run away with ease, which is what you want to do if you hook a non-shiny Pokemon. An alternative is to switch out to a Pokémon who has the Run Away ability, this way you’ll be able to escape 100% of the time.

Smoke Ball will allow your Pokémon to run away with ease, which is what you want to do if you hook a non-shiny Pokemon. An alternative is to switch out to a Pokémon who has the Run Away ability, this way you’ll be able to escape 100% of the time. Most importantly, have a lot of patience.

Now that you have everything prepared, be sure to add one of your fishing rods to the shortcut menu. This is done by opening your bag, selecting key items, then selecting register. This way, when you are next to a body of water you can simply press Y, then the direction on the D-Pad that your n’rod is registered to, and you’re fishing!

In order for this to be successful, DON’T MISS A SINGLE BITE by either reeling in too slowly or too quickly. Be attentive for the *pling* sound when the trainer has a bite. I recommend doing this with another activity as well. I once chain-fished between study breaks for my midterms (hey I had to unplug somehow!). Others might chain-fish while watching shows on YouTube at low volume so they can still hear the pling from the game.

As for how many successful chains you need in order to get a shiny… that varies. Sometimes it may be within less than a hundred, but it can also be more. Either way, this is one of the easiest ways to get a shiny. Here’s a video by Mootypwns showing how to do this.

In part 2, we’ll look at the DexNav method of catching shiny Pokemon.

Do you remember what your first shiny Pokemon was? Let us know in the comments!