Pokémon Legends: Arceus' Starters Are Shiny Locked

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While Shiny hunting starter Pokémon has become a staple challenge in recent games, Pokémon Legends: Arceus may disappoint fans with recent Shiny lock updates. Shiny locks, or Pokémon incapable of appearing Shiny due to coding, have been a thorn in the sides of Shiny hunters since the debut of the alternately colored Pokémon in Gold, Silver, and Crystal. However, the Shiny Locks confirmed in Pokémon Legends: Arceus aren't surprising considering new gameplay direction and animations.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus has pioneered new ground for the Pokémon series, adding open-world-inspired maps and gameplay similar to other popular RPG games currently on the Nintendo Switch. Players are no longer stuck in a cycle of repetitive Gym Leader battles and generic NPC conversations, but can instead tackle quests, explore maps, and engage with interesting side stories. These changes have also altered Shiny hunting, with Pokémon appearing Shiny in the overworld, and Shiny odds impacted from the start of the game thanks to the new Pokédex mechanics.

Related: Legends: Arceus Reverses A Longtime Pokémon Trope

However, players starting their journey in the Hisui region will want to skip soft-resetting for a Shiny Starter when playing Pokémon Legends: Arceus, as Cyndaquil, Oshawott, and Rowlet are all Shiny Locked according to Serebii. This is likely due to their importance in the lengthy opening cutscenes, where the Pokémon are shown visibly as standard variation Pokémon. Pokémon Legends: Arceus goes to great lengths with Shiny visibility, including Shiny portraits for catch notifications and images for the party scrollbar. Because of this, developers would have needed to make a random Shiny encounter visible in the opening cutscene, requiring