By Pokemon Legends: Z-A has adopted a fresh strategy for shiny hunting, which may render it significantly less laborious than in all previous Pokemon entries.
Shiny Pokemon have consistently been very hard-to-find entities that confront you with the stark truth that there remains an entire alternate version of all 1 million – or however many exist now – Pokemon to capture. Understanding how to obtain shiny Pokemon in Pokemon Legends: Z-A remains mostly unchanged, yet in positive news for the franchise, Game Freak has rendered the creatures slightly less hard-to-find than before.
As highlighted by Pokemon data miner Anubis on Twitter, Pokemon Legends: Z-A exhibits a unique behavior in which shiny Pokemon, once encountered, are then locked in until you opt to approach. Even if you vacate the area, that Pokemon will remain stable, enabling you to engage it when necessary (perhaps you need to dash to the shop for some Pokeballs, who knows).
That said, this doesn’t prevent you from frightening away a shiny Pokémon. I advise you to halt and manually save the instant you spot a shiny. If you fail to capture it, you might also utilize the backup save to check if it’s still there (DUP + X + B on the title screen). pic.twitter.com/AkJ2kr4gj1October 16, 2025
Nonetheless, it isn’t quite as straightforward as a guaranteed victory, as you can still potentially frighten away shinies. However, Anubis points out that you can create a save the instant you observe the shiny and make as many attempts as you wish. The catch is that the game seemingly retains only 10 shinies on the map at any given moment, implying that if you allow more to spawn, you risk losing one that you’ve been eyeing.