Finding Shiny Pokemon?

[Danikat]

After playing all the way through Silver and about to get my 3rd badge in Pearl (I skipped Ruby/Sapphire) I finally saw my second ever shiny pokemon last night. (The first one being of course the red gyrados.)

And of course when I did all I had were pokemon 10 or 11 levels higher than it and no specialist pokeballs so I was unable to catch it.

What am I doing wrong here? Other people seem to see shinies relatively regularly but I never see them. Am I just not paying attention or is there some trick to attracting them?

[Embri]

Yes, and no...

You always have a 1 in 8192 chance of finding a shiny at any time, so luck has a big part to do with it.

However, in D/P there is a more definite way of finding shinies, however it is NOT easier. In fact, it's very hard, long and frustrating. First of all, you have to finish the main game and receive the PokeRadar - a device that "detects" wild pokemon, making four patches of grass shake nearby when used in grassy areas.

Then, you must "chain" pokemon, by battling in one of the patches, defeating the wild pokemon - this will trigger another round of shaking grass, if you get the same pokemon again, your chain becomes two, defeat it, and find another, chain 3... and on and on.

The hard part is, if you encounter a pokemon that is not of the species you were chaining, it will break your chain and you must start all over again. I'm not going to get into the specific mechanics of making the safest chains, since there are entire FAQ's on it. Suffice it to say, if you establish a long chain (30-50 ish) then you have an increased (but not certain) chance of getting a shiny, by "scanning" for a special grass patch that will shine and sparkle instead of shake, showing it contains a shiny pokemon.

All in all, it's not worth the effort.