Z-A and Scarlet & Violet

It’s not a mystery that Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen can be unforgiving games at times, and this translated into their Switch and Switch 2 ports just as much as the originals. There are not a lot of differences between the current Nintendo Switch version of Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen and the Game Boy Advance games, with some changes being made for the better, such as the removal of the Roar glitch for Legendary Beasts in the post-game. Yet, the Gen 3 Kanto remakes sport the lowest and most punitive shiny odds in the franchise at 1 in 8,192, all while having no Masuda Method and no Shiny Charm.

This is not necessarily bad in and of itself, as some fans prefer the grind because it’s more meaningful when you do get a shiny Pokemon. To me, this line of thought makes sense, and theoretically, I’d subscribe to it. However, I love shiny Pokemon a bit too much for me to feel completely sane and fine with a grind that can require you 70 hours or more to find a single shiny starter in Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen because I don’t have the luxury of infinite free time. I found my shiny starter after 43 hours of soft-resetting, and to think I was even lucky makes me miss Gen 9 and Z-A quite a lot.

Why Pokemon Legends: Z-A, Scarlet and Violet Are Better Than FireRed and LeafGreen

I didn’t keep count of how many soft resets for Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen’s shiny starter I had to endure, but I got my Squirtle after around 43 hours. I spent about 40–41 hours looking for Charmander, actually, and switched it up a few times just to make it less hard on my brain, but so it happened that I got a shiny Squirtle instead. I love all three Kanto starters, so no problem whatsoever, but the fact that I had to switch targets now and then not to go nuts is a big red flag. With an average of around 27 seconds per reset with my turbo controller, I saw at least 5,700 starters before finding my Squirtle.

Who’s That Character?

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.

Easy (7.5s)
Medium (5.0s)
Hard (2.5s)
Permadeath (2.5s)

Start

Restart
Back

Results

0

High Score: 0

—

Who’s That Character?

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.

Easy (7.5s)Medium (5.0s)Hard (2.5s)Permadeath (2.5s)Start

RestartBack

Results

0

High Score: 0
—

The thing is that 1 in 5,700 is amazing luck, actually, considering that it took many people over 10,000 or even 20,000 resets for a single shiny starter. After all, 1 in 8,192 is a mathematical average rather than a rule. To address the elephant in the room: yes, it did feel more gratifying and rewarding than finding a shiny Pokemon in Legends: Z-A or Scarlet and Violet after reaching odds as high as 1 in 512 with means like Sparkling Power donuts or sandwiches, Mass Outbreaks, and so on. However, if I have to sit here and be like, “Yes, it was worth it to spend 43 hours to get a shiny Squirtle,” I’m sorry, but I can’t do it.

Pokemon Legends: Z-A, Scarlet and Violet’s Shiny Odds Compared to FireRed and LeafGreen’s

Pokemon Legends: Z-A’s donut recipes allow for incredible shiny odds if you get Sparkling Power Lv. 3 and you have a Shiny Charm, which you can get by completing 50 levels’ worth of tasks from Mable. Likewise, in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, you can combine Mass Outbreaks with sandwiches and a Shiny Charm to increase your odds even more. And if you’re wondering how much better it is, here are the numbers:

Pokemon Legends: Z-A and Scarlet and Violet have base shiny odds of 1 in 4,096. That alone means you can theoretically find two shinies in modern games for every shiny in the Gen 3 Kanto remakes.

Pokemon Legends: Z-A’s Mega Dimension DLC allows you to make donuts with Ansha, and if you combine a Sparkling Power Lv. 3 donut with the Shiny Charm, you can get odds as high as 1 in 585, which means about 14 times more likely to find a shiny than in Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen. Or, if you will, you can get 14 shinies in Z-A for every shiny in FireRed and LeafGreen.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s sandwiches also come with Sparkling Power Lv. 3, and you can combine that with a Shiny Charm and defeating at least 60 Pokemon from a Mass Outbreak to get shiny odds as high as 1 in 512. This means that you are 16 times more likely to find a shiny this way than in Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen, or that for every shiny you find in the Kanto remakes, you can find 16 in Gen 9.

That’s not even all there is, though. Since Pokemon Legends: Z-A’s and Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s world spawns are visible, you don’t have to spend time encountering each individual Pokemon in tall grass or sift through static encounters soft-resetting them each time a Pokemon is not shiny. This is also a major factor in how long it can take you to find shinies, and to be honest, I can’t really overlook it.

Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen vs. Legends: Z-A and Scarlet & Violet

Yes, it felt very good to find that shiny Squirtle in Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen, and I’m still riding that high after over 24 hours. But from a time perspective, it’s a hunt I can justify doing once in a blue moon. While it’s a great feeling to find a rare shiny you had been looking for so long, it can’t beat the efficiency of finding one 14 or even 16 times faster.

On top of that, it’s always mathematical averages we’re talking about, so it could be that, even with super high odds, you won’t get your shiny Pokemon in Z-A or Scarlet and Violet after 40 hours, and then you’ll get that dopamine boost anyway when you finally do. What follows is that I still think it was a good thing to move away from the 1 in 8,192 base odds in modern games, especially when society moves much faster than it used to in the early 2000s, and when video games require your undivided attention more and more often.