Welcome back, readers! This time I’ll be covering the Masuda Method, and Soft Resetting for Legendaries or Starters.
Masuda Method
Firstly, I’ll explain why this method is called the Masuda Method. The Masuda name comes from Game Freak’s director Junichi Masuda. In a blog found on gamefreak.co/jp from December 14th, 2007, he mentions the use of the GTS (Global Trade Station). It reads:
“I have a confident that the player will sure to trade their Pokémon at least once with this GTS system. However, I wondered how we could make the trade number of times. Not only domestic, but overseas trading, especially the people you have never met. This was the big theme of creating GTS in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl. I believe high game playability means, to make the game fun playing many times repeatedly. Same as this GTS. So we considered the following contents:
Some Pokémon’s Pokedex descriptions are written in foreign language….
Rare colored Pokémon’s Egg can be found easier.”
Players sought to figure out what this cryptic message meant about finding rare colored Pokémon Eggs. What it all boils down to is that breeding a shiny Pokémon with a foreign Pokémon increases your chances of breeding another shiny Pokémon.
For example, let’s say you’re trying to hatch a shiny Charmander. You would probably need both a foreign Charmander, and your region Pokémon, let’s say a Ditto, or vice versa, in order for this method to work.
According to Bulbapedia, the way this mechanic works is that every Pokémon has an internal marker that indicates its country of origin. If the game recognizes that two Pokémon in the daycare are from different “home” locations, it will attempt to generate a Personality Value that results in a shiny Pokémon when the egg is created. This can occur up to four extra times in Generation IV and five extra times in Generation V.
The use of a Shiny Charm will improve your odds even more. Currently, the stat for Generation VI with the use of the Shiny Charm is 1/512; that’s pretty good if you ask me! Now for the preparation…
Acquire a foreign Pokémon or Ditto from GTS
With the advent of wireless communication and blog posts, one can easily search for a desired Pokémon through the GTS. You can get your Ditto locally or wirelessly. You can make the process faster by using the Wonder Trade. Wonder Trade is a feature that quickly chooses a trading partner at random. You can get lucky and grab yourself a foreign Pokémon this way, but it necessarily be your Pokémon of choice. If you prefer a specific one, use the GTS.
Breed your Pokémon at the Day Care Center
In Pokémon Alpha Sapphire/Omega Ruby, there are multiple Day Care Centers. There’s one on Route 117, and another in the Battle Resort. Most guides that I’ve found online prefer the Battle Resort, and I’ll explain why later.
Hatch your eggs
The quickest way to hatch your Pokémon eggs is to first have a Pokémon with the Flame Body ability. Talonflame and Ponyta are good examples. This will dramatically reduce the time it takes for the eggs to hatch. Then, put your eggs into your party. Get on your bicycle and start bicycling around the Battle Resort. It’ll be easier if you align your character to this location:
Then, all you have to do is push up on the Controller Pad and hold it, and before you know it the egg will hatch! As far as how many hatches it will take… it might take a while, so you’ll probably want to do something else in the meantime.
Legendary Shinies/Starters
In all honesty, this method is a matter of LOTS of luck, time, and patience. The process involves Soft Resetting until you encounter the Shiny Legendary. Soft Reset is holding the L + R + Select/Start button. A wise move would be to save your progress prior to the encounter.
I’ve heard of some players who like to wrap a rubber band around their DS to save time. The rubber band holds the L + R buttons in place. All you have to do is push Start or Select when you don’t encounter the Shiny Legendary. Take the following steps to prepare:
Stock up on poke balls, great balls, ultra balls, quick balls or timer balls
This is important because once you finally encounter your Shiny Legendary, you don’t want to end up short on materials.
Have a high level Pokémon with that can withstand the onslaught of the legendary
Hypnosis, Thunder Wave, or any other move that causes the Pokémon to become paralyzed or asleep will be very useful to you.
A strong Pokémon that can go toe-to-toe with the legendary is key, preferably one with Hypnosis, Thunder Wave, or any other move that will cause the opposing Pokémon to become paralyzed or asleep. Another thing to note is that your Pokemon should have the move False Swipe. This will leave the legendary with 1 HP without making it faint.
Be careful, though; if the legendary knows moves that cause recoil, your Pokémon might faint. I, personally, would have a Master Ball handy to save time, and to avoid the anguish of accidentally fainting your shiny legendary Pokemon. Take a look at this fail by Sarah ShinyHunter (starts at about the 1:01 mark):
The same principle applies to Soft Resetting for Starters, except that you don’t have to capture them per se. Simply:
- Save your game prior to receiving your starter
- Soft Reset until you get a shiny version of your starter
- Make sure you’re stocked up on time and patience
That just about covers everything in relation to Shiny Hunting. The only methods I didn’t mention are Random Encounters and Horde Encounters, because they’re about pure chance, and involve little to no strategy. Having the Shiny Charm will help, but it’s the least exciting of all the methods, in my opinion.
If you have any more suggestions, be sure to let us know in the comments!