How shinies work in Gold, Silver and Crystal

Gen 2 shinies come from stats, which makes shiny breeding surprisingly strong.

In Gen 2, whether a Pokémon is shiny depends entirely on its hidden stats (called DVs). A shiny needs a specific mix of Defense, Speed, Special and Attack values. For a random Pokémon that works out to 1 in 8,192.

Shiny breeding

Babies inherit some DVs from a parent of the opposite gender (or from Ditto). Breed a shiny parent with a partner, and a baby that inherits from the shiny parent has about a 1 in 64 chance to be shiny. That is by far the best boost in Gen 2.

Gen 2 quirks

• The red Gyarados at the Lake of Rage is a guaranteed shiny story encounter.
• Because shininess is tied to Attack, a female shiny is impossible for species with a 7 male : 1 female ratio.
• Pokémon moved forward from Gen 1 can be shiny only if their DVs happen to match.

Explore ShinyHunt

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