There's a New Way to Shiny Hunt in Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon

Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon is introducing a fun new way to find Shiny Pokemon.

According to players with early copies of Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, players have a chance of finding Shiny Pokemon when traveling through Ultra Space. Ultra Space portals will appear with special rings around them, which supposedly have a greater chance of containing a Shiny Pokemon than other areas.

Shiny Pokemon are Pokemon that have an alternate coloration than normal Pokemon, and are extremely rare in normal Pokemon games. Under normal circumstances, a player has about a 1 in 1000 chance of finding Shiny Pokemon in the wild, although there are several methods that can be used to increase their odds.

Players can access Ultra Space via a minigame in which players ride either Solgaleo or Lunala, dodging bursts of energy and attempting to jump/fly through rings that increase their speed. The further a player goes into Ultra Space, the greater their chances of seeing a portal with a ring around it. Eventually, players will start seeing portals with two rings around them as well.

The Pokemon Company released a ninety second clip showing a trip through Ultra Space, during which some of the special portals can be seen. You can check it out below:

【『ポケモン ウルトラサン・ウルトラムーン』発売まで、あと8日！】ウルトラホールの先の世界へ行ける「ウルトラワープライド」。エネルギーをたくさん集めて、どこまで遠くに行けるか試してみよう！ https://t.co/EsgMJocR7k #ポケモンウルトラサン・ウルトラムーン pic.twitter.com/Iy9cywQT2B

— ポケモン公式ツイッター (@Pokemon_cojp) November 9, 2017

Interestingly, these portals include Pokemon that don't otherwise appear in the game. Barbaracle, Medicham, Floatzel, Stunfisk, and Abomasnow have all appeared in Ultra Space portals, which hint that they lead to areas outside of the Alola region.

If players don't want to head into Ultra Space to find Shiny Pokemon, they can also attempt to find Shiny Pokemon via SOS chaining, in which players continually beat a wild Pokemon's allies in battle without knocking out the Pokemon themselves, which increases the likelihood of a Shiny Pokemon coming to aid them. There's also the time tested "Masuda Method" in which a player breeds two Pokemon from different real world countries, which also has a slightly higher rate of success than finding Shiny Pokemon in the wild.