Pokemon Sword and Shield Adds a New, Even Rarer Kind of Shiny Pokemon

Pokemon Sword and Shield has added a new, rarer variant of Shiny Pokemon. Players have discovered that there are now two kinds of Shiny Pokemon in Pokemon Sword and Shield, each of which have different kinds of animation when they first appear. The first kind of Shiny Pokemon uses the traditional animation to show that a Pokemon is Shiny, while the second adds an additional animation that uses square sparkles. Other than the opening animation, there are no difference between the "original" version of Shiny Pokemon and what players have colloquially referring to as "Square Shinies." Under normal circumstances, only 1 in 16 Shiny Pokemon are "Square Shinies." However, when players using the Chain method of hunting Shiny Pokemon (which involves finding and defeating the same species of Pokemon over and over), players have a 15 in 16 chance of finding a Square Shiny.

You can check out the differences between the two types of Shiny animations below:

Also, apparently, there's different types of Shiny Pokemon in Sword and Shield: a Normal Shiny, and a Square Shiny

The Cherubi I found was a Normal Shiny, but the Zigzagoon I chained for is a Square Shiny

Neato! pic.twitter.com/NH0nc3QJPr

— AceStar 🏳️‍🌈🌟 (@AceStarThe3rd) November 20, 2019

The Pokemon franchise first introduced Shiny Pokemon back in Pokemon Gold and Silver as an extra-rare Pokemon that has a variant coloration than non-Shiny Pokemon of the same species. There is no in-game advantage to having a Shiny Pokemon, but many players have become Shiny Hunters who try to collect as many Shiny Pokemon as they can. Under normal circumstances, a player only has a 1 in 4096 chance of finding a Shiny Pokemon in the wild. However, various methods can reduce the odds of finding a Shiny Pokemon to about 1 in 455.

What do you think of these new kinds of Shiny Pokemon? Let us know in the comment section or find me on Twitter at @CHofferCBus to chat all things Pokemon!