One of the most challenging things one can attempt in Pokemon games tends to be hunting down elusive Shiny Pokemon. More than being merely difficult, these alternate-colored variants of the franchise’s pocket monsters are so hard to find that simply stumbling upon one can be a feat unto itself, which is why some players may resort to faking Shiny encounters to gain clout among fans of the pastime.
Something casual fans might not understand is just how rare Shiny Pokemon are. As of recent generations of games, the odds of encountering a Shiny in the wild are around 1 in 4096, and while items like Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl’s Shiny Charm and various fan-made strategies can improve those odds, it can still take hours of grinding and plenty of luck before one is finally found. That’s what made it so extraordinary when Twitch streamer MitchOG recently came across a Shiny Turtwig and a Shiny Starly in the same encounter, a 1 in 16.7 million occurrence.
It’s such an absurdly rare event that when another streamer, KyleAye, posted a video of his own double Shiny encounter in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl just a few days later, many Pokemon fans were quick to question its legitimacy. As Dexerto reports, people took issue with various aspects of KyleAye’s video that suggested it was showing a modded game, including his reaction which many felt came across as “bad acting” to hide the fact that he knew the encounter was coming.
This culminated in KyleAye admitting that he did in fact fake the encounter. In addition to removing the video from his Twitter, YouTube, and Twitch accounts, he posted a message to his Discord subscribers. He explained that he had utilized modded Switch code designed to force a Shiny encounter so he could avoid having to resort to Shiny resetting to get a Shiny starter before the release of Pokemon Legends: Arceus next month. Still, he acknowledged that he should have been upfront about that and apologized for misleading people with the video.
Misleading as it was, KyleAye stressed that all of his previous Shiny encounters and instances of predicting encounters were legit, as the modded code can only trigger a dual encounter with a Shiny starter and Shiny Starly. He also commented on people’s reaction to the video, stating that since there was “no way to 100% prove” it was fake, “everybody just wanted it to be fake.” This is a sentiment that other Shiny hunters have expressed before, as some of their encounters are so rare that some people naturally assume it would have been more likely for them to be fake. Such are the trials players face trying to collect Pokemon’s rarest creatures.
Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are available for Nintendo Switch.
Source: Dexerto