Hard to find shine in Pokemon Legends: ZA

If catching unusually colored versions of your favorite Pokemon is your idea of fun, Pokemon Legends: ZA offers plenty to enjoy with its accessible shiny prey. However, despite the relatively attainable shiny charms, and densely populated wild areas to hunt, some of the rarest shinys in Pokemon Legends: ZA will take time and effort to find.

Despite their rarity, if you're willing to invest the time in certain setups, there are ways to get these shiny Pokemon more reliably, especially with a 1,000-battle piece standing between you and a shiny charm. Compared to their peers, these are rare shiny spawns in Pokemon Legends: ZA.

Drampa

Drampa is one of the rarer spawns in Pokemon Legends: ZA, which makes this Pokemon's shiny form equally difficult to deal with. However, if you know that this Pokemon only spawns during the day in Wild Zone 19, it will help ensure that you don't waste any time on it at night.

If you target your prey during the day, Drampa is not a guaranteed spawn and usually takes a handful of resets to appear. Layer on the fact that there's only one Drampa spawn point here, and you have a recipe for disappointment if your goal is to hunt down the shiny spawn of this rare spawn.

Sligo

Sliggu Location on the map in Pokemon Legends: ZA.

Speaking of pesky rare spawns, Sliggoo can be the hardest to encounter randomly due to both its limited space and weather requirements. Sliggoo will only spawn during rain in the area above the Nouveau Cafe in Bleu Sector Five.

Sliggoo's catch rate is one of the lowest in the game, and you'll have less than a one percent chance of catching it even with a fast ball.

There are only a few spawn locations in the sewer area near the water, which can spawn both goomy and sliggo spawns, with sliggo being a much rarer option. If you're lucky enough to get a shiny spawn, good luck catching it – you should save before trying or prepare for a heart attack.

Beldum

If you're building a strong late-game team that offers both style and power, Beldom's Shiny is worth hunting down, despite the Pokemon's rarity. However, Beldom's rarity comes with a caveat, as this Pokemon won't appear until you unlock the Lysandre Cafe by progressing through a significant part of the story.

Since there aren't many options for the Beldom spawn, this Pokemon is extremely rare and requires a specific setup to hunt. You should enter the room where the Beldom spawned, then fast travel to the beginning of the Lysandre Cafe. Then, use the yellow teleporter in the lower right room on the map, immediately next to the starting room. Jumping back and forth will allow you to farm the shiny Beldom spawn.

You should listen to Beldom's cry to make sure the Pokemon is spawning and respawning.

Froakie

The Froakie side mission appears at the beginning of the game as a single reward for completing a challenge from Froakie. However, if you want to farm Shiny Froakie, you must go to Wild Zone 16, where you will see a lone Froakie spawn on top of a pillar in the middle of the area.

The easiest way to farm this shiny is by constantly fast traveling through the wild zone, but with a single spawn, it will still take time to shine. Fortunately, Froakie is easy enough to evolve into Greninja once you get your shiny, so all efforts for hunting this shiny are front-loaded.

Dratini

Dratini is one of the rarest spawns in Pokemon Legends: ZA, and thus farming for this shiny can be a huge pain, especially if you don't know where to look. However, if you go to rooftops in select areas like Jaune Zone 3 or Magenta Zone 8, you'll find lone Dratini spawns hopping around.

Unfortunately, it's a bit inconvenient to farm glitter on the roof, as the only way to farm them is to run very far to reproduce them, hoping for glitter. You'll eventually get one, but with a single spawn point, it'll take hours, even with a shiny charm.

Charmander

Charizard is one of the strongest Pokemon in ZA, and you'll have to wait a long time before you have a chance to hunt down Shiny. Once you progress towards the end of the game and unlock Wild Zone 20, you will finally gain access to Charmander spawns.

Hunting for Charmander is still a pain, as you either need to use the bench method (rest on the bench to change timing and reset spawns) or frequently fly to wild zone 20 and run to the Charmander spawn to check if it's shiny.

Fossils

Looking at the Sail Fossil in Pokemon Legends: ZA.

Fossils are one of the most consistently difficult glows to farm for two main reasons:

You can't improve your odds with shiny charms
You must have a significant amount of money to farm efficiently.

Fossils cannot change their luminous probabilities by any means, so the rate remains constant at one in 4,096. Furthermore, you have to buy fossils and bring them to the Pokemon Research Lab to check if they glow. You can do this one at a time or as many as you can afford.

You must reload before buying a fossil, as the glow color is determined when the fossil is in your inventory.

If you're already rich from farming money, this might be one of the least labor-intensive shiny hunts in the game, but the RNG's setup and multiple layers make it a big challenge for the rest of us.

don't throw

Preparing for the Shiny Fennekin Hunt in Pokemon Legends: ZA.

Fennekin might be the most annoying shiny Pokemon to hunt in Pokemon Legends: ZA because its spawn point is inconvenient, it's a skittish Pokemon, and there's only one place you can farm it. If you can get past the grueling trip to Wild Zone 18's rooftop, you'll find a lone Fenkin roaming around on the roof.

One saving grace to this runaway spawn is that you can farm AFK while waiting on edge for Fennekin to respawn and shine. The method is relatively low-effort but extremely slow and frustrating, so be prepared for brutal hunting.