Shiny farming in Pokémon Legends Z-A is much easier thanks to a few changes to the way their spawn system works. This includes farming Wild Zones and using the zone transitions to despawn regular Pokémon while keeping Shinies in the area. The guide will help you farm up on Shiny Pokémon and help you complete your Shiny collection.
Shiny Spawn Chance and Spawn Rate Increase
Shiny Pokémon have a 1/4096 chance to appear whenever they spawn within your area, much like previous Pokémon games. However, you can obtain a Shiny Charm by completing the Pokédex and Mable’s Research. While this isn't necessary, it will expedite your Shiny farm.
How To Farm Shiny Pokémon
You must head to any Wild Zone in Lumiose City. Once you enter, this will cause wild Pokémon to spawn within that area, allowing you to battle and capture them. Whenever you leave a Wild Zone, this causes every wild Pokémon to despawn, but keeps the Shiny within the zone.
Also, note that some Shiny Pokémon will only appear depending on the current time in the city and the weather effects. There is a sound indicator that a Shiny has spawned whenever you enter the Wild Zone, so keep your volume audible whenever you’re farming.
📌Note: When a Shiny appears, immediately save your game before attempting to capture it, as defeating it will reset your farming progress.
Method #1: Fast Travel Reset
If there are no Shiny Pokémon within your selected Wild Zone, you can reset the area by fast traveling to another area, then fast traveling again back to the zone you were farming. This causes the Pokémon spawns to reset, effectively re-rolling your chances to get a Shiny.
Method #2: Distance Reset
This method involves moving far enough away from a Wild Zone to despawn regular Pokémon. If no Shinies are present in the Zone, simply leave the area and keep moving away until the zone no longer appears in your minimap. This method is quicker because there are no loading screens, but it requires more control input from you.
Method #3: Wild Zone 3 AFK Farming
In Wild Zone 3, there is a staircase leading to a rooftop within the area that loads you into a separate area. To re-roll the spawns, face your camera away from the staircase, keeping it behind your character. Next, hold down the joystick backward. This causes your character to constantly run up and down the stairs, which repeatedly loads the zone.
If you have something to pull the joystick down, you can AFK farm for Shinies since they don’t despawn (except for Shiny Pokémon that only appear at certain times of day or weather).
