Generation 7 was a weird time for the franchise. We traded gyms for island trials, got regional forms that turned Exeggutor into a skyscraper, and, for the first time, felt the crushing weight of the SOS call mechanic. If you’re looking for a sun and moon pokemon shiny, you likely already know that Alola doesn't give up its treasures easily. It’s a grind. A long, often frustrating, occasionally heartbreaking grind that redefined how we think about "the sparkle."
Shiny hunting changed forever in 2016. Before Pokémon Sun and Moon, you basically had the Masuda Method or you were just running around in circles in the tall grass hoping for a 1-in-4096 miracle. Then came the Adrenaline Orb. Suddenly, every wild encounter could turn into a frantic survival loop where a desperate Pokémon calls for help, over and over, until a different-colored version finally shows up. Or, you know, until you accidentally knock out the caller and have to start the whole three-hour process from scratch. We’ve all been there. It’s a rite of passage.
The Brutal Reality of the SOS Call Method
The SOS mechanic is the heart and soul of the sun and moon pokemon shiny experience. Basically, you get a wild Pokémon down to low HP—usually using False Swipe—and use an Adrenaline Orb to make it nervous. When it’s nervous, it calls for backup. If it succeeds, a second Pokémon appears. If you knock that one out, the original calls again. Keep this chain going long enough, and the shiny odds start to climb.
At a chain of 30 or more, your odds for a shiny jump significantly. If you have the Shiny Charm, which you get for completing the Alola Pokédex (a feat in itself since there’s no National Dex in these games), those odds get even better. But here’s the kicker: it isn’t just about the shiny. These SOS chains also guarantee high Individual Values (IVs) and a chance at Hidden Abilities. You aren’t just hunting a trophy; you’re hunting a competitive beast.
Honestly, it’s stressful. You have to manage PP. If your caller runs out of moves, it struggles and kills itself. Chain over. You have to worry about status effects. If the caller gets paralyzed or put to sleep, it won't call for help. You’re basically playing a high-stakes game of resource management while staring at a 3DS screen for four hours. It’s grueling. Yet, when that sparkle finally hits the screen and that off-color Rockruff or Salandit appears, the dopamine hit is unlike anything else in the series.
The Salandit Problem
Let's talk about the literal worst part of Alola: female Salandit. If you’re hunting for a sun and moon pokemon shiny and you decide to go after Salandit, you are entering a world of pain. See, only female Salandit evolve into Salazzle. The gender ratio is 87.5% male to 12.5% female.
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Imagine this. You’ve been chaining for six hours. Your eyes are bleeding. Finally, a white Salandit appears. You catch it. You check the summary. It’s male. You can't evolve it. It just sits in your PC as a permanent reminder of your failure. Expert hunters use a Pokémon with the Cute Charm ability at the front of their party to try and force the gender ratio, but even then, it’s a gamble. Alola is cruel like that.
Legendaries and the Soft Reset Hell
Then we have the Ultra Wormholes. While technically introduced in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, these are the definitive way most people hunt for a sun and moon pokemon shiny when it comes to Legendaries. The mechanics here are fascinatingly broken. In the standard wormholes, the shiny status of a regular Pokémon (like Altaria or Sigilyph) is determined the moment you land. You can actually save right before the encounter, and if it's shiny, it will always be shiny.
But Legendaries? They play by the old rules.
You stand in front of Mewtwo or Groudon. You save. You encounter. Not shiny? L + R + Start/Select. Repeat. You do this thousands of times. Some people get it in 50 resets. Others are still sitting there, three years later, wondering why they chose this life. The dedication of the shiny hunting community is terrifying, frankly. People like aDrive and TheSupremeRk9s built entire careers around this specific brand of digital masochism.
Why Gen 7 Shinies Look Different
There’s a technical aspect to why people still go back to hunt a sun and moon pokemon shiny despite the newer games having "overworld" shinies. The lighting engine in Alola was unique. It had this warm, tropical glow that made certain metallic shinies pop.
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Take Metagross. In Sword and Shield or Scarlet and Violet, the silver can look a bit flat. In Sun and Moon, that silver reflects the Alolan sun in a way that feels premium. Same goes for Decidueye. The dark teal and long-wing shades in Gen 7 have a specific saturation that many fans feel was lost in the jump to the Switch. It’s an aesthetic choice.
The Pokémon You Should Actually Be Hunting
If you’re going back to your old 3DS, don't just hunt anything. Some Alolan shinies are objectively better than others.
- Minior: This is the gold standard. Minior has different core colors, but every single one of them has the same shiny: a black, crystalline core with colorful flecks. It looks like a piece of deep space. It’s gorgeous.
- Vikavolt: The silver and lime green combo is peak design. It looks like a high-end sports car.
- Palossand: It turns into black sand. It’s simple, it’s thematic, and it’s intimidating.
- Alolan Raichu: The "chocolate" Raichu is a fan favorite for a reason. It looks like it spent a bit too much time on the beach, and it fits the vibe of the region perfectly.
Hunting these requires a specific setup. You need a "Smeargle Hunter." This is a Smeargle specifically sketched with moves like False Swipe, Soak (to hit Ghost-types), and a recovery move like Recover or Soft-Boiled. Without a dedicated hunting Pokémon, you’re just wasting your time. You need to be prepared for the long haul because the game certainly is.
Forget the Easy Way
Modern Pokémon games have made shiny hunting "easy." You eat a sandwich, you run around a crowd, and you find three shinies in 30 minutes. It’s efficient, but it lacks soul.
When you get a sun and moon pokemon shiny, you earned it. You fought the SOS mechanics. You managed your Leppa Berries. You avoided the accidental "Run" button click that haunts the nightmares of every veteran hunter. There’s a prestige to Alolan shinies because the barrier to entry was higher. It required knowledge of call rates and a deep understanding of turn-based management.
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Practical Steps for Your Next Hunt
If you’re dusting off the 3DS tonight, here is how you actually succeed.
First, get your Shiny Charm. Don't be lazy. Trading on the GTS is a mess these days due to hacked mons, so you might need to rely on local trades or Pokémon Bank (while it’s still up).
Second, prep your Leppa Berries. Grow hundreds of them in the Poké Pelago. You will burn through them.
Third, get a Pokémon with the Harvest ability and the move Skill Swap (Exeggutor or Trevenant are the go-tos). Give it a Leppa Berry to hold. Use Skill Swap and Trick to give the wild "caller" the Harvest ability and the berry. Now, the caller will never run out of moves. It will consume the berry and Harvest it back infinitely. This turns a stressful time-bomb into a relaxed, infinite chain.
Finally, settle in. Put on a podcast or a long video essay. Shiny hunting in Alola is a marathon, not a sprint. If you go in expecting a quick win, the game will break you. If you go in expecting a battle of attrition, you’ll eventually see that beautiful, rare flash of light.
The Alola region is beautiful, vibrant, and surprisingly difficult for collectors. But that's exactly why those rare colors matter. They represent a specific era of Pokémon history where the hunt was as much about strategy as it was about luck. Go get that black sand castle. You've got this.
Check your berry inventory and ensure your Harvest Trevenant is ready before you start your next chain; an infinite loop is the only way to hunt without losing your mind.