1. Ruby and Sapphire.

1.1. Batteries.

Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire include batteries inside the cartridge, which will take care of the internal clock and timed events. Normally, the RNG of Ruby and Sapphire is as random as it can possibly get, but when the battery runs out, it starts behaving differently. Usually, this would be a bigger concern with Emerald, as it works the same way as a dry-battery Ruby or Sapphire, even if the battery is fully functional. You can read more about how this all works in its own section for Pokémon Emerald, although it works almost the same in this case with Ruby and Sapphire.

1.2. Illuminate and the White Flute.

This generation introduced new mechanics that increase the encounter rate significantly, making it almost essential for any hunt. These two new tools are the ability Illuminate, which doubles the encounter rate, and the White Flute, an instrument that, when played, increases the encounter rate by 50% until the player exits the location (like going to another route).

There are a few Pokémon with the Illuminate ability available in Ruby and Sapphire: Staryu, Starmie, Chinchou, Lanturn, and Volbeat. Out of them all, Volbeat is the earliest to appear during the story, on Route 117, although Sapphire has a notable advantage over Ruby: an 18% chance to encounter it, compared to Ruby's 1% chance. It wouldn't be as much trouble if Illuminate wasn't Volbeat's only ability. If you aim to use this ability as soon as possible, it's usually faster to trade one from Sapphire. If the point in the game where it appears doesn't matter, Chinchou is always easier to find.

The White Flute can be obtained as soon as you get to Route 113's Glass Workshop and receive the Soot Sack, which you can use to collect the ashes from the tall grass. Every time you step into a tall grass tile covered by ashes, they will be cleaned, and it will count one towards the sack. After collecting 1000 steps, you will be able to purchase the White Flute in the Glass Workshop. This method can be repeated as many times as you want.

Using these two bonuses together is the basis of any hunt that involves random encounters.

1.3. Received and Interactable Pokémon.

1.4. Legendaries.

2. FireRed and LeafGreen.

2.1. Time.

FireRed and LeafGreen lack an internal battery, which has its pros, but one of the cons is that you cannot evolve Eevee into Espeon or Umbreon. This is especially bad when you think about the fact that, in the main games, Eevee can only be obtained in Kanto. If you hunt for Eevee and want to evolve it, you will need to trade it to one of the Hoenn games while the battery is active (if you want both). Another method is trading it to XD: Gale of Darkness, where you can evolve it as long as you have a Sun or Moon Shard in the bag.

2.2. Game Corner.

2.3. Received and Interactable Pokémon.

2.4. Legendaries.

2.5. Unowns and their Shiny odds.

The Sevii Islands introduce multiple Pokémon not usually found in the Generation 3 games, the Unown being one of them. They always go hand in hand with riddles and mystery, and it wouldn't be less this time: a previous puzzle must be completed, the Tanoby Key, in order to unlock them. After that, they will start to appear in the Tanoby Chambers. There are seven of these chambers: the Monean Chamber (Unowns A and ?), the Liptoo Chamber (Unowns C, D, H, U, and O), the Weepth Chamber (Unowns N, S, I, and E), the Dilford Chamber (Unowns P, J, L, R, and Q), the Scufib Chamber (Unowns Y, G, T, F, and K), the Rixy Chamber (Unowns V, W, X, B, and M), and the Viapois Chamber (Unowns Z and !).

But the enigmas don't end there just yet. Here, the Unown letter is determined by the ID of the Pokémon, or PID. The problem comes when you keep digging and find out that your Trainer ID (TID) and Secret ID (SID) also influence both the shinyness and the letter of the Unown. This means that each letter will have different shiny odds depending on your TID and SID. These odds can go as high as 1 in 5120 and as low as 1 in 18432.

There's no way to know these odds in-game, but you can easily find out with the Unown Shiny Odds Calculator.

3. Emerald.

3.1. Abilities outside of battle.

Among the things introduced in Emerald, some abilities got a new effect outside of battle, like passive interactions with other mechanics like wild encounters or eggs. Previously, there were some abilities that already worked like this, like Illuminate, but Emerald expanded the number of them. The following list covers those that are best suited for hunting.

3.2. Emerald's RNG.

How it works.

You may have heard that Emerald's RNG is broken, which is something that sounds scary when it comes to Shiny hunting. Other people may say that Shiny hunting is directly impossible in Emerald, which is not only not true, but it also shows a lack of critical thinking and research, as multiple rumours, misconceptions, and fake information have been spread through the years that have long been debunked on uncountable occasions. Emerald is a good game to hunt on; it also introduces multiple unique hunts that could be missed if you decide to avoid it. To understand how Emerald's RNG works, the first thing we need to know is what a seed is.

Due to the impossibility of making a true random number generator, the game uses pseudorandom numbers, which determine the result of anything that should be random. This includes things like a Pokémon's IVs. These pseudorandom numbers are generated through the use of a formula that uses a special number called "seed".

This seed is chosen every time the game is booted up. In theory, each seed being different would make for a pretty seamless random game. The problem is that Emerald always sets its seed to 0. This means that it will always result in the same sequence of numbers. In a way to make the game feel a bit more "random", it generates 60 instances of these numbers per second. Each of them is known as a "frame".

Each frame will determine multiple parameters of the game. In a wild battle, it influences the PID, nature, IVs, ability, etc. If the frames are always generated in the same sequence, this means that you may be able to land in the same frame multiple times, making the results the same. It is a difficult task, so doing it accidentally is highly unlikely, but if timed and calculated correctly, you can land on a specific frame, giving you the desired result. This is known as RNG abuse.

As for Shiny hunting, you may know by now that your Secret ID influences the process of finding a Shiny. A Pokémon ID that results in a Shiny in combination with your SID most likely may not result in a Shiny when combined with your friend's SID. This means that, even if all the seeds are the same (0), the Shiny frames won't be the same for everyone. Still, this is not the biggest worry.

Shiny hunting in Emerald is possible, as in any other game, but you may want to let the game run for a while to be as deep into the frames as possible. There is a workaround for this, though, which will be explained later on. As for the things you are better off avoiding, soft-reset hunts are not recommended unless it's one of the starters. Being at the beginning of the game, you can erase the save file and create a new one every few resets (around 50, for example) to get a new SID, without it being a burden to get back to the point you were at. Getting Treecko, Torchic, or Mudkip in their Shiny form in Emerald is not only possible but also introduces a new twist to the hunt.

Legendaries are also huntable. There is a new hunt type: runaways, where you run away from the battle, then exit and enter the area again, and the Pokémon is generated again instead of resetting the game. This only works for interactable Pokémon that appear in the overworld. Emerald wasn't actually the first game to introduce this; Team Rocket's Hidout Electrode can be hunted like that in GSC, but Emerald expands upon the concept.

RNG duplicates.

Due to everything mentioned in the previous point, on highly unusual occasions, one may find a Pokémon that is an exact replica of another. This can happen if you accidentally land on the same frames when generating two Pokémon in different instances. These Pokémon will have the same IVs, nature, ability slot, PID, etc. This can also mean you may be able to find two duplicate Shiny Pokémon.

While nothing will happen to the game if it has two duplicate Pokémon, the goal is to get the Pokémon to be as random as possible.

Battle video and the Lilycove paintings.

So what is this magic technique that lets you "avoid" the quirks of Emerald's RNG? There are currently two methods for it: the battle video and the Lilycove paintings.

The battle video is a feature where you can save the last video of a battle fought in the Battle Frontier. This video will not only store that completely epic moment when you found an uncatchable Shiny Sunkern in the Battle Tower, but also the frame of when the battle started (when the screen fades to black). This is very helpful, as you can let the game go for a while and be able to continue from that point at any time. The problem with this method is that, as you may have imagined by now, you will need to make new battle videos after a while, or else you will fall back to the same loop as always: the same sequence of frames. It can still be used efficiently to hunt.

In recent years, it was discovered that, for some reason only Arceus almighty knows, when you interact with one of the paintings inside the Lilycove Museum, a new seed is generated, depending on the number of frames since the last hard reset. If you don't have a painting unlocked on the second floor of the museum (you need to win a max-level contest in order to have one), you can use the ones in the Lilycove Contest Hall. The seed goes back to 0 every time the game is started, as mentioned before, meaning that you will have to do the process every time, but it is a welcomed annoyance in exchange for what it gives back.

This painting method fits in nicely at the beginning of any session, taking just a few seconds of your time to give you a more steadily "random" hunting experience.

3.3. Runaway hunts.

3.4. Soft-reset hunts.

3.5. Sudowoodo and Kecleon.

Kecleon is a very iconic Pokémon in Hoenn, being an invisible one a roadblock after Fortree City you have to get rid of, prompting a small cutscene along with Steven to make it appear. Sudowoodo is also a memorable encounter, a reward for those curious players who explored the Battle Frontier (while also blocking the way to the Artisan Cave and its Smeargles). These Pokémon can be hunted with a very special method: knocking yourself out during the battle.

The process is very simple; first, you will need a Pokémon that knows the move Memento. The most accessible Pokémon that learns it at the earliest level is Koffing, at level 49. You don't have to worry much about Kecleon or Sudowoodo being faster than you; their levels (30 and 40) aren't too high, and their speed stat is next to nothing. Another alternative is using a Heart Scale on Latios to remember Memento, which is the fastest way to setup but requires you to have caught Latios.

Step two of the preparation is not having any other Pokémon in your team aside from the Memento user. This will make you black out after it faints, sending you directly to the Pokémon Center. You will only have to walk back to Kecleon or Sudowoodo to do another encounter.

Remember to interact with the Lilycove paintings at the beginning of each session if you want to get new frames.

4. Events.

Aside from the typical Pokémon distribution events, there are a few where special items were given instead, which will take you to a new location where a legendary Pokémon can be found (and hunted).

These events are no longer available for obvious reasons; they were only distributed in specific locations around the world due to the lack of online services for these games. There are still some ways to obtain these events, which require either external devices or following a lot of steps for specific glitches. With the Mystery Gift Tool , you can "distribute" the events into your save file by yoursel, on multiple platforms (PC, GameCube/Wii, Nintendo DS).

4.1. Southern Island.

It is a small island located in the south of the Hoenn region and is only available in Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald. This island can be reached by giving the Eon Ticket to the S.S. Tidal's captain. As soon as you reach it, you will notice the lack of NPCs or wild Pokémon; it's just a small forest leading you to the main area.

A small, round rock will be the only thing present, surrounded by a small puddle of water. Here, Latios or Latias will pay you a visit, depending on the game version. In Ruby, Latias will appear, while in Sapphire, it will be Latios. In Emerald, this is different. After beating the Pokémon League, the mother will ask you about a Pokémon that appeared on TV and its colour. Depending on your answer, either Latias or Latios will appear roaming through the region (red and blue being the choices, respectively), leaving the other to appear on the Southern Island. The one on the island can be hunted through runaways like the other legendaries. This is the recommended way to hunt Latios or Latias in Emerald.

In order to catch them easily, you can use Taunt to stop them from recovering with a Dark-type Pokémon, which will be immune to their attacking moves. Be careful, as they won't be able to use two of their moves if you use this approach, and the rest have low PP.

4.2. Faraway Island.

This time, this place is located in an unknown region far from Hoenn, although it is only reachable in Emerald. It makes sense when you consider its name. The item needed to reach this island is the Old Sea Map, which was only given in Japan originally. The S.S. Tidal will be needed again, but this time, no one is up for helping, as the island is way too far, but Mister Briney will appear and promptly take you on the trip.

This island has a small forest area with very tall grass, where Mew will be playing around, hiding, and making you chase it. This process can be a bit tedious, so it's better to follow an optimized path that will let you reach Mew quickly. You will need to repeat this process every time you want to check a new Mew, as the most efficient way to hunt it is through runaways.

4.3. Birth Island.

Another island located in the Sevii Islands, this time south of Six Island and east of Seven Island, is accessible in Emerald, FireRed, and LeafGreen with the Aurora Ticket. It has a triangle shape, and it seems smaller than the previous two, with only three trees on it. Aside from that, a dark-coloured, triangular rock appears in the middle. This stone will move around each time that it's interacted with, while increasingly becoming more red. This puzzle consists of touching the triangle while taking the fewest steps possible. The button A must be pressed at the end of each set of steps.:

Deoxys will be waiting at the end of this puzzle, in its normal form, and at a very low level (30). It will know different moves depending on the game's version. After catching it, it will also change its form: speed for Emerald, attack for FireRed, and defense for LeafGreen. The normal form will only be shown if it's traded to Ruby, Sapphire, Colosseum, or XD: Gale of Darkness.

4.4. Navel Rock.

The last of the islands, this one is part of the Sevii Islands once again. You will need the Mystic Ticket to reach it, which only exists in Emerald, FireRed, and LeafGreen. This place is located between Four Island and Five Island, although it will only appear on the map after being there at least once.

At first, it will look pretty small, but on the inside, there is a long hallway followed by multiple small floors going up or down depending on the direction you take. Ho-Oh will be waiting at the peak of the small mountain, while Lugia will appear at the bottom of it, near some water.

They are very high level (70) and can get their damage boosted by weather (especially Ho-oh), so be careful while catching them. They also know Recover, which can be countered with Taunt.

4.5. Altering Cave.

The Altering Cave is a place only available in FireRed, LeafGreen, and Emerald. Initially, this cave will look empty, and its wild Pokémon will be a bit disappointing (unless your name is Batman or Zubat is your favourite), but it has a bit more to it than it may seem at first.

An event was intended to let you change the Zubat spawn for other Johto Pokémon, but it was never released. These Pokémon were added to Emerald's Safari Zone extension (except Smeargle, which appears in the Artisan Cave). The Wonder Card can be added to the game with external means. Only one Pokémon appears at a time, but you can cycle through them by talking to the man in green clothes on the second floor of a Pokémon Center. More information can be found here.

5. Other information.

5.1. Roamers and the IV glitch.

Latios in Ruby and Latias in Sapphire, and Raikou, Entei, and Suicune in FireRed and LeafGreen, the Roamers of this generation, are affected by an important glitch that makes them less suitable for difficult battles (like the Battle Frontier) than those of their same species: their IVs are laughably low and are not generated normally. Luckily, this is fixed in Emerald.

The IVs are normally generated when the Roamer is first encuntered, and then these values are stored so that each time that you find them again, they won't regenerate, and you will keep those same stats as the first time. The problem is caused when the game fails to replicate correctly the previously stored IVs of the Roamers at the moment they are caught. The reason why this happens can be a bit confusing, so try to follow it slowly:

The highlighted numbers are the ones zeroed out. As it can be seen, speed, special defense, special attack, and defense IVs will always be 0. As for attack, it will only range from 0 to 7, while HP does get to have the normal 0-31.

Sadly, the highest IVs these Roamers will have are 31/7/0/0/0/0. If you plan to hunt them, keep in mind that they will have this handicap compared to others. Some alternatives to these Roamers are:

5.2. Unlocking the legendary giants.

Also known as legendary titans, or Regis, a group of three legedaries that include Regirock, Regice, and Registeel. They are resting in the Hoenn region in hidden spots that must be unveiled through a series of puzzles written with a very simplified version of the braille system, officially described as "merely patterns of dots".

There are some preparations needed before the secrets of the Regis can be uncovered:

To begin, you must go to Pacificlog Town and go to the left through the currents until you reach a diving spot on Route 134 (located around the southern part of the route). Here, you will dive and swim down until you reach the first braille inscription:

You will have to press B to go up and continue. After going out of the water, you will be greeted by a room full of stones and more inscriptions. They include the alphabet in order. You can use this as a reference if you wish to translate the rest of the inscriptions by yourself:

A similar list could be found in the boxes of the Japanese and Australian releases, or in the instructions booklets of the European ones.

The next inscription, found on the wall at the back of the room, says:

You will obviously need to use Dig here, which will open the way to the next room. Here you will find six more inscriptions, with a seventh one on the wall in the back. The last one will be different depending on the version.

You will have to set Relicanth on the first spot of the team and Wailord on the last. In Emerald, the positions are swapped. Interact again with the inscription on the wall, and the entrance to the three chambers will open: the Island Cave, the Desert Ruins, and the Ancient Tomb.

Island Cave.

Found on the left side of Route 105, after crossing a small sand island with trees and going up, the Island Cave is home to Regice. The entrance will be open to what seems like an empty room with inscriptions.

In Ruby and Sapphire, you will need to wait for 2 minutes, and then a new entrance will open. This can be done with a dry battery as well. For Emerald, you will have to run one lap around the cave, hugging the walls. Regice doesn't have any dangerous moves, but most of its moveset has low PP.

Desert Ruins.

Found on Route 111's desert just like its name indicates. Regirock will be waiting here. The cave looks the same as the Regice one on the inside, with its own inscription too:

This one is pretty straight forward; you only need to take one step in each direction that you are told, and then use strength or rock smash, depending on the version. Regirock has the same number of PPs as Regice, so beware during the catch.

Ancient Tomb.

This is the last of the three sealed caves, located on Route 120. It can be reached after the set of stairs on the south-west side of the route.

This one may be a bit more cryptic than the others, but it's not really difficult. In Ruby and Sapphire, you must use Fly in the middle of the room (hence "aim for the sky"), and in Emerald, you must use Flash instead ("shine in the middle"). Registeel doesn't have any dangerous moves either, but it luckily has Metal Claw, which makes it have 20 more PP than the previous two.

5.3. Hoenn mass outbreaks.

Just like the previous generation, some Pokémon have an increased chance of appearing in the wild if there's a swarm appearing in specific locations. This time, after entering the Hall of Fame, every time a battle is finished, there is a 0.5% chance for an outbreak to occur. It won't be until the next day when a TV program will talk about it, and after watching it, that's when the outbreak will activate. There's a 50% chance that the swarm Pokémon will appear instead of the Pokémon from the normal encounter table. Each outbreak will last one day.

Some outbreaks are version-exclusive, but they can be shared with other games through record mixing. A save file won't be able to generate another outbreak after the first until records are mixed. This process will allow the game to generate another one, and it will be locked out again from creating them until the next record mixing. Imagine it as a loop that needs to be reloaded.

6. Gamecube games.

6.1. Shiny Shadow Pokémon.

Pokémon Colosseum introduces a new type of Pokémon to the franchise, Shadow Pokémon. These Pokémon were created to be more violent, like battle machines, by closing their hearts. The Cipher organisation, the main villains of this game, is behind all this. During the story, we will be able to steal these Pokémon back and purify them to use them on the team in order to beat the game.

Something that a lot of people may not know is that these Shadow Pokémon can also be Shiny (at least in Colosseum, not in Gale of Darkness). There is a lot of information behind these "simple" Shadow Pokémon and many misconceptions about them, which are all cleared up and talked about in the Hunting Shiny Shadow Pokémon section of the site. If you are interested in starting those hunts, that guide has everything you need to know.

6.2. Non-Shadow Pokémon.

Due to the way the games are programmed, Shadow Pokémon can't be Shiny in the second game set in Orre, XD: Gale of Darkness. But that doesn't mean that all is lost. There are a few normal Pokémon that are given as gifts or found in the wild, which can actually be Shiny. This list includes targets like the Johto starters (very eye-catching due to their rarity in Generation 3) and rare Pokémon like Larvitar or Eevee.

The number of Pokémon is very limited compared to other games, but the variety of targets and types of hunt won't leave anyone indifferent. If you are interested in these Pokémon, want to hunt them, or simply want to know new information, check out the Shiny hunting in Gale of Darkness guide, which will have everything you need.

6.3. Pokémon Colosseum Bonus Disc Jirachi.

Aside from all the Shadow Pokémon, Colosseum, thanks to the bonus disc, also has one normal Pokémon to hunt: Jirachi (although this is a separate disc from the normal Colosseum game). but the GameCube will only work as a distribution device during this process, as it will be sent to a Ruby or Sapphire game. This is also known as "Wishmaker Jirachi", a name that comes from its OT name.

This is the US version of this bonus, which also comes with the Jirachi: Wish Maker movie and previews of Colosseum. To clarify, you don't actually need Colosseum in order to do this hunt. The requirements for this hunt are as follows:

An important thing to mention before continuing is that there are 65536 possible combinations of IVs, natures, and other randomly generated values, and, out of those, only 9 can result in a Shiny. This means that, essentially, the odds for this hunt are around 1/7281 instead of the usual 1/8192.

The process to receive the Jirachi is very straight-forward; you just need to follow the instructions shown on the screen. After obtaining it in the GBA game, you will be able to check your party to see if it's Shiny. But here is where the problem comes in. If it's not Shiny, you won't be able to just trade another Jirachi, as it is locked as one per save file. This means that you will need to delete yours and make a new one every time you want to do a Jirachi reset. There is a small workaround to this, though, which includes save corruption (don't worry, it's not as scary as it sounds):

A new save file at the beginning of the game with only the starter makes the process easier, as you will be able to see if the corruption worked in the CONTINUE screen, where you will be able to see your Pokédex number (if the number is 1, the corruption worked and you only have the starter; if it's 2, you also have the Jirachi and it didn't work). Another tip is that you can reset the GBA as soon as the first Poké Ball crosses the screen during the distribution to save time.

6.4. Pokémon Channel Jirachi.

Aside from the Wishmakr Jirachi, there is a second distribution that may be more accessible to some people, especially for European hunters, thanks to Pokémon Channel. The steps to hunt are similar to the bonus disc ones.

This time the odds are normal, not like the previous Jirachi, and it's not limited to only nine unique Shiny Jirachi combinations.

In this video, you can find more information about these hunts.

6.5. Pokémon Box eggs.

Pokémon Box is a GameCube game that works as storage for your Generation 3 Pokémon, similarly to Pokémon Bank or Pokémon Home from the newer games. The difference is that everything is stored on your memory card. Storing Pokémon and surpassing some milestones will reward you with special eggs that are sent to the main games. These Pokémon come with a special move that can't be passed down by breeding.

The requirements for each of them are different, going from being available at the beginning of the game to having a whopping 1499 Pokémon stored:

But first, you will need to prepare your games in order to be able to transfer them into Pokémon Box and obtain these eggs.

The requirements are probably done by the time that you finish a playthrough, so they won't be a big problem. Now, on to how to hunt these eggs. Much like the Manaphy egg from Generation 4, these eggs can be traded over and over to new save files to hatch. The difference with these is that they can actually be Shiny in the original game they are first sent to. Before going into this hunt, make sure you have at least two Generation 3 games with non-important save files.