Are all Pokemon Scarlet and Violet starters shiny locked?

Is it worth it to restart Pokemon Scarlet and Violet over and over in search of a shiny starter? That’s a question people have been asking for a significant amount of time now. Hardcore players often restart their Pokemon games repeatedly, searching for the right IVs and Nature, but what about the shiny state of your Pocket Monsters?

While this has often been done in the past, can it be done in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet? Are there options to acquire a shiny version of your starter Pokemon? Some people think it will be incredibly rare, but we’ve got bad news for those who had desperately hoped to start with a shiny.

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Can you start with a shiny in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet?

All three starters in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are fantastic, but even if you pick the best starter, you cannot start with a shiny one. This is because starters are shiny-locked like the last few other Pokemon games.

No matter how often you restart your Nintendo Switch to seek a shiny starter, you will come up empty-handed in the game. This is because it’s been hard-coded to protect against this eventuality. The same happened in Pokemon Legends: Arceus, so it will happen here too.

Quaxly, Sprigatito, and Fuecoco are your starter options, but sadly, it does not appear that you can start off with a shiny, no matter how hard you try. That doesn’t mean you can never get one, though. Let’s be clear about that. If you spend some time with Pokemon breeding, you can get one eventually.

Breeding is done via the Pokemon Picnic feature in Scarlet and Violet. Bring together a compatible Male and Female Pokemon, and you can get eggs. Now, you aren’t guaranteed to get a shiny. First, you need to start a picnic and have male and female Pokemon in the same Egg group.

This means Flying, Grass, Dragon, Monster, et cetera. Conversely, you can also just have two of the same Pokemon. This will likely require you to have a friend willing to trade you another starter. You can also catch a Ditto.

Then, you go AFK and wait for the picnic basket to be filled with eggs. The longer you stay AFK, the better. This should produce more eggs. Hopefully, 1 out of 10 will be shiny. While you cannot begin with a shiny starter in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, there is hope for you to get one, though it will, like all shiny endeavors, take some time and patience.

It's worth noting that you are not guaranteed to unlock a shiny starter this way, but it can certainly happen. As of this writing, this is the only known way to get a shiny starter in Scarlet and Violet. It's worth it to restart your Nintendo Switch if you are looking for particular Natures or Abilities for your starters. But that will not be the case if you are simply trying to get a shiny.