ZA's shiny charm is practically impossible to get

It's hard to argue about Pokemon Legends: ZA is an upgrade over its predecessors, such as Gen 9 games and Pokemon Legends: Arceuswhen it comes to shiny hunting. Pokemon Legends: ZA has a broken shiny hunting method for Wild Zone 3, but in general it's a good game to look for shiny Pokemon even by fast traveling, since all the animals in the area are restored. At the same time, PLEASE has autosave enabled by default, and with a day/night cycle that resets all spawns, some shinys may be lost if it happens in the middle of a battle. As such, the Shiny Charm would be a prized possession, but it is extremely difficult to obtain for some and impossible for others.

Shiny Charm in Pokémon games are usually awarded for completing the Pokedex, which makes sense as a requirement since it means players have seen every species in the game, so they know what they look like normally compared to their shiny color palette. Pokemon Legends: ZA violates this rule, and instead requires players to reach Research Rank 50 with Mable, which has its pros and cons. These are:

• Requiring Research Rank 50 means that players do not need to complete the Pokedex for the shiny charm in PLEASE.

• Reach the research rank 50 inches Pokemon Legends: ZA requires trading to get enough research points. So players must either shop locally or pay for Nintendo Switch Online to complete this task.

• One of the mandatory tasks includes playing 1,000 battles in Pokemon Legends: ZAwhich can be extremely time consuming and potentially quite tedious, even with existing tricks.

Pokemon Legends: ZA's Shiny Charm requires 1,000 battles and trading

Some of Mable's research requests in Pokemon Legends: ZA are mandatory because you wouldn't be able to reach rank 50 without the points they give. The mandatory research requests are:

• Measurement of wild zone 1 (1000 points) – Register all Pokemon found in Wild Zone 1
• Measurement of wild zone 2 (1000 points) – Register all Pokemon found in Wild Zone 2
• Measurement of wild zone 3 (1000 points) – Register all Pokemon found in Wild Zone 3
• Measurement of wild zone 4 (1000 points) – Register all Pokemon found in Wild Zone 4
• Measurement of wild zone 5 (1000 points) – Register all Pokemon found in Wild Zone 5
• Measurement of wild zone 6 (1000 points) – Register all Pokemon found in Wild Zone 6
• Mapping wild zone 7 (1000 points) – Register all Pokemon found in Wild Zone 7
• Measurement of wild zone 8 (1000 points) – Register all Pokemon found in Wild Zone 8
• Measurement of wild zone 9 (1000 points) – Register all Pokemon found in Wild Zone 9
• Measurement of wild zone 10 (1000 points) – Register all Pokemon found in Wild Zone 10
• Measurement of wild zone 11 (1000 points) – Register all Pokemon found in Wild Zone 11
• Measurement of wild zone 12 (1000 points) – Register all Pokemon found in Wild Zone 12
• Measurement of wild zone 13 (1000 points) – Register all Pokemon found in Wild Zone 13
• Mapping Wild Zone 14 (1000 points) – Register all Pokemon found in Wild Zone 14
• Measurement of wild zone 15 (1000 points) – Register all Pokemon found in Wild Zone 15
• Measurement of wild zone 16 (1000 points) – Register all Pokemon found in Wild Zone 16
• Measurement of wild zone 17 (1000 points) – Register all Pokemon found in Wild Zone 17
• Mapping wild zone 18 (1000 points) – Register all Pokemon found in Wild Zone 18
• Investigation of wild zone 19 (1000 points) – Register all Pokemon found in Wild Zone 19
• Mapping Wild Zone 20 (1000 points) – Register all Pokemon found in Wild Zone 20
• Development via link trading 1 (2,000 points) – Participate in 1 link trade
• Development via link trading 2 (2,000 points) – Participate in 3 link deals
• Development via link trading 3 (2,000 points) – Participate in 5 link deals
• Winning Pokemon Battles 15 (2000 points) – Win 1000 Pokémon battles
• Investigating anomalous alphas (1000 points) – Catch or defeat the abnormal Alpha Pokémon in Wild Zone 3, 5 and 9

It's the end of an era for Pokémon's shiny charms

The reason these are the only mandatory quests for Shiny Charm is that completing all of Mable's Requests in the game gives players a surplus of 900 points. What follows is that one can skip certain other tasks, as long as the total number of points missed this way does not exceed 900. For example, one can skip the final Fill Your Pokedex request for 500 points and one of the type-specific capture tasks, ending up with only 100 points left over and an incomplete Pokedex in Pokemon Legends: ZA. This is a first for the series.

Pokemon Legends: ZA's Best Methods to Get the Shiny Charm

Then some trade developments in Pokemon Legends: ZA are hard to get, it would make sense to skip them as a solo player. But trading is really mandatory to get Shiny Charm, so it's wiser to also complete the Pokedex this way. This makes the Shiny Charm impossible to get without a Nintendo Switch Online subscription or without a way to shop locally.

Additionally, the task of requiring players to win 1,000 battles is incredibly frustrating, as it's a long haul that many people already chees rather than actually engage in battles manually. An example is how some players go to Restaurant Le Nah to repeatedly challenge trainers with just a button press and a turbo control, accompanied by a bulky Pokemon holding the Rocky Helmet to deal damage passively. Another popular choice also involves Restaurant Le Nah, but instead has fans manually completing all battles with a powerful, max-level Mega Evolution that Pokemon Legends: ZAs Mega Excadrill to defeat all opponents with one attack.

System

Released

16 October 2025

ESRB

All 10+ / Fantasy violence, in-game purchase

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