The Start of a Mistake

So unfortunately I ended up getting sick this week. Because of that, I have spent all my time stuck in bed for the last few days. Don’t worry. I got better. However, when you are stuck in one place for a while, you can occasionally make some bad decisions. Last time my big mistake was doing a shiny challenge in Pokémon Violet. I still hunt from time to time, but I have stopped caring about the challenge at this point. So I thought that I would do something even more unreasonable. I decided to do a shiny badge quest in Pokémon Shield. I should preface this by saying two things. First off, I have never played this game or its counterpart Pokémon Sword before. I have seen some gameplay, but I barely remember any of it so this is a semi-blind playthrough. Second off, this is my first time ever attempting a shiny badge quest. I can’t guarantee I will finish it anytime soon, but it will be a long-term project should I keep up with it.

For those who don’t know, a shiny badge quest is where you play a Pokémon game catching a shiny Pokémon before getting a gym badge. Think of it as a shiny-only playthrough with extra steps. Right now my quest is to find my first party member as I can’t shiny hunt for my starter in this game. Eventually, I will get to that, but I need to wait for a few more things to open up. Besides, I want to take advantage of the fact that every encounter on these early routes is a guaranteed catch at this point in the game so I can’t fail a shiny Pokémon. Currently, I’m only at just above 1,000 encounters with nothing, but I’m expecting this to take a while so… we’ll see how things go.

Right! One more thing I forgot to mention. Because I would like a team with shiny Pokémon I can’t get to easily in other games, I am limiting the selection of Pokémon I can use. I will only collect shiny Pokémon from the Galar region that cannot be obtained in existing games. So that means I won’t go for Skwovet or Rookidee because they are in Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet. I can go for Galarian Zigzagoon though since that form isn’t easily available in other games. Pokémon GO doesn’t count. I do have a target in mind right now, but I’ll save that for when I find it. Wish me luck! Hope to deliver good news soon.