xSuperMario64x
Canadian at heart 💜🇨🇦
On the Hunt for a Shiny Absol
Part 1: Intro
Part 1: Intro
My desire to find a shiny Absol started with a dream I had a few months ago. It was a dream of me playing Sapphire and, of course, finding a shiny Absol. It was one of the best dreams I'd ever had, because I had never caught a shiny Pokemon before, and I had reached a new milestone in my life as a gamer.
The funny thing is, at first I didn't know it was shiny. It was simply a red and white Absol that I caught in the game because it was differently colored. When I woke up, I immediately went to the internet to see that what I saw in my dream actually was a shiny. That surprised me a lot, since I had never thought before about having a shiny Absol so I didn't think I knew what it looked like.
This dream, in my interpretation, was a calling. I was certain that I was destined to have a shiny Absol. From that day on, I swore that I would find one.
Part 2: Planning
I decided, on that day, that I would need to find my copy of Sapphire so I could start hunting for a shiny Absol. I dreamed that it would be a female and that I would name her "Ruby". I was very excited to start looking--the last time I had gone shiny hunting, I was looking for a shiny Swablu, but that was 5 years ago and I didn't have any luck--but there was only one problem: the odds of finding a shiny are 1/8192 in earlier generations. Despite this, I still had determination.I talked to my friend about it, who is an expert on competitive Pokemon and the TCG, and he told me it's not worth looking for a shiny in Sapphire, since Absol was so rare and the odds were so low. I wanted to have a shred of faith, but after coming to my senses, I realized it would be nearly impossible to find a shiny Absol on Sapphire without a ton of luck. I would have an easier time catching 10 shiny Linoones in a row!
This tore me up. I was very much excited to find a shiny Absol, and the only game I had in which I could do that was Sapphire. My friend assured me that I would have a much easier time finding one in Omega Ruby or Alpha Sapphire, but I didn't have those games at the time!
I knew that I would have to play the waiting game, and get a copy of Omega Ruby as quickly as I could.
Part 3: Hope
On the day of my birthday, after a few months of bargain hunting, I managed to pick up a copy of Omega Ruby for $25. At this point I had kind of forgotten about finding a shiny Absol, and I was more interested in replaying my favorite generation of Pokemon with a fresh new look and feel.See, I started playing Sapphire version in 2012. That game left a huge impact on me as a young gamer; I had a little experience with Pokemon games, but this game helped me dive right into the series and develop the love that I now have for it. Sapphire is definitely my favorite game in the series, though it wasn't my first; I started with Fire Red, and though it still holds a place in my heart, Sapphire was truly the best.
Playing Omega Ruby for the first time was a truly magical experience. After playing through the Hoenn region on the 32-bit Game Boy Advance for so many years, seeing the region, in all its glory and in 3D, flooded my heart with nostalgia. I loved seeing all my favorite towns and routes, almost exactly as I remembered them. It didn't take me long to play through the game, about 20 hours. But those 20 hours were definitely not wasted.
After taking a walk through Route 120 near Fortree, I was suddenly reminded of the main reason why I got the game: to hunt for shiny Absol! You know, the one I was destined to catch?
I didn't hesitate to start doing research on shiny hunting in ORAS. That's when I discovered the "DexNav Method", which essentially states that DexNav chaining (encountering hidden Pokemon and continuously catching/fainting them creates a chain) can increase the odds of encountering a shiny Pokemon for each encounter, effectively bringing the chance of finding a shiny up to 50% by the 130th chained encounter. This made me very excited and hopeful! So after completing the main game and the Delta episode, I went straight to work.
Part 4: Hunting
After a day or so, I had already spent a solid 18 hours hunting for a shiny Absol on Route 120. I made many chains of 40-50, but they were all broken, one way or another. I got to a point where I actually built up a chain of 130, and I was beyond happy! I was that much closer to achieving my dream! Unfortunately, that chain was broken after an accidental encounter with a trainer who wanted a rematch. I was devastated, but I knew that if I kept working at it, I would eventually get back up to that point.After many days of DexNav hunting, I was unsuccessful in finding a shiny Absol. After more research, I learned that DexNav chaining for a shiny Pokemon only exists in the XY games, which rendered my efforts completely useless... almost. With this new discovery, I also found that, though it's not confirmed, the odds of finding a shiny while using the DexNav to find hidden Pokemon is fixed at 1/512. This was enough to keep me going, but I had to accept the harsh reality that 1/512 is a very small probability...
Part 5: Losing Hope...
After 2 or 3 weeks of hunting a shiny Absol, I was still coming up with nothing. I had caught and traded many Absols with 3+ IVs, egg moves, hidden abilities, and high levels; I even managed to get my search level up to over 400, but none of them were shiny. I didn't fully give up, but I no longer felt like wasting my time on a hopeless cause. I went to a PokeCenter, collected some of my lower level Pokemon that need leveled up, and headed over to Victory Road to do some level grinding. When I got there, I entered the cave, surfed across the small body of water, and proceeded to the next cave entrance. Right away, I encountered a wild Pokemon, but something completely unexpected happened: it was a shiny Golbat! A shiny Golbat! My first ever shiny Pokemon! I immediately threw a quick ball and caught him. I was so excited to finally find a shiny Pokemon after 7 years of playing!
Now on the surface I was happy, but deep inside, I was very angry. I spent hours upon hours hunting for shiny Absol, had a search level of about 470, and once I did find a shiny, it wasn't what I wanted. As a matter of fact, I hate Golbat (but I do love Crobat so that made it reasonable). I felt a lot of mixed, overwhelming emotions all at once. At that point, I wanted to completely give up on finding shiny Absol. It was completely hopeless for me.
Part 6: Victory!
I spend the next couple days raising the shiny Golbat, whom I named Ajax, as part of my team so that he would evolve into Crobat. My emotions had settled down, and I was very grateful to have found my first shiny Pokemon.But there was still a voice in my head... a voice, telling me to go back to Route 120. Something inside of me knew that if I worked hard enough, searched long enough, and believed strong enough, that I would finally find a shiny Absol. I just needed some faith...
So alongside my usual activities of level grinding, breeding Pokemon, and wonder trading, I would go back to that route to shiny hunt. It was becoming very tedious at this point; my search level was up to 550. I had doubts that I would ever find a shiny Absol, since I'm not known for my patience, but reading others' success stories and how long they spent to get a shiny, I wasn't about to give up. I had been envisioning myself with a shiny Absol in my party... Ruby...
I got to the point where I would casually encounter wild Absols while doing something else; I learned that DexNav hunting didn't require a lot of attention, since all I had to do was search, sneak, faint, repeat. I was doing it out of boredom, and it was becoming increasingly tedious. I felt like there were better things I could've been doing, but I just couldn't stop hunting. I knew that shiny Absol was out there, waiting for me, and once my search level got up to 564, a miracle happened...
I found a level 40, female Absol... and she was red and white!
At that instant, I was on the verge of hyperventilating. My heart was beating out of my chest, and tears flowed from my eyes like silent waterfalls. I was in hysterics! I absolutely could not believe what I was seeing! Could it have been, that all those days and nights spent hunting and hunting... finally paid off? Was this real? Even now I feel like I'm living a dream. I feel like I'm simply having a fantastic dream, and I'll wake up. But oh no, this is very real. My dream is real!
I threw a quick ball at her, but she broke out of it. This made me utterly terrified, and I switched to using an ultra ball. I knew she might be difficult to catch; she was level 40 and I didn't want to do any damage in fear of fainting her. Luckily, the ultra ball worked without fail. Shiny Absol was finally mine!
I proceeded to name her Ruby, just as I had planned. After she was transferred to the PC, I had to take a few minutes to collect myself. I was crying uncontrollably, tears of ecstasy. I had spent months dreaming of her, and weeks hunting for her. And she finally came to me.
Part 7: Epilogue
Ruby is now a happy member of my new party in Omega Ruby, along with some of my other favorites. I have spent my day playing with her in Pokemon Amie, and every time I look at her, I can't help but weep. I am so deeply happy that I've found her; words cannot even begin to describe the joy I have. My friend had always reassured me, that shiny hunting is hard, but when it's all over it would be worth it. I do not regret a single minute I spent DexNav hunting. It was worth it....
