Pokemon Champions Player Gets Incredibly Lucky With Their First Nontutorial Recruitment

A lucky player in Pokemon Champions had an amazing start to the game! They managed to get a highly popular starter Pokemon – and it was a rare, shiny version – on their very first try after finishing the tutorial. Shiny Pokemon have been a part of the series since the games first appeared in color, but finding one in Pokemon Champions is more challenging than in many other Pokemon titles.

Released on April 8th for Nintendo Switch, with a mobile version planned for sometime in 2026, Pokemon Champions is a free-to-start strategy game where players battle with monsters. Unlike most Pokemon games, it focuses less on story and exploring the world. It’s similar to the older Pokemon Stadium games, allowing players to bring Pokemon they’ve already caught in other games (using the Pokemon Home app) or find new ones within the game to build their teams.

Pokemon Champions Gets Incredibly Lucky with First Recruitment

Players can find Shiny Pokemon in Pokemon Champions through a recruitment feature, and some have even gotten lucky on their very first try! One player, GleamEyesLuxray on Reddit, recently shared a picture of their first successful recruitment, revealing a shiny Decidueye – the final evolution of the Gen 7 starter, Rowlet. This success has excited Shiny Pokemon hunters, proving that the game can indeed produce these rare variations. Others have since shared images of shiny Tyrantrum, Sylveon, Mimikyu, Corviknight, Gourgeist, Toxapex, and more, with at least one player reporting finding a shiny after completing the game’s tutorial.

If you want to expand your Pokémon collection in Pokémon Champions without transferring from other games, the Recruit Ranch is your best bet. You get one free Pokémon encounter there each day. You’ll choose from three Pokémon that appear randomly, and the selection will change every few months. You can tell which Pokémon is shiny because it will sparkle while hidden in the tall grass.

The chance of finding a shiny Pokémon while recruiting in Pokémon Champions is currently unknown. The Pokémon Company hasn’t released this information, and reliable data hasn’t been found – likely because the available Pokémon change on a server, not through the game’s code. Usually, in Pokémon games, the odds of a shiny Pokémon are about 1 in 4,096, or around 0.024%. However, players are reporting shinies more often in Pokémon Champions, leading some to believe the odds are closer to Pokémon GO, where the typical shiny rate is 1 in 512, or about 0.2% (excluding special Pokémon and events).

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The idea that shiny Pokemon appear more often in the new game could be true, especially since classic shiny hunting methods like the Masuda Method or PokeRadar don’t work in Pokemon Champions. If you’re searching for shinies at the Recruit Ranch, be careful – there are two different sparkling animations. One shows a shiny Pokemon, but the other, with bubbles, indicates a Pokemon with a unique title or special mark, not a shiny.

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2026-04-10 19:04