Hey all! I have to say that I've read through all the posts since I was last here, and there's been so many shiny Pokemon caught in that time that it's awesome to see. Unfortunately I can't name every single one of those captures, but here's a blanket congratulations to all!
I was wondering how I would tackle this, as I've gotten a few shinies since I last posted, so sorry if this turns out to be a longwinded novel-sized post.
1. The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary
Okay, so I believe the last shiny I reported was a Cottonee, but I don't think I had any photos at that stage. I had just gotten my shiny Skorupi, and wanted to start on my next hunt, so I went to Victory Road and after 652 encounters there I found a female Cottonee. I had been REing for a short while in the morning when I heard the sparkles. I really wasn't expecting it, so I didn't even really see it when it first scrolled across the screen. I named her Tartary after the The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary. It was a shock, needless to say! I was settling myself in for a long hunt, but it was almost over before it began. Now, this might come across as pathetic, but I haven't evolved her yet, as I was hoping for a male one. I have a nickname for him and everything. I also think that Cottonee's shiny looks so good as it is that I might one day RE for another one and see if I can get a male to evolve ... having said that, I might just evolve her and be done with it. Not sure at this stage.
[img139]http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/8415/1000814v.jpg[/img139]
2. Sparkling Blimp
Pretty much straight after Tartary, I decided I would do another RE hunt for that elusive Grumpig. As soon as I get a shiny, I'm always thinking about where I'm going to hunt next, and almost have to start straight away. I feel like I'm on such a high and I'm so excited that I don't really take into account the fact that you can just burn out after a while. I know a lot of people here would understand what I mean. But I always am determined to see a hunt through, so I pushed on and on and the attempt to find that shiny pig again.
The numerous hatching attempts on different games haven't really worked out so far, and I was rewarded with a Skorupi for my last effort, but then the hunt started to drag on again. Now, I'm aware that the hunt wasn't an awfully long one, but it was probably more in the middle. By the end of it I was getting a little drained. Anyway, one afternoon/early evening, I was plugging away there, half paying attention and half surfing the net, when I happened to see something really bright scrolling across the screen, and making a sparkle. It looked amazing. I know I've said it before, but sometimes Serebii just doesn't do justice to a shiny until you actually see it in game. It was so vibrant and distinctive. A female Drifblim was staring me down after 5,064 encounters. The battle wasn't too interesting, and after I caught her, I ended up nicknaming her Helioom after my first ever Drifloon I caught when I first played Gen 4.
[img139]http://img802.imageshack.us/img802/4202/1000823p.jpg[/img139]
So, Helioom wasn't the Grumpig I've always wanted, but she definitely put a smile on my face. I'm very happy with her.
3. Vibrant Virizion
Okay, so after that, I was all set to get stuck into a new type of hunt. Yep, pretty much straight away. So, I thought it was finally time to SR for Latios. Considering I was trying to double SR at the time with another ongoing hunt, the fact that you had to walk across to encounter Latios each and every time was throwing me out of whack, so I decided to swap to another target after like half an hour to an hour of awkward Latios hunting.
The long story short is that Virizion obviously didn't think it was a good time to shine, so it took quite a little while to appear. If you look at the date that I caught Helioom and then look when I caught Virizion, I basically hunted every day in the meantime as much as I possibly could. My fingers were really hurting due to the amount of SRs I was doing, and while I did have to do everyday typical stuff, every spare moment I could I was hunting for this baby. I don't really count SRs, so I'm not sure how many SRs I did all up, but it was getting to this point where I was getting paranoid that I was either doing something wrong, or I'd SRed over one because I didn't see the shiny. When it did appear, I was doing the usual thing, surfing the net at the same time, and I glanced down to see a very very pink form appear, and I immediately knew that there was no way you could miss it. I know I just talk myself into it, and then get worried that I might not have been paying enough attention.
[img139]http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/5403/1000841g.jpg[/img139]
Virizion was actually a pretty quick capture, and only took three balls to subdue. It was such a rush! My apologies. The next few shinies I didn't have a camera for a while, so I didn't get to take any photos until recently.
4. Eevee Eggs
So, time for a switch up again. I hadn't hatched a shiny in Black 2 yet, so I decided that this would be my next hunt, and considering I desperately want an Espeon named Mystro, I decided now was the time to do it. Eggs after eggs after eggs were produced with the help of the Round Charm. I had actually written it down somewhere, but after around 3,500 eggs, I was beginning to get a little annoyed. So, I thought I'd get out Black, and stock up every single box on that game as well. I even found a Dream World Eevee female, so the thought of this fabled Magic Bounce Espeon was pretty cool. Anyway, after stocking up all available boxes on Black and Black 2, I began to hatch. I hatched on Black first. It only took 239 eggs for the shiny to appear! Black and White never seem to fail me. I still had boxes left on Black to hatch, so when I saw that the shiny didn't have Anticipation I hoped another one might be within one of the multiple boxes left on both games. There wasn't, but hey, that's cool.
[img139]http://img542.imageshack.us/img542/3610/1000854u.jpg[/img139]
However, I set aside the Eevee and contemplated the idea of hatching for another one ... and hoping it got stuck with Anticipation. I didn't want to evolve the quirky natured Eevee and have him stuck with Synchronise when I would be using him, as I'd be constantly capturing quirky natured Pokes.
So ...
5. Even More Eevee Eggs
6,250 eggs now for Tauros... If this decides to go over regular odds, I don't know...
I can understand how you feel. It's torture. I know you wont give up, and it probably doesn't mean much, but keep pushing on. What is your current method of hatching? Maybe mix it up for a change, see what happens then. Good luck.
I was determined to hatch this durn shiny Eevee on Black 2. Unfortunately, Black 2 just didn't want a bar of it. It was really wearing me out, but I just couldn't stop. I ended up making more room in my boxes, trading Pokemon over to my Black version. It seemed to do the trick, as not too long afterwards, I finally hatched a shiny Eevee on Black 2 after 6,051 eggs ... with the shiny charm, too! But finally, it appeared! And no, it did not have Anticipation, so I'm back to hatching the remaining eggs and collecting more. I'll get that Espeon one day, I know it!
I wasn't sure what to evolve both Eevee into, but the first one I've decided is now going to be called Pyrox and will be a Flareon. Flareon is my favourite Gen 1 Eeveelution. This second guy is going to be a Glaceon, as I love Glaceon, too. I named him Kit, as it sort of sounded like it fits, and there are those Kit Foxes on the loose somewhere. Also, stuff like Snowy and Flaky and Icy are all kind of dull or too common or too obvious.
[img139]http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/8391/1000836s.jpg[/img139]
I only have a couple of pics of Kit so far, so here you go. Pyrox isn't trained yet. I got distracted!
6. EV training Eevee Pays Off
Sooo, this happened yesterday! I'm still on a high. I had a number of Pokemon to EV train, so I thought I'd better get down to it! So, I rounded them all up, and began to buy the vitamins I would need and chart my course.
I got sick of running around in Celestial Tower without a bike, so I looked up where I could go to hunt instead, and saw Golduck at Village Bridge. So off I went. EV training was taking quite a while, even with Pokerus and the Macho brace. When I say that I don't mean days, but basically I was KOing a lot of poor Pokemon and taking my time with it, putting it in sleep mode whenever I wanted a break and so on.
Then I stuffed up. Oops, I just KOed that Seviper with my Darkrai when I was meant to run. So, I thought about it a bit, and decided that I'd log into the dream world and take some of my multiple Kelpsy berries to get rid of that pesky Attack EV. I stuffed around a bit there and actually got an error due to the fact that my Wifi doesn't seem to enjoy working perfectly with my Pokemon games, and I do get a lot of errors and issues as a result. And so I thought ... stuff this, I'll just reset the game and restart the EV training for Eevee/Kit. So, I did, not thinking that the game would have saved after trying to access the dream world. Oh, crap ... Oh well ... I'll work out the details with the berries later.
Three encounters later, I was so busy typing on my laptop that I did not notice an odd coloured Pokemon until I heard the sparkles. It was way too early for Kit to shine, so I knew it was a wild shiny!!! It was insane!!! I really wish I had seen it appear, but it was basically all over by the time I looked at the screen. It was a fantastic surprise.
I nicknamed him Wade, and it just seems to have stuck at this point. I love his colour.
So, it looked like I had another shiny to train up after finishing with Kit!
[img139]http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/7122/1000863j.jpg[/img139]
What....? Wait a minnit!!! Did you see that?! No way!
It took me a little while to pick up my jaw from the floor, and my shock was making me shake quite a bit, but I could not stop feeling as if someone was playing a joke on me. Yes, another random shiny appeared while I was training Wade's speed. I didn't even get to see the shiny when it initially appeared again, so I completely missed it until the sparkles weht off. Also, when I heard the sparkles, I was expecting Basculin to be rearing its ugly head ... but I was so lucky and got this instead.
7. The Lucky Duck's EV Training Ends Up Even Luckier
Unbelievable! I still can't really get over it even a day later! I named him Gill, but I wasn't really sure what to stick with. He is currently called Snipper at the moment, but not sure if that will stick, either. I absolutely love him. I've never used one before, but I have an excuse to now.
[img139]http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/9629/1000861.JPG[/img139]
I guess I've used up my luck for the year in the last couple of days! I'm back to hatching Eevee eggs, but I think I'll be on a high for a little while! Anyway, thanks for reading, and good luck with all your hunts, guys and gals!