Shiny Fail Stories

[AmethystLeslie]

I've only had 1. A shiny Electrode in Team Rocket's base in Mahogany Town in VC Gold. Even from looking at it, I knew it was not gonna go well. I knew I could only attempt to catch it and not even bother trying to attack, but sadly, it exploded on the 2nd turn.

 

[oshawott7]

One day I decided to restart my Ruby game and the very first Pokemon that showed up was a shiny Zigzagoon. Obviously I didn't have any Pokeballs so I basically just stared at it for about 5 minutes and then turned the game off and I haven't touched it since.

 

[VampirateMace]

Back in Emerald, I was leveling up some Pokémon, and I admired how cute Oddish was, then KOed it, right before realizing it was shiny. I still have trouble believing I missed that it was the wrong color.

 

[Deadeye]

I ran into a shiny Graveler in Kalos. I couldn't even weaken it before it happened... Selfdestruct.

 

[CapybaraMage]

Finally got around to playing through UM, and was absentmindedly leveling in the Vast Poni Canyon before challenging the League. Well, I looked at my screen right as I knocked out a random Skarmory and saw its green wings at the last second... At first I denied it, but I checked my Pokédex and sure enough, there was a shiny Skarmory in the appearance tab. ( ˃̶͈̀ロ˂̶͈́)੭ꠥ⁾⁾

 

[shoz999]

Found a shiny Red Goldbat in Pokemon Crystal. I caught it actually buuuuut... I was really annoyed that I couldn't transfer it to Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire. Now it's gone forever in a dead-battery cartridge.

 

[Requiem Aeternam]

I’m still not sure if this actually happened or not but I’m pretty sure it did. While I was working on catching all the Alola Pokemon for my Living Dex one of the Pokemon I needed was Bruxish. As Bruxish is much easier to find on rippling fishing spots I saved in front of one and SRd on other Pokemon because it was faster than leaving the area and coming back.

On one of those resets I found a Wishiwashi which I quickly reset over. However just as the screen went black I swear I noticed the Wishiwashi had yellow on its eye which would have meant it was shiny, meaning I screwed up pretty badly. I still can’t say for sure it was shiny but something in the back of my head still tells me it was.

 

[ArcanineRaichu77]

Might as well post this while I SR for Snivy xD I have had multiple shiny fails over the years(sadly):

My first was actually with the first shiny I ever saw: a Bidoof on Pearl at Route 201. Had no clue what it was, but wanted to catch it anyway as I wondered why it sparkled
Sadly my Turtwig got a critical and it fainted, but as I had no idea about shinies I shrugged it off as bad luck.

My second fail was in an old Firered file. Coming back from Cerulean Cave after I caught Mewtwo, I found a shiny Kakuna! I know about shinies now and was excited. Sadly I had no weak moves or status attacks, all I could do was throw what Pokeballs I had left after Mewtwo. Sadly 5 great balls and 7 Pokeballs failed to catch it

My third was in the same Firered file some months later. Of to fill my Pokedex, I head into the safari zone. I gasped as a Blue Nidorino appeared! Scared it would run, especially after it escaped the first safari ball. The second one caught it, and I evolved it, but after not playing for a while I forgot it was on there and started a new game, deleting it D:

Years later I'm playing HeartGold, training my Lanturn at Mt Silver. To my surprise a shiny Tangela appears! I throw an Ultra Ball and it breaks free so I decided to weaken it. Thunder got a crit and I watched it faint..

Unbelievably I got two more shinies on the same file: Onix and Goldeen. Onix was on my way to fight Red and Goldeen was while ev training. Sadly I failed both of them, Goldeen I had no Pokeballs and I evolved the Onix but it's on my lost Black game
My first ever shiny I RE'd for, a Blitzle I evolved is on that game too so it is also lost.

Back in 2013 I was hunting Rufflet for my first White BQ. Around 5k Throh shines instead. It breaks out of an Ultra Ball and uses Circle Throw so I flee :/

And finally, the one I regret the most. Also in 2013 I began my Chimchar srs. I found one so quick, around 1k on Platinum, but SRed over it on instinct this is my longest hunt evernto date, both in terms of time and total, when I last hunted it I was on 26,000+ srs.

On a happier note I have been able to reclaim Bidoof, Kakuna, Nidoking and Zebstrika

 

[Tsukuyomi56]

Shiny Oddish in Sapphire, since the encounter was in a Safari Zone you cannot weaken it. Broke out of a few Safari Balls so I tossed a Poke Block to increase the chance of it sticking around. RNG decided it was a good time for the Oddish to choose to flee. It was only in Gen 6 that was I able to reclaim it.

 

[artichoke91]

I saw a shiny Mighyena in Emerald and a shiny Growlithe in HeartGold. You can probably guess what happened - both used Roar very quickly.

Thank goodness Roar's mechanics have changed these days.

 

[Crimson Penguin]

I've failed four shinies in the past (well, one was an "intentional" fail, I'll get to that in a minute):

First one was way back in 2007 or 2008, in Diamond version. I'm training up my team on Stark Mountain when a shiny Camerupt shows up. All my team were level 80+ at the time and easily would have knocked it out, so I tried to weaken it first with Roserade's Toxic (teenage me somehow still didn't know you can catch Pokemon at full health...). On the turn before I was going to throw a ball, I misclicked and hit Mega Drain. : (

Second one was probably about a year later, this time in Platinum. I'd just discovered what EVs were and had taken my Shuckle into the Maniac Cave for some Defense training. It wasn't very long before I came upon a shiny Geodude. I tried weakening it again and suddenly remembered, "Crap, I hope it doesn't know -"

"Geodude used Selfdestruct!"

At least I was able to miraculously reclaim it in a horde battle years later (the shiny was faster and killed all the others with Magnitude 10). I still don't know how that happened.

Third one was a shiny Timburr in my Japanese copy of Black. I used my Sandile's Bite (or Assurance, I don't remember) to bring it down by about 1/3 of its health. I was terrified I'd get a critical hit on the next turn, so I used Sand Tomb, thinking it would be weak enough for Timburr to survive. It didn't. To add insult to injury: my Sandile was also shiny. I'd caught it only 2 days before.

And finally, the intentional fail: I was trying to catch a Terrakion for my VGC 2011 team. I'd actually found a shiny one in less than 50 SRs on my White version, so I was using my Black copy to have another chance at a competitive one. After a couple days of SR'ing, I found another shiny, but it didn't have the stats I wanted, so I reset over it. I still regret that decision, considering I ended up using Landorus on my team instead and I never really did anything in competitive after that. But hey, I still have the first shiny Terrakion...

I've been a shiny hunter for nearly 5 years now, and have managed not to fail anything since then (mostly because I learned to catch things at full health!). I probably just jinxed myself though. : P

 

[abby_ella]

Back in Gen II, I didn't know what a shiny was. Stupid 10 year old me thought it was a glitch, and after ruining my Blue version file by catching a glitch, I ran from a shiny Hoothoot.

To this day, that is the only shiny I have ever encountered. I am not a lucky woman.

 

[Jirachi100]

Soul Silver: Magikarp. Out of excitement, I shook my DS Lite and the game crashed before I had even tried to catch it.
Emerald: Luvdisc and another Pokemon I forgot. I have seen two shinies in the Battle Factory, which means I'm not allowed to have them. I forgot what one of them was.

 

[Minedreigon]

My first shiny fail was the first shiny I ever encountered, a Geodude in the Ruin Maniac’s Cave whilst I was looking for a Hippopotas in my Platinum version. It blew up .-. I did however reclaim this shiny in my Heart Gold version when I was smashing rocks looking for fossils.

My next shiny fail was a Ferroseed in the Friend Safari which I killed with a misclick .-.

Finally and perhaps my most painful shiny fail was a Houndoom in Pearl. I was trying to radar chain one and a shiny patch showed up at chain 9, but I hadn’t prepared for it knowing roar : [ this is the shiny fail I have learned the most from though and I did reclaim it at a later date via MM breeding.

 

[Manchee]

There's only been one shiny that I encountered and did not catch, and it was a Piloswine in Black. My Stoutland hit it once, got it just above halfway, so I used the same attack again thinking it would be super low health after. Instead, my Stoutland managed a critical hit and killed it ;(

 

[Storm the Lycanroc]

Whenever I find a shiny Pokemon its usually by accident. Sad part is when I do find one it's a Pokemon I have no interest in.

 

[WishIhadaManafi5]

Really common and non-exciting ways ahoy

Shiny Exeggcute that fled in the Safari Zone, and shiny Caterpie at the beginning of the game before you could have Pokéballs.

I guess if I miss another shiny, it'll be one of those two scenarios again, or something like a Pokémon that can selfdestruct while I don't have a Master Ball, idk.

Ran into a similar one in the Safari Zone. Soul Silver... a shiny Weezing. Son of a gun fled. Wanted to get it so bad.

 

[WishIhadaManafi5]

lol, I was so disappointed too. Like 11 year old me knew what shinies were, but didn't have any. Then I find that Exeggcute and get super excited, only to have it flee after one safari ball. I was quiet for a while after that.

I need to breed for a shiny Exeggcute in a Safari Ball nowadays. Thanks to the ability to pass down balls while breeding I can get a shiny Safari Ball Exeggutor to replace it.

Yea that kind of thing sucks.

Cool. Hope it works out.

 

[Leonhart]

I once encountered a Shiny Nidorino at the Safari Zone in FireRed version, but instead of throwing a Safari Ball at it, I accidentally chucked a rock at it, which caused it to flee.

 

[reedcollins]

I'm super unlucky when it comes to shinies, the only shiny i've ever successfully caught was a shiny crabrawler. My least favorite shiny story was my first shiny encounter in pokemon alpha sapphire, I barely realized that the machop that popped out of the tall grass was shiny, I freaked out because I was so excited, and then I realized I didn't have any pokeballs in my bag. It was horrid. Lets just say I've learned my lesson and I make sure I have plenty of pokeballs on me at all times.