Alright then, seeing as though quite a few hunters here are unaware of what Soft Resetting is, allow me to enlighten you:
Soft Resetting (abbreviated as SRing) is an incredibly widespread and arguably the most reliable way of obtaining shinies. As a lot of you know, the chances of obtaining shinies is 1/8192. This seems very difficult, but in reality, if you have a lot of dedication (and a lot of luck), you can obtain them in the end. It involves saving by something (such as a starter Pokemon or a Legendary), then checking whether they are shiny or not in some way (usually through a battle, although some you can just check the summary of them when you obtain them), and if they are not shiny, you press a combination of 4 buttons (Start, Select, A and B on the GBA games and Start, Select, L and R on the DS games) and that combination sends you to the title screen, where you can then check their shinyness again, and you repeat that until you obtain the shiny. Please note that starters do not appear shiny in their picture as you select them (except in HG/SS), you have to check their summary or start a battle with them to check their shinyness. The same is also true for legendaries, except you always have to battle them to check their shinyness. Even in HG/SS, legendaries never appear shiny in the overworld. Also, don't make the mistake of assuming a shiny is guaranteed with 8192 SRs, as it isn't. Quite a lot of the time, we have to do over 10,000 SRs to get what we want, and in some cases, it can take over 20,000! If you find SRing by itself boring, try SRing why you're watching something on Youtube, whether it be films, TV programmes, or even videos of other shiny successes (I myself do the latter lol, making playlists of shiny videos really helps).
Hope that answered a few questions and concerns for you all! =D
Shiny-related, I've been hunting for Darkrai as much as I possibly can with the time I'm given, yet it hasn't shone for me just yet. With me having obtained my long sought-after shiny Charmander yesterday afternoon, I'm reconvinced that my Platinum isn't broken RNG wise (it better not be), and that it can produce shinies normally, with me thinking that the game's just being stubborn. Hopefully, I can get Darkrai soon so that I can move on to getting new WiFi (my current WiFi is busted, I need to fix it so that I can get Oaks Letter), hunting for Shaymin, and restarting Platinum. Good luck to you all, I hope that Helio gets her shiny Suicune soon, and that those of you who are working particularly hard get your shinies soon!
