Shiny-locked Legendaries leak leaves Scarlet and Violet The Indigo Disk players pissed

A heap of legendary Pokémon have returned in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet in The Indigo Disk DLC but datamines suggest there is bad news for shiny hunters.

Trailers for The Indigo Disk revealed the presence of legendary Pokémon from past titles, including Groudon, Lugia, Zekrom, Rayquaza, and Kubfu—but it seems you won’t be able to boost your shiny collection. Players had hoped the return of legendary Pokémon would work similarly to their introduction in Sword and Shield’s The Crown Tundra DLC, where legendaries could be encountered in raids and could be farmed until a Shiny appeared.

That approach will seemingly not work in The Indigo Disk, however, as dataminers have discovered that the legendaries will instead be shiny locked—leading to players expressing their frustration at the situation.

On Reddit, one player said they were “baffled” by the choice, particularly given the excitement that arose for the return of legendary Pokémon after their appearance in the trailer, and labeled it “another poor decision when it comes to GameFreak.” Others chimed in with similar sentiments, raising concern for the future as the approach “sets a bad precedent for the next games” and that “there’s really no point in them doing it”. Some were harsher with their criticism, declaring it was proof “the Pokémon Company doesn’t care about its fans.”

Although many diehard shiny hunters may have already added a heap of shiny legendaries to their collection in Sword and Shield, the apparent shiny-locked situation in The Indigo Disk is particularly gutting as it means the wait to be able to obtain certain shiny Pokémon continues.

The likes of Kubfu, the Galarian forms of the three legendary birds, Glastrier, and Spectrier were all introduced in Sword and Shield’s DLCs with shiny locks yet were teased as being available in The Indigo Disk—leading to hope their shiny forms would be available for the first time. That doesn’t seem to be the case though and it may directly affect the long-term playability of Scarlet and Violet, as it has removed a key selling point for fans.