Shiny Pokémon are everywhere in Scarlet and Violet’s Area Zero—but so many are broken

For post-game content in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, some of the most avid players hunt for rare shiny Pokémon, who have a different color scheme than their normal counterparts. The end-game Area Zero is no different for finding shinies, but collecting them is near impossible.

Due to a multitude of bugs, mostly related to spawn locations, some shiny Pokémon have been left to roam Area Zero freely, spawning in areas you can’t catch them no matter how hard you try. This includes both Paradox Pokémon like the Iron Valiant, but also some of the classic ones like Chansey, shiny versions included.

This Reddit post is a key example of that, specifically with a spawn that blocks the teleportation pads in Area Zero. In this case, the Redditor got a shiny Chansey but could only watch it before having to leave it be.

It gets even worse the more you look into it. One of the comments brought up a sad point, that this bug only occurs with Pokémon that you missed picking up earlier, or a Pokémon in your party. So, the person who posted this missed the chance to catch a shiny Chansey earlier in his playthrough, with the game reminding him, unintentionally, in the most taunting way possible.

Another example, though not in the Reddit thread, is the Iron Valiant. This Paradox Pokémon, based on fan-favorite Gallade, has notoriously been tough to catch for some players. Due to bugs involving spawn rates, some players will struggle to find Iron Valiant in their save file, if at all. If you can’t even catch them normally, well, there goes your chance of getting a shiny version, which takes hours of grinding spawn rates.

Related: Shiny Pokémon can spawn out of bounds because Scarlet and Violet is still broken

Out of all the locations in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, Area Zero still looks to be the most bug-filled in a game that has already featured so many of them since its release. This isn’t the first time shiny hunters have expressed their frustrations about the game, but these two recent examples just add more to the list of things to squash.