Star’s guide to Masuda Hunting in Scarlet and Violet
So. You want to masuda hunt in Scarlet and Violet. But you don’t know where to start or you’re confused about how it actually works. Well I made a little guide to hopefully help you get started!
Note that this guide is 100% beginner friendly so if you’re already familiar with some aspects feel free to skip some stuff!
What is a masuda hunt and how is it different from an egg hunt?
An egg hunt is when you breed two compatible Pokemon from the same region, this hunt does not have raised shiny odds.
A masuda hunt is when you breed two compatible Pokemon from different regions, which drastically raise the odds to 1 in 683 without the shiny charm and 1 in 512 with the shiny charm. The key to this hunting method is the parents of the Pokemon.
The regions in the game are tied to the languages. For example, if you put your game in French then all the Pokemon you catch are set to be French as well. So you can trade for a Pokemon from *any* other region to masuda hunt.
To breed in Scarlet and Violet, you need to set up a picnic with the Pokemon you’re breeding in your team. Make sure you don’t accidentally have another Pokemon in your team that’s compatible with the Pokemon you’re breeding. You need a male and female Pokemon, and the child will be the female’s species. Except for breeding with a Ditto, which can breed with any Pokemon regardless of gender and whose eggs always are the non-Ditto species.
Once you set up it becomes a simple waiting game, just sit by the picnic basket next to the table and occasionally check.
How do I know if my Pokemon can breed?
You can check to see if Pokemon are compatible by looking up their egg groups, Pokemon need to be in the same egg group in order to breed. Unless like mentioned before it’s Ditto. There’s also the no eggs discovered egg group, which can’t breed. This includes baby pokemon, legendaries, (most) mythicals and special Pokemon like the paradoxes.
But this is really slow, can I make it quicker?
Yes you can! And I’d recommend you do because it is very slow to hunt, especially in Scarlet and Violet since half the hunt is simply sitting still collecting eggs.
The first way to speed things up is to use a sandwich with egg power. This increases the amount of eggs you get and decreases the steps needed to hatch them.
I personally wouldn’t recommend wasting herba mystica on an egg power lvl 3 sandwich, but there’s a great lvl 2 one! #17, the great peanut butter sandwich. All it takes is banana, butter and peanut butter so it’s really low cost for the boost you get. Just make them before collecting eggs, and make them before hatching them.
The second way to speed things up is with specific abilities. If you put a Pokemon with Flame Body, Steam Engine or Magma Armor in your party it halves the steps needed to hatch eggs.
Though do note that some Pokemon require more steps than others to hatch. It still isn’t a fast shiny hunt!
-I’d highly recommend just getting a Ditto from a different region, it’s most common for these hunts! If you’re not sure how, the Pokemon Home app has a GTS. People often put Ditto’s from their own region in there to trade with ones from different regions.
-Don’t hatch them in a place with a lot of “aggressive” Pokemon. They can run up to you while you’re in the hatching animation and force you into a battle.
-You can make things more fun by hunting multiple Pokemon at once! We call this an egg roulette, and it wasn’t possible before SV. Personally I’m shiny hunting the starters by putting a few ones in my team with a Ditto. Just make sure the ones from your region are all the same gender so they don’t breed amongst eachother instead
-You don’t need to have a recipe unlocked to make it. If you have the ingredients, you can make the sandwich in creative mode. This is especially easy for the lvl 2 egg sandwich I mentioned earlier since it’s only 3 ingredients
-You can release multiple pokemon at once via Home! So you're not stuck to slowly releasing them individually
And that’s it! Go out there and hunt and have fun! Feel free to ask me any questions at all, I’m happy to answer them!
Also this is my first time making a guide like this so please lmk how I can improve
