Pokemon FireRed and Pokemon LeafGreen arrived on Nintendo Switch on February 26, and for most players that meant finally revisiting Pallet Town, taking on the Elite Four, and reliving one of the most beloved entries in the franchise. For a dedicated subset of the community, though, the past two weeks have looked very different. These players haven't made it past Professor Oak's laboratory.
They're not stuck because the game is hard. They're stuck by choice, locked in an endless loop of soft resets, sitting through the same opening dialogue again and again, all in pursuit of a shiny starter Pokemon.
Thousands of Resets, One Tiny Chance
Here's the thing about shiny hunting at the start of FireRed and LeafGreen: the odds are brutal. Shiny Pokemon carry an alternate color scheme and can only be obtained by finding them naturally. You cannot breed or evolve your way into one. That means the only path to a shiny Bulbasaur, Charmander, or Squirtle at the start of the game is resetting until the game rolls in your favor.
The community has been documenting the grind on Reddit, and the numbers are staggering:
- One player completed 12,108 soft resets before landing a shiny Bulbasaur, posting "Now I can play the game" once the ordeal was finally over.
- Another trainer spent 84 hours in Oak's lab before securing a shiny Charmander, celebrated by the community with over 400 upvotes.
- A third player posted after 40 hours with no success: "Am still at Oaks. I wanna get out and starting to doubt myself."
The most painful story comes from a player who actually found a shiny Squirtle, complete with its distinctive green shell coloring, only to reset out of reflex before registering what had appeared on screen. "I'm going to cry," they posted on Reddit. Muscle memory, it turns out, is a formidable enemy when you've been resetting for hours on end.
Why Players Keep Coming Back to the Lab
The key here is understanding what drives this kind of commitment. Shiny hunting is one of the oldest and most enduring traditions in the Pokemon community. It requires no special tools, no exploits, and no shortcuts. It's pure repetition and patience, which makes the eventual payoff feel genuinely earned.
The Switch version of FireRed and LeafGreen has brought a new generation of players to these games while also giving veteran trainers a fresh opportunity to chase the shinies they never caught the first time around. The soft reset mechanic is straightforward on Switch hardware, making the process accessible even if the odds remain punishing.
What most players miss when watching from the outside is that the shiny hunt isn't just about the Pokemon itself. It's about the story that comes with it. Twelve thousand resets, 84 hours, a Squirtle lost to instinct. These aren't just statistics. They're the kind of gaming moments that stick with you.
For everyone else who just wants to explore Kanto without the self-imposed marathon, the games are right there waiting. The choice, as always, is entirely yours.
Source: Inkl
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Can you get a shiny starter in Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen on Switch?
Yes. There is a small chance that the starter Pokemon offered by Professor Oak will appear as a shiny variant. Players can soft reset the game repeatedly until a shiny version appears, though the odds are very low and the process can take dozens of hours.
What is a shiny Pokemon?
Shiny Pokemon are rare variants that feature an alternate color scheme compared to their standard versions. They were introduced in Pokemon Gold and Silver and have appeared in every mainline game since. The only way to obtain one is by encountering it naturally, as shininess cannot be passed through evolution or breeding from a non-shiny parent in the classic games.
When did Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen release on Nintendo Switch?
Pokemon FireRed and Pokemon LeafGreen launched on Nintendo Switch on February 26.
