Shiny Porygon Guide: A Delightful Digital Shiny Pokemon

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Callum Marshall

Callum is POK Universe's Managing Editor and a long-time-fan of the Pokémon series. He's a Gen-One kid at heart with a huge bias towards the first three generations. However, after reengaging with Pokémon XY, he has caught up with the pack and has absorbed all there is to know with regards to Pokémon, including some very interesting fan-made ROM Hacks!

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Pokemon is one of the best-known franchises in the world. Even if you ask a casual fan of gaming, anime, child-friendly television, trading cards, or avid collectors.

They’ll be able to tell you something about Pokemon. It’s a series that has maintained its global appeal for over twenty-five years now, consistently producing new content year on year, adding new Pokemon to the roster, bolstering the move pool with new moves, and many other new additions.

However, as this series has constantly asked fans to add more and more knowledge to their already stuffed brains, we as Pokemon fans have struggled to keep up with the consistent growth of the series. So that’s where we come in. We have produced a series of helpful guides, allowing you to learn all there is to know about one Pokemon at a time. Meaning that if you take the time to scan these guides, you’ll never be caught with your pants down in a battle.

In this Shiny Porygon guide, we take a look specifically at the shiny variant of the Pokemon, Porygon. This digital Pokemon is one of the most unique and longest-serving Pokemon in the series. So allow us to fill you in on what makes their shiny version so special. Here is our essential guide for Shiny Porygon.

What is Porygon?

Porygon is a virtual Pokemon that was first introduced to the series in the first-ever Pokemon generation. This Pokemon was obtainable within Pokemon Red and Blue by winning enough coins at the Game Corner.

In terms of appearance, this Pokemon sort of looks like it’s been made from paper maché. However, the sharp edges of this Pokemon are supposed to represent polygons within character design, which is more of a sign of the times than anything else.

The Pokemon has a pink and blue color scheme, and in terms of body composition, the Pokemon resembles an origami bird. The head is a polyhedron shape, the body is a polyhedron as well, the eyes are hexagonal, the two feet are triangular prism shapes and the tail is a rectangular prism. In short, the Pokemon is a very geometrical creature.

Then to give you some background on this truly unique Pokemon. This creature is the first-ever artificially made Pokemon in the series. This Pokemon was supposedly created on Cinnabar Island twenty years before the events of Pokemon Red and Blue, using the best technology of the era to program this Pokemon into existence.

This Pokemon does not eat, drink or sleep as it is essentially made up of data, however, it will accept food from trainers if offered. The Pokemon has been used within the Pokemon universe to scour cyberspace searching for harmful or suspicious data, so you will often find this Pokemon in labs, offices, and other areas where technology is key.

This Pokemon’s signature moves are Sharpen, Conversion, and Conversion 2. Plus, this Pokemon has the ability to detach its limbs and head if needed. This was supposedly programmed as a means of copyright protection so that the Pokemon could not be replicated by other entities.

This Pokemon is number 137 in the Pokedex, is 0.8 meters tall, weighs around 36.5 kilograms, has a medium to fast leveling rate, and has a catch rate of 11.9%.

Here is a video of Porygon in action so you can see exactly what this virtual Pokemon can do within cyberspace:

What is a Shiny Pokemon?

Now that we have a firm grasp on what the Pokemon Porygon is all about, we should now discuss what makes up a shiny Pokemon. So the important thing to remember about shiny Pokemon is that they aren’t all that different from their standard counterparts. In terms of design and structure, they are basically the same. In terms of move pools, stats, abilities, and attributes, the Pokemon are also identical.

The only real difference between the two models is the fact that the shiny Pokemon will have a different color palette than the standard model. This means that aesthetically, the shiny will stand out and often offer a fun and stylish change to the Pokemon we know and love.

These Pokemon are essentially in-game novelties that fans love to collect. However, in battle, these Pokemon offer no advantage to the trainer. What they do offer though, are bragging rights. These Pokemon are extremely rare too. You will only naturally encounter a shiny Pokemon every one in 4096 encounters.

This used to be 8192 encounters but the lovely people over at Game Freak decided to cut the odds in half for gamers in recent generations. In short, these Pokemon are flashy, very rare commodities within the world of Pokemon and well worth hunting down.

What is a Shiny Porygon?

Now, let’s discuss the shiny variant of the Pokemon Porygon. With this Pokemon being a digital piece of code, you would think that this Pokemon could alter itself to be anything it likes, but alas, we only get one alternative design for this Pokemon.

The shiny model for this Pokemon is hardly the most complex of all shinies available, however, it’s quite a fun design. The pink color has been swapped for a royal blue. Whereas the baby blue has been swapped for a rich purple color.

Overall, it’s a design that is distinctly different from the original which is a plus. We appreciate the alternate colors that have been used as well. The only downside is that the design reads as very simplistic, much like a lot of the first generation shiny Pokemon. However, there is always the option to evolve this Pokemon, but more on that later.

How to Catch a Shiny Porygon

The problem with hunting a shiny Porygon down is that in most of the Pokemon titles that exist, this Pokemon can only be obtained as a gift or a prize. This means that it is always an instanced, gifted Pokemon and limits the ability to try multiple times to encounter this Pokemon.

In games such as Fire Red and Leaf Green as well as the original titles, you could buy as many as you like from the game corner. However, you would have to earn enough to do this every time, which is obscenely time-consuming.

There were also other instances where you would be handed this Pokemon like in Ultra Sun and Moon, Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee, Pokemon Platinum, and Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, but this only opened up the option for save manipulation, which isn’t all that time-efficient either.

Thankfully, there are two games where you can find this Pokemon in the wild and that is Pokemon Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby. This Pokemon is available on Mirage Island in these titles and makes finding this shiny much less of a chore. So with that in mind, here are some helpful tips and methods that you can use to make this Pokemon yours:

Masuda Method

If you don’t have access to Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby, this is your best bet of getting your hands on a Shiny Porygon. This involves breeding Pokemon from different real-world locations. All you need to do is find a Porygon, Porygon2, Porygon-Z, or a Ditto that is from a different region to your own. So this might be Europe and North America for example. Then simply breed these two Pokemon and your odds will drop from 4096/1 to a much lower 600/1.

Dex Nav Hunting

If you do have access to Alpha Sapphire or Omega Ruby, your Dex Nav is your friend. What you’ll want to do to make this method work is using your Dex Nav to control the Pokemon that you battle and make sure that it is a Porygon on every occasion.

When you encounter a Pokemon, this begins a chain, and the more times you find this Pokemon, the better your odds of the next one being a shiny becomes. Just make sure not to catch or kill any of the Pokemon you encounter as this will break the chain. If you do this well, the odds of you encountering a shiny can drop to very low triple digits, so make the most of this option.

Shiny Charm

Then if you want to cut your odds by a third more, you can use the shiny charm. This is an end-game item that is awarded to the player for beating the game. This will cut your odds drastically and stacks on top of the aforementioned effects of the methods listed. So be sure to hunt shinies post story for the best results.

Does Porygon Evolve?

Back in the first generation of the Pokemon series, Porygon was not a Pokemon that could evolve. However, like a lot of earlier Pokemon in the series, this creature has been given the ability to evolve in later generations, with not one but two unique evolutions. These are Porygon2 and Porygon-Z.

Porygon2 was introduced in the second generation of the Pokemon series and has a much more rounded and shimmering appearance. Whereas Porygon-Z was introduced in generation four, is an evolution of Porygon2, is a detached and slightly deranged version of Porygon2, and serves as the final form for this Pokemon.

To evolve your Porygon you will need to trade this Pokemon while it is holding the item, Upgrade. Whereas, if you want to evolve your Porygon2, you will need to trade this Pokemon while holding the Dubious Disk.

Should I Evolve My Shiny Porygon?

We always approach this question from an aesthetic and a battling perspective. In terms of visual splendor, we really can’t separate these three designs. The color scheme used for each shiny model is identical and the designs themselves have no real distinguishing factors to stand apart from the rest.

So we would say this would be down to the trainer’s preference when comparing the aesthetic of the actual Pokemon themselves rather than their shiny models. If it came down to this, we would probably choose the original Porygon on nostalgia alone. However, that’s subjective and you are entitled to tell us how we are wrong.

The ability of these Pokemon in battle on the other hand has a much more clear winner. Porygon2 is the most competitive Porygon of the three thanks to the tactics you can employ with this Pokemon in your party. You can have this Pokemon hold Eviolite which makes this Pokemon more of a tank.

This Pokemon is proficient at raising its special attack to deal significant damage. Plus, this Pokemon has the ability to recover, making it a self-sufficient and defensively adept, all-rounder.

Porygon-Z also has its place competitively, being the more offensive of the two. However, there are more ways to take down this offensive build. Whereas the defense of Porygon2 will stand up against most opponents. So this is why Porygon2 would be our overall choice of these three Pokemon.

Get Them Before They’re Porygon!

As you can see from the information above, Porygon is a rather rare and very desirable shiny Pokemon. This digital creature has a solid design, three evolutions to choose from, has the potential to be a very good defensive battler. Plus, if you get the hold of one of these, you’ll be able to brag to all your pals about getting your hands on one of the rarest shinies around. So be sure to catch this one if given the chance.

FAQs

Final Thoughts

So that is our essential guide giving you all the info you could ever need concerning the Pokemon, Shiny Porygon. What did you make of this guide? Was this guide helpful and informative for you? Are there any other shiny Pokemon that you would like us to cover in a guide? Let us know in the comments section below and as always, thank you for reading.