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Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen have been on Switch for over a week, but many players are still stuck in Oak's Lab trying to get shiny starters: "I'm going to cry"

News
By Anthony McGlynn published 9 March 2026

Shiny hunting is well underway

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Key art for Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen showing Venasaur against a swirling green background, cropped for a header image
(Image credit: Nintendo, The Pokemon Company, Game Freak)
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If you're lucky enough, there's a small chance you'll get a shiny version of one of the starters upon beginning your journey in Pokemon LeafGreen and FireRed. It's a lottery, and even though the odds are slim, winning it has led players to a prison of their own making by resetting the Switch version over and over and over to finally get a win.

The two games arrived on Nintendo system on February 26, less than two weeks ago, and there are people who've spent most of that time trapped in Professor Oak's laboratory, playing through the initial dialog ad nauseum. Their hope is to eventually land on a shiny pocket monster when it comes time to pick their starting companion, and to be fair to the truly diehard, they're succeeding.

"Now I can play the game," one player posted on Reddit, revealing they'd done a ludicrous 12,108 soft resets to get their shiny Bulbasaur. "Finally got the shiny bald lizard," another fan exclaims, after sinking 84 hours into earning the coveted shiny firebreather.

Article continues below
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After 84 hours 😭 from r/PokemonLeafGreen

Sadly, one member of the community stumbled on a shiny Squirtle, easily the most pleasing to the eye, with his green shell, and reset out of impulse. "I'm going to cry," they posted. I would too, absolutely hard luck, and absolutely a mistake I'd be prone to. Muscle memory is hard to negate.

Shinies were introduced back in Silver and Gold, as particularly rare versions of the monsters we know and love. They have an alternate color scheme, and the only way to get them is by finding and catching them - you can't grow or evolve one. Hence, dedicated trainers take it upon themselves to find them at any and every opportunity.

Even if the process is maddening. "It has been 40 hours," another player posts. "Am still at Oaks. I wanna get out and starting to doubt myself." Whether you consider this worthwhile is very much up to you.

Pokemon and Palworld clones are officially out of hand, as fans react to "lawsuitmaxxing" new game Pickmon and its "straight up rip-offs" of iconic 'mons like Charizard

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CATEGORIES
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Anthony McGlynn
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Anthony is an Irish entertainment and games journalist, now based in Glasgow. He previously served as Senior Anime Writer at Dexerto and News Editor at The Digital Fix, on top of providing work for Variety, IGN, Den of Geek, PC Gamer, and many more. Besides Studio Ghibli, horror movies, and The Muppets, he enjoys action-RPGs, heavy metal, and pro-wrestling. He interviewed Animal once, not that he won’t stop going on about it or anything.

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