A recently discovered Pokémon Legends: Z-A trick allows players to clone shiny Pokémon, effectively giving them a way to offer some great trades to friends. Shiny Pokémon continue to be a rarity in Pokémon Legends: Z-A, but this trick makes filling up rosters with colorful variants a little easier.

While Mega Evolutions in Pokémon Legends: Z-A play a crucial role, hunting shiny Pokémon is still a popular activity among fans. With a base encounter rate of one in 4,096, shiny Pokémon are far from common in the new action RPG, but the game does give players a helping hand in shiny hunting, as a shiny Pokémon will not normally despawn if the player leaves the area, passes out, or fails to catch it without knocking it out.

How To Duplicate Shiny Pokémon in Pokémon Legends: Z-A

1. Locate a shiny Pokémon.
2. Draw aggression and run away until it stops following you.
3. Save, quit, and restart the game.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3, ensuring the shiny Pokémon ends up at least 70 meters from its original spawn point.
5. Catch the shiny Pokémon.
6. Return to the original spawn point.

In order for Pokémon Legends: Z-A shiny hunters to take advantage of this duplication trick, which was shared by Austin John Plays’ YouTube channel, players need to encounter a shiny Pokémon at its spawn location, then draw its aggression and run away. If no other wild Pokémon are acting aggressively towards the player once the shiny Pokémon drops aggro and begins to return to its spawn point, players should immediately save and quit the game. After restarting, the shiny Pokémon should be where it was when the players left off, but it will no longer return to its spawn point. Players need to draw its aggression again, lead it a minimum of 70 meters from its spawn point, and repeat the save, quit, and restart process.

After repeating these steps, players should be safe to throw any of Pokémon Legends: Z-A’s Poke Balls at the shiny Pokémon and catch it. Upon returning to the spawn point, players should find an exact clone of the shiny Pokémon they just caught waiting there, meaning it will have the same stats, nature, moves, and IV values.

Players should theoretically be able to use this rinse-and-repeat exploit to create as many shiny clones as they want, but they should probably only keep one of each, trading the rest away. The Pokémon Home service can detect cloned Pokémon in a user’s inventory and usually deletes them. While Pokémon Home was not compatible with Pokémon Legends: Z-A at launch, its support is expected to be added by 2026.