Pokemon Sword & Shield: Drastically Increase Your Shiny Chances | 'Masuda Method' Egg Farming Guide

The ‘Masuda Method’ returns in Pokemon Sword & Shield, and if you’re a returning player, it’s pretty important to learn about this weird little quirk of Pokémon history. Not only will this help you breed Pokémon infinitely, it also increases your chances of getting a shiny Pokémon by a huge margin.

The ‘Masuda Method’ is a fan-term for breeding Pokémon and increasing your chances of getting a shiny egg. It’s named after Game Freak director Junichi Masuda, and has been a constant presence since Generation 4 of the mainline Pokemon series.

The ‘method’ itself isn’t actually going to be our main focus here. It’s extremely simple — by breeding Pokémon from two different countries together, you’re much more likely to get a Shiny. There’s a variation to this method that makes Pokémon breeding and shiny farming much easier, so let’s talk about that.

More Pokémon Sword & Shield guides:

Drastically Increase Your Shiny Chances | ‘Masuda Method’ Egg Breeding Guide

The ‘Masuda Method‘ is a feature included in the main Pokémon series since Pokemon Diamond & Pearl. By breeding Pokémon from two different countries, you’ll increase your chances of getting a Shiny Egg. You can obtain Pokemon from other countries through online trading.

To make this method much, much easier, you’ll want to obtain a Ditto. Ditto is Genderless, and can breed with any Pokémon in the game. The tricky part is finding a Ditto from another country — your best bet is a Japanese Ditto.

How To Breed Pokémon: Simple! Just drop off two Pokémon of the same species at a Pokemon Nursery. One is located on Route 5, and another is in the Wilds, in Bridge Field.

Ditto is your best friend when it comes to breeding. You only need one species — Ditto can breed with anyone, so getting a foreign Ditto means you’ll be able to farm eggs endlessly.

How To Catch A Ditto: Ditto are a rare drop that you can only find in the Wilds, in the Lake of Outrage area. They can help you breed Pokémon, but only a Ditto from another country will increase your Shiny chances.

There are tons of online resources you can use to get a Japanese Ditto. They can be from any country — there are two ways you can tell if your Pokémon is foreign; the name is in another language (duh!) or look on the Summary Page. It will tell you what country your Pokémon came from if it’s in English.

How To Get A Japanese Ditto:

There are online resources to help! Before trading for a Japanese Ditto, make sure to catch an English Ditto in the Lake of Outrage — Japanese players are looking for foreign Dittos too! They’ll happily trade so they can do the Masuda Method.

Search for “メタモン” on the following websites to find Ditto trades.
- That’s the Japanese name for Ditto.

Use Japanese websites to directly trade English Ditto for Japanese Ditto. Credit goes to Redditor u/TheSippyCup for sharing this method.

Go [HERE] or [HERE] for direct Pokémon trading boards. Copy / paste this phrase to request a trade!
- "出　海外産メタモン求　日本語メタモン ####"
- The “####” is the trade room number. Make sure to fill in the room number yourself!

You don’t need to make an account to post comments on either of these websites. Once you have a Ditto from a language that isn’t your own, you’ll be able to start breeding Pokémon easily and having increased Shiny Egg chances.