Pokemon player loses Shiny Legendary after making “painful” mistake

Kurt Perry
amoonguss in Pokemon Sword & Shield about to kill shiny regieleki thanks to its effect sport ability.

A trainer shiny hunting in Pokemon Sword & Shield missed out on a shiny Regieleki after their Amoonguss’ ability poisoned the electric golem immediately killing it.

Shiny hunting is one of the most popular end-game pass times that Pokemon players partake in. It involves picking a Pokemon you like and then searching for its Shiny, an extremely rare discolored variant.

Without any bonuses, the rate of encountering a Shiny Pokemon in the newer games is 1 in 4096. However, it’s not uncommon for trainers to go dry and spend well over ten hours looking for a single Pokemon.

Even after encountering a Shiny you still need to catch it. Without the right preparation, you can throw away hours of work which is exactly what happened to one unfortunate trainer Shiny hunting Regieleki in Gen 8.

Amoonguss kills Shiny Regieleki teaching Pokemon trainer a lesson

A Pokemon player accidentally killed a Shiny Regieleki after Effect Spore was triggered on Amoonguss. The Regieleki was poisoned by the ability following an Extreme Speed and fainted shortly after.

The loss was unfortunate as the trainer wasn’t using Amoonguss as their main Pokemon to catch Regieleki. Instead, they switched in Amoonguss for a turn to use Spore and put the Regieleki to sleep.

Even worse, Effect Spore only has a 33% chance of inflicting poison instead of paralysis or sleep. Neither of the other two possible status conditions would have resulted in Regieleki’s death.

When a Pokemon is asleep their catch rate increases drastically. In this scenario using Premier Balls, the Regieleki’s catch success chance would have roughly doubled, increasing from 3.57% per throw to 7.1%.

Pokemon’s Reddit community was emotionally damaged by the heartbreaking encounter with one user describing it as “the most painful video ever.”

Others in the community used the opportunity to lecture OP on how to avoid falling prey to such a fate again.

One such comment read: “As someone who’s lost a Legendary, my advice is to do two or three test captures to familiarize yourself with the situation so when the time comes you’re ready.”

Other trainers were critical of their choice of Pokemon saying: “Never have Amoongus with effect spore, gamers,” and “Or a Breloom with effect spore. Or any Pokémon with effect spore. Gamers, you don’t need the effect, you only need Spore.”

Not letting themselves get too disheartened by Regieleki’s death the poster has already made plans to start the shiny hunt again. Here’s to a few more weeks of listening to cries over and over while hunting Pokemon’s fastest monster.

About The Author

Kurt Perry is a British games writer who started at Dexerto in April 2023. He graduated from Staffordshire University in 2019 with a BA in Games Journalism and PR. Prior to joining Dexerto, Kurt contributed 900 articles for PC Invasion including over 350 guides. He's an all-rounder who is particularly knowledgeable about Call of Duty, Destiny, and Pokemon.