Pokemon Sword & Shield player’s Shiny battle sabotaged by Joy-Con drift
Game Freak / The Pokemon CompanyA Pokemon Sword & Shield player went viral online after sharing their tragic Shiny encounter. The trainer’s attempt to catch an insanely rare Legendary monster was ruined by an infamous Nintendo Switch Joy-Con issue.
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On October 22, Pokemon Sword & Shield got its second major expansion DLC, The Crown Tundra. The update debuted the Dynamax Adventures mode, and brought a host of popular Legendaries to the eighth generation RPG.
The add-on also introduced a new Legendary titan, Regieleki. However, a Trainer’s attempt to catch the insanely rare Shiny version of the ‘mon fell to pieces when their Switch Joy-Con began to bug out at the worst timing possible.
Game Freak / The Pokemon CompanyPokemon player’s Shiny hunt ruined by Joy-Con drift
In 2019, many Switch owners began to experience the infamous “drift” problem, which results in their Joy-Con moving their character in-game on its own. The complaints became so widespread that a class-action lawsuit was filed against Nintendo.
Unfortunately for one Pokemon Trainer, the issue ended up sabotaging their attempt to catch a Shiny version of the Electric-type Regieleki. The player went viral on Reddit on November 15 after sharing their tragic story.
User ‘Juviatail’ uploaded a video of the nightmare-inducing moment, and exclaimed “after thousands of encounters I get screwed over by my joy con drift.” The clip showed them encountering the Shiny version of the Legendary, however instead of clicking attack like they intended, their cursor quickly moves down to “run.”
To add salt to the wound, the fan revealed that this would have been their first time capturing such a rare Pokemon. “This ruined my day it would have been my first ever legendary shiny,” they explained on the forum.
The moment is made all the more tragic since Regieleki is a special overworld encounter. Meaning players have to hard-reset their game over and over until the Legendary monster spawns as a Shiny. The rates can be as low as 1 in every 4096 encounters, unless you have a special charm.
If nothing else, the horrific story is a good reminder to be careful if you have Joy-Con drift. In June, Nintendo’s President Shuntaro Furukawa addressed the hardware issue, stating, “we apologize for any trouble caused to our customers” – which now includes this poor Sword & Shield Trainer.