After launch Pokemon Legends: ZAthe player will not discover evidence that Mareep is Shiny Locked until one of the game's first side missions is completed. While most creatures found in Pokemon Legends: ZA can be Shiny right from the start, fortunately it doesn't take much time to unlock Shiny Mareep.
Known as the Woolly Pokémon, Mareep first appeared in pokemon gold and silver. Mareep is an Electric-type sheep Pokémon that can be found throughout the Johto region. Mareep later evolves into Flaaffy and Ampharos through leveling. Mareep's shiny variant has pink wool rather than yellow, and her body is a slightly darker shade of blue than normal. A shiny Mareep is guaranteed to appear during the 17″ side mission Pokemon Legends: ZAwhere trainers must climb onto the roof to find a pink woolly Pokémon waiting in plain sight.
Unlocking Shiny Mareep in Pokemon Legends: ZA requires several steps
While most Pokémon can appear as their shiny variants out of the box, this is not the case with Mareep v Pokemon Legends: ZA. A Twitter user named Anubis stated that Mareep is Shiny Locked until side mission 17 titled “A Shiny Mareep?” is completed. Using the debugger built into devkitPro, Anubis shared a video that proved that Mareep located throughout Wild Zone 1 cannot be shiny until the mission ends.
While the Shiny Mareep from side mission 17 can be easily caught after you weaken it and throw a Poke Ball, catching it is not necessary for the next Shiny Mareep to spawn from that point on. Anubis also confirmed that two other creatures would appear during Pokemon Legends: ZA's tutorial, Fletchling and Bunnelby were also Shiny Locked during their first encounters. However, both Pokémon are subsequently revealed to be unlocked by Shiny after completing their tutorials.
Shiny hunting is usually a daunting task in most cases Pokemon titles, as the probability of encountering them in most situations is 1 in 4,096, or about 0.02%. in addition Pokemon Legends: ZA it has audio and visual cues to indicate when a shiny pokemon appears on the screen. The chance of encountering a Shiny Pokémon can also be increased by obtaining a Shiny Charm, though this effort requires completing the game's Pokedex and winning 1,000 battles.
Although mistakes can be made in Shiny Hunting Pokemon Legends: ZAunlocking Shiny Mareep is a simple task compared to chasing down other Pokémon in Lumiose's Wild Zones. Whether future Pokemon titles will follow suit by tying the appearance of certain Shiny Pokémon to early game missions remains to be seen.
- Released
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October 16, 2025
- ESRB
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Everyone 10+ / Fantasy violence, in-game purchases
