Is a baby "shiny" Pokémon determined at the moment the egg is collected, or when it hatches?

Question

"The contents of a Pokemon egg are generated when you receive it from the Daycare man. All IVs, Nature, Ability, Gender, and Moves are generated when you receive the egg." Source: http://projectpokemon.org/wiki/Pokemon_breeding

However, I'm pretty sure that the OT will be the person who hatches the egg, it is not necessarily the breeder.

So, does anyone know how "shinyness" in eggs works? Is this attribute pre-set within the egg at the moment when I collect it, or is it determined at the moment of hatching?

If the "shinyness" is pre-set inside the egg when I collect it, then in theory, the egg will hatch as a shiny, regardless of whether it is traded to another trainer in another game, right? However, if the "shinyness" is determined at the point of hatching, then the chances of the egg hatching into a shiny would be determined by my friend's game, not mine, so theoretically anything I did in my game to raise the chances of encountering or hatching a shiny Pokémon would have no effect... I was just wondering :)

I want to know because I would like to try to breed a shiny Pokémon egg as a gift for someone, then trade it to them without telling them what is inside, and then they will have a nice surprise when it hatches and it turns out to be shiny!

Answer 1

Yeah. The shinyness is randomly determined by odds whenever an egg is taken. The Matsuda method increases the odds of hatching a shiny very slightly, but it is still basically a random chance when you pick it up.
A method for making sure the egg contains a shiny is to collect one from the day care man, save, ride around until it hatches and if it's a shiny, do a soft reset (turn off without saving) and trade to your friend as an egg for them to hatch themselves, as it's shiny status will the same as when you hatched it. Once an egg is received from the day care man, it's characteristics (nature, iv spread, shinyness etc.) are set regardless of OT. The trouble is, this method can take a while, sometimes.
So basically,yeah, it's shinyness is determined from when you collected it, not when it hatches. Once it's taken from the day care man, it will always hatch with the same stats, nature and (hopefully) shinyness.

Comments

Thank you, I hadn't thought of just hatching it to see, and then doing a soft reset, good idea! Yes good to know that shinyness is determined when you collect it and not at hatching. Thanks :)

Answer 2

No that's not how it works. Even the shiny part is predetermined when the egg is taken from the man. So there would be no way to tell if the egg you had and is giving to another person is shiny.

Comments

I think you misunderstand - what they mean is - you collect the egg from the daycare man, and because the "shinyness" has already been determined - If you were to save and then hatch and the pokemon was shiny - if you were to Soft reset the egg would still be shiny.

Answer 3

Alright, so I know this is like 7 years too late, but hopefully some people will find this useful.

So, while the other answers are correct, there is one slight problem that should probably be addressed. While it is true that everything is pre-determined upon receiving the egg, making, if you saved right before hatching it, then soft-reset over and over again, that Pokemon will always be the same, the reason for that has to do with your trainer ID.

In other words, if you finally find a shiny, and you soft reset, leaving it as an egg, yes, it will be shiny, always. However, if you trade that shiny egg to your friend, it will not (necessarily) be shiny for him/her.

I accidentally hatched a shiny HA Litten and found this out. That Litten was always going to be traded to my girlfriend, but I didn't plan on it being shiny. When I traded the egg to her, she hatched it, and it WASN'T!! So, she traded it back to me, where I hatched it, and it was still shiny.

Sorry that's long but I hope it clears up any confusion.

Answer 4

It is also true to trade a Pokemon from your Reigon to a different one like Japan it can be a Ditto or any other japan Pokemon with a different gender than yours

Comments

the masuada method