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Pokemon Sapphire player chases "1 in 9 million" odds trying to find a specific shiny duck

Screenshot of Golduck in the Pokemon anime.
Pokemon Sapphire player chases "1 in 9 million" odds trying to find a specific shiny duck

He calls it "the world's CRAZIEST shiny hunting setup," and you can understand why

There are no Pokemon players more dedicated, patient, and locked in than shiny hunters, and one veteran is proving just that as he simultaneously uses 58 consoles in the hopes of hunting down an apparently one-in-9-million duck that, worst of all, has a chance of running away and being lost forever.

Shiny Pokemon are the ultimate trophies for Pokemon players. Rare, sparkly, alternate-colored variants of your favorite 'mons – what's not to love? While some players might never happen upon one, and others might only find a small number throughout their time playing, shiny hunters are on a different level – dedicating themselves to tracking down extremely rare targets, ridiculous numbers of the things, and using all sorts of methods to do so.

There may be no better example of this than what I'm about to show you. Behold, what content creator Professor Rex describes as "the world's CRAZIEST shiny hunting setup," and for good reason. He's got 58 consoles – specifically, 25 Wiis and 33 GameCubes – all playing the same copy of Pokemon Sapphire (playable on those consoles using Pokemon Box's Adventure Mode), which he's able to control simultaneously with one controller.

What is all this for, though? You'd think anyone willing to put in so much effort would be tracking down an ultra-rare Pokémon, like a Legendary Pokemon or something similar. Well, he is, sort of, but you're going to have to bear with me – it's a Golduck.

To be exact, Rex claims this is a Golduck that has a "one in 9 million" chance of appearing. He's specifically looking for a level 25 one in the Hoenn Safari Zone – they can appear between levels 25 and 40, but only the weakest will do in this case.

Now, I'll be honest, I'm no mathematician, and myself and my fellow GamesRadar+ co-workers haven't – despite our best efforts – been able to work out exactly how Rex calculated these odds, but given that he writes that the level 25 Golduck can only appear in a 1% encounter slot to begin with, you can start to see where those base in one in 8,192 shiny odds start to get inflated.

And, let's just wind things back a moment – he's looking in the Safari Zone for this thing. That means that, on the wildly unlikely chance that this Golduck actually appears, there's a terrifying chance it'll run away from the battle before Rex is even able to capture it. This is all part of Safari Week – an annual community-driven event that sees shiny hunters brave the only areas in the main series games (aside from the Legends titles and Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee) where Pokemon can flee from fights, raising the stakes and leading to some triumphant wins and devastating losses in the process.

You might think this is all a lot of effort for a Golduck with a pink-tinged bill, and yeah, it kind of is. But this is more than just a Golduck – this hyper-specific Golduck represents a mammoth journey of ridiculous odds and an even more mind-blowing setup to actually encounter it… should it appear at all. For Rex's sake, let's hope it does – and more importantly, that it stays in the ball.

I've been a Pokemon shiny hunter for 16 years, but nothing could have prepared me to join 70+ players trying to find as many rare creatures as possible in 60 minutes.

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