Pokémon Legends: Z-A hadn’t been out even a few hours before the tweets started rolling in: Shiny pokémon don’t despawn. You can walk away from a shiny, and it’ll still be there when you come back.
To shiny collectors, this is big news. In other Pokémon games, like Scarlet and Violet, pokémon despawn after you get a certain distance away from them or trigger a loading screen. I’ve missed out on my fair share of shiny pokémon this way, my heart sinking as I spotted them right before they disappeared forever.
You can still miss out on shiny pokémon in Z-A, but we’ll get to that in a bit.
I first discovered the new spawning mechanics mysel …