Players have discovered that Pokemon Legends Z-A quietly shiny-locks Mareep in Wild Zone 1 until after the early side mission “A Shiny Mareep?” is complete.
The discovery comes from Pokemon researcher Anubis, who found that all Mareep in Wild Zone 1 are flagged as “never shiny” before the quest is cleared. The side mission tasks players with finding a guaranteed shiny Mareep for an NPC, and only once that mission is complete do the locks lift, allowing normal shiny odds to apply to future Mareep spawns in the area.
This makes Pokemon Legends Z-A one of the few mainline games to block shiny rolls for an entire species in a specific region. While Flaaffy and Ampharos remain huntable in other parts of the game, the restriction means players could easily waste hours shiny hunting Mareep in Wild Zone 1 without realizing it’s impossible until the quest is done.
Hidden shiny lock frustrates early hunters
Anubis also noted that other early-game encounters are similarly limited: the first Fletchling and Bunnelby you encounter as part of the story are shiny-locked until they’re replaced later, and an Electrike tied to a scripted NPC event can’t appear shiny at all.
While Game Freak hasn’t commented on the mechanic, the restriction likely exists to ensure players complete the “A Shiny Mareep?” side quest before catching one on their own. Still, for dedicated shiny hunters, it’s a surprising twist, one that makes the first shiny Mareep you’ll ever see guaranteed, but not earned.
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