The Pokemon Company released a blog post earlier this month sharing some tips and tricks for catching shiny Pokemon in Scarlet and Violet.

While most of these tricks have been known for a while among the wider Pokemon community, this seems like the first time the company has not only acknowledged, but supported picnic resetting in Mass Outbreaks.

What is a Mass Outbreak?

Mass Outbreaks are events in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet upon which a swarm of a certain species of Pokemon will infest an area. These outbreaks can be cleared by capturing or knocking out the Pokemon.

What’s significant here is that the chance of encountering a shiny is substantially higher during an Outbreak, especially when the Outbreak is on its last leg. After clearing so many Outbreak Pokemon, players will receive the message: “There are not many [Pokemon] left from the original outbreak…”.

It’s when you reach this point, that you want to begin resetting the Pokemon in the area, for instance with a Picnic Reset.

What is a Picnic Reset?

Picnic resetting is when you repopulate the Pokemon in the field by starting and ending a picnic. In Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, shiny Pokemon can be seen in the field, without having to enter a battle.

What this means is that players can basically reroll the wild Pokemon in an area during a mass outbreak in order to maximize their chances of finding a shiny Pokemon from that outbreak.