Something to break the silence:

[blahpy]

I just found this on Bulbapedia:

Due to the fact that Shininess in Generation III onwards is determined by the OT's ID and Secret ID, and to the fact that eggs take the ID/SID of their hatchers when hatched, eggs can be Shiny on the game that breeds them, but not on a game that they're traded to (or vice-versa) if still in their eggs. The OT of the egg isn't changed until after it hatches—this can lead to scenarios where an egg will hatch and appear Shiny, but will not be Shiny when actually checked (or vice-versa) because the ID/SID changes immediately after the hatching scene.
This is also why Manaphy can hatch Shiny when they would normally be prohibited from doing so on the original receiver's game.

This is definitely a glitch/oversight.

Also, it seems that certain Pokémon have miscoloured shiny sprites in certain games, eg. Slowbro's tongue is blue in emerald.

[Torchickens]

That would be frustrating, imagine if you traded an Egg and it was originally shiny, only for it to only appear shiny and come out as a non-shiny Pokémon. I've heard of a similar case in Pokémon Colosseum, where supposedly if you encounter a shiny Shadow Pokémon, it will most likely become an ordinary Pokémon when you catch it and if you encounter an ordinary Shadow Pokémon, there is a chance for it to be captured as a shiny.


I heard that this is the case for the Manaphy egg (which uses a certain RNG algorithm which normally prevents it from being shiny), and that trading it forces it to use another RNG algorithm which allows it to be shiny, though when I traded my Manaphy egg across games, its personality never changed after hatching and I wrongly assumed that its whole PID would change, so is it just shininess that's affected?

Edit: Sorry. Disregard everything I said there, nothing about the actual Pokémon is changed when you trade the Egg, just the ID/SID updates when it hatches and may consequently change the shininess, including obtained Manaphy Eggs and Mystery Gift Eggs which use an algorithm to never be shiny, but can have their shininess changed when traded and hatched on another game. (If you're lucky they could hatch as a normal Pokémon but turn out shiny)

[blahpy]

I'm not sure, because shininess is dependent on SID not PID if I remember correctly. I would still have expected the other things to change too though...

What happens to the OT if you trade an egg in Gen V? It's strange that this hasn't been noticed by the programmers though....

[Torchickens]

As of Generation IV, if you trade the Egg the OT, Trainer ID and Secret ID remain the same until you actually hatch the Egg. I don't know if this still remains the case as of Generation V, though Tombstoner would probably know.

This glitch might be to do with the new Trainer ID and Secret ID being invalid for the old SID. Shininess depends on both the Trainer ID/Secret ID and personality value. e.g. if you obtain a Spinda Egg and trade it, it will have the same spot patterns every time (once you receive the Egg, as the personality value is then set), but theoretically you could abuse this to obtain a shiny Spinda with the spot pattern you want by finding out its PID and trading it to another Trainer with a certain Trainer ID and Secret ID? (See below)

Generation IV shininess check:

(Trainer ID) xor (Secret ID) = x

(First byte word of personality value) xor (Second byte word of personality value) = y

If x xor y is <8 the Pokémon is shiny (8 in 65536 chance).

Example:

Bill breeds an Egg and it happens to have a valid SID pertaining to his Trainer ID and Secret ID, so it contains a shiny Pokémon.

The Egg gets traded to Bob, who has a different ID and secret ID. Technically it still belongs to Bill (his OT, Trainer ID and Secret ID) until it hatches, so is still a 'shiny Egg'.

The Egg hatches and apparently contains a shiny Pokémon on its animation but only because the details (the OT, Trainer ID and Secret ID) haven't been updated yet. When the Egg finishes hatching the game updates the Pokémon with Bob's OT, Trainer ID and Secret ID and the SID is no longer valid, so becomes a regular Pokémon.

[blahpy]

So theoretically, if you owned a very large number of games, this would be similar to the RNG method? Interesting.

[Tombstoner]

Not really a glitch; just a result of how shininess works.
As for the OT, ID, and SID changing, I would assume it stays the same until it is hatched in Generation V.