Hogwarts Legacy shiny beasts: how to find shinies in beast dens
Collecting beasts is a fun activity in Hogwarts Legacy, and growing out your collection will let you upgrade your gear with all sorts of cool traits. However, why settle for any old version of a beast when you can spend your time hunting for one that’s extra special?
If you’ve ever played a Pokémon game before, then you’ll be familiar with the idea of a shiny beast. These beasts are no different from a regular beast from a gameplay perspective, but they’re a unique color and have a special mark next to their name. Some may see this as pointless, but anyone who’s spent time hunting one can attest to the joy and satisfaction it can bring.
We’ll explain the easiest method to get your hands on a shiny beast.
Make sure to read through our other Hogwarts Legacy guides for everything you need to know about the game, including puzzle solutions, item locations, and more.
Hogwarts Legacy: how to tell if a beast is shiny
Almost every beast in Hogwarts Legacy is capable of being shiny.
Most beasts in Hogwarts Legacy come with color variations, but the shiny form is different from all of them. For example, a regular Puffleskein could be brown, grey, or red, but the shiny version is white as snow. Similarly, a Unicorn can be gold, but that isn’t the shiny form, as that is brown.
It can be hard to tell just by glancing, but the way to be sure is to check the nametag that appears at the top of the screen when you look at them. If it’s shiny, there will be a little four-pointed star next to its name and gender.
Hogwarts Legacy: how to get shiny beasts
You can build quite a collection of Hogwarts Legacy shinies.
At its core, this is a purely luck-based activity. We don’t know exactly what the odds are, but it’s a complete roll of the dice as to whether or not a beast will be shiny. This means what you need to do to find one quickly is be able to constantly reroll these odds by spawning new beasts, though that is a little complicated.
The best way to do it is to follow these steps:
- Find the den of the beast you want to shiny hunt (check out our guide on all beast locations to find the one you want).
- Check for a shiny, if there isn’t one, catch a handful of the beasts in the den.
- Open your map and press the “wait” button to accelerate time.
- Save your game.
- Reload the save you just created.
This method will constantly refresh the den with new beasts, so you can have many rolls of the dice until you find a shiny.
This works for most beasts in the game, but there are some that can be troublesome.
First is the Unicorn. There is only one den in the game, and while Unicorns do respawn there, it is only one at a time. Find the Hogwarts Legacy unicorn location with our guide.
Second is the Graphorn. Again, the creatures do respawn at this den, but not only is it one at a time, but you have to fight it every time before you rescue it.
Finally is the Phoenix. There is only one of these in the game and it does not respawn, so no shiny Phoenix for you. We do have a guide on how to find a Phoenix though.
For information on the Hogwarts Legacy controversy surrounding J.K. Rowling and the game, read our explainer.
