Johto's three starters have an advantage the Kanto trio didn't: shininess as a visible, catchable mechanic launched alongside them. There's no Time Capsule asterisk here, no "technically the numbers existed but you couldn't see them yet." If you picked a shiny Chikorita, Cyndaquil, or Totodile in the actual 1999 release, you'd have known it immediately. Here's every game since where you can do the same.

Gold & Silver (1999/2000). Professor Elm hands out the starter choice in Cherrygrove/New Bark Town, and this is the very first place shininess as we know it existed. Gen II didn't have IVs yet, it used DVs (Determinant Values), a precursor system running 0 to 15 instead of 0 to 31. A Pokemon's DVs determined shininess directly: Attack DV had to be 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 14, or 15, and Defense, Speed, and Special DV all had to be exactly 10. That works out to the same roughly 1-in-8,192 odds that carried forward into every later generation, just calculated off a different underlying stat system. There's no way to influence the starter's DVs before picking; it's a flat roll each time you start a new file.

Crystal (2000). Same DV-based mechanic as Gold and Silver, since Crystal runs on the same core systems. It's worth hunting here specifically for one reason: Crystal was the first game with animated front sprites, so a shiny starter here has more presence on-screen than the same shiny in Gold or Silver.

HeartGold & SoulSilver (2010). The Gen IV remakes bring back the same starter selection from Elm's lab, but by this point the series had moved to the modern IV system (0 to 31 per stat) introduced in Diamond and Pearl, so shininess works exactly like it does in every game from here forward: a flat check against the Pokemon's Personality Value, no DV math involved. No Shiny Charm exists yet either, that's a Gen V addition, so odds remain the standard 1-in-8,192.

Sun/Moon and Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon. This is the first time any of the three could be caught wild outside their home region, through the Island Scan feature tied to the QR Scanner app. In Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon specifically, each Johto starter appears on a fixed day and location: Chikorita on Fridays at Route 2, Cyndaquil on Sundays at Route 3, and Totodile on Mondays at Seaward Cave. Island Scan encounters follow standard shiny odds, and the Shiny Charm (obtainable after completing the regional Pokedex) stacks additional rolls if you've got it by this point in the game.

Everything since (Sword/Shield, Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl, Scarlet/Violet, Legends: Arceus). None of the three show up as wild or gift encounters in any game after Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. Legends: Arceus in particular skips them entirely since Johto isn't part of Hisui's story. From here on, the only path is breeding: transfer a non-shiny Chikorita, Cyndaquil, or Totodile into whichever current game you're playing through Pokémon HOME, then breed it with a Ditto. Pairing two parents from different language versions of the game (the Masuda Method) roughly quadruples your shiny odds compared to breeding two parents from the same language copy, and stacking the Shiny Charm on top of that pushes the odds even further.

Pokémon GO. All three got their shiny forms during Community Day events well before most of the games above added similar features: shiny Chikorita debuted at the ninth Community Day on September 22, 2018, shiny Cyndaquil at the eleventh Community Day on November 10, 2018, and shiny Totodile at the thirteenth Community Day on January 12, 2019. A later Johto Celebration event in 2021 boosted all three species' spawn rates in the wild, giving another window to hunt them outside of a dedicated Community Day.

Pokémon Champions. Meganium and Feraligatr are both in the Champions roster, including their Mega Evolution forms, Mega Meganium and Mega Feraligatr, both legal since Regulation Set M-A and continuing through the current Regulation Set M-B. Typhlosion is also in Champions but doesn't have a Mega Evolution of its own; that particular Fire-type starter slot in the 30th Celebration TCG reveals went to Mega Emboar instead, a different Pokemon from a different generation entirely. Chikorita, Bayleef, Cyndaquil, Quilava, Totodile, and Croconaw aren't in Champions at all, since the roster only includes fully-evolved Pokemon (with Pikachu as the sole exception).

Pokémon HOME. As always, the universal shortcut: any shiny Chikorita, Cyndaquil, or Totodile line member caught or bred in an eligible game can be stored and moved forward through HOME, which is worth keeping in mind given that Pokémon Bank is shutting down in February 2027 and HOME is becoming the only long-term storage layer left standing.

Between the DV-based Gen II math, the Island Scan window, and the Community Day dates, that's every legitimate way to land a shiny Johto starter without relying on trades from someone else's save file. Pick a generation, and good luck with the odds.