A dedicated Pokémon fan, known online as Professor Rex, has detailed the intricate setup and statistical reasoning behind his ambitious endeavor to find a rare Shiny Golduck. The hunt involves an elaborate configuration of 58 simultaneous GameCube and Wii consoles, a testament to his passion for documenting the rarest Pokémon and exploring the mathematical underpinnings of their rarity.
Professor Rex's pursuit is not driven by a deep affection for Golduck itself, but rather by a fascination with statistics and the challenge of finding exceptionally rare in-game occurrences. "I love finding and documenting some of the rarest Pokémon to ever exist," he explained. "I love statistics as well so I spend far too much time thinking about rare Pokémon and what makes them rare."
While many modern Pokémon games feature visible Pokémon in the overworld, older titles relied on random encounters, making the search for Shiny variants—Pokémon with alternate colorations—a significant challenge. Professor Rex has become particularly adept at this, having previously undertaken a hunt for a Shiny Chansey in FireRed and LeafGreen, a Pokémon with a rare spawn rate in the game's Safari Zone. Following that success, he sought a new, long-term objective.
His chosen target is a Shiny Golduck that spawns at level 25 in the Safari Zone. This specific iteration is exceptionally rare due to a confluence of factors. Wild Golduck typically appears at level 33, but underleveled versions can sometimes be encountered. According to Professor Rex's research, a level 25 Golduck has a one percent chance of appearing in the Safari Zone, and a one-in-16 probability of being at that precise level. Combined with the chance of it being a Shiny variant, the estimated odds for this particular Golduck are a staggering one in nine million.
To tackle these odds, Professor Rex devised a system utilizing 58 consoles. This setup leverages the Pokémon Box Ruby & Sapphire application for GameCube, which allows players to store Pokémon from Game Boy Advance titles and also play the original Ruby and Sapphire games on a television. By removing and reinserting the game disc after initiating gameplay, a single disc can be used to run the game on multiple systems simultaneously.
The technical feat is further enabled by Nintendo's Wavebird Controller, an early wireless peripheral for the GameCube. "Unlike modern wireless controllers, the Wavebird communicates with radio waves – so if all of the receivers are set to the same radio channel – they can all send inputs to whatever system they are plugged into," Professor Rex stated. "That allows for pretty-well unlimited scaling of how many systems we can control at once."
Despite the extensive preparation and the immense scale of his operation, Professor Rex has yet to encounter his target Shiny Golduck. He has, however, encountered numerous Shiny Psyducks, the pre-evolutionary form of Golduck, during his hunt. These encounters, while rare, do not advance his quest for the specific Shiny Golduck he seeks, as "Shiny hunting isn’t cumulative." He acknowledges that the pursuit might continue indefinitely, stating, "To be honest, I’m not sure I ever expect to get it. It was more chosen as the craziest target I could come up with. A shiny hunt that I could work on forever."
While the level 25 Shiny Golduck remains the ultimate prize, Professor Rex indicated that even any underleveled Shiny Golduck, which he estimates to still have odds of one in 1.8 million, would be a sufficient reward for his efforts. The ongoing hunt, he admits, is largely about the challenge and the chase itself.