Question

When you are trying to get a shiny starter pokemon i know that you have to soft reset the game but do you have to keep on doing it until the shiny pokemon appears or can you turn the game off and come back to it.

Also how long on average does it take to do this

Answer 1

If you're talking about getting a shiny starter from the beginning of the game without having to breed and things like that, you're going to need to soft reset like you said. You'll need a lot of patience, and unless you're lucky, it can take a VERY long time to do this. The chances of getting any shiny is 1 in 8192, and the same applies to the starters. If you have the patience, good luck.

Answer 2

Have you ever heard of the Masuda method? You could use a japanese starter, breed it with another English starter of the same kind. Other than this, your question is unanswerable and may be hidden.

Answer 3

If you want to start with it you have a 1 in a little over 8000 chance to get it just like any other pokemon you find or breed.

only way to lessen that chance is with the Masuda method, which halves it i believe.

so pretty much, if you find a shiny or breed one you are very lucky and/or patient.