Back in my early days of playing Pokémon, I used an Action Replay to hack my Ruby and Sapphire versions. I played the game legitimately, though, up to the very end. After finishing the game, like many other gamers, I got frustrated because I could not "Catch 'em All!" because of those darned Nintendo Events. So I bought an Action Replay and hacked in and . (It was a long and grueling task.... I got a few Bad Eggs because of it.) After being content with having those two, and hacking in because I was too dumb to do the research on how to get him, I did a whole lot more hacking, because, why not?! I replicated Master Balls, Rare Candies, all items, ...the works. ...I feel terrible about it now.

Now to the actual question... During that time of playing legitimately, I happened to come across a Shiny ! I was so excited to see my very first one! I caught it and many happiness was had. (I had done research about "stars" from wild Pokémon when my friend had that happen to him, and he had no clue what had just happened. I researched it for him. He found a brown , but he just ran like normal. ...Poor guy....) However, during my time playing haxorz, I hacked my Shiny up to level 100. I am going to restart my Ruby and Sapphire and play it through legitimately so I can "Catch [most of] 'em all!" I have played through my FR/LG versions multiple times to get all 212 (without and E-Reader). (Yes, I played through it over and over to get all three beasts. View my guide on how I caught them!) Anyways, I don't know what to do with the Shiny . I did catch him legitimately, but he is tainted by the hacked level 100 (by rare candies). Should I keep him or release him?

Currently, I have him traded over to my LeafGreen, and I have started to replay over my Ruby. But the question still stands. Keep It or Release It?

He's your first shiny. If you feel bad about it you don't have to fight with it, but I would keep it around.

Did you hack the stats at all, or did you basically just Rare Candy it up?

You caught it legitimately, so I say keep it, especially if you only leveled it up. I did something similar when I was younger, with the entirety of my first Leaf Green team, and I still have them. You might as well have cloned several dozen rare candies in the Emerald Battle Tower, if you didn't make any core changes to the Doduo itself. So, go on, keep it, EV train it (legitimately), use it (or not), and treat it as a lesson to avoid doing it again in the future if you still feel guilty.

It's your first Shiny; those are always special.

Thanks for the support! It is all greatly appreciated! *hugs*

And to answer Kiga's question...
I am pretty sure I just used Rare Candies to get it up to 100, as the stats in the IV calculator with 0 EV's in most everything are pretty reasonable. But it looks like he partook in a few battles to get some EV's ...This tells me it was Rare Candies. (Will add to original post.)

The capture was legit that is the important thing. Though personally I would not call leveling it with rare candies 'hacking'. It's more just a lazy way.
(BTW I could have sworn I once heard that using too many rare candies can stunt stat growth or something like that, it's why I never use them).

Keep you first shiny! I still have my Crobat from my old firered, it's a great memory to keep. I've been unlucky enough to find a rattata and a zubat, both shiny, but no pokeballs lol. But then I got another Zubat.

If you release it, you are going to regret it.

Never release a shiny Pokemon. EVER. That's like the law.

I've been unlucky enough to find them and accidentally faint them! XP

"Finds Tentacruel shiny, send out Aerodactyl and use wing attack.
Critical it! (Mini heart attack)
Survives with only 1 hp and capture :3"

How about this:
Encounters shiny Drowzee. Is focusing on an episode of 'Without a Trace' so has not taken notice that it's shiny. Is training an Umbreon, has Umbreon use Faint Attack. Drowzee is seconds from fainting, finally looks down and --
"Oh crap it's shiny! Son of a !"

Epic fail.

Wow o_O

Well, there was that time when I was searching for a Chansey in Heartgold, and I come across a shiny Nidorino. At first, I thought it was a Nidorina, so I tap "Run" on my screen, and it doesn't work, and I'm like "Ermagherd!!!"

But well, I got lucky here.

First shiny I ever saw was in the Trainer's Tower. There was an green espeon in there on the first few floors in one event and it was consistently shiny every time I fought it. First time I ever found a catchable shiny was on someone else's game of Fire Red that I was borrowing. It wasn't until years (like, 2 of them) that I caught my first shiny that I was able to keep. It was a makuhita in emerald.

Ah yea, these shinies in that tower... it's what made me find Psypokes, as I was searching for information about this. Gotta hack so I can capture them.