While Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu and Eevee are great games, the question in a lot of avid Pokemon players’ minds is, “Can I still find and catch Shiny Pokemon?” and the answer to that is, of course, you can! It is still a Pokemon game, after all.
Shiny Pokemon are incredibly rare variations of Pokemon that have a different color than their original variants. Upon encountering Shiny Pokemon, they will have a sparkling animation to emphasize they are “shiny.” You may even encounter them randomly in the wild if you are fortunate. The keyword here is luck which means it all boils down to the odds or chances of you finding a Shiny Pokemon, which is only a 1 in 4,096 chance in Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu, and Eevee.
Fortunately for players of Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu and Eevee, finding Shiny Pokemon is easier than previous Pokemon games. Not that the odds or chances of finding one are easier, but it is easier to spot once in the wild as you can see the Pokemon wandering around rather than having to encounter Pokemon and seeing if it is a Shiny Pokemon or not. If there ever is one, you will see a Shiny Machoke in an area full of Machoke. As mentioned above, and if you are unsure if it is a Shiny Pokemon, you will see a sparkling animation once you encounter them, which is different from the red and blue sparkles pointing out if they are small or large-sized Pokemon.
If you encounter Shiny Pokemon randomly in the wild, first of all, wow, congrats, that’s very rare, and second of all, you can continue to catch it like any other normal Pokemon. However, you might find stronger Poke Balls and a couple of Razz Berries useful so it won’t flee, and we do not want that to happen.
After catching yourself a Shiny Pokemon, you will see a red star marker on the Shiny Pokemon’s status screen which indicates that it IS a Shiny Pokemon.
Now Let’s Go and talk about the ways you can increase your chances of encountering Shiny Pokemon:
Shiny Charm
A Shiny Charm will increase the odds or chances of you encountering a Shiny Pokemon from 1 in 4,096 to 1 in 1,365. That may not seem like a lot, but it makes a BIG difference.
The challenging part of obtaining a Shiny Charm is you must first literally catch ‘em all and complete your Pokedex. After doing that and presenting it back to Professor Oak, go to Celadon City and enter the building on the right of the Celadon Department Store (outside the building you are looking for there is a man with a Poliwrath) and go to the third floor of the building where you will see the Game Freak offices, the developers of the game. Find the Game Director and talk to him. He will congratulate you for actually catching ‘em all, give you a certificate, and give you the Shiny Charm!
Fortunately, the Shiny Charm’s effects will automatically work even if it is just in your bag, so be careful not to sell it accidentally!
Catch Combos
A brand new feature in Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu and Eevee is Catch Combos which will reward you for catching the same Pokemon repeatedly by increasing your chances of encountering a Shiny Pokemon!
The odds or chances of encountering Shiny Pokemon increases every time you catch the same Pokemon 11 times (odds are increased to 1 in 1,024), 21 times (odds are increased to 1 in 512), and 31 times (odds are increased to 1 in 314.4) which will be the last time the odds will increase.
It is important to mention Catch Combos will only reset if the Pokemon you are trying to catch manages to flee or run away. So, suppose you accidentally encounter and run into a different Pokemon than the Pokemon you are trying to stack Catch Combos on. In that case, the combo will not reset unless you catch that different Pokemon. Trainer Battles will not affect Catch Combos, so you can do that as much as you like while trying to stack Catch Combos.
With this in mind, you can try to stack Catch Combos on Pokemon that are easy to catch with a simple regular Poke Ball, so you will not waste your stronger Poke Balls. However, if using other Poke Balls like Ultra Balls is not a problem for you, then, by all means, use them.
Final Thoughts
Using the information mentioned above, you can max your chances of finding and catching Shiny Pokemon by doing Catch Combos with the Shiny Charm! This will bump the 31-time combo of 1 in 314.4 to 1 in 273 with the Shiny Charm! These methods make a HUGE difference from the original odds of 1 in 4,096 to only 1 in 273!
Now that you know all these, it is time for you to start Shiny hunting in Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu and Eevee! Good luck on trying to catch ‘em all AND more!
