#pokemonletsgo

Hello trainers! I’m feeling a bit better today so I’m going to teach you how to shiny hunt in Let’s Go. Shiny hunting in Let’s Go is surprisingly easy. The biggest drawbacks are that after a while it feels a bit boring and that you can only reliably catch most of the original 150 Pokémon this way.

I don’t know about you but some of my favorite Pokémon are in the original 150 so these aren’t huge deterrents for me.

Step 1: Determine Your Target

If this is your first Let’s Go Hunt, try to go after a Pokémon with a higher spawn rate before you go after something like Lapras or Charmander. I’m going to go after Ekans because they’re relatively easy to catch and their shinies are cool and distinctive. It’s worth noting here that you will see your shiny in the Overworld at the end so you need to know what your shiny looks like ahead of time.

Step 2: Buy Lots of Pokeballs and Lures

You want to mitigate your risk for failure as much as possible so try to buy at least 60 balls of whatever would make your target Pokémon’s ring green without any berries or added effects. For Ekans, that’s a Great Ball. You’re also going to want Max Lures. I buy 30 at a time. If for some reason you run out of supplies you can return to the store without messing up your hunt but it’s just a lot easier to be prepared ahead of time.

Now is also a good time to decide what Pokeball you want your target in. If you’re going to aim for a more difficult ball, like a premiere ball, make sure you have berries on hand to help negate your risk.

Step 3: Catch Combo

Go to where your Pokémon spawns (Serebii is a great tool if you don’t know offhand) and use your lure spray. From here you’re going to want to catch 31 of your Pokémon consecutively. If you run in to the wrong Pokémon quickly run away and you will preserve your catch combo. Every time you catch the correct Pokémon it will display your catch combo number. Do not catch any Pokémon other than the Pokémon you’re hunting. You will be tempted. Catch combos will make other rare Pokémon of different species appear but if you want the shiny you must hold fast to your objective and not give in to temptation! I’d say the only time this is appropriate is if you see another shiny, in which case grab it (this scenario, however, is unlikely).

If a Pokémon runs away it will also end your catch combo. Hopefully your chance of this is low because you bought Pokéballs powerful enough to catch your targets but the general rule of thumb here is to run away if you miss two throws. If in any doubt, run away because running away will not harm your catch combo, even if you run from your target Pokémon.

Step 4: Wait for Your Shiny

Once you hit a catch combo of 31 your odds are maxed out and you no longer have to catch more Pokémon (but you can if you want to). At this point, if you have a flying Pokémon you might find it more useful to hop on their back and monitor things from the sky. You can also alternate patches of grass with this method.

If you can’t fly or you prefer to stay on the ground, you can continue to combo your Pokémon or just encounter, then run away to maintain your catch combo. I couldn’t fly for the majority of my Ekans hunt so I continued to catch a few to clear out the spawns. This is the time for patience. Eventually your shiny will appear. Quickly encounter it. If you accidentally encounter another Pokémon, run away - you’re not necessarily hosed. Your shiny should act like a normal spawn but be its shiny color with little sparkles around it. Be fast because all spawns eventually despawn.

Step 5: Catch Your Shiny

Get out the ball you want to catch your shiny in and give it a berry to get its capture ring as green as possible. Then aim and catch your shiny! Try to be quick as shinies can run away like any other Pokémon in Let’s Go. If you miss your first throw berry up some more and consider using a stronger ball.

Congrats on Your New Shiny!

While a lot of shinies caught in Pokémon Let’s Go can be ported to Sword/Shield be aware that the value of a shiny that can be traded to Let’s Go is sometimes higher because they are so limited (once they’re traded up they can’t go back). Walk around with your shiny for a bit, or if it’s an option, ride them! I promise it’s super cool.

Any part of this process can be repeated for rarer spawns but it won’t work on legendaries (like the birbs or Mew). Also, once you’ve caught your shiny there’s nothing stopping you from continuing to chain and catching multiples of you wish!