Pokemon Let's Go Shiny Guide: shiny hunting, odds, shiny charm and how to build a shiny chain

One of the greatest joys in Pokemon is to catch a shiny Pokemon - though it's so rare that many trainers never have. Shinies are just as rare in Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu and Pokemon Let's Go Eevee as in any other recent entry in the series, meaning there's a base shiny Pokemon appearance rate of just 1 in every 4096 Pokemon that appear - but if you know how, you can turn the game's odds a little more to your favor. 

If you don't know what shiny Pokemon are, here's a quick primer: shinies are essentially super-rare forms of the Pokemon you know and love with slightly different coloring. Charizard is famous for its orange scales, for instance, but a Shiny Charizard is a much more threatening, awesome-looking grey color that makes it well worth farming catching wild Charmander. Our screenshot example below, Beedrill, swaps its usual real-world bee inspired yellow and black colors for a much more out-there lime green stripe ensemble.

In real terms of stats, natures and efficency in battle shiny Pokemon are subject to the same design as all other Pokemon in Let's Go and all the other entries in the series - but they're great bragging rights thanks to their insanely high rarity. So... how do your maximize your chances of getting one? Read on...

Need more Pokemon Let's Go help? We've got guides on catching Alolan form Pokemon, Pikachu and Eevee's new exclusive moves and how to get mega evolutions - among other things.

How to get Shiny Pokemon in Pokemon Let's Go: maximizing your chances

The first way you can obtain yourself a shiny Pokemon or two in Pokemon Let's Go is simply to, well, keep catching Pokemon. As we said back in the opening, there's a 1 in 4096 chance you'll find a shiny naturally, so there's that. You're really not going to want to have to deal with that chance all the time, however - that'd lead to you making thousands of Pokemon catches with fingers crossed - so we've got a few tips for increasing your chance of catching a shiny.

First off, remember that these methods all stack - so for your highest possible chance of getting a shiny you'll want to combine a few of these bonuses. Remember that your rate of finding a shiny doesn't really increase with each non-shiny Pokemon you see: so if your encounter chance is 1 in 4096, it's always that with every new encounter - if you were to encounter 4095 non-shiny Pokemon in a row, there's no guarantee that 4096th encounter would be shiny. You can turn the odds more in your favor, however, by employing these methods. Here they are:

• Using Pokemon Lures to boost shiny rate
  • Lures are unique items that can boost the chances of you encountering rare or more powerful Pokemon in the wild - and this includes shiny Pokemon forms.
  • Using a lure will basically double your chance of getting a shiny Pokemon to 1 in 2048.
  • There are three variants of this item: the Lure, the Super Lure and the Max Lore. They're all equally effective at boosting the shiny encounter rate, but each lure lasts longer than the previous one. Lures can be picked up from any Pokemart in the game.

• Using Catch Combos to boost your shiny encounter rate
  • The catch combo system is a new one for Pokemon Let's Go, and it involves catching many, many Pokemon of the same species in a row. This builds a catch combo, and we've got a full guide to Pokemon Go catch combos if you need to know all about how to build them up.
  • For the purposes of this guide, let's break it down a little more, however. The shiny rate increases alongside your catch combo:
    • A combo under 10 leaves you with the standard 1 in 4096 chance
    • A combo between 11 and 20 raises your chance to 1 in 1024
    • A catch combo of 21-30 gives you a 1 in 512 chance of a shinies appearing
    • Finally, a catch combo of more than 31 raises your odds to 1 in just 341. 
  • These numbers are base numbers, before using a Lure and without the shiny charm. Theoretically, they could move a little higher still.
  • If you're careful with this method, you can totally build up a shiny chain - encountering shiny after shiny repeatedly.
  • These numbers are according to our calculations based on in-game experiences and the hard work of Let's Go data-miners - we'll update it with more absolute, concrete numbers if they emerge.

• Getting the Shiny Charm to hugely raise your shiny encounter rate
  • The Shiny Charm is a special key item that boosts the chance you'll encounter a shiny Pokemon. It doesn't need to be equipped - you just need to have it in your bag.
  • Once you've completed the initial 150-strong Pokedex available in Pokemon Let's Go, you'll be able to pick up the Shiny Charm in Celadon City. The shiny charm increases your odds to 1 in 1365 - and stacks nicely with the two methods above.