Let’s Go Shiny Hunting Guide
Okay so I see a lot of people circulating conflicting info and I care enough to clarify but not enough to make a proper, like, ~chart comic~ or something
Alright, so off the bat, it’s important to know the benefits of catch comboing and how to use it to your advantage. What is a catch combo? By catching the exact same Pokemon several times in succession, you raise your chances for it to have better stats or be a shiny. This does not apply to Pokemon in the same family, IE a Vulpix catch combo will be be broken if you catch a Ninetales.
Other things that break your catch combo are:
Catching a Pokemon other than your current catch combo species
Having a Pokemon flee from you
Turning your Switch off or completely closing the game
However, what will NOT break your catch combo is:
Running from a Pokemon YOURSELF
Leaving the route or area entirely
Entering buildings, such as a Pokemart or Pokemon Center
Entering a trainer battle
Encountering a different Pokemon, but running from it
Any sort of time limitation
Things that increase your shiny odds while catch comboing:
So basically: as long as you don’t catch something else or have it flee from you and your game stays on or suspended, your chain will not break.
The ideal catch combo is 31 as that’s when your shiny odds max out, the only point of comboing beyond this is to get ideal stats, to grind exp or money, or because waiting makes you bored.
How money? The candies you recieve for catching Pokemon can be sold for approximately 10P each which will add up as your combo snowballs, especially since higher combos yield more gains, and cashing them in for a couple of thousand every so often will allow you to stay on top of Pokeball stores and not run out of resources.
Aside from Pokeballs you will also want Razz and Nanab berries to make the Pokemon easier to capture and more still on the Pokeball tossing screen respectively. Optional, but helpful if you’re chaining something rare (like Charizard) or something that moves around a lot (like Zubat). Higher level Pokeballs (such as Ultra Balls) should also be kept in good stock but like I said, you can always leave to restock between encounters if you need to but try to keep it minimal as possible that way you don’t narrowly miss seeing anything you might not want to despawn while you leave the area.
As I said, shiny odds cap at 31 but what do you do after that? The easy answer is: nothing. Shiny Pokemon will appear shiny on the overworld, both in color and with a special sparkle SFX similar to how small and large Pokemon have auras that distinguish them from regular ones.
You can literally sit in a corner and watch Pokemon spawn and despawn until you see a shiny, though this can be pretty idle work and you might mentally disengage. If you want to stay on your toes, grinding with your catch combo is an option but how do you keep from breaking it when it really matters?
Run from any Pokemon you can’t catch after your 2nd turn.
This HUGELY reduces the odds of it running from you first and since a trainer fleeing doesn’t end the chain, you’ll be free to try again with the next one you spot without having to worry about the consequences of an encounter dragging on for too long.
Basically: if you can’t catch it quickly, quit while you’re ahead and save your combo the trouble.
From here on out it’s simply a waiting game to see how long it takes a shiny to spawn. Please note that if you see one and do anything that would cause the spawns to reset, such as moving far enough from the route for Pokemon to despawn or using a ladder in a cave, that Pokemon can and will disappear.
Additionally: your shiny odds and stat bonuses from catch combos will not affect everything across the board, IE a chain of Vulpix at 31 will only increase the odds for a shiny Vulpix and will only affect the stats of Vulpix encounters. A bait and switch, such as hunting the easy Caterpie to reach a huge chain to lure out a more rare shiny and powerful Bulbasaur, will not work.
At a catch combo of 31+, your vanilla odds are 1/341, 1/315 with a lure, 1/292 with a shiny charm, and 1/273 with both. A catch combo of 31+, you are also guaranteed 4 max IVs that are randomly distributed.
That’s all I can think of so have fun and good luck blah blah blah happy pokelego
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