Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee Guides

[Updated] Catch Combos in Pokémon Let’s Go

Find out what combo to aim for to maximise the chance for that perfect Shiny Pokémon!

A new feature introduced in Pokémon Let’s Go, Pikachu and Eevee is Catch Combos. This offers a way to get both stronger Pokémon, and improve your chance of finding Shiny Pokémon!

How Catch Combos work

The general idea is simple – encounter the same Pokémon as many times as you can in a row, and catch them. The more you do this, the stronger the Pokémon will be, and the higher chance it can be Shiny.

When you check the status screen of the Pokémon you catch, or the encounter/catch screen for a wild Pokémon encounter, it will tell you the current Catch Combo number – meaning you don’t have to keep count yourself.

If you want to Catch Combo a rare Pokémon, you will want to use a Lure item to increase Pokémon spawn rates,  or else you may be waiting a long while.

Some important notes:

  • You have to catch the Pokémon for the combo to continue.
  • If you encounter a different – or same – Pokémon species but do not catch it, the combo will continue.
  • Saving and turning off the game breaks the combo.
  • You can leave the area and continue the combo – even buying more items from the Mart is fine!
  • If the Wild Pokémon flees the battle, the combo will break.
  • You can battle Trainers between wild Pokémon encounters and continue the combo.
  • Pokémon will appear as Shiny in the overworld even before you catch them!

The amount of Candy you get for catching a Pokémon will also increase as you increase the Catch Combo.

Stats and Shiny Chance

In general, the higher the Catch Combo, the more guaranteed stats (or individual values – IVs) that the wild Pokémon will have as perfect. This starts at zero perfect stat and goes all the way to four. You need a minimum Catch Combo of 31 to find a Pokémon with at least four perfect stats.

The base Shiny chance in this game remains at 1 in 4,096 (14,096). This can be improved, for regular encounters, to roughly 34,096 by obtaining the Shiny Charm (from the Game Director in Celadon City for completing the Pokédex – 1 to 150). The Shiny Charm essentially gives you two extra chances for the Shiny for each Pokémon. The Lure item (which increases spawn rates) also gives an additional roll. Essentially, the higher the Catch Combo, the more “rolls” the game makes to see if you encounter a Shiny or not.

Based on early datamining efforts, and further investigation, the key number to aim for is 31. This gives the highest Shiny rate – 12/4,096, or roughly 1/341. This is further increased by using a Lure and the Shiny Charm, for a maximum chance of 15/4,096, or around 1/273. This will apply to any Pokémon that spawns in the overworld of the same species, as Shiny models are displayed in the overworld for even wild Pokémon.

As of February 2022, it was discovered that the Catch Combo bonus only applies to the next spawn of the species – so you want to keep going past 31 for your Catch Combo, but the Shiny rate will not improve beyond that.

The table below gives the Shiny chance and estimate for the minimum number of perfect IVs you can expect:

Catch Combo Length # of Perfect IVs Shiny Chance (no Shiny Charm nor Lure) Shiny Chance (with Shiny Charm and Lure)
1-10 0 guaranteed perfect IVs 14,096 14,096
11-20 2 guaranteed perfect IVs 44,096 74,096
21-30 3 guaranteed perfect IVs 84,096 114,096
31+ 4 guaranteed perfect IVs 124,096 154,096

What do you think of this feature, and how does it compare to Horde or SOS battles from previous games?

Edited by Aldo!, ddrox13, Jake, and LinearAxel.
Credit to Kaphotics for datamining and Serebii for additional research.