Your Pokémon journey will contain many trials that must be overcome. Before you begin, you'll want to learn what's in store for you. Find out how to catch wild Pokémon and battle other Pokémon Trainers before connecting with your friends to adventure together and trade Pokemon!
Catching Pokémon
As you wander through the game’s world, you’ll encounter wild Pokémon in fields of tall grass. If you want to attempt to catch the Pokémon, simply approach it. Once you touch the Pokémon, you get a chance to throw Poké Balls at it. The wild Pokémon will move around and may try to intimidate you, but don’t get distracted! Just wave your Joy-Con controller with proper timing to throw a Poké Ball. If you’re playing the Nintendo Switch in handheld mode, you’ll move the system around to aim and then throw the Poké Ball by pressing the A Button.
Make Catching Pokémon Easier
Your chances of catching a Pokémon increase depending on your timing and where your Poké Ball hits the target. Throwing a Poké Ball inside the shrinking ring will increase the chances of a successful catch, especially if the ring is small. Use this ring as a guide for when to throw. The color of the ring shows how easy it will be to catch the Pokémon—with green meaning easy and red meaning hard.
Battling Pokémon Trainers
If a Pokémon Trainer sees you in the field, it’s time for battle! Pokémon battles are held with up to six Pokémon in each Trainer’s party. Each Pokémon will perform moves, and whoever manages to knock out all the opponent’s Pokémon wins!
Pokémon and moves all have types, and type matchups influence how much damage a move can do. For example, a Fire-type move will be super effective against Grass-type Pokémon but will not be very effective against Water-type Pokémon, and so on. There are many other type matchups like this. The key to winning battles is knowing the type matchups and choosing both the right Pokémon to send out and the right moves to have it use.
Play with Friends
Let a friend get in on the fun with the Support Play feature in Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokémon: Let’s Go, Eevee! With this feature, two players can explore the world together—and both players can even have a Pokémon travel alongside them as well!
You can boost your chances of catching a wild Pokémon by throwing Poké Balls at the same time as your Support Trainer during Support Play. It will earn your party more Exp. Points, too.
Support Play is also bound to give you an advantage in battle. You’ll both be able to control a Pokémon and issue it commands, giving you the upper hand during the battle.
Link Battle and Trade
Connect with other players and battle them! There are two communication features to use for battles: local communication, which connects two nearby Nintendo Switch consoles, and internet communication, which lets you connect to players who may be far away.
You can also trade Pokémon using these communication features. Trade Pokémon with friends to gather Pokémon you’ve never seen before and complete your Pokédex.
Please note that in order to use the internet-based communication features for battling and trading, you will need to enroll in the Nintendo Switch Online service that officially starts in September.
