Poké Ball

Overview

A Poké Ball is the standard red-and-white ball used to catch Pokémon. You receive 50 when you start playing, and can collect more from PokéStops, Gifts and other rewards.

Great Balls and Ultra Balls improve the catch rate, but a regular Poké Ball is often enough for an easy catch. A curveball, an accurate throw or a Razz Berry can improve your chances without using a stronger ball.

Keep some Poké Balls aside if you use automatic throwing on Pokémon GO Plus + or the in-game Explorer Gadget. Both use regular Poké Balls from your Item Bag and cannot switch to Great Balls or Ultra Balls for automatic throws. The Explorer Gadget is available from level 20 where its rollout is active.

How to get it

• Spin PokéStop and Gym Photo Discs. Regular Poké Balls are available from the start; you do not need to unlock Great or Ultra Balls first.

• Open Gifts and claim research, level-up (levels 2 to 13 under the current leveling system, totaling 135 Poké Balls), or weekly Adventure Sync rewards (20 Poké Balls for reaching at least the 5 km tier).

• Buy Poké Balls from the in-game shop, or check the Daily Free Box and promotional bundles. Free-box contents vary.

• Selected PokéStop Showcase placements can award balls. Check the reward list rather than expecting a particular ball from every Showcase.

• Some Party Challenges award Poké Balls. The available challenge and reward vary.

How to use it

1. Start a wild or research encounter, tap the ball selector, and choose a Poké Ball. Some special encounters restrict which balls you can use.

2. Hold the ball, aim, then swipe toward the Pokémon and release. Try to land inside the colored ring while the Pokémon is not attacking or dodging. Each throw spends a ball, including a miss or a throw followed by a breakout.

Worth knowing

Pokémon GO Plus + automatic throwing and the Explorer Gadget need regular Poké Balls. Keep a reserve if you use either feature; Great Balls and Ultra Balls cannot replace them for automatic throws.

Raid, Rocket, and Max Battle bonus encounters normally supply Premier Balls. Your regular Poké Ball stock cannot replenish that allocation.

How Poké Balls compare with Great Balls and Ultra Balls

A Poké Ball has the lowest catch rate of the three everyday balls. Switching to a Great Ball or Ultra Ball makes the same Pokémon more likely to stay caught. Your chances still depend on the Pokémon, your throw and any berry you use.

For example, suppose a Pokémon has a 20% chance of staying caught with a Poké Ball. With the same throw and berry, a Great Ball raises that chance to about 28.4%, and an Ultra Ball raises it to 36%.

The 20% starting chance is just an example; it is not the catch rate for every Pokémon.

The ball modifiers are 1× for a Poké Ball, 1.5× for a Great Ball, and 2× for an Ultra Ball.

These modifiers go into the catch calculation. A 2× modifier does not simply double the final percentage, which is why the Ultra Ball gives a 36% catch rate in this example rather than 40%.

To calculate the comparison: new catch rate = 1 − (1 − p)ᵐ.

Here, p is the Poké Ball catch rate as a decimal (0.20 for 20%), and m is the ball modifier (or combined modifier). The superscript m means “raised to the power of m.”

For the Ultra Ball example, 1 − (1 − 0.20)² = 0.36, or 36%.

Improve your catch rate with berries and throws

Before switching balls, try a curveball or feed the Pokémon a Razz Berry. Landing inside the target ring also improves your catch rate, with a bigger bonus for a smaller ring. Type medals and some encounter bonuses can help too.

Ball, berry and curveball bonuses work together. To see how, start with a straight Poké Ball throw, no berry, and a 20% catch chance. Keep the Pokémon, target-ring accuracy, medals and encounter bonuses the same for each comparison below.

An Ultra Ball has a 2× ball modifier, giving a 36% catch rate in this example. Add a Golden Razz Berry, which has a 2.5× modifier, and the combined modifier is 2 × 2.5 = 5.

Using m = 5 in the formula above gives about a 67.2% catch rate.

Make that Ultra Ball throw a curveball as well, and its 1.7× modifier brings the combined modifier to 2 × 2.5 × 1.7 = 8.5.

Using m = 8.5 gives about an 85.0% catch rate. This shows how several modifiers work together; even this combination does not guarantee a catch.

These chances only apply if the ball hits the Pokémon. Wait for an opening between attacks and aim carefully. A missed or deflected throw still uses up the ball.

Reading the ring and choosing a throw

The target ring is a useful warning: green means an easier catch, orange is harder, and red is difficult. Its color is not a guarantee.

Holding the ball makes the ring shrink; landing inside a smaller ring improves the throw bonus. A Nice, Great, or Excellent throw can also earn extra XP.

Spin the ball before releasing it to throw a curveball. If the Pokémon keeps attacking or moving, wait for a clear opening instead of spending balls on hurried throws. A Nanab Berry can make a restless target easier to hit; a Razz or Golden Razz Berry helps prevent a breakout.

The game can remember your last-used ball through a setting. If that type runs out, it falls back to regular Poké Balls. Check the selected ball when moving between easy catches and valuable encounters, especially if you are trying to conserve one type.

Shop prices and the Daily Adventure Incense refill

Standard in-game bundles offer 20 Poké Balls for 100 PokéCoins, 100 for 460, and 200 for 800. That works out to 5, 4.6, and 4 coins per ball.

The larger bundle has the lower unit price, but spins and Gifts can replenish this common item without spending coins. Check current offers before buying.

When you activate Daily Adventure Incense with 30 or fewer Poké Balls, Great Balls, and Ultra Balls combined, you receive 30 regular Poké Balls if your Item Bag has available space.

Exactly 30 qualifies; 31 does not. Check the combined stock and free some bag space before activation.

The refill happens when you activate the Incense, not whenever your stock runs low during the walk.

Poké Balls and automatic catching

Pokémon GO Plus + uses regular Poké Balls for automatic throws.

• Great Balls and Ultra Balls are available through its button-throw selection instead, so a stock of those stronger balls does not keep automatic Poké Ball throwing supplied.

• Automatic throwing on Pokémon GO Plus + also skips Pokémon species not yet registered in your Pokédex, though you can still press the main button to attempt those catches.

The original Pokémon GO Plus and Poké Ball Plus also use regular Poké Balls.

The Explorer Gadget also uses only regular Poké Balls. The feature is available to Trainers at level 20 or above, subject to its rollout; that requirement belongs to the gadget, not to the ball.

• It skips unregistered Pokédex species and mighty Pokémon, which must be caught manually, though it will still attempt to catch an unregistered form if at least one form of that species is already registered in your Pokédex.

• Keep Pokémon Storage space available as well as balls: the gadget has a daily catch limit based on Trainer level, stops catching when storage is full, and cannot operate at the same time as a paired catching accessory.

• Switching to a paired accessory while the Explorer Gadget is active stops the gadget until the next day.