Overview
A Silver Bottle Cap is a rare, one-time-use consumable item that starts Hyper Training for one chosen stat: Attack, Defense, or HP. Rather than immediately raising IVs, using a Silver Bottle Cap assigns a course of Buddy tasks tailored to the selected stat. Completing each task raises that stat’s IV by 1 point, which also increases the Pokémon’s CP.
Because Hyper Training requires a Good Buddy or higher and cannot be undone once a task is completed, choose a Pokémon you plan to keep and check the item’s expiration date in your Item Bag before starting.
How to get it
Earn it from an event reward track that explicitly includes this cap. Past releases have used paid GO Pass Deluxe tracks.
These are not routine PokéStop, raid, or Gift drops.
How to use it
Choose an eligible Pokémon that is at least a Good Buddy (1 Buddy heart earned), select one stat (Attack, Defense, or HP) and its target IV, then complete the assigned tasks with that Pokémon set as your active Buddy.
Shadow Pokémon and Pokémon that already have perfect 15/15/15 stats are ineligible, whereas Mythical, Lucky, Purified, and traded Pokémon can be trained. Check both the cap’s Item Bag expiration date and the 365-day training deadline.
Worth knowing
Increasing IVs raises CP and can change eligibility or stat product in CP-limited leagues. Although the game displays a warning before confirming a plan that would cross a GO Battle League CP cap, evaluate the intended build before training.
A Gold Bottle Cap can train multiple stats in one course; a Silver Bottle Cap is useful when only one stat needs work.
Two different deadlines
An unused Silver Bottle Cap remains in your Item Bag for a limited time, appearing under an Expiring Soon header before it is removed on its fixed event-specific expiration date. Activating the cap on an eligible Pokémon starts a separate 365-day window to finish the assigned Hyper Training tasks. Having a full year to complete the training tasks does not mean you have a year to use an unclaimed or unactivated cap.
Why higher IVs are not always a better league build
IVs contribute to both battle stats and CP. Under a league’s CP ceiling, an increase can force a Pokémon to stay at a lower level than another individual of the same species. That is why a perfect appraisal is not a universal target for Great League or Ultra League.
Compare a Great League Golem with 15/15/15 IVs at level 17.5 against a 12/15/15 Golem at level 18. In that example, the lower-Attack-IV individual has slightly higher effective Attack as well as better Defense and HP. The comparison is between two builds, not a way to lower IVs with a cap.
For a Pokémon intended for a CP-limited league, check its final CP, level, and role before selecting the training target. If a chosen target IV would push the Pokémon’s CP above a GO Battle League cap, the game displays a warning before you confirm the plan, and you can select a lower target IV or adjust the target goal during training before those points are earned.
For a species that stays below the league limit even when fully powered up, or for Master League and raid attackers, maximizing IVs to 15 makes much more sense.
Training progresses one point at a time
You can start Hyper Training from the Item Bag by tapping the Silver Bottle Cap, from the Pokémon’s detail screen via the Hyper Training button, or from the Buddy page if the Pokémon is currently your active Buddy. Keep the trainee set as your active Buddy while completing its tasks, which can be tracked in the Today View. Each completed task immediately increases the selected IV by 1 point, and only one task per stat can progress at a time.
You can adjust your target IV between the stat’s current value and 15 while training is underway, but any IV point already awarded from a completed task cannot be reversed.
Pokémon that already have perfect 15/15/15 stats and Shadow Pokémon are ineligible for Hyper Training, whereas Mythical, Lucky, Purified, and previously traded Pokémon can be trained. You can filter your storage using the search term hypertraining to find Pokémon currently in or finished with training. A Pokémon in active Hyper Training cannot be traded, and if a Pokémon is traded after completing Hyper Training, its IVs reroll randomly as in a normal trade, erasing the trained increases.
In addition, Hyper Trained Pokémon cannot be sent to Pokémon HOME, though eligible Kanto species can still be transferred to Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokémon: Let’s Go, Eevee! via GO Park.
Release and additional training
Silver Bottle Caps debuted at Rank 100 of the paid GO Pass Deluxe: Into the Wild track in November 2025 (which ran November 10–16, 2025, with that cap expiring November 24, 2025). More than one Silver Bottle Cap can be used on the same eligible Pokémon in successive courses to train additional stats. Choose Attack for a relevant damage breakpoint or Charged Attack tie-breaker, or Defense or HP for bulk, after checking the intended battle role.
Choosing one stat and planning later courses
For a 15/14/15 Pokémon, one Defense task can finish the missing IV point. For a 15/10/15 Pokémon, reaching 15 Defense needs five tasks. A Silver Bottle Cap can train that one stat all the way to its selected target; it is not restricted to a single IV point.
Another Silver Bottle Cap can start a later course after the Pokémon has finished its existing Hyper Training, provided it is still eligible. You cannot lower an IV that has already been raised. Compare the resulting battle stats and CP before choosing the target.
Task requirements match the chosen stat: Attack tasks focus on battling alongside the trainee in Gyms, Raids, and Team GO Rocket encounters; Defense tasks focus on strengthening your bond by playing together, taking snapshots, exploring, powering up same-type Pokémon, and catching Pokémon; and HP tasks focus on exploring with your Buddy, spinning PokéStops and Gyms, completing Field Research, hatching Eggs, and earning Buddy Candy. Keep the trainee as your active Buddy when working on these tasks.
Announced November 2026 availability
Into the Wild 2026 includes a Silver Bottle Cap as the completion reward on its paid GO Pass Deluxe track. Pass progression runs from Monday, November 9, at 10:00 a.m. to Sunday, November 15, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. local time (with a daily GO Point limit Monday through Friday and no point limit on Saturday and Sunday, November 14–15), and unlocked rewards must be claimed by Tuesday, November 17, at 11:59 p.m. local time.
The GO Pass Deluxe upgrade costs US$14.99 (or US$19.99 for GO Pass Deluxe + 10 Ranks) or the equivalent local price; the cap is not available on the free GO Pass track.
This particular cap expires November 22, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. local time. Claiming it before November 17 does not activate it: use it on an eligible Pokémon before November 22 to begin the separate 365-day training period. These dates apply to the announced 2026 release.
