Catch
(Catching Pokémon)
To keep a wild Pokémon, you defeat it and throw Balls at it until one catches it. Every Ball that fails is a broke, and the brokes you pile up on a species help you catch it; for shinies, the benchmark is their Max Brokes.
How catching works
Defeat the wild Pokémon. Its body stays on the ground.
Throw an empty Ball at the body. If you put your Balls on a key in «Smart Use» mode, just hover the body and press it (see Poké Balls).
If the Ball fails, it is spent anyway and adds 1 broke to your counter for that species. Throw another.
When a Ball catches it, the «Congratulations, you caught a X!» notice pops up with the XP you earned, if any. It goes away by itself after 3.5 seconds.
Brokes and merit
Every Ball you throw at a species adds 1 broke to your counter for that species, whatever Ball it is. That total is your merit, and only Ultra Balls and Elemental Balls make use of it: if you have 1,000 brokes on a Pokémon, your next Ultra Ball is thrown with the merit of 1,001 brokes. Alliance and Premier Balls always count as if they were your first Ball, but they still add to the counter.
Merit has nothing to do with the ratio: the ratio multiplies that Ball’s chance, while merit counts every broke you have. The ratio table and the full example are on the Poké Balls page.
Max Brokes
Max Brokes is the broke count the community uses as the benchmark for catching a shiny of each tier. It isn’t a cap: by the time you reach it your chance is much higher, but the catch isn’t guaranteed, and you can land it well before. It only exists for shinies.
Example: Shiny Charizard is T1, so its Max Brokes is 1,280. If you’re at 900 brokes, you’re 380 short; in Ultra Balls, at 130 Pokédollars each from the NPC, that’s 49,400 Pokédollars. The brokes calculator runs this math with your own numbers.
| Shiny tier | Max Brokes | Cost from 0 in Ultra Balls |
|---|---|---|
| Legendary | 22,535 | 2,929,550 Pokédollars |
| Ultra Rare | 9,400 | 1,222,000 Pokédollars |
| Super Rare | 3,500 | 455,000 Pokédollars |
| T1 | 1,280 | 166,400 Pokédollars |
| T2 | 900 | 117,000 Pokédollars |
| T3 | 700 | 91,000 Pokédollars |
| T4 | 600 | 78,000 Pokédollars |
| T5 | 400 | 52,000 Pokédollars |
| T6 | 200 | 26,000 Pokédollars |
| Mythic | — | — |
Regular Pokémon
Regular Pokémon have no Max Brokes, and since their catches aren’t announced there’s no data for a reliable average. As a community rule of thumb: from T2 down you rarely need more than about 5,000 brokes, but a regular T1 Pokémon can go past 120,000. Each species’ tier is in the Tier list.
Which Ball to use
From best to worst:
The Elemental Ball for the Pokémon’s type: ×5 ratio and uses merit.
Ultra Ball: ×4 ratio and uses merit. NPCs sell it for 130 Pokédollars.
Alliance Ball: ×5 ratio, no merit.
Premier Ball: ×4 ratio, no merit.
Which Elemental Ball matches each type, where to get each Ball and how to throw them with one key: Poké Balls.
Raising your catch chance
Critical Capture
A bonus from your Guild. Any Ball can land a critical capture, shown by an effect when you throw it: that Ball has double the chance to catch.
Prey: Catch Chance
+30% chance against the species you pick in Prey. It doesn’t work on its shiny.
Catch
Boosters such as Guarana Soda (+200%, 30 min, not for shinies) or Salmon Temaki (+30%, 1 h).
Shiny Catch
Shinies only, and very short: Orange Rose (+200%, 2 min) or Hazelnut Easter Egg (+100%, 15 min). Use it once the shiny is already down.
Medals
Each Medal can give you a Catch or Shiny Catch bonus (or a penalty).
!buffs
Type !buffs in chat to see which Catch and Shiny Catch bonuses you have active. Every booster is listed on the Buffs page.
Shinies: how many spawn
Shiny Charm raises the chance that a wild Pokémon spawns shiny. Your Shiny Charm is the sum of all your bonuses; hover its icon in your buffs to see the total. Where it comes from:
TV Cam: +5% while you broadcast, even if the channel has a password.
Global Buff: +40% for the whole server for 48 hours.
Pokélog: the Shiny Charm Rune.
Medals: some give Shiny Charm.
Boosters such as Bubble Gum (+100%, 1 h) or Special Bubble Gum (+150%, 2 h). You get them from the Diamond Store (Utilities), Linked Tasks (Ctrl+L), NPC Tasks, the Game Pass and events.
Shinies per Pokémon defeated
Community players logged with their Hunt Analyzer how many regular Pokémon they defeat, on average, for each shiny that spawns, by Shiny Charm and shiny tier. With 255% Shiny Charm, in a hunt whose shiny is T1, you get 1 shiny for every ~33 regular Pokémon defeated on average; with 25%, 1 every ~50. These averages come from few samples: use them as a reference, not a rule.
| Shiny Charm | T1 | Super Rare | Ultra Rare | Legendary | Mythic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 255% | 33.4 | 37.6 | 28.0 | 30.0 | — |
| 245% | 34.6 | 41.1 | 31.6 | 31.8 | 49.9 |
| 235% | 31.8 | 49.6 | 30.8 | 30.0 | — |
| 205% | 39.2 | 52.9 | 42.3 | — | — |
| 155% | 31.4 | — | — | — | — |
| 55% | 65.2 | — | — | — | — |
| 25% | 50.5 | — | — | — | — |
For an estimate with your own Shiny Charm, use the Shiny Rate estimator.
Where they spawn
Ultra Rare, Legendary and Mythic shinies only spawn in Primal Hunts, from level 350. They never show up in Common or Wildscape hunts, whatever your Shiny Charm.
Wildscapes (the hunts with a skull on the minimap) have stronger Pokémon, more drops and more shinies than Common hunts. They give no XP until level 150.
Fishing turns up few shinies.
Each species’ shiny tier is in the Tier list and on its Pokédex page.
Tracking your brokes
Ctrl+T → “Pokémon Brokes”: how many Balls of each kind you’ve thrown at each species, and the total.
To keep them in view while you hunt, click the crosshair next to the Pokémon and then “Open Tracker”.
From chat: !pokeball "Name. For a shiny, use its full name: !pokeball "Shiny Charizard.
The full panel, button by button, is on the Poké Balls page.
What catching gives you
XP: the catch notice tells you how much you earned when it’s more than 0.
Daily Tasks: the Daily Catch counts catches of the species you’re given, not defeats.
Achievements: Gotta Catch 'Em All! (1,000 catches) gives 1,000,000 XP and 3 Minor XP Boosts; My first Shiny! and the 5, 25, 50 and 100 shiny ones give Special Bubble Gums; Kanto Catch Master asks you to catch all 151 from Kanto.
Pokélog: catching doesn’t count; only the Pokémon you defeat do.
In the Game Pass Poké Ball missions, throwing the requested Ball is enough; you don’t need to catch anything.