Pokémon Catching Guide

 The most important aspect of Pokémon GO is of course catching the Pokémon! But, some trainers may be much less effective than others. With that in mind, I am going to explain different ways that will help you retain more Pokémon, as well as save more Pokéballs which will make your gameplay much more effective. 

One of the first and easiest things you can do is observe the color of the ring when attempting to catch the Pokémon. If the ring is green, it will be easy to catch. Yellow is a bit harder, with red being the hardest. To get the levels down to green, one can either use a better Pokéball (like a Great or Ultra Ball instead of a regular red Pokéball) or feed the Pokémon a regular or golden Razz berry. Keep in mind that if you feed a berry at a Pokémon and it breaks out of your ball, you will need to feed it again because the effect of the berry will have gone away.

The second thing to observe is how the Pokémon moves (or doesn’t). If the Pokémon is jumping around or has a movement sequence, study it and time your throw accordingly. Doing this will help you make more consistent throws. Once you do this, try your best to throw the ball when the colored inner circle is small. The smaller it gets, the better the ranking of the throw. For example, hitting a larger colored circle will grant you a Nice throw, then onto Great and Excellent as it gets smaller. When hitting these throws, you have a higher chance of retaining the Pokémon in your ball, rather than it breaking through. Plus, if you happen to catch the Pokémon with a Nice, Great, or Excellent throw, you will be rewarded with additional XP with respect to the level of the throw.

Another way to help ensure better throws is to use the curveball method. To do this, the trainer will spin the Pokéball and then throw it on a curve to catch the Pokémon. This definitely takes practice, but once you get it down, it is a sure way to get extra XP and help retain more Pokémon.