According to a statistical analysis posted on TheSilphRoad website curveballs increase the odds of capturing Pokemon! This is great news, as there was a lot of debate if this was even a thing, and it’s interesting to see how much it actually improves capture chances. Curve to win!
On average, the chance is increased by 10%, but it does vary a lot depending on the shot you made. Obviously, going for Nice and Excellent Curved shots is going to increase your chances a lot!
Curveball capture bonus chart
| No bonus | Nice | Great | Excellent | |
| Straight | 53.20% | 57.04% | 63.79% | 69.77% |
| Curved | 58.53% | 68.69% | 72.51% | 82.22% |
| Difference | +5,33% | +11,65% | +8,72% | +12,45% |
And here’s the visual representation of the chart, enlarged and converted to JPEG for easy mobile referencing.
Pokemon Level influences Capture bonus!
We found it really interesting to hear that Pokemon Level impacted throw bonus catch rate percentage:
“A common question regarding this analysis is whether POKEMON LEVEL impacted the THROW BONUS catch rate percentage.
Pokemon Level does impact catch rate. But fortunately, each throw bonus sample group had a roughly equal distribution of Pokemon levels (roughly approximated by % of Max CP).”
Here’s the gist of the original post, with some paragraphs redacted for readability:
“The 10 XP bonus for landing a CURVEBALL has led some travelers to adopt the throwing style. But the question has long remained: does throwing CURVEBALL increase my odds of capturing a wild encounter?
Silph researchers have gathered several thousand capture experiences in a controlled study. After statistical analysis, we are finally able to confirm:
There IS AN INCREASE in catch rate using CURVEBALLS over STRAIGHT throws!
Both Nice and Great throws achieved statistical significance, while Excellent lacked sufficient samples (though the trend has been included for reference). Even though samples were not controlled for ring size, No Bonus curved throws still showed a significant capture rate increase.”