Hold on to your seats – there could be a potential, secret mechanic that allows Critical catches to be guaranteed in Pokémon GO!
A reddit post titled “Critical catch confirmed” was posted yesterday, and is currently in active investigation and verification, but Trainers have discovered that there could be a way to guarantee critical catches, aka, 100% catch rate for any wild Pokémon.
Apparently, if you hit an excellent throw on a Pokemon on the smallest possible circle, it will guarantee a critical catch, 100% of the time, on standard Pokémon you can encounter in the wild.
The original poster shared a couple of videos of this mechanics at play, and judging by early verification efforts by The Silph Road researches, it looks to be true and reproducible:
If you want to try this out for yourself, the recommendation is to try this with Pokémon like Mamoswine, which have larger catch circles, and it is very easy to land this throw compared to other Pokémon.
The claim is still being investigated, but early comments are reassuring:
- “Yikes. I saw this post and thought bs straight away but went to try it anyway since it’s pretty easy to disprove (just get one tiny circle that doesn’t critical catch). I hit the smallest circle on a delibird and it gave a crit catch, so I kept trying and hit it on a Sneasel and an Eevee. Both gave a critical catch, so I’m honestly starting to think this has merit. At the very least it might give a higher chance at critical catches.” – source
- “After reading the OP and a post below, I opened PoGo and started screen recording (you can see the mons appear in the first frames of the video). Missed the excellent on the first attempt so tried again, hit the excellent throw in the smallest possible window (or very close to it), and got a critical catch.” – source
It is still unclear if this is a new mechanic, or this was just discovered now, but it is very exciting to see some developments in our understanding of the catching mechanics.
Why is this a big deal?
To understand the veracity of this claim, it’s essential to delve into how Pokémon GO’s catch mechanics work. Typically, the game employs a randomized algorithm that determines whether a Pokémon is caught. Factors like the type of Pokéball used, the Pokémon’s catch rate, and the accuracy of the throw (nice, great, or excellent) influence this algorithm.
However, nowhere in the official game mechanics is it mentioned that a certain type of throw guarantees a critical catch.
What is a Critical Catch?
A critical catch in Pokémon GO is a rare event where the Pokéball shakes only once on the ground before the Pokémon is caught, significantly reducing the suspense and uncertainty of the catching process. These events are generally considered random, with no player action known to influence their occurrence reliably.
What if this is true?
If this theory actually holds water, it would be a game-changer, literally. It could add a whole new layer of skill to Pokémon GO, especially when you’re up against Pokémon like Galarian Birds, essentially giving you a way to influence your catch chance outside of the regular Berry and type of Poké Ball factors.
How does the Pokémon GO catch formula work?
Pokémon GO catch rate formula can be expressed as follows:
CATCH_MULTIPLIERS = ball * curve * berry * throwType * (type1Medal + type2Medal / 2)CATCH_RATE = 1 - Math.pow(1 - baseCatchRate / (2 * cpm), CATCH_MULTIPLIERS)
As you can see, critical catches are not mentioned anywhere in the formula, but they ensure a 100% catch rate when they happen.
