Pokemon Gois no longer the phenomenon it once was, but its remaining players are numerous and dedicated. I was gutted when theRemote Raid Pass scandallast yearsplintered my local community, but larger cities and online spaces are still populated by avid fans hunting that elusive shiny or newly released Cetoddle.
I still log on occasionally, despite the fact that an aversion to Master League has stopped me from levelling up for the best part of a year and few of my IRL acquaintances still play. I caught a shiny Darumaka last week, as if Niantic was trying to tempt me back in with the promise of all the shinies I’ve missed over the past nine months of inaction.
Catching a shinyPokemonis always a nerve-wracking experience. I only use Poke Balls on shinies, because I think it looks cooler than a tryhard Ultra Ball or dull Great Ball. But this means my chances of catching the aforementioned shiny are lessened. I use a Razz Berry (or Golden Razz Berry if it’s a particularly rare ‘mon) and try to hit an Excellent throw. Most of the time, I nail it, but some powerful Pokemon are just too strong to be contained. They break out, and sometimes flee entirely.
Critical captures eliminate this risk. Every ball you throw in Pokemon Go has a non-zero chance of being a critical capture, where the ball doesn’t roll side to side as usual, and instead guarantees the monster is caught. Whether you’re battling Rattata or Rayquaza, the wiggle of stars that represent a critical capture are a surefire way to know you’re adding the opposing monster to your collection.
Until now, there was thought to be only one way to increase your chances of hitting a crit: filling up your PokeDex. I don’t know if this has ever actually been proven in Go, but it could well be a main series mechanic that has made its way across to the mobile spin-off.
However, players have recently figured out a way to guarantee a critical capture. One player onRedditposited that if you hit an Excellent throw at the smallest possible moment, a millisecond before it reverts to a large, Nice circle, it will always result in a critical capture.
This is the most difficult capture to hit in the whole of Pokemon Go, aside from perhaps Mew when it turns invisible and Zubat when it decides to fly across your screen.
Naturally, the method was quickly tested by dozens, if not hundreds, of players, and the results seemed to confirm the system. However, there are still a couple of unresolved caveats.
It seems at this stage that the method doesn’t work on Legendary Pokemon. This isn’t too bad in and of itself, as shiny Legendaries obtained from Raids (the most sought-after Legendaries and the most common way to encounter them) are guaranteed captures if you so much as hit the monster with a ball anyway. However, it also appears that this method doesn’t work on the Galarian birds, which is where the problems begin.
The Galarian birds, regional variants of Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres, are some of the rarest Pokemon in the game. Only available by chance encounter while using your Daily Incense, they are difficult to find in the first place. When you do spot one, you likely have one chance to catch it before it runs away. The combination of low catch rate and high flee rate results in a frustrating trio to add to your collection.
Personally, I like it. Too many Legendaries are just fed to players through paid-for Raids, and this chance encounter hearkens back to finding the original dogs in Gold & Silver, back when I pronounced it ‘Soo-ih-sine’ and didn’t understand why a level 40 was appearing on Route 29. I haven’t managed to snag a single Legendary bird yet, but I don’t care. The chase is all part of the fun, and I can’t even Fly to Ecruteak City over and over to cheese it when I’m playing a game IRL.
Whether the critical capture method doesn’t work on the Galarian birds or too few players have encountered them to properly test the theory yet, it’s impressive that fans are still finding out new tricks seven years into the game’s lifespan. So if you finally encounter that shiny you’ve been hunting for years, you know what to do. Git gud.
