Catch rate (GO)

The calculation of catch rate is among the several mechanics that differ in Pokémon GO compared to the core series. Every species of Pokémon is assigned a base capture rate, a raw percentage that determines how difficult that species is to capture. This base rate is then modified by several factors, such as the wild Pokémon's power up level and how skillfully the player threw the Poké Ball, to determine the final catch rate.

Calculation

This section is incomplete. Please feel free to edit this section to add missing information and complete it. Reason: GO Battle League encounter multiplier?

The chance for a thrown Poké Ball of successfully capturing a wild Pokémon, P, is

$P=1-{\Bigl (}1-{\dfrac {baseCaptureRate}{2\times CPM}}{\Bigr )}^{modifier}$

where

• baseCaptureRate is the base capture rate of the wild Pokémon's species.
• CPM is the CP multiplier corresponding to the wild Pokémon's Power Up level.

Encounter	Level range	CPM range
Wild	1 - 30	[0.094, 0.7317]
Wild (weather boosted)	5 - 35	[0.29024988, 0.76156384]
Raid Battle GO Battle League	20	0.5974
Raid Battle (weather boosted)	25	0.667934
Research	15	0.51739395
Team GO Rocket battle	8	0.37523559
Team GO Rocket battle (weather boosted)	13	0.48168495

and

$modifier=Ball\times Berry\times Throw\times Curveball\times Medal\times Encounter$

where

• Ball =

Ball		Value
	Poké Ball	1
	Great Ball	1.5
	Ultra Ball	2
	Premier Ball	1.05N N is the number of balls already thrown during the same bonus challenge
	Beast Ball	20 (for Ultra Beasts)
	Master Ball	N/A (guarantees capture and ignores catch rate formula)

• Berry =

Berry		Value
	Razz Berry	1.5
	Silver Pinap Berry	1.8
	Golden Razz Berry	2.5
	Otherwise	1

• Throw = $2-r$ if the Ball hits within the target ring, where $r={\dfrac {RingSize_{target}}{RingSize_{max}}}$, and $0<r\leq 1$

Throw	Range
Nice	[1, 1.3)
Great	[1.3, 1.7)
Excellent	[1.7, 2)
None	1

• Curveball =
  • 1.7 if the Ball is spun before being thrown
  • 1 otherwise
• Encounter =
  • 2 if the Pokémon encounter is a Research task reward
  • 10 from Raid Battles during Pokémon GO Fest: Global
  • 1 if otherwise
• Medal is based on the player's type-specific medals that matches the wild Pokémon's type. If the wild Pokémon has two types, Medal will be the average of the types' multipliers.

Medal		Value
	None	1
	Bronze	1.1
	Silver	1.2
	Gold	1.3
File:Platinum Medal Pokémon GO.png	Platinum	1.4

When capturing Pokémon using a peripheral device, such as the Pokémon GO Plus or Poké Ball Plus, only the Ball and Medal modifiers are applied. While past devices were only able to use regular Poké Balls, the Pokémon GO Plus + is the first device that can use Great Balls and Ultra Balls.

For these encounters, where only the Premier Ball can be used, Pokémon is guaranteed capture on the first ball that hits, bypassing the catch rate calculation. These encounters include

• Shiny Pokémon from Raid Battles or Team GO Rocket
• Any Shadow Pokémon from Giovanni

Target ring colors

Colored target ring of Rattata at different sizes

The color of the target ring allows players to gauge the probability of a successful capture, factoring in all bonuses for modifier except for Throw, Curveball, and increases in Ball multiplier when using Premier Balls. Switching Poké Balls or feeding Berries may change the color of the ring. The greener the ring, the higher the catch rate; the redder it is, the lower the catch rate.

Catch rate by color
10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%

Critical capture

A critical capture is a rare phenomenon that was first observed in Pokémon GO in February 2017, alongside the release of Generation II Pokémon. Every time a Poké Ball is thrown, there is a flat 1% chance that it will bypass catch rate calculations and guarantee a capture. If the Poké Ball hits the target ring when the ring is at its smallest possible size, a critical capture is guaranteed, except for certain cases such as encounters from high-tier raids. Instead of shaking three times, a thrown Poké Ball will only shake once, and the Pokémon will be confirmed caught. XP bonuses such as from Great or Curveball throws are still included.

Examples

Poké Balls and Berries

Consider a wild Pikachu with 343 CP, with an estimated power up level of 14. Pikachu has a base capture rate of 20% and a CP multiplier of 0.49985844 at level 14. Without any bonus modifiers, the catch rate will be ${\frac {20\%}{2\times 0.49985844}}\approx 20.006\%$.

The following table shows what this Pikachu's catch rate would be if bonuses for Poké Balls and Berries were applied, assuming no bonuses from throws or medals.

	20.01%	28.45%	36.01%
	28.45%	39.48%	48.81%
	31.58%	43.40%	53.18%
	42.77%	56.70%	67.24%

Throw technique

Consider a wild Tauros of 1252 CP, with an estimated Power Up level of 18. This means it will have a base capture rate of 30% and a CP multiplier of 0.56675452. Without any additional bonuses, the capture rate will be ${\frac {30\%}{2\times 0.56675452}}\approx 26.47\%$.

The following table shows how the capture rate will be affected by throwing techniques, assuming no additional bonuses and only regular Poké Balls are used; throw bonus modifiers will be averaged between the highest and lowest possible values.

	None	Curveball
None (×1.0)	26.47%	40.70%
Nice! (×1.15)	29.78%	45.17%
Great! (×1.5)	36.94%	54.34%
Excellent! (×1.85)	43.38%	61.97%

Medals

Let's now consider a wild Abra that has 670 CP, estimated to be Power Up level 20. Given that Abra has a base capture rate of 50% and its CP multiplier is 0.59740001, the catch rate without bonuses will be ${\frac {50\%}{2\times 0.59740001}}\approx 41.85\%$.

The following table shows the effect on catch rate via medals for each Poké Ball type, assuming no other bonus modifiers.

	41.85%	55.65%	66.18%
	44.92%	59.12%	69.66%
	47.82%	62.31%	72.78%
	50.58%	65.25%	75.57%
Platinum type medal	53.19%	67.97%	78.09%

Trivia

• For all species, the base capture rate is approximately equal to the probability of capture for a Level 14 Pokémon with no $modifier$ bonuses.
• The highest theoretical $modifier$ that can be attained is ×47.6, which includes:
  • Using an Ultra Ball (×2.0)
  • Feeding a Golden Razz Berry (×2.5)
  • Throwing a Curveball (×1.7)
  • Making a perfect Excellent throw (×2.0)
  • Having a platinum type medal bonus (×1.4)
  • Encountering via Field, Special, or Timed Research (×2.0)

See also

• List of Pokémon by catch rate in Pokémon GO

References

This article is part of Project Sidegames, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on the Pokémon Sidegames.