Safari Ball
The Safari Ball (Japanese: サファリボール Safari Ball) is a type of Poké Ball introduced in Generation I. It can be used to catch wild Pokémon during a Safari Game.
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In the core series games
Price
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Effect
Generation I
When used in a wild encounter, it will attempt to catch the wild Pokémon with a catch rate modifier of 2×. The player can only have these Poké Balls in their possession during a Safari Game.
Generation III to VII
The Safari Ball's catch rate modifier is now 1.5×.
Generation VIII
Starting in Pokémon Sword and Shield's The Isle of Armor Expansion, the Safari Ball can now be obtained outside of a Safari Game and used in regular wild encounters. The Safari Ball cannot be used in situations in which Poké Balls cannot be used, such as in wild battles with two or more opponents currently present. If used in a Trainer battle, the opposing Trainer will bat the ball away, wasting the player's turn.
The Safari Ball's catch rate modifier is 1× in Pokémon Sword and Shield, but was changed back to 1.5× in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl.
Generation IX
The Safari Ball's catch rate modifier is once again 1×.
Description
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Acquisition
When the player participates in a Safari Game, they receive 30 Safari Balls exclusively for use within the Safari Game. They are not placed in the player's Bag, and any unused Safari Balls are returned at the end of the Safari Game.
In Pokémon Yellow only, if the player does not have the required $500 to enter the Safari Zone, they can instead pay all of their money and receive a number of Safari Balls proportional to the amount paid. If they have no money, they can enter for free and receive a single Safari Ball.
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Distribution
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Cameo appearances
Pokémon X and Y
Despite being unobtainable as an item in Generation VI, a Safari Ball appears in the Poké Ball Boutique in Lumiose City.
Kiloude City's Friend Safari building contains a Safari Ball on its sign. However, the Friend Safari does not act like a typical Safari Zone and Safari Balls are not legitimately obtainable or used in the game.
Gallery
Artwork
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| Artwork by Ken Sugimori |
Artwork from Global Link |
Artwork from Legends: Z-A |
Sprites
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| In-battle and Summary sprite from Generation III |
Summary sprite from Colosseum |
Summary sprite from XD: Gale of Darkness |
Summary sprite from Generations IV and V |
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| In-battle sprite in Generation IV |
Summary sprite from Battle Revolution |
In-battle sprite in Generation V |
Models
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| In-battle model X, Y, Omega Ruby, Alpha Sapphire, Sun, Moon, Ultra Sun, and Ultra Moon |
Model from Generation VIII |
In the spin-off games
Pokémon GO
In Pokémon GO, the Safari Ball is called the GO Safari Ball, a special, event-exclusive Poké Ball with a higher catch rate than other Poké Balls. Its only visual difference from other Safari Balls is the word "GO" on the top of the ball.
The GO Safari Ball is available in Pokémon GO during GO Wild Area events. When a Wild Area event is active, players can receive GO Safari Balls by spinning Photo Discs at PokéStops and Gyms. Players with an event ticket can also receive GO Safari Balls from hourly Timed Research. During the 2025 GO Wild Area event, Supply Balloons that provide GO Safari Balls will appear hourly for players with an event ticket. All unused GO Safari Balls expire and disappear from the player's Bag at the end of each day of the event.[1][2]
Pokémon caught in GO Safari Balls are currently unable to be transferred to Pokémon HOME via the GO Transporter. This restriction will be lifted in the future; Pokémon transferred via the GO Transporter will display the GO Safari Ball differently in some way.[3]
Pokémon caught in GO Safari Balls can be transferred to Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! via GO Park. Like other Pokémon transferred to GO Park, the GO Safari Ball is overwritten by the Poké Ball used to catch the Pokémon within GO Park itself.
GO Safari Balls cannot be used during Scatterbug or Shadow Pokémon encounters (except for Shadow Raids, if the player has an event ticket). They also cannot be used during Legendary or Mythical encounters from research tasks.
Description
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In animation
Pokémon the Series
Pokémon the Series: The Beginning
In EP035, Kaiser gave Ash and his friends 30 Safari Balls to be used within the Kanto Safari Zone. Ash attempted to catch various rare Pokémon with them, but he ultimately ended up using all of his Safari Balls on nothing but Tauros. The Safari Balls containing Ash's Tauros reappeared in Showdown at the Po-Ké Corral; however, for an unexplained reason, whenever Ash has subsequently used one of his Tauros in a battle, it has been sent out from a standard Poké Ball.
Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl
A Safari Ball appeared in Which One ~ Is It?, a Japanese ending theme from Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl, also marking the debut of the Ball's in-game design in the animated series.
Pokémon the Series: XY
In A Frenzied Factory Fiasco!, while Safari Balls themselves did not appear at the Poké Ball Factory, Meowth was briefly painted on with the Safari Ball's camouflage pattern, revealing that these Balls are made at the factory. This is also the first time that the games' design of Safari Balls has appeared in the animated series, outside of openings and endings.
Pokémon Origins
In File 4: Charizard, Red was seen catching a Chansey with a Safari Ball.
POKÉTOON
In PT14, multiple Trainers tried to catch the troublemaking Chansey with Safari Balls, but failed.
In the manga
Pokémon Adventures
Red, Green & Blue arc
Safari Balls first appeared in Long Live the Nidoking! and A Hollow Victreebel, where Red received some from the robotic Safari Zone guide called Pidgebot, eventually catching a huge herd of Safari Zone Pokémon with them.
Diamond & Pearl arc
In A Skuffle with Skorupi, Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum entered the Great Marsh and received some Safari Balls to be used during the Safari Game, intending to catch a Grass-type Pokémon for Platinum to use against Crasher Wake. However, in the end, they failed to catch a single new Pokémon.
HeartGold & SoulSilver arc
In Weavile Wobbles But It Won't Fall Down, Silver received some Safari Balls while entering the Johto Safari Zone. He tried to use one on an Arbok, but Eusine stopped him, due to him having violated the Safari Zone's no-battling rule by attacking the Arbok with his Weavile.
Pokémon Zensho
In Fuchsia City, Satoshi received some Safari Balls while entering the Safari Zone.
Trivia
- The Safari Ball is the only Poké Ball type introduced in Generation I not to be present in Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!.
- In the Generation I games, the Safari Ball is functionally identical to the Ultra Ball, which due to a programming oversight it makes Pokémon with high catch rates, including many that can be found in the Safari Zone, significantly harder to catch at full health.
In other languages
| Language | Title | |
|---|---|---|
| Chinese | Cantonese | 狩獵球 Sáulihp Kàuh |
| Mandarin | 狩獵球 / 狩猎球 Shòuliè Qiú * 原野區寶貝球 Yuányěqū Bǎobèi Qiú * 野生原野精灵球 Yěshēng Yuányě Jīnglíng Qiú * 野生原野寶貝球 Yěshēng Yuányě Bǎobèi Qiú * 丛林球 Cónglín Qiú * | |
| Czech | Safaribal | |
| Finnish | Safaripallo | |
| French | Safari Ball | |
| German | Safariball | |
| Hindi | सफ़ारी बॉल Safari Ball | |
| Indonesian | Bola Safari | |
| Italian | Safari Ball | |
| Korean | 사파리볼 Safari Ball | |
| Portuguese | Brazil | Bola Safári* Safari Ball* Bola Safari* |
| Portugal | Bola de Safari* | |
| Russian | Сафари-Болл Safari-Boll | |
| Spanish | Latin America | Safaribola |
| Spain | Safari Ball | |
| Swedish | Mästarboll* | |
| Tamil | சஃபாரி பால் Safari Ball | |
| Telugu | సఫారీ బాల్ Safari Ball | |
| Thai | ซาฟารีบอล Safari Ball | |
| Turkish | Safari Topu | |
| Vietnamese | Bóng Safari | |
References
Related articles
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This item article is part of Project ItemDex, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on all items. |