Ultra Ball

This article is about the modern incarnation of the Ultra Ball. For the Ultra Ball from Legends: Arceus, see Ultra Ball (Hisui). For the Poké Ball with the Japanese name of "Ultra Ball", see Beast Ball.

The Ultra Ball (Japanese: ハイパーボール Hyper Ball) is a type of Poké Ball introduced in Generation I. It is an improved variant of the Great Ball that can be used to catch wild Pokémon.

Ultra Ball
ハイパーボール
Hyper Ball
Bag Ultra Ball Sprite.png
Ultra Ball
Artwork from Pokémon Global Link
Introduced in Generation I
Pocket
Generation I Bag Items pocket icon.png Items
Generation II Bag Poké Balls pocket icon.png Poké Balls
Generation III Bag Poké Balls pocket icon.png Poké Balls
Generation IV Bag Poké Balls pocket icon.png Poké Balls
Generation V Bag Items pocket icon.png Items (Poké Balls)
Generation VI Bag Items pocket icon.png Items
Generation VII Bag Items pocket icon.png Items (Catching PocketPE)
Generation VIII Bag Poké Balls pocket icon.png Poké Balls
Generation IX Bag Poké Balls pocket icon.png Poké Balls

In the core series games

Price

Games Cost Sell price
RGBY/RBY
GSC
RSEFRLG
DPPtHGSS
BWB2W2
XYORAS
BDSP
$1,200 $600
SMUSUM
SwSh
$800 $400
PE $500 $250
SV $800 $200

In Pokémon Crystal, an Ultra Ball costs $1000 during the Goldenrod Department Store rooftop sale.

Effect

Manual activation

When used from the Bag in a wild Pokémon encounter, it will attempt to catch the wild Pokémon with a catch rate modifier of 2×.

If used on an Ultra Beast, the catch rate modifier is instead set to 410/4096× (~0.1×).

The Ultra 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 or against a trial Pokémon. If used in a Trainer battle (except if used as a Snag Ball on a Shadow Pokémon), the opposing Trainer will deflect it, wasting the ball (in Generation III and earlier) or only the player's turn (from Generation IV onward). If used on the ghost Marowak, it will dodge it, wasting the ball.

Held item

Fling fails if the user is holding an Ultra Ball.

Description

Games Description
Stad A Ball for catching wild Pokémon. More effective than a Great Ball.
GSC A Ball with a high rate of success.
RSE A tool for catching wild Pokémon.
FRLG
Colo.XD
A better Ball with a higher catch rate than a Great Ball.
DPPtHGSS
BWB2W2
An ultra-performance Ball that provides a higher Pokémon catch rate than a Great Ball.
XYORAS
SMUSUMPE
An ultra-high performance Poké Ball that provides a higher success rate for catching Pokémon than a Great Ball.
SwShBDSP
SV
An ultra-high-performance Poké Ball that provides a higher success rate for catching Pokémon than a Great Ball.

Acquisition

Games Finite methods Repeatable methods
RBY
RGBY
Route 23, Seafoam Islands, Victory Road, Cerulean Cave Fuchsia, Cinnabar, and Indigo Plateau Poké Marts
GSC Routes 4, 42, and 44, Goldenrod Department Store, Burned Tower, Mt. MortarC, Team Rocket's HideoutC, Goldenrod Radio TowerC, Goldenrod TunnelC, Tin Tower, Whirl Islands, Mt. Silver Cave Blackthorn, Indigo Plateau, Viridian, Cerulean, Vermilion, Saffron, and Fuchsia Poké Marts, Celadon Department Store
Goldenrod Department Store rooftop sale (after becoming Champion)C
Route 44 (random gift from Fisher Wilton)C
Goldenrod Radio Tower (2 Blue Card points)C
RSE Routes 119, 123, and 126, New Mauville, Mt. Pyre Fortree, Mossdeep, Sootopolis, Ever Grande, and Battle FrontierE Poké Marts, Lilycove Department Store
Pickup (Lv. 1-90E)
FRLG Route 23, Silph Co., Seafoam Islands, Mt. Ember, Victory Road, Icefall Cave, Cerulean Cave Fuchsia, Cinnabar, Three Island, Indigo Plateau, Four Island, Six Island, Seven Island, and Trainer Tower Poké Marts, Two Island vendor (after saving Lostelle)
Hidden recurring item (Treasure Beach, Four Island, Green Path)
Colo. Pyrite Cave, Agate Village, The Under Subway, Snagem Hideout Outskirt Stand (after Duking's first email)
Pickup
XD Phenac City, Realgam Tower, Snagem Hideout, Cipher Key Lair, Citadark Isle
Realgam Tower (Battle CD 13, 26, and 30 completion prizes)
Gateon, Agate, Pyrite, and Phenac Poké Marts, Outskirt Stand
Pickup (Lv. 1-90)
DPPt Routes 210, 212Pt, 215Pt, 217, 221, 222, 223Pt, 224Pt, 225, 228DP, and 230Pt, Mt. Coronet, Valor LakefrontPt, Great MarshDP, Floaroma MeadowPt, Fuego Ironworks, Iron Island, Team Galactic HQDP, Acuity Lakefront, Victory Road, Stark Mountain All Poké Marts (after earning 5 Badges), Veilstone Department Store
Jubilife TV Pokémon Lottery Corner (1 digit)Pt
Pokémon News Press
Pickup (Lv. 1-90)
HGSS Route 4, Goldenrod Department Store, Ecruteak City, Burned Tower, Cliff Cave, Union Cave, Team Rocket HQ, Goldenrod Radio Tower, Goldenrod Tunnel, Mt. Mortar, Bell Tower, Whirl Islands, Victory Road, Seafoam Islands, Cerulean Cave, Mt. Silver Cave All Poké Marts (after earning 5 Badges), Goldenrod Department Store, Celadon Department Store
Goldenrod Radio Tower Pokémon Lottery Corner (1 digit)
Pickup (Lv. 1-90)
PW Town Outskirts (0+ steps)
BW Routes 4, 7, 8, 14, and 15, Dreamyard, Nacrene City, Liberty Garden (requires Liberty Pass), Anville Town, Driftveil City, Mistralton Cave, Twist Mountain, Icirrus City, Moor of Icirrus, Opelucid City, Victory Road, Village Bridge All Poké Marts (after earning 5 Badges), Shopping Mall Nine
White ForestW (Miho)
Big Stadium and Small Court (defeat Youngster Kevin or Lass Dana)
Pickup (Lv. 1-90)
N's Castle (repeatable if the player has no Poké Balls to catch ReshiramB/ZekromW)
B2W2 Routes 1, 2, 6, 12, 13, 15, and 23, Aspertia City, Castelia SewersSpringSummer, Driftveil City, Relic Passage, Relic Castle, Lostlorn Forest, Mistralton Cave, Chargestone Cave, Village Bridge, Giant Chasm, Victory Road, Dragonspiral Tower, Twist Mountain, Pinwheel Forest, Wellspring Cave, Dreamyard All Poké Marts (after earning 5 Badges), Shopping Mall Nine, Join Avenue (Antique Shop, Raffle Shop, souvenir)
Hidden Grotto (2% chance)
Big Stadium and Small Court (defeat various Trainers)
Pickup (Lv. 1-90)
DW* Windswept Sky
XY Routes 6 and 8, Camphrier Town, Laverre City, Victory Road All Poké Marts (after earning 3 Badges)
Lumiose City South Boulevard Pokémon Center (60 PM)
Lumiose City (Sycamore Pokémon Lab, for a Poké Radar chain of 1-10 of a specified Pokémon)
Pickup (Lv. 1-90)
ORAS Routes 119, 123, and 126, New Mauville, Safari Zone, Mt. Pyre, Victory Road All Poké Marts (after earning 3 Badges), Lilycove Department Store
Mauville City PokéMileage Center (60 PM)
Secret Base ("Pick something up" with Secret Pal)
Routes 102, 104, 117 (20% chance after rematches with Youngster Calvin, Lass Haley, and Teammates Anna & Meg, respectively)
Pickup (Lv. 1-90)
Sky Pillar (Delta Episode; repeatable if the player has no Poké Balls to catch Rayquaza)
PMC* Mine Cart Adventure (all levels)
SMUSUM Route 8, Hau'oli City, Ten Carat Hill, Royal Avenue All Poké Marts (after clearing 4 trials)
Festival Plaza (Lottery shop: eighth prize, Confuse Ray Haunted houses, Ball ShopMUM and General StoreM)
Pickup (Lv. 1-90)
PE Routes 12, 15, 16, and 20, Team Rocket Hideout, Pokémon Tower, Silph Co., Seafoam Islands, Pokémon Mansion, Victory Road, Cerulean Cave
Reward for defeating Ace Trainers (except in Gyms)
All Poké Marts (after earning 4 Badges)
Cerulean Cave
SwSh Route 6 All Poké Marts (after earning 5 Badges)
Hidden recurring item (Giant's Seat, Bridge Field, Stony Wilderness, Dusty Bowl, Giant's Mirror, Hammerlocke Hills, Giant's Cap)
SwShIA Armor Station Poké Mart (after earning 5 Badges), Fields of Honor Watt Trader
Hidden recurring item (Brawlers' Cave, Courageous Cavern, Potbottom Desert)
Cram-o-matic (all Apricorns except Black, Blue and White)
SwShCT Slippery Slope Crown Tundra Station Poké Mart (after earning 5 Badges), Freezington Peddler
Hidden recurring item (Frostpoint Field, Giant's Bed, Snowslide Slope, Giant's Foot, Roaring-Sea Caves, Three-Point Pass, Ballimere Lake)
BDSP Routes 210, 217, 221, 222, 225, and 228, Mount Coronet, Great Marsh, Fuego Ironworks, Iron Island, Team Galactic HQ, Acuity Lakefront, Victory Road, Stark Mountain All Poké Marts (after earning 5 Badges), Veilstone Department Store
Pokémon News Press
SV Alfornada, Cascarrafa, Levincia, Alfornada Cavern, Caph Squad's Base, Casseroya Lake, Dalizapa Passage, Glaseado Mountain, Inlet Grotto, Socarrat Trail, East Province (Area One), East Province (Area Two), East Province (Area Three), North Province (Area One), North Province (Area Two), North Province (Area Three), South Province (Area One), South Province (Area Two), South Province (Area Three), South Province (Area Four), South Province (Area Five), South Province (Area Six), West Province (Area One)
Reward for registering 40 Pokémon in the Paldea Pokédex (×10)
Naranja AcademyS/Uva AcademyV (×20; from Jacq after registering 100 Pokémon species in the Paldea Pokédex)
All Poké Marts (after earning 5 Gym Badges), Porto Marinada auction
Sparkling overworld item (Glaseado Mountain)
SVTM Apple Hills, Kitakami Wilds, Mossfell Confluence, Oni Mountain, Timeless Woods, Wistful Fields Peachy's (after earning 5 Gym Badges)
Sparkling overworld item (Crystal Pool, Infernal Pass, Oni Mountain)
SVID Canyon Biome, Central Plaza, Coastal Biome, Polar Biome, Savanna Biome Vending machines (Terarium)
Item Printer (Poké Ball Lotto)

Distribution

Games Event Language/Region Distribution period
SV Japanese 7-11 Onigiri Balls Japan November 18, 2022 to January 10, 2023

NPC usage

Pokémon Sun, Moon, Ultra Sun, and Ultra Moon

Lusamine, Faba, Guzma, Plumeria, Ryuki, Molayne, Sina, Dexio, Grimsley, Anabel, Wally, Colress, and Cynthia keep their Pokémon in Ultra Balls.

The following Trainer classes keep their Pokémon in Ultra Balls:

Pokémon Sword and Shield

Rose, Leon (outside the Battle Tower), Mustard, Honey, Peony, and Peonia keep their Pokémon in Ultra Balls.

In Pokémon Sword and Shield, the following Trainer classes keep their Pokémon in Ultra Balls:

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

In Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, Trainers considered "strong" (denoted by a black background on their overworld text bubble) keep their Pokémon in Ultra Balls.

Cameo appearances

Pokémon Stadium 2

In Pokémon Stadium 2, Ultra Balls appear in the mini-game Furret's Frolic. They are worth three points each.

Gallery

Artwork

   
Artwork by
Ken Sugimori
Artwork from
Scarlet and Violet

Sprites

         
In-battle sprite in
Generation II
Sprite from
Furret Frolic's
instruction screen in
Stadium 2
In-battle and
summary sprite from
Ruby and Sapphire
In-battle and
summary sprite from
FireRed, LeafGreen,
and Emerald
Summary sprite from
Colosseum
         
Summary sprite from
XD: Gale of Darkness
Summary sprite from
Generations IV and V
In-battle sprite in
Generation IV
Summary sprite from
Battle Revolution
In-battle sprite in
Generation V

Models

       
Model from
Furret Frolic in
Stadium 2
In-battle model
X, Y, Omega Ruby,
Alpha Sapphire
, Sun, Moon,
Ultra Sun, and Ultra Moon
Model from
Let's Go, Pikachu! and
Let's Go, Eevee!
Model from
Generation VIII

In spin-off games

 
An Ultra Ball in Pokémon GO

Pokémon GO

Ultra Balls can be used during wild Pokémon encounters to attempt to capture a wild Pokémon with a catch rate modifier of 2×.

Description

Games Description
GO An ultra-performance ball with a higher catch rate than a Great Ball.

Acquisition

The player is awarded Ultra Balls for leveling up to any level starting from 20. They may also be obtained by completing certain Special Research tasks.

Ultra Balls can also be repeatably obtained by

Ultra Balls are also sometimes available in limited-time boxes sold in the Shop.

Pokémon Pinball series

In Pokémon Pinball and Pokémon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire, the Ultra Ball multiplies bonus points by ×3.

Gallery

   
Sprite from
Pinball
Sprite from
Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire

In the anime

Main series

 
An Ultra Ball in the anime

An Ultra Ball appeared in Which One ~ Is It?, a Japanese ending theme from Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl.

In A Frenzied Factory Fiasco!, multiple Ultra Balls were seen at the Poké Ball Factory.

In A Glaring Rivalry!, Gladion was revealed to keep his Lycanroc in an Ultra Ball.

A pair of Ultra Balls appeared in Team Rocket's boss fantasy in Let Sleeping Pokémon Lie!.

In Acting True to Form!, an Ultra Ball appeared as a part of James's Poké Ball collection.

In Sword and Shield... The Legends Awaken!, Leon used an Ultra Ball in an attempt to catch Eternatus, only for it to break out.

In Chasing to the Finish!, Quillon used an Ultra Ball to catch a Registeel and was revealed to have also done the same with a Regice and a Regirock.

In HZ033, Amethio brandished an Ultra Ball when declaring his intention to catch the Black Rayquaza.

Pokémon Origins

In File 3: Giovanni, Giovanni was shown to keep his strongest Pokémon, Rhyhorn and Rhydon, within Ultra Balls.

In File 4: Charizard, Red used Ultra Balls to catch the Legendary Pokémon Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, and Mewtwo.

Pokémon Generations

In The Scoop, an Ultra Ball was used by a Trainer to catch a Deoxys in outer space.

Pokémon: Twilight Wings

Leon was seen holding an Ultra Ball near the end of Letter.

Three Ultra Balls containing Bea's Pokémon appeared in Training.

In The Gathering of Stars, Mustard was shown to keep his Mienshao in an Ultra Ball.

Pokémon Evolutions

In The Champion, Leon's Aegislash and Charizard were shown to be kept in Ultra Balls.

In The Wish, Zinnia was shown to keep her Salamence in an Ultra Ball. In the same episode, May used an Ultra Ball to catch Rayquaza.

In The Discovery, Elaine was revealed to have caught Mewtwo with an Ultra Ball. Two other Ultra Balls also appeared later in the episode, one belonging to Green and another one being held by an Ace Trainer.

Gallery

In the manga

 
An Ultra Ball in Pokémon Adventures

The Electric Tale of Pikachu

In Haunting My Dreams, Ash attempted to catch a giant Haunter known as Black Fog with an Ultra Ball, but the Ghost Pokémon used Self-Destruct just before the ball could hit it, choosing to kill itself rather than be caught by a human.

Pokémon Adventures

In the Pokémon Adventures manga, Elite Four members keep their Pokémon in Ultra Balls.

Red, Green & Blue arc

In Holy Moltres, Team Rocket was shown to have caught the legendary birds in Ultra Balls.

Sword & Shield arc

In Crunch!! Snowy Battle, Gordie and Melony were revealed to keep their Pokémon in Ultra Balls.

In PASS32, Peony was shown to keep his Copperajah in an Ultra Ball.

In PASS36, Mustard was revealed to keep his Urshifu in an Ultra Ball.

Gallery

In the TCG

 
The Ultra Ball
 
An Ultra Ball in Rocket's Sneak Attack
Main article: Ultra Ball (Dark Explorers 102)

The Ultra Ball, debuting in Dark Explorers with artwork by 5ban Graphics, has the player discard two cards from their hand to search the deck for a Pokémon.

Before being printed as its own card, an Ultra Ball can be seen in the artwork of Rocket's Sneak Attack from the Team Rocket expansion.

Trivia

  • The Ultra Ball includes a stylized H in its design. This is due to its Japanese name, Hyper Ball.
  • Its English name is the same as the Beast Ball in Japanese. "Ultra" in Beast Ball's Japanese name refers to "Ultra Beasts". The Japanese name of Beast Ball was likely changed due to the localization conflict with Ultra Ball, with "Beast" being used to refer to the Ultra Beasts instead.
  • The Ultra Ball appears to have gone through a short-lived design change early on in Generation III. Its in-game design in Ruby and Sapphire and Pokémon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire features a single thick yellow stripe down the middle of the upper half of the Ball, while all other games in the generation use the standard large upper-case H shape for the yellow pattern instead.

In other languages

Language Title
Chinese Cantonese 高級球 Gōukāp Kàuh
Mandarin 高級球 / 高级球 Gāojí Qiú
  Finnish Ultrapallo
  French Hyper Ball
  German Hyperball
  Hindi अल्ट्रा बॉल Ultra Ball
  Indonesian Bola Ultra
  Italian Ultra Ball
  Korean 하이퍼볼 Hyper Ball
  Polish Ultraball
Portuguese   Brazil Ultra Bola*
Ultra Ball*
Ultrabola*
  Portugal Bola Ultra
  Russian Ультра-Болл Ul'tra-Boll
Spanish   Latin America Ultra Bola
  Spain Ultra Ball *
Ultraball *
  Swedish Ultraboll
  Tamil அல்ட்ரா பால் Ultra Ball
  Telugu అల్ట్రా బాల్ Ultra Ball
  Thai ไฮเปอร์บอล Hyper Ball
อัลตร้าบอล Ultra Ball *
  Vietnamese Bóng Hyper



  This item article is part of Project ItemDex, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on all items.