The release of generation 2 brought with it two new berries: the Pinap berry and Nanab berry. These two have unique effects that should make the catching game a lot more enjoyable. Pinap berries increase the candies you receive upon catches, while Nanab berries make Pokemon slow down and dodge less. These are both useful effects, but exactly how should trainers make the most of these two new effects? For instance, say a Snorlax shows up. Which berry do you use? Razz, to increase the catch chance? Or Pinap, to increase the candy yield? Here are some thoughts, feel free to post yours in the comments!
Pinap Berry (double candy received upon catching)
Pinap berries are the more exciting of the two. Pinaps give you double the candy received upon a successful catch; but the effect wears off if the Pokemon breaks out, and you have to use another Pinap to try again (just like with Razz berries). This effect is obviously great, but does that mean you just use a Pinap whenever there's a rare Pokemon? Or should you reserve it for certain circumstances? As far as I can tell, a Pinap would be best to use on a rare elite-Pokemon of a really low level; even better if it's evolved, as evolved Pokemon award more candy now!
Thus, the ideal time to use a Pinap Berry is when you find a wild 48 CP Dragonite, or ~200 CP Snorlax.
It's tempting to use a Pinap and be greedy to catch a Dragonite with as much candy as possible, but keep in mind that if it runs on you, you get no candy. A Razz Berry increases the catch chance by a noticeable amount (1.5x catch rate), so using a Pinap Berry instead of a Razz may be foolhardy.
I ran some basic numbers on Gamepress' catch calculator, trying to catch a level 30 Dragonite with an Ultra Ball and a full-circle "Nice" throw**, with or without a Razz Berry. I also applied the silver Dragon medal and Gold Flying medal, as I feel like these are more representative of the average player. Lastly, I added a Curve, but some players may not use curve balls, and so your odds of catching may be a bit lower than my calculations here:
**I feel like this "Nice" is a fair average between getting "Great," or "Excellent," and just missing the circle. Dragonite is far away and tough to hit.
- With a Razz Berry = 79% to catch, 21% to flee, average of ~4.9 Ultra Balls used.
- Without a Razz Berry = 71% to catch, 29% to flee, average of ~6.5 Ultra Balls used.
And here are the catch odds against a Level 5 Dragonite:
- With a Razz Berry = 91% to catch, 9% to flee, average of ~2.7 Ultra Balls used.
- Without a Razz Berry = 86% to catch, 14% to flee, average of ~3.6 Ultra Balls used.
As you can see, the gap narrows between the two as the level gets lower. I'd personally rather CATCH the high-level Dragonite, as the reason I want candies is to raise high-level Dragonites. But undeniably, the odds of catching it are reasonable regardless, so you'd end up with more candies using a Pinap Berry against every Dragonite you see in the long run.
Additionally, if you have a stock of Pinap berries saved up, you can use them on any good Pokemon you want candies from. But it would also be worthwhile to use them on Pokemon like Pidgey, Weedle, and Caterpie, as these are Pokemon you can evolve for evolution sprees.
Additionally, if you have a stock of Pinap berries saved up, you can use them on any good Pokemon you want candies from. But it would also be worthwhile to use them on Pokemon like Pidgey, Weedle, and Caterpie, as these are Pokemon you can evolve for evolution sprees.
Gamble wisely!
Note: After some testing, it seems that the bonus a Pinap reports is either "+2" or "+3" as it counts it in your catch screen, but upon leaving the screen you'll see in the top right corner that candies were indeed doubled, and that you received 100 dust.
Nanab Berry (slows Pokemon down)
The Nanab berry isn't going to be as exciting as Pinap, but it has its purpose. Notably, the Nanab Berry and the Razz Berry both have the same ultimate goal: catch Pokemon easier. The difference is that while a Razz Berry increases the catch chance, Nanab berries make it easier for you to actually hit the Pokemon. This effect is kind of niche, and I'm not totally sure what I'll find most useful out of it. Pokemon like Zubat that are easy to catch, but dodge and zip around constantly seem like the prime targets of a Nanab Berry.
Because the ultimate goals of Razz and Nanab berries overlap, and Razz is better if you can hit the Pokemon just fine, I feel like the Nanab Berry is an underwhelming (but appreciated!) addition to the game. The only other use I can think of for Nanab berries is to use them when your stock of Poke Balls is low, particularly on low-CP, easy-to-catch Pokemon. After all, what's more annoying than having a Pidgey dodge your Poke Ball 3 times?
Because the ultimate goals of Razz and Nanab berries overlap, and Razz is better if you can hit the Pokemon just fine, I feel like the Nanab Berry is an underwhelming (but appreciated!) addition to the game. The only other use I can think of for Nanab berries is to use them when your stock of Poke Balls is low, particularly on low-CP, easy-to-catch Pokemon. After all, what's more annoying than having a Pidgey dodge your Poke Ball 3 times?
Other berries (Bluk, Wepar), and conclusions
Just as a note, there are two other berries in the game's source code called "Bluk" and "Wepar" berries. These two are supposed to "stop the jump animation" and "enlarge the throwing circle" respectively. I won't go into detail on these two, since they could very well be changed before release, but it's nice to know that Niantic plans to up the Berry game even further.
Cheers,
Let's GO!
No comments:
Post a Comment