Pokemon Go: Throw mechanics, how to get Great or Excellent Throws

Last Updated on: 3rd February 2022, 08:22 pm

Great and Excellent throws in Pokemon Go can be huge boosts to your total experience earned, not to mention how likely you are to catch a Pokemon before it can run away.

How to get great and excellent throws in Pokemon Go

When you hold down on the Pokeball to begin throwing in Pokemon Go, you’ll get a red circle appear – this is the targeting indicator for throws, and shows you where to aim ideally. Now anywhere inside the white outer circle where the red one starts will let you capture the Pokemon, but to increase your odds you’ll want to score a modified throw, such as Nice, Great or Excellent, each of these throws will give an increasingly powerful boost to your capture chance.

It should be noted that Nice throws also help you in the same manner as Great and Excellent throws, simply to a lesser extent. You should probably aim for consistent Great throws if you’re capable of doing so though, the only reason to intentionally try for Nice throws is if you’re not confident with the others and need any boost you can get – such as with very evasive Mythical or Legendary Pokemon after a raid battle.

If you wait before throwing, this indicator will shrink – the smaller it is, the larger capture bonus you might achieve if you hit inside it. Think of it like hitting a bullseye. If you aim for the red circle when it covers the entire capture area, you can get a Nice throw bonus – if you instead wait for a bit longer, you can obtain a Great throw bonus when the indicator is around a third of the way shrunk, but continuing to wait until only a third of the entire area is left within the target circle and still hitting inside it is how you land an Excellent throw in Pokemon Go, which is the strongest modifier available.

Whichever you achieve, a brief text popup will announce it for a moment before disappearing, and then the usual capture animations will play, showing whether or not you caught a Pokemon.

Unfortunately, there aren’t any bonuses typically for getting a good modifier and failing to capture the Pokemon, which is why consistency is important. If you struggle with Excellent throws, try to practise with Great throws instead, and if you still struggle, focus on landing Nice throws in Pokemon Go before advancing up.

Is there anything else to mention?

Bear in mind some Pokemon are simply more evasive than others or might stand further away, among various other potential differences. These can make some harder to capture than others, so you may find you need to practise against specific types but do well against others.

With throw modifiers in Pokemon Go now explained, if you’re interested you can find more Pokemon Go articles, stories and guides on The Click right here, and if you’ve enjoyed my work specifically you can find more articles written by me are available here.