6. The "Set Circle" Trick: Catch More Raid Bosses and Conserve Poké Balls in Pokémon GO!

EDIT: You can now get up to 4 extra Premiere Balls when raiding with your friends in the new "Friendship System" in Pokémon GO! This means that you can now receive up to 18 Premiere Balls in a raid.  Regardless, I'd still highly recommend using the "Set Circle" trick I describe below, as those extra balls can go quick.

You’ve finally got a raid group together. You're all standing around, tapping your screens manically as the final seconds count down to victory.  ‘Maybe we should have brought more players’, you think.  But, as the clock counts down, 3, 2, 1, and the boss starts shrinking, having been defeated in the last second available, you all take a sigh of relief; it's over..

Except it's not.  You still have to catch the raid boss, remember?

In raid battles in Pokémon GO, you are given a certain number of attempts to catch the raid boss, in the form of 6-14 Premiere Balls. The number of Premiere balls you receive is based on a few different factors; If your team controlled the gym before the raid boss hatched, how much your team contributed to taking down that raid boss, and how much damage you did as an individual player.  If you care about catching the raid boss, and why wouldn't you, it is of vital importance that you maximize your chances with the limited number of Premiere Balls you received, lest the raid boss flee.

But how to do this?  First, the basics.  There are several factors that influence your capture rate once you hit the boss.

1.  The level of your appropriate Pokémon type badge for the raid boss

2.  Which berry, if any, you used on that throw attempt.

3.  Did you throw straight? Or throw a curveball?

4.  Whether or not you hit inside the targeting circle on this throw attempt.

5.  The size that the targeting circle is on the Pokémon when you make contact.

6.  Did you even hit the Pokémon, or miss your throw?

But there is one final factor that could happen that is up to chance:  If the Pokémon dodges your throw, making your miss your otherwise accurate shot, or worse, attacks your Premiere Ball back at you.

In my nearly 2 years playing this game, and 1 year of raid battles, I have witnessed many raid boss catches.  I find that most new, and even some experienced players only focus on getting the best throw that they can, and try to maximize their chances on factors 1-6.  But very few realize that there is a way that isn't very obvious at first to eliminate, or at least greatly reduce, the number of Premiere Balls that end up bouncing away from the raid boss, having been dodged or knocked away.  In the Pokémon GO community, this strategy is commonly known and referred to in raid battle parties as the "Set Circle” Trick.

As far as I know, this trick gained popularity when Pokémon GO YouTuber, ProdigiesNation, uploaded a video explaining it. I managed to develop my own similar method before his video launched, but his is much more efficient.  There are some things to realize before I explain the trick.  I'm sure you have noticed these to, as you caught your numerous Pokémon playing this game.  As you hold down on a Poké Ball of any type while in the catch screen of a Pokémon encounter, you'll see the targeting circle repeatedly shrink from large to small. The only times the circle stops shrinking are when you let go of the ball, when the ball is traveling through the air towards the Pokémon after being thrown...or when the Pokémon attacks.  This last one is important, and vital to this trick.

Normally, when you throw at Poké Ball at Pokémon, you're going on faith alone that you'll hit the Pokémon and it won't dodge away from, or attack your Poké Ball away.  This trick virtually eliminates this from happening, and, once perfected, you can be nearly assured that EVERY ball you throw will make contact. 

THE "SET CIRCLE" TRICK

As the name implies, we are going to be setting the circle to the size we like before we throw.  But how do we do this properly? First, I need to say, that while this may seem daunting at first, after a few tries, you should be able to get the rhythm down, and it becomes rather easy, rather quickly.

1. Set the circle: Hold down on your Poké Ball of choice until the targeting circle on the Pokémon is at the smallest size THAT YOU FEEL COMFORTABLE HITTING INSIDE OF. (It's better to get any bonus over missing a smaller target that you thought you could hit, so heir on the side of caution, and practice getting better at hitting inside the smaller target circles over time)
2. Once the circle is set, release the Poké Ball back to the bottom of your screen.  If you throw the Poké Ball straight down with a flick of your finger, you'll never have it accidentally drop to your feet, wasting a Ball.
3. Wait for the Pokémon to attack. Not dodge, jump, stretch, or sit down in a chair and start telling you stories of its youth; only attack. Each Pokémon species has their own unique attack that they use, and this never changes.  For example, MewTwo backhands the screen after leaning slightly forward, even the common Pidgey chirps and jumps forward a bit, pecking at the screen.
4. During the attack (near the middle of the animation), wind up your curve ball, and release.  Your goal is to have the Poké Ball hit the Pokémon RIGHT as the targeting circle reappears.  
5. With practice, the Poké Ball will hit the Pokémon before it has a chance to defend against your throw.

Here's a link to the videos ProdigiesNation made on this topic:
https://youtu.be/4qdjCk-cT08

And his follow up video:
https://youtu.be/dmpj1hW4Ha8

Some tips:  Practice.  The smaller the time gap in step 4, between the circle reappearing and the Poké Ball hitting the Pokémon, the better, as there is less time for the Pokémon to dodge or attack again.  

THROWING TOO EARLY: If the ball bounces off their face and rolls away, you’ve hit it too soon, and that Pokémon hasn’t finished their attack animation.

THROWING TOO LATE. If the ball hits the Pokémon a decent amount of time after the targeting circle reappears, the Pokémon will have a chance to dodge, or double attack, knocking your ball away. If you notice, as you release the Poké Ball, that the targeting circle isn’t the same size that you set it to, usually getting larger, it means you threw the ball a little too late. You released the ball so close to the end of the Pokémon's attack that the game started resizing the circle again, even if it didn't display it. Practice throwing a tad earlier.

PERFECT TIMING. If the circle reappears and the ball hits shortly after, good work, but try to reduce that time by throwing ever so slightly earlier. The shorter the time gap between these two events (the targeting circle reappearing and the Ball hitting the Pokémon), the less likely the Pokémon will be able to dodge or attack your ball away.  If you time it right, you'll even be able to make successful contact between the back to back attacks that some Pokémon are notorious for doing (Tyranitar, Lugia, and most Legendaries actually).

That’s the “Set Circle” Trick, although it’s more of a technique than a trick.  Practice makes perfect.  If you don’t feel comfortable using this trick on raid bosses right away, no problem; you can practice on wild Pokémon just the same, although they usually don’t attack as frequently as raid bosses.  Remember that if you used a Nanab Berry on the Pokémon, this trick won’t be nearly as useful, as Nanab Berries reduce the amount of times the Pokémon attacks dramatically, so just throw as you normally would.  I also use this trick for really rare wild spawns, as I want to make sure I get the most accurate throw I can. 

One final note.  Since this trick takes Pokémon dodging or attacking out of the equation, you’ve essentially made it so very little to no Poké Balls will go to waste.  This is extremely useful to know if you are running low on Poké Balls and are in an area where you can’t restock as much as you are using.  For example, I traveled from my city on the West Coast, with lots of Poké Stops, to visit family on the East Coast for Christmas break.  There were almost no Poké Stops where I was staying, and as hotels are a notoriously great place for cluster spawns, I ran out of the several hundred Balls that I had stocked in just a few day.  I wish I had prepared more, but once I noticed the shortage creeping in, I started using this “Set Circle” Trick to conserve Poké Balls, making sure that none went to waste, and every Ball hit its target.

Happy Adventuring!

-Jameson (Rubiksguy)