Tips for making excellent throws in Pokemon GO in 2022

One of the toughest things to do consistently in Pokemon GO is nailing those excellent throws.

There are many benefits to getting excellent throws over great or nice throws. They often give more rewards when successful, and sometimes, excellent throws will be needed to fulfill research tasks. How can trainers do this consistently, though?

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How can trainers get excellent throws on any Pokemon?

The first step to getting excellent throws is paying less attention to the Pokemon and more to the circle. Whenever a trainer tries to catch any target, a circle will appear and shrink. To hit the excellent throw, they will need to wait for the circle to be at its smallest.

These circles appear at different places. Sometimes, it’s at the target’s belly, while at other times, it’s at the target’s face. This is why trainers should just ignore looking at the Pokemon when throwing Poke Balls and pretend like they’re just throwing at the circle.

Since these circles appear different for different targets, the next way to improve is to start by catching Pokemon with bigger circles. Trying to hit a target with a small range will lead to frustration, and trainers might eventually just rage quit and settle on great throws. They should instead practice on bigger targets to get used to the timing.

Excellent throws help when catching Legendaries and Mythicals (Image via Niantic)

The third tip may sound incredibly basic and obvious, but trainers need to practice. Like playing the piano or shooting a jump shot, trainers won’t excel at this skill unless they work at it regularly.

Now, is there anything wrong with giving up and settling for great throws? Not necessarily. Trainers who get excellent throws consistently end up with more rewards, though.

The biggest reward trainers get for this is Catch XP. A great throw will net a trainer 100 XP. An excellent throw, though, earns 1,000. With a Lucky Egg active, that XP amount shoots to 2,000, and it shoots up to 6,000 at events with triple Catch XP.

Imagine a Community Day with triple catch XP where a trainer makes an excellent throw every time. That’s 6,000 XP per catch with a Lucky Egg active. Say a trainer makes ten catches that day: they’ve just earned 60,000 XP in six hours. That’s the power of excellent throws.