‘Pokemon Go’ Plus Guide: How to Catch Pokemon With the Device

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Pokemon Go Plus is now available in stores. (Gamestop)

Pokemon Go Plus, the brand new wearable device from Nintendo, has just hit stores. How exactly does it work, and how can players use it to capture Pokemon?

With Pokemon Go Plus, Pokemon trainers can strap the $35 device on their wrist or perhaps put it on their belt, and they can then use it to play the game without needing their phone. The app still has to be open on a smartphone, as the device connects to it using Bluetooth technology. But with Plus, it’s now actually possible to lock your phone and slip it in your pocket so long as the game is running in the background.

One of the biggest benefits of this is that you can catch Pokemon without even using your phone at all. Here’s how that works: when there’s a Pokemon in the area, your Pokemon Go Plus will vibrate and light up. If it lights up green, that means the Pokemon is a species you’ve caught before. If the light changes to yellow, that means it’s a Pokemon type you have not encountered before. It was first said that you wouldn’t be able to catch new types of Pokemon with Plus, but Niantic seems to have changed that in a recent update.

From there, simply press the button to throw a Poke Ball. If you were able to successfully capture the Pokemon, the device will vibrate three times, and the lights will change to several different colors in a row. If the Pokemon escaped, the light will turn red.

In order to actually see what you caught, though, you’ll need to pull out your phone and go to your journal. There’s no way of finding out using Plus itself. Unfortunately, you can only use regular Poke Balls with Pokemon Go Plus, not Great Balls or Ultra Balls, and you can’t use items like Razz Berries. You also only get one throw.

The downside of all this is that it can be a bit difficult to catch high-leveled Pokemon using Plus. That makes sense considering you can’t make use of powerful Poke Balls or items, and you only get one throw.

But Plus definitely does make the process of catching Pokemon much more efficient, and it also allows you to collect items from Poke Stops. Probably the device’s most appealing feature, though, is that it will track your movement without your phone needing to be unlocked. Players have complained for months about needing to have Pokemon Go open and running in the foreground in order for distance to be measured towards egg hatching, but with Plus, this issue has been resolved. It’s just that you need to pay $35 for the solution.

For more, here’s our breakdown of how to use Plus for collecting Poke Stop items: