How I spent 10,000 Pokédollars to catch a Lunala in a Moon Ball

Firstly, happy new year!

Ever since Game Freak made it easier to catch Pokémon in pretty much any Poké Ball, I’ve tried to match the ball’s colours/themes with the Pokémon itself. This comes in handy when the Pokémon is red/orange/yellow, already in my Pokédex, and I have Repeat Balls. But for legendaries (outside of Tera Raids where the catch rate is 100% on all balls), it’s a little trickier.

My latest attempt was at catching Lunala in a Moon Ball (because aesthetic). If you’re wondering where Lunala is located in Pokémon Violet, it’s on the west coast of Paldea, north of Porto Marinada at the edge of a cliff (this YouTube video by astephen68 should help you find the precise location). You’ll need to complete 10 BBQ’s before talking to Snacksworth and he will tell you a story of how he saw Lunala when he was younger.

After I’d done all that, I quickly looked up the odds of catching it in a Moon Ball while in the red and asleep and found that there was about a 6–7% chance per throw. Lunala’s regular catch rate is 3 (or 1.567% with a Poké Ball at full health) so better but not great. My problem? I only had three Moon Balls.

I already had Pokémon ready to bring it into the red and put it to sleep:

• Brutus the Breloom, with Spore and False Swipe
• Clippers the Scizor, with False Swipe
• SprayCharles the Blastoise, with Yawn and Icy Wind

Immediately, I spotted an issue: Lunala is a Ghost-type is immune to False Swipe, a Normal-type move. Because of that, I just used Brutus’s Bullet Seed, hoped it wouldn’t hit 5 times and KO (spoiler alert: it did a few times), put it to sleep and throw balls. This strategy didn’t work.

Plan B was a little more involved. I still used Brutus’s Bullet Seed strat but swapped into SprayCharles when it was in the yellow to Icy Wind and Yawn before throwing balls. I got some triple jiggles but they all broke out. Damn you! The only thing that could guarantee 1HP on Lunala was False Swipe but how could I use it? That’s when I looked it up and Google jogged my memory:

Foresight! Oh. It’s not been available since Gen 7. Crap. Odor Sleuth! Oh. It’s not been available since Gen 7 either. Double crap.

Further searches brought up an interesting item that I’d seen in passing during my Violet playthrough: the Ring Target. It costs 10,000 and removes move immunity. Great, I thought, I’ll just give that to Brutus and fire away. But then I realised the Ring Target only removes immunity from the Pokémon holding it. I was starting to feel very silly given how many hours I’ve been playing this game alone, never mind the whole damn franchise over the last quarter century!

Finally, my brain kicked into gear. I had Gholdengo in my team and it could Trick the Ring Target onto Lunala, then Brutus could False Swipe and Spore and then I’d throw balls. I tried it the first time and while False Swipe connected (yay!), none of my 3 balls caught it (boo!)

But then I tried it a second time.

Ball 1: No shakes.
Ball 2: Three shakes… broke out
Ball 3: 1… 2… 3…

*click!*

And here it is.

I named it Spectra, after the Spectral bat, one of the largest bat species in world.

So, to those asking if the Moon Ball is the best ball for Lunala, I say… hell yeah! I’m also excited to use Lunala when they allow Restricted Pokémon in VGC. It’s a bit of a beast.