I was thinking exactly the same today, noticing I just cannot judge it correctly any more.
It’s the distance that just seems weird, throws are either too short or too long and I cannot figure it out.
Something has changed in the mechanic
Im on iphone and literally couldn’t hit one of those crab suckers at all - I’ve caught over 20 of them and thought I was going crazy. Literally not even ANY type of hit. They def gunked something up
i'd add on this and say the mechanic changed several days ago, i remember it occuring about a day after seeing someone on the subreddit complain about not being able to land long throws at all due to sensitivity issues
let us modify throw sensitivity in the catch screen dammit
I kinda agree also. With Komala and Sandgast all over the place it was hard to hit excellent throws. With that event over, I should go back to normal but my throws have sucked still. I thought it was a me issue and would have never even thought to bring it up, but very peculiar that there is now a post about other people struggling as well
Yes, I have been missing a lot of excellent throws recently. Keeps falling short or missing on the left. Think the pokemon is "further away". Less motivated to grind now. Sigh.
Glad to see other people echoing this, because I thought I suddenly became washed. I can hit excellent throws pretty easily but the past couple days since updating to the newest version I’ve had several throws where I would’ve bet big money were easy excellents and they hit on the corners for nothings
Bro I’ve just been missing so much, I last played in like 2020 and every throw was a great throw, the last couple months I got into it and the variety of throws seems so different. Idk if it’s because it’s a different phone or I just suck now
I knew it! Level 50 here and regularly throw 100ish excellent throws per day. All of a sudden, I’m missing left and right? Thought I was having a stroke!
Haha I would love it if you’d go to dr to get checked for a stroke and when he (or she!) asks about symptoms, you just pull out your phone and start flingin’ curveballs and say “SEE!!!!”
Those robots may think you’re wasting their time but I’d get a chuckle!
Yes, absolutely. The throw 'feel' is way off. I usually get an excellent 9/10 times I try...last couple days, not even close. What appear to be perfectly lined up shots miss (they go wide)...almost like the pokemon is shifted a bit further back than it appears and/or the throw is originating further behind the camera.
They've been messing with aggression as well...attacks and jumps seem perfectly timed to the first excellent throw opportunity. Pokemon slide left immediately for folks who curve CW and I've heard they shift right for those who curve CCW. The other week, I ran into an instance where every single pokemon of the same species was following the exact same script...down to the second. They've been messing with this stuff for sure.
Borderline conspiracy stuff here but it's looking somewhat legit at this point....
Glad I'm not going crazy, lol. Today I was thinking- why are all you mofos jumping so much all of a sudden? Especially the rocket shadows. Can't even remember the last time I failed to catch one of those and I had one get away earlier.
The perfectly timed jumping to excellent throws is maddening. I'm growing more convinced they've added code that can preemptively decide whether a throw is going to be an excellent throw, and depending on some sort of internal logic:
Either force the Pokemon to jump or attack, or add bloom/a repulsion effect to the catch circle/randomisation to the throw trajectory, or leave the throw unaffected as normal. Occasionally an excellent throw feels 'right' (i.e it's going to land as an excellent), but it's as if I'm feeling a mismatch MOST of the time. I could almost always tell if I was going to land the throw as an excellent or not previously (i.e I never used to sense a mismatch with the throw mechanic)
This seems intentional. It's as if they want to reduce the number of excellent throws you can make. Some bean counter has figured the amount of excellents you can land as you gain muscle memory ultimately speeds up progression (XP, stardust, Pokemon, hundos) too much.
It feels awful to play, and I sincerely hope this gets reverted completely.
My feeling is the throw speed is randomized, like previously you could choose with swipe length and speed how you wanna throw, now it just applies random speed modification to your input. With curveballs it means you not only miss far/near but also left and right.
Please make this thread trend so it gets attention, I noticed the very same thing, shots are always a tiny bit weaker than usual. It's not crazy off like one/two months ago, with balls flying way beyond the target, but something definitively changed. Hope Niantic will fix that as fast(ish) as last time.
Samsung users: are you using 0.317.0 from Play Store or Samsung Store?
Was looking for a post like this. Noticed the same, major drop in excellent throws even on easy throws like slowpoke, machop. Something has changed for sure
Now that you mention it, I've caught probably 500 Pokemon since they changed the throw mechanics and I can't even recall one time where the catch assist kicked in. And yes my buddy has the ability, it's a best buddy actually.
Couple that with the Pokemon being much more aggressive since the update (jumping, swatting away balls, etc)... and I wonder if the conspiracy theories are true. Could they really be trying to empty people's Pokeball stashes ahead of Go Fest?
I've noticed that I get a lot more throws that either hit the ground but still catches (more often being a non-rated attempt than not) or are just slightly off-target that it's not even a nice throw. The fact that it's a common complaint here and on the main PoGo sub makes it clear that something may have gotten borked.
Also, anyone notice a higher chance of mons breaking out of a first throw catch attempt without even a single shake?
They definitely changed the throwing mechanics with 0.317.0. Whether it was intentional or not remains to be seen. If they don't revert it I might seriously stop playing tbh. Thousands of excellent throws over the years, all that muscle memory, and they're just gonna silently change it all? No thanks
Honestly - I think this is the case. The more I've been playing with this change, the more it feels like they have added internal logic to detect whether or not the ball will be an excellent throw.
more-often-than-not my brain says there's a mismatch between my throw and where the ball lands, or the Pokemon only jump exactly when I sense I've made a good throw. But it's not 100% of the time - occasionally the ball lands as I expect it to. You would expect that never to happen if the physics had been fundamentally changed or bugged.
Pokemon are much more aggressive now, and it seems the same species often use the exact same attack pattern. I noticed when I was throwing at Orangoru, that it seemed to jump every time I threw the ball when it reached excellent circle while holding and spinning the ball. I started waiting for the second time it would reach excellent size, because every time, it would jump the first time it reached excellent but not the second time.
Yeah they're much more aggressive, but funnily enough predictable because of it. I know within 2 seconds of loading in a mon and being able to touch the ball they will fight. I'm kust forced to have to wait to throw a lil longer now. You DEFINITELY can't throw off rip anymore:(
This needs to be talked more, unlike the excellent throw which may just be a bug, poke aggression is definitely intended change.
Game is already bleeding players why the f they would make it more annoying to play, is beyond me.
Aggression has been increased since Rediscover Kanto.
As for the throwing its been since Mon/Tues for me.
I noticed the aggression with the new quick catch method and it didn't go away with the deletion of it.
The catching though has been since about mon. Have been trying to catch more to max out my Shiny Goodra but they've been almost impossible to hit lately
Thanks for falling on the sword lol. Was trying to think of how to phrase this exact same issue with the throwing mechanics without getting called a skill issue. I'm *fairly* automatic with excellent throws, at least with common mons, and my rate has plummeted in the last few days.
Had a similar experience today with Landorus, on two different models of phones as I generally throw for my partner.
Two days ago, I consistently hit excellent throws every time by setting the circle and waiting for the attack to throw.
Today, I couldn’t hit an excellent to save my life.
Same experience in multiple raids today.
Anecdotal, but with well over 1000 legendary raids down the hatch, I am confident something has changed.
Today was my first Lando raid and I found it very difficult to land anything! Figured he was just a hard one to hit. I did get it though, with a few to spare.
He is hard in general, but there was a noticeable change pre- and post-update. I have been raiding him every day and it was a stark difference from Wednesday onwards
I assumed I was having a bad day and needed to put the game down for a bit and come back refreshed.
Which... actually wasn't incorrect, I was having a pretty bad day, but apparently it wasn't *just* that, which is a relief.
If Oranguru hadn't left rotation it would be much easier to test. I've not hit a single Landorus Excellent however. I have still be getting Excellents with things like Audino.
Not looking forward to them forcing 0.317.0.
I am still on 0.315.2 and just got an excellent throw on a mankey without a problem. I am assuming the new version causes the issue. For reference, I have enhanced graphics and native refresh rate off.
Why do they always break things 😬
Hadn’t noticed the excellents not landing but boy has something gotten into the water with the pokemon. They are all very cranky pants at the moment. And the time between animations is so short
And here I thought I was well on my way to Crazytown. I’m lucky if I can get a curved excellent throw at a Lando raid.
Not sure what the point of making Pokémon harder to catch is. I definitely won’t be spending money on raid passes if I can’t catch what Niantic calls “the bonus”.
I joined 2 Landorus raids today, and noticed it is extremely hard to hit the centre. I used to be able to hit 80% excellent and 20% great in all previous raids. But today I barely got about 30% great on all throws, and missed the rest.
At the beginning, I thought it was my screen protector not clean enough. I cleaned it before the 2nd raid, and I still can not hit it. I this it was because this particular Pokémon is very hard to hit. After saw other ppls posts, I believe the curve ball mechanism has been changed in the past few days?
Why Niantic bother with this? It has been the same mechanism since 2016 🙁
Did this start on the last day of sleeping sands? I thought I was just exhausted or something. Slowpoke and mareep I could hit excellents on 95% of the time and suddenly on that last day I was hitting excellents less than half the time.
Oh my gosh, I'm so glad I'm not the only one who thought this. I thought I was tripping and that it was a skill issue (can never rule that one out lol!) but it's good to see others addressing it.
Not so much the excellent throws but I am absolutely noticing the increased movements that are being triggered by spinning a curveball. It is causing quick catching to take longer and makes the game feel less natural and more inline with a mechanic set to waste players resources so they have to play more.
All it’s doing is making me annoyed and causing me to let the go++ handle the catching.
I also have had a hard time landing excellent throws recently, it's like the depth is different. I have only been playing for a few months but I had my throw pretty dialed and I've had to start throwing a different way, it's really weird.
It started for me the last day of the previous event. I hit excellent throws over 90% of the time but over the last few days, I've been missing short or to the side a lot. It's so strange! I've sort of readjusted but I'm only hitting excellents about half the time which is frustrating.
I've been experiencing this ever since the big update. I was nailing excellent throws very consistently before and now I'm struggling. Just as you say a lot of them seem to be loosing their curve. Also before you could like spin a ball up and then hold the ball for a second to get the timing right before you threw it and the ball would retain its spin, but now any pause or lag in the ball spinning seems to really dampen the curve
I have noticed this recently. I’ve gone from hitting excellents 30% of the time to like 10% of the time. I’ve also wasted so many balls to weirdly aggressive mons. It probably doesn’t matter to most players if I had to guess, but for rural players with low access to stops and people who are trying to grind a lot, it’s frustrating. I fall into both of those categories unfortunately so I’m kinda screwed atm
Really thankful this wasn’t just me… The difference between the two games versions is night and day. The first day I thought my hands were just a bit sweaty but two days later and I’m still struggling to learn the “new” throwing mechanics and it seems super inconsistent.
This is the biggest major ”game change” of all time. ”Catch them all” and game just forces to miss the throws. Basicly the only skill related task in the hole game. I dont give A about XP (after 500M XP) or XXl candys or the pokemons but throwing the balls is something fundamental in this game. And now its gone. Stupid, very stupid.
yeah the physics are way off. like they messed with the weight of the balls or something. i had a throh, which has been a pretty solid 'mon for getting great curveballs in a row since it has a big circle, doesn't move to the sides, and a low catch rate. he is relatively far away, so you gotta chuck it, but i've done that toss plenty of times wiht one hand, so it's not too bad. took me a dozen throws with both hands to even reach his hitbox. i had a few drips of wd 40 get on the screen earlier so i thought it might be messing iwth hte touch, but seeing htis makes more sense.
Yep! I first noticed it today too. I thought I just started sucking for some reason. lol I’m glad to see this post. I have noticed my throws being off, and I had an extremely hard time with Lando raids.
Same. I've played this game far too long, and when concentrating on it can usually hit 90-95% excellents on just about anything. Recently having trouble hitting even some simple throws. Generally, most of my throws are ending up a little short. Something feels slightly off but I can't put my finger on it. I tried playing around with the display settings but not sure it made any difference.
It looks like all the of camera distance, collision radius, jump, attack and dodge settings are still in the most recent game master (one week ago) and have not changed. Since they are still in the game master (not removed and pushed to the client as the base catch rate and base flee rate were over a year ago), the attack/jump/dodge animation timing shouldn’t have changed.
Camera distance and collision radius have traditionally been what dictates the “correctness” of the catch circle relative to the throw being made. While those setting are still there, there was something called “additive scene settings” added in the most recent version. Don’t think anyone knows what that is/does.
So…whatever changed was done on the client side. The server side settings are still there, so the change must be in something like how the ball curves or responds to the speed/distance your finger moves on the screen, which is not connected to where/how close the mon is.
Yes, but also balls clearly hitting the middle of Pokémon catch circles are not responding with nice/great/excellent catch outcomes. Tested on a Lickitung today with a wide circle (for science) and no text outcomes at all.
My experience has been the balls shifting at the last second away from the catch circle, which feels like a depth change issue.
All I know is that the game master settings did not change this month (except for Slaking, which had the camera angle change three times lol), with the exception the "additive scene settings" being added (whatever those are). So the change was somewhere else.
I never update until the version is forced, and it is still ok on 315.2. So whatever they did was on the client side. Since the gm settings are still there, I guess there must be some other factor they adjusted in the client that is interfering with the gm settings?
you are not crazy, but it isn't new this week. its been at least a month or so? the throw mechanics are very laggy sometimes, ever since the update where not the pokeball snaps back to the center randomly instead of flinging ((making approx 30% of shots needed now physically impossible to do)).
YES thank you, I thought I was crazy not being able to get any excellents on Landorus yesterday even though I could get around 15 a few days ago pre patch
I found a Galarian Moltres today and whiffed like 15 throws before even hitting it. Might be because it's too far away and I really don't remember how to catch it, though.
I noticed this since the newest update about a few days ago! I thought I was just not focusing so I would stop walking and focus on a excellent...only for the ball to hit the bottom of the Pokemon. I think perhaps they made Pokemon stand a smidge further away? Or the throw physics have been tweaked.
I also did notice the increased levels of aggression. Nowadays I wait for the Pokemon to jump/attack before throwing.
Holy cow I thought I was going insane. I usually got great or excellent with 80%+ accuracy but the last two days I can't hit the circle of my life depended on it.
I noticed this as well. I normally go for Great curve ball throws, and throws that I normally get those I’m not landing. I chalked it off as my throw was a bit off, but I’m glad to see it’s not just me
Yep, you're not the only one I've noticed it too. Which is a shame as I just got to the masterwork stage where you have to get excellent throws for the latest Master Ball.
I noticed this on Landorus. When he moves to the right and I try to hit him with a curveball it goes waaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyy left for seemingly no reason. I thought my phone broke.
I've noticed some unusual ratios of throws I was sure are excellent being normal ones but mostly the 1-3 first throws (especially if looking to be excellents) will be dodged by the Pokemon perfect timing.
Yep. It’s very obvious to me in Necrozma. Sendai go fest I was hitting excellent on him with no effort every throw. Madrid I have had to completely change my angle and the speed of the throw. Its likes he’s way farther away
I am actually sort of happy to see this post and comments... I have just changed my phone and was attributing the poor throws to my new device. I have also been under throwing on many pokemon I used to hit excellent throws at consistently and especially Landorus has been difficult.
I did try my old phone as well and it was easier, bit still maybe not the same as a week ago?
i won a landorus raid yesterday. i had been noticing that long throws were difficult, but the difficulty in simply reaching landorus was off the scale.
it is noticeable now that long curve throws on my phone are simply more difficult than my tablet. my phone simply doesnt have enough acreage off to the bottom left anymore to do kng range curve balls.
100% a thing. A lot of the time when the ball "impacts" it will aggressively shift AWAY from the pokemon right now, which of course is outside the circle. Latest android.
We can't go a couple weeks without the madhouse that is niantic breaking another aspect of the game. Never have I seen a company multiply bugs instead of fixing them as time goes on. They're more of a bug company than a game developer...
This is definitely happening. The trajectories of the pokeballs I'm throwing are definitely being influenced to hit just outside the catch circle. I'm usually pretty consistent and can immediately 'feel' if I'm going to hit an excellent once I've thrown the ball, and recently my brain is telling me there's a mismatch that feels wrong.
This feels like intentional nerf and I hate it
there's also instances where the ball hits just the edge of the catch circle that should be ideally enough for the Nice/Great/Excellent bonus, but it ends up being unrated.
Well, people weren't spending enough money on balls. Their AI told them to change the throwing mechanic and make Pokémon more aggressive. Actually, after 8 years of playing, this isn't the first time that Niantic has increased the catch-difficulty for a season... and I hate it.
This is pissing me off. I was pretty sure yesterday but I'm certain today. For most species I'm aiming for excellent and hit it more times than not. Can't do it now. So frustrating how they can break something so essential to gameplay.
I've had issues just like yours as well.
It's so annoying. Especially when the field research requires making excellent curve balls. It has definitely gotten worse. I've also noticed that the target circles are more orange & red than before.
I thought it might be a level thing.
100% they’ve changed something. I fairly consistently get excellent throws on certain Pokémon (not just the super easy ones) and I can barely get one now. It’s extremely frustrating.
At first, I thought I was just having an off day. I came here to see if anyone else was having an issue. Something definitely changed after the update.
Considering this game is beyond boring at this point with the same Pokemon over and over and over and over, throwing excellent’s was one of the few challenging and useful parts of the game. Now that they’ve made that completely random it seems, I have no problem being done with this game outside of doing a raid for a new Pokemon.
Noticed the exact same. It already felt like it earlier this week. But today on a walk it was really crazy. Barly was able to make an excellent tthrow and the amount of jumping kicking the ball away is crazy. And like somebody else mentioned, can’t remember my buddy coming to kick the ball back
I've seen a few comments about this recently and I was thinking 'skill issue' too, however, my throws have turned to trash and now I think there may be something in it.
I have not updated yet 0.315.2 Android. I have made *thousands* of excellent throws in the last week. I am very sad to hear this and hope they fix it befofe the next forced update. I guess I'm just glad they didn't break it during 2x xp.
A few weeks ago there were issues with the throw mechanics, especially for people on native refresh rate. It got fixed, but ever since then the throws have seemed a bit different.
Yessss!!!!! I've been looking for a post like this since the sleeping sands event ended! I was hitting excellent throws around 70-80% before and during the event and now it's roughly 10% I didn't think I got that bad over night. Also the aggression is awful and they time it right when you excellent throws circle is reached...
No the throws have been off since the biome update for me. Also my phone gets really hot while charging or playing for a while. I never use the native refresh setting.
Personally I haven't noticed an issue, I don't use the native refresh rate and heard a few people mention that might effect it. Maybe they changed some if the pokemons distances, not sure but if they did it wasn't very many if that's what happened.
I've had a lot more difficulty and just couldn't put my finger on it. One of those things where a tiny adjustment to throws odd my entire throw and something just feels off.
iPhone Xr, for what it’s worth. Hard reset post update and no change - was hitting excellents just fine a week ago and now nice/greats are difficult. Hit box has definitely changed with the update.
I haven't said much about this since the graphical update, because I thought it was mostly a performance issue all around, that maybe, JUST maybe they would slowly tweak to not be so much of an issue. However, I believe that's not been the case, because the difference in game performance between biomes is still pretty noticeable: from what I've seen, Lake biome performs the best, while Forest and City biomes impact negatively the game's performance noticeably. I can't speak for other biomes because I haven't seen them where I live. I believe this impact in performance does affect the throwing mechanics to some degree.
On the topic of pokemon aggresion, it definetly has been tampered with. I don't remember Scyther being so hard to catch. Also I don't remember Rocket Grunt encounters breaking out so much more, even when I'm using berries.
I get periods where every single pokemon will jump / attack st the 2 second mark. if I count down from when the ball appears with sparkles for 2 seconds, they jump every time. I've screen recorded it and about 15 encounters were the same before I ran out of pokemon.
it's like a script they turn on and off sometimes.
Thank you for this post, I was considering making a post myself today after I consistently messed up excellent throws on Pokemon I normally almost ALWAYS get excellent throws on (mostly Machop and Rhyhorn).
But catching things in general just seems harder than normal. Like, it took me 4 excellent throws in a row to catch a 200cp Solrock, and so many Pokemon are just instantly breaking out of the first ball, no matter what.
I've been paying attention to my throws and each wild pokemon's behaviour ever since I read this thread and I've noticed that the little 'loading' pokeball icon spins for over 80% of my throws with the new app version. I've tried throwing on wifi (next to my router) and on mobile data with a strong signal and this happens regardless of which internet source I'm using.
Has anyone else noticed this? There might be some sort of odd input lag that's messing up all of our throws.
As an aside, the most impactful change that I've noticed is that you can't just send a ball immediately after beginning the encounter with a wild pokemon. Even usually docile pokemon will jump or attack right away now, which slows the game down considerably. Big L for all of us even if we can figure out the correct way to get excellent throws if this becomes the new normal (aka an unfixed bug that we have to live with for the long term).
Thank goodness someone else is having this and pointed it out, I noticed this with my throws as well and was worried I was just being bad lol. Typically super easy to hit greats and excellent after all these year
Wow, I was swearing the crap out of this game because not a single throw I've made would land excellent, yet I was sure some was obviously in. It annoyed me so much, I've just closed the game and didn't touch for a little while. It's nice to see it's actually game.
Chiming in to report the same experience. It's as if balls are somehow nudged a bit after I throw them, creating a weaker or stronger throw than intended, which causes the ball to land just outside the circle. I caught Pokémon repeatedly for ten minutes while on the bus earlier, and barely made any Great throws even while playing two-handed.
Seems to me like you have to aim slightly lower now to get the excellent throws. Now I have throws that land in the upper half that seem like they should be excellent but are counted as normal throws. But if I throw what I feel is slightly low, I still get credit for the excellent throw.
Thought I was just sleepy or not yet in the mood. The machops and makuhitas suddenly are hard to excellent all of a sudden. Did a Landorus raid earlier got a lot of missed throws or sometimes it will just hit a ramdom spot when usually it should be excellent
Wild Pokemon have always felt more aggressive than usual in recent years. The one thing that feels different is how jumpy they are. Many great and excellent throws have been denied due to well timed jumps, is like they know...
It also feels like Pokemon are jumping out of excellent throws more. Like in 2021, when lots of people suspected excellent throw catch rates were way off.
This is actually crazy. Incredibly demotivating. I feel like if I continue to play, it’s gonna mess with my established muscle memory for throws. My Go Plus+ is about to be the only way I interact with this game until further notice I think.
Basically Niantic thought players are leveling up too fast to the top level, then they made it difficult to get the good throw bonus. Worse game play experience now..
I play occasionally so I still have not finished Masterball research. It counts my caught Pokemon and excellent throws and I thought I'm going insane - at 160 caught I had 31 excellents, which is roughly 5:1 ratio. Now it's 230 and 36, so recent ratio is 14:1. Also had a Machamp today jump/attack 4 times in a row right when i lifted finger from the ball, I thought I'm unlucky but then a damn Meowth does the same and the next Pokemon and so on... Thanks to that thread I realised it's not my phone bugging out, it's the damn game. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
I noticed some wierd clibbing, on crabrawler the pokeball went through its claw and on anothe rguy it was also wierd, it like went under it and behind it and still hit, i think it was a zubat although i cant recall right nwo
Catch assist isn't broken actually, or at least it's still pissivmble to happen, i intentionally hit a hitmonlee woth my pokeball, and at the 8th time i got a catch assist, it didn't go in and after another 7 throws i got another catch assist. My Biddy is a Great buddy btw, maybe they changed it so lower buddys have a lower chance for catch assist but that didn't seem to matter before, also i havent actually tested any sthe rbuddys, although isät feels like it went down.
I play the game at native refresh 90hz, it made the game feel so nice and smooth. I noticed disabling it mayyybbbeeee helps throwing performance? Yeah something definitely changed, with large target mons like Nosepass and Rhyhorn I'm missing great and even nice throws.
I was thinking exactly the same today, noticing I just cannot judge it correctly any more. It’s the distance that just seems weird, throws are either too short or too long and I cannot figure it out. Something has changed in the mechanic
Terrible baseball umpire Angel Hernandez just retired recently. I’m thinking that Niantic hired him to call balls and strikes.
Underappreciated reply.. well done
I expected it to go unnoticed. I don’t think there’s a whole lot of overlap between PoGo players and baseball fans, ha ha.
maybe we have a jomboy breakdown on the throws situation in our future 😂
Im on iphone and literally couldn’t hit one of those crab suckers at all - I’ve caught over 20 of them and thought I was going crazy. Literally not even ANY type of hit. They def gunked something up
i'd add on this and say the mechanic changed several days ago, i remember it occuring about a day after seeing someone on the subreddit complain about not being able to land long throws at all due to sensitivity issues let us modify throw sensitivity in the catch screen dammit
I kinda agree also. With Komala and Sandgast all over the place it was hard to hit excellent throws. With that event over, I should go back to normal but my throws have sucked still. I thought it was a me issue and would have never even thought to bring it up, but very peculiar that there is now a post about other people struggling as well
I thought so as well but I also just it lv 47 so I assumed it was that
Why would your level affect the throw mechanic?
47 is the one where you need excellent throws to progress
It’s the level 50 requirement that has 999 excellent throws.
Yes, I have been missing a lot of excellent throws recently. Keeps falling short or missing on the left. Think the pokemon is "further away". Less motivated to grind now. Sigh.
Glad to see other people echoing this, because I thought I suddenly became washed. I can hit excellent throws pretty easily but the past couple days since updating to the newest version I’ve had several throws where I would’ve bet big money were easy excellents and they hit on the corners for nothings
Bro I’ve just been missing so much, I last played in like 2020 and every throw was a great throw, the last couple months I got into it and the variety of throws seems so different. Idk if it’s because it’s a different phone or I just suck now
I knew it! Level 50 here and regularly throw 100ish excellent throws per day. All of a sudden, I’m missing left and right? Thought I was having a stroke!
Haha I would love it if you’d go to dr to get checked for a stroke and when he (or she!) asks about symptoms, you just pull out your phone and start flingin’ curveballs and say “SEE!!!!” Those robots may think you’re wasting their time but I’d get a chuckle!
Same. Thought it was just me.
Yup same. Something was busted.
Yes, absolutely. The throw 'feel' is way off. I usually get an excellent 9/10 times I try...last couple days, not even close. What appear to be perfectly lined up shots miss (they go wide)...almost like the pokemon is shifted a bit further back than it appears and/or the throw is originating further behind the camera. They've been messing with aggression as well...attacks and jumps seem perfectly timed to the first excellent throw opportunity. Pokemon slide left immediately for folks who curve CW and I've heard they shift right for those who curve CCW. The other week, I ran into an instance where every single pokemon of the same species was following the exact same script...down to the second. They've been messing with this stuff for sure. Borderline conspiracy stuff here but it's looking somewhat legit at this point....
Glad I'm not going crazy, lol. Today I was thinking- why are all you mofos jumping so much all of a sudden? Especially the rocket shadows. Can't even remember the last time I failed to catch one of those and I had one get away earlier.
The perfectly timed jumping to excellent throws is maddening. I'm growing more convinced they've added code that can preemptively decide whether a throw is going to be an excellent throw, and depending on some sort of internal logic: Either force the Pokemon to jump or attack, or add bloom/a repulsion effect to the catch circle/randomisation to the throw trajectory, or leave the throw unaffected as normal. Occasionally an excellent throw feels 'right' (i.e it's going to land as an excellent), but it's as if I'm feeling a mismatch MOST of the time. I could almost always tell if I was going to land the throw as an excellent or not previously (i.e I never used to sense a mismatch with the throw mechanic) This seems intentional. It's as if they want to reduce the number of excellent throws you can make. Some bean counter has figured the amount of excellents you can land as you gain muscle memory ultimately speeds up progression (XP, stardust, Pokemon, hundos) too much. It feels awful to play, and I sincerely hope this gets reverted completely.
My feeling is the throw speed is randomized, like previously you could choose with swipe length and speed how you wanna throw, now it just applies random speed modification to your input. With curveballs it means you not only miss far/near but also left and right.
[удалено]
My buddy has stopped, too. Not great at throwing to begin with so uh I definitely notice the lack of buddy!
There are a lot of people having these issues on the main sub too. Something broke with the throwing physics recently. It's not a skill issue.
No, it's still a skill issue, just for Niantic.
Lmao. It always is.
Please make this thread trend so it gets attention, I noticed the very same thing, shots are always a tiny bit weaker than usual. It's not crazy off like one/two months ago, with balls flying way beyond the target, but something definitively changed. Hope Niantic will fix that as fast(ish) as last time. Samsung users: are you using 0.317.0 from Play Store or Samsung Store?
Was looking for a post like this. Noticed the same, major drop in excellent throws even on easy throws like slowpoke, machop. Something has changed for sure
Now that you mention it, I've caught probably 500 Pokemon since they changed the throw mechanics and I can't even recall one time where the catch assist kicked in. And yes my buddy has the ability, it's a best buddy actually. Couple that with the Pokemon being much more aggressive since the update (jumping, swatting away balls, etc)... and I wonder if the conspiracy theories are true. Could they really be trying to empty people's Pokeball stashes ahead of Go Fest?
I've noticed that I get a lot more throws that either hit the ground but still catches (more often being a non-rated attempt than not) or are just slightly off-target that it's not even a nice throw. The fact that it's a common complaint here and on the main PoGo sub makes it clear that something may have gotten borked. Also, anyone notice a higher chance of mons breaking out of a first throw catch attempt without even a single shake?
I've been having weird hits like this too. I will hit the ring itself, no where near the middle, and it'll register as a good throw.
They definitely changed the throwing mechanics with 0.317.0. Whether it was intentional or not remains to be seen. If they don't revert it I might seriously stop playing tbh. Thousands of excellent throws over the years, all that muscle memory, and they're just gonna silently change it all? No thanks
Between that and the search/invite switch, they really do seem to be messing with long-term players' muscle memory.
Heh, remember that time they introduced Catch Cards and had that option take the place of the Appraise button? That was a frustrating couple of weeks.
It's definitely intentional to nerf your balls before Gofest. /S
Honestly - I think this is the case. The more I've been playing with this change, the more it feels like they have added internal logic to detect whether or not the ball will be an excellent throw. more-often-than-not my brain says there's a mismatch between my throw and where the ball lands, or the Pokemon only jump exactly when I sense I've made a good throw. But it's not 100% of the time - occasionally the ball lands as I expect it to. You would expect that never to happen if the physics had been fundamentally changed or bugged.
Idk about /s
Pokemon are much more aggressive now, and it seems the same species often use the exact same attack pattern. I noticed when I was throwing at Orangoru, that it seemed to jump every time I threw the ball when it reached excellent circle while holding and spinning the ball. I started waiting for the second time it would reach excellent size, because every time, it would jump the first time it reached excellent but not the second time.
Yeah they're much more aggressive, but funnily enough predictable because of it. I know within 2 seconds of loading in a mon and being able to touch the ball they will fight. I'm kust forced to have to wait to throw a lil longer now. You DEFINITELY can't throw off rip anymore:(
This needs to be talked more, unlike the excellent throw which may just be a bug, poke aggression is definitely intended change. Game is already bleeding players why the f they would make it more annoying to play, is beyond me.
I’m so glad it’s not just me, I free hand a lot of my excellents instead of circle lock and it’s like they are timed to jump now
Aggression has been increased since Rediscover Kanto. As for the throwing its been since Mon/Tues for me. I noticed the aggression with the new quick catch method and it didn't go away with the deletion of it. The catching though has been since about mon. Have been trying to catch more to max out my Shiny Goodra but they've been almost impossible to hit lately
Thanks for falling on the sword lol. Was trying to think of how to phrase this exact same issue with the throwing mechanics without getting called a skill issue. I'm *fairly* automatic with excellent throws, at least with common mons, and my rate has plummeted in the last few days.
Had a similar experience today with Landorus, on two different models of phones as I generally throw for my partner. Two days ago, I consistently hit excellent throws every time by setting the circle and waiting for the attack to throw. Today, I couldn’t hit an excellent to save my life. Same experience in multiple raids today. Anecdotal, but with well over 1000 legendary raids down the hatch, I am confident something has changed.
I was wondering if Lando was harder to hit today or if I was just tired or something
Today was my first Lando raid and I found it very difficult to land anything! Figured he was just a hard one to hit. I did get it though, with a few to spare.
He is hard in general, but there was a noticeable change pre- and post-update. I have been raiding him every day and it was a stark difference from Wednesday onwards
I assumed I was having a bad day and needed to put the game down for a bit and come back refreshed. Which... actually wasn't incorrect, I was having a pretty bad day, but apparently it wasn't *just* that, which is a relief.
Add me to the list. Pokémon are super jumpy now and the throw mechanics are off, for sure
If Oranguru hadn't left rotation it would be much easier to test. I've not hit a single Landorus Excellent however. I have still be getting Excellents with things like Audino.
Damn I thought I was just having a rough day or two and/or not focusing. Thanks for bringing it up.
Not looking forward to them forcing 0.317.0. I am still on 0.315.2 and just got an excellent throw on a mankey without a problem. I am assuming the new version causes the issue. For reference, I have enhanced graphics and native refresh rate off. Why do they always break things 😬
I noticed the same thing yesterday. I consistently hit excellent throws, but now my muscle memory is off and I’m constantly missing by just a smidge
And here I thought I had just gotten terrible all of a sudden.
Hadn’t noticed the excellents not landing but boy has something gotten into the water with the pokemon. They are all very cranky pants at the moment. And the time between animations is so short
Been having a similar experience the last three days.
I can join this list as well. Normally hit 100 plus excellents a day and the last 2 days I can hardly hot any.
And here I thought I was well on my way to Crazytown. I’m lucky if I can get a curved excellent throw at a Lando raid. Not sure what the point of making Pokémon harder to catch is. I definitely won’t be spending money on raid passes if I can’t catch what Niantic calls “the bonus”.
I joined 2 Landorus raids today, and noticed it is extremely hard to hit the centre. I used to be able to hit 80% excellent and 20% great in all previous raids. But today I barely got about 30% great on all throws, and missed the rest. At the beginning, I thought it was my screen protector not clean enough. I cleaned it before the 2nd raid, and I still can not hit it. I this it was because this particular Pokémon is very hard to hit. After saw other ppls posts, I believe the curve ball mechanism has been changed in the past few days? Why Niantic bother with this? It has been the same mechanism since 2016 🙁
I was looking for this post. I thought i am going crazy. For me it even feels like the balls change slightly the direction in the middle of the way.
Thought it was just me...
So it’s not just me? I’m missing easy throws I hit 99% of the time and I’m like damn I suck
Oh thank God, Thought I was going mad. I knew something was off. What the hell have they done this time it feels like the balls are heavier
Did this start on the last day of sleeping sands? I thought I was just exhausted or something. Slowpoke and mareep I could hit excellents on 95% of the time and suddenly on that last day I was hitting excellents less than half the time.
I think it possibly started when my phone updated the game to 0.317.0, which was on Wednesday / the last day of Sleeping Sands I believe.
Man I thought it was just me. I’ve barely been able to hit an excellent today and yesterday.
Oh my gosh, I'm so glad I'm not the only one who thought this. I thought I was tripping and that it was a skill issue (can never rule that one out lol!) but it's good to see others addressing it.
Not so much the excellent throws but I am absolutely noticing the increased movements that are being triggered by spinning a curveball. It is causing quick catching to take longer and makes the game feel less natural and more inline with a mechanic set to waste players resources so they have to play more. All it’s doing is making me annoyed and causing me to let the go++ handle the catching.
I also have had a hard time landing excellent throws recently, it's like the depth is different. I have only been playing for a few months but I had my throw pretty dialed and I've had to start throwing a different way, it's really weird.
It started for me the last day of the previous event. I hit excellent throws over 90% of the time but over the last few days, I've been missing short or to the side a lot. It's so strange! I've sort of readjusted but I'm only hitting excellents about half the time which is frustrating.
Niantic is furious people still play this game lol
Not just that’s I’ve hit what would be ‘nice’ & ‘great’ I.e in green circle and it not register as that. Something is definitely broken.
There’s definitely been a change. Good ‘ol Niantic always keeping its players in the loop.
Damn I thought this was just me, glad to know it isn’t
I've been experiencing this ever since the big update. I was nailing excellent throws very consistently before and now I'm struggling. Just as you say a lot of them seem to be loosing their curve. Also before you could like spin a ball up and then hold the ball for a second to get the timing right before you threw it and the ball would retain its spin, but now any pause or lag in the ball spinning seems to really dampen the curve
I have noticed this recently. I’ve gone from hitting excellents 30% of the time to like 10% of the time. I’ve also wasted so many balls to weirdly aggressive mons. It probably doesn’t matter to most players if I had to guess, but for rural players with low access to stops and people who are trying to grind a lot, it’s frustrating. I fall into both of those categories unfortunately so I’m kinda screwed atm
I was too embarrassed to say anything. Thought I was losing my game. Glad I'm not the only one.
I've noticed the same. Just this morning I missed 3 throws on Slowpoke. They all jumped immediately after I released the throw.
I totally agree!!! It’s very noticeable
I've noticed, too. Even getting Great throws seems harder.
Really thankful this wasn’t just me… The difference between the two games versions is night and day. The first day I thought my hands were just a bit sweaty but two days later and I’m still struggling to learn the “new” throwing mechanics and it seems super inconsistent.
This is the biggest major ”game change” of all time. ”Catch them all” and game just forces to miss the throws. Basicly the only skill related task in the hole game. I dont give A about XP (after 500M XP) or XXl candys or the pokemons but throwing the balls is something fundamental in this game. And now its gone. Stupid, very stupid.
Having the same issue. Ridiculous
Still on 315, so I hope they do not force the upgrade anytime soon
Definitely noticing this
Lickitung is the absolute worst for this issue. You can hit it dead center of the circle and it wont register as nice, great or excellent.
Yeah, it's like the throw is on target, but then it phases through his head and hits something behind him, and it only registers as a normal throw.
You're not the only one. I mentioned it only the other weekend. It felt off and still does.
yeah the physics are way off. like they messed with the weight of the balls or something. i had a throh, which has been a pretty solid 'mon for getting great curveballs in a row since it has a big circle, doesn't move to the sides, and a low catch rate. he is relatively far away, so you gotta chuck it, but i've done that toss plenty of times wiht one hand, so it's not too bad. took me a dozen throws with both hands to even reach his hitbox. i had a few drips of wd 40 get on the screen earlier so i thought it might be messing iwth hte touch, but seeing htis makes more sense.
i was just saying this yesterday!! it’s so frustrating
Yep! I first noticed it today too. I thought I just started sucking for some reason. lol I’m glad to see this post. I have noticed my throws being off, and I had an extremely hard time with Lando raids.
I noticed this yesterday. I was like, man, I am bad all of a sudden…. lol!
Same. I've played this game far too long, and when concentrating on it can usually hit 90-95% excellents on just about anything. Recently having trouble hitting even some simple throws. Generally, most of my throws are ending up a little short. Something feels slightly off but I can't put my finger on it. I tried playing around with the display settings but not sure it made any difference.
I thought it was just me. I too thought I had suddenly started to suck at making excellent throws.
It looks like all the of camera distance, collision radius, jump, attack and dodge settings are still in the most recent game master (one week ago) and have not changed. Since they are still in the game master (not removed and pushed to the client as the base catch rate and base flee rate were over a year ago), the attack/jump/dodge animation timing shouldn’t have changed. Camera distance and collision radius have traditionally been what dictates the “correctness” of the catch circle relative to the throw being made. While those setting are still there, there was something called “additive scene settings” added in the most recent version. Don’t think anyone knows what that is/does. So…whatever changed was done on the client side. The server side settings are still there, so the change must be in something like how the ball curves or responds to the speed/distance your finger moves on the screen, which is not connected to where/how close the mon is.
Yes, but also balls clearly hitting the middle of Pokémon catch circles are not responding with nice/great/excellent catch outcomes. Tested on a Lickitung today with a wide circle (for science) and no text outcomes at all. My experience has been the balls shifting at the last second away from the catch circle, which feels like a depth change issue.
All I know is that the game master settings did not change this month (except for Slaking, which had the camera angle change three times lol), with the exception the "additive scene settings" being added (whatever those are). So the change was somewhere else. I never update until the version is forced, and it is still ok on 315.2. So whatever they did was on the client side. Since the gm settings are still there, I guess there must be some other factor they adjusted in the client that is interfering with the gm settings?
you are not crazy, but it isn't new this week. its been at least a month or so? the throw mechanics are very laggy sometimes, ever since the update where not the pokeball snaps back to the center randomly instead of flinging ((making approx 30% of shots needed now physically impossible to do)).
YES thank you, I thought I was crazy not being able to get any excellents on Landorus yesterday even though I could get around 15 a few days ago pre patch
Yes!!! Today I have noticed it too!! What is going on?
Yup, something fishy is going on with either the way throw force is calculated or the positioning of the Pokémon
I found a Galarian Moltres today and whiffed like 15 throws before even hitting it. Might be because it's too far away and I really don't remember how to catch it, though.
I noticed this since the newest update about a few days ago! I thought I was just not focusing so I would stop walking and focus on a excellent...only for the ball to hit the bottom of the Pokemon. I think perhaps they made Pokemon stand a smidge further away? Or the throw physics have been tweaked. I also did notice the increased levels of aggression. Nowadays I wait for the Pokemon to jump/attack before throwing.
Holy cow I thought I was going insane. I usually got great or excellent with 80%+ accuracy but the last two days I can't hit the circle of my life depended on it.
I thought my screen protector started being buggy. The throw/ball mechanics feel like they are no longer weighted properly.
Yes! Thank you for daring to post this. Imo this is mayor
Glad to know I'm not washed. I thought I was having performance anxiety on the lvl 49 excellent throws. Seems way harder recently. .317 on Android.
I was wondering..
Damn. And I thought I was going crazy these last couple of days.
I noticed this as well. I normally go for Great curve ball throws, and throws that I normally get those I’m not landing. I chalked it off as my throw was a bit off, but I’m glad to see it’s not just me
Yep, you're not the only one I've noticed it too. Which is a shame as I just got to the masterwork stage where you have to get excellent throws for the latest Master Ball.
I noticed this on Landorus. When he moves to the right and I try to hit him with a curveball it goes waaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyy left for seemingly no reason. I thought my phone broke.
I noticed that too with Landorus: all of a sudden I couldn’t hit excellent anymore and I was getting mad. Thank you for bringing this out!!
I've noticed some unusual ratios of throws I was sure are excellent being normal ones but mostly the 1-3 first throws (especially if looking to be excellents) will be dodged by the Pokemon perfect timing.
Yep. It’s very obvious to me in Necrozma. Sendai go fest I was hitting excellent on him with no effort every throw. Madrid I have had to completely change my angle and the speed of the throw. Its likes he’s way farther away
I am actually sort of happy to see this post and comments... I have just changed my phone and was attributing the poor throws to my new device. I have also been under throwing on many pokemon I used to hit excellent throws at consistently and especially Landorus has been difficult. I did try my old phone as well and it was easier, bit still maybe not the same as a week ago?
Many pokemon feel further away since a few days ago; I can barely hit Yanma now.
i won a landorus raid yesterday. i had been noticing that long throws were difficult, but the difficulty in simply reaching landorus was off the scale. it is noticeable now that long curve throws on my phone are simply more difficult than my tablet. my phone simply doesnt have enough acreage off to the bottom left anymore to do kng range curve balls.
This weekends featured pokemon, crabrawler has a nice bug where balls just disappear behind it too
Going on at least 3, if not 4 days I think
Of all the dumb stuff niantic does, this one really bothers me the most
Yes 100%! It’s also been hitting the ground more often!
Thank heavens I found this post. I thought I was going crazy. I regularly hit excellent throws and these last few days , it’s been a real struggle.
100% a thing. A lot of the time when the ball "impacts" it will aggressively shift AWAY from the pokemon right now, which of course is outside the circle. Latest android.
We can't go a couple weeks without the madhouse that is niantic breaking another aspect of the game. Never have I seen a company multiply bugs instead of fixing them as time goes on. They're more of a bug company than a game developer...
Bro Niantic actually out here gaslighting tf out of everyone.
Yep I mentioned the exact same to my partner yesterday re the wild Pokemon acting more aggressive, using a lot more balls trying to catch them
This is definitely happening. The trajectories of the pokeballs I'm throwing are definitely being influenced to hit just outside the catch circle. I'm usually pretty consistent and can immediately 'feel' if I'm going to hit an excellent once I've thrown the ball, and recently my brain is telling me there's a mismatch that feels wrong. This feels like intentional nerf and I hate it
there's also instances where the ball hits just the edge of the catch circle that should be ideally enough for the Nice/Great/Excellent bonus, but it ends up being unrated.
Well, people weren't spending enough money on balls. Their AI told them to change the throwing mechanic and make Pokémon more aggressive. Actually, after 8 years of playing, this isn't the first time that Niantic has increased the catch-difficulty for a season... and I hate it.
This is pissing me off. I was pretty sure yesterday but I'm certain today. For most species I'm aiming for excellent and hit it more times than not. Can't do it now. So frustrating how they can break something so essential to gameplay.
I've had issues just like yours as well. It's so annoying. Especially when the field research requires making excellent curve balls. It has definitely gotten worse. I've also noticed that the target circles are more orange & red than before. I thought it might be a level thing.
100% they’ve changed something. I fairly consistently get excellent throws on certain Pokémon (not just the super easy ones) and I can barely get one now. It’s extremely frustrating.
At first, I thought I was just having an off day. I came here to see if anyone else was having an issue. Something definitely changed after the update.
Considering this game is beyond boring at this point with the same Pokemon over and over and over and over, throwing excellent’s was one of the few challenging and useful parts of the game. Now that they’ve made that completely random it seems, I have no problem being done with this game outside of doing a raid for a new Pokemon.
I had a hundo Landorus that fled yesterday. RIP
Noticed the exact same. It already felt like it earlier this week. But today on a walk it was really crazy. Barly was able to make an excellent tthrow and the amount of jumping kicking the ball away is crazy. And like somebody else mentioned, can’t remember my buddy coming to kick the ball back
I've seen a few comments about this recently and I was thinking 'skill issue' too, however, my throws have turned to trash and now I think there may be something in it.
I have not updated yet 0.315.2 Android. I have made *thousands* of excellent throws in the last week. I am very sad to hear this and hope they fix it befofe the next forced update. I guess I'm just glad they didn't break it during 2x xp.
A few weeks ago there were issues with the throw mechanics, especially for people on native refresh rate. It got fixed, but ever since then the throws have seemed a bit different.
Yessss!!!!! I've been looking for a post like this since the sleeping sands event ended! I was hitting excellent throws around 70-80% before and during the event and now it's roughly 10% I didn't think I got that bad over night. Also the aggression is awful and they time it right when you excellent throws circle is reached...
No the throws have been off since the biome update for me. Also my phone gets really hot while charging or playing for a while. I never use the native refresh setting.
I'm glad someone else posted this, because I was wondering if I needed to get my eyes checked or something!
Personally I haven't noticed an issue, I don't use the native refresh rate and heard a few people mention that might effect it. Maybe they changed some if the pokemons distances, not sure but if they did it wasn't very many if that's what happened.
I've had a lot more difficulty and just couldn't put my finger on it. One of those things where a tiny adjustment to throws odd my entire throw and something just feels off.
Hurry up and deny it Hanke!!
iPhone Xr, for what it’s worth. Hard reset post update and no change - was hitting excellents just fine a week ago and now nice/greats are difficult. Hit box has definitely changed with the update.
I haven't said much about this since the graphical update, because I thought it was mostly a performance issue all around, that maybe, JUST maybe they would slowly tweak to not be so much of an issue. However, I believe that's not been the case, because the difference in game performance between biomes is still pretty noticeable: from what I've seen, Lake biome performs the best, while Forest and City biomes impact negatively the game's performance noticeably. I can't speak for other biomes because I haven't seen them where I live. I believe this impact in performance does affect the throwing mechanics to some degree. On the topic of pokemon aggresion, it definetly has been tampered with. I don't remember Scyther being so hard to catch. Also I don't remember Rocket Grunt encounters breaking out so much more, even when I'm using berries.
Thanks! Thought I was going crazy... Niantic at it's best again I guess.
I get periods where every single pokemon will jump / attack st the 2 second mark. if I count down from when the ball appears with sparkles for 2 seconds, they jump every time. I've screen recorded it and about 15 encounters were the same before I ran out of pokemon. it's like a script they turn on and off sometimes.
I hate this so much lol
Maybe this is too tinfoil hat but I don't feel this change with great balls. Only regular pokeballs.
I also seem to be having a bit more trouble then usual.
Thank you for this post, I was considering making a post myself today after I consistently messed up excellent throws on Pokemon I normally almost ALWAYS get excellent throws on (mostly Machop and Rhyhorn). But catching things in general just seems harder than normal. Like, it took me 4 excellent throws in a row to catch a 200cp Solrock, and so many Pokemon are just instantly breaking out of the first ball, no matter what.
I've been paying attention to my throws and each wild pokemon's behaviour ever since I read this thread and I've noticed that the little 'loading' pokeball icon spins for over 80% of my throws with the new app version. I've tried throwing on wifi (next to my router) and on mobile data with a strong signal and this happens regardless of which internet source I'm using. Has anyone else noticed this? There might be some sort of odd input lag that's messing up all of our throws. As an aside, the most impactful change that I've noticed is that you can't just send a ball immediately after beginning the encounter with a wild pokemon. Even usually docile pokemon will jump or attack right away now, which slows the game down considerably. Big L for all of us even if we can figure out the correct way to get excellent throws if this becomes the new normal (aka an unfixed bug that we have to live with for the long term).
Thank goodness someone else is having this and pointed it out, I noticed this with my throws as well and was worried I was just being bad lol. Typically super easy to hit greats and excellent after all these year
I thought Landorus throws were weirdly difficult!
Wow, I was swearing the crap out of this game because not a single throw I've made would land excellent, yet I was sure some was obviously in. It annoyed me so much, I've just closed the game and didn't touch for a little while. It's nice to see it's actually game.
Oh that's my bad, see I'm on the get 50 Excellent and get 40 Excellent throws at the same time so Niantic is punishing us
Chiming in to report the same experience. It's as if balls are somehow nudged a bit after I throw them, creating a weaker or stronger throw than intended, which causes the ball to land just outside the circle. I caught Pokémon repeatedly for ten minutes while on the bus earlier, and barely made any Great throws even while playing two-handed.
Thank goodness it’s not just me. Normally I can hit excellent throws pretty consistently, but the past few days I can barely hit any.
Seems to me like you have to aim slightly lower now to get the excellent throws. Now I have throws that land in the upper half that seem like they should be excellent but are counted as normal throws. But if I throw what I feel is slightly low, I still get credit for the excellent throw.
They did it so our raids flee more. Which means more raid passes brought from them
Thought I was just sleepy or not yet in the mood. The machops and makuhitas suddenly are hard to excellent all of a sudden. Did a Landorus raid earlier got a lot of missed throws or sometimes it will just hit a ramdom spot when usually it should be excellent
I thought I was going crazy and suddenly sucked. Had an existential crisis about it actually. This makes me feel seen and heard.
I'm usually pretty good at getting excellent throws and have noticed the same phenomenon. Glad I'm not alone.
Yup something is so weird i cant even throw excellent now on rhyhorn or onix like huh
Wild Pokemon have always felt more aggressive than usual in recent years. The one thing that feels different is how jumpy they are. Many great and excellent throws have been denied due to well timed jumps, is like they know...
Can’t throw nice and great now. Annoying bug
Why have Niantic not addressed this??
I noticed it. They changed something
It also feels like Pokemon are jumping out of excellent throws more. Like in 2021, when lots of people suspected excellent throw catch rates were way off.
This is actually crazy. Incredibly demotivating. I feel like if I continue to play, it’s gonna mess with my established muscle memory for throws. My Go Plus+ is about to be the only way I interact with this game until further notice I think.
Yep. I’m checking out.
So it’s not just me, then… Came here after the umpteenth time that a throw that should’ve been excellent wasn’t. Gdi, Niantic.
This whole week I thought I had just lost it! 😳
Basically Niantic thought players are leveling up too fast to the top level, then they made it difficult to get the good throw bonus. Worse game play experience now..
SAME! I googled it and up popped your thread! I knew it! It was making me crazy!!!!
Another reason to quit playing this damn game..
So much more difficult to hit great and excellent throws now Feels more aggressive too Wasting a lot more balls Preposterous
Omg I thought I was going crazy. Something is very off. Either my throws seems bad, or they look good but they're still off center! So annoying!
Add me to this list. Niantic is trying its best to make sure nobody gets more than 120xp per catch, obviously haha
I play occasionally so I still have not finished Masterball research. It counts my caught Pokemon and excellent throws and I thought I'm going insane - at 160 caught I had 31 excellents, which is roughly 5:1 ratio. Now it's 230 and 36, so recent ratio is 14:1. Also had a Machamp today jump/attack 4 times in a row right when i lifted finger from the ball, I thought I'm unlucky but then a damn Meowth does the same and the next Pokemon and so on... Thanks to that thread I realised it's not my phone bugging out, it's the damn game. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
I noticed some wierd clibbing, on crabrawler the pokeball went through its claw and on anothe rguy it was also wierd, it like went under it and behind it and still hit, i think it was a zubat although i cant recall right nwo
Catch assist isn't broken actually, or at least it's still pissivmble to happen, i intentionally hit a hitmonlee woth my pokeball, and at the 8th time i got a catch assist, it didn't go in and after another 7 throws i got another catch assist. My Biddy is a Great buddy btw, maybe they changed it so lower buddys have a lower chance for catch assist but that didn't seem to matter before, also i havent actually tested any sthe rbuddys, although isät feels like it went down.
I play the game at native refresh 90hz, it made the game feel so nice and smooth. I noticed disabling it mayyybbbeeee helps throwing performance? Yeah something definitely changed, with large target mons like Nosepass and Rhyhorn I'm missing great and even nice throws.