How to use the Poké Ball Plus with Pokémon: Let’s Go! and Pokémon Go

Nintendo took advantage of Pokémon: Let’s Go! to release a new peripheral, the Poké Ball Plus, which works both with the Switch game and mobile game Pokémon Go. It’s more than just an accessory to connect Let’s Go! to Pokémon Go on mobile; it’s also a controller for Let’s Go!.

We’ve covered the transfer part of the process, which allows for sending Pokémon from the smartphone to the Switch. For this guide, we’re going to focus on the other functions of the Poké Ball Plus: how to play Let’s Go! with it on Switch, and how to use it to collect Pokémon, items and Candy on phones.

Connecting Poké Ball Plus to Pokémon: Let’s Go!

To play Pokémon: Let’s Go! with a Poké Ball Plus as your primary controller, you must first connect it to your Switch. (This is thankfully a much simpler process than hooking it up to your phone, which we’ll get into later.)

The first step is to make sure your Poké Ball Plus is charged. Once that’s done, you’ll have to connect it to your game. Open up Pokémon: Let’s Go! and head into the Options menu.

Nintendo via Polygon

Once there, navigate to the “Open controller settings” menu. The game will present you with four different controller options: left Joy-Con, right Joy-Con, the two Joy-Con together and the Poké Ball Plus.

Press in the control stick on the Poké Ball Plus (the white one that juts out) to pair it with the Switch. Make sure that Bluetooth is on! If you’re successful, it will light up on-screen.

Playing Pokémon: Let’s Go! with the Poké Ball Plus

From there, you can start playing the game with the Poké Ball as your controller. That’s neither our favorite nor recommended option, but if you’d like to actually swing a Poké Ball toward the screen when facing down a wild Pokémon, this is how you do it.

Note that there are only two buttons on the Poké Ball Plus, which limits your access to several functions that you can get to with the Joy-Con. The center button is both the joystick and the A button; there’s a button on the top that serves as the B button.

To select options generally mapped to the Y button, shake the device.

The Pokémon Company

You can also use the Poké Ball Plus to trade Pokémon from Go to Let’s Go!. Check out our separate guide for how to do that.

Connecting Poké Ball Plus to Pokémon Go

The Poké Ball Plus is perhaps more useful for Pokémon Go users, presuming they can get it to work properly.

Pairing the Poké Ball Plus with your smartphone may take some trial and error. With Bluetooth enabled, enter the main menu on Pokémon Go. From there, go into the Settings menu. You’ll see an option for Poké Ball Plus.

With your Poké Ball Plus in hand, click in the button on top of the accessory. This will allow your phone to find it. Then click the Poké Ball Plus option to initiate a pop-up that will ask to enable the Poké Ball Plus. The Poké Ball Plus icon on the main gameplay overworld will then illuminate to confirm that the game and device are paired.

Niantic/The Pokémon Company via Polygon

You may require additional troubleshooting, especially if your accessory is constantly disconnecting from the game (which was our experience). This is what the Pokémon Go support site recommends:

On iOS devices:

Open the Settings app and tap Bluetooth.

Tap the Bluetooth toggle to turn Bluetooth on.

Press the top button on the Poké Ball Plus to make the accessory discoverable.

Tap Pokémon PBP (Poké Ball Plus) on the My Devices or Other Devices list.

Open the Pokémon GO app.

On the main screen, tap the Poké Ball icon at the bottom to open the Main Menu.

At the top right, tap Settings.

Tap Poké Ball Plus.

Press the top button on the Poké Ball Plus to make the accessory discoverable.

Tap your Poké Ball Plus on the Available Devices. It will vibrate when connected.

On Android devices (instructions may differ depending on device):

Open your device’s Settings menu.

Tap the Bluetooth toggle to turn Bluetooth on.

Tap Search for devices, or Refresh to scan for nearby devices.

Press the top button on the Poké Ball Plus to make the accessory discoverable.

Tap Pokémon PBP (Poké Ball Plus) on the list of available devices.

Open the Pokémon GO app.

On the main screen, tap the Poké Ball icon at the bottom to open the Main Menu.

At the top right, tap Settings.

Tap Poké Ball Plus.

Press the top button on the Poké Ball Plus to make the accessory discoverable.

Tap your Poké Ball Plus on the Available Devices list. It will vibrate when connected.

From there, you can start catching Pokémon and collecting items.

What the LED lights on the Poké Ball Plus mean

You must have Pokémon Go open in the background to use the Poké Ball Plus. You don’t have to be actively playing the game, however. Instead, the device uses a series of lights to alert players to what’s going on in the game.

The Pokémon Company/Nintendo

These are the lights to look for and what they mean when it comes to catching a Pokémon:

• Three green lights: already owned nearby Pokémon; press the top button to capture
• Three yellow lights: new nearby Pokémon; press the top button to capture
• Up to three white lights: wild battle in progress
• Three red lights: Pokémon ran away
• Multi-colored lights: Pokémon captured

These lights show up for PokéStops:

• Two blue lights: spin a nearby PokéStop
• One red light: unable to spin
• Multi-colored lights: items collected from PokéStop

Muting the Poké Ball Plus

You can’t mute the Poké Ball Plus’ sounds or disable its vibrations when playing Let’s Go!, but you can mute it when it’s connected to Pokémon Go. To do this, you have to hold the top button and control stick button at the same time. It will vibrate to indicate that the action was successful. Follow these same steps again to unmute it.