Pokémon Go players have discovered an apparent glitch that, unlike most of the game’s issues, comes with a great benefit: It enables users to bypass the catching animation during a Pokémon battle, dramatically reducing the amount of time spent staring down wild monsters.
IllDepence, a member of diehard fan community The Silph Road, posted a video detailing what they call “driveby catching.” Here’s the gist: When you’re in a battle with a Pokémon, you can expedite the process by holding the Poké Ball menu with one hand and attempting to catch the Pokémon with the other. Once you’ve hit the Pokémon and it’s wriggling around inside the Poké Ball, let go of the Poké Ball menu. Then, tap the screen to bring up the run away option; select that and you’ll head back to the map.
Figuring out if you successfully caught the Pokémon or not isn’t as convenient when using this method, unfortunately. You’ll have to dip into your journal to see if the Pokémon was added to your collection. (Sometimes, an error message will pop up to indicate that your catch was successful as well.) But this one extra step doesn’t change the fact that you’re saving yourself time otherwise spent staring at a Poké Ball.
Here’s hoping this isn’t one of those glitches Niantic irons out after the fact, because it’s certainly improved the Pokémon Go experience — even if just a little bit.
