Weaken an Alpha, approach it and use the Friend Ball prompt during its eight-second window to recruit a support ally for the current run. It attacks beside you and adds a bonus based on its first type. You start with two Support Alpha slots; the Lab’s 3,500-Stardust Support team upgrade expands the team to three. This capture does not make that Pokémon a permanent selectable League member. Shinies have a separate companion slot and collection rewards.
How to catch a Support Alpha
- Find an Alpha during a run in the original PokéBonk. Its outline and encounter message distinguish it from a normal enemy and a cyan-marked League capture target.
- Damage the Alpha until its defeat is intercepted by the support-capture system. It is left at 1% of maximum HP, with eight seconds to interact. Burn and Poison on the target are cleared at that transition.
- Move close to the weakened Alpha. The captured distance check is under 9 in-game distance units.
- Press E with the default desktop controls, or use the interaction key/button shown by your configured controls. The prompt names the Friend Ball and says that the ally fights with you for this run.
- If the throw succeeds, the Alpha joins the support team. If you are full, choose whether to release an existing ally and keep the new one.
- Check the support message and the resulting team. A message that it accompanies you this run is the expected support result; it is not a League-unlock confirmation.
The capture window does not pause because you are far away. Move toward the Alpha as you finish weakening it, while leaving room to avoid surrounding enemies. If you ignore the window, the defeated Alpha resolves into its normal reward instead of waiting indefinitely for recruitment.
Failed throws, status conditions and rewards
A failed Alpha throw restores the target to 30% HP. Weaken it again to reopen the support-capture window; the next throw is easier. This path does not use the ordinary League encounter’s “three failed throws then flee” rule.
Paralysis, Sleep or Frozen on the target improve the source’s throw check. Burn and Poison are cleared when the Alpha first becomes weakened, so they are not the corresponding capture bonus. The runtime also checks the Master Ball item for this support throw; run-supply Master Ball boosts are a separate system, so read the item or boost text you actually have. The item reference explains available equipment effects.
An uncaught defeated Alpha normally drops its reward, including a free item Poké Ball and candy in this captured ruleset. Successfully recruited Alphas instead enter the ally path and increase the Support Alpha capture count. Their defeat credit and capture count are distinct counters. For example, Ditto needs 25 League members AND 25 Support Alpha captures; satisfying a “defeat Alphas” challenge alone does not finish Ditto’s capture requirement. Ditto’s League card.
These are deterministic rules read from the captured implementation. We do not report a measured catch rate or a guaranteed number of attempts for a normal Friend Ball throw.
Source capture chances: Alpha versus ordinary League
The recorded 0.6.3 runtime calculates the throw check as follows. These are the implementation’s probabilities, not observed catch rates from a sample of runs. In the formulas, C is that species’s recorded captureRate field on a 0–255 scale, F is the number of previous failed throws on this encounter, and S is 0.15 when the target is Paralyzed, Asleep or Frozen, otherwise zero. One qualifying status bonus is added; three simultaneous conditions do not add three bonuses.
| Capture path | Probability used by a normal throw | Failed-throw consequence |
|---|---|---|
| Support Alpha / Friend Ball | min(0.95, 0.45 + (C / 255) × 0.35 + F × 0.20 + S) |
Target returns to 30% HP; weaken it again; failure count makes its next throw easier |
| Ordinary League encounter | min(0.97, 0.55 + (C / 255) × 0.35 + F × 0.20 + S) |
Can retry in a six-second weakened window; the third failed throw makes it flee |
For a concrete source example, Pikachu’s recorded C is 190 in the original species data captured with these rules. Its first normal Alpha throw is about 71.1%, or 86.1% with one of those qualifying status conditions. After one previous failure the unboosted Alpha check is about 91.1%; with the status bonus it reaches the 95% cap. The ordinary League formula starts ten percentage points higher but uses a different window and escape path. The value is a source-derived example, not a promise that a particular Pikachu Alpha appears in your run or that a 95% throw cannot fail.
For the support path, owning the Master Ball item bypasses the random check. The ordinary capture path also calls the game’s Master Ball handling, including a remaining Master Ball run boost, or uses a special guaranteed handoff such as defeated Classic Mewtwo. Those are the exceptions to the normal caps. The support throw in this captured version checks the held item directly; do not assume a differently worded run boost has identical implementation on every capture path.
The practical choice is to approach before the short window closes, use a qualifying control status when available, and prepare to weaken an Alpha again after a failure. Reducing HP below the weakened entry state does not appear as an additional variable in these throw formulas; they do not use a main-series ball formula copied from another Pokémon game.
What your Alpha does during a run
A recruited Alpha follows you, attacks nearby enemies and grants the support modifier in the next section. It moves with you into later zones of the same run. The support team is run state, so it is not a permanent team that you select in the League for every future run.
The captured implementation chooses a physical jumping strike when that species’s Attack is at least its Special Attack; otherwise it fires a special projectile. Its attack uses its first type. Its power scales with your level, zone, the species’s base-stat total and its bond, so an ally’s displayed type bonus is not a complete damage ranking. Ally attacks can apply the status associated with their type; they are additional combat support rather than extra moves occupying your character’s normal move slots.
Allies build bond from their own credited KOs. The thresholds are 25, 75, 150, 300 and 500 KOs for bond levels 1–5; each level adds 10% ally damage in the power formula. Player KOs do not automatically award those KOs to every ally. Keep an ally long enough to build bond when that benefit matters; replacing it starts with the new ally’s own state.
For a recovery-focused run, compare a Grass ally’s flat regeneration with a Water ally’s healing multiplier. For a damage-over-time setup, a Fire ally boosts status damage, while a Poison ally increases status chance as a multiplier. This is a choice about your current setup, not a claim that one Alpha is universally strongest. Starter comparison · combat and status rules.
All Alpha support type bonuses
The bonus uses the Pokémon’s first listed type, not both types of a dual-type species. A Grass/Poison Alpha grants the Grass support modifier. The shiny companion version doubles the modifier’s increment; it does not double the final player stat. Percentage-point additions below are different from percentage multipliers.
| First type | Normal Alpha bonus | Shiny companion bonus |
|---|---|---|
| Normal | +10% Pokédollars (×1.10) | +20% (×1.20) |
| Fire | +15% status damage (×1.15) | +30% (×1.30) |
| Water | +15% healing (×1.15) | +30% (×1.30) |
| Grass | +0.5 HP per second regeneration | +1 HP per second |
| Electric | +5% attack speed (×1.05) | +10% (×1.10) |
| Ice | +10% duration (×1.10) | +20% (×1.20) |
| Fighting | +10% damage against elites (×1.10) | +20% (×1.20) |
| Poison | +12% status chance multiplier (×1.12) | +24% (×1.24) |
| Ground | +4 armor | +8 armor |
| Flying | +5% movement speed (×1.05) | +10% (×1.10) |
| Psychic | +8% XP gain (×1.08) | +16% (×1.16) |
| Bug | +1 pickup range | +2 pickup range |
| Rock | +15 maximum HP | +30 maximum HP |
| Ghost | +3 percentage points evasion | +6 percentage points evasion |
| Dragon | +5% damage (×1.05) | +10% (×1.10) |
| Dark | +4 percentage points critical chance | +8 percentage points critical chance |
| Steel | +8% area (×1.08) | +16% (×1.16) |
| Fairy | +8 luck | +16 luck |
These are the available modifier definitions. A type’s row does not imply that every Pokémon of that type is an ordinary resident of every Season 1 map. Your final stats still pass through the game’s recomputation and caps; for example, adding evasion does not remove the global evasion limit described in the vitamin and stat reference.
Expand the team from two Alphas to three
From the original game’s main menu, open Lab → Upgrades → Support team and buy its one level for 3,500 Stardust. Play opens The League rather than the Lab. The card’s source description is “+1 slot for captured Alphas (from 2 to 3)”. The cap is calculated as two plus the purchased Support team level.
This is independent of Fourth move, which costs 1,500 Stardust, and Fourth option, which costs 3,000. Neither of those upgrades expands the support team. Use the Lab costs and budget planner to compare spending without confusing move slots, card choices and Alpha capacity.
The special shiny companion is excluded from the normal Alpha team count. In this ruleset you can therefore have two normal Alphas plus one shiny companion, or three normal Alphas plus one shiny companion after the Support team purchase.
What to do when the team is full
A successful capture with a full normal team opens a party decision. Choose an existing support member to release and the new Alpha joins in its place; decline the replacement to send the new Alpha away. The old ally’s modifier is removed and the kept ally’s modifier is recomputed into your stats.
Before replacing one, compare first-type bonus, the role it serves in your current build and its existing bond. An extra maximum-HP bonus may be immediately useful, while losing a regeneration or healing bonus can weaken the recovery plan you were using. The source does not offer permanent storage of all captured support allies for later selection.
The successful support capture itself increments the support-capture counter before the party choice. That is useful for a capture-count task such as Ditto’s, but the “accompanies you” result still depends on keeping an ally in the available team.
Shiny Pokémon: capture and results
A shiny wild encounter uses the marked capture system, not the normal Alpha Friend Ball window. Weaken it, approach and use the capture prompt. In the captured ruleset it has a roaming escape timer of 120 seconds, raised to 150 seconds with the collection’s Shiny Charm perk. An ordinary weakened capture window begins at ten seconds; normal failed throws become easier but the third failure makes the encounter flee. A shiny boss handed over after defeat uses an additional guaranteed capture state instead.
After a shiny catch:
- It is recorded in the shiny collection. A newly collected species grants 120 Stardust; an already collected one grants 50 in this configuration.
- You may keep one shiny companion, separate from the normal Alpha team. If a shiny companion is already present, choose whether to replace it; the collection reward remains part of the catch even if you keep the old companion.
- A kept shiny uses the doubled first-type support bonus shown above and a ×1.20 ally power multiplier in the captured ally formula.
- A matching League member can use the shiny appearance when the game’s collection and member rules allow it. If that member is still locked, the capture message can say the appearance becomes available after the member joins the League.
Shiny-only capture does not automatically recruit a locked League member. The runtime records a permanent League join when the encounter is in League mode. A shiny eligible League target can therefore produce both results, while an independently spawned shiny or shiny shrine-boss capture follows its own collection/support path. Look for the explicit joins your League message instead of inferring it from the shiny animation.
The Shiny Stone run supply schedules a shiny in zone 1; luck and collection perks also affect encounter scheduling. Those source rules do not guarantee that you will successfully catch it. The game’s current prompt and timer still decide the action to take.
Shiny collection milestones
These rewards use the count of collected shiny species in the captured configuration. Catching the same species again gives its repeat reward rather than advancing the distinct collection count.
| Collected shinies | Permanent collection perk |
|---|---|
| 2 | +3 luck in runs |
| 4 | +4% XP gain in runs |
| 6 | Shiny Charm: 50% more frequent shiny scheduling and the 150-second roaming flee timer |
| 10 | +3% damage in runs |
| 15 | New shiny companions begin at bond 2, corresponding to +20% ally damage from bond |
The shiny companion and Support Alpha team both belong to the run. Collection perks and unlocked appearances are persistent progression; this distinction is why a shiny catch can matter after the run even though the same companion does not simply carry over as a stored support team.
Alpha, shiny and League results compared
| Encounter result | Helps in the current run? | Permanent selectable member? | Persistent progression |
|---|---|---|---|
| Support Alpha kept | Yes: attacks and first-type bonus | No | Support capture counter and related challenges |
| Shiny-only catch | Yes if kept in the separate shiny companion slot | Not by itself | Shiny collection, Stardust and applicable appearance/perk progress |
| Eligible League target captured | The permanent unlock is the main result | Yes | Adds that League member; shiny targets can also give shiny results |
| Ordinary defeated shrine legendary | Rewards and map progression | Not automatically | Applicable clear, boss, legendary and research progress |
For named member prerequisites, use the complete League reference. For birds, Mewtwo and Mew, follow the legendary dependency chain. Those pages explain the permanent-recruitment task separately from building a support team.
Sources and version scope
The eight-second Alpha window, 30% retry recovery, Friend Ball flow, replacement, first-type modifiers, bond thresholds and separate shiny slot come from the original 0.6.3 runtime. Capacity, the 3,500-Stardust Lab purchase, shiny rewards and collection perks come from the matching configuration. Both were collected 18 October 2026 and re-read 19 October. This is a sourced rules walkthrough; we have not claimed to catch every Alpha, collect 15 shinies or measure a live catch rate. Later updates are recorded separately rather than silently replacing the dates on these rules.