PokéBonk Lab Upgrades: Fourth Move Slot & Stardust Costs

Open the original game’s Lab → Upgrades → 4th move and buy it for 1,500 Stardust to unlock a fourth move slot. “Fourth option” costs 3,000 Stardust and gives four choices on level-up instead. They solve different problems: capacity determines how many moves you can hold; options determine how many cards you can choose between.

Fourth move slot versus fourth option

From the game’s main menu, open Lab, choose Upgrades, then find the 4th move card. Confirm its 1,500 Stardust price and purchase it if you need four learned moves in future runs. The Fourth option card on that same upgrades screen is the 3,000 Stardust choice-count upgrade. This is a permanent Lab purchase, not a fourth item to find in a run or a requirement to fill four upgrade choices first.

Your default move capacity is three. With Vine Whip, Razor Leaf and Sleep Powder already learned, Bulbasaur has no room to learn a new Solar Beam. The 4th move upgrade raises capacity to four. It does not guarantee any particular card or lower the move’s required level.

Fourth option increases the number of choices displayed during level-up. A wider selection can help you find a useful eligible card, but a fourth choice does not create a fourth move slot. If all three slots are full, new moves remain blocked even when more cards are displayed.

Before spending, inspect the symptom. “I have no room” points toward 4th move. “I have room but want more choices” points toward Fourth option or an offer-control tool. “I have not reached the requirement” is a move eligibility problem, rather than something either purchase bypasses.

Starting prices for all 19 upgrades

The complete Lab reference below lists every current upgrade, its effect and its starting price at level zero. Prices on later purchases can be higher. The values here refer to Beta 0.6.3 and should be compared with the level shown on your own Lab card.

The Lab uses Stardust, the permanent currency between runs. Do not confuse it with PokéDollars spent during a run, or with an item or vitamin that happens to use a familiar Pokémon name. A Lab card’s effect is the one shown on that Lab card.

Improve damage, survival or collection

Damage and experience: Training starts at 100 Stardust and gives +4% damage per Lab level. Study starts at 120 and gives +5% experience per level. Training changes the baseline damage stat, while Study helps experience gain; neither directly changes a listed evolution threshold.

Survival: Stamina starts at 100 for +8 maximum HP per level. Shell starts at 120 for +2 armor, and Lab Leftovers starts at 120 for +0.2 regeneration per level. Agility starts at 120 for +2.5% movement speed. Compare these with why a run ends: a larger HP pool, recovery over time and avoiding contact address different problems.

Collection and economy: Magnetism starts at 80 for +0.6 pickup range. Trading starts at 100 for +8% PokéDollars per level. Fortune starts at 140 for +5 luck. More PokéDollars is not the same as more Stardust, and none of these descriptions establishes a universal Stardust-farming route.

An affordable first-level purchase can address a concrete issue without waiting for a more expensive unlock. If your current plan specifically needs four learned moves, however, several small stat purchases will not substitute for the fourth slot.

Control the offers you see

Three Lab tools start at relatively low prices:

• Refresh — 120 Stardust initially: adds one Refresh use per run, allowing you to reroll an offer.
• Skip — 80 initially: adds one Skip use per run and gives PokéDollars when you skip an upgrade.
• Banish — 150 initially: adds one Banish use, removing an option for the rest of that run.

Use Refresh when you want a different set of eligible choices. Use Skip when the current offer is less useful than taking its currency outcome. Use Banish when you want a particular unwanted option removed from the run’s future pool. These are separate actions, not three names for another move slot.

The Archive, starting at 800 Stardust, is a different kind of pool control: each purchased level gives three Archive slots, and archived items are excluded from Poké Balls and the shop. It works on the item pool, rather than teaching a missing move.

Capacity and other permanent tools

Vitamin slots starts at 1,200 Stardust and adds one vitamin slot per purchased level. That expands vitamin capacity, not move capacity. Check the type of slot you are short of before buying.

Support team costs 3,500 and expands captured-Alpha capacity from two to three. It does not add a fourth League move or automatically unlock a new starting member.

Research, starting at 250, gives +25% research progress per level. Revive, costing 5,000, starts you with a Max Revive. These can support a specific objective, but their existence does not establish a mandatory order for every player.

Choose a purchase for your next run

For a Bulbasaur run, decide the move plan first. A four-native-move plan needs the fourth slot. A three-slot plan can instead choose between Sleep Powder’s control and keeping room for Solar Beam. Read the Bulbasaur route for that comparison.

For a capture attempt, think about movement and surviving the target encounter before buying a tool that only changes level-up choice. For evolution, experience can help you reach the target level, but the 24/41 thresholds stay the same.

There is no need to buy an upgrade just because it appears early in a table. Identify the limitation, compare the matching cards and check your current price. The reference provides concrete effects and starting costs; it does not claim measured best-value rankings or an optimal maximum-level purchase order.

Sources and scope

Based on Lab → Upgrades and the original game’s public Beta 0.6.3 upgrade configuration, reviewed on 18 October 2026. Open PokéBonk to compare your current upgrade level and next price. All table prices are initial purchases, rather than total costs to complete an upgrade.

The menu-path clarification uses the 0.7.1 interface and public configuration, reviewed 19 October 2026. The targeted comparison found the 19 Lab definitions and costs unchanged. The new UI instruction does not re-date the retained 0.6.3 numerical source check of 18 October or turn starting prices into total upgrade costs.