Understanding the various items you’ll come across in Pokémon GO

Pokemon Go teaser 005

As you play Pokémon GO, you’re going to find yourself collecting a ton of items from PokéStops and from simply leveling up your character as you progress through the game.

In this piece, we’ll talk about all the items you can obtain in Pokémon GO, and what they’re used for.

What are items?

Items are basically things that you collect to make things happen. Sure, you collect Pokémon, but these aren’t the only things you attempt to collect in the game. Items range from Pokéballs to potions to all sorts of other random stuff, and each item can help you or your Pokémon in your quest to catch ’em all.

Pokemon items list

All of your items are accessed from the Pokémon GO map by tapping on the Pokéball button at the bottom center, then tapping on the Items button.

This will be a comprehensive list of the items that are available to Pokémon GO players as of this writing. As future updates are expected, things are subject to change, so please bear with us.

Types of Pokéballs

One of the types of items you’ll find in Pokémon GO are Pokéballs, and they’re one of the most important items you’re going to need in order to capture Pokémon that you run into. There are different types of Pokéballs, and as you level up, you will unlock them. Newer Pokéball types tend to have an improved chance of catching, so we’ll start getting into the details below:

  • Regular Pokéball: This is the most common type of Pokéball, and they work for catching Pokémon and are thrown at them when you come across them. They’re bare-bones, so there’s nothing special about them, but they are something you’re always going to need.
  • Great Ball: This is the next step up in Pokéball technology. Great Balls are unlocked when you reach level 12, and they have a higher catch success than your typical Pokéball.
  • Ultra Ball: Right above the Great Ball is the Ultra Ball, which has even greater success rates than Great Balls. These are unlocked at level 20, and they are highly recommended for strong Pokémon with darker difficulty rings when trying to catch.
  • Master Ball: The Master Ball never fails; this is the best Pokéball type in the game and is recommended for legendary Pokémon. At this point in time, it’s unknown what’s required to unlock this item, but it’s believed it may come when you reach level 40, or when a future game update unlocks them.

Battling items

Another important item that you’ll come across in the Pokémon GO game are battling items, which are important if you’re going to be participating in gym battles. Battling items have healing properties that help your Pokémon last longer in a match against another Pokémon. Here are the details:

  • Potion: This is a the most basic of all potions, and can be used on your Pokémon of choice in the middle of a battle to heal your Pokémon for 20 HP (hitpoints). They are unlocked at level 5, which just so happens to be when you’re allowed to start getting involved with gyms.
  • Super Potion: The next up in the list is the super potion, which can be used to heal your Pokémon in the middle of a battle for up to 50 HP. Super potions are unlocked at level 10.
  • Hyper Potion: For those that are even more serious about healing their Pokémon during an important battle, hyper potions will stretch your hitpoints even further by healing 200 HP. These are going to be available to you starting at level 15.
  • Max Potion: Go big or go home! The max potion is the best in the game and can fully restore a Pokémon’s HP from any amount while in the middle of a battle. These are unlocked for players when they reach level 25.
  • Revive: A revive comes in handy when one of your Pokémon gets its rear-end handed to it in a gym battle. This item lets you revive a fainted Pokémon and restores half of its HP so it can battle some more. Revives are unlocked at level 5, along with gyms and potions.
  • Max Revive: A step up from the basic revive is the max revive, which is available for players starting at level 30. This version of the revive item not only brings back a fainted Pokémon during a battle, but it also restores their HP in full.

Other items

You’re also provided with a number of other items in the Pokémon GO game, and each of them serves a different purpose. We’ll talk about them below:

  • Camera: The camera allows you to take photographs of Pokémon as you encounter them in the wild.
  • Egg Incubator: Sometimes you’ll come across Pokémon eggs, and these nifty tools are used to hatch Pokémon eggs so you can get the Pokémon that’s hiding inside. These typically can be used three times before they break.
  • Egg Incubator : The infinite version of the egg incubator, which can be used as many times as you’d like without breaking.
  • Razz Berries: An item that you may encounter a lot as you level up beyond level 8 or visit PokéStops are Razz Berries, and these are basically a type of treat for wild Pokémon that you can use to increase your odds of catching them. When you throw a Razz Berry at a Pokémon, its difficulty to catch drops slightly and you can throw any type of Pokéball you want at it immediately after.
  • Incense: Walking around town looking for Pokémon may yield some interesting results, but if you activate an incense, you’ll actually lure more wild Pokémon towards you for up to 30 minutes. It puts out a smell that makes you more pleasant to be around, so you can expect to catch more useful Pokémon if you use one of these.
  • Lure Modules: In addition to Incense, you can use lure modules to attract Pokémon towards you. These are attached to PokéStops, and when they’re placed on one, more Pokémon will appear around the selected Pokéstop for up to 30 minutes, making it easier to catch Pokémon.
  • Pokémon Egg: At times, you may find Pokémon eggs at PokéStops. These are basically unhatched Pokémon that you have the opportunity to hatch yourself inside a type of egg incubator. They come in three flavors: 2.0km, 5.0km, and 10.0km. The idea is to walk a distance equal to the egg’s km in order to hatch it. Eggs are intended to reward you for getting up and moving.
  • Lucky Egg: Despite looking similar to Pokémon eggs, a lucky egg isn’t for hatching Pokémon. Instead, you use these to double your experience for the next 30 minutes, which helps you to level up your character faster.
  • Bag Upgrade: This is a buyable upgrade that will increase the maximum number of items that you can carry by 50.
  • Pokémon Storage Upgrade: This is a buyable upgrade that will increase the maximum number of Pokémon you can carry by 50.

Using items together

If you’re out and about and looking for Pokémon, you should stay close to PokéStops where you can constantly re-fuel your item supply. It’s a good idea to combine the use of PokéStop lures and incense together because it’ll help make the area a Pokémon-rich one.

Moreover, you should use lucky eggs when you’re expecting yourself to be in an area with a lot of Pokémon, because you want to absorb as much XP as possible. We recommend using Pokémon eggs when you’re near lured Pokéstops and have Incense activated, that way you can really take full advantage of the double-XP and level yourself up faster to unlock new items and new max CP (combat power) for your Pokémon.

You should also keep in mind that you’re looking for Pokémon to catch, and you come across a high-level and highly-evolved Pokémon that you don’t see every day, it will be difficult to catch. You can combine Razz Berries and stronger Pokéballs like the Great Ball or Ultra Ball together to increase your odds ever-so-much more than they would be with just a Pokéball alone. You can also continue to use more Razz Berries as you miss.

Wrapping up

Pokémon GO comes with a slew of items to use to catch your Pokémon and build your character, so it’s important to get to know them. By harnessing items to their fullest potential, you’ll reach higher levels faster and build your Pokémon database more efficiently.

If you’re not already playing Pokémon GO, you can join the increasingly-growing crowd of players by downloading the game for free from the iOS App Store.

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Stay tuned for more Pokémon GO guides like this one on iDownloadBlog!