The Strange Case of the Strange Ball

Bigblast99 goes over his strange encounter with the strange ball inside of Pokemon Home.
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[@9Tailsfan]

TBH I like the Strange ball. If GF can make the Dream Ball a real item then they should be able to do the same for the Strange ball.

[@thodds68]

maybe if it becomes redundant somehow.

[@Turtle-Soup]

I fully agree, still waiting for the day the park ball from pal park gets brought back as a proper ball

[@Josh-ut4wv]

@@Turtle-Soup kinda odd they didnt put it in with the item printer for S/V

[@unknownentity5666]

100% Agree.

[@nightmarishtaco3434]

And it could have better catch rate the more health a pokemon has.

[@TheRedSmarty]

So HOME has two Pokémon formats: one for Let's Go Pokémon and one for all other Pokémon. In the first format, HOME only stores one set of data, for use in Let's Go, including its caught Poké Ball. In the second format, HOME stores caught Poké Balls independently for each game (to handle SwSh since it doesn't have the Strange Ball). In that format, a Pokémon can have data for SV, Legends, BDSP, and other (SwSh, transfers from Bank and GO, and any upgraded Let's Go Pokémon), and will have a Poké Ball ID independently saved for each set of data it has (mostly all just copied from each other, though set to a basic Poké Ball for SwSh if it was a Hisui Ball). Now, here's what I think is happening here. The mobile version sees the Pokémon is currently using the Let's Go format and just goes and reads the Poké Ball from that data. But the Nintendo Switch version checks the game of origin first insetad. If Let's Go is the game of origin, then it checks the format and can pull the correct Poké Ball data. But if GO is the game of origin, it treats the Pokémon like it were the modern format, and then tries to pull the Poké Ball from the non-existent "SwSh/other" data, therefore resulting in a Strange Ball rendering.

[@Turtle-Soup]

This was a very insightful write up! Very interesting hearing about the inner workings. Thanks for sharing this info!

[@someoneforsaken6310]

Honestly if they made a future Pokemon game with a character that either time travel or travel in alternate dimensions/universes, I would love to see them keep their Pokemon Team in the Strange Balls. (I really the designs of the Strange Balls and I wish we get more variety in ball designs.)

[@RokkTheRock]

we desperately need more pokeballs imo

[@Turtle-Soup]

If we ever see ultra wormholes again, would be a great time to see a trainer with strange balls show up. Also would love more pokeball designs, they add so much personality to your mons.

[@ArkoosX]

Rest In Peace strange ball Pikachu, you shall be missed

[@havokmin9800]

Back when BDSP had rampant cloning from Menu Stacking, using a very specific process you were able to create shiny Pokemon that hatched from Eggs. These Pokemon would hatch without a valid Pokeball ID which, in BDSP, Legends, and Scarlet and Violet, displays as a Strange Ball. SWSH displays a Pokeball and HOME has no Pokeball on mobile and a ? icon on Switch. If you breed these Pokemon the child will also have an invalid ball ID meaning you could kind of pass down the Strange Ball to other Pokemon. I have a few of these on me still but I'm unsure if it's still possible to replicate on the latest version of BDSP

[@RokkTheRock]

were they able to be transferred into home?

[@havokmin9800]

@RokkTheRock Yep! I've moved them to BDSP, Legends, SV, and back multiple times and they've retained the Strange Ball

[@Turtle-Soup]

That’s very interesting! Being able to pass it on is really neat!

[@unknownentity5666]

I’d like to dub it, “Glitch Ball”

[@daicebomb]

Strange

[@lorenzobrogi6359]

Ball

[@razi_man]

Isn't it?

[@PoweredByEggs]

Nice find! Definitely gonna have to dust of Let's Go for this.

[@Codm22712]

I love let’s go I have 300 hours Oon it and it’s my second save data the one I play on most is full. Shiny dex with 500 hours on it

[@Turtle-Soup]

Yeah, hadn’t touched my copy in a hot minute before having to pull it out to test my theory.

[@Codm22712]

@@Turtle-Soup nice

[@solgaleo3533]

I should play it again. Never beat it after becoming underlevelled due to going through the midgame entirely with a Zapdos

[@EliteTrainerKenway]

This is awesome! I have Charizard in every ball (except the PLA ones) and in REALLY wanted Charizard in a Home Ball!

[@Turtle-Soup]

Shame Charizard isn't able to get the PLA balls. Glad you are able to still grow the collection though!

[@EliteTrainerKenway]

@Turtle-Soup I know! I've got a shiny Charizard in Go I'm gonna send to LGP today!

[@fabiolagarcia1308]

I love this PokéBall, it looks so nice and it’s really cool to have some mons in one! I’d love more pokeball customization :(

[@somethingbanter]

I wonder if it's because technically those Pokémon were caught using multiple different Pokéballs. The one that you caught them with go and then the one that you caught them with in the go park in let's go, so home is tracking the origin data and is able to see both of them so it just displays the strange ball instead

[@Hexagonal_Goblin]

I just noticed this the other day and wondering what was up! Thank you!

[@mrsuperheatran2794]

I also had this happen and didn't think too much about it. Nice to see it documented.

[@AzureFlute]

My Meltan and Melmetal I brought through Go into Let's Go and then Home also had this happen! Nice find!

[@aurahoneydew9607]

Still weird to think Home doesn't let you change the ball types. At that point the mons are already yours might as well let you have the cosmetic option.

[@Turtle-Soup]

With how much they’ve added to allow you to really customize each Pokémon you have, im really surprised there still isn’t a way to switch the pokeball they’re in.

[@kickitoldskool]

So, that’s why I saw some Pokémon in strange balls in my Go origin mark dex.

[@RokkTheRock]

id be interested in seeing your entire Pikachu collection and hear about how you got them all/the stories behind it. might even do my own but with shiny Pikachu 0: sounds fun!

[@Turtle-Soup]

Unfortunately there isn’t much story behind it. Just decided I wanted to have a section dedicated to all the pokeballs, and chose pikachu just to ensure I can keep a cohesive Pokémon across all of them (except that darn origin ball). Most of them were caught in sword and legends arceus, with the safari ball being from Gen 3 and the sport ball from Gen 9. Wish you luck with the shiny pikachu if you decide to go for it!

[@zemessai]

Interesting! And a very interesting idea for a collection- collecting a Pokémon in every type of ball never occurred to me !

[@tulpa5599]

Thank you for documenting this bug. I have one pokemon, a hitmonlee, that was causing a bit of confusion. I couldn't find any information about it until now.

[@Turtle-Soup]

I was honestly surprised when I couldn’t find much about it when looking around online

[@aspiringwayfarer]

Thanks for sharing this find! Great job figuring out what caused it too.

[@aspiringwayfarer]

I also found I have 8 Pokémon that are in strange balls too! In Home you can find which ones you have by filtering for: Origin Mark = Go, Compatible Games = Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee. Mine are Rattata, Raticate, Alolan Rattata, Alolan Raticate, Arbok, Gengar, Exeggcute, and Rhyhorn. 😁

[@Turtle-Soup]

I did use the origin mark filter, but completely forgot about the compatible games filter, smart thinking!

[@thegoldendarknut]

I've seen this glitch and I was wondering why it was the case. Thanks for the research.

[@Hopalongtom]

I'm so sad that I couldn't use Hisui balls in Scarlet & Violet!

[@SuperGreenLuigi]

I wonder how long this was going on but what a great find!

[@unknownentity5666]

I also have a LG:E Strange Ball Pokémon. Straight from LG:E.

[@CaptainFalcon333]

That's dramatic for a specific collection of a single Pokemon. Hopefully it's actually fun for you to play that way, cause I couldn't imagine me staying sane from subjecting myself to a lot of this.

[@nuclearwo1f869]

i got a shiny oshawott in go, sent him to arceus for a shiny samurott and he now uses one of these balls

[@gillriet773]

I have a strange ball Cyndaquil that I was certain came over from Legends Arceus but its from GO?!? This is so awesome because this ball is officially my favorite now and I want as many turquoise/seafoam ball mons as I can get 😅

[@gillriet773]

wait I dont think this explains my cyndiquil... he never went to lets go, he just came from go

[@Turtle-Soup]

With how buggy most games and apps for this franchise are these days, honestly not surprised if it’s a far more widespread issue

[@ATAT_MYCAEK]

My home glitched and i had a shiny garchomp from go in a strange ball, but it fixed back to ultra after a while

[@ATAT_MYCAEK]

It was transferred from go straight to home too, I haven't put it in a different game once

[@RealmsCrossMyths]

I hope the pokéball machine (item generator… whatever it's called) in the Pokémon Scarlet\Violet DLC will be able to generate Strange Balls. It can generate Park Balls and Safari Balls - balls otherwise exclusive to special situations in older games. Though… it doesn't generate my favourite pokéball, the Cherish Ball, so I'm doubtful it'll generate the Strange Ball… And even if it did, that specific Strange Ball would likely be overwritten by a future pokéball.

[@Turtle-Soup]

Hopefully there comes a day where we can get all the poke balls we desire. Still holding out hope they will turn the pal park ball into a proper ball

[@user-jl7cz2pe6d]

The fact that you CAN only get this in a mainline game by transferring this from PLA (or vice versa) is criminal. You can't even pass it on through breeding!

[@Davanthall]

I have a Shiny Umbreon in one of these...and yes it was the exact thing you said. I found a Shiny Eevee in Go, I transferred it to Let's Go, brought it to home, evolved it in Sword (I think. Can you evolve eevee into an Umbreon in Let's Go? If you can then maybe I did it there, I can't remember), then brought back out of Sword into Home where it's been sitting ever since. And I just noticed the other day that it has that ball. I really don't want that ball to go away. 😭

[@noobbusiness62]

You can actually put the pikachu in the strange ball permanently if you transfer it into pokemon legends arceus and then boom its in the strange ball permanently

[@SnoFitzroy]

Nope. Data is saved per-game for the mon, using the HOME tracker and other immutable values to determine that it's the same thing. If you moved that pikachu back to HOME it would still be reading its non-PLA data to determine the ball. Once this gets fixed, it will operate just like every other transfer does: strange ball if non-PLA in PLA, real ball if non-PLA outside of PLA. Check the pinned comment.

[@razi_man]

Dr. Strange would be proud.

[@eeveefennecfox]

what?

[@Hamza....987]

Now my faviorite pokemon isn.t stuck in a pokeball i love the strangeballs desaign its green

[@dogf421]

crazy how they made this weird thing instead of spending a few hours to make a probably 20 megabyte patch

[@Turtle-Soup]

It’s a weird situation because it’s really interesting in concept, however it sucks that it leads to there being 10 pokeballs completely locked to a single game

[@Prophecyarmour]

Looks like a Tiffany Pokeball

[@ashleeramey]

I hope pokemon home never gets cancelled

[@Turtle-Soup]

Couldn’t agree more!

[@MrEmptyKay]

Strange Ball...so that's what it is called. My shiny Luxray from Legends is in one when I moved it to SV. Good to know. Personally, I like it.

[@Turtle-Soup]

I’m a big fan of it myself, wish there was a way to keep it permanently on a Pokémon

[@sky8ash]

Is it because the pokemon has two pokeballs? (one from Go & one from Let's Go)

[@disdanny]

Quick question if you know. How do you get hoopa unbound in home?

[@Turtle-Soup]

Hoopa unbound in Gen 7 forward can be deposited into storage apps without reverting, so mine was one from Gen 7 put into bank and then transferred to home.

[@disdanny]

@@Turtle-Soup awesome thanks dude!

[@LPBvgc]

Here is something Interesting mechanics wise. If you mod in a Strange Ball and catch a mon with it, HOME will flag that mon as Illegal right off the bat and not allow you to deposit it. although I know this from a Shiny Terapagos I caught in a Stange ball in a Modded Union circle, HOME allowed me to transfer other Shiny Terapagos I had, so I am guessing it was the Strange ball's doing.

[@Turtle-Soup]

Ooh that’s very interesting! The ball and its interactions sure are strange to say the least

[@SnoFitzroy]

that's because no pokemon is ever "truly" in a strange ball, it's just how the game interprets unavailable/non-existent balls, and so since you;re not supposed to get Strange Balls as an item, even though they do indeed exist in item form due to how pokeballs are programmed (can't have the data for one without the item existing, and having the item data creates the data necessary for a mon to register that it's caught in said ball - cherish balls also have an item form, actually!), the game can tell the difference between "the data is marked a s a strange ball" and "the data is marked as an unavailable ball" and therefore "real" strange ball mons are automatically illegal by virtue of being in an illegal ball. Same thing would happen if you had access to the aforementioned Cherish Ball in its item form.

[@whateverart]

I saw it when I brought my shiny eevee from go to arceus

[@elchikoriko592]

I heard “even more curiouser” and could not stop laughing 😂😂😂 I’m sorry 😢😂

[@Turtle-Soup]

Glad to have made you laugh at least!

[@Thyfrogcatcher]

can you breed pokemon with it?

[@Turtle-Soup]

Unfortunately not

[@DGlaky]

Curiouser

[@Turtle-Soup]

Curiouser indeed

[@skeletorthebest7204]

smh, no Origin Ball Pikachu… incomplete collection…

[@Turtle-Soup]

I’m still holding out hope that they’ll do an origin ball pikachu event

[@MrTendo0]

What happens when you put it in another game?

[@Turtle-Soup]

Haven’t done wide scale testing, but for the most part, they just revert to the proper pokeball

[@DarkMarxSoul]

I'm sorry, did you say "More curiouser"?

[@Turtle-Soup]

Yeah, it’s just fun to say

[@BenjaminMosher]

this isn’t completely true, i’ve never played let’s go but i still have the strange ball on all my pokémon go mon

[@eeveefennecfox]

pokemon hater

[@NEWGHOST9]

Strange balls are cool, however, they’ve literally have every other pokeball, i think it’d be way cooler to retain the unique pokeballs from legends, granted i think all other pokeballs are the same basic shape just different color, thus why they have every pokeball in the game, say for like the beast ball I wish they wouldnt make stuff like the johtoballs such a pain in the a** to get a stockpile of Same goes for the strange ball i wanna actually catch something with it, gimme an actual one gf There is so much possibilities if new pokeball designs that all do different things, the strangeball could maybe work better on pokemon not native to the region you are playing in or something

[@SlyAceZeta]

The Strange Ball is supposed to be a placeholder icon. If you transfer a Pokemon from PLA to SwSh, SwSh displays them in the standard Poke Ball because that's what it's using as a placeholder, but that's confusing for Pokemon you didn't catch in a Hisuian Poke Ball, so they introduced the Strange Ball to handle it. It's missing-image-handling, it's not one we're supposed to ever use. Imagine you were playing SV and you caught a Pokemon in a Strange Ball and you also had another Pokemon in a Hisuian ball; how are you supposed to tell which one was caught in an "actual" Strange Ball and which one is being used as a placeholder? They'd have to make a new placeholder, and then we'd be right back to where we are now.

[@mooganify]

Why can’t you transfer all those pikachu 2:29

[@Bacchus325]

This bug is absolutely never getting fixed. Game freak doesn't give af

[@Turtle-Soup]

Part of me finds enjoyment in the fact that there’s a decent chance it stays, but another part is just sad that that’s the state of this franchise

[@daicebomb]

I see them fixing something this minor but leaving game breaking things alone. @@Turtle-Soup

[@DaBwownGodthiwa]

every time i learn about stuff like this being in a pokemon game i automatically assume it's a bug

[@progamer-hn7yk]

I think the strange ball sucks and it just a reason for GF to be lazy!!!

[@eeveefennecfox]

such a pokemon hater

[@mooganify]

Lmao this series is getting out of control

[@jonniefast]

I don't think they're ever gonna get rid of it The fact that they gave it a name is a good sign ; I have a shiny mewtwo in a strangeball 🥹 I hope they never remove it