Since Pokémon Sun and Moon, Hyper Training has played a major role in creating competitively viable Pokémon. It’s a feature that allows you to maximise one of your Pokémon’s IV (individual values), such as attack or speed, giving them an edge in competitive play. The training method has been present in almost every game since its implementation, with one notable exception: Pokémon GO. To be fair, in the early stages, Pokémon GO was more about just catching Pokémon rather than battling them. However, over the last nine years, Pokémon GO has been adding more competitive aspects, such as battling, into the mix, so it was only a matter of time before Hyper Training was thrown into the mix. Hyper Training will be making its debut in Pokémon Go alongside the upcoming Ancients Recovered event, so here’s everything you need to know about the new training method.
As I mentioned, Hyper Training has been in the mainline games since Sun and Moon. The process involves acquiring the Gold Bottle Cap item through either the story, events, or buying from the in-game shops (not the microtransaction kind). You would then find an NPC in the overworld, either in front of the battle facility of the game or some other random location (I’m looking at you, Scarlet and Violet), who would conduct the training. You would then pick one of the stats you want to max out, hand over the Gold Bottle Cap, and badda bing badda boom, you now have Hyper Trained Pokémon.
It’s not an overly flashy process, but the effects it has on battles can’t be understated. You can also use silver bottle caps with the same NPCs, but they only boost the stat, not max it out. If you invest these bottle caps correctly, you can make an absolute unit of a Pokémon. And now you know the history of the method, let’s find out how Pokémon GO will be implementing it.
Like the mainline games, Pokémon GO will be introducing Gold Bottle Caps into the game to allow you access to Hyper Training. However, the method of obtaining the cap will be a little different. You can earn this item in the upcoming GO Pass Deluxe: Ancients Recovered (basically Pokémon Go’s Battle Pass). Upon completion of the pass, you’ll be rewarded with a Gold Bottle Cap. Like other games, the cap is a one-time-use item, so you’ll have to be careful about which Pokémon you decide to use it on. The only criterion that needs to be met is that the Pokémon has to be a Good Buddy or higher (high enough friendship stat from feeding them berries). You’ll be able to start working towards earning a Gold Bottle Cap on Monday, the 23rd of June, and you’ll have until Sunday, the 29th of June, to unlock and redeem the item.
The addition of Hyper Training is sure to make the competitive battling aspect of Pokémon GO a whole lot more intense in the weeks and months to come. And with the 10 year anniversary of the game’s launch looming next year (damn I feel old), who knows what the future holds for Pokémon GO.
Will you be going for the Gold Bottle Cap? What Pokémon would you use it on? Will you jump back into Pokémon GO? Let us know in the comments where we can talk all things Pokémon.
