How Scan works in New Pokemon Snap – everything you need to know

New Pokemon Snap for Nintendo Switch is bringing a whole host of updated features to the point-and-shoot photography series – Scan being one of them. Here’s what you need to know about it.

New Pokemon Snap whisks players away to the Lental region where they’re recruited by Professor Mirror to help research the strange Illumina phenomenon by going to different locations and snapping photos.

The Nintendo Switch game has a variety of tools at its disposal to help you in your snapshot-taking adventure, including throwable items like Fluffruit and Illumina Orbs. One of the main resources that’s crucial to your investigation is the Scan feature, and you’ll need to master it in order to become a photography pro and fill out your Photodex.

What is Scan in New Pokemon Snap?

When riding through a course in your NEO-ONE travel pod, you’ll see all sorts of monsters in the wild you can capture on camera. At the end, the Professor grades your shots and gives you a score based on a variety of factors such as direction, position, and size.

He’ll also give you more points depending on the rarity of the Pokemon, which is where Scan comes in. The feature allows you to survey the area and shows more information about a creature, including its name and gender.

• Read More: Are Shiny Pokemon in New Pokemon Snap?

This is particularly useful for rarer ones that you can’t see in plain sight if they’re hiding behind a rock or in some long grass, for example, as it draws their attention to you. It can even make them display a unique pose for a higher photo score too.

If that wasn’t enough reason to be using Scan as often as you can, the tool also highlights new pathways that are invisible to the naked eye and would be missed otherwise.

These areas are sure to be riddled with Pokemon that don’t show up anywhere else, so try scanning if you can’t find a particular monster – it might just be hiding down a secret path.

Different creatures appear depending on the time of day too, so make sure you’re replaying each course during both the daytime and nighttime and using Scan at every opportunity to discover everything possible.

New Pokemon Snap releases on April 30 exclusively for the Nintendo Switch. If you’ve yet to secure your copy, check out our pre-order guide here for prices and bonuses.

• Read More: Every Pokemon confirmed in New Pokemon Snap so far

For the latest news on the game, and others like Go and Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl, follow our dedicated Pokemon Twitter, @PokemonSwordNS.