Wait – what happens to the Poke Balls that miss?

The Pokemon franchise exists rent-free in the minds of fans, but many aspects of the series go unexplored or are left purposely vague. Case in point – what’s going on with the Poke Balls, especially once they miss?

Poke Balls are a central aspect of the Pokemon games, but we take them for granted. What happens to the Pokemon when they enter the ball? Why do they work in the first place? Can Pokemon catch each other, as it almost once happened between Pikachu and Meowth in the anime?

The people who emptied out their bank accounts to stock up on Ultra Balls have also asked why it’s even necessary. What happens to the Poke Balls that don’t work? Users on the Pokemon Conspiracies Reddit asked this and it turns out that there are several answers & theories, depending on canon.

“Well, originally Poke Balls were made from apricorns, which I assume are biodegradable,” one user explained, “Not sure about modern Poke Balls, hopefully, they’d have enough sense to make them biodegradable as well, considering how many are chucked into the wild and forgotten about.”

“I thought this was very obvious. Bellsprouts eat the Poke Balls and then spit them out, turning into Pea Shooters from Plants vs Zombies,” one user joked, while another said, “If I recall one of the Web anime series (Origins?) depicted it as the ball exploding.”

One user had a great theory explaining Poke Balls and similar loot. “I just always assumed the balls you waste turned into other players’ random items. Like, when you, as the character, walk around and find random Poke Balls in grass and caves to collect for your use.”

“I just assumed our wasted balls were just found by other players, like how we find things, and that was the conspiracy of why we can’t pick them back up. Same thought process on why there would be ‘random Poke Balls with nuggets and medicine’. It isn’t random; another player dropped it and didn’t realize that.”

The real answer is that Poke Balls are one-use items because the Pokemon games are RPGs, and players like seeing numbers go up and down. Poke Balls and their stronger derivates give you a reason to earn & spend cash, as well as provide a small dopamine hit when you find a free one in the wild.

As the Pokemon world is a sci-fi utopia, they’ve likely found a solution for single-use plastic. This means that Poke Ball waste shouldn’t be an issue. If they haven’t, the ecology will be ruined by countless shattered Poke Ball halves.