Pokemon Champions Guide: How to Get Pokemon in Unique Poke Balls

Pokemon Champions works differently from every mainline game before it: there are no wild encounters, no throwing Poke Balls mid-battle, and no catching Pokemon in the field. That changes everything about how you get Pokemon into specialty Poke Balls. If you want a Moon Ball Eevee or a Cherish Ball event Pokemon sitting in your Box, you need to know exactly where those come from.

What are Unique Poke Balls in Pokemon Champions?

Unique Poke Balls are any Poke Balls outside the standard ones available through normal gameplay. When you view a Pokemon's data in the Box menu, the game displays which Poke Ball it was caught in, making the ball visible as part of that Pokemon's identity. According to the Game8 Pokemon Champions wiki (last updated April 12, 2026), unique Poke Ball Pokemon are purely cosmetic in terms of competitive function, but they carry real sentimental and collection value for players who care about presentation.

How do you get Pokemon in Unique Poke Balls?

There are exactly 3 confirmed methods, all documented by the Game8 Pokemon Champions Walkthrough Team. No other methods currently exist in the game.

Box menu Poke Ball display

Transferring from Pokemon Home

Any Pokemon you caught in a unique Poke Ball in a previous game and stored in Pokemon Home will retain that ball when transferred into Pokemon Champions. The ball data carries over intact. So if you spent time in Pokemon Sword and Shield hunting a Love Ball Clefairy or bred a Friend Ball Roserade in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, those transfers will show the correct ball in your Box.

The key limitation here is that you can only work with what you personally own in Home. You cannot receive transferred Pokemon from other players' Home accounts through trading, so this method is entirely dependent on your own history across previous games.

Mystery Gift distributions and Cherish Balls

Event Pokemon distributed through Mystery Gift typically arrive in Cherish Balls, which are exclusive to official distributions. To claim them, open the Main Menu and select the Mailbox option. These distributions are time-limited by nature, tied to specific events or promotional periods.

The Machamp Mystery Gift code is one confirmed example of a distribution available in Pokemon Champions. Missing an event window means missing that Cherish Ball Pokemon entirely, so keeping an eye on the Mystery Gifts list is worth doing regularly.

Rainbow Pulls from the Ranch

The Ranch is Pokemon Champions' recruitment system, and within it sits a rare mechanic called a Rainbow Pull. When a Rainbow Pull triggers, you get one of two possible outcomes: either a Shiny Pokemon or a Pokemon caught in a Unique Poke Ball. Both outcomes are considered premium results from this mechanic.

Rainbow Pulls are not guaranteed on any given pull, making this the least reliable of the three methods. You are entirely at the mercy of RNG. That said, it is the only in-game method that can produce unique Poke Ball Pokemon without any prior collection history in Home.

Ranch Rainbow Pull result

Why can't you just catch Pokemon in unique balls directly?

Pokemon Champions removes traditional catching entirely. There are no wild encounters and no Poke Ball throwing mechanics in the field. Every Pokemon you add to your roster comes through the recruitment system. Because the game never puts you in a position to select and throw a specific Poke Ball at a wild Pokemon, there is no in-game path to catching something yourself in a Heavy Ball, Fast Ball, or any other specialty ball. The only exceptions are the three methods above, all of which bypass the catching mechanic entirely.

This is a significant structural difference from mainline games, and it is worth understanding early so you do not spend time looking for a catching feature that does not exist.

For more Pokemon Champions tips and strategies, browse more guides covering everything from competitive team building to daily activity optimization.