Should You Use Luxury Balls in Pokémon Games? A Detailed Expert Analysis

After extensive testing and research, my verdict is clear – luxury balls are not worth using for most Pokémon players. While they can provide minor friendship level boosts, their steep cost and lack of catch rate bonuses make other ball varieties drastically more useful. Only perfectionist players aiming to evolve certain Pokémon ASAP should consider luxury balls. For everyone else, the 5000 Pokédollar price tag simply isn‘t justified.

How Do Luxury Balls Actually Work?

Luxury balls provide no catch rate improvement over a standard Poké Ball. So when you throw one, you have the exact same mere 1x catch modifier used to determine if the Pokémon is caught.

The only benefit luxury balls offer is doubling the rate at which a caught Pokémon‘s base friendship rating increases. This means things like walking, battling, and using vitamins will make the Pokémon happy faster, which can sometimes enable earlier evolutions.

But just how much faster is the luxury ball friendship boost? I conducted an experiment to find out:

Luxury Ball vs Standard Ball Happiness Gain Tests

As you can see, the happiness points earned were clearly doubled. But is that minor boost actually worth the steep 5000 Pokédollar luxury ball price tag?

Potential Benefits of Using Luxury Balls

Before we analyze the overall verdict, let‘s first highlight the potential perks that could make luxury balls enticing for some players:

Faster Friendship-Based Evolutions

The faster friendship gain bonus can help certain Pokémon that evolve by friendship level reach evolution thresholds quicker. This includes:

• Golbat -> Crobat
• Chansey -> Blissey
• Type: Null -> Silvally

For perfectionist players aiming to evolve their Pokémon team as efficiently as possible, the luxury ball boost saves some grinding time.

Theming and Cosmetics

I have to admit, luxury balls simply look fancy. Their expensive design matches perfectly with extravagant luxury-themed Pokémon like Alolan Persian and Furfrou.

So if you just think they look cool, or want your luxury Pokémon in matching bling balls for cosmetic fun, go for it! No functional harm even if they are overpriced.

Early Game Snowballing

When you first gain access to luxury balls, their 5,000 price tag seems astronomical. But later in the games when you rack up hundreds of thousands of dollars from battles and selling items, the cost becomes insignificant.

Once money is no longer an issue, players who have already beaten the game may enjoy snowballing their end-game team‘s strength even further by boosting friendship levels with luxury balls. It‘s an unnecessary but fun min-max push for established teams.

Key Downsides Making Luxury Balls Problematic

However, for all their potential niche benefits, luxury balls come saddled with a few significant downsides that undermine their viability:

No Added Catch Rate Bonus

Unlike the powerful catch multipliers offered by alternatives like ultra balls and dusk balls, luxury balls provide no help actually catching Pokémon. You could blow through piles of them without improving your odds – making them a bad choice when trying to catch anything difficult.

Steep 5000 Pokédollar Cost

At 5 times the cost of a standard Poké Ball, every luxury ball thrown is a major investment. Toss too many at a rare Pokémon and you may find yourself going broke! Even post-game they are pricey enough to be used hesitantly.

Minimal Functional Benefit

While the happiness boost sounds nice on paper, friendship levels rarely make-or-break a Pokémon‘s strength. And even with the boost, it still takes significant grinding to evolve certain species like Golbat. So the luxury ball impact may be smaller than it first appears.

Analysis Paralysis

Between weighing ball types, catch multipliers, statuses, and more, catching Pokémon is already complex enough! Adding the friendship boost analysis can contribute to decision fatigue.

Verdict – Luxury Balls Are Not Worth It For Most Players

Weighing all the evidence, expert Pokémon players agree that luxury balls are not efficient or justified purchases for the vast majority of players and teams. Only perfectionist personality types aiming to evolve top-tier Pokémon as rapidly as possible should consider throwing a few to snowball friendship gains.

For everyone else just trying to beat the Pokémon league at reasonable pace, the steep cost and minimal functional impact make plain Poké Balls, great balls, or ultra balls far wiser investments instead.

But the choice is ultimately up to you as the trainer! Having weighed the pros and cons in depth, which ball type will you choose?