# Pinap VS Golden? The Best Ways of Getting Candy from Raid Bosses

Assuming all you care about from catching a raid boss is the candy, should you feed a Pinap Berry or a Golden Razz Berry? GamePress researcher gakushan did some math to find out.

## Assumptions:

1. Raid bosses are always level 20.
2. If a Pinap Berry is used, candy is doubled while if a Golden Razz Berry is used, the following formula is applied to catch rate:
$$1-(1-x)^{2.5}$$
3. Flee rates and ball modifiers are irrelevant due to the mechanics of raid boss encounters.

These assumptions are based on data from the game_master settings and empirical testing by GamePress researcher dondon151. When a Pinap Berry is used, we have 2*catch rate multiplier to the base amount of candy awarded by a Pokemon to get the expected amount of candy for each capture attempt.  Plotting this on a function along with the formula for Golden Razz gives the graph below:

As you can see, at lower catch rates, a Golden Razz will give more expected candy than Pinap. The two lines intersect at a catch rate of about 28.026%. Above this, Pinap berries will give more candy than Golden Razz. This is true for any Pokemon, not just raid bosses. However, the above graph ignores the candy from transferring the Pokemon because the evolution stage of the Pokemon will affect the cutoff due to differences in exact candy amounts.

Since there are modifiers such as medals, curve balls, and throw bonuses, the better a person’s throw capabilities, the more likely it is for Pinaps to be superior. However, Raid bosses also have different base capture rates making many have unmodified capture rates where Golden Razz is superior. Gold medals and curve balls give a combined multiplier of 2.21 while throw bonus (nice, great, excellent) can make a total multiplier of 4.42. Additionally, the more balls that a person has remaining, the better it is to use Pinaps over Golden Razz Berries. If you plan to transfer the Pokemon, Golden Razz Berries become more valuable because Pinaps do not double transfer candy. This means that while the numerical difference in total candy is the same after transferring, the percentage difference is not.

Below is a table summarizing when to use each. The number in the box show how many balls remaining when Pinap becomes better than Golden Razz. For example, if you are not expecting any throw bonuses, you should use Pinap Berries when you have at least 3 Premier balls left against a Machamp but use Golden Razz Berries when you have less than 3 left. If there are two numbers in the box, the first number accounts for the one candy gained from transfers while the second number ignores the candy from transfer. If you often fail to hit the Pokemon because it jumps or attacks a lot, start using Golden Razz Berries when you have more balls left.

To create the table, we first needed to figure out which berry is best for the last ball. To do this, we took the amount of candy granted for each berry, multiplied it by the capture rate using that berry then compared the results. If PInap is better for the last ball, it will always be better. If Golden Razz is found to be better on the last ball, we calculated the expected candies for the second-to-last ball. In this case, we took the likelihood of breaking out for each berry and multiplied it with the expected candies if Golden Razz is used for the last ball. We took these amounts and added it to the expected candies for each berry. If Golden Razz is still found to be superior, we continued this process for more balls. Therefore, the berry strategy for the current berry assumes that you will always pick the best berry for subsequent throws if the Pokemon breaks free.

Boss No Multipliers Gold Medal + Curve Max Multipliers
Magikarp 1 1 1
Bayleef, Quilava, Croconaw 3, 2 2 1
Muk 2 2, 1 1
Exeggutor 2 2, 1 1
Weezing 2 2, 1 1
Electabuzz, Magmar 3, 2 2, 1 1
Arcanine 4, 3 2 2, 1
Alakazam, Machamp, Gengar 3 2 2, 1
Vaporeon, Jolteon, Flareon 3, 2 2 1
Venusaur, Charizard, Blastoise 6, 5 3 2
Rhydon 6, 5 3 2
Lapras, Snorlax 7, 5 4, 3 2
Tyranitar 6, 5 3 2
Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres 9, 7 6, 4 3, 2
Mewtwo 6, 4 3, 2 2
Raikou, Entei, Suicune, Lugia 14, 11 8, 5 5, 3

## Bonus Multipliers

Bonus TypeMultiplier
Razz Berry1.5
Golden Razz Berry2.5
Curveball1.7
Throw2-r
Bronze1.1
Silver1.2
Gold1.3

For each bonus, if it wasn't used, the factor just equals 1 so it doesn't contribute.

What is this 2-r, you ask? The Throw bonus depends r, the radius of the colored target ring (from 1 to 0, with r=1 when target ring is same size as the white ring). That means the Throw bonus ranges from 1 to 2, as the size of target ring decrease in size. You must hit inside the inner circle to get a Throw bonus. No bonus is awarded when you land outside the circle.

## More Statistics

Boss Tier MinCP MaxCP L20 Catch Rate
Magikarp 1 104 125 0.59
Bayleef 1 689 740 0.10
Quilava 1 793 847 0.10
Croconaw 1 857 913 0.10
Muk 2 1474 1548 0.17
Exeggutor 2 1589 1666 0.17
Weezing 2 1180 1240 0.17
Electabuzz 2 1188 1255 0.17
Magmar 2 1220 1288 0.17
Arcanine 3 1546 1622 0.08
Alakazam 3 1569 1649 0.08
Machamp 3 1574 1650 0.08
Gengar 3 1420 1496 0.08
Vaporeon 3 1724 1804 0.10
Jolteon 3 1484 1560 0.10
Flareon 3 1581 1659 0.10
Venusaur 4 1395 1467 0.04
Charizard 4 1461 1535 0.04
Blastoise 4 1241 1309 0.04
Rhydon 4 1804 1886 0.04
Lapras 4 1414 1487 0.04
Snorlax 4 1833 1917 0.04
Tyranitar 4 2011 2097 0.04