Trainers, a brief bug in Pokémon GO caused wild Pokémon to flee immediately after the first throw, prompting a large number of complaints across all social media platforms. The issue has since been fixed and Pokémon GO has issued a promo code as compensation.

The issue began late on July 24 without any warning, making all wild Pokémon uncatchable. This included wild Shiny Pokémon as well, which are a guaranteed catch. Trainers started reporting that every wild encounter ended with a flee, regardless of throw bonus, Berry or Pokémon level. 

Dozens of similar reports quickly followed, indicating the problem was affecting players globally. Some speculated the issue was tied to server performance, but that seems unlikely to us – likely a deployment issue on production.

Things got fixed in less than an hour, confirming it was a temporary server-side issue that Niantic resolved. Encounters have since returned to normal, with no lasting impact reported.

Get 50 PokéBalls as compensation

Shortly after the bug was fixed, Pokémon GO released a redemption code offering 50 free Poké Balls: POKEBALL50. You can redeem the code quickly by clicking this link. The devs did admit that the code has been issued in response to the incident:

Trainers, we have resolved a server issue that prevented Pokémon from being caught in the wild. As a token of apology, you can redeem the offer code POKEBALL50 until August 1, 2025 in the Pokémon GO Web Store to receive 50 PokéBalls.

If you are like us, and slept through all of this, this is just 50 free Poké Balls, which is not bad, not bad at all.

The post Pokémon GO Glitch Causes Wild Pokémon to Flee After First Throw, Now Fixed appeared first on Pokémon GO Hub.