Why are timer balls so underrated?

Question

They can achieve a catch rate twice that of ultra balls, and they cost less. However, ultra balls appear to be more popular. Why?

Answer 1

The Time it takes to Activate:

See that?

30 Turns before Generation 5

Far too long to wait for maximum effectiveness, to be honest.

Only post Generation 5 has it actually gained any use. Besides, lots of people prefer to use "standard" Pokeballs, such as Pokeballs, Great Balls, or Ultra Balls.

Also, people have grown used to using Ultra Balls, and since Timer Balls were a waste of time (oh, the irony), they never caught on, the cost of which is still seen today. Sooner or later, however, people will realise their potential as well.

Apart from this, Timer Balls face competition from other balls like Dusk Balls, since people mostly play at night, and most legendary Pokemon are found in cave-like atmospheres.

Comments

If I prefer to wait 30 turns and then use timer balls for maximum effectiveness, then does that mean I'm wasting my life away? (seriously tho it takes less than 10 minutes)

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Point is you save 10 minutes using higher catch rate balls, also with capture O-Powers using that could easily catch the legendary with the first couple balls

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No, sumwun, it means that the most probably, you'll end up catching the Pokemon before you reach those 30 turns anyway. Then again, there are some legendaries that have very low catch rate, but Dusk Balls work on most of them.

Another thing is Ultra Balls are found in the main Pokemart, so while buying repels, people stock up on Ultra Balls as well, instead of going over to the other side (terribly lazy, I know, but it is a general trend that is followed by most due to convenience).

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what if I can't get O-powers anymore?

Answer 2

Timerballs only have a higher catch rate after turn 10. Until then it has the same catch rate of a pokeball. Making the ultra ball a better options for turns 1-10. and with Ultrabllas fairly high catch rate its pretty likely to catch the Pokemon before turn 10. Also nobody really wants to wait 10 turns to catch a poke. and also what are you gonna do for those 10 turns? Attacking the poke risk killing it while constantly switching makes your pokes take meaningless damage. Bottom line Timer balls are more of a back up for incase your ultra balls fail.

Comments

Timer balls increase their catch rate by 0.1 every turn. the 10 turns are only the amount of time it takes for them to get better than the ultra balls.
as for the stalling, that's why they make lemonade so cheap.

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^ Yes that is true, but Timer Ball only has a higher catch rate than Ultra Ball only after 20 turns. The 0. 1 difference doesn't really matter until it is boosted up by 1.

20 Turns may seem little, but you're going to spend roughly about 15 turns doing nothing (5 turns for damaging / statusing the Pokemon).

Timerballs aren't necessarily underrated, but you could have bought the Ultra Balls and spammed them on 10 turns (which probably will catch it). Timerballs are, however,  useful as a last opportunity to catch it (only if you spent alot of turns and / or used up all of your Ultra Balls).

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Catch rate: ((number of turns passed in battle + 10) ÷ 10) times. source: Bulbapedia
It starts with the same catch rate as a regular ball and THEN increases by 0.1 each turn. Sorry if I wasn't specific enough.

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I'd still rather spam ultra balls in the ~5 turns that itll take to get to ten turns. Sure, timer balls are effective, but its just so much easier and faster to use ultra balls since you usually catch them if you statused and lowered down to red HP

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i mostly play at night so dusk balls for me

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If I prefer to wait 30 turns and then use timer balls for maximum effectiveness, then does that mean I'm wasting my life away? (seriously tho it takes less than 10 minutes)

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What I usually do is spam ultra balls until a significant amount of turns have passed, and then throw some backup timer balls. Usually i catch the Pokémon before i run out of ultra balls