Pokéjam Offense

What each shot is worth

The game rolls every jump shot against a base chance that depends on distance and shooting, then replaces that chance when your release is perfect. The numbers below use a shooting rating of 90 on All-Star.

Two conclusions, and they drive everything else on this page. First, a perfect release makes distance almost irrelevant: inside the arc every perfect shot is 94%, and behind it every perfect shot is 86% all the way out to 35 feet. If you can hit green consistently, shot selection stops being about range.

Second, an open three is the best shot in the game by expected points — 2.58 against 1.88 for any two. That is true even though the three goes in less often, because it is worth half again as much. The catch is the last column: a contested three drops to 1.50, and a contested layup to 1.16, so both are still playable. What is not playable is a heave. Beyond 35 feet the game caps even a perfect release at 25%.

The fire state

Three makes in a row by the same player sets them on fire. While on fire a shooter gets a quarter more make chance (capped just under certainty) and a 70% wider green band, and a dunk becomes a 99% proposition.

Fire is fragile in a way that matters tactically. It lasts five makes, and any score by the opponent — at either end, including a free possession after a steal — clears the streak and puts the fire out. So the counter to a hot shooter is not a defensive adjustment, it is scoring yourself. And the counter to that is slowing the game down while your shooter is hot.

The most efficient way to start a fire is inside: layups and dunks count. A player who can get two easy finishes then step behind the arc is far more dangerous than one who starts the game taking threes.

Dunks and layups

Inside dunk range, the shoot button becomes a dunk and ignores the meter entirely. The finish is rolled from finishing and the contest:

dunk   = clamp(0.50 + finishing*0.0035 - (1-contest)*0.6, 0.30, 0.93)
layup  = (0.55 + finishing*0.004) * contest factor

At 95 finishing and a clean look that is roughly 83%; smother it and it falls to the mid-40s, and on fire it is 99% regardless. Dunk range itself is not fixed — a better shooter gets to start the animation from further out, and holding turbo extends it further still.

The risk is that a dunk can be blocked. A defender who jumps into the flight path can meet the ball, so dunking into a set rim protector is worse than pulling up. Dunk the open lane; do not dunk on a crowd.

Alley-oops

Holding the modifier while passing throws the ball up for a teammate cutting to the rim rather than to their hands. It is the fastest way to turn a half-court possession into a dunk, and it is the reason a roster with one genuinely fast wing is worth more than its ratings suggest: somebody has to be ahead of the play for the pass to exist.

The special bar

The bar starts partly filled and gains by playing, not by waiting: roughly a third of a bar per made score, a little extra to the passer on an assist, and a third from a block. Three scores usually fills it.

Which one you have is decided by the Pokémon's primary type, not by the individual — see the type chart for the full list. Lock-In and Blaze are the two that directly buy points; Phase is the one that saves a possession.

Spacing, and who creates it

The roster carries 2 Floor Generals — players with the passing and handles to move the ball before the defence rotates — alongside the shooting specialists (Three-Level Scorer (4), Sharpshooter (4), Floor General (2), 3-and-D Wing (1)). Those are the two cheapest ways to manufacture an open look.

• Pass before you drive. One pass that beats a rotation is worth more than a contested finish, because the open three is the highest-value shot on the board.
• Turbo is for the last three steps. Spending it on the way up the floor leaves nothing for the rim and drains the stamina that multiplies your make chance.
• Two shooters beat one star. A defence can shade toward a single scorer. It cannot close out on both corners.