Taking pictures is only half the job in Pokémon Snap. The other half happens in Professor Oak’s lab, when you hand him your film and he scores every shot. That score decides everything: it raises your Pokémon Report, which unlocks your items, and it settles which of two photos of the same Pokémon wins. This page explains the scoring system as described by the French manual and by players’ measurements, criterion by criterion.
Professor Oak’s criteria
The French manual sums up the scoring in four “high-score secrets”: size, pose, technique and other Pokémon. On top of those four criteria comes a “special” bonus for rare situations, which you can see on the scoring screen. Here is what each one rewards.
| Criterion | What Oak looks at | How to improve it |
|---|---|---|
| Size | How much space the Pokémon takes up in the picture. The manual puts it bluntly: the bigger they are, the more points you score. | Zoom in, get closer, wait for the ZERO-ONE to pass near the Pokémon, or throw an item so it comes toward you. |
| Pose | What the Pokémon is doing and how it is facing the camera. The manual advises photographing them “in action”. | Provoke reactions: an Apple for a happy pose, a Pester Ball for an angry or dazed expression, the Poké Flute for a dance. |
| Technique | Centering. According to player measurements, it is enough for part of the Pokémon to be close to the center of the viewfinder for the points to be doubled. | Aim for the center. The red dot in the middle of the screen is the sign that the centering is good, but it is not required to get the doubling. |
| Other Pokémon | The presence, in the frame, of other individuals of the same species. They are counted on their size only. | Wait for groups: six Charmander, three Dugtrio, three Kakuna, two Pikachu on stumps. |
| Special | A rare situation, which only happens if you trigger it: Pikachu surfing, two Magmar fighting, Mew freed from its bubble. | See the special photos page. |
The score, line by line
When you put a photo in front of Oak, the screen shows the Size, Pose and Technique lines, then a total. The screen puts the new photo side by side with the best previous one of the same Pokémon, so you can see right away which one wins. The manual says you can skim through the scores quickly with the B button. Oak comments on every shot, for example to note that the photo is better than the previous one. On the screen reproduced in the manual, an “x2” multiplier appears next to Technique: that is the centering doubling.
Only one photo per species can be kept in the Report. If you have two good shots of the same Pokémon, you must choose which one to keep in the Report. The other is not lost, though: you can save it in your album, which has no species limit.
What does a good score look like?
Values climb fast. In the TAS submission we cite on the reference scores page, the targeted shots are in the range of 3,000 to 5,000 points, the highest value in that list being 5,250 for Bulbasaur. Mew, which is a special pose all by itself, can go well beyond that ceiling: Bulbapedia mentions 10,000 points. Special bonuses are counted in hundreds of points: 500 for Pidgey and Gust, 600 for Pikachu on an Electrode, 800 for the Magmar fight, 1,000 for surfing Pikachu, 1,300 for the Pikachu on the stumps.
Framing tips from the specialists
Speedrunners have studied the scoring closely. Here is what we take away from their measurements, with the caution that player theories call for.
- Off-center framing can pay off. The specialists speak of a “square head theory”: the distance perceived by the game seems to be measured from the photographer’s head rather than from the center of the image. As a result, a Pokémon pushed slightly toward a corner can earn more size points than one right in the middle, as long as part of it stays near the center for the doubling.
- Aim at the farthest part. For Pikachu, for example, you put the red dot on the part that sticks out the farthest from the body, such as the tail, to increase the size.
- Each species has its right moment. For Kangaskhan on the Beach, both the pose and the size depend on very precise framing, which remains hard to pull off.
- Use the camera to slow down. Looking backward lowers the ZERO-ONE’s speed: it is even one of Oak’s tips in the manual (“reduce the speed of the ZERO-ONE”). On the other hand, you won’t take good photos while looking behind you all the time.
Before showing your photos
On the viewing screen, photos you have never examined yet are shiny. The manual recommends going through all the highlighted ones before leaving the screen, because you can show Oak only one photo per type of Pokémon. Mark your best pictures with Oak’s logo, using the Oak Mark command. Also look out for the “NEW” label: it means the Pokémon is not yet in your Report. A question mark means the camera could not identify the subject.
Going further
The values we cite are benchmarks drawn from player measurements, not an official scale: we found no formula published by the publisher. You will find the list of good poses for each course on the walkthrough pages, and the detail of the items on the items page.
