New Pokémon Snap: How to Get the Highest Score for Your Photos


When you take a photo of a Pokémon in the New Pokémon Snap, you get given a score based on its composition and the skill involved. The best photographers should be able to get the best score possible, so here we’ll show you how to get the highest score for your photos in Pokémon Snap.

Read More: All Legendary Pokémon in Pokémon Snap

How to Get the Highest Photo Score in Pokémon Snap

To get the best and highest score in Pokémon Snap for your photos, you need to pay attention to several conditions that each add to the picture’s overall score. Try to get all of them in one shoot for the best possible result! They go as follows:

  • Pose
  • Size
  • Direction
  • Placement
  • Other Pokémon

We’ll cover each of these in turn and how they can be best used to get a good score.

Pose

This is all about how the Pokémon is standing or what it’s doing within the Photo. Ideally you want it to be doing something a little more dynamic that just standing there - sleeping, running, playing with other Pokémon. The more interesting the shot, the better.

Size

Here the objective is to stick the Pokémon directly in the middle of the frame, as large as possible. Ideally you want it to fill the central rectangular frame without exceeding it, dominating the shot without being cut-off by the edges. You also want to minimise any landscape obscuring parts of the Pokémon in question.

Direction

Another basic one, you want the Pokémon to look directly at you! You want a straight-on shot that makes its shape and silhouette as clear as possible, rather than a picture of the back of its head.

Placement

This one is barely different from Direction, but the game counts it differently. Placement is about centring the Pokémon in the very middle of the frame, rather than to one side or in a corner.

Other Pokémon

A final thing that can boost your score is if there’s other Pokémon present in the picture, either of the same species or an entirely different kind. The game doesn’t seem to care about how they’re presented, but as long as they’re in there, you’ll get a boost to score.

Pokemon snap four-star rating photo
click to enlarge
This Bidoof picture tops 4000 points and thus makes it a four-star picture.

How to Get Diamond Score Photos

To get the highest Diamond score, you’ll need to do well in at least three separate qualities. It’s possible to do badly in one - usually the “other Pokemon” bracket - and still get a diamond star, but your combined points will need to be higher than 4000 either way!

What’s the Difference Between Star Rating and Score?

The game isn’t particularly good at explaining this, but your score and your star rating for a photograph are not the same thing. The score is based on the composition and the five factors listed above. The Star Rating is based off what you’re actually taking a photograph of - if the Pokémon is doing something rare or strange.

For example, a perfectly-framed shot of a Pikachu just standing there might get you a high score, but it won’t get you more than one star at most. However, if you see a legendary Pokémon warping space and time, that’s likely a four-star rating because it’s a rare event. It won’t guarantee you a high score though, you still have to take a good photograph of that rare event. The two values are separate and based on different qualities.

Looking for more details on Pokémon Snap? Check out what legendaries are confirmed to be in the game at our guide here, or go see how you can transfer your Poké-pictures to your phone at our guide here!

For more articles like this, take a look at our Pokémon Snap and Pokémon page.