Pokebonk Items and Vitamins: Effects & Caps
Compare Pokebonk held items and vitamins, including damage bonuses, tradeoffs, stacking rules and the item pool tools available in the Lab.
Quick answer
Items are passive bonuses that occupy a slot and follow the caps shown in the Lab. Vitamins are one-time stat boosts offered as level-up cards. Stacking and caps were tightened in v0.5.3, so check the current build before relying on an old build guide.
Pokebonk gives you two different kinds of power-up, and the game uses the word "item" for both at different times. Sorting them out makes level-up offers much easier to read.
- Held items are passive bonuses attached to the partner for the run.
- Vitamins are one-time stat cards offered during level-ups.
- Lab items are permanent pool unlocks bought with Stardust outside a run.
Checked against Beta v0.7.3 data and menu descriptions from v0.6.2 where noted.
Held items
Held items trade a slot for a specific effect. The game's own descriptions are the authority; the table below collects the effects that were readable in v0.6.2 and are still consistent with the current item list.
| Item | Effect | The tradeoff to notice |
|---|---|---|
| Muscle Band | Physical damage +15% | Does nothing for special moves |
| Wise Glasses | Special damage +15% | Does nothing for physical moves |
| Choice Band | Physical damage +35%, attack speed −8% | The speed cut can cost a whole wave |
| Choice Specs | Special damage +35%, attack speed −8% | Same tradeoff, different damage class |
| Life Orb | Total damage +30%, max HP −10% | You are trading survival for clear speed |
| Leftovers | Regeneration +1.2 HP per second | Slow; it will not save a bad position |
Two rules that matter:
- Read the damage class. A Muscle Band on a special attacker is a wasted slot.
- Check the cap. The game enforces item limits, and same-kind bonuses add rather than multiply.
The v0.5.3 release notes specifically describe same-kind stacking adding instead of repeatedly multiplying, and item maxima being enforced. That means an old clip showing a runaway multiplier may no longer reproduce.
Vitamins
Vitamins appear as level-up cards, not as inventory objects you carry between runs. They are permanent for the current run and usually boost one stat.
Common examples include X Attack, X Defense and X Speed, which raise the corresponding stat for the run. Because they do not occupy a move slot, they are the right pick when every offered move is worse than what you already have.
Do not confuse a vitamin with a Lab Training upgrade. Both can raise the same stat, but one is temporary and one is permanent.
Lab items and the item pool
The Lab has an Items tab with filters:
- All
- Discovered
- In your Poké Balls
- To discover
- Archived
These states are not the same thing. In a v0.6.2 check, Repel appeared under "discovered" with a 150 Stardust unlock price, while other entries were already marked as in the Poké Ball pool. Discovering an item does not automatically add it to the pool.
Archived items are excluded from Poké Balls and from Meowth's shop. Archive was locked in the check we saw, so we have not tested restoring an item.
What actually drops
The item pool decides what can appear in a run. It does not guarantee a specific next drop. If you are hunting one item:
- Confirm it is in your Poké Ball pool, not merely discovered.
- Check the Archive state.
- Play a mode with enough item opportunities to make the hunt reasonable.
Building around an item
The item should answer a problem your build already has:
- Dying to bursts → defensive or regeneration effects
- Killing too slowly → damage, but only of the right class
- Getting surrounded → area or cooldown effects
- Running out of health between waves → regeneration
A 30% damage bonus on a build that dies in one hit is not a 30% improvement. Clear speed only matters while you are alive.
Common mistakes
- Stacking the same effect and expecting multiplication. It adds.
- Ignoring the class split. Physical and special bonuses are not interchangeable.
- Buying an item unlock before checking the pool. Discovery and availability are separate states.
- Treating a vitamin like a held item. They live in different systems.
Sources and scope
Item names and icons come from the game's public data. Effect values in the table are from menu descriptions checked in v0.6.2. The current build may have changed a value; if a card disagrees with this page, the card wins. We have not measured damage-per-second outcomes for any item combination.