PokéBonk Lab Guide: Stardust, Fourth Move & Permanent Upgrades

Where is the Lab, and what does it spend?

Open Lab from the main menu, then choose Upgrades. Its subtitle identifies Stardust, the currency spent here. The Lab labels these upgrades as permanent; they are separate from the moves and vitamins chosen during a run. Do not confuse Stardust with the PokéDollars used during play.

We inspected our earlier testing Guest: four recorded runs, 13 Stardust and 0/87 upgrade levels. No Lab upgrade had been bought. The prices below are those displayed for level zero on October 18, 2026, in Beta v0.6.2. Later-level prices and the effects of a purchase were not tested.

How do you unlock the fourth move slot?

Find 4th move in Lab → Upgrades → Run team. Its card describes an extra learned-move slot, has a one-level cap and displayed 1,500 Stardust.

Fourth option is a different card: it displayed 3,000 Stardust and describes four choices at level-up. More choices in an offer do not mean more attacks equipped. Check the exact card and your balance before spending. We did not purchase either upgrade.

Which permanent stat upgrades are listed?

The nine cards under Training list the following gains for each level. Names follow the English game so you can find the matching card. The cap is the maximum level shown; the price is only the first level, in Stardust.

Upgrade	Listed gain / function	Level cap	First cost
Training	+4% damage	8	100
Stamina	+8 maximum HP	8	100
Agility	+2.5% movement speed	6	120
Study	+5% experience	6	120
Trading	+8% PokéDollars	6	100
Fortune	+5 luck	6	140
Magnetism	+0.6 pickup range	5	80
Leftovers	+0.2 regeneration	5	120
Shell	+2 armor	6	120

Maximum HP, armor and regeneration solve different problems; experience gain and pickup range also differ. Compare the effect you need rather than treating these as interchangeable damage upgrades.

What do the run tools and capacity upgrades list?

The Run team group contains ten more cards. Values describe the menu promise, not a measured result after buying it.

Upgrade	Listed gain / function	Level cap	First cost
4th move	A fourth learned-move slot	1	1,500
Vitamin slots	One extra vitamin slot per level	2	1,200
Refresh	One extra offer refresh per run, per level	6	120
Skip	One extra upgrade skip per run, per level; awards PokéDollars	6	80
Banish	One extra banish per level; excludes an option for the run	6	150
Fourth option	Four cards in a level-up offer	1	3,000
Revive	Start with a Max Revive	1	5,000
Research	+25% research progress	4	250
Support team	Captured Alpha capacity: two → three	1	3,500
Archive	Three extra Archive slots per level	3	800

Refresh changes an offer, Skip passes an upgrade, and Banish excludes an option for that run according to their cards. This inspection did not exercise those tools in a run. The permanent Training damage card is also distinct from the long-run Training rewards discussed in the v0.6.2 release history.

Why can a discovered item still be outside your pool?

Switch to Lab → Items. The filters separate All, Discovered, In your Poké Balls, To discover and Archived. Our test Guest showed Repel in a discovered section with a 150-Stardust unlock price, while other cards were already marked as in the Poké Ball pool. Discovery and availability are therefore different menu states.

Undiscovered entries displayed ???, an objective and a price. We did not infer hidden item names from objectives. The Archive description says archived items are excluded from Poké Balls and Meowth’s shop. Archive was locked in our Guest, so we did not test archiving or restoring an item. Pool availability does not guarantee a particular next drop.

Which item descriptions are useful to compare first?

These selected entries were read in Lab → Items, Beta v0.6.2, October 18, 2026. They are menu descriptions, not measured damage, drop rates or a tested build. Check your current move’s Physical/Special label before choosing a damage bonus.

Item	Displayed effect	Decision to check
Muscle Band	Physical damage +15%.	Compare with your Physical moves; it is not a general damage label.
Wise Glasses	Special damage +15%.	Compare with Special moves, rather than the partner’s name alone.
Choice Band	Physical damage +35%, attack speed −8%.	Includes a speed tradeoff; we did not measure net DPS.
Choice Specs	Special damage +35%, attack speed −8%.	The same tradeoff targets a different damage class.
Life Orb	Total damage +30%, maximum HP −10%.	A damage/survival tradeoff, not an unconditional recommendation.
Leftovers	Regeneration +1.2 HP per second.	This item is separate from the permanent Lab upgrade with the same name.

Our Guest’s menu marked these six entries as already in its Poké Ball pool. Repel was instead discovered with a 150-Stardust unlock price. That does not establish your account’s unlocks, a guaranteed next drop or when a shop will appear. None of these six items was acquired or tested in a run for this comparison; stacking, caps, interactions and final DPS remain unverified.

For an applied stat-change example, see the Calcium check in the upgrade guide. Calcium there was a vitamin, not one of these items. The player FAQ summarizes the slot and pool distinctions.

What is a sensible purchase-check process?

1. Identify your immediate problem: attack capacity, offer choices, survival or item-pool control.
2. Read the exact card, owned level and current price in your own session.
3. Keep a record of the version and balance before a purchase; inspect the result before buying something else.
4. Separate a card’s description from an effect you have actually observed in a run.

This is a way to check a decision, not an optimal spending order. We have not measured Stardust farming, refunds, later costs, clear rates or cross-device persistence. Start with the entry guide if the menus are unfamiliar, or browser troubleshooting if the game does not reach them.

For dated changes and their verification limits, read the sourced patch notes. Reported fixes are separate from the checks on this page.

Sources and verification

Direct inspection of Charcher’s English original, Beta v0.6.2, October 18, 2026, on desktop. We opened both Lab tabs, read all 19 level-zero upgrade cards and inspected the item-pool labels. Screenshots are our own. No purchase, Archive operation, longer run, farming benchmark or physical-phone test was performed in this batch.

Compare the checked item effects and caps.