Explaining Catch Rates

You’ll probably want to refer to guides to see what the catch rate for individual Pokemon are. (Serebii lists the Pokemon catch rates.) CatchRate is specific to each Pokemon. Higher is easier to catch. Abra is a 200, which means it is more difficult to catch than Geodude, which is 255.

There’s a math formula for figuring out how easy it is to catch a Pokemon:

( ( 3*MaxHP - 2*CurrentHP) * CatchRate) / 3*MaxHP

When you throw a PokeBall, it’ll quickly figure out your chances, against a random number that is generated between 0 to 255.

Let’s try to catch that Abra. It uses Teleport as its only attack, so we'll only get one shot at it. The level 8 Abra has 24 HP. I’ll try to throw a regular Pokeball, while Abra is unhurt. It’s MaxHP and Current HP are the same – it works out to 3(24) – 2(24) = 1(24) = 24. Multiply it by 200, Abra’s CatchRate, and you end up with 4800. Divided by three times its MaxHP, it’s got a 67. Against the random number generator, you’ll catch an unhurt 24 HP Abra about 25% of the time, before it teleports away.

Improving capture methods:

The actual formula adds more modifiers, for special conditions and what kind of ball you use:

Status * BallModifier * ( ( 3*MaxHP - 2*CurrentHP) * CatchRate) / 3*MaxHP

Status is the effect of a special condition, the higher the number, the better.

Frozen or Asleep: 2

Paralyzed, Poisoned, or Burned: 1.5

Other conditions/no condition: 1

As you can see, Asleep is the best modifier (Frozen is really good, but hard to use - there aren't a lot of moves that freeze reliably.) If Asleep won't work against the Pokemon, I'll try Paralyzed...it doesn't run the risk of KO'ing the Pokemon, like Poisoned or Burned does.

The higher the BallModifier, the more your chances improve:

(Specialty Balls always have a minimum multiplier of x1.)

Poke Ball, Premier Ball, Luxury Ball, Heal Ball: x1

Great Ball: x1.5

Ultra Ball: x2

Dive Ball: x3.5 for underwater Pokemon (Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald) or Pokemon in water for other games

Nest Ball: x3 for Pokemon levels 1-19, x2 for levels 20-29

Net Ball: x3, but only for Water-type and Bug-type

Repeat Ball: x3, but only for Pokemon you’ve already caught

Dusk Ball: x4, but only works at night or underground

Quick Ball: x4, but decreases every 5 rounds – after round 16 it stays at x1

Timer Ball: x4 at 30 rounds or more, x3 for 20-29 rounds, x2 for 10-19 rounds

Let’s take a second look at catching that Abra. If I manage to get it Asleep before it uses Teleport, I double my chances catching it with a Poke Ball. If I use an Ultra Ball, it doubles my chances again – my 67 * 4 = 268 will always be higher than the random number being generated.

In wrap-up, there are several different formulas out there for figuring out catch rates. Some of them didn’t work mathematically, while others didn’t match my experiences. As nothing official has ever been posted about it, I’d use these as ideas on how to improve your catching experiences.

Trials of a Level 30 Magnezone

I’ve been engaging in a relatively fruitless quest over the past several weeks. I train most of my competitive Pokemon for level 30. It’s partly from the format I started with in competitive battling, but also a recognition of the difficulty of training a Pokemon within set limits.

The challenge? Magnezone. If you haven’t followed Magnezone before, it’s pretty awesome. Its Magnet Pull ability prevents Steel-types from escaping. It has excellent stats, focusing on Special Attacks. The drawback is that Magnemite evolves to Magneton at level 30. Magneton evolves into Magnezone in Mt. Coronet, during a level up – standard tricks, means that I have a level 31 Magnezone.

The answer? Find a wild Magneton, below level 30. Sometimes wild Pokemon will exist in forms that you can’t duplicate, such as a Magneton below level 30. You can find them in the wild in Platinum, but they’re all too high in level. Diamond & Pearl don’t have them showing up at all, only Magnemite. I dusted off my Ruby game – meaning I can find them in New Mauville (just south of Mauville City, then Surf east). Unfortunately they’re rare. As in, out of 150 Pokemon, I’ve seen 3. (“150” is a loose number. It could easily be higher. And that means hours of play, but something you can do while you watch a DVD or bust out on a bus.)

The primary drawback to using wild Pokemon as a base to build from is that you can’t breed a bunch of them, check their IVs, and use the best one. Finding one of even the right nature and ability is hard enough…waiting for amazing IVs seems like a lost cause.

But I want a Modest-natured Magneton. Modest gives its powerful Special Attack stat an even higher boost, at a cost of Attack. Sadly, I migrated most of my Pokemon up to Diamond back in the day, so I have very little ‘catching’ Pokemon in reserve. I really wanted a Modest Abra with Synchronize (if it leads the party, half the Magnetons I would run into are Modest), which meant a long exile into the caves by Dewford. Abra tries to teleport out, so you either have to put it Asleep, or throw money/balls at it. I decided that Hypnotize would be the fastest route, so I found a Spinda and was in business.

Except it wasn’t perfect. Hypnotize has a 70% accuracy and I kept having to catch a lot of Abra, and none of them were Modest AND Synchronize (Inner Focus is useful as an ability, but not for what I wanted the Abra for). I realized I went about it all wrong, and started catching Ralts instead. If the wild Ralts used its “Trace” ability on my Spinda, I knew I didn’t have to catch it…and it also doesn’t know Teleport for those times where Hypnotize would miss. Catching a Modest-natured Ralts was fast - I had one in 20 minutes.

So I have Ralts, have Spinda, and now spend all of my time in New Mauville. The three Magneton that I have caught so far aren’t Modest – I’d even settle for a Timid one at this point. But the upside has been that in one of the random battles, a Shiny Magnemite showed up…and the 50% paid off, so I’ll have a sparkly Modest Magnezone for my level 50 build!