Algorithm for Capturing Pokémon

[beefhash]

Please note that the data provided there only applies to the first generation of Pokémon (Red/Blue/Yellow and Japanese Green).

Second generation (Gold, Silver, Crystal): http://www.dragonflycave.com/gen2capture.aspx

Third generation (Ruby, Sapphire, FireRed, LeafGreen, Emerald) and forth generation (Diamond, Pearl, HeartGold, SoulSilver, Platinum): http://www.dragonflycave.com/capture.aspx

For a general overview and comparison of changes, the Bulbapedia page is worth a look: http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Catch_rate

[habosa]

Wait, so you're saying jamming "ABABABAB..." doesn't make it more likely? How could all my 5th grade friends be wrong!

[mvanotti]

Maybe it messes with the random number generator.. somehow.

Awesome article, but I suspect that something is wrong. If we see Mewtwo, lvl 70, full hp, frozen solid it says that -on average- we need 6 ultra balls. That is FAR from true. I always freezed all the legendaries to capture them easier, and it took always more than 10 balls to capture them.

[withdavidli]

I always held the down arrow. It worked about 30-70% of the time.

[jebus989]

I can't believe ~=< 30% health gives the same catch rate as 1hp, so many wasted save/loads trying to get the other guy down to a slither of health.

[blueskin_]

I used to catch most things by spamming Ultra Balls without focusing much on damage/status unless it was a high level. Legendaries were the main thing that might need repeated reloads - for those not familiar with the games, most legendaries are a one-shot deal; if you fail to catch them and either lose or defeat it, you can't try again without starting a new game, so everyone always saved before attempting to battle them so they could reload on failure. There are a few legendaries that are exceptions, which moved around and could be re-encountered if not caught, but they were in generation 2 and upwards.

[blueskin_]

I remember when people used to have all sorts of "tricks". The most common ones I remember were holding down or B+down, or going ABABABABABAB as fast as you could. Nobody had any evidence they worked, but so many people tried. I suppose they could theoretically manipulate the RNG if it used weak sources such as unsanitised user input, but that seems unlikely.

[skizm]

Just like Skinner's superstitious pigeons, if you ever caught a pokemon and happened to be holding B+down at the time, there was a small part of your brain that wanted to believe that helped some how. So you do it every time in hopes of increasing your odds.

[rtpg]

This is a pretty good example of why we use mathematical symbols to describe calculations and control flow instead of english phrases.

[sebgeelen]

in this case some gif or icon would be even better! imho.

[danielweber]

Steps 2 through 5 say that throwing an Ultra Ball at a Slept/Frozen Pokemon will have at least a 1/6 chance of catching anything. Was it that easy to catch a Legendary in Generation 1, and this is something they've changed?

Also, Generation 1 had Nest Balls and Net Balls, didn't it? Those are missing from this list.

[b0b_d0e]

Generation 2 introduced the more exotic pokeballs through that whole apricot side event stuff. Generation 3 introduced several new balls including the Nest and Net balls that you were mentioning http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pok%C3%A9_Ball#Introd...

[withdavidli]

Finally! Something useful on this site! XD! busts out gameboy color and become more blind than I already am

[zacinbusiness]

I actually downloaded GB4iOS from emu4ios.net a few weeks back and have been playing Sapphire. It's a lot of fun when I want to take a short break from work.

So here's a cool question/poll:

What Gameboy hardware did you own?

I had an original Gameboy, a Gameboy camera (no printer), a silver Gameboy pocket, a Gameboy Color, and a red Gameboy Advance SP. The Advance SP was awesome but my roommate in college stole and sold it to buy cigarettes.

I also had a Virtual Boy and an original Nintendo DS.

*Edit: I also had one of those lighted magnifier/speaker rigs for the original Gameboy which meant I could play Metroid after dark and feel like a SPY!

[darxius]

Are these algorithms just reverse engineered from pokemon ROMs found online?

Pretty cool nonetheless.

[blueskin_]

Most of the roms are fairly well understood from a reverse engineering perspective; especially gen 1 (red/blue). That's how bugs that were known back in the day but people weren't sure /how/ (note how some like the item duplication bug or the Mew bug were sometimes called 'cheats') are now fully explainable (usually as memory management bugs).

[kanzure]

Much of the work was before that, but there's also https://github.com/iimarckus/pokered and https://github.com/kanzure/pokecrystal to consider now (working source code).