Capturing Pokémon

The method of capturing Pokémon has remained the same from Generation IV to Generation V with no new Pokéballs available to effect the outcome. There are, however, two new features which affect the capturing of Pokémon. which this page will detail

Wild Double Battles

Introduced within Generation IV, Black & White take this aspect further with many routes and areas allowing for wild Double Battles. These battles take place in the darker grass in routes with higher levelled Pokémon and will often give you a double battle in the wild. These battles are normal Double Battles but capture of Pokémon is hindered somewhat here.

In order to capture the Pokémon, you need to first defeat one of the Pokémon. Once one of the two Pokémon have been defeated, you'll be able to throw a PokéBall at the remaining Pokémon.


Critical Capture

A totally new mechanic of capture is the Critical Capture. This feature works like Critical Hits in battle where there is a slight chance that this feature occurs. Critical Capture will be noticed when you throw the Pokéball. It'll pause in mid-air and make a metal noise. When it hits the Pokémon, it will shake once and capture. This cuts two of the four random calculations out of the overal capture mechanic making it more likely to capture the Pokémon. However, it can still fail.

The calculation is done by a simple factor depending upon the amount of Pokémon species you have captured. It will run this calculation based upon the capture value calculated above and will then have another random number based upon the Pokémon you have captured.

Critical Capture = floor((255,CatchValue) * Multiplier)

The multipliers are as follows;

Pokémon Caught Figure
600+ 2.5
450-599 2
300-449 1.5
150-299 1
30-149 0.5
0-29 0