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Catching Tips
The less HP a Pokémon has left when you throw the Poké Ball, the more likely it is for the Pokémon to stay inside, but if it has no HP left, it will faint and you can't catch it.
Pokémon at the beginning of the game can usually be caught with about a third of their HP left, sometimes with half. Strong Pokémon like the Legendary Birds, however, need to have such a tiny fraction of their HP left that you can hardly see it. It is very easy to knock them out accidentally before Ultra Balls can catch them.
When fine-tuning a strong Pokémon's HP, Super Fang is very useful. If you don't have Super Fang, weakening the enemy Pokémon with Growl and Sand-Attack can make it possible to use a weak Pokémon on it.
Sending a Pokémon to sleep makes it more likely that it will stay inside the ball. Freezing it is at least as good, (added to the fact that it won't wake up just as you are about to catch it,) but it is much harder to do. If you do freeze it, be careful not to use any Fire attacks - it will thaw again. Paralysys will do the trick for slightly weaker Pokémon.
The Legendary Birds need to be sent to sleep, frozen or paralyzed before a ball will hit them. if you paralyze them, you will need a lot of balls, because once they are paralyzed, they can't be sent to sleep.
Throwing lots of balls does seem to weaken Pokémon, as long as the balls hit. If you hit the Pokémon with enough balls, you will probably catch it eventually.
Some Pokémon use particular moves that make them hard to catch. Recover and Rest are two. Some that are even worse, are Teleport, Whirlwind, Roar, Selfdestruct and Explosion, which end the battle instantly. It can be helpful to send Pokémon that know these attacks to sleep before they can use them.
To catch one of the unique Pokémon without the risk of losing it, save the game just before starting the fight. If all does not go to plan, switch off without saving, then try again.
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