It turns out that we were catching Pokémon all wrong
After all these years, the truth about Gen 1 is out.
Eurogamer's latest Here's a Thing video shines a light on something that the majority of you probably didn't know back when you were playing the first Pokémon games on your Game Boy. You were going about catching Pokémon all wrong.
I missed the first generation entirely, but the having played later games that use various formulae to figure out whether or not your pokeball is going to nab a Pokémon, Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow had a different set up.
For example, did you know that the chances of catching a Pokémon whose HP has been whittled down to a third don't change if you knock any more HP off? So when you were trying to drill its HP down to almost nothing and accidentally knocking it out, you were doing so unnecessarily.
The algorithm the games use involve a lengthy 10-step process that have to be triggered in order, with the first one being whether the player trying to catch the ghost Marowak. If they are, it's a fail. The second step looks at whether a Master Ball is being used, and if it is, the Pokémon is instantly captured.
Things get a little more complex after this, with things like the Pokémon's current status effect coming into play, even before its HP or base catch rates have been considered.
It's an interesting video and it's less than 10 minutes, so if you have time, give it a watch.