Why can't I catch a Pokemon despite when it basically has one hp?

Question

The text says "(pokemon name) wont let down its defense".

Comments

Is this for SwSh? I know that it won’t let you catch Pokémon if it’s above a certain level, depending on how many badges you have (from what I’ve played so far, it looks like the level cap increases by 5 per badge). This is presumably to prevent players from getting lucky and catching (for example) a level 50 Pokémon in the wild area before the second badge and plowing through most of the game with it.
I haven’t tested it myself, but I’m pretty sure that’s what’s going on.

---

In all the games, Pokemon with 1 HP aren't guaranteed to get caught. It still depends on stuff like catch rate and the Poke ball.

---

in response to sumwun itthe badge mechanics differ slightly from previous games, instead of loosing control of an already owned mon you just physically cant catch things above a certian lvl cap untill after the last gym

Answer 1

Just tested it to confirm the message. Because you can find extremely overlevelled Pokémon in the wild zone, Sword and Shield won’t let you catch Pokémon that are above a certain level, depending on how many badges you have. When you encounter these Pokémon, it introduces it as “a strong-looking [Pokémon],” and will stop you from catching it with the message “It won’t let down its defense!”