What does "You missed the POKéMON!" mean?

Question

I was playing Yellow on my emulator and doing a glitch to encounter a Level 1 Pokémon, the Pokémon I found was a Nidoking. I didn't weaken it because my Pikachu, who was the only Pokémon in my party at the time, only knew Thunder Shock for an attacking move. So I threw a Poké Ball, and the 'bursting Poké Ball' animation played, but the Nidoking didn't disappear into the Poké Ball. Instead, it displayed a message that said "You missed the POKéMON!" Every time I threw a Poké Ball at the Nidoking, the same thing happened. It also happened when I tried to catch a Level 1 Mew, also by a glitch. But it's never happened to me before recently, and I haven't seen it happen to anyone else (although it probably has). This didn't happen when I threw Poké Balls at other Level 1 Pokémon besides Nidoking and Mew, so I'm really confused. What does that message mean, and why did it occur?

Answer 1

Pokeballs in Gen 1 can completely miss, which occurs due to the low catch rate of the Pokemon. This is equivalent to the Pokeball not shaking at all in later generations.

Hope this helped!

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Comments

Thanks! I was wondering what was up with that and it was bugging me. :)

Answer 2

In gen 1, instead of failing to catch a Pokemon, it says that you missed it. One of the ways to prevent this is to weaken it, then inflict it with status. This is a Gen 1 mechanic, so any other game this wouldn't happen. I would say its not because you are glitching the game, but it may be why its been failing so much. Try to get another attacking move on another Pokemon.

Edit: This is a thing that happens based on catch rates.

Hope this helps! :)

Comments

Thank you as well. :)