Why do the pal spheres randomly bounce off

[Dark Redslayer]

It literally makes no sense, and just makes me waste spheres. I had a 75% chance to catch, and it bounced off 4 times while they just walked towards me. Its irritating because there's no rationale.

[Stellar Remnant]

Did you see any messages appear like "pal name fended off the sphere. give it a bit more damage."?

Get it below 10% hp for good results. Below 5% or less for best.

[Memetic Moniker]

get the HP down below ~70% or hit them from behind. Either that or they bounced off stray geometry.

[The Grand Mugwump]

Healthy pals will deflect the spheres away. You need to weaken them or hit them from behind while they're not in combat.

[Dark Redslayer]

Originally posted by MiniHerc:

Did you see any messages appear like "pal name fended off the sphere. give it a bit more damage."?

Get it below 10% hp for good results. Below 5% or less for best.

No, I've had Pals with less than 10 (not percent, literally 10hp) deflect them over and over and then it'll work. When looking at them it'll say I have 80% chance of capture at times, and they still do it. Its annoying as hell.

[Hurricane]

It's a game mechanic... they defend themselves...

[magickmynd]

Originally posted by Hurricane:

It's a game mechanic... they defend themselves...

This. If you throw spheres from the front where they can see you, or they are aware of you, sometimes they block the spheres and knock them away.

The best way to avoid this is to stagger them or inflict a status effect like freeze, burn, poison, shock, etc.

Even smacking them in the head with a critical hit will work.

In that brief window of time where they aren't paying attention it makes it much easier to catch them.

[Xaekai]

Stun Baton.

[Woe]

Attack animations can and will deflect spheres, either wait for the recovery animation after an attack or throw it from behind assuming the sphere is strong enough to actually capture the pal.

[Mokona]

Ya its annoying. I throw a sphere, it works, they break out, then I throw another and suddenly they resist it. So I do a bit more damage and throw another sphere and they still resist it. Why didnt they resist the first time then? Also have times where I throw a sphere, works, break out, throw another, resist, throw another, works. Really needs to get some consistency.

[LT2483]

Some Pals will also deflect low tier spheres, regardless of how weakened they are. It'll show a capture percent, but then show a different deflect message about needing better spheres if you attempt it.

[Arcyne]

So, the actual answer to your question is that you have to hit them mainly in the body, not the head or limbs because that seems to make pals just be immune to balls 90% of the time. It has literally nothing to do with their HP despite what the game actually tells you.

The best luck i've had is Sending out a pal behind them to distract so you can hit them from behind, or if that doesn't work, you can bounce a ball off the ground underneath them to hit their stomach if it's a four legged pal. It's a really ♥♥♥♥ system because some pals just completely ignore hits to most of their visible body when facing you, Despite being literally on deaths's door at sub 5% HP.

Originally posted by LT2483:

Some Pals will also deflect low tier spheres, regardless of how weakened they are. It'll show a capture percent, but then show a different deflect message about needing better spheres if you attempt it.

It says this when you're using the best spheres in the game as well. Literally cannot be a better sphere to use and it'll tell you to. In-game warning is completely wrong.

[The Former]

Originally posted by Arcyne:

So, the actual answer to your question is that you have to hit them mainly in the body, not the head or limbs because that seems to make pals just be immune to balls 90% of the time. It has literally nothing to do with their HP despite what the game actually tells you.

The best luck i've had is Sending out a pal behind them to distract so you can hit them from behind, or if that doesn't work, you can bounce a ball off the ground underneath them to hit their stomach if it's a four legged pal. It's a really ♥♥♥♥ system because some pals just completely ignore hits to most of their visible body when facing you, Despite being literally on deaths's door at sub 5% HP.

Originally posted by LT2483:

Some Pals will also deflect low tier spheres, regardless of how weakened they are. It'll show a capture percent, but then show a different deflect message about needing better spheres if you attempt it.

It says this when you're using the best spheres in the game as well. Literally cannot be a better sphere to use and it'll tell you to. In-game warning is completely wrong.

Back attacks are a good idea in general as you get a capture rate boost, too.

[LT2483]

Originally posted by Arcyne:

Originally posted by LT2483:

Some Pals will also deflect low tier spheres, regardless of how weakened they are. It'll show a capture percent, but then show a different deflect message about needing better spheres if you attempt it.

It says this when you're using the best spheres in the game as well. Literally cannot be a better sphere to use and it'll tell you to. In-game warning is completely wrong.

I mean, it was correct when it displayed for me - I got the pal to exactly 1 health, and it was displaying the message when using T1 and T2 balls, which were all being deflected, while T3 worked fine. Unfortunate to hear it can bug out though.

[Metalshock]

What I've gathered, is that the capture system works on the "Three wobble" system that Pokémon uses, visually. However, the first "wobble" is the point of impact. You'll notice that when the ball does seem to pull them in, the % of capture goes up immediately.

It's very jank and doesn't convey this information very clearly, but that's my guess.

[Malki Nokternum]

I have used Giga/Hyper spheres on level 5 enemies while their health was at 1 hp, AND they were being electrocuted, it fended off all 10 of my HYPER spheres, and ate about 20 giga spheres before it even went in, my Lifmunk capture boost is about halfway through too, and it told me to do a bit more damage to capture the enemy, but a single hit from my FIST was enough to kill it, but it kept fending the sphere off