Master Ball Failure Chance

To be honest, I wouldn't know. I've caught just about all the legendaries, and haven't used it. I have hit that point where I save the master ball for special occasions, and much like ethers and elixers, I never use it.

 

To be honest, that's a really intriguing theory! Beast Balls have a low chance of catching anything except an Ultra Beast, so why would anyone ever even think of using a different ball, especially if they have a low chance of being captured themselves. If this is true, then this could be mind shattering, since Master Balls are known to catch anything and everything!

(Hooray for useless and unnecessary expansion on the topic!)

 

Ultra beasts weren't known Pokémon, nor are really Pokémon, when the ball was made. It makes sense that Ultra beasts can escape since it wasn't made and accustomed to their dimension and power..

 

I've never really thought about this before. It would make sense that the Master Ball could fail on Nihilego, since it's technically supposed to flee after being hurt so much. I can't try this out on my own, but I'm interested to see what would happen if someone actually threw their Master Ball at it...

 

I uh... happen to have a supply of master balls >W>' huhu that's what I sell here in my valor shop huhu promotion >: D

but I'm not near that part of the story so I couldn't say if it works :'D certainly can try when I get to it though

 

I think it'd be a lot more efficient for someone to buy a ball or two from me to try with since I've been taking 100+ hours an island, so at the rate I play you might be waiting a very long time! :'D but for some reason no one likes to buy from my valor store even when I make the prices offer based >W>'

 

I believe that since the Nihiligo has to escape during that battle for the story, every Pokéball will always fail. I'm not even sure how you would get a Masterball by that point in the game to try it out without hacking the game. I think it is the same thing of not being able to capture someone else's Pokémon.

 

UltraBeast > Master Ball.
It is a good theory since technology only evolves to what it actually knows unless the results were better than expected

 

Since it's essentially an Ultra Beast you have to use the Beast Balls but it's a good theory anyways.

 

If I am right, it fails only in that instance. I belive that nihlego is uncat challenge because it is needed for the story and it was programed that way. If so then that is why it fails. I have seen 3 or 4 of those on the gas in master balls at level 50. I've noticed in some games that things are programed to fail in indor to make sure that the story stays intact.

 

When I first saw this thread (but before opening this), I immediately thought the following might be the case:

*The aforementioned Nihilego discussed in the OP, when you encounter it in the situation as described, has a catch rate lower than 3. Historically, the Master Ball was coded with a catch multiplier of ×255, and the lowest catch rate any Pokémon could have was 3, which most legendaries have, and also means that at full health and no status, an ordinary PokéBall will catch such a Pokémon a mere 0.39% of the time.
With this in mind, a catch rate lower than 3 would result the Master Ball having a chance to fail, and a catch rate of 0 would make a Pokémon having such a value completely impossible to capture, even with the Master Ball. (Remember, anything multiplied by zero or zero multiplied by anything, even infinity, will always be zero, unless you happen to have been taught to get a different result because of Common Core math standards.)
The main series games have generally dealt with calculating values between 0 and 255 for most situations, an artifact from Generations I and II which were developed for an 8-bit system (Game Boy/Game Boy Color).
Then again, there's other factors that could be involved, such as coded "traps" (similar to how the ghost Marowak in the Kanto-based games, despite being billed as a wild Pokémon, always dodges ALL balls thrown at it).

 

This is a really good Theory. More like The masterball would work on a Beat because it is a Pokémon and maybe in the Pokémon success rate in a game mechanic would be 100% or Infinate. But cannonly I don't think it would!

 

Technically the Beasts aren't Pokémon. They even have un-Pokémon like appearances. I can see the Master Ball failing to catch one, simply because it isn't able to contain the alien data.

 

Master Ball will always catch the Pokémon, assuming it can be caught. The Nihilego in Aether Paradise has effectively catch rate of 0, since there is a device, which prevents empty Poke Balls from working, in order to protect the wild Pokémon residing inside. Pretty much the only instance this will affect the player, is when they have to fight against Nihilego, but assuming you could hack an encounter with a wild Pokémon inside Aether Paradise, Master Ball should always fail, regardless of the Pokémon you encounter. That, however assumes that they coded the place so that every encounter in there will follow the same rules as the Nihilego encounter.

Besides, in every game there is at least one specific instance where the Master Ball will always fail, namely when you're trying to catch other trainers Pokémon. There are also some others, such as in BW2, before you battle against Ghetsis in Giant Chasm, you'll have to first fight against Kyurem which you're unable to catch, even with Master Ball, due to Ghetsis' device.