Catching Pokémon

Catching Pokémon is a one of currently two methods of obtaining Pokémon, the other one is hatching Pokémon Eggs.

Pokémon can be caught in various situations including: finding it in the wild, luring it with either Incense or Lure Module or encountering it via Raid Battle Bonus Challenge or as a reward for completed Research tasks - in case of the two last ones, encounters don't involve seeing Pokémon in the Map View.

Pokémon in the wild
Obtaining Pokémon in the wild involves two processes:
 * tracking it down, in the Map View
 * and then catching it in a Poké Ball, in the Encounter Screen.

There are few kinds of spots in which Pokémon can appear:
 * natural spawn points - they are random spots in the real world, mostly next to the roads and paths seen in the Map View. Such spots can be clearly seen in Ingress, as spots of Exotic Matter share the same geographic points in the real world.
 * Pokémon spawning in these spots can be seen as Sightings in Tracker view, if there are no Pokémon Nearby the PokéStops.
 * spawn points nearby PokéStops - these are spots in vicinity of selected PokéStops, as not all of the PokéStops has regular spawn points of Pokémon.
 * Pokémon spawning in these spots can be seen as Nearby in Tracker view.
 * Pokémon Nests - these are areas in specific geographical locations, where an increased number of the same species of Pokémon appear for a short duration, they can be both natural, wild spawn points and spawn points nearby PokéStops.
 * spawn points around PokéStops with activated Lure Module - these are temporal spawn points for Pokémon lured with Lure Module, their location is in PokéStop's vicinity but lured Pokémon do not appear in Nearby section of Tracker.
 * spawn points around Trainer with activated Incense - these are temporal spawn points for Pokémon lured with Incense, their location is in Trainer's vicinity and lured Pokémon, not only, do not appear in Nearby section of Tracker View but also they're only accessible for Incense's user - therefore other trainers cannot catch Pokémon lured with Incense of one player.

Encounter screen
Once a found Pokémon appears in the Map View, player can tap on it, which will lead to the encounter screen.

Encounter screen is game mechanism that allows player to catch the Pokémon with currently owned Poké Balls.

The same encounter screen is used for catching wild Pokémon, Pokémon lured with Lure Module or Incense and Pokémon encountered in Raid Battle Bonus Challenge.

Bonus Challenge encounter screen
Encounter screen of Raid Battle Bonus Challenge differs from regular encounter screen with only lack of option for selecting owned Poké Balls as in Bonus Challenge, Trainer uses Premier Balls rewarded for performance in battle with Raid Boss.

Special Research encounter screen
As announced by game creators encounter screen for Pokémon rewarded from Special Research Tasks or just for Mythical Pokémon, will be different from regular encounter screen.

Augmented reality
There is an option for using Augmented Reality (AR for short) and Augmented Reality Plus (AR+ for short) in encounter screen, that allows for viewing and catching encountered Pokémon with the background from real-world environment.

Moreover, using AR+ gives opportunity for more complex catching Pokémon, that involves sneaking and Expert Handle bonus.

Color of the target ring
The Capture Rate of a Pokémon can be identified by the color of the target ring seen in front of the Pokémon in the encounter screen.

Capture rate
Capture rate of Pokémon is basically the chance for successful capture of encountered Pokémon.

The capture rate factors in the CP and base capture rate of the Pokémon along with the type of Poké Ball used and any multipliers that are applied, for example: throw style bonus or used berries.
 * $$CR ~ = ~ \frac{BCR ~ \times ~ BF ~ \times ~ M}{2 \times CpM}$$

Variables
 * CR - Capture Rate
 * BCR - Base Capture Rate
 * CpM - CP Multiplier
 * BF - Ball Factor (described below)
 * M - Multipliers (product of all multipliers; described below)

Variables
The following variables and multipliers are used in calculating the Capture Rate of a Pokémon.

Flee rate
Flee rate of Pokémon is basically the chance for complete escape of Pokémon from Trainer after breaking out of the Poké Ball.