In the land of Fiore, you capture pokemon with the help of a device known as the Capture Styler (together with the Capture Disc) instead of Pokéballs. The Styler has an HP bar, shown at the top of the screen, and you will have to start from your previous save point again if it gets reduced to zero.
When you enter a battle screen, the pokemon under capture will be running around on the screen, and occasionally off screen. What you need to do is draw circles with your touch pen around it. Each pokemon will have a set number of circles required to be drawn before it is captured, and it is indicated by the number appearing above its head after you complete the first circle. With each successful circle you make, the number will decrease by 1, and when it is reduced to 0, lift your pen and an 'OK!' sign will appear that indicates success.
However, things get difficult when the pokemon starts moving around, because every time it collides with your capture line, the line will break, and you will have to start over again with the circle drawing. Later, pokemon will start attacking, and it is important not to get caught up in the attacks because it will lower the HP of your Capture Styler. With the exception of some pokemon like Steelix, simply colliding with the pokemon will not cause an HP drop, but being hit by an attack certainly will.
As you progress in the game, the difficulty in capturing certain pokemon increases, and it is when Pokemon Assist comes in handy. There are 15 types of Pokemon Assistance, and some are only made available when your Ranger Rank increases. One important type of assistance is from your partner pokemon Plusle/Minun, which paralyzes the pokemon under capture. The duration depends on the energy cages indicated below your Styler's HP, starting at 1 and increases to a maximum of 5 as your Ranger Rank increases. Drawing successful circles around pokemon recharges this energy cage.
Everytime you successfully captures a pokemon, you will earn a certain amount of experience points, which will increase the level of your Styler. Levelling up of the Styler increases its HP, and more important, the total length of the line you can draw. You see, there is a fixed length of capture line your Styler can draw, and it determines how big a circle you can draw around a pokemon.
Let's say a Chikorita requires 3 circles to capture. The total sum of the circumference of the 3 circles must not exceed the total length of your Styler, otherwise, the number on top of that pokemon's head will not decrease and you cannot capture it. When your total line length is short, you must draw circles very close to Chikorita to minimize the circumference, but when your total line length gets longer and longer, you may draw bigger and bigger circles around Chikorita because you can afford to have 3 circles with bigger circumference. Obviously, this makes capturing easier as the pokemon will be less likely to collide with your capture line.
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