Does alerting an Aniimo reduce capture rate?

The penalty applies once a wild Aniimo notices you and turns to fight, so the best catch is one it never sees coming. You can catch wild Aniimo without battling them at all by sneaking up. Staying undetected raises your chance of success, and coming at it from behind raises it again, whether the creature is awake or asleep. A pod thrown from behind also gets the back attack bonus, which greatly increases the catch rate.

Sleeping Aniimo are the easiest case. You can walk up to one and catch it before it wakes, and the capture is much easier than against an alert target. Aim before you commit: the capture UI shows the exact catch chance before you throw, and anything under 100% can still fail after the pod shakes.

Keeping it from noticing you

Thrown decoys such as duckies attract and distract nearby Aniimo, which pulls their attention off you while you get behind them. You can also set traps in the terrain along a wild Aniimo's path to make the capture more likely. Both help most with targets you would rather not fight.

If it has already spotted you

Once you are spotted, combat is how you win the odds back. Lowering its HP, stunning it or filling its break gauge all raise the capture rate. A break opens a vulnerability window that pushes the chance above 90 percent, high enough to guarantee a catch even with basic Aniipods. Stun windows are another good moment to throw.

For the hardest targets, a higher tier Aniipod carries a higher base success rate. Specialised models such as Aniipod Track and Tumbler give up some catch power in exchange for utility effects.

Not settled: How large the alert penalty is has not been settled, and neither has whether a sleeping Aniimo is always a certain catch: the displayed chance sometimes reaches 100% and sometimes stops short. The percentage shown when you aim is the figure to trust.