Capturing

In the Disgaea series, it is possible to capture enemy units. This is useful for increasing the power of the player's army.

How it Works
To capture enemies one must simply throw them into the Base Panel. This will cause the enemy to start fighting the units that are still inside. If the enemy wins the fight, the Base Panel will be destroyed, preventing the dispatching of more units or returning units to it. This can be a serious drawback if the player has not deployed enough troops for this, as if they are exterminated and the Base Panel destroyed the game is over. If the enemy loses, then they'll be captured.

Prior to Disgaea 4, captured enemies would simply become ally units (though unusable in the same battle since were just killed). From Disgaea 4 onwards, captured enemies are sent to the Interrogation Room first, where they can be extorted for various rewards, including turning into an ally unit like in previous games.

While in most games capturing is available by default, in Disgaea 4 it can only be done by allies in the Discipline Room Evil Symbol, while in Disgaea 5 it can only be done once the Interrogation Room has been unlocked (during Episode 3).

It's crucial to note that only units of classes and tiers that the player has unlocked for creation can be captured, and attempting to capture locked ones will always result in destruction of the Base Panel.

Capture Squad
Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance has another method of capturing in the form of the Capture Squad. Members of this Squad get access to the Capture Skills, which will attempt to capture enemies hit. While the skills don't actually deal any damage, they will still do a damage calculation as if they were an attack. If the result of that calculation is a lethal hit then the capture will be successful, otherwise nothing will happen to the enemy.

While only one of the skills is available by default, raising the level of the Squad unlocks more and increases their base power.