Status Ailments

NOTE: Whenever this section speaks of 'rounding down', it always applies that if rounding down would make the result zero, it is made one instead. I have not bothered to mention this every time it appears, so just be aware of it as you read.

The Pokémon games have since the days of Red, Blue and Yellow included a number of status ailments, also known as status conditions, status effects, status problems, status afflictions or just statuses. These are special ailments that can affect Pokémon temporarily to hinder them in various ways for a number of turns after they have been inflicted. The mechanics behind these effects can be quite complex and are often misreported.

Fundamentally, status ailments are split into two types, "major" and "minor". Major status ailments are shown near your Pokémon's HP bar in battle and remain persistent until the Pokémon is cured, whether by items, a trip to the Pokémon Center, or some other effect which cures the status ailment. A Pokémon can only be afflicted with one major status ailment at a time, making it normally immune to all others for as long as the current effect lasts. Minor status ailments, however, are invisible, disappear as soon as you switch the Pokémon in question out of battle, and they will stack freely on top of one another. It is somewhat nebulous what actually "counts" as a minor status ailment as opposed to just an unusual move effect, but I will cover the most common ones.

Major Status Ailments

The major status ailments are sleep (SLP), poisoning (PSN), paralysis (PAR), burns (BRN) and freezing (FRZ). Poisoning also has a more sinister variant, "bad poisoning". These have been the major statuses since the first games and it is unlikely the series will introduce more of them.

The following applies to all major status ailments:

Moves

The move Safeguard will prevent major status ailments from being inflicted upon Pokémon in the user's team for the next five turns.
The move Misty Terrain will prevent major status ailments from being inflicted upon Pokémon on the ground for five turns.
The moves Heal Bell and Aromatherapy will heal all status conditions of Pokémon in the user's party. (Prior to Black and White, Pokémon with the Soundproof ability are immune to Heal Bell and are not healed by it.)
If a Pokémon uses the move Lunar Dance or Healing Wish, it will faint and the next Pokémon sent out will be fully healed, including all status conditions.
The move Psycho Shift will cause the user's major status ailment, if any, to be transferred onto the target instead, provided the target does not already have a major status ailment.
The move Rest will put the user to sleep, eliminating any previous major status ailments as well as confusion.
In Red, Blue and Yellow, using the move Haze will cure any major status ailment the opponent has (but not the user).
The moves Hex and Infernal Parade deal double damage to a Pokémon afflicted by any major status ailment.
The move Purify will cure a major status ailment from the target as well as healing the user by 50% of its maximum HP.
The moves Jungle Healing and Lunar Blessing will cure all major status ailments from the user and its allies as well as healing them by 25% of their maximum HP.
The Max Move G-Max Sweetness heals the user and its active allies of all major status ailments.

Abilities

A Pokémon with the ability Natural Cure will be healed of all major status ailments whenever it leaves battle.
A Pokémon with the ability Shed Skin will at the end of every turn have a 1/3 chance of being cured of any major status ailments it has (in the fourth generation only, the chance was 30%). In a similar vein, a Pokémon with the ability Hydration will at the end of every turn be cured of all major status ailments if it is raining.
A Pokémon with the ability Leaf Guard cannot have major status ailments inflicted on it during the effects of Sunny Day. It will not be cured of previous status ailments when the ability activates. Prior to the fifth generation, this ability would not prevent self-induced status ailments, such as sleep from Rest.
When afflicted with a major status condition, a Pokémon with the ability Guts has its Attack increased by 50%, a Pokémon with the ability Marvel Scale has its Defense increased by 50%, and a Pokémon with the ability Quick Feet has its Speed increased by 50%.
A Pokémon with the ability Healer has a 30% chance of curing each adjacent ally in a double or triple battle from any major status ailments at the end of every turn.
A Minior with the ability Shields Down is immune to major status ailments while in Meteor Form.
A Pokémon with the ability Purifying Salt cannot have major status ailments inflicted on it.

Items

Any major status ailment can be cured in and outside of battle with a Full Heal, Full Restore, Heal Powder, Lava Cookie, Old Gateau or Casteliacone.
In G/S/C, the Miracleberry will cure any status ailment, while in Advance onwards, it is the Lum Berry.

Sleep

When a Pokémon falls asleep, it will be unable to attack for 1-3 turns. (In the third and fourth generations, sleep could last 1-4 turns; in the second generation, it could last 1-6 turns; and in the first generation, it could last 1-7 turns, though both Pokémon Stadium games and the Crystal Battle Tower changed it to last 1-3 turns.) When it is put to sleep, a number (the "sleep counter") between two and four is randomly generated, representing the number of turns it will sleep plus one. At the beginning of a sleeping Pokémon's turn, the sleep counter will be decremented by one; then, if it is zero, it will wake up and use its selected move as normal, but otherwise, a "[Pokémon's name] is fast asleep" message is displayed (unless the Pokémon used one of the special moves Sleep Talk or Snore, which can be used while asleep).

In the fifth generation, switching the Pokémon out and back in again will reset the sleep counter to whatever it was when the Pokémon first fell asleep. In the third and fourth generations as well as the sixth and seventh, the counter is frozen when the Pokémon is switched out, so that if it had one turn remaining when it was switched out it would still have one turn remaining when it was switched in again; however, in the third generation, using Snore or Sleep Talk before switching a sleeping Pokémon out could mess with the counter. In the first and second generations, the counter was simply re-randomized when a Pokémon was sent into battle.

If the Pokémon fell asleep by using Rest, the sleep counter always starts at three (i.e. the Pokémon will sleep for two turns).

In Red, Blue and Yellow, the sleep counter would range from 1-7, but the Pokémon would spend the turn when the counter is decremented to zero waking up, instead of being able to attack on that turn; hence, functionally the Pokémon would be unable to move for 1-7 turns, but the opponent would know it woke up before choosing their move on the next turn.

Moves

The moves Spore (100% accurate), Sleep Powder (75% accurate), Lovely Kiss (75% accurate), Hypnosis (60% accurate except in Diamond and Pearl where it is 70%), Sing (55% accurate), Grasswhistle (55% accurate) and Dark Void (50% accurate; was 80% prior to Gen VII) induce sleep as a primary effect.
The move Yawn (cannot miss) causes the target to fall asleep as a primary effect at the end of the turn after Yawn is used.
The move Rest (cannot miss) puts the user to sleep for two turns while removing all damage that has been done to it, as well as all major status ailments and confusion, as a primary effect.
The moves Relic Song (10%), Wicked Torque (10%) and Dire Claw (50% chance of either poisoning, paralysis or sleep) have the indicated chances of putting the target to sleep as a secondary effect.
The Max Move G-Max Snooze inflicts damage on all opponents and has a 50% chance of causing each of them to fall asleep at the end of the turn after it is used as a primary effect (same as Yawn).
The Max Move G-Max Befuddle inflicts either poisoning, paralysis or sleep on every opponent as a secondary effect.
The move Secret Power, when used in a tall grass environment (as well as regular grass prior to the fifth generation and the Waterfall and Sunny Park colosseums in Pokémon Battle Revolution), has a 30% chance of putting the target to sleep as a secondary effect.
The moves Dream Eater and Nightmare have the peculiarity of only working while the target is asleep, while Snore and Sleep Talk only work while the user is asleep. If the target of the move Wake-Up Slap is asleep, the move does double damage and the target wakes up.
When the move Uproar is used, it causes an effect lasting for three turns (prior to the fifth generation, it could last anywhere from 2-5 turns) which prevents all Pokémon in the field from falling asleep and forces the user of Uproar to continue using it.
The move Worry Seed causes the target to acquire the ability Insomnia, which (as described below) prevents sleep.
The move Electric Terrain will prevent Pokémon on the ground from falling asleep for five turns.

Abilities

The ability Effect Spore causes any Pokémon that uses a move that makes physical contact against this Pokémon to have a 30% chance of either falling asleep, being paralyzed or poisoned.
The abilities Insomnia and Vital Spirit prevent the Pokémon from sleeping and will cause a Pokémon that acquires the ability while asleep to wake up. This includes self-induced sleep from Rest and thus causes the move to fail entirely.
The ability Sweet Veil causes all friendly Pokémon to be immune to sleep, including Rest, but will not wake up a Pokémon that is already asleep when the ability comes into play.
The ability Early Bird causes two to be subtracted from the sleep counter every turn rather than one.
The ability Bad Dreams, exclusive to Darkrai, causes opposing Pokémon to lose 1/16 of their HP every turn while they are asleep. This is independent of the Nightmare status condition.
The ability Comatose, exclusive to Komala, causes the bearer to act as if it were asleep, without actually inflicting the status: it cannot be afflicted with any other status, Wake-Up Slap will do double damage against it, and so on.

Items

The item Awakening can be used in or out of battle to wake up a sleeping Pokémon.
In R/B/Y and FR/LG, the Poké Flute could be used repeatedly in battle to wake up all sleeping Pokémon. In Advance onwards, the Blue Flute works similarly, but is used on one specific Pokémon, rather than waking up every sleeping Pokémon in the battle.
In G/S/C, the berry used to cure sleep was the Mint Berry. In the Advance games onwards, it is the Chesto Berry.

Types

Grass and Bug Pokémon have somewhat more of a tendency to learn sleep-inducing moves than others, and many Psychic Pokémon can learn Hypnosis, but sleep has no solid association with any particular type.

Other Notes

Sleep is the only status ailment it has ever been possible to find a wild Pokémon already afflicted with at the beginning of a battle. This happens when you Headbutt trees in G/S/C: nocturnal Pokémon such as Hoothoot will be sleeping if you Headbutt them out of a tree in the day, and diurnal Pokémon such as Caterpie will be sleeping if you Headbutt them out of a tree in the night. Sadly, they did not reintroduce this in HG/SS.

In Colosseum and XD's story modes, Pokémon can be woken from sleep by calling out to them in battle - this is the fourth battle option in these games along with "Fight", "PKMN" and "Item".

Poisoning

When a Pokémon is poisoned in battle, it will lose 1/8 of its total HP (1/16 in Red, Blue and Yellow), rounded down, at the end of every turn. Pre-Advance, this effect took place immediately after the poisoned Pokémon attacked rather than at the end of the turn and would fail to happen if the poisoned Pokémon had knocked out the opponent on that turn. It does not wear off naturally.

When a Pokémon is badly poisoned in battle, a variable T is set to 0. At the end of every turn (or, pre-Advance, after the poisoned Pokémon attacks), T is incremented by one and the Pokémon loses HP equal to 1/16 of its total HP, rounded down, multiplied by T. T has a maximum value of 15 from the third generation onwards and is reset to 0 whenever a badly poisoned Pokémon is sent out in battle.

Bad poisoning always reverts to ordinary poisoning outside of battle. Pre-Advance, bad poisoning also reverted to ordinary poisoning when the badly poisoned Pokémon switched out; on the other hand, if a badly poisoned Pokémon used Baton Pass, the T counter would be passed on and continue to increase if the replacement was poisoned, making it effectively badly poisoned even if it was only ever normally poisoned before.

Outside of battle, prior to Black and White, a poisoned Pokémon will lose one HP every four steps that the player walks. The screen becomes pixelated or blacked out for a moment with a special sound effect when this happens. In the fourth generation, the Pokémon will be automatically cured of its poisoning when it would otherwise have lost its last HP, so that it cannot faint outside of battle.

Moves

The moves Poison Gas (90% accurate; was 55% before Black and White) and Poisonpowder (75% accurate) induce poisoning as a primary effect. The move Toxic (90% accurate; was 85% before Black and White; never misses when used by a Poison-type as of X/Y) induces bad poisoning as a primary effect.
The move Toxic Thread (100% accurate) poisons the target and lowers its Speed by one stage as a primary effect.
The moves Barb Barrage (50%), Smog (40%), Poison Sting (30%), Sludge (30%), Sludge Bomb (30%), Poison Jab (30%), Gunk Shot (30%), Noxious Torque (30%), Twineedle (20%), Shell Side Arm (20%), Poison Tail (10%), Cross Poison (10%) and Sludge Wave (10%) and Dire Claw (50% chance of either poisoning, paralysis or sleep) have the indicated chances of inducing poisoning as a secondary effect. The moves Poison Fang (30%) and Malignant Chain (50%) have the indicated chances of inducing bad poisoning as a secondary effect.
The Max Move G-Max Malodor inflicts poisoning on every opponent as a secondary effect.
The Max Move G-Max Stun Shock inflicts either poisoning or paralysis on every opponent as a secondary effect.
The Max Move G-Max Befuddle inflicts either poisoning, paralysis or sleep on every opponent as a secondary effect.
If the move Toxic Spikes has been used once by the opponent, any non-Flying/levitating Pokémon you send into battle will be poisoned if it is not afflicted by a major status condition already. If Toxic Spikes has been used twice by the opponent, any non-Flying/levitating Pokémon you send into battle are badly poisoned if not already afflicted by a major status condition. If you send out a Poison-type Pokémon, it will absorb the Toxic Spikes.
The move Baneful Bunker protects the user from attacks on this turn and additionally poisons any Pokémon that attempts to hit the user with a move that makes physical contact during the turn.
The move Facade is doubled in power when the user is poisoned.
The moves Venoshock and Barb Barrage are doubled in power if the target is poisoned.
The move Venom Drench lowers the target's Attack, Special Attack and Speed if it is poisoned.
The move Refresh heals the user of poisoning.
The move Fling can poison the target if the user is holding a Poison Barb or Black Sludge. If the user is holding a Toxic Orb, the target will be badly poisoned.

Abilities

The ability Immunity prevents a Pokémon from being poisoned (and will cause a Pokémon that acquires the ability while poisoned to be cured, though if it later loses the ability again the poisoning will return).
The ability Poison Point causes any Pokémon that uses a move that makes physical contact against this Pokémon to have a 30% chance of being poisoned.
The ability Effect Spore causes any Pokémon that uses a move that makes physical contact against this Pokémon to have a 30% chance of either falling asleep, being paralyzed or poisoned.
The ability Poison Touch causes any physical contact moves used by this Pokémon to have an additional 30% chance of poisoning the target.
The ability Toxic Chain causes any move used by this Pokémon to have an additional 30% chance of badly poisoning the target.
When a Pokémon with the ability Synchronize is poisoned directly by a move, the Pokémon that used the move is also poisoned. If the Pokémon with Synchronize is badly poisoned, the Pokémon that used the move is only poisoned normally prior to Black and White.
When a Pokémon with the ability Poison Heal is poisoned, it recovers 1/8 of its HP every turn instead of losing it. The T counter does not affect this; the recovery is the same whether the poisoning is bad or normal.
When a Pokémon with the ability Toxic Boost is poisoned, its Attack is increased by 50%.
When a Pokémon with the ability Merciless attacks a poisoned target, its moves will always critical hit.
When a Pokémon has the ability Corrosion uses a move that causes poisoning, it can successfully poison Steel- and Poison-types as an effect of its moves.

Items

Poisoning can be cured in and outside of battle with an Antidote.
In G/S/C, poisoning could be healed with a Psncureberry. The post-Advance equivalent is the Pecha Berry.
When a Pokémon holds a Toxic Orb, it becomes badly poisoned at the end of each turn if it is not already afflicted with a status ailment.

Types

Any Poison-type Pokémon cannot be poisoned, except by a Pokémon with the Corrosion ability. The poisoning status ailment is understandably highly associated with the Poison-type; only one move of another type (Twineedle) is able to inflict it. Steel-type Pokémon, which are immune to Poison-type moves, are also wholly immune to being poisoned, except by Pokémon with the Corrosion ability, as of the third generation.

Paralysis

When a Pokémon is paralyzed, its Speed is cut to half of its normal value (1/4 prior to the seventh generation), and every turn, it will have a 25% chance of being "fully paralyzed", which prevents it from making a move.

In Gold, Silver and Crystal, if a paralyzed Pokémon Baton Passed to another paralyzed Pokémon, the second one would not have its Speed reduced until a move which caused its Speed to be recalculated was used. Under the same circumstances in Pokémon Stadium 2, the new Pokémon's Speed is reduced if the last Speed-modifying attack used was one that raised Speed, but otherwise, using further Speed-modifying moves won't take the paralysis into account.

In Red, Blue and Yellow, the extremely buggy implementation of stat modification results in a number of strange ways that the Speed drop from paralysis interacts with other stat modifications. For more information, see the R/B/Y Stat Modification section.

Moves

The moves Thunder Wave (90% accurate; was 100% before Gen VII), Glare (90% accurate) and Stun Spore (75% accurate) induce paralysis as a primary effect.
The moves Nuzzle (100%), Zap Cannon (100%), Body Slam (30%), Bounce (30%), Discharge (30%), Dragonbreath (30%), Force Palm (30%), Freeze Shock (30%), Lick (30%), Spark (30%), Thunder (30%), Combat Torque (30%), Bolt Strike (20%), Wildbolt Storm (20%), Thunder Fang (10%), Thunderbolt (10%), Thunderpunch (10%), Thundershock (10%), Volt Tackle (10%), Dire Claw (50% chance of either poisoning, paralysis or sleep) and Tri Attack (20% chance of either burn, paralysis or freezing in the second generation onwards) have the indicated chances of inducing paralysis as a secondary effect.
The Z-move Stoked Sparksurfer has a 100% chance of paralyzing the target as a secondary effect.
The Max Move G-Max Volt Crash inflicts paralysis on every opponent as a secondary effect.
The Max Move G-Max Stun Shock inflicts either poisoning or paralysis on every opponent as a secondary effect.
The Max Move G-Max Befuddle inflicts either poisoning, paralysis or sleep on every opponent as a secondary effect.
The move Secret Power, when used in a building or in the Main Street, Neon and Courtyard Colosseums of Pokémon Battle Revolution, has a 30% chance of paralyzing the target as a secondary effect.
The move Facade is doubled in power when the user is paralyzed.
If the target of the move Smellingsalt is paralyzed, the move is doubled in power and the target cured of paralysis.
The move Refresh heals the user of paralysis.
The move Fling can paralyze the target if the user is holding a Light Ball.

Abilities

The ability Limber prevents a Pokémon from becoming paralyzed (and will cause a Pokémon that acquires the ability while paralyzed to be cured).
The ability Static causes any Pokémon that uses a move that makes physical contact against this Pokémon to have a 30% chance of being paralyzed.
The ability Effect Spore causes any Pokémon that uses a physical contact move on this Pokémon to have a 30% chance of falling asleep, being paralyzed or poisoned.
When a Pokémon with the ability Synchronize is paralyzed directly by a move, the Pokémon that used the move is also paralyzed.
When a Pokémon with the ability Quick Feet is paralyzed, the normal Speed drop from the paralysis is ignored, in addition to the 50% Speed boost granted by the ability for any major status ailment.

Items

In-game, paralysis is cured with a Parlyz Heal both in and out of battle.
In G/S/C, the Przcureberry healed paralysis. In Advance onwards, it is the Cheri Berry.

Types

Electric-type Pokémon are immune to paralysis as of the sixth generation, and the status condition is strongly associated with the type as nearly all damaging Electric-type moves may cause paralysis as a secondary effect and the Electric-exclusive Static ability causes paralysis upon contact. The status is nowhere near exclusive to Electric-types, however, being the most common major status ailment in the game.

In Red, Blue and Yellow, Pokémon could not be paralyzed as a secondary effect of a move if they had the same type as that move. Thus, Electric Pokémon could not be paralyzed by Electric-type moves, but they could be paralyzed by a Normal-type move like Body Slam, while Normal-type Pokémon couldn't.

Burns

When a Pokémon is burned, the damage it deals with physical attacks is halved, and at the end of every round, it loses 1/8 of its total HP (1/16 in Red, Blue and Yellow), rounded down. Pre-Advance, this effect took place immediately after the burned Pokémon attacked every turn and would not happen if the burned Pokémon had just knocked out the opponent.

In Red, Blue and Yellow, the extremely buggy implementation of stat modification results in a number of strange ways that the Attack drop from burns interacts with other stat modifications. For more information, see the R/B/Y Stat Modification section.

In Pokémon Stadium, a Pokémon would not be subjected to burn damage on the turn it switched in if it was already burned.

Moves

The move Will-O-Wisp (85% accurate; was 75% prior to the sixth generation) induces burns as a primary effect.
The moves Inferno (100%), Sacred Fire (50%), Ice Burn (30%), Lava Plume (30%), Scald (30%), Searing Shot (30%), Scorching Sands (30%), Infernal Parade (30%), Blazing Torque (30%), Blue Flare (20%), Sandsear Storm (20%), Matcha Gotcha (20%), Blaze Kick (10%), Ember (10%), Fire Blast (10%), Fire Fang (10%), Fire Punch (10%), Flame Wheel (10%), Flamethrower (10%), Flare Blitz (10%), Heat Wave (10%), Pyro Ball (10%), and Tri Attack (20% chance of either burn, paralysis or freezing in the second generation onwards) have the indicated chances of inducing a burn as a secondary effect.
The move Beak Blast has a charging turn, during which any Pokémon that makes contact with the user will be burned.
The move Facade is doubled in power when the user is burned and additionally ignores the Attack drop from the burn.
The move Refresh heals the user of burning.
The move Sparkling Aria, if used on a burned Pokémon, will cure its burn.
The move Fling can inflict a burn if the user is holding a Flame Orb.
The move Burning Jealousy will deal damage and burn any opponent whose stats increased on that turn.
The move Burning Bulwark protects the user from attacks on this turn and additionally burns any Pokémon that attempts to hit the user with a move that makes physical contact during the turn.

Abilities

The abilities Water Veil, Water Bubble and Thermal Exchange make the Pokémon immune to being burned (and will cause a Pokémon that acquires the ability while burned to be cured).
The ability Flame Body causes any Pokémon that uses a move that makes physical contact against this Pokémon to have a 30% chance of being burned.
When a Pokémon with the ability Synchronize is burned directly by a move, the Pokémon that used the move is also burned.
When a Pokémon with the ability Guts is burned, the normal Attack drop from the burn is ignored, in addition to the 50% Attack boost granted by the ability for any major status ailment.
When a Pokémon with the ability Flare Boost is burned, its Special Attack is increased by 50%.
When a Pokémon the ability Heatproof is burned, it only takes 1/16 of its total HP in burn damage every turn instead of 1/8.

Items

In-game, burns are cured with a Burn Heal both in and out of battle.
G/S/C's burn-healing berry was the Ice Berry. In Advance onwards, it is the Rawst Berry.
When a Pokémon holds a Flame Orb, it is burned at the end of each turn if it does not already have a major status ailment.

Types

Burns are, naturally, associated with Fire-types: most damaging Fire attacks can cause a burn as a secondary effect, only a few non-Fire-type attacks can burn, and Fire-types themselves are immune to being burned, as well as the exclusively Fire-type Flame Body ability causing burns on contact.

In Red, Blue and Yellow, Pokémon could not be burned as a secondary effect of a move if they had the same type as that move. In the case of burns, only Fire-type moves could induce burns, so in practice, this simply meant Fire-types could not be burned. In Gold, Silver and Crystal, Fire Pokémon similarly could not be burned by Fire-type moves, but they could be burned by Tri Attack.

Freezing

Freezing is the rarest major status ailment, being caused only as a 10% secondary effect by a few moves. When a Pokémon is frozen, it is unable to attack. In R/B/Y, a frozen Pokémon would be frozen indefinitely unless cured. However, G/S/C introduced a 25/256 (9.8%) chance for a frozen Pokémon to be naturally defrosted every time it attempts to make a move, and in the third generation this chance was boosted to 20%, which it has remained since.

Moves

There is no move that induces freezing as a primary effect.
The moves Blizzard, Ice Beam, Ice Fang, Ice Punch, Powder Snow and Freezing Glare each have a 10% chance of freezing the target as a secondary effect. (Blizzard's freezing chance was 30% in the Japanese versions of the first-generation games, but presumably this was considered too broken, so it was changed in the overseas release.) The move Tri Attack has a 20% chance of either burning, paralyzing or freezing the target as a secondary effect in the second generation onwards.
If a frozen Pokémon uses Flame Wheel, Flare Blitz, Fusion Flare, Sacred Fire, Scald, Pyro Ball or Scorching Sands, it will be automatically defrosted on that turn.
If a frozen Pokémon is hit with the move Tri Attack in the second generation, Scald in the sixth generation onwards, or Scorching Sands or Matcha Gotcha, it will be defrosted.
During the effects of Sunny Day, no Pokémon can be frozen.

Abilities

The ability Magma Armor makes the Pokémon immune to being frozen.
The abilities Drought and Desolate Land cause sunny weather, during which no Pokémon can be frozen.

Items

Freezing is cured with an Ice Heal in and out of battle.
G/S/C's berry to cure freezing was the Burnt Berry. The Advance-onwards berry is the Aspear Berry.

Types

Freezing is of course associated with Ice-types, freezing being exclusively a side-effect of most Ice moves plus Tri Attack. Ice-types are immune to being frozen.

In Red, Blue and Yellow, Pokémon could not be frozen as a secondary effect of a move if they had the same type as that move. Since only Ice-type moves could freeze, in practice, this simply meant Ice-types were immune to the condition. In Gold, Silver and Crystal, Ice-types were similarly immune to being frozen by Ice-type moves, but Tri Attack could freeze them.

Whenever a frozen Pokémon is hit by a damaging Fire-type attack, it is automatically defrosted. In the first two generations, this effect was tied specifically to moves capable of inflicting burns. In G/S/C, this includes a 1/3 chance for Tri Attack to defrost a frozen opponent.

Minor status ailments

The most common and noteworthy minor status ailment is confusion. Flinching is also well-known. Otherwise, however, they are a disparate, nebulously defined bunch and many of the choices I made for what to include and what not to were rather arbitrary.

Confusion

When a Pokémon becomes confused, a random confusion counter between two and five is generated, representing the number of turns the confusion will last plus one. At the beginning of the confused Pokémon's turn, this number is decreased by one; if it is now zero, the Pokémon snaps out of confusion, but otherwise it has a 33% chance of attacking itself (50% prior to the seventh generation) with a typeless 40 base damage physical attack which cannot be a critical hit and ignores the effects of Reflect and Helping Hand but otherwise follows the ordinary damage formula, with the same Pokémon as both attacker and defender. The confusion counter is not decremented if the Pokémon does not actually attempt to make an attack, such as if it is asleep, frozen or flinched this turn, if it is recharging after Hyper Beam or a similar attack, or if the game is R/B/Y and the Pokémon is currently trapped by Wrap, Fire Spin, Clamp or Bind.

Moves

The move Misty Terrain will prevent confusion from being inflicted upon Pokémon on the ground for five turns.
The moves Confuse Ray (100% accurate), Flatter (100% accurate), Teeter Dance, Swagger (85% accurate; was 90% prior to the seventh generation), Sweet Kiss (75% accurate) and Supersonic (55% accurate) inflict confusion as a primary effect. Swagger, notably, raises the target's Attack by two stages at the same time, which causes it to inflict twice as much confusion damage to itself; Flatter raises Special Attack by one stage, but as confusion damage is physical, this does not actually help the user's cause.
The moves Dynamicpunch (100%), Chatter (1%, 11% or 31% in the fourth generation, depending on the recorded sound; either 0% or 10% depending on the recorded sound in the fifth generation; 100% in the sixth generation onwards), Hurricane (30%), Axe Kick (30%), Magical Torque (30%), Dizzy Punch (20%), Rock Climb (20%), Water Pulse (20%), Strange Steam (20%), Confusion (10%), Psybeam (10%) and Signal Beam (10%) have the indicated chances of inducing confusion as a secondary effect.
The Max Move G-Max Gold Rush inflicts confusion on the target as a secondary effect.
The Max Move G-Max Smite inflicts confusion on all opponents as a secondary effect.
The moves Thrash, Petal Dance and Outrage cause the user to attack blindly for two or three turns and become confused afterwards.
The move Safeguard will prevent confusion from being inflicted upon Pokémon in the user's team for the next five turns.

Abilities

The Own Tempo ability makes the Pokémon immune to confusion (and will cause a Pokémon that acquires the ability while confused to be cured).
The Tangled Feet ability causes the Pokémon's evasion to rise when confused (more specifically, the accuracy of moves targeting it is halved).

Items

Confusion can be cured in battle with a Full Heal, Full Restore, Heal Powder, Lava Cookie, Old Gateau or Casteliacone, but does not have its own designated healing item.
G/S/C added the Bitter Berry to cure confusion, and in Advance onwards its role has been taken over by the Persim Berry.
The Yellow Flute introduced in Ruby and Sapphire snaps a Pokémon out of confusion in battle and is reusable.
A number of berries in Advance onwards restore 1/8 of the Pokémon's total HP in a pinch (when the current HP is below half of the total) but also confuse any Pokémon that dislikes their primary taste according to its nature. These are the Figy Berry (Spicy), Wiki Berry (Dry), Mago Berry (Sweet), Aguav Berry (Bitter) and Iapapa Berry (Sour).
G/S/C's Berserk Gene item raised a Pokémon's Attack by two stages (doubled it) and gave the Pokémon a confusion counter of 255 when sent out in battle, effectively making it permanently confused. In Stadium 2, the Berserk Gene would only generate ordinary confusion, with the confusion counter being a random number between two and five as usual.

Types

Confusion is vaguely associated with Psychic Pokémon since the move "Confusion" is a Psychic move and it and Psybeam have a 10% chance of inflicting confusion, but this connection is very loose. No types are immune to confusion.

Flinching

In order to make a Pokémon flinch, the attacker has to strike first and hit a target with a move that can induce flinching. If the target flinches, it will not execute its chosen attack on that turn, but suffers no subsequent ill effects.

Moves

Flinching is a secondary effect of a large number of moves, namely Fake Out (100%), Air Slash (30%), Astonish (30%), Bite (30%), Headbutt (30%), Heart Stamp (30%), Icicle Crash (30%), Iron Head (30%), Low Kick (30%, first two generations only), Needle Arm (30%), Rock Slide (30%), Rolling Kick (30%), Sky Attack (30%, Advance onwards only), Snore (30%), Steamroller (30%), Stomp (30%), Zing Zap (30%), Mountain Gale (30%), Triple Arrows (30%), Dark Pulse (20%), Dragon Rush (20%), Twister (20%), Waterfall (20%, fourth-generation onwards), Zen Headbutt (20%), Fiery Wrath (20%), Bone Club (10%), Extrasensory (10%), Fire Fang (10%), Hyper Fang (10%), Ice Fang (10%), Thunder Fang (10%). Fake Out is here special in the 100% flinch rate and the fact it has a priority of 1, meaning it goes before normal moves and will always manage to flinch the target unless it uses a high-priority move as well; however, obviously it has a catch, that being that it can only be used on the user's first turn after being switched in.
The move Fling can cause guaranteed flinching if the user is holding a King's Rock or a Razor Fang. Naturally, it can only be used once unless the item is recycled.

Abilities

The ability Inner Focus makes the Pokémon immune to flinching.
The ability Steadfast makes the Pokémon's Speed stat stage increase by one whenever it flinches.
In the fifth generation, the ability Stench grants all of the Pokémon's moves an extra 10% chance of flinching, provided it moves first.

Items

There are no items that cure flinching, as flinching only lasts one turn and can by definition not be predicted and healed beforehand.
The hold items King's Rock and Razor Fang cause most or all damaging attacks that do not already have a chance of inducing a flinch to have a 10% chance of doing so. (In the second and third generations, they only worked for moves without any secondary effects.) This does not stack with the Stench ability.

Types

Flinching has no association with any particular type, and no type is immune to flinching.

Seeding

When a Pokémon is seeded, 1/8 (1/16 in R/B/Y) of its total HP, rounded down, is drained from it at the end of every turn. The user of Leech Seed (or another Pokémon that has been switched in in its stead) then recovers the same number of hit points that the seeded Pokémon lost.

Pre-Advance, this effect took place immediately after the seeded Pokémon's turn and would not occur if the seeded Pokémon had just knocked out an opponent.

In Red, Blue and Yellow, the T counter of a badly poisoned Pokémon would also multiply the damage inflicted by seeding due to a glitch.

Moves

Seeding is only inflicted by one move, Leech Seed (90% accurate).

Abilities

If a Pokémon with the ability Liquid Ooze is seeded, the user of Leech Seed loses the same number of HP as the seeded Pokémon every turn rather than gaining them.

Items

The item Big Root, when attached to a Pokémon that has used Leech Seed or replaced a user of Leech Seed, will cause it to recover 30% more HP than the seeded Pokémon lost (rounded down) each turn.

Types

Grass-type Pokémon are immune to seeding, and Leech Seed is only learned by Grass-type Pokémon (though other Pokémon can of course benefit from it by being switched in to replace a Leech Seed user).

Infatuation

When a Pokémon is infatuated, it will have a 50% chance every turn of being "immobilized by love", causing it to be unable to attack that turn. This applies even if the target of the infatuated Pokémon's selected move is not the Pokémon that infatuated it.

It is only possible under any circumstances to infatuate a Pokémon of the opposite gender. Genderless Pokémon cannot infatuate any other Pokémon, nor can they be infatuated themselves. Zorua and Zoroark count as their true gender for the purposes of infatuation, even when they are currently impersonating another gender.

Infatuation lasts until the infatuated Pokémon is switched out or the Pokémon that infatuated it leaves the battle.

Moves

Infatuation is primarily inflicted by one move, Attract (100% accurate).
The Max Move G-Max Cuddle inflicts infatuation on all opponents of the opposite gender as a secondary effect.

Abilities

The ability Oblivious prevents the Pokémon from being infatuated.
The ability Cute Charm causes any Pokémon that uses a move that makes physical contact against this Pokémon to have a 30% chance of being infatuated, provided it is of the opposite gender.

Items

The item Destiny Knot, when held by a Pokémon, causes any Pokémon that infatuates it to automatically become infatuated with this Pokémon as well.
The item Mental Herb, when held by a Pokémon, will automatically be consumed if it becomes infatuated and cure the infatuation.
The item Red Flute will automatically cure a Pokémon of infatuation when used in battle and is reusable.

Types

No types have any particular association with infatuation, as the Attract TM is one of those that can be learned by almost any gendered Pokémon capable of learning TMs (all except Nincada, Larvesta and Volcarona, plus genderless Cryogonal and Mew), and the only Pokémon immune to it are genderless ones. However, players are likely to mentally associate it with the Normal-type because of Whitney, the Goldenrod City Gym leader from G/S/C who used Attract and gave the TM to the player after beating her, and the fact that the only Pokémon that naturally get the Cute Charm ability are Normal-types.

Curse

When a Pokémon is cursed, it loses 1/4 of its total HP, rounded down, at the end of every turn (or, in G/S/C, immediately after it attacks). This effect lasts until the Pokémon is switched out or faints.

Moves

Curse is inflicted only by the move Curse, but only when it is used by a Ghost-type Pokémon. It will curse the target at the cost of half of the user's HP, rounded down.

Abilities

No abilities are associated with this status ailment.

Items

No items are associated with this status ailment.

Types

As previously noted, only Ghost-type Pokémon can employ Curse to inflict this status ailment, as the move functions differently for other types. They are, however, not immune to having it inflicted on them.

Nightmare

When a sleeping Pokémon is given a nightmare, it loses 1/4 of its total HP, rounded down, at the end of every turn (or, in G/S/C, immediately after the affected Pokémon's turn). The effect lasts until the Pokémon wakes up or is switched out.

In the second-generation games, an AI-controlled Pokémon cured of sleep with a Full Heal or Full Restore will not be cured of the Nightmare status condition. In Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire (but not FireRed and LeafGreen or Emerald), a Pokémon cured of sleep by the Shed Skin ability would not be cured of Nightmare.

Moves

Nightmares are only inflicted by the move Nightmare. If Nightmare is used on a Pokémon that is not already asleep, the move fails.

Abilities

No abilities are associated with this status ailment.

Items

No items are associated with this status ailment.

Types

Nightmare is a move very related to the Ghost-type Curse, but most Pokémon associated with sleep moves of any sort could learn the G/S/C TM for it and no type is immune to it, so it does not have any real affiliations with any particular type.

Page last modified December 18 2023 at 20:29 UTC

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