Status conditions and volatile effects
The six lasting conditions, what each costs, and the effects that end when a Pokemon switches out.
In short
- A Pokemon can carry one status condition at a time: burn, paralysis, poison, bad poison, sleep or freeze.
- A status stays until it is cured, through the end of the battle and back to the Pokemon Centre.
- Volatile effects such as confusion, Leech Seed and Protect clear when the Pokemon switches out or the battle ends.
- Types and abilities block specific statuses, and the rule is the same whichever move tries.
The six conditions
| Status | While it lasts | Each turn | Ends |
|---|---|---|---|
| Burn | physical damage halved (not with Guts or Facade) | loses 1⁄16 of max HP | cure only |
| Paralysis | Speed halved (not with Quick Feet); fails to act 1 time in 4 | nothing | cure only |
| Poison | nothing | loses 1⁄8 of max HP | cure only |
| Bad poison | nothing | loses 1⁄16, then 2⁄16, then 3⁄16, rising each turn | cure only |
| Sleep | cannot act | nothing | after 1 to 3 turns |
| Freeze | cannot act | nothing | 1 in 5 chance each turn, or a Fire move |
Every residual loses at least 1 HP: a 12 HP Pokemon still loses a point to burn. Magic Guard cancels all of it. Poison Heal turns both poisons into healing of 1⁄8, and bad poison's counter keeps rising underneath so a cure mid-battle does not reset it.
A status carries out of the battle. A poisoned Pokemon is still poisoned on the next route and it starts the next fight that way. The Pokemon Centre clears statuses for free alongside the heal, and Lum Berry, Chesto Berry and the medicines in the Bag cure them on the spot.
What blocks a status
The same rule answers every route a status can arrive by, whether a status move, a secondary effect or Yawn:
- Fire types cannot be burned. Electric types cannot be paralysed. Poison and Steel types cannot be poisoned. Ice types cannot be frozen.
- Immunity, Comatose and Purifying Salt block everything. Limber blocks paralysis, Water Veil and Water Bubble burn, Insomnia and Vital Spirit sleep, Magma Armor freeze, Sweet Veil sleep for the whole side.
- Leaf Guard blocks every status in sun. Safeguard protects a side for five turns.
Volatile effects
These live on the active Pokemon and vanish when it leaves the field.
| Effect | What it does |
|---|---|
| Confusion | 2 to 5 turns; 1 time in 3 the Pokemon hits itself instead of moving |
| Flinch | loses this turn's action; only works on a Pokemon that has not moved yet |
| Leech Seed | loses 1⁄8 each turn, healed to the seeder |
| Protect, Detect | blocks this turn; chance falls with each consecutive use |
| Substitute | a decoy with a quarter of the user's HP takes hits until it breaks |
| Taunt | status moves locked for a few turns |
| Encore | locked into the last move used |
| Disable | one move locked |
| Trapped | Bind, Wrap, Fire Spin and the rest: chip damage and no switching |
| Focus Energy, Laser Focus | critical hits more likely, or certain, for the next hit |
| Yawn | falls asleep at the end of the next turn, unless something blocks sleep |
| Charging | the first turn of Fly, Dig, Solar Beam and the two-turn moves |
| Magnet Rise, Telekinesis | floating for five turns |
| Heal Block | no healing for five turns |
Stat stages work the same way: Swords Dance, Intimidate and the rest move a stat from -6 to +6 for as long as the Pokemon stays in. Baton Pass hands stages and a few volatiles to the replacement; every other switch drops them. The stats guide has the multipliers.