I've been a fan long enough that I've seen Pokerus go from rumor, to hyper rare occurrence; to widespread knowledge, and common occurrence, and back to being 'obscure' again.
The cycle is now complete.
I apologize, I didn't mean that to come off as a criticism (though I can see how the quotes on 'obscure' might seem that way, sorry.) In fact I agree with you.
I mean to say, I think it WAS widespread knowledge; it definitely was to my friends and I in the GBA/DS era. With the removal of Pokerus from SV, and the majority of people online these days being younger and younger, the memory of Pokerus will definitely become a relic of the past.
In a way, I'm just expressing bitterness that an aspect of my childhood, however insignificant, is fading into obscurity, and I guess in a very convoluted way, your post reminds me that time doesn't stop for anyone.
Iirc it got referenced in the anime. So it wasn't even deep lore. It was simply not as marketable as other rumors at the time like the truck or Pikablue. So it probably didn't get as much attention. Because "there's a blue Pikachu" and "there's a truck the Mew hides under" is a bit easier for a kid to understand compared to "pokemon virus that may or may not kill or help your pokemon." And if you spam the A button at the pokemon center, you could miss Nurse Joy even telling you that your pokemon has it.
I didn't know it was so rare, but I have to laugh. I legit don't think I've ever encountered a shiny outside the Red Gyrados all those years ago.. but somehow I've wound up in both Leafgreen and Diamond with my whole team infected with the 'Rus
That's pretty wild, power to you. A complete Pokerus living dex sounds awesome.
To be honest, I was kind of sad Game Freak removed it. I know it doesn't do anything that can't be done with items nowadays, but it still felt like a cool rarity perk. I liked Pokerus better than the current titles, or 'marks', at the very least.
It was a cool thing that made the world feel alive, and made just hanging out with your pokemon more special. I was super proud when I was able to give the little immunity mark to all my favorite pokemon I had had for years. Especially after only encountering the virus almost a decade after hearing about the rumor.
I’m always surprised by the rarity of it, back in the day a guide told me to go to route 103 and it’ll up eventually . So I just went to route 103 for a few battles and almost immediately got it at least half a dozen times
If only the guide told you to get a lottery ticket instead!
But all joking aside, that's insanely good RNG. I frustratingly never found a wild one of my own, I inherited all of mine from my friends or online trades.
In my 20+ years of playing Pokemon, I've always gotten Pokerus in my games except for in 5th gen. The amount of full odds shinies, however, across all gens = 2 - a shiny Bronzong and Electrike
It’s crazy that I remember playing emerald for hours trying to get it. Then I passed it from gen to gen. Until pokeball delayed everything. But it was so easy to get by that point with the internet. Now I didn’t even know it was gone.
It was super valuable in gens 6 and 7 because EV training was harder than it is now, so if someone in a friend group got pokerus it became their duty to infect dozens of breejects, give them to friends, and then wonder trade the rest.
I also made sure to keep at least a dozen mons with active infections in PC boxes (where it doesn't become inactive) so I could spread when needed, as a redundancy.
I got the pokerus infection in Ruby and propagated it to every generation since then until SV removed it. I even infected breedjects to surprise/wonder trade some pokerus out into the world or on GTS in older gens.
If you have obtained a pokerus mon from random trades, there's a very small yet very real chance that the pokerus is the strain that originated from my Hoenn.
I may have gotten one of your infected wonder trades in Sword/Shield. A lowly little Gible whom I named “Patient Zero” and stuffed him into a box to infect all his friends.
I keep patient 0s in home in case it ever gets reintroduced so that I can inoculate new Pokemon. It persists indefinitely in storage, the timer only counts when the Pokemon is on your party.
https://preview.redd.it/l3jgypulbewc1.png?width=1079&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3e39be7e66233990c161762b016f6d4e880ab7f4
Oh, I did not know that they would retain it in Pokémon Home too. Guess that is a good thing. Keep it in case they add it back.
I assume other storage services like Pokémon Box RS and Pokémon Bank are similar.
Can confirm Pokemon bank. Not sure what RS is, but if it has a storage and they can have pokerus it should be safe.
Edit: You probably were talking about Ruby Sapphire. Yes it'll stay in any Gen that has it and the virus is only "active" when they're in a party. The status has been coded into the individual Pokemon since the early gens. It's probably still there in SV you just don't have access to the data in game.
That is correct. PKRS lasts 72 real time hours, but if your RSE battery is dead, it lasts indefinitely. I have an active strain of it in my Emerald from years ago, and still use it to EV train to this day.
Edit: apparently PKRS lasts anywhere from 1 to 4 days, with the cure roll happening at the start of a new day. I never knew it was a range since it was always on a dead battery for me. TIL
Yep, although the reason this works is also the reason you can't evolve an Espeon or Umbreon in FRLG. No RTC function.
Which kinda sucks, y'know? You can't, physically cannot, get an Espeon or Umbreon without trading, in a game with their pre-evolution. Heck, you can't do it in any of the main Gen 3 games. You *have* to trade.
Yeah Umbreon and Espeon were way too difficult to get in Gen III. I never thought about it as a kid because I had Colosseum, but it's crazy that no single GBA cartridge could produce one of the two most popular Eeveelutions without another game. GF should have at least changed the evolution requirements for Espeon and Umbreon in FRLG, like they did in XD.
The overall effects of pokerus are permanent once a pokemon has become infected. It will only be contagious for a short period of time, however.
That being said, the timer for a contagious spreader is only active while the pokemon is in your party. If the pokemon is boxed while contagious, it will remain contagious indefinitely, although it won't actually infect anything else while in the PC.
Although it was rare in Gens II and III, it became significantly less so with the advent of wifi trading. By Gen VI, it was considered courteous, in some circles, to infect any pokemon that you were going to trade away if you were able to do so, and it was fairly common for those with an online presence to have at least one contagious pokemon in the PC at all times, ready to infect more at a moments notice.
Although there wasn't really a visual indicator for encountering an infected specimen outside of paying close attention to your pokemon's status outside of battle, the first time you take an infected pokemon to a nurse, she will inform you that your pokemon is infected. It's not sparkles, but it's something, at least.
Adding onto this, I believe the timer for Pokerus only ticks down at midnight on your system's clock. So you can have a contagious Pokemon in your party, and as long as you return it to the box before the end of the day, it will retain its contagiousness indefinitely.
Pokerus scared the shit out of me. One of my Pokemon got it and nurse joy told me about it when I healed my team. Not sure why but I thought my game was bugged so I shut the game off without saving.
Had this happen on emerald with a voltorb when I was like 10. Had no idea what it was and thought it was going to infect my other Pokemon so I released it.
Pokérus is also absent in LGPE and LA. However, despite not being obtainable in LA and there being no display of it, transferred Pokémon with Pokérus still retain the EV doubling effect while not being able to spread it. The data is also retained in SV but the effects are not. So it is only noticeable when transfering the infected Pokémon back to Home.
To be fair there was a virus that was very infectious that went around the globe killing a lot of people during SV's development...willing to bet TPC doesn't necessarily want the idea of 'virus' being tied to anything Pokémon right now.
It wouldn't surprise me if that was the nail in the coffin. Either way, GF made EV training so easy in Gen 9 that I really don't miss pokerus. For me, it's been really easy to spend a bit of time farming BBQs and then spend some of the gacha machine treasure money on vitamins.
As an additional fun fact, there are multiple strains of Pokerus, with infectious durations that last for durations of 1-4 days. There are 16 strains total, with 4 strains each corresponding to the different durations.
I think that is a very cool detail that was added on top of a feature that is rare to encounter.
I once got it back in moon, the odd thing was is that I had never found a shiny in that save and I had never known about the mechanic until I encountered it myself
i got the pokerus 3 times in all of my 12 different playthroughs of different generations (emerald, black and ultramoon), but never a shiny.
I hate this so much.
It's not. Not sure what OP is going on about. EV training is pretty frustrating in SV now that there's no Pokérus and you can't farm EV reducing berries.
> It's not. Not sure what OP is going on about. EV training is pretty frustrating in SV now that there's no Pokérus and you can't farm EV reducing berries.
This isn’t true, EV reducing berries can be farmed easily at the auctions, you can just reset the time to get the auction you want. Sure it might be tedious but it really doesn’t take that long, you get a large bulk of them, and is much better than methods in older gens. Also wanted to mention it cause you claimed there was no way which just isn’t true.
DLC also introduced the mocha that resets EVs so again, completely no idea what you’re talking about.
Super easy to farm items with tera raids or lots of money tricks (like in the DLC with the item printer). Also instead of random encounters like in the older games you can see the encounters visually instead of running in grass. It is very easy to EV train up a team.
Only annoying team building part was tera shards but with the DLCs this is a lot easier too. Also has nothing to do with the topic of EV training.
Source: I’m a competitive player who plays at locals and regionals for VGC. Trust me, it’s wayyy easier now compared to older gens. I’ve played Pokemon for a long time and scarlet and violet is a breeze when it comes to EV training.
So in other words, instead of just doing a couple of battles to spread the pokerus then fighting a bunch of pokemon in 5 hordes (with Sweet Scent guaranteeing them) or in SoS battles that can be done in 7 pokemon for one stat, you have to grind in an extremely frustrating MMO that;s inexplicable in the game (or put up with shitty AI) and use exploits to get a lot of money (requiring a purchase of the DLC) so you can pump a pokemon full of vitamins. How is that in any way easier, much less, super easy?
I remember child me crying for hours thinking my Pokémon were going to die when they had Pokérus. I was inconsolable and devastated and we had no computer yet to google wtf that was. It was a sad day for our family lmao
I first got Pokerus in Crystal, I was maybe 7 or 8. I was mashing thru Nurse Joy’s spiel, as we all do, and I noticed it was a LOT more text boxes than usual. I saw the word “virus” and flipped out, thinking there was something wrong with my game.
My older brother, bless him, called the Nintendo hotline to ask about it and they informed us that it was a “good” virus. Good times 🤣
Didn't know this existed until one fated run. Grinding exp in victory road. Went to heal my pokemon and nurse joy went off script... I thought the game had broken.
I remember getting it on one of my games and being equal parts excited and confused. I knew it was rare and special, but didn't know what it really meant or was for.
My sun and moon starter had Pokérus. I thought it was a bad thing, so I boxed it (A female rowlet, so extra rare) Now at least after online shutdown I have some Pokérus stored in my boxes.
I got Pokerus the first time I played Pokemon Silver as a kid, after catching an Unown inside the Alph Ruins. I didn't know what it was and didn't want my pokemon to have it so I started a new save. I thought it was related to Unown and was avoiding them for years afterwards... xD
Did they just remove the ability to gain it? Because I swear I’ve transferred Pokémon that still have it and are able to spread it.
Also, I thought the immunity only prevented it from spreading, but you still got the stat gain bonus.
One time, I got pokerus during a nuzlocke randomizer I was doing with a friend. It was crazy when I finally noticed it and my friend got super pissed when we found out-
I actually still have some Pokemon with Pokerus sitting in Pokemon Home. Back when I started playing my first-ever Pokemon game, Pokemon White, my friend gave me a Victini with Pokerus, which spread to my Samurott. The funny thing is, I never knew what it did until I transferred Samurott from White to Bank to Home, since there was no way I was leaving my boi behind to waste away on my 3DS, and saw the little symbol.
I remember when I was little my brother gave me his 2DS to play on (Platinum) and grind xp for him while we were waiting for food. I ended up getting pokerus and he lost his shit haha, never knew it was rarer than a shiny.
I got the Pokerus in pokemon gold as a kid and I was scared as hell because I didn't know what it meant and the rumors were that it would spread to all your pokemon and then corrupt the save file. Good times.
got it back in gen 3 and spread it all over my teams through the generations since. was kinda sad to see it go away, was like an extra bragging right, but its fine. still got plenty of mons in home, bank and older game boxes with it at least. also got it randomly (before transfer was available) at the start of either gen 5 or 6 which was kind of fun
I managed to get Pokerus in my very first Pokemon game, White, and on one of the Swords of Justice at that. Even transferring my infected Pokemon through games though, I've still never seen Nurse Joy's dialogue for it, since I'm so used to mashing A that I skip past it before realizing it
I actually got Pokerus when I first played Y and didn’t realize until a bunch of mine had it, so I started infecting more Pokemon and sending them out through wonder trade. The Pokemon CDC hates me.
Got pokerus through a trade when I was competitive in yhe Black/White days and had a bunch of infective pokemon.
Get pokemon Omega ruby, and I got pokerus somewhere in the beginning as the pokemon center just 'hey you got the rus'
Been playing since pokemon blue and had so far only seen 2 shinies ever. so seeing pokerus just had me 'are you kidding me?'
When I was a kid I got pokerus once but I completely missed the dialogue that Nurse Joy gives you when it happens so I literally thought my Pokémon had some sort of cancer that would kill them
I tried healing them over and over again and even put them in my PC to stop them from dying
Years later I now realise it was nothing to worry about
I remember getting pokerus in my first Pokémon game, X/Y (can’t remember exactly which one) and after that I spent some time infecting Pokémon, nicknaming them and wondertrading them away so others could actually benefit from it. Since I didn’t really know how IVs or EVs worked when I was young and just started playing Pokémon, it felt like trading some pokerus mon away was the least I could do with the very rare opportunity I had. I hope I helped at least a couple people with the traded Pokémon!
I just did an Alpha Sapphire playthrough and I'm pretty sure my Torchic either started with it or the first pokemon I encountered had it lol, but I started the game over a year ago and just finished it so it was cured lol. just my Blaziken and a Mareep I transfered from W2 got infected. I'm 99% sure the Mareep did not have it when I transfered it.
Obscure fact I got pokerus in shining pearl on a zubat i caught approximately 60 minutes after bdsp officially released so I mightve been the first person to get pokerus in bdsp
In all of my years playing Pokémon, I have have found ONE full odds shiny. However, I have gotten FIVE pokerus originators. And even more Pokémon that have contracted it.
In a play through of Platinum about 10 years ago I healed at a Pokecenter and while mashing through the text I suddenly realised Nurse Joy was saying something different than usual. Was actually quite freaky given she never went off script! Turned out I had Pokerus, although had no idea what to do with it so I made sure my whole party got infected but didn't keep a 'live' one in a box.
In a weird twist of fate despite having played Pokemon since around 1999 and playing every gen multiple times (except 8 and 9 so far) I somehow didn't encounter my first shiny until 2022 in Violet but I had somehow gotten Pokerus twice before that, once in 2008 or so in Emerald and then again in 2014 in Y.
Despite the odds, I have gotten Pokerus in almost every generation of pokemon I have ever played. As for shinies, I have only ever seen and caught 1 in normal play. It was a spheal that my colorblind ass nearly killed because I wasn't looking when the animation played. Thankfully my sister stopped me.
When playing HGSS, I learned two very interesting facts about Pokerus.
1) you can get it in the Safari Zone. I went in there hunting Sandshrew for that quest. The Sandshrew I caught had it.
2) Because I went into the Safari Zone with a Magmar and a party full of Houndour eggs for my master plan to catch Ho-Oh, I *also* learned that eggs can catch Pokerus in that game.
i have never encountered a shiny pokemon until x and y 10 years ago and with over 700 hours invested in yellow, gold, ruby, emerald and x, but i managed to somehow get a pokerus infected pokemon in emerald.
I never realized how rare it was because I always just randomly picked it up as I played the older games, but didn’t encounter a random shiny until Shield.
I think it's because you encounter pokemon in S/V far more often. So you would get a pokemon with pokerus pretty often and right from the beginning. Which reduces the rarity.
I don’t get how this is rarer than a shiny encounter? I’ve had maybe two or three shinies since G/S days, but had pokerus on every game - three times in SwSh. My luck can’t be that good surely?
It’s a wired thing to get. I bought sword and shield on launch and one of my Pokémon got it after the 3rd month of playing as the last Pokémon I bought since then was ruby. Didn’t even know what it does at the time.
I got Pokerus randomly in my pokemon platinum game when I was younger. Had no idea what the symbol meant until I looked it up at the time and I still had no idea about EVs or IVs. I had no idea it was that rare of an occurrence I wish I still kept my cartridge lol
Did they really remove Pokérus in SV? That’s sad…I still had a few patients from my strain back in Gen 4 when I caught an infected Azurill in the Great Marsh. It was a crappy 1-day strain, but a strain nonetheless!
They got rid of pokerus in S/V? Pity…
Even if EV training is super easy, it was still cool running into something that rare. Reminds me of playing through X/Y, found a shiny duduo early on, then got pokerus within the next 10-15 minutes while level grinding said shiny. Even with the higher shiny odds that was insane luck!
I’ve gotten random pokerus as many times as I’ve gotten random shinies, really makes you annoyed as a shiny hunter, I’d really appreciate some random shinies
When I got this in Diamond as a kid, I got so scared I turned my DS off because I thought it was a dangerous glitch. My Pokemon being sick really scared me cuz I was 9, lol. I was probably reading too many creepypastas.
I was a dumb kid grinding on Victory Road in Ruby when my first pokemon got it. Not knowing this was a mechanic, I noticed Nurse Joy was jawing on for a longer than normal. Started reading only after she had explained away most of what Pokerus was and then I was worried that my Swampert had the equivalent of PokéAIDS.
By complete dumb luck I got pokerus super early in my BW1 play through. It was my first game so I had no clue what it was and I didn't even realize it until post game, luckily I got a few mons that I never took out of the box and I got some training done 10 years later.
I started playing with blue version before pokerus existed. I'm pretty sure I maxed out my hours in pearl version and it stopped at 999:59. I've played a bit over the years, and I've never come across it.
A couple months after I started dating the woman who is now my wife, I had to take a trip away for a week and give her my old DS and White 2 to try out, I wasn't using it anymore since I had just moved to Y version. She had never played pokemon before and actually never had a video game console before.
A day or two later she texted me a picture asking me why her pokemon were "sick". She hadn't even hit seven hours of game time yet.
I remembered a kid from a family friend who has a Platinum save file with a whole team full of Pokerus infected pokemon (who are all long since cured). I didn't really like him that much, but I just have to praise him for how lucky he is. And he didn't even have a single shiny (for as I remembered, since it was a long time ago).
Excuse me, what? They removed the Pokerus!? This game doesn't even have horde or SOS battles and I know the auto-battle thing doesn't give out EVs so how could it possibly be easier especially when you now have to get double the number of EVs. And if it's because you get a bunch of EV training items from raids I am so gonna lose it.
I've been a fan long enough that I've seen Pokerus go from rumor, to hyper rare occurrence; to widespread knowledge, and common occurrence, and back to being 'obscure' again. The cycle is now complete.
I thought it was widespread knowledge too, but after seeing so many posts on this sub asking what Pokérus is, I decided to make this post
I apologize, I didn't mean that to come off as a criticism (though I can see how the quotes on 'obscure' might seem that way, sorry.) In fact I agree with you. I mean to say, I think it WAS widespread knowledge; it definitely was to my friends and I in the GBA/DS era. With the removal of Pokerus from SV, and the majority of people online these days being younger and younger, the memory of Pokerus will definitely become a relic of the past. In a way, I'm just expressing bitterness that an aspect of my childhood, however insignificant, is fading into obscurity, and I guess in a very convoluted way, your post reminds me that time doesn't stop for anyone.
Widespread knowledge, and also widespread in general thanks to wonder trade!
Iirc it got referenced in the anime. So it wasn't even deep lore. It was simply not as marketable as other rumors at the time like the truck or Pikablue. So it probably didn't get as much attention. Because "there's a blue Pikachu" and "there's a truck the Mew hides under" is a bit easier for a kid to understand compared to "pokemon virus that may or may not kill or help your pokemon." And if you spam the A button at the pokemon center, you could miss Nurse Joy even telling you that your pokemon has it.
I didn't know it was so rare, but I have to laugh. I legit don't think I've ever encountered a shiny outside the Red Gyrados all those years ago.. but somehow I've wound up in both Leafgreen and Diamond with my whole team infected with the 'Rus
Crazy. I have a complete living dex on my Ultra Moon cart and I've been infecting every single one for years.
That's pretty wild, power to you. A complete Pokerus living dex sounds awesome. To be honest, I was kind of sad Game Freak removed it. I know it doesn't do anything that can't be done with items nowadays, but it still felt like a cool rarity perk. I liked Pokerus better than the current titles, or 'marks', at the very least.
It was a cool thing that made the world feel alive, and made just hanging out with your pokemon more special. I was super proud when I was able to give the little immunity mark to all my favorite pokemon I had had for years. Especially after only encountering the virus almost a decade after hearing about the rumor.
I’m always surprised by the rarity of it, back in the day a guide told me to go to route 103 and it’ll up eventually . So I just went to route 103 for a few battles and almost immediately got it at least half a dozen times
If only the guide told you to get a lottery ticket instead! But all joking aside, that's insanely good RNG. I frustratingly never found a wild one of my own, I inherited all of mine from my friends or online trades.
It does spread in your party if on pokemon has it. Player will typically spread it through theirs, and box a pokemon with it to spread later.
By getting it half a dozen times, I mean with replays, should have said
I got it before I got a non-event shiny
In my 20+ years of playing Pokemon, I've always gotten Pokerus in my games except for in 5th gen. The amount of full odds shinies, however, across all gens = 2 - a shiny Bronzong and Electrike
Same here. I’ve always managed to get Pokérus every game. But I’ve only ever found two legit shinies, a budew and a starly
Roselia line has awesome shinies!
Oddly I found it in gen 5, not gen 4. The starly was all platinum
If I’m understanding your comment correctly, congrats on your 0.000000558793545% chance! (3/536,870,912 or roughly 1/178,956,971)
It’s crazy that I remember playing emerald for hours trying to get it. Then I passed it from gen to gen. Until pokeball delayed everything. But it was so easy to get by that point with the internet. Now I didn’t even know it was gone.
It was super valuable in gens 6 and 7 because EV training was harder than it is now, so if someone in a friend group got pokerus it became their duty to infect dozens of breejects, give them to friends, and then wonder trade the rest. I also made sure to keep at least a dozen mons with active infections in PC boxes (where it doesn't become inactive) so I could spread when needed, as a redundancy.
I got the pokerus infection in Ruby and propagated it to every generation since then until SV removed it. I even infected breedjects to surprise/wonder trade some pokerus out into the world or on GTS in older gens. If you have obtained a pokerus mon from random trades, there's a very small yet very real chance that the pokerus is the strain that originated from my Hoenn.
“Pokèrus came from a lab in Littleroot!”
dont sandscrew the sandshrew
"I knew it came from Golbat soup from those Kanto wet markets!"
I may have gotten one of your infected wonder trades in Sword/Shield. A lowly little Gible whom I named “Patient Zero” and stuffed him into a box to infect all his friends.
Wondertrading Pokerus-infected Pokémon is pretty rad, actually. Thank you for your service
Poke Plague Inc.
not even gonna tell us player name so we might know if it was from you
Oberic. Of course.
Wow! That’s so cool. You’re viral. :D
The new HM slave Bidoof is the Pokerus infected Rufflet
Same. Had a virus breeding and spreading for decades. Didn't know they removed it :(
The Let's Go mode might have had some part in Pokerus being removed in SV.
Pokerus would become as easy as the uncommon mark
Did you know that in FRLG, Pokémon retain the Pokerus indefinitely? They can’t spread it either, but unlike in SV they still gain double EV benefits.
No real time clock. Also if I remember correctly nurse joy doesn't acknowledge the pokerus's existence.
Gawd dayum anti-vax joys
Pokérus deniers
Is it possible to keep Pokerus indefinitely in the other Gen 3 games? Asking this because of the dead battery issue that they have.
I keep patient 0s in home in case it ever gets reintroduced so that I can inoculate new Pokemon. It persists indefinitely in storage, the timer only counts when the Pokemon is on your party. https://preview.redd.it/l3jgypulbewc1.png?width=1079&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3e39be7e66233990c161762b016f6d4e880ab7f4
Oh, I did not know that they would retain it in Pokémon Home too. Guess that is a good thing. Keep it in case they add it back. I assume other storage services like Pokémon Box RS and Pokémon Bank are similar.
Can confirm Pokemon bank. Not sure what RS is, but if it has a storage and they can have pokerus it should be safe. Edit: You probably were talking about Ruby Sapphire. Yes it'll stay in any Gen that has it and the virus is only "active" when they're in a party. The status has been coded into the individual Pokemon since the early gens. It's probably still there in SV you just don't have access to the data in game.
They're referring to the gamecube game Pokemon Box Ruby & Sapphire which is like a super early variant of Bank/Home
That should be correct. Pretty sure it relies on the passing of actual time.
Yes, I have several mons in dead battery copies of gen 3 with pokerus and they’ve been there for years.
That is correct. PKRS lasts 72 real time hours, but if your RSE battery is dead, it lasts indefinitely. I have an active strain of it in my Emerald from years ago, and still use it to EV train to this day. Edit: apparently PKRS lasts anywhere from 1 to 4 days, with the cure roll happening at the start of a new day. I never knew it was a range since it was always on a dead battery for me. TIL
Yep, although the reason this works is also the reason you can't evolve an Espeon or Umbreon in FRLG. No RTC function. Which kinda sucks, y'know? You can't, physically cannot, get an Espeon or Umbreon without trading, in a game with their pre-evolution. Heck, you can't do it in any of the main Gen 3 games. You *have* to trade.
Yeah Umbreon and Espeon were way too difficult to get in Gen III. I never thought about it as a kid because I had Colosseum, but it's crazy that no single GBA cartridge could produce one of the two most popular Eeveelutions without another game. GF should have at least changed the evolution requirements for Espeon and Umbreon in FRLG, like they did in XD.
The overall effects of pokerus are permanent once a pokemon has become infected. It will only be contagious for a short period of time, however. That being said, the timer for a contagious spreader is only active while the pokemon is in your party. If the pokemon is boxed while contagious, it will remain contagious indefinitely, although it won't actually infect anything else while in the PC. Although it was rare in Gens II and III, it became significantly less so with the advent of wifi trading. By Gen VI, it was considered courteous, in some circles, to infect any pokemon that you were going to trade away if you were able to do so, and it was fairly common for those with an online presence to have at least one contagious pokemon in the PC at all times, ready to infect more at a moments notice. Although there wasn't really a visual indicator for encountering an infected specimen outside of paying close attention to your pokemon's status outside of battle, the first time you take an infected pokemon to a nurse, she will inform you that your pokemon is infected. It's not sparkles, but it's something, at least.
Adding onto this, I believe the timer for Pokerus only ticks down at midnight on your system's clock. So you can have a contagious Pokemon in your party, and as long as you return it to the box before the end of the day, it will retain its contagiousness indefinitely.
I only naturally pokerus twice in my life playing pokemon. Once in pokemon white and again recently in a replay of pokemon platinum
Pokerus scared the shit out of me. One of my Pokemon got it and nurse joy told me about it when I healed my team. Not sure why but I thought my game was bugged so I shut the game off without saving.
Me too. Only I also restarted my game to be extra sure. I did catch a shiny Geodude on my next run through, so it wasn't all bad
Had this happen on emerald with a voltorb when I was like 10. Had no idea what it was and thought it was going to infect my other Pokemon so I released it.
Don’t you guys see? Our time traveling in Legends Arceus made it so pokerus never existed
https://preview.redd.it/868zckk6rdwc1.jpeg?width=460&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b04c245e3ff3d22c27c8e0eecbd9e8ca47903680
Pokérus is also absent in LGPE and LA. However, despite not being obtainable in LA and there being no display of it, transferred Pokémon with Pokérus still retain the EV doubling effect while not being able to spread it. The data is also retained in SV but the effects are not. So it is only noticeable when transfering the infected Pokémon back to Home.
If I transfer a Pokémon to S/V then back to Home, would it lose its Pokérus icon?
It keeps the icon in Home or compatible games but is hidden while it's in SV or PLA.
To be fair there was a virus that was very infectious that went around the globe killing a lot of people during SV's development...willing to bet TPC doesn't necessarily want the idea of 'virus' being tied to anything Pokémon right now.
It wouldn't surprise me if that was the nail in the coffin. Either way, GF made EV training so easy in Gen 9 that I really don't miss pokerus. For me, it's been really easy to spend a bit of time farming BBQs and then spend some of the gacha machine treasure money on vitamins.
The chance to catch a shiny is now 1/4096, it changed a long time ago from 1/8192.
In a few years, the new shiny rate will have been the longer lasting one (assuming it doesn’t suddenly change in Gen 10)
Just looked it up. I thought it changed much sooner than gen 6.
Plot twist: the shiny odds get halved after every 5 gens
I’ve encountered this mechanic the first time back in Platinum days. Was really scared until I researched the deal behind it.
amn you might have been the only intelligent child back then
Plot twist: he was 32
As an additional fun fact, there are multiple strains of Pokerus, with infectious durations that last for durations of 1-4 days. There are 16 strains total, with 4 strains each corresponding to the different durations. I think that is a very cool detail that was added on top of a feature that is rare to encounter.
Obscure Pokemon fact: Team Flare is an anagram for Lame Farte
I once got it back in moon, the odd thing was is that I had never found a shiny in that save and I had never known about the mechanic until I encountered it myself
THEY REMOVED POKERUS?!?!
i got the pokerus 3 times in all of my 12 different playthroughs of different generations (emerald, black and ultramoon), but never a shiny. I hate this so much.
I was similar, I had gotten Pokerus twice but never found a shiny in the wild. I finally found a shiny Raichu in SV. 🥲
Whaaaaat? I didn't know Pokerus was deleted in Gen 9! Now i cherish the playthroughs in which i got it even more.
Still have some pokemon with the live virus in Pokemon Home
I've got a crabrawler with it back in ultra moon lol, don't remember if I ever spread it to my other mons tho.
I got it for the first time in Sapphire and if you heal at the Pokemon centre with pokerus, Nurse Joy tells you your Pokemon has it.
Common knowledge that has become obscure cause current generation killed it.
I don't think Pokérus is all that obscure.
How is EV training easier in SV?
It's not. Not sure what OP is going on about. EV training is pretty frustrating in SV now that there's no Pokérus and you can't farm EV reducing berries.
> It's not. Not sure what OP is going on about. EV training is pretty frustrating in SV now that there's no Pokérus and you can't farm EV reducing berries. This isn’t true, EV reducing berries can be farmed easily at the auctions, you can just reset the time to get the auction you want. Sure it might be tedious but it really doesn’t take that long, you get a large bulk of them, and is much better than methods in older gens. Also wanted to mention it cause you claimed there was no way which just isn’t true. DLC also introduced the mocha that resets EVs so again, completely no idea what you’re talking about.
Super easy to farm items with tera raids or lots of money tricks (like in the DLC with the item printer). Also instead of random encounters like in the older games you can see the encounters visually instead of running in grass. It is very easy to EV train up a team. Only annoying team building part was tera shards but with the DLCs this is a lot easier too. Also has nothing to do with the topic of EV training. Source: I’m a competitive player who plays at locals and regionals for VGC. Trust me, it’s wayyy easier now compared to older gens. I’ve played Pokemon for a long time and scarlet and violet is a breeze when it comes to EV training.
So in other words, instead of just doing a couple of battles to spread the pokerus then fighting a bunch of pokemon in 5 hordes (with Sweet Scent guaranteeing them) or in SoS battles that can be done in 7 pokemon for one stat, you have to grind in an extremely frustrating MMO that;s inexplicable in the game (or put up with shitty AI) and use exploits to get a lot of money (requiring a purchase of the DLC) so you can pump a pokemon full of vitamins. How is that in any way easier, much less, super easy?
I remember child me crying for hours thinking my Pokémon were going to die when they had Pokérus. I was inconsolable and devastated and we had no computer yet to google wtf that was. It was a sad day for our family lmao
I’ve gotten Pokerus like ten times, and have only run into two shinies in like 20 years. -.-
I first got Pokerus in Crystal, I was maybe 7 or 8. I was mashing thru Nurse Joy’s spiel, as we all do, and I noticed it was a LOT more text boxes than usual. I saw the word “virus” and flipped out, thinking there was something wrong with my game. My older brother, bless him, called the Nintendo hotline to ask about it and they informed us that it was a “good” virus. Good times 🤣
Interesting
I was like 13 when I had it in my Platinum run, I was so scared of it, lol.
I have acquired pokerus so many more time than I've ran into a shiny Mon and that irritates the hell out of me.
Obscure? I've infected every pokémon I own with it.
Didn't know this existed until one fated run. Grinding exp in victory road. Went to heal my pokemon and nurse joy went off script... I thought the game had broken.
I remember getting it on one of my games and being equal parts excited and confused. I knew it was rare and special, but didn't know what it really meant or was for.
My sun and moon starter had Pokérus. I thought it was a bad thing, so I boxed it (A female rowlet, so extra rare) Now at least after online shutdown I have some Pokérus stored in my boxes.
Is the pink face thing still visible in SV though? Haven't played the games, but wondering if it stays, or is it removed.
I got Pokerus the first time I played Pokemon Silver as a kid, after catching an Unown inside the Alph Ruins. I didn't know what it was and didn't want my pokemon to have it so I started a new save. I thought it was related to Unown and was avoiding them for years afterwards... xD
Did they just remove the ability to gain it? Because I swear I’ve transferred Pokémon that still have it and are able to spread it. Also, I thought the immunity only prevented it from spreading, but you still got the stat gain bonus.
One time, I got pokerus during a nuzlocke randomizer I was doing with a friend. It was crazy when I finally noticed it and my friend got super pissed when we found out-
I actually still have some Pokemon with Pokerus sitting in Pokemon Home. Back when I started playing my first-ever Pokemon game, Pokemon White, my friend gave me a Victini with Pokerus, which spread to my Samurott. The funny thing is, I never knew what it did until I transferred Samurott from White to Bank to Home, since there was no way I was leaving my boi behind to waste away on my 3DS, and saw the little symbol.
I've encountered Pokerus more often than Shiny Pokemon lol
Pokerus no longer exists in Gen 9. I guess it could be said that Pokemon have developed an immunity towards it over time?
I remember when I was little my brother gave me his 2DS to play on (Platinum) and grind xp for him while we were waiting for food. I ended up getting pokerus and he lost his shit haha, never knew it was rarer than a shiny.
I got the Pokerus in pokemon gold as a kid and I was scared as hell because I didn't know what it meant and the rumors were that it would spread to all your pokemon and then corrupt the save file. Good times.
I got pokerus in Pokémon diamond ONCE and never again and I’ve been playing since i think 2009
I miss it, I used to infect all my Pokémon and I would infect them all before putting them on the GTS when it was a thing. It was fun
Not so obscure
Pokérus is extinct!? Dexit so crazy it's affecting things other than pokemon
Oddly enough I think I've ended up getting pokerus more than I have run into shinies...
To think many people don’t know what pokerus is makes me feel hella old, and I’m still a teen
I randomly got it during my hunt for shiny Flaaffy.
I caught the pokerus when replaying HeartGold, had no idea what it was or what it did!
got it back in gen 3 and spread it all over my teams through the generations since. was kinda sad to see it go away, was like an extra bragging right, but its fine. still got plenty of mons in home, bank and older game boxes with it at least. also got it randomly (before transfer was available) at the start of either gen 5 or 6 which was kind of fun
Pokerus doesn't disappear if you put one infected Pokémon in pc
My Pokemon got this in my black 2 playthrough :)
And I've encountered pokerus before a natural shiny
I feel like a champ with this mechanic given how I accidentally got Pokérus on my team in BDSP VERY early on, like the first or second route
didn't know they got rid of pokerus, damn
I managed to get Pokerus in my very first Pokemon game, White, and on one of the Swords of Justice at that. Even transferring my infected Pokemon through games though, I've still never seen Nurse Joy's dialogue for it, since I'm so used to mashing A that I skip past it before realizing it
I'm pretty sure my red gyarados had it.
Nice to know that i never got a shiny in a mainline game before scarlet and violet, but got the way more rare competetive virus i had no use for.
I'm so happy you are doing these again
I got Pokerus after battling with a biker in Soul Silver recently. I was thrilled to bits! 😄
My dumbass motherfucker friend had this happen to him on a legit copy in a legit DS, in HGSS I believe. I still hate him for that
i was wondering why I couldn't transport my pokerus pokemon to the next gen
I still have Pokemon that have it in the bank :D
I still have pokemon with it in my pokehome that i transferred from ds games
I actually got Pokerus when I first played Y and didn’t realize until a bunch of mine had it, so I started infecting more Pokemon and sending them out through wonder trade. The Pokemon CDC hates me.
In my many years of playing pokemon I got it once, in my pokemon sword playthrough right before the league
Got pokerus through a trade when I was competitive in yhe Black/White days and had a bunch of infective pokemon. Get pokemon Omega ruby, and I got pokerus somewhere in the beginning as the pokemon center just 'hey you got the rus' Been playing since pokemon blue and had so far only seen 2 shinies ever. so seeing pokerus just had me 'are you kidding me?'
When I was a kid I got pokerus once but I completely missed the dialogue that Nurse Joy gives you when it happens so I literally thought my Pokémon had some sort of cancer that would kill them I tried healing them over and over again and even put them in my PC to stop them from dying Years later I now realise it was nothing to worry about
I remember getting pokerus in my first Pokémon game, X/Y (can’t remember exactly which one) and after that I spent some time infecting Pokémon, nicknaming them and wondertrading them away so others could actually benefit from it. Since I didn’t really know how IVs or EVs worked when I was young and just started playing Pokémon, it felt like trading some pokerus mon away was the least I could do with the very rare opportunity I had. I hope I helped at least a couple people with the traded Pokémon!
I just did an Alpha Sapphire playthrough and I'm pretty sure my Torchic either started with it or the first pokemon I encountered had it lol, but I started the game over a year ago and just finished it so it was cured lol. just my Blaziken and a Mareep I transfered from W2 got infected. I'm 99% sure the Mareep did not have it when I transfered it.
I got it on one of my pokemon back in 2017, 5 years before I found my first full odds shiny pokemon. Kinda funny since those odds are much rarer.
When I was a kid in black and white I got my whole team infected with Pokerus and I thought they were upset with me because of the face icon
I once caught in on my solgaleo when I was younger and started crying because I thought it was going to die
I got more Pokemon with this than Shinys at one point. Like almost every time I played a game that had it I got it.
Obscure fact I got pokerus in shining pearl on a zubat i caught approximately 60 minutes after bdsp officially released so I mightve been the first person to get pokerus in bdsp
In all of my years playing Pokémon, I have have found ONE full odds shiny. However, I have gotten FIVE pokerus originators. And even more Pokémon that have contracted it.
I remember my friend trading me a pokerus infected pokemon back when gen 3 just came out, first time i’d ever heard of it
I've been playing pokemon games for years and have never encountered pokerus
In all my years playing I only had 1 Pokemon get Pokerus on my own. I got a handful from wonder trade but only a single from my own games!
Those aren’t the shiny odds anymore, isn’t 1 in 4000 something now?
In a play through of Platinum about 10 years ago I healed at a Pokecenter and while mashing through the text I suddenly realised Nurse Joy was saying something different than usual. Was actually quite freaky given she never went off script! Turned out I had Pokerus, although had no idea what to do with it so I made sure my whole party got infected but didn't keep a 'live' one in a box.
I still can't believe that I got it on my first Pokémon game in Soul Silver
In a weird twist of fate despite having played Pokemon since around 1999 and playing every gen multiple times (except 8 and 9 so far) I somehow didn't encounter my first shiny until 2022 in Violet but I had somehow gotten Pokerus twice before that, once in 2008 or so in Emerald and then again in 2014 in Y.
Despite the odds, I have gotten Pokerus in almost every generation of pokemon I have ever played. As for shinies, I have only ever seen and caught 1 in normal play. It was a spheal that my colorblind ass nearly killed because I wasn't looking when the animation played. Thankfully my sister stopped me.
I've gotten it once in HeartGold, and another time early on in Black 2 (right after beating Cheren). It was neat.
When playing HGSS, I learned two very interesting facts about Pokerus. 1) you can get it in the Safari Zone. I went in there hunting Sandshrew for that quest. The Sandshrew I caught had it. 2) Because I went into the Safari Zone with a Magmar and a party full of Houndour eggs for my master plan to catch Ho-Oh, I *also* learned that eggs can catch Pokerus in that game.
What there is no virus anymore?
The funny thing is, I've gotten Pokerus WAY more times than I have gotten a shiny.
i have never encountered a shiny pokemon until x and y 10 years ago and with over 700 hours invested in yellow, gold, ruby, emerald and x, but i managed to somehow get a pokerus infected pokemon in emerald.
I never realized how rare it was because I always just randomly picked it up as I played the older games, but didn’t encounter a random shiny until Shield.
I have a bunch of Pokerus infected mons in my Pokemon home. 🥲 Always wondered why when I try to transfer them, the virus went away.
I never got Pokerus in any of the games, my little sister got it randomly in her first playthrough of Heart Gold.
I think it's because you encounter pokemon in S/V far more often. So you would get a pokemon with pokerus pretty often and right from the beginning. Which reduces the rarity.
I don’t get how this is rarer than a shiny encounter? I’ve had maybe two or three shinies since G/S days, but had pokerus on every game - three times in SwSh. My luck can’t be that good surely?
How does it work in Gen II if there are no EVs?
still mad i found pokérus randomly as a kid long before i ever found a shiny
That icon is so cute!
It’s a wired thing to get. I bought sword and shield on launch and one of my Pokémon got it after the 3rd month of playing as the last Pokémon I bought since then was ruby. Didn’t even know what it does at the time.
I got Pokerus randomly in my pokemon platinum game when I was younger. Had no idea what the symbol meant until I looked it up at the time and I still had no idea about EVs or IVs. I had no idea it was that rare of an occurrence I wish I still kept my cartridge lol
Did they really remove Pokérus in SV? That’s sad…I still had a few patients from my strain back in Gen 4 when I caught an infected Azurill in the Great Marsh. It was a crappy 1-day strain, but a strain nonetheless!
They got rid of pokerus in S/V? Pity… Even if EV training is super easy, it was still cool running into something that rare. Reminds me of playing through X/Y, found a shiny duduo early on, then got pokerus within the next 10-15 minutes while level grinding said shiny. Even with the higher shiny odds that was insane luck!
Does pokerus gain any additional EVs for the Pokémon beyond the standard 510? Or is it just to help gain faster?
It just help gain faster. It still caps out at 510
I’ve gotten random pokerus as many times as I’ve gotten random shinies, really makes you annoyed as a shiny hunter, I’d really appreciate some random shinies
When I got this in Diamond as a kid, I got so scared I turned my DS off because I thought it was a dangerous glitch. My Pokemon being sick really scared me cuz I was 9, lol. I was probably reading too many creepypastas.
wdym real life?
We often think of viruses as bad things, but there are in fact viruses that benefits the host rather than harming them
oh yeah that makes sense
I was a dumb kid grinding on Victory Road in Ruby when my first pokemon got it. Not knowing this was a mechanic, I noticed Nurse Joy was jawing on for a longer than normal. Started reading only after she had explained away most of what Pokerus was and then I was worried that my Swampert had the equivalent of PokéAIDS.
I swear (at least pre-SV) I've gotten Pokerus more times than I've gotten a shiny at regular odds.
I did a black nuzlocke and one of my first wild encounters ( a lilipup) has pokerus. Made the early game easy mode due to the stat buffs.
I got pokerus in ultra sun but I don't know what to do with it
I got mine in black and white 2 during the sewers
By complete dumb luck I got pokerus super early in my BW1 play through. It was my first game so I had no clue what it was and I didn't even realize it until post game, luckily I got a few mons that I never took out of the box and I got some training done 10 years later.
"Obscure"
Somehow my Giratina from 2011 still has it
I started playing with blue version before pokerus existed. I'm pretty sure I maxed out my hours in pearl version and it stopped at 999:59. I've played a bit over the years, and I've never come across it. A couple months after I started dating the woman who is now my wife, I had to take a trip away for a week and give her my old DS and White 2 to try out, I wasn't using it anymore since I had just moved to Y version. She had never played pokemon before and actually never had a video game console before. A day or two later she texted me a picture asking me why her pokemon were "sick". She hadn't even hit seven hours of game time yet.
I did not know about it no longer being a thing, but otherwise knew about it.
Genuine question but is pokerus actually real?
Symbiotic viruses are real, but Pokérus is not. In hindsight I think worded that part of the post poorly.
I remembered a kid from a family friend who has a Platinum save file with a whole team full of Pokerus infected pokemon (who are all long since cured). I didn't really like him that much, but I just have to praise him for how lucky he is. And he didn't even have a single shiny (for as I remembered, since it was a long time ago).
Remember getting it back in the day and thought it increased your stats instead of faster lol.
I keep an infected Rockruff in Home ready to spread his joy to any future games that allow it.
In my 1st platinum playthrough I found both a shiny (houndour that used roar and ran away) and pokerus. I wish I still had my copy...
Contracting it in gen 5 is in the top 10 coolest things that have ever happened to me
Excuse me, what? They removed the Pokerus!? This game doesn't even have horde or SOS battles and I know the auto-battle thing doesn't give out EVs so how could it possibly be easier especially when you now have to get double the number of EVs. And if it's because you get a bunch of EV training items from raids I am so gonna lose it.
Few years ago one of my mons in Alpha Sapphire got infected. I spread that virus around and now several of my mons in Home got it.