Status Effects
NOTE: When this section speaks of 'rounding down', which is quite often, 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 contained a number of status effects, conditions caused by various moves which affect your Pokémon in some way for a number of turns after the use of the original move. There are essentially two distinct kinds of status effects in the games, the major and the minor.
Major Status Effects
Major status effects are shown near your Pokémon's HP bar in battle and stay there until they are cured, either by items, a trip to the Pokémon Center or any other condition which the game defines as curing that status effect. A Pokémon can only be afflicted with one major status effect at a time; any subsequent uses of moves which cause major status effects will fail (or just not inflict the status effect, if it is a secondary effect) until the original status effect is cured. There have been exactly five major status effects since Pokémon began: sleep (SLP), poisoning (PSN), paralysis (PAR), burning (BRN) and freezing (FRZ). Poisoning also has a more sinister variant, "bad poisoning".
The following applies to all major status effects:
Moves
The move Safeguard will prevent major status effects from being inflicted upon Pokémon in the user's team for the next five turns.
The moves Heal Bell and Aromatherapy will heal all status conditions of Pokémon in the user's party, except in the case of Pokémon with the Soundproof ability, which will not be cured by Heal Bell.
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 status effects to be transferred onto the target.
The move Rest will put the user to sleep, removing any previous status effects.
In Red, Blue and Yellow, using the move Haze will cure any major status effect the opponent has (but not the user).
Abilities
A Pokémon with the ability Natural Cure will be healed of all major status effects when it leaves battle.
A Pokémon with the ability Shed Skin will every turn have a 1/3 chance of being cured of any major status effects it has. A Pokémon with the ability Hydration will at the end of every turn be cured of all major status effects if it is raining.
A Pokémon with the ability Leaf Guard cannot receive opponent-induced major status effects during Sunny Day. It will not be cured of previous status effects when the ability activates, and can still self-inflict status effects.
A Pokémon with the ability Shield Dust cannot receive major status effects (or any other effect) as a secondary effect of moves.
A Pokémon with the ability Serene Grace is twice as likely to inflict major status effects (and any other effects) as secondary effects of moves.
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%.
Items
Any major status effect can be cured in and outside of battle with a Full Heal or Full Restore.
In G/S/C, the Mysteryberry will cure any status effect, while in Advance onwards, it is the Lum Berry.
Sleep
When a Pokémon falls asleep, a number (the "sleep counter") between one and four (inclusive) is randomly generated; at the beginning of a sleeping Pokémon's turn, it will wake up and use its selected move as normal if the number is zero, and otherwise the number is decreased by one and a "[Pokémon's name] is fast asleep" message is displayed. If the Pokémon used Rest, the counter always starts at two. In Advance onwards, the counter is retained when the Pokémon is switched out; before that, it was re-randomized whenever a sleeping Pokémon was sent into battle.
In the Advance games, the sleep counter started as a number between one and six, meaning sleep could last up to six turns. Pre-Advance, the sleep counter started as a number between one and seven.
In Red, Blue and Yellow, the sleep counter would be decreased at the beginning of a sleeping Pokémon's turn and then, if it was zero, it would wake up immediately but not attack on that turn. In effect the Pokémon would be unable to attack for as many turns as in Gold, Silver and Crystal, but the opponent would know of the waking-up earlier.
In the original Pokémon Stadium, the sleep counter would be initialized as a number between one and three. I regrettably have not been able to find any information on whether a similar change was made in Stadium 2 and do not have the game to test it (nor in fact a Nintendo 64).
Moves
Sleep is caused by Sing, Sleep Powder, Hypnosis, Lovely Kiss, Spore, Yawn, Grasswhistle and Dark Void as a primary effect. Yawn is here special in that the target does not fall asleep until at the end of the turn after Yawn is used. The move Rest puts the user to sleep for two turns while removing all damage that has been done to it as well as all major status effects and confusion. There are no moves that induce sleep as a secondary effect, save for Secret Power (30%), when used in a grass or tall grass environment (as well as the Waterfall and Sunny Park colosseums in Pokémon Battle Revolution).
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 a random number of turns from two to five which prevents all Pokémon in the field from falling asleep.
The move Worry Seed causes the target to acquire the ability Insomnia, which (as described below) prevents sleep.
Abilities
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.
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 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.
Items
The item Awakening can be used in or out of battle to wake up a sleeping Pokémon.
In R/B/Y, the Poké Flute could also be used repeatedly for this purpose in battle, and one would in fact never lose anything from using it in battle the moment one's Pokémon fell asleep, since waking up took a whole turn at that time anyway. The catch, however, was that if the opponent was also asleep, it would wake up too. In Advance onwards, the Blue Flute can be used in the same way but will not wake up the opponent.
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 more of a tendency to learn sleep-inducing moves than others, and many Psychic Pokémon can learn Hypnosis, but sleep has no real association with any particular type.
Notes
Sleep is the only status effect it has ever been possible to find a wild Pokémon already afflicted with at the beginning of 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. I think. I didn't do any extensive testing, so they might not always be sleeping.
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 along with "Fight", "PKMN" and "Item".
Poisoning
When a Pokémon is poisoned in battle, it will lose 1/8 of its total HP (or 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. It lasts until the poisoning is cured.
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 increased 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 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, T would be passed on and if the new Pokémon was poisoned, even normally, T would continue to increase.
Outside of battle, a poisoned Pokémon will lose one HP every four steps that the player walks. In Diamond and Pearl, a poisoned Pokémon outside of battle will be automatically cured of its poisoning instead of losing its last HP.
Moves
Poisoning is caused by Poisonpowder and Poison Gas as a primary effect and as a secondary effect by Poison Sting (30%), Twineedle (20%), Smog (40%), Sludge (30%), Sludge Bomb (30%), Poison Tail (10%), Poison Jab (30%), Cross Poison (10%) and Gunk Shot (30%). Bad poisoning is caused by Toxic as a primary effect and Poison Fang (30%) as a secondary effect. If the move Toxic Spikes has been used once by the opponent, any Pokémon sent into battle will be poisoned if it is not affected by a major status condition already; if Toxic Spikes has been used twice by the opponent, Pokémon sent into battle are badly poisoned if not already affected by a major status condition.
The move Facade is doubled in power when the user is poisoned.
The move Refresh heals the user of poisoning.
The move Fling can poison the opponent if the user is holding a Poison Barb or Black Sludge. If the user is holding a Toxic Orb, the opponent 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).
The ability Poison Point causes any Pokémon that uses a physical contact move on this Pokémon to have a 30% chance of being poisoned.
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 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 poisoned normally.
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.
Items
Poisoning is cured in and outside of battle with an Antidote.
G/S/C's berry to heal poisoning was the Psncureberry. The Advance-onwards berry that heals poisoning is the Pecha berry.
When a Pokémon in D/P onwards holds a Toxic Orb, it is badly poisoned at the end of each turn.
Types
Any Poison-type Pokémon cannot be poisoned under any circumstances. The poisoning status effect is highly associated with the Poison-type; only one move of another type (Twineedle) is able to inflict it.
Paralysis
When a Pokémon is paralyzed, its Speed is cut to 1/4 of its previous value and this effect lasts for as long as it is paralyzed. Every turn, it also has a 1/4 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 affected the Speed stat modifier, recalculating its Speed, was used.
In Pokémon Stadium 2, the new Pokémon's Speed is reduced if the last Speed-modifying attack used was one that raised Speed. It will not be reduced if the new Pokémon uses a Speed-modifying attack.
In Red, Blue and Yellow, changing the Speed modifier of a paralyzed Pokémon would reset the Speed to act as if the Pokémon were not paralyzed; for example, if you had a paralyzed Pokémon and it used Agility, the Pokémon's final Speed would be the same as if it had used Agility and were not paralyzed at all. Rest would also not fix the Speed reduction from paralysis although it would cure the paralysis itself. In Pokémon Stadium, both of those errors were fixed. Additionally, the move Haze would cure the user's Speed drop if it was paralyzed until it was next switched in.
Moves
Paralysis is the primary effect of Stun Spore, Thunder Wave and Glare and the secondary effect of Thunderpunch (10%), Body Slam (30%), Thundershock (10%), Thunderbolt (10%), Thunder (30%), Lick (30%), Tri Attack (20% chance of either burn, paralysis or freezing), Zap Cannon (100%), Spark (30%), Dragonbreath (30%), Bounce (30%), Volt Tackle (10%), Force Palm (30%), Thunder Fang (10%) and Discharge (30%). Secret Power also has a 30% chance of paralyzing the opponent in a building or in the Main Street, Neon and Courtyard Colosseums of Pokémon Battle Revolution.
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 opponent 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 physical contact move on 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 normal 50% Speed boost of Quick Feet.
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 which has this purpose.
Types
Paralysis is associated with the Electric-type as nearly all damaging Electric-type moves may cause paralysis as a secondary effect, and the Static ability, which only Electric Pokémon have, causes paralysis upon contact. It is nowhere near exclusive to Electric-types, however, being the most common major status effect in the game, and they are not immune to being paralyzed themselves.
Burning
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.
In Red, Blue and Yellow, using moves that changed the Attack modifier on a burned Pokémon would cause the Attack drop from the burn to be ignored when the new Attack was applied. The Attack drop would also not disappear if the burned Pokémon used Rest. Both were fixed in the original Pokémon Stadium. Additionally, the move Haze would cure the user's Attack drop if it was burned until it was next switched in.
In Pokémon Stadium, a Pokémon would not be subjected to burn damage on the turn it switched in if it was already burned.
Moves
Burns are inflicted as a primary effect by Will-O-Wisp and as a secondary effect by Fire Punch (10%), Ember (10%), Flamethrower (10%), Fire Blast (10%), Tri Attack (20% chance of either burn, paralysis or freezing), Flame Wheel (10%), Sacred Fire (50%), Heat Wave (10%), Blaze Kick (10%), Flare Blitz (10%), Fire Fang (10%) and Lava Plume (30%).
The move Facade is doubled in power when the user is burned.
The move Refresh heals the user of burning.
The move Fling can inflict a burn if the user is holding a Flame Orb.
Abilities
The ability Water Veil makes 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 use a physical contact move on 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 normal 50% Attack boost of Guts.
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 which serves this purpose.
When a Pokémon in D/P onwards holds a Flame Orb, it is burned at the end of each turn.
Types
Burning is, naturally, associated with Fire-types; most damaging Fire attacks can cause a burn as a secondary effect, no non-Fire attacks can burn aside from Tri Attack, and Fire-types themselves are immune to being burned, as well as the exclusively Fire-type Flame Body ability causing burns.
Freezing
Freezing is the rarest major status effect, being only caused as a 10% secondary effect by a few moves. When a Pokémon is frozen, it is unable to attack. Since G/S/C, a frozen Pokémon has a 10% chance of being defrosted at the beginning of its turn; in R/B/Y, the Pokémon would be frozen indefinitely unless cured.
Moves
Freezing is caused as a secondary effect by Ice Punch (10%), Ice Beam (10%), Blizzard (10%), Tri Attack (20% chance of either burn, paralysis or freezing), Powder Snow (10%) and Ice Fang (10%). There is no move that freezes as its primary effect.
If a frozen Pokémon uses Flame Wheel or Sacred Fire, it will be automatically defrosted.
During the effects of Sunny Day, no Pokémon can be frozen.
Abilities
The ability Magma Armor makes the Pokémon immune to being 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.
When a frozen Pokémon is hit by a damaging Fire-type attack, it is automatically defrosted.
Minor Status Effects
Minor status effects you can't see at all, not even by checking your Pokémon's status screen. Minor status effects last only while in battle and are cured automatically when you switch the Pokémon out; they can be difficult to cure in other ways, however, and can be stacked with both major status effects and other minor status effects. The most noteworthy of these is the confusion we all know and love.
It is a little bit difficult to define minor status effects; among those I chose not to consider to be status effects are disabling, encoring, taunting, tormenting, trapping, uncontrollableness and self-healing from Ingrain or Aqua Ring. If there is demand for their inclusion, I might write something up on them as well.
Confusion
When a Pokémon becomes confused, a random confusion counter between two and five is generated. At the beginning of the confused Pokémon's turn, this number is decreased by one; if it is zero, the Pokémon snaps out of confusion, but otherwise it has a 50% chance of attacking itself 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 the attacker and the defender. The confusion counter is not decreased 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
Confusion is inflicted by Supersonic, Confuse Ray, Sweet Kiss, Swagger, Flatter and Teeter Dance as a primary effect and is a secondary effect of Psybeam (10%), Confusion (10%), Dizzy Punch (20%), Dynamicpunch (100%), Signal Beam (10%), Water Pulse (20%), Rock Climb (20%) and Chatter (1%, 11% or 31% depending on the recorded sound). Swagger is noteworthy in that it raises the opponent's Attack by two levels, which causes it to deal twice as much confusion damage to itself; Flatter does the same for Special Attack, but as confusion damage is always physical, this extra effect does not actually help the user's cause. Confusion can also be self-inflicted by the moves Thrash, Petal Dance and Outrage which cause the Pokémon to attack two or three times and be confused afterwards.
The move Safeguard will prevent confusion from being inflicted upon Pokémon in the user's team for the next five turns.
Abilities
A Pokémon with the ability Shield Dust cannot be confused as a secondary effect to a move used by the opponent.
When a Pokémon with the ability Serene Grace uses a move that causes confusion as a secondary effect, the chance of this occurring is doubled.
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
In Red, Blue and Yellow there was no way whatsoever to cure confusion with items except to waste a Full Heal; of course, there wasn't much need for it since confusion disappears at the end of battle after all.
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 at the beginning of the first turn. In Stadium 2, the Berserk Gene would only generate ordinary confusion, with a confusion counter of a random number from two to five.
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 only very loose. No types are immune to confusion.
Flinching
In order to make a Pokémon flinch, the attacker has to strike first and hit with a move that can induce flinching. If the defendant flinches, it does not execute its chosen attack on that turn.
Moves
Flinching is a secondary effect of a large number of moves. They are Stomp (30%), Rolling Kick (30%), Headbutt (30%), Bite (30%), Bone Club (10%), Waterfall (20%, fourth-generation only), Sky Attack (30%, Advance onwards only and possibly not in R/S/E), Rock Slide (30%), Hyper Fang (10%), Snore (30%), Twister (20%), Fake Out (100%), Needle Arm (30%), Astonish (30%), Extrasensory (10%), Dark Pulse (20%), Air Slash (30%), Dragon Rush (20%), Thunder Fang (10%), Ice Fang (10%), Fire Fang (10%), Zen Headbutt (20%) and Iron Head (30%). 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, which means it will always manage to flinch the opponent 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
When a Pokémon with the ability Serene Grace uses a move that causes flinching as a secondary effect, the chance of this occurring is doubled.
The ability Inner Focus makes the Pokémon immune to flinching.
The ability Steadfast makes the Pokémon's Speed modifier increase by one whenever it flinches.
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.
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.
In Red, Blue and Yellow, the T counter of a badly poisoned Pokémon would also multiply the damage inflicted by seeding.
Moves
Seeding is only inflicted by one move, Leech Seed.
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 (rounded down) than the seeded Pokémon lost.
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.
Infatuation lasts until the infatuated Pokémon is switched out or the Pokémon that infatuated it leaves the battle.
Moves
Infatuation is only inflicted by one move, Attract.
Abilities
The ability Oblivious prevents the Pokémon from being infatuated.
The ability Cute Charm causes any Pokémon that uses a physical contact move on this Pokémon to have a 30% chance of being infatuated.
Items
The item Destiny Knot, when held by a Pokémon, causes any Pokémon that infatuates it to become automatically 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 any Pokémon capable of learning TMs and the only Pokémon immune to it are genderless ones. However, the minds of players are likely to 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.
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.
Moves
Curse is inflicted only by the move Curse, and 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 effect.
Items
No items are associated with this status effect.
Types
As previously noted, only Ghost-type Pokémon can employ Curse to inflict this status effect. 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 "[Pokémon's name] is fast asleep" message for the affected Pokémon). The effect lasts until the Pokémon wakes up or is switched out.
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 effect.
Items
No items are associated with this status effect.
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 October 04 2009 at 23:58 GMT
