Professor Phorus: The Head Researcher of Aeos Island

All of Aeos Island revolves around a single resource, and she's the one who studies it. Professor Phorus runs the Aeos Research Institute, the lab that fuels the Unite Battles of Pokémon UNITE. Her jurisdiction isn't an entire region but an island devoted to a single style of battle — and hers is the voice the player hears on arrival.

Contents

• Head of the Aeos Research Institute
• The voice that welcomes new Trainers
• When the lab's discoveries become game systems
• In Pokémon Horizons: the friend who calls Friede to the rescue
• Professor Phorus at a glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

Head of the Aeos Research Institute

Phorus holds two roles at once: she heads the Aeos Research Institute and she's also its chief researcher. Her research focuses on a single subject, one that gives the island its name: Aeos energy, a resource the place is brimming with.

This energy isn't just background scenery. Unite Battles are defined as battles that harness it, so studying Aeos energy amounts to studying the game itself. Phorus's lab therefore sits at the very center of the UNITE universe.

She doesn't work alone: an assistant, Erbie, backs her up and handles part of the onboarding for newcomers. His share is limited to the tutorial, though: everything that comes after, Phorus handles herself.

The voice that welcomes new Trainers

Phorus is the one who greets new arrivals on the island and explains what makes it special, before handing the actual tutorial over to Erbie. She sets the scene, her assistant demonstrates the moves: the opening scene is a two-person act.

She returns for the first five-on-five match to explain a mechanic unique to the game: evolution happens during the match, not before. Knocking out wild Pokémon and members of the opposing team earns experience, the levels stack up, and the Pokémon moves on to its next stage — Charmeleon in the example the tutorial uses.

Each level threshold also unlocks the choice of a new move, which she points out to the player as it comes up. She then moves on to the Beginner Challenge, an event just for new players: missions and their rewards are added over the course of a week, for a total duration of thirty days.

🔥 The Aeos roster fits on a shelf too: browse our Pokémon figures.

When the lab's discoveries become game systems

Phorus also introduces battle items, focusing less on what they are than on how to use them: their effects all differ, and pairing them correctly can swing the outcome of a match. It's as much a strategy lesson as a guided tour.

She saves her pride, though, for Energy Rewards, which she presents as her institute's latest discovery. The idea is to transmute the energy gathered in Unite Battles into randomly drawn items: what the player earns on the field goes back through the lab before returning to them.

Her experiments eventually spill beyond the institute's walls. She pinpoints a place where Aeos energy is especially powerful, the Theia Sky Ruins, which become a new stadium. A Metagross is in fact her own Pokémon: back when it was a Beldum, it played with her and the island's wild Pokémon, and it was thanks to it that she discovered Aeos energy; it has assisted her research ever since and can be seen on the tutorial's loading screen.

In Pokémon Horizons: the friend who calls Friede to the rescue

Phorus makes the jump from game to anime with Pokémon Horizons, where she makes her first on-screen appearance. The story introduces her as a colleague and friend of Friede, which immediately ties her to a crew viewers already follow.

The reason for her call is down-to-earth: one of the teams entered in a Unite Battle drops out at the last minute, and she needs replacements. Friede suggests the Rising Volt Tacklers, less to help her out than to give his crew a chance to discover this style of battle.

She then watches the match, which pits the Rising Volt Tacklers against the Shining Oceans. Her role there remains that of an organizer and an observer: in the anime as in the game, she sets the stage and lets the Trainers fill it.

Professor Phorus at a glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Who is Professor Phorus in Pokémon UNITE?
  She's the professor of Aeos Island. She heads the Aeos Research Institute, where she's also the chief researcher, and she welcomes the Trainers who arrive on the island.
• What does the Aeos Research Institute study?
  Aeos energy, a resource that's abundant on the island. Unite Battles draw on this energy, and the institute used it to create Energy Rewards, a system that transmutes it into random items.
• Who is Erbie?
  Professor Phorus's assistant. She hands the tutorial over to him after welcoming the player and explaining what makes Aeos Island special.
• Does Professor Phorus have a Pokémon team?
  She's credited with a Metagross. Back when it was a Beldum, it played with her and the wild Pokémon of Aeos Island, and it was thanks to it that she discovered Aeos energy; it has helped her with her research ever since and appears on the tutorial's loading screen.
• Which anime does she appear in?
  Pokémon Horizons. A friend of Friede's, she asks him to find her a team after a last-minute withdrawal, then watches the Unite Battle between the Rising Volt Tacklers and the Shining Oceans.

In short

Professor Phorus holds an unusual place among the series' professors: she doesn't send anyone off to explore a region, she explains a playing field. Welcoming newcomers, in-match evolution, battle items, Energy Rewards, all the way to the Theia Sky Ruins spotted during her experiments: every new feature on Aeos passes through her lab before it reaches players. Her arrival in Pokémon Horizons extends exactly the same role, that of the scientist who sets up the battle without ever stepping into it.