Status Conditions in Battle: Burn, Poison, Paralysis, and the Rest

A Pokémon battle is never won on raw damage alone. A burn halves a giant's strength, a speck of powder puts the favorite to sleep, and the whole match swings in a single turn. Status conditions are the quietest levers in the game, and the most decisive ones: here is exactly what each one inflicts, how long it lasts, and what clears it.

Contents

• Two families of status conditions, one golden rule
• Burn: two punishments in one
• Poison: poisoned or badly poisoned, two different worlds
• Paralysis: slowed down, and sometimes stopped cold
• Sleep: the status that freezes a strategy
• Freeze: rare, brutal, and replaced in Legends
• Confusion: hurting yourself
• Infatuation: the charm that kills your momentum
• Healing: berries, items and moves
• Preventing, and sometimes choosing your own status
• Status conditions at a glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

Two families of status conditions, one golden rule

The games separate non-volatile status conditions — burn, freeze, paralysis, poison, sleep — from what are called volatile status conditions, like confusion or infatuation. The difference is not cosmetic: a Pokémon can carry only one non-volatile status at a time, and it keeps that status once the battle is over.

Volatile status conditions, on the other hand, evaporate as soon as the Pokémon leaves the field or the battle ends. That is why simply switching your Pokémon out is enough to clear up confusion, whereas poisoning will follow you all the way to the nearest Pokémon Center.

That persistence comes with a tasty upside: every non-volatile status triggers the Ability Guts, which raises Attack by 50% instead of suffering from it. The same reasoning applies to Quick Feet, which turns paralysis into a speed boost.

👟 Quick Feet turns paralysis into a speed boost: at home, the pace is set one notch lower, down at the level of the Pokémon shoes you slip on every morning.

Finally, a status is never read on its own: it works together with the type chart and with the opposing Abilities. A well-placed poison is often worth more than one more super effective move.

Burn: two punishments in one

Burn hits on two fronts. It halves the damage of physical moves used by the affected Pokémon, and costs it one sixteenth of its maximum HP at the end of every turn.

That chip damage used to be one eighth of HP up through Generation VI; Generation VII cut it in half, which turned burn into a control tool rather than a countdown. Against a physical attacker like Machamp, it is the drop in power that hurts, not the chip damage.

Fire-type Pokémon have been naturally immune to it since Generation III: there is no point hoping to burn Charizard. The Abilities Water Veil and Water Bubble give other species the same protection.

Burn is not limited to Fire-type moves: Scald, Steam Eruption, Ice Burn, Scorching Sands and Tri Attack can all inflict it. And the Ability Flame Body has a one-in-three chance of burning any opponent who dares to make contact.

Poison: poisoned or badly poisoned, two different worlds

Regular poison takes away one eighth of maximum HP at the end of every turn. It is steady, predictable, and it is often enough to bring down an opponent who was counting on staying in for four or five turns.

Bad poison, the kind Toxic inflicts, follows a different logic: it starts at one sixteenth of HP, then moves to two sixteenths, three sixteenths, and so on. The longer the Pokémon holds on, the higher the bill climbs — this is the weapon of stall strategies.

Switching the Pokémon out does not cure it, but it resets the counter: bad poison starts over at one sixteenth when it comes back to the field. It turns into ordinary poison once the battle is over.

Poison and Steel types are immune, except against the Corrosion Ability of Salazzle, which can poison even the unpoisonable. The Ability Immunity, carried notably by Snorlax, shuts the door on poisoning altogether.

Outside battle, poison has lost most of its bite: it ate away HP every four steps in the first three generations, stopped at 1 HP in the fourth, and has done nothing at all since the fifth.

Paralysis: slowed down, and sometimes stopped cold

Paralysis halves Speed and makes the Pokémon lose its turn one time in four. Before Generation VII, the penalty was even harsher: Speed was cut to a quarter.

Losing the initiative changes an entire battle. A paralyzed Alakazam stops being a sprinter and becomes a target, which explains the lasting popularity of Thunder Wave in competitive play.

As of Generation VI, Electric-type Pokémon are immune to it, and so are those with the Ability Limber. A good part of the Electric roster gained a valuable safeguard from it.

Watch out for backlash as well: the Abilities Static and Effect Spore paralyze an attacker who strikes by contact, and Synchronize sends paralysis right back at whoever inflicted it.

Sleep: the status that freezes a strategy

A sleeping Pokémon can no longer use anything, except Snore and Sleep Talk. It also becomes ideal prey for Dream Eater and Nightmare, two moves that only work on a sleeping target.

The duration has varied a lot: from one to seven turns in the first two generations, one to four in the third and fourth, then one to three turns since the fifth. In other words, modern sleep is something you sit through, but it is no longer a death sentence.

The undisputed king of sleep moves is still Spore, flawless at 100% accuracy, learned among others by Paras and Parasect. Sing and Sleep Powder, by contrast, top out at around 55 to 75% accuracy.

Three safeguards exist: the Abilities Insomnia and Vital Spirit, and Electric Terrain, which keeps any grounded Pokémon from falling asleep. The move Rest, meanwhile, deliberately puts its user to sleep for two turns in exchange for full HP.

😴 The move Rest puts its user to sleep for two full turns and restores all of its HP in the same stroke: you use the same method every night, and our Pokémon pajamas are the regulation outfit for it.

Freeze: rare, brutal, and replaced in Legends

Freeze is the only status that prevents a Pokémon from acting entirely, with no announced duration. Each turn, the Pokémon has about a one-in-five chance of breaking free, which makes it the most frustrating status in the game — and the rarest to see in official battles.

Any Fire-type move thaws its target, and about ten moves thaw their own user: Flame Wheel, Flare Blitz, Sacred Fire, Fusion Flare, Scald, Steam Eruption, Hydro Steam, Scorching Sands and Matcha Gotcha.

Ice-type Pokémon cannot be frozen, and almost every freezing move is Ice-type — with the famous Tri Attack as the exception. That is what makes the status so hard to trigger on purpose.

In Pokémon Legends: Arceus, freeze gives way to frostbite, designed as the special-side equivalent of burn: it halves the damage of special moves and deals damage every turn. It sets in more easily in snow, and Ice types are spared.

Confusion: hurting yourself

Confusion lasts one to four turns and, each turn, the Pokémon has a one-in-three chance of hurting itself instead of attacking. That risk was one in two up through Generation VI: the games clearly softened the penalty.

The hit a confused Pokémon deals to itself is calculated as a typeless physical move with 40 power, and it can never be a critical hit. So it is not the damage that counts, but the turn you lose.

Confuse Ray guarantees it, Water Pulse causes it now and then. On the other side, the Ability Own Tempo makes a Pokémon completely immune to confusion, and switching your Pokémon out clears it instantly since it is a volatile status.

Infatuation: the charm that kills your momentum

An infatuated Pokémon has a one-in-two chance of not attacking. The move Attract only works between two Pokémon of opposite genders, though, which makes it a gamble: against a genderless species like Metagross, it fails every single time.

Three counters exist: the Abilities Oblivious and Aroma Veil, and the item Mental Herb. The effect also stops dead the moment either of the two Pokémon leaves the field or faints.

A small subtlety for rules collectors: the item Destiny Knot infatuates the user of Attract at the same time as its target. The charm then becomes perfectly mutual, and just as crippling.

Healing: berries, items and moves

Berries are the most elegant answer, because they go off on their own. Cheri Berry for paralysis, Chesto Berry for sleep, Pecha Berry for poison, Rawst Berry for burn, Aspear Berry for freeze and Persim Berry for confusion.

🍓 Pecha Berry for poisoning, Rawst Berry for burns: here, the cure is something you bite into, and your own supplies travel in one of our Pokémon lunch bags.

One berry replaces them all: the Lum Berry, which clears any status change at all. It is the most universal held item in the game, and the first instinct of any Trainer putting together a tournament team.

In your bag, every status has its cure — Antidote, Burn Heal, Ice Heal, Paralyze Heal, Awakening — while Full Heal and Full Restore clear everything at once. In double battles or team play, the move Heal Bell cures the whole team with a single ring of the bell.

Two options often go unnoticed: Safeguard, which makes the team immune for five turns, and the Ability Natural Cure, which cures the Pokémon the moment it is switched out. Enough to turn a pivot into a walking infirmary.

Preventing, and sometimes choosing your own status

The best protection is still typing. Fire against burn, Ice against freeze, Electric against paralysis as of Generation VI, Poison and Steel against poison: four free immunities that shape the way you build a team.

Terrains round out the picture: Misty Terrain shields every grounded Pokémon from the slightest status, confusion included. A radical choice when you are worried about a poison-based team.

Some Trainers go further and deliberately inflict a status on themselves. A Pokémon holding a Flame Orb or a Toxic Orb with the Ability Guts gains 50% Attack, while becoming immune to the status the opponent was hoping to land.

That is where status conditions stop being a punishment and become a mechanic in their own right — just like the move categories. To carry the collection beyond the screen, the shop groups its figures and plush toys by character.

Status conditions at a glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• How many status conditions can a Pokémon have at the same time?
  Only one non-volatile status at a time: burn, freeze, paralysis, poison or sleep. It can, however, stack that non-volatile status with volatile ones like confusion or infatuation.
• What's the difference between regular poison and bad poison?
  Regular poison removes one-eighth of maximum HP at the end of every turn. Bad poison starts at one-sixteenth, then climbs by another one-sixteenth each turn; the counter resets to one-sixteenth if the Pokémon is switched out.
• How long does sleep last?
  One to three turns since the fifth generation, versus one to seven turns in the first two and one to four in the third and fourth. The move Rest puts its user to sleep for exactly two turns.
• Which types are immune to status conditions?
  Fire types can't be burned, Ice types can't be frozen, Poison and Steel types can't be poisoned, and Electric types can no longer be paralyzed as of the sixth generation.
• Does burn really lower Attack?
  It halves the damage of physical moves and removes one-sixteenth of maximum HP per turn, versus one-eighth up through the sixth generation. The Ability Guts cancels that penalty and even raises Attack by 50%.
• How much damage does confusion deal?
  A confused Pokémon hurts itself one time in three since the seventh generation, with a hit calculated as a typeless physical move with 40 power, which can never land a critical hit.
• How do you cure a status condition without an item?
  Just stop by a Pokémon Center, use Heal Bell or Rest in battle, or switch out a Pokémon with the Ability Natural Cure. Volatile conditions like confusion clear on their own when you switch Pokémon.

In short

Status conditions are the invisible layer of Pokémon battles: they almost never win a turn on their own, but they set the pace, the attack order, and the moment your opponent has to change plans. Remembering four numbers — one-eighth for poison, one-sixteenth for burn, one time in four for paralysis, one time in three for confusion — is already enough to read a battle differently.

The rest comes down to anticipation: a well-chosen Berry, an Ability that shuts the door, a type that makes the condition impossible. That's the quiet preparation that separates a thrown-together team from a team with a plan.