Pokerus

[Yero Thropp]

At least, I think that's what it was called.

I don't really feel like doing the research on it, seeing how I don't play the game anymore, but... story time!

So I was playing my Leaf Green, and I'd just beaten the Elite Four for the second time and I thought I'd go around and catch some pogeys. I wanted a Milotic, so I caught a Feebas. When I got to the Pokemon Center, and my pogey's were healed, Nurse Joy said something about one of my pogeys having a Pokerus. I checked the status of the Feebas, and sure enough it had "Pokerus" labeled to it.

Intrigued, I carried it around for a bit, checking up on my pogey's every so often. I suddenly noticed that another one of my pogeys also had the Pokerus. Alarmed, I went back to the Center (by then a third pogey was infected) and put the three of them in a separate box named "Pokerus."

That was a few months ago... I haven't gone back to it since. Actually, that's a lie; I went once, like last week, and sure enough the Pokerus guys are still infected.

So... what IS this thing?

[Orion]

Pokérus is a VERY rare occurrence in the Pokémon games, implemented since GSC.

Its effect? Pokérus doubles the Effort Points (EVs for short.) earned when you defeat a Pokémon in battle. Maybe you need a bit of info on this? If yes, let me know...

In short, Pokérus allows the infected Pokémon to grow their Stats further when training. It appears randomly in wild Pokémon, and getting it to infect your Pokémon is way rarer than finding a Shinny Pokémon (More than 1 in 8192 chances...).

Pokérus wears off one day after the Pokémon remains in your Team. If you deposit infected Pokémon in your PC, the Pokérus won't wear off. However, having the Pokérus Status in your Pokémon just allows it to be passed on to the other Pokémon in your Team (Just battle or walk... it'll eventually spread on your Team.). After the Pokérus wears off, you'll notice a small dot in their left Box of the Stats screen. This dot means that the Pokémon can't spread Pokérus anymore, but still has the Effort Points it gains in battles doubled.

Hope this helps.

EDIT: BTW, if you Trade a Pokémon with Pokérus to FR/LG, the Pokérus Status will never wear off due to the lack of internal clock in such game. However, the Virus won't spread. It'll only spread in Ruby, Sapphire or Emerald Versions. The infection capacity will wear off after one day in each of those versions, though.

[mr_pikachu]

Yeah. It''s basically an extremely rare thing that makes your Pokemon grow stronger faster. So, long story short, spread Pokerus to as many of your Pokemon as you can and always keep a few Pokerus-infected party members "hibernating" in your PC box so that you can continue the effect later.

And congrats on finding the Pokerus "virus". Make sure you don't let it go away!

[ECVlion]

I actually had PokéRus on my Gold version, although Nurse Joy only said that my pets were getting "stronger" and it was strange how she was acting weirdly.

It's probably just an implementation in RS that there's a dot next to your name?

In my Gold version my Feralligatr is rotting away in there -- still having it. Although I haven't done anything in Pokémon for a couple of years.

[MeLoVeGhOsTs]

I used to had it 5 times in a row. Every time I started a new game after 3 months, I had pokerus. It happend 5-8 times in a row, every time after I healed myself after defeating Pryce. I thought it was bad so I wanted to stop the virus as soon as possible, ofcourse I figured it out that it could spread so I wandered Johto with 1 pokemon on my party. Meh, silly me.

[rinku]

Yeah, I'm not so sure it's really that rare - after all, you can potentially catch it with every wild encounter, and you would not notice it if your party was all infected already. I've definitely caught it independantly twice now.

My guess would be a 1 in several thousand chance per wild encounter. Fortunately, unlike shinies, you only need one trading partner to get it in unlimited supply.

[Yero Thropp]

Nifty...

Thanks all!