Pokémon Status Conditions Explained: Burn, Sleep and More

Not every battle is won by raw damage. A well-timed Thunder Wave or Will-O-Wisp can cripple a threat that your attacks can't touch. Pokémon status conditions are some of the most powerful tools in the game. Understanding exactly what each one does, and who is immune to it, helps you use them well and avoid them.

This guide covers each major status condition, the temporary conditions that wear off, and the abilities, items, and moves that interact with them.

Major Status Conditions: The Basics

There are five major status conditions: burn, paralysis, poison, sleep, and freeze. Poison also has a stronger version, called bad poison, caused by the move Toxic.

A few rules apply to all of them:

• A Pokémon can only have one major status condition at a time. A paralyzed Pokémon can't also be burned.
• Major status conditions stay when the Pokémon switches out, and most last until cured.
• Some types are immune to certain conditions, which is one of the most important things to remember when planning your moves.

Burn

A burned Pokémon:

• Loses 1/16 of its maximum HP at the end of every turn.
• Has the damage from its physical moves halved.

That second effect is what makes burn so strong. A burned physical attacker loses half its power, so Will-O-Wisp is one of the best answers to a strong physical attacker.

Who is immune: Fire-type Pokémon can't be burned.

Watch out for: Pokémon with the ability Guts get a 50% Attack boost when they have a status condition and ignore the burn penalty. Burning a Guts Pokémon makes it stronger.

Paralysis

A paralyzed Pokémon:

• Has its Speed halved.
• Has a 25% chance to be unable to move each turn.

Paralysis is great for slowing down fast threats. It lets your team outspeed Pokémon it normally couldn't, and the chance of full paralysis can swing a close battle.

Who is immune: Electric-type Pokémon can't be paralyzed. Ground-type Pokémon are not immune to paralysis itself, but they are immune to Thunder Wave, since it's an Electric-type move.

Poison and Bad Poison

A regularly poisoned Pokémon loses 1/8 of its maximum HP each turn.

A badly poisoned Pokémon, usually from Toxic, starts by losing 1/16 of its maximum HP. The damage increases by another 1/16 every turn: 2/16, 3/16, 4/16, and so on. If the Pokémon switches out, the damage counter resets to 1/16 when it comes back, but it stays badly poisoned.

Toxic is one of the best moves against defensive Pokémon that heal themselves, because the growing damage eventually outpaces their healing.

Who is immune: Poison-type and Steel-type Pokémon can't be poisoned. The one exception is a Pokémon with the ability Corrosion, which can poison them anyway.

Watch out for: Pokémon with Poison Heal recover HP each turn while poisoned instead of losing it.

Sleep

A sleeping Pokémon can't use moves for one to three turns. A few moves, like Sleep Talk and Snore, can only be used while asleep.

Sleep is extremely powerful, since it can take an opponent out of the battle for several turns. Because of that, many competitive formats use a Sleep Clause, which prevents a player from putting more than one of the opponent's Pokémon to sleep at a time.

The move Rest puts the user to sleep on purpose for two turns, but it fully restores its HP and cures any other status condition.

Who is immune: Grass-type Pokémon are immune to powder moves, including Spore and Sleep Powder. They can still be put to sleep by other moves, like Hypnosis or Yawn.

Freeze

A frozen Pokémon can't use moves. Each turn, it has a 20% chance to thaw out. It also thaws instantly if it's hit by a Fire-type move, or if it uses certain Fire-type moves itself, like Flare Blitz or Scald.

No move causes freeze as its main effect. It only happens as a random side effect of some Ice-type moves, which have a small chance to freeze. Because of this, freeze is unpredictable and rare.

Who is immune: Ice-type Pokémon can't be frozen.

Temporary Conditions

Some conditions wear off over time or when the Pokémon switches out. These can stack with a major status condition.

• Confusion lasts two to five turns. Each turn, the confused Pokémon has a chance to hit itself instead of using its move.
• Flinching stops a Pokémon from moving for one turn. It can only happen if the opponent moves first, usually from moves like Fake Out or Iron Head.
• Infatuation gives a Pokémon a 50% chance to be unable to move each turn, but only works on a Pokémon of the opposite gender.
• Leech Seed drains 1/8 of the target's maximum HP each turn and gives it to the user's side. Grass-type Pokémon are immune.

Abilities That Interact with Status

Several abilities change how status conditions work:

• Guts: boosts Attack by 50% when the Pokémon has a status condition.
• Magic Guard: prevents all indirect damage, including burn and poison damage.
• Poison Heal: heals the Pokémon each turn while it's poisoned.
• Natural Cure: cures the Pokémon's status condition when it switches out.
• Synchronize: passes burn, paralysis, or poison back to the Pokémon that caused it.

Before using a status move, check the target's possible abilities on its database page.

Moves That Work Around Status

Some moves become stronger because of status conditions:

• Facade doubles in power when the user is burned, paralyzed, or poisoned, and ignores the burn damage penalty.
• Hex doubles in power when the target has a status condition.

These moves let a team turn the opponent's statuses, or even its own, into an advantage.

How to Prevent and Cure Status

• Lum Berry cures any status condition once.
• Heal Bell and Aromatherapy cure the status conditions of the whole team.
• Safeguard protects the user's team from status conditions for five turns.
• Misty Terrain prevents status conditions for Pokémon on the ground. Electric Terrain prevents sleep for Pokémon on the ground.

Final Thoughts

Status conditions can turn a losing matchup into a winning one. Burn shuts down physical attackers, paralysis slows fast threats, Toxic wears down defensive walls, and sleep takes a Pokémon out of action. The key is knowing which types are immune and which abilities turn a status into an advantage.

Look up any Pokémon on Pokemondatabase.com to check its types and abilities before deciding which status move to use against it.

Related Pokémon Guides

• Pokémon Type Chart Guide: how type matchups, STAB and immunities work
• Pokémon Stats, IVs, EVs and Natures: how base stats, IVs, EVs and natures build a stronger Pokémon
• Pokémon Held Items Guide: the best held items and when to use them
• Pokémon Weather and Terrain Guide: how weather and terrain change a battle
• Pokémon Abilities Guide: the best abilities and how they shape matchups
• How to Build a Competitive Pokémon Team: a step-by-step team building process

Looking something up? Browse the full Pokémon pages, type pages, move pages, item pages, ability pages and location pages on Pokemondatabase.com.