Pokérus
Pokérus (a portmanteau of "Pokémon" and "virus") is a rare, beneficial status that a Pixelmon can carry. It has no harmful effects: while a Pixelmon is infected, the effort values (EVs) it earns from battle are doubled, which makes Pokérus highly valuable for training. An infection lasts a limited time before the Pixelmon is marked as cured, and it can spread to other party members after a battle.
Effect
While a Pixelmon has an active Pokérus infection, every EV it gains from a battle is doubled. This roughly halves the time required to fully EV-train a Pixelmon and is the main reason the status is sought after.
The bonus stacks with EV-boosting held items. The bonus from a Macho Brace or a power item (such as the Power Weight) is calculated first, and the resulting EV yield is then doubled by Pokérus. Pokérus affects nothing other than EV gain and never harms the Pixelmon.
Strains
When a Pixelmon becomes infected it is assigned one strain at random. The strain only determines how long the infection stays active — overall, an infection lasts between 1 and 4 days — and has no other effect.
| Strain | Infection length |
|---|---|
A
|
1 day |
B
|
2 days |
C
|
3 days |
D
|
4 days |
A Pixelmon that has never been infected uses the internal UNINFECTED marker. The infected and cured states reuse the same strain name.
Acquisition
From wild Pixelmon
Newly spawned wild Pixelmon have a small chance to already carry Pokérus. The global chance is 1 in 12,288 (0.0081%) per spawn, so finding an infected Pixelmon by chance is very uncommon.
Individual spawns and spawn sets can also define their own Pokérus rates that override the global chance, though none currently do so in the loaded spawn data.
Spreading after battle
Spreading is the most reliable way to obtain Pokérus, since it lets an existing infection move through a whole team. After a player wins a battle, an infected Pixelmon in the party can pass Pokérus to the Pixelmon in the adjacent party slots, and an attacker can also catch it from a target it strikes that already has the status.
A Pixelmon is skipped if it has fainted or already carries Pokérus. A Pixelmon that has been cured cannot be re-infected, so an infected, uncured Pixelmon is needed to keep spreading the status.
On this server each eligible neighbour has a 1 in 5 (20%) chance to catch the status after a qualifying battle.
Commands and Pokémon Specs
Pokérus can be applied or matched directly through a Pokémon Spec using pokerus:<strain> or pkrs:<strain>, where <strain> is one of UNINFECTED, A, B, C, D. This is mainly useful to server operators and for command-based testing.
Duration and curing
The infection timer only counts down while the Pixelmon is in a player's party. Pixelmon stored in the PC do not age, and eggs are ignored entirely and never carry Pokérus. Because of this, storing an infected Pixelmon in the PC preserves the infection indefinitely, letting it be re-introduced to a new team later.
Once the timer reaches the strain's duration, the Pixelmon is cured. A cured Pixelmon keeps a record of having had Pokérus but can no longer spread it to others.
Notification
The first time a Pixelmon in the party is found to be carrying Pokérus, the next healer the player uses announces it, so the status does not have to be checked Pixelmon by Pixelmon.
The healer dings at you, and an automated message plays.
Your Pixelmon appear to have been infected by Pokérus, a microscopic life-form that we do not know much about just yet.
It spreads quickly, but does not seem to cause any harm.
It has, on occasion, even proven to be beneficial to a Pixelmon's growth, though infections seem to be short-lived.
Server settings
Pokérus behaviour is controlled by the values below, which reflect the current server configuration. Operators can adjust them in config/pixelmon/pokerus.yml.
| Setting | Current value | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Enabled | Yes | Whether or not the Pokérus is enabled. This blocks the growth, the spread and the spawning of the Pokérus. |
| Wild appearance rate | 1 in 12,288 (0.0081%) | Pokérus spawn rate (1/x). (0 to disable) |
| Healer notification | Yes | Whether or not the player should be informed if their Pixelmon got Pokérus. |
| Battle spread rate | 1 in 5 (20%) | Chance to spread the Pokérus to the near Pixelmon after a battle. (1/x) (-1 to disable; 0 to keep always active) |