Pokémon Legends: Arceus was released last month after much fanfare and hype. It is the latest installment in the Pokémon series and takes a much different turn than its predecessors do in terms of storytelling and game mechanics.
The game takes place in the ancient Hisui region, which would become modern-day Sinnoh. Fighting and capturing Pokémon is drastically different with battles taking place on the overworld instead of turn-based instance battles, as was the staple of the series thus far.
Status conditions have always been there since the first generation of Pokémon games, with very little variation. That is, until Pokémon Legends: Arceus.
Status Conditions
There are two types of ways to affect enemy Pokémon in battle: dealing damage and inflicting stat/status changes.
For the latter, status changes apply to a few types of moves that change a Pokémon’s normal condition to one of 5 different states:
- Poisoned
- Paralyzed
- Burned
- Frostbitten
- Drowsy
Of these status conditions, observant players may have noticed that a couple of them have been altered. The Freeze condition was changed to Frostbite, and the Sleep condition was changed to Drowsy.
New mechanics for status conditions
There are a few changes to how the newer status conditions function. The Frostbite mechanic is a counterpart to the Burn mechanic, making the Pokémon take damage every turn and lowering their Special Attack. Meanwhile, the Drowsy mechanic is a fresh take altogether.
Drowsy is reminiscent of the Confusion mechanic from older Pokémon games, except without the part where the Pokémon damages themselves. They may become unable to attack on their own and they also take increased damage for the duration of the effect.
Since Drowsy has replaced the Sleep mechanic altogether in Pokémon Legends: Arceus, there is no known way to make Pokémon fall asleep anymore in this game.
Published: Feb 7, 2022 03:13 am