So how rare/what is pokerus?

[SimpliDelirious]

Decided to randomly run through the grass at the beginning of my game looking for shiny pokemon because, well, why not, and I came across this beauty.

Spoiler

I didn't notice it was pokerus until I checked it out, and both me and my boyfriend were both confused. Nonetheless, I continued on with my game and watched it spread, but never fully understood the concept or how rare it is. Can someone explain to me what it actually does in this game or how rare it is?

[Mechathulhu]

Pokerus is ultimately a doubled effort value increase on your Pokemon, any stat gains you would earn on level up from the Pokemon you defeat is doubled. Hope that clears it up for you!

[SimpliDelirious]

oh my goodness, really? That's awesome, thank you!~

But does it have any down sides to it?

[Mechathulhu]

Yes, it can be cured if not preserved by putting it in a PC Box, there is a chance it could be cured in 1-4 days, but leaving an infected Pokerus mon in your party can cure it. The useful nature of this virus is that as long as you do the work as soon as possible you can earn any and all effort values before it gets cured, if not, just be careful not to leave it in your party overnight if you REALLY want to keep it. Also, it can spread to other Pokemon in your party, so if you want other Pokemon to have the doubled effort value gains, just fight alongside the infected Pokemon and it will spread eventually. Always nice to give it to a mon that you won't always use so you won't forget to store it for later infecting more Pokemon with it you desire to have the same effect on later

[SimpliDelirious]

Ahhh that's all really good advice  Yah all the pokemon in my party have it as well right now, I didn't know if could be cured if left in your party though! That's really useful information to have, I'll definitely use it towards preserving it somehow

[Cyrikyty]

Pokerus doubles EV's gained from defeating any other pokemon, to be precise, its a free Macho Brace. Also, even if it gets cured, which the games portray as the Pokemon becoming immune to it, it still doubles the EV gains after that, any mon that has been infected has it forever. However, it can only spread to other Pokemon in your party (specifically, the ones next to it in the party list), if it is in its active state. So it definetly IS useful to infect some random mon you dont really intend to use, and store that in the PC so you can use it to infect more mons in the future. It doesnt have any downsides, and at least in the official games, it has (roughly) a 1 in 21845 chance to appear on any wild pokemon, so its rarer than shinies, but it can infect your party without you catching the pokemon.

These chances are probably massively increased for Reborn, similar to its much higher shiny rate.

Edited December 7, 2017 by Cyrikyty