Pokémon Physiology

Introduction

Pokémon, known in Japan as Pocket Monsters, are fictional creatures that serve as the foundation of the Pokémon franchise. New species are frequently introduced alongside the release of new games and related promotional material.

In the context of the Pokémon universe, the term "species" is used differently than in real world biology. In nature, a species typically refers to a group of organisms capable of producing fertile offspring, which does not align with how Pokémon breeding works. Additionally, real organisms do not change from one species to another, whereas Pokémon can undergo Evolution—a process that more closely resembles growth, development, or metamorphosis rather than biological evolution.

Each species has a capitalized name, such as "Pikachu." The species name is often used in the singular form to refer collectively to all members of that group, for example, "Pikachu is an Electric-type Pokémon." The plural form remains the same as the singular, such as "two Pikachu." In some early Pokémon media, incorrect plural forms like "Digletts" occasionally appeared.

Individual Pokémon are typically referred to by their species name as well, for instance, "Pikachu used Thunder Shock." However, some individual Pokémon are given nicknames instead.

In Japanese, Pokémon species names are written in katakana and also have official romanized forms. For example, Onix is written as イワーク (Iwark) in Japanese.

Abilities

GamesAnime

• Superhuman Physical Characteristics
  • Superhuman Strength (All wild Pokémon are considered such threats that it's noted to dodge attacks from them like their life depends on it, going out into the grass without a Pokémon is considered such a threat to humans that they need their own Pokémon for protection)
• Pressure Points (Critical hits are in actuality pressure point strikes, with the Japaense version noting "Hit a pressure point!")
• Helper Call (Pokémon can call for help from other Pokémon, its own species, or higher evolutions)
• Non-Standard Interaction
  • Spirit Interaction: Every Pokémon through the usage of struggle can harm even ghost type Pokémon.
• Non-Standard Damage (All Pokémon have a special attack stat, a stat different from physical attacks that ignores physical defense in place of special defense)
• Non-Standard Defenses (All Pokémon have a special defense stat, a stat different from physical defense made to defend against special attacks)
• Autopilot (Pokémon can avoid attacks even while they're sleeping. While fainted Pokémon can't fight, they can still use moves like cut)
• Evolution (Pokémon under correct conditions can evolve gaining new abilities that their previous form did not have)
• Aura (All people and Pokémon have an aura that characters like Lucario can sense)
• Acausality
  • Unfixed Causality: The future is not fixed and can be changed and altered by one's choices effectively countering premonitions and precognition.
• Supernatural Protection (The luminance light of Arceus guides and protects all Pokémon)
• Statistics Boost (When Pokémon use a move that is the same type as they are the move's power is increased by 50 percent)
• Pain Tolerance (Pokémon can take their pain being forcibly split without passing out, and can keep fighting despite being stabbed by spikes)
• Pierce Resistance
  • Standard Pierce Resistance: Pokémon can take constant hits from stabbing attacks without dying, such as horn attack, horn drill, crunch where the Pokémon use their sharp fangs, and more.
• Impact Resistance
  • Standard Impact Resistance: Pokémon can recover from being flattened)
• Accelerated Development
  • Battle & Leveling
    • Physical Stats & Abilities: Pokémon doing battle and winning will gain experience and level up becoming stronger and may learn new moves.
• Enhanced Senses (Pokémon are able to sense when the seasons change)
• Emotional Empowerment (Pokémon can have their attack greatly raise from anger but doing so may also confuse them. Pokémon can become enraged and greatly increase their stats)
• Purification (Pokémon can heal themselves from status effect put on them after several turns)
• Consumption (Pokémon can ingest items such as soda pops or eat food to regain health and recover from status effects)
• Chip Damage (Pokémon can chip away at each other's health overtime to eventually defeat the opponent)
• Escape Prevention (If a Pokémon becomes agitated one cannot flee)
• Size Manipulation (It is mentioned by Laventon that each and every Pokémon is able to shrink itself down to minuscule size)

• Superhuman Physical Characteristics
  • Superhuman Strength
• Statistics Boost (Pokémon can deal critical hits allowing them to one-shot opponents)
• Multilingualism (Pokémon can all speak to each other regardless of being different species or speaking different languages)
• Fusionism (Pokémon can fuse together attacks to increase the strength of them multiple Pokémon fusing their attacks together can even take down Legendary Pokémon)
• Emotional Empowerment (Pokémon's emotions can greatly increase the power of their attacks making it where they lower evolutions can even harm multiple higher evolutions)
• Impact Resistance (Pokémon can survive getting crushed and even return their body to normal after being flattened)
• Resurrection
  • Resurrection of Others: Pokémon's tears can restore life and vitality to one who has been killed or petrified.
• Aura (All humans and Pokémon have an aura
• Evolution (Under the correct conditions Pokémon can evolve gaining new abilities that their previous form did not have)
• Accelerated Development
  • Leveling
    • Physical Stats & Abilities: Pokémon can level up and learn new techniques and potentially even evolve getting stronger in the process. Through having much battle experience Pokémon can even easily beat those they have a disadvantage against

Resistances

GamesAnime

• Limited Resistance to
  • Absolute Zero (The move sheer cold causes Pokémon to only faint instead of die, which is noted to be a blast of absolute zero cold)
  • Fire Manipulation (Pokémon can take being burned and only faint from it)
  • Poison Manipulation (Pokémon will eventually cure itself of poison after being brought down to 1 HP or lose the poison status after fainting. Many poison type attacks such as Malignant Chain only has a chance of poisoning the user)
• Resistance to
  • Pressure Points (Pokémon can generally still keep fighting even after taking a critical hit)
  • Sealing (Pokémon normally require to be damaged or inflicted with status conditions to attempt to be caught only working after multiple attempts)
  • Sense Manipulation (Pokémon can eat Nomel Berries which are so sour that makes one bite impossible to taste for three days)
  • Ice Manipulation (It's noted to be difficult to freeze a Pokémon)
  • Acid Manipulation (Pokémon take no damage from moves like Gastro Acid and instead just have their abilities suppressed)
  • Emotion Manipulation (If a Pokémon becomes agitated, the ranger cannot convey their feelings of friendship as well, where the Capture Styler is a device Rangers can use to communicate their feelings to Pokémon to befriend them making them no longer dangerous)
  • Gravity Manipulation (Pokémon can still fight and perform moves while under intense gravity, only being restricted from flying and levitating)
  • Spirit Manipulation (Spirit Break at worst only makes a Pokémon faint where the move is made to break a Pokémon's spirit, lowering their special attack stat. Pokémon can take hits from Final Flicker, a burst attack where Chandelure consumes one's spirit)
  • Spatial Manipulation (Spacial Rend at worst only makes a Pokémon faint, where Palkia tears the foe along with the space around them being able to land critical hits more easily)
  • Time Manipulation (Roar of Time at worst only makes a Pokémon faint where Dialga blasts the target with power that distorts even time itself, though it cannot move on the next turn)
  • Black Hole Manipulation (Pokémon at worst faint from Gardevoir's black hole attacks, it is even noted in all of Gardevoir's Pokédex entries that they will create a small black hole to protect her trainer)
  • Distortion World (Pokémon can naturally exist and fight within the Distortion World). The Distortion World gives a resistance to the following:
    • Law Manipulation & Physics Manipulation (Cynthia describes the distortion world as "A world where the rules are broken". When describing the Reverse World in an interview, concepts such as E=mc^2, matter, and anti-matter where brought into the mind of Junichi Masuda)
      • Antimatter Manipulation
      • Gravity Manipulation
      • Matter Manipulation
      • Space-Time Manipulation
    • Space-Time Manipulation (Cyrus likens the Distortion World to existing on the other strand of DNA, where time doesn't flow and space isn't stable being opposite to the universe)

• Limited Resistance to
  • Paralysis Inducement (Pokémon can sometimes fight through paralysis)

• Resistance to
  • Extreme Heats (Pokémon can keep fighting even after having their entire body set on fire)
  • Sealing (While Pokémon can be caught in Pokéballs, they need to normally be weakened to ensure the success rate and even in these cases they can still break out)

Weaknesses

GamesAnime

• Pokémon being greatly angered causes them to be confused.
• The usage of struggle makes the Pokémon take recoil damage, even if they've barely damaged an opponent.
• Pokémon become too scared to move when dealing with an entity that cannot be ID'd.
• One Hit KO Moves do not work if the opponent is higher leveled.
• Startling a Pokémon in the middle of its evolution will cause it to not evolve.

Nothing notable.

Notes

GamesAnime

• In Generation 1 games, struggle was a normal type move that didn't work on ghost Pokémon and would do basically no damage to enemies that were resistant to such attacks however in Generations 2 and onward, struggle was a typeless move that did neutral damage to all Pokémon including ghost types. This effectively means the mechanics of struggle were soft retconned after generation 1 along with many of its other mechanics.

• The "Special" stats seem to not exist in the anime, with no noticeable mention of them. Moves do not seem to be split into special or physical either.

• Critical Hits work more like a stronger attack then mentioning pressure point strikes. Interestingly, a one-hit ko move like Gullotine was called a critical hit in the Japanese dub.

Explanations

Status Effects

The following is an explanation of the various status effects of Pokémon

Status Effects

Name Effect Apperances Burned Reduces one's physical attack and takes damage overtime from the burns. Usually caused by Fire type moves and generally lasts indefinitely unless an external item, ability like shed skin, or move like rest is used. In Generation 1, a burned Pokémon takes damage equal to 1/16 of its maximum health. In Generation 2, a burned Pokémon takes damage equal to 1/8 of its maximum health. In Generation 8 onward, a burned Pokémon takes damage equal to 1/16 of its maximum health. Burn status can be caused by the following moves: Beak Blast (if a Pokémon makes contact with the user of the move during the move's charging phase), Blaze Kick, Blazing Torque, Blue Flare, Burning Bulwark (If contact is made with the user of the move), Burning Jealously (If the Pokémon has increased stats during that turn), Ember, Fire Blast, Fire Fang, Fire Punch, Flame Wheel, Flamethrower, Flare Blitz, Fling (if holding a Flame Orb), Heat Wave, Ice Burn, Infernal Parade, Inferno, Matcha Gotcha, Lava Plume, Psycho Shift (If the user of the move is already inflicted with the burn status), Pyro Ball, Sacred Fire, Sandsear Storm, Scald, Scorching Sands, Searing Shot, Secret Power (when used on a volcano), Shadow Fire, Sizzly Slide, Steam Eruption, Tri Attack, and Will-O-Wisp. Most Pokémon Games Freeze Prevents any action in battle. Usually caused by Ice type moves and generally only lasts for multiple turns, they can be thawed out early if hit by a fire move. The thaw out chance ranges from generation, in Generation 2 the thaw out chance is a 25/256 chance. In Generation 3, the thaw out chance is 20% each turn. In Pokémon Champions, the thaw out chance is 25% each turn. In Generation 1, a frozen Pokémon cannot break out unless hit by a fire-type move that can inflict burn or if an opponent uses the move Haze. Frozen status can be caused by the moves: Blizzard, Freeze-Dry, Freezing Glare, Ice Beam, Ice Fang, Ice Punch, Powder Snow, Secret Power (when used in snow or ice weather), Shadow Chill, or Tri Attack. Most Pokémon Games Frostbite In Pokémon Legends: Arceus, the freeze status conditions is replcaaed with frostbite. Frostbite has the Pokémon lose 1/16 of their maximum health every turn and reduces damage dealt by a frostbitten Pokémon's special moves. Pokémon Legends: Arceus Paralysis Has a chance of preventing any action in battle and lowers speed stat. Usually caused by Electric type skills, it lasts indefinitely without external help, any ability like shed skin, or a move like rest. In later games, attacking a shocked enemy is guaranteed to cause a critical hit. Paralysis in general has a 25% chance of having a Pokémon be unable to attack asides from Pokémon Champions. In Generation 1, paralysis reduces a Pokemon's speed by 75% rounded down due to a stats modification glitch (along with this, using moves like agility would return the dropped speed to normal and double it and the speed drop would stay even after being cured of Paralysis using an item or through Rest). In Generation 2, the irregularities are fixed. In Generations 7 and 8 the paralysis reduces the Pokémon's speed by 50%. In Pokémon Legends: Z-A, the paralysis is changed to reduce the affected Pokémon's movement speed during battle. In Pokémon Champions, paralyzed Pokémon have a 12.5% chance to be fully paralyzed. The ability to paralyze can be done by the following moves: Body Slam, Bolt Strike, Bounce, Buzzy Buzz, Combat Torque, Dire Claw, Discharge, Dragon Breath, Fling (if holding a Light Ball), Force Palm, Freeze Shock, G-Max Befuddle, G-Max Stun Shock, G-Max Volt Crash, Glare, Lick, Nuzzle, Psycho Shift (if user of the attack is already paralyzed), Secret Power (When used on plain terrain, building floors, link battles, Sky Battles, Distortion World, or Electric Terrain is in effect), Shadow Bolt, Spark, Splishy Splash, Stoked Sparksurfer, Stun Spore, Thunder, Thunder Fang, Thunder Punch, Thunder Shock, Thunder Wave, Thunderbolt, Tri Attack, Volt Tackle, Wildbolt Storm, and Zap Cannon. Most Pokémon Games Poison Depletes health at the end of each turn, often persisting on the field. In Generation 1 a poisoned Pokémon takes damage equal to 1/16 of their maximum health at the end of every turn. A badly poisoned Pokémon still takes 1/16 of their maximum health at first, however the damage increases by 1/16 each time it takes poison damage. In Generation 2, the damage is lowered to 1/8 of its maximum damage and poison damage taken by a badly poisoned Pokémon doesn't interact with other types of recurrent damage. From Generation 1 to 4 all poisoned Pokémon in a trainer's party loses 1 HP for every four steps taken (in FireRed and LeafGreen it's instead every five steps). In Generation 1 to 3, the poison Pokémon will take poison damage until they faint. In Generation 4, a poisoned Pokémon's HP will be brought to 1 and then they will cure themself of poison. In Generation 5 to 8 poisoned Pokémon no longer take poison damage outside of battle. In Legends: Z-A, poisoned Pokémon take damage whil it is outside its Poké Ball. The moves that inflict poison are as follows: Baneful Bunker (If Pokémon makes contact with the user of the move), Barb Barrage, Cross Poison, Dire Claw, Fling (if holding Poison Barb), G-Max Befuddle, G-Max Malodor, G-Max Stun Shock, Gunk Shot, Mortal Spin, Noxious Toruqe, Poison Gas, Poison Jab, Poison Powder, Poison Sting, Poison Tail, Psychco Shift (if the user of the move is poisoned), Secret Power (When used in tall grass), Shell Side Arm, Sludge, Sludge Bomb, Sludge Wave, Smog, Toxic Spikes, Toxic Thread, and twineedle. Most Pokémon Games Confusion Confused Pokémon become indecisive and may either attack a random enemy or attack themself. In Generations 1-6 it was a 50% chance of the Pokémon hurting itself in confusion. In Generation 7 and onwards, it was a 33% chance of the Pokémon hurting itself in confusion. In Legends: Z-A, confusion causes the Pokémon to move sporadically. The following moves cause confusion: Axe Kick, Chatter, Confuse Ray, Confusion, Dizzy Punch, Dynamic Punch, Flatter, G-Max Gold Rush, G-Max Smite, Hurricane, Magical Torque, Psybeam, Rock Climb, Secret Power (only when used on a rocky surface), Shadow Panic, Signal Beam, Strange Steam, Supersonic, Swagger, Sweet Kiss, Teeter Dance, and Water Pulse. Most Pokémon Games Infatuation Infatuated Pokémon have a chance of not attacking the Pokémon they're infatuated with. There is a 50% chance of the move failing due to infatuation. The following moves cause infatuation: Attract and G-Max Cuddle. Most Pokémon Games Flinch The Pokémon flinches from an attack, costing them their turn. Only Pokémon with abilites like inner focus will prevent flinching. The following moves cause flinch: Air Slash, Astonish, Bite, Bone Club, Dark Pulse, Double Iron Bash, Dragon Rush, Extrasensory, Fake Out, Fiery Wrath, Fire Fang, Fling (only if King's Rock or or Razor Fang is held), Floaty Fall, Headbutt, Heart Stamp, Hyper Fang, Ice Fang, Icicle Crash, Iron Head, Low Kick, Mountain Gale, Needle Arm, Rock Slide, Rolling Kick, Secret Power (only in caves, rocky terrain, burial grounds, or in space), Sky Attack, Snore (Only if asleep), Steamroller, Stomp, Thunder Fang, Triple Arrows, Twister, Upper Hand, Waterfall, Zen Headbutt, and Zing Zap. Most Pokémon Games Sleep Prevents any action in battle. The Pokémon is asleep and will normally take some turns to wake up. In Generation 1, sleep lasts for 1-7 turns, with a 1/4 chance to wake up turn 1 and a 1/8 chance to wake up in 2-6 turns. In Generation 2 sleep lasts 2-8 turns, the Pokémon has a 1/4 chance oto wake up in 2 turns or 5 turns and a 1/8 chanc eot wake up in 3 turns, 4 turns, 6 turns, or 7 turns. In Generation 3 sleep lasts 2-5 turns. In Generation 5, sleep now lasts 2-4 turns. In Pokémon Champions, sleep now lasts 2-3 turns. The following moves cause sleep: Dark Void, Dire Claw, G-Max Befuddle, G-Max Snooze, Grass Whistle, Hypnosis, Lovely Kiss, Psycho Shift (if user is asleep), Relic Song, Rest, Secret Power (only in long grass, tall grass, or grassy terrain being in affect), Sing, Sleep Powder, Spore, Wicked Torque, and Yawn. Most Pokémon Games Drowsy The replacement for the sleep status in the Legends games. It has a chance of the afflicted Pokémon being unable to move along with taking increased damage from attacks. Pokémon Legends: Arceus and Pokémon Legends: Z-A Fainted Can no longer participate in battle. In most games, if the all Pokémon faint, the trainer whites out and returns back to their last save with some of their money gone. Can only be recovered with revives, healing at a bed or Pokémon Center, or through specific moves. Most Pokémon Games Wrap Prevents any action from a unit until the wrap ends. Pokémon Generation 1