Pokemon Legends Arceus: What Status Effects Have Changed?

Whether you’re a Pokemon series veteran or relatively new to the game, chances are you’re familiar with how Status Effects work in this game so far.  There are classics like Poison or Paralysis, but Pokemon Legends Arceus added to its many changes for the series formula by changing up two status effects in a big way.  No ailments have been outright removed, but the developers appear to have made some tweaks that made the game fairer with regards to how status effects are used.  Read more in our guide on What Status Effects Have Changed in Pokemon Legends Arceus!

Pokemon Legends Arceus: What Status Effects Have Changed?

The two Status Effects that were changed in this Pokemon are the ones formerly known as Sleep and Freeze, being changed to Drowsy and Frostbite respectively.  Furthermore, we’ve provided the differences in how these ailments affect your Pokemon in battle, and whether they’re reasonable changes.

Sleep as a Status meant that any afflicted Pokemon would be unable to move (except if they use Sleep Talk or Snore) for up to 5 turns, and could be inflicted on an opponent using Sleep Powder, Hypnosis, or Spore with reasonable accuracy, 75-100%.  Drowsy appears to resemble Paralysis in that instead of your Pokemon being unable to use most moves for up to 5 turns, they’ll randomly be unable to use Moves on their turn but also take more damage from attacks.  Moves that inflict Drowsy include older Sleep moves like Rest and Darkrai’s Dark Void but also Sneaseler’s Dire Claw move.

Freeze Status was traditionally inflicted as a 10% chance when Pokemon used moves like Ice Beam or Blizzard, for a period of up to 7 turns in which they aren’t able to use moves.  There was the possibility that afflicted Pokemon could thaw out as early as the turn after they got frozen but no guarantees.  Frostbite appears to function more like Burn, in that instead of being unable to move, the affected Pokemon would lose 1/16 of their max HP each turn, and their Special Attack stat would see a 50% drop.  The aforementioned Ice moves can still inflict Frostbite, as does Bitter Malice, a new move used by Hisuian Zoroark.

When asked about these conditions, a variety of players have listed complaints for years in both casual and competitive circles.  For Sleep, players were bothered by the fact that it is very easy for trainers to abuse moves like Sleep Powder or Spore with a reasonable success rate to put their opponents’ entire teams to Sleep and win the game.  This famously resulted in the Sleep Clause which dictates that each player in battle may only have one Pokemon with Sleep status, and has made an appearance as early as in the Pokemon Stadium games.  Freeze as a Status has been an embattled topic, with players on either side of the issue either wanting it to have a higher rate of occurrence, while people opposed referring to how getting Freeze can ruin matches and halts all momentum, empowering luck over skill.

Thankfully, since Pokemon Legends Arceus does not appear to have PvP battles anytime soon, this won’t be as much of a concern but does raise questions about how these new Status conditions could affect competitive play if they appear in future games.

This concludes our guides on What Status Effects Have Changed in Pokemon Legends Arceus!  Be sure to check out our other guides below and enjoy your adventures in the Hisui Region!