Pokemon Radio: Trainer Teacher (2)

Hosts: Youngjae and Daehyun

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Youngjae: We're back with another episode of...

Together: Trainer Teacher!

Cottonee: Nee!

Daehyun: That's right. Today, we're going to talk about status ailments.

Youngjae: Oh, status ailments? Didn't Himchan and Jonguppie talk about that in Item Instructor already?

Daehyun: Well, it's not like they covered everything. But honestly, status ailments are self-explanatory.

Youngjae: Ah, but not quite. You see, some our listeners may not know exactly how these status ailments affect our Pokemon's battling ability.

Daehyun: Huh? What do you mean?

Youngjae: Well, let's go over the basics first. What are the status ailments, Daehyun?

Daehyun: Uh...let's see. There's Poison, Burn, Freeze, Paralysis, Sleep, Confusion and...is Infatuation counted?

Youngjae: Uh...yeah, sure. Let's count that.

Daehyun: So, for Poison, there are two types of poison. One's the normal Poison, and the other is Badly Poisoned.

Youngjae: So what's the difference?

Daehyun: Remember that Marowak, it was Badly Poisoned. The longer you go without curing it, it gets worse and worse. But for the normal Poison status, you'll just take the same amount of damage as the battle drags on.

Youngjae: Ah, I see. Poison's really a , huh?

Daehyun: Yeah. But it's not Poison I hate the most...okay, let's move on.

Youngjae: The next one is...Burn!

Daehyun: Right. Because of moves like Ember or Will-o-wisp or Scald, your Pokemon might get Burned. Basically, the burn will keep on hurting until you get rid of it.

Youngjae: Ouch, that sounds painful.

Daehyun: Yeah, and that's not all. Did you know that if your Pokemon is burned, you'll do less damage with your physical attacks?

Youngjae: Oh, really?

Daehyun: Yeah, that's why if you're up against a Pokemon that uses a lot of physical moves, you should try to Burn it.

Youngjae: Is there another status ailment that hinders a Pokemon's ability to fight?

Daehyun: Well, there is always Paralysis. If a Pokemon is paralysed, they might not attack sometimes, because, you know, they are paralysed.

Youngjae: Ah, that sounds painful too. Cubone, I hope you'd never be paralysed.

Cubone: Cu?

Daehyun: Cubone can't get paralysed unless it attacks a Pokemon with the Static ability or something.

Youngjae: There's always Stun Spore move and Effect Spore ability, bro.

Daehyun: Ah, that's right.

Youngjae: Paralysis not only sometimes disables the Pokemon's ability to attack, it greatly lowers their Speed, so Pokemon may be more sluggish when paralysed.

Daehyun: Ah, I see.

Youngjae: And unlike Poison and Burn, Paralysis doesn't actually hurt your Pokemon, other than making them slower.

Daehyun: What about Sleep?

Youngjae: Sleep? Ah. If a Pokemon's Asleep, then they can't attack until they wake up. Get this, Pokemon don't wake up even after being attacked! That's how potent the Sleep status is!

Daehyun: Oh, damn.

Youngjae: But not to fear! There are some moves that only work when your Pokemon has the Sleep condition. Like, Rest actually puts the Pokemon to sleep, but you recover all your health and get rid of all your status ailments at the same time. Pretty nifty, but now you can't attack.

Daehyun: Then what? Isn't it pretty useless if I can't attack?

Youngjae: I mean, you can use stuff like Snore and Sleep Talk, so no, it's not actually useless. Snore and Sleep Talk don't work unless the user is Asleep.

Daehyun: There are some moves that can only be used on the opponent if they're asleep, right?

Youngjae: Yes, that's right. Dream Eater only works if the opponent is asleep. And Wake-Up Slap deals more damage when the opponent is Asleep, not to mention that it'll wake that Pokemon right up.

Daehyun: There are some abilities that prevent Pokemon from sleeping too, like Insomnia and Vital Spirit.

Youngjae: Oh yeah, there are moves like that too, like Uproar and Worry Seed.

Daehyun: Ah. Hmm, that's all for Sleep, I guess.

Youngjae: Okay, let's move on to Freeze!

Daehyun: I rarely see Freeze, though.

Youngjae: Huh, you're right. I rarely see Freeze too. Unless you're fighting against Ice-types.

Daehyun: Or a Pokemon using a move like Blizzard.

Youngjae: Oh yeah. Freeze basically prevents your Pokemon from moving. I mean, you could try moving when they're encased in a block of ice.

Daehyun: It sounds cold.

Youngjae: Yeah. Cold is right. It's like Sleep, but not quite. You can cure it with an Ice Heal, or an Aspear Berry, and you can even hurt it with a Fire-type attack and it'll cure it.

Daehyun: Not all Fire-type attacks can cure it. Only fire attacks that can inflict Burn. Can you even freeze a Fire-type?

Youngjae: You can, actually. But if it knows moves like Flame Wheel, it'll just Flame Wheel out of there.

Daehyun: Handy.

Youngjae: Yup. And Abilities like Magma Armour prevent freezing. Good to know.

Daehyun: Alright, now on to the more interesting status ailments. Confusion and Infatuation. Confusion wasn't actually recognized by a legitimate status ailment until a few years back, when Unova started getting famous.

Youngjae: Ah, the Zekrom and Reshiram thing, huh?

Daehyun: Yeah. Team Plasma...hey, we're supposed to be talking about the confusion status ailment!

Youngjae: Right.

Daehyun: So, confusion can be caused by moves like Supersonic, Confuse Ray--duh--and Rock Climb.

Youngjae: Rock Climb?

Daehyun: Don't ask.

Youngjae: Alright. So, confused Pokemon have a tendency to attack themselves. It kinda but they usually snap out of confusion pretty soon.

Daehyun: Ah. And it can be cured with a Persim berry and Full Heal and Full Restore. Did you know that up until they started genetically-modifying Persim berries Persim Berries used to cause confusion?

Youngjae: Oh really? 

Daehyun: Yeah, but they cure confusion now. It's pretty amazing what science can do. Okay, so what's next on our list?

Youngjae: The last one. Infatuation.

Daehyun: Oh, this. Yes, it's actually a status ailment. We're not talking about your normal infatuation here. We're talking about infatuation as a status ailment. Infatuation in Pokemon is actually caused by abilities like Cute Charm or moves like Attract. Your Pokemon literally can't attack because it's infatuated with the opponent.

Youngjae: Oh .

Daehyun: Yeah.

Youngjae: Can we cure it?

Daehyun: Worst part is: no.

Youngjae: Wait, what.

Daehyun: Yeah, you heard me right. You can't actually cure it. It's seriously un-curable.

Youngjae: Incurable. But whatever.

Daehyun: You can use a Destiny Knot, though. If you hold a Destiny Knot and get infatuated, by some miracle of the stars your opponent will get infatuated with you too.

Youngjae: Wow. Items really are magical, aren't they?

Daehyun: But that's Himchan's department. We'll just keep to the basics of being a Trainer.

Youngjae: Huh, yeah. Wouldn't want to give wrong info.

Daehyun: Okay, so that's it for status ailments! See you next time on...

Together: Pokemon Radio: Trainer Teacher!