The Pokémon franchise contains a multitude of ways to train your Pokémon and get them ready for battle. Though time-consuming, there are certain tools to speed up the training process. One such tool is the Pokémon virus, or Pokérus.
Like so many things concerning competitive Pokémon, Pokérus is mostly shrouded in secrecy. In the games it is only indicated with a tag next to the Pokémon’s name. You may even have an infected Pokémon in your PC box and not even know it.
Introduced into the series with Generation two, Pokérus is mostly shrouded in mystery. However, unlike many virus’s in our world, this virus is beneficial to those it infects.
A Pokémon who has contracted Pokérus will experiance increased Effort Value gain while training. Because of this, competitive Trainers seek to get their hands on an infected Pokémon so that they can spread it to others they wish to train.
Getting an infected Pokémon yourself is not easy though. A Trainer has about a 1/21,900 chance to actually encounter an infect Pokémon in the wild. So you are more likely to find a shiny Pokémon, than one infected by the Pokémon virus.
Fear not though, most Trainers turn to the Pokémon Global Link in order to obtain Pokérus. Once obtained the virus can be transferred between the Trainers Pokémon, as well as placed in stasis by putting an infected Pokémon in PC Storage.
So now that you have a Pokémon with Pokérus, you can pass it to that young Larvitar you plan on EV training. Simply place the infected Pokémon into your party next to the target Larvitar and go battle. After each battle their is a chance for the virus to spread to adjacent Pokémon.
Now that Larvitar has Pokérus, you can head to your favorite EV training ground. EVs gained while infected by the Pokémon virus are doubled. Now Larvitar can power through that training session.
Combine Pokérus with power items for an even more dramatic effect. Using these methods, EV training can be reduced to a fraction of the time it generally takes.
Secret tools do not mix well in a competitive environment. While cool from a role-playing perspective, things like Pokérus really only serve to hurt the competitive community.
Competitive Trainers and the Pokémon community as a whole would benefit Game Freak would open up when it comes to matters concerning competitive battling. Making it more accessible to more trainers is only a good thing for the franchise.
All images courtesy Game Freak
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