It was a data miner who discovered that Pokérus was not present in the Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. In itself, this is a small detail. But this is part of a trend in Pokemon games in general: they just get less weird over time.
The strange virus requires some explanation. Introduced back in Generation II, Pokérus had a less than one in 20,000 chance of infecting a Pokémon. (By comparison, Shiny Pokémon, which are particularly notorious for being rare, have a base 1 in 4,000 chance of spawning.) And even though it was presented as an infection, Pokérus was actually useful.
To understand how, however, you also need to understand Effort Values, or EVs. Defeating an opponent in battle awards between one and three EVs in a certain stat. But EVs are never properly explained in the game and rarely mentioned at all. This is because they don’t really have an impact on the average player. Battle different Pokemon and your own will grow in a balanced, if slightly secretive way.
However, when things get competitive, EVs become a useful tool. For example, all Pokemon have both a physical attack and a special attack. But their moves can only fall into one of these categories, and individual Pokemon usually have a natural affinity for one or the other. Pokemon can’t max out their EVs in every stat, so competitive trainers will focus on getting EVs with just one form of attack to avoid splitting them up unnecessarily.
When it first came out, Pokemon it was something strange and mysterious
A Pokémon infected with Pokérus would receive double EVs, speeding up the process significantly. Players who want to legitimately obtain the strongest Pokémon possible deliberately infect their battle buddies with Pokérus before training them. Far from being extremely rare, trading, sharing and spreading Pokérus between players has become part of the game.
Removing it doesn’t really have a significant impact on the game. Pokérus was a niche mechanic that appealed to a niche group of players. The casual player will probably never come across it, and even if they hit that 1 in 20,000 chance, they probably won’t notice any benefit. But for competitive players, games are constantly introducing more and more ways to create powerful teams, including easier EV training. And players who want top-notch battles don’t even necessarily have to go through the time and effort of breeding and training powerful monsters in the first place: many use tools like Pokémon Showdown just to simulate things.
But the now ended history of Pokérus reflects a change in Pokemon games in general. When it first came out, Pokemon it was something strange and mysterious. Rumors are flying around red and Son, from claims that Mew can be found hidden under a truck to the idea that anyone who hears Lavender Town’s music will die. And behind the rumors were real moments of weirdness. You can use your fishing line on statues as if they were floating on water, certain characters can disappear and allow you to break the sequence, and problem Pokemon like MissingNo chase the cartridges.
When gold and Silver came and Pokérus was introduced, it fell into that same category – a strange, almost impossible to replicate, potentially scary thing that could happen without warning or any real explanation. But with time, the internet and data mining, it eventually became a well-known thing. Its exact spawn rates have been revealed, along with its mechanics and usage. It became an advanced technique for those who wanted it, and a bit of trivia for everyone else.
The same can be said for many of the Pokemonthe longstanding oddities. The aforementioned sparkles, for example, were once a rare, mysterious recolor that, again, most players wouldn’t see during casual play. If they did, they might not understand what was happening, or it might become a symbol of extreme luck to brag about to friends. Nowadays, there are a handful of methods and tricks and farming techniques for getting shine. You still need luck, but much less. It has mostly been replaced by persistence and brute force.
The loss of sheer weirdness and joyous surprises in gaming is a shame
The existence of these mills and the people devoted to them in turn led to changes in the quality of life to reduce them. Eggs used to be a weird surprise that you could sometimes find if you left a Pokemon in the Daycare Center. But as eggs became central to various high-end mechanics, including breeding competitive Pokemon and obtaining shinys, they became easier and easier to obtain. in Scarlett and Violetbreeding and hatching eggs takes minutes if you have the right sandwich powers and you can do it right from your picnic.
The same goes for friendship, a mechanic that causes some Pokemon to evolve. No luck at all, but it’s only vaguely mentioned in most games, with an NPC somewhere in the world giving broad answers as a hint. Without a clear understanding of how it works, a Pokemon suddenly evolving after you’ve had it for a while and used it a lot is a brilliant surprise. But now it’s easy to find out exactly online how to raise that friendship level, it seems PokemonThe creators responded in turn, making it much easier overall. in Scarlett and Violet, just a few sandwiches might do the trick. It might come as a surprise, but only because of how quickly it happened. No more waiting, traveling around, battling and getting really close to your Pokemon.
I enjoyed it Scarlett and Violet a lot, but the loss of pure weirdness and joyful surprises in games is a shame – and one I don’t think the Pokémon Company can easily avoid. After all, it was a data miner who discovered that Pokérus was not present in the Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. All of the games secrets will be revealed within days of release and people will start optimizing to get everything that has a small chance of appearing, from eggs to sparkles.
But this is no longer true for Pokérus. It’s not clear exactly why it was removed, but it has already changed completely from its first iteration – not mechanically, but socially. When it was once strange, unexpected and inexplicable, it and so many others Pokemonit has become understandable, common and easy to use.