It’s seemingly official: Pokérus is gone. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet just released on Thursday, but players are already discovering the rare, fictional disease is not present in the new games.
Pokérus was first introduced in Gen 2 Pokémon games. The status is essentially a virus; it infects any Pokémon adjacent to an infected Pokémon in your party, even though they’re both still in Poké Balls.
The disappearance of Pokérus was discovered by Twitter user and dataminer @mattyoukhana_, who found that the game’s code showed no indication of Pokérus.
Pokérus is no longer present in Scarlet & Violet! No assets for the Pokérus status icons exist in the game, and it can not be found on wild Pokémon.
After testing with a Pokémon forcibly given Pokérus, they still gain the usual EV yield (not x2), and Pokérus does not spread. pic.twitter.com/DIklfjbQHS
— Matt (@mattyoukhana_) November 18, 2022
While a virus surely sounds bad, Pokérus is actually completely beneficial. The status, which was indicated by a small icon, doubled the EV points that the infected Pokémon gained from battle, making training exceedingly easy.
All you had to do was place your Pokémon all around the infected and poof! Within hours, all your Pokémon would have the status.
With Scarlet and Violet, Pokérus is no more. The icon indicating the infections is gone, and there aren’t any assets for it in the game. In fact, the status can’t even be found on wild Pokémon.
So, for those of you trying to gain EV quickly and easily, hoping to get Pokérus isn’t gonna be a great strategy.
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet have been to a rough start, with many players experiencing gameplay issues on the Nintendo Switch. According to IGN’s Rebekah Valentine in her review in progress: there really isn’t a moment in [Pokémon Scarlet & Violet] where’d I’d say they run well. Frame rates are dropping, Pokémon are clipping through walls and character models are popping in and out.
For our full review of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, stay tuned to everything IGN.
Carson Burton is a freelance news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter at @carsonsburton.