Effect Spore (Ability)

Effect Spore	ほうし
	Spore
Flavor text Generation III Leaves spores on contact. Generation IV Contact may paralyze, poison, or cause sleep. Generation V Contact may poison or cause paralysis or sleep. Generation VI Contact may poison or cause paralysis or sleep. Generation VII Contact with the Pokémon may inflict poison, sleep, or paralysis on its attacker. Generation VIII Contact with the Pokémon may inflict poison, sleep, or paralysis on its attacker. Generation IX Contact with the Pokémon may inflict poison, sleep, or paralysis on the attacker.

Effect Spore (Japanese: ほうし Spore) is an Ability introduced in Generation III.

Effect

In battle

Generation III

When a Pokémon with this Ability is hit by a move that makes contact, there is a 10% chance that the attacking Pokémon will become either poisoned, paralyzed, or asleep, with a 3.3% probability each.

If a Pokémon with this Ability is hit by a multi-strike move that makes contact (such as Fury Swipes), each hit has an independent chance to activate this Ability.

If a Pokémon is immune to some of the status conditions, then the chance of inflicting each of the remaining conditions is constant, so the total chance of successfully inflicting a condition decreases.

Generation IV

When a Pokémon with this Ability is hit by a move that makes contact, there is a 30% chance that the attacking Pokémon will become either poisoned, paralyzed, or asleep, with a 10% probability each.

Generation V

When a Pokémon with this Ability is hit by a move that makes contact, there is a 9% chance of poison, 10% chance of paralysis, and 11% chance of sleep.

Generation VI onward

Grass-type Pokémon, Pokémon with Overcoat, and Pokémon holding Safety Goggles are now immune to Effect Spore.

Outside of battle

Effect Spore has no effect outside of battle.

Pokémon with Effect Spore

#	Pokémon	Types		First Ability	Second Ability	Hidden Ability
	Vileplume	Grass	Poison	Chlorophyll	None	Effect Spore
	Paras	Bug	Grass	Effect Spore	Dry Skin	Damp
	Parasect	Bug	Grass	Effect Spore	Dry Skin	Damp
	Shroomish	Grass		Grass	Effect Spore	Poison Heal	Quick Feet
	Breloom	Grass	Fighting	Effect Spore	Poison Heal	Technician
	Foongus	Grass	Poison	Effect Spore	None	Regenerator
	Amoonguss	Grass	Poison	Effect Spore	None	Regenerator
	Morelull	Grass	Fairy	Illuminate	Effect Spore	Rain Dish
	Shiinotic	Grass	Fairy	Illuminate	Effect Spore	Rain Dish
	Gossifleur	Grass		Grass	Cotton Down	Regenerator	Effect Spore
	Eldegoss	Grass		Grass	Cotton Down	Regenerator	Effect Spore
Please note that this is only 100% accurate to Generation IX games. For Generation III games, ignore Abilities introduced in Generation IV or later and Hidden Abilities. For Generation IV games, ignore Hidden Abilities. For Generation V games, ignore Abilities introduced in Generation VI or later. For Generation VI games, ignore Abilities introduced in Generation VII or later. For Generation VII games, ignore Abilities introduced in Generation VIII or later. For Generation VIII games, ignore Abilities introduced in Generation IX or later.

In other games

Description

Games Description MDRB Attackers are poisoned, paralyzed, or put to sleep. MDTD Poisons, paralyzes, or puts to sleep any attacker who lands a direct-contact attack. MDS Poisons, paralyzes, or causes sleep in attackers who land direct-contact attacks. BSL こうげきしてきた ポケモンを どく まひ すいみん じょうたいの どれかにする MDGtI May inflict a bad status condition on the attacker who hits it with a direct attack.* When the Pokémon is hit with a direct attack like Tackle or Scratch, the attacker is sometimes afflicted with the Poisoned, Paralysis, or Sleep status condition!* SMD When the Pokémon is hit with a contact move like Tackle or Scratch, the attacker is sometimes afflicted with the poisoned, paralysis, or sleep status condition! MDRTDX When the Pokémon is hit with a contact move, like Tackle or Scratch, the attacker is sometimes afflicted with the Poisoned, Paralysis, or Sleep status condition.

In the anime

Effect Spore played a major role in The Power of Us. Team Rocket attempted to raid Fula City's Pokémon Research Pavilion, but only got away with a solution of Effect Spore made by Toren. They later dropped it on accident, which released a toxic gas that in turn triggered a devastating fire. Both disasters endangered Fula City, but Ash and the citizens worked together to successfully combat both.

In the manga

Pokémon Adventures

• Whitley's Foongus, Foongy, is revealed to have Effect Spore as his Ability.

Trivia

• Of the four Abilities that may inflict a non-volatile status condition upon contact, Effect Spore is the only one that has not yet been activated in the Pokémon anime.
• Effect Spore is the only Ability that can cause sleep.

In other languages

Language Title Chinese Cantonese 孢子 Bāaují Mandarin 孢子 Bāozǐ Finnish Itiövaikutus French Pose Spore German Sporenwirt Hebrew נבגי השפעה Nivagei Hashpa'ha Italian Spargispora Korean 포자 Poja Polish Efekt Pyłu Portuguese Brazil Esporo de Efeito Portugal Efeito Esporo Russian Эффект Споры Effekt Spory Spanish Efecto EsporaVI+ Efec. EsporaIII–V Vietnamese Bào Tử

References

This article is part of Project Moves and Abilities, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on two related aspects of the Pokémon games.