Life Orb

The Life Orb (Japanese: いのちのたま Life Orb) is a type of held item introduced in Generation IV. It boosts the power of the holder's moves, but causes it to take damage when using damaging moves.

Life Orb いのちのたま Life Orb

Pokémon Global Link artwork

Introduced in Generation IV Pocket Generation IV Items Generation V Items (Held items) Generation VI Items Generation VII Items Generation VIII Other Items Generation IX Other Items Fling Power 30

In the core series games

Price

Games Cost Sell price DPPtHGSS BWB2W2 XYORAS BDSP N/A $100 SMUSUM SwSh N/A $2,000 SV $50,000 $12,500

Effect

	This move effect may be in need of research. Reason: In which games does the Life Orb boost the damage dealt by Future Sight/Doom Desire (other than Generation VI)? Does it deal damage to the user for these moves, and when? You can discuss this on the talk page.

Boosts the damage dealt by the holder's damaging moves by 30% (in Generation V onward, this boost is instead approximated as 5324/4096), but the holder takes damage equal to 10% of its maximum HP after it uses a damaging move (rounded down, but not less than 1). It does not boost the power of moves that do not use the damage formula (although the holder still takes damage) or self-inflicted confusion damage.

If a Pokémon steals a Life Orb with Thief or Covet, then the Life Orb does not boost the power, but the attacker takes damage for the use of that move that stole the Life Orb. The Life Orb activates before Pickpocket, so even if a Pokémon's held Life Orb is stolen by Pickpocket, it still damages the attacking Pokémon for that move. If a Pokémon steals a Life Orb with Magician, it will take damage for the use of that move that stole the Life Orb. If the holder uses Fling, then Life Orb boosts the power but doesn't damage the user.

The Life Orb activates after the holder takes damage from Iron Barbs and the Rocky Helmet. The Life Orb activates after the holder recovers HP with a draining move or takes damage from recoil and Rough Skin. If the holder uses a multistrike move, it takes damage after the last strike.

As the Life Orb inflicts indirect damage, Magic Guard prevents a Pokémon from taking damage from the Life Orb. If a Pokémon with Sheer Force uses a move boosted by that Ability, it does not take damage from Life Orb for that move.

For Dynamax Pokémon, the damage is equal to 10% of the Pokémon's non-Dynamax maximum HP.

Generation IV

The Life Orb damages its holder without displaying any message.

Future Sight and Doom Desire do not cause the user to take damage. It does not cause damage to the holder when hitting a substitute.

Generation V

The Life Orb now displays a message when it inflicts damage.

If a Pokémon is holding a Life Orb when Future Sight or Doom Desire that it used inflicts damage (even if it was not holding the Life Orb when it used the move), it takes damage for the Life Orb.

Life Orb now causes damage to the holder when hitting a substitute.

Generation VI onward

The Life Orb does increase the damage dealt from Future Sight and Doom Desire.

Description

Games Description DPPtHGSS BWB2W2 XYORAS SMUSUM An item to be held by a Pokémon. It boosts the power of moves, but at the cost of some HP on each hit. PE SwShBDSPLA An item to be held by a Pokémon. It boosts the power of moves but at the cost of some HP on each hit. SV An item to be held by a Pokémon. It boosts the power of the holder's moves, but the holder also loses a small amount of HP with each attack it lands.

Acquisition

Games Finite methods Repeatable methods DPPt Stark Mountain HGSS Ruins of Alph BW Battle Subway (48 BP) B2W2 Battle Subway/PWT (24 BP) Transfer from Dream Radar PDR Dream Clouds (Simulator α, Simulator γ) XY Battle Maison (48 BP) ORAS Battle Maison (48 BP) Held by wild Absol (5% chance) SMUSUM Resolution CaveSM, Mount LanakilaUSUM Battle Tree (48 BP) SwSh Slumbering Weald Battle Tower (25 BP) Reward from Ball Guy for clearing Champion Cup tournament during post-game (1.8% chance) SwShIA Cram-o-matic (Dragon: 82-90 points) SwShCT Giant's Bed Reward from Ball Guy for clearing Galarian Star Tournament during post-game (1.8% chance) BDSP Stark Mountain Battle Park (25 BP) SV Casseroya Lake Delibird Presents (Mesagoza Branch, after completing the main storyline)

Distribution

Games Event Language/Region Distribution period SwSh Spring Single Tournament Life Orb All May 15 to 16, 2021

As a held item

Games Event Language/Region Distribution period DPPtHGSS 2010 World Championships Crobat United States August 15, 2010 BW 15th Anniversary Rayquaza Japanese February 10 to 27, 2012 B2W2 Strongest Class Single Battle Scizor Japanese September 15 to October 28, 2012 Strongest Class Scizor Korean February 24 to May 5, 2013 Team Plasma Deoxys Korean May 4 to 5, 2013 Plasma Deoxys English, French, German, Italian, Spanish Various BWB2W2 Masuda Deoxys Japanese December 15 to 23, 2012B2W2 March 20 to May 6, 2013BWB2W2 Yamamoto's Tournament Kingdra Japanese September 29 to October 6, 2013 ORAS Kotone Yasue's Tyranitar Japanese November 7 to December 6, 2015 Ghetsis's Hydreigon Japan Various XYORAS Dahara City Kyurem Japan June 20 to August 31, 2015 June 27 to 28, 2015 Dahara City Kyurem Korean November 20, 2015 to January 31, 2016 SM Rocky Lycanroc PAL May 5 to August 4, 2017 Rocky Lycanroc American May 15 to August 4, 2017 SMUSUM Hirofumi Kimura's Nidoqueen Japan June 8 to 9, 2019 SwSh Leonardo Bonanomi's Gigantamax Charizard All October 31 to November 3, 2021 SV Trixie's Mimikyu United States, Canada, Brazil October 11, 2023 to January 1, 2024

Gallery

Artwork

Artwork from Scarlet and Violet

In other languages

Language Title Chinese Cantonese 生命寶珠 Sāngmihng Bóujyū Mandarin 生命寶珠 / 生命宝珠 Shēngmìng Bǎozhū French Orbe Vie German Leben-Orb Italian Assorbisfera Korean 생명의구슬 Saengmyeong-ui Guseul Spanish Vidasfera

External links

• On Smogon Itemdex:
  • Generation IV – V – VI – VII – VIII – IX

This item article is part of Project ItemDex, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on all items.