Status Conditions in Pokémon TCG Pocket: Effects, Cures & Stacking
All 5 special conditions explained: exact damage per turn, coin-flip odds, what cures each one, and which conditions can stack on the same Pokémon.
The 5 Conditions and Exactly What They Do
Every special condition is resolved during the Pokémon Check — the moment at the end of every turn, yours and your opponent's, when both players' Active Pokémon get checked for lingering effects.
| Condition | Effect | How it's cured |
|---|---|---|
| Poison | 10 damage every Pokémon Check | Evolve or retreat — no coin flip involved |
| Burn | 20 damage every Pokémon Check | Coin flip at each Check — heads cures it |
| Sleep | Can't attack or retreat | Coin flip at each Check — heads wakes it up |
| Paralysis | Can't attack or retreat | Clears automatically after 1 full turn — no coin flip |
| Confusion | Coin flip when attacking — tails means the attack fails | Only evolving or retreating cures it — no automatic recovery |
Poison and Burn are pure damage-over-time: they never stop you from attacking or retreating, they just chip away at HP every Check. Sleep and Paralysis both lock out attacking and retreating entirely, but they clear very differently — Sleep gambles on a coin flip every Check, while Paralysis is a guaranteed one-turn timeout. Confusion doesn't block any action; it just risks wasting the attack you do take.
How the Pokémon Check Actually Works
Two independent community sources confirm the Pokémon Check fires at the end of every turn — including your opponent's — and applies to both players' Active Pokémon, not just the one belonging to the player whose turn just ended.
- A Poisoned Pokémon takes its 10 damage during the Check after your turn and the Check after your opponent's turn
- When a single Active Pokémon is carrying more than one Check-resolved condition, they process in a fixed order: Poison → Burn → Sleep → Paralysis
- Confusion is the exception — it isn't processed at the Check at all. It's tested the moment you declare an attack, not at turn end
That fixed processing order matters when a Pokémon is low on HP: Poison's damage lands before Burn's, so if the Poison tick alone would knock it out, the Burn coin flip and Sleep/Paralysis recovery attempt never even happen.
Stacking Rules: What Combines, What Overwrites
Poison and Burn are the two "free" conditions — they coexist with each other and with any third condition, with no exceptions. Sleep, Paralysis, and Confusion behave completely differently: only one of the three can be active at a time. Applying a second one from that group doesn't stack it — it simply replaces whichever one was already there.
- Poison + Burn: always coexist, dealing 30 combined damage per Pokémon Check
- Poison/Burn + one of Sleep, Paralysis, or Confusion: fully compatible
- Sleep, Paralysis, Confusion together: impossible — the most recent one overwrites the rest
The practical ceiling is 3 conditions active on one Pokémon at once: Poison, Burn, and one of Sleep/Paralysis/Confusion. A Pokémon can never be simultaneously Asleep and Paralyzed, for example — inflicting Paralysis on an already-Sleeping Pokémon just turns the Sleep into Paralysis.
Which Condition Should You Actually Worry About
Not all 5 conditions carry the same practical risk. Paralysis is the most predictable of the "can't act" pair — it always costs exactly one turn, with zero randomness, so you can plan around it. Sleep is the riskier version of the same lockout, since an unlucky run of tails can leave a Pokémon stuck for several turns in a row.
- Poison + Burn stacked together deal 30 damage per Check — enough to two-shot most low-HP Basics without your opponent lifting a finger
- Confusion is the lowest-impact condition on paper, but it turns a guaranteed knockout swing into a coin flip at the worst possible moment
- Retreating a heavily-stacked Pokémon to the bench clears everything at once — often the correct play the instant Poison and Burn are both ticking
Because evolving also wipes every condition, a Pokémon you're about to evolve anyway is the safest one to leave Poisoned or Burned for one extra turn — the damage still lands, but you're clearing it on your own schedule regardless.