Seeding

A seeded Solrock

Seeding is a volatile status condition inflicted by Leech Seed or Sappy Seed. The seeded Pokémon loses HP each turn, replenishing the HP of the Pokémon in the position of the Pokémon that caused this condition.

Effect

This status is caused by any of the moves below:

Move Type Category Power Accuracy Notes Leech Seed Grass Status — 90% Sappy Seed Grass Physical 90 100%

The move will fail to seed the target when used on a Pokémon that is already seeded, or that is currently Grass-type.

Every turn, a seeded Pokémon loses 1/8 (1/16 in Generation I) of its maximum HP, rounded down but no less than 1.

In single battles, the opponent (even if it was not the Pokémon that originally used the move) is healed by the same amount, unless the seeded Pokémon has Liquid Ooze, in which case the user will take damage by this amount instead.

In battles involving multiple Pokémon, the seeding will only heal (or deduct damage using Liquid Ooze) the Pokémon that is in the same position as the Pokémon that originally used the move was in. If no Pokémon is in that position (for example, if it fainted and could not be replaced), no HP will be deducted from the seeded Pokémon. However, if a Pokémon is later able to occupy that position (if it was revived), HP will once again be sapped from the seeded Pokémon. While a Pokémon is seeded, even if it cannot have its health drained due to there being no Pokémon in the appropriate slot to drain its HP, it cannot be seeded again.

The amount of HP healed (or the amount of damage from Liquid Ooze) is unaffected even if the seeded Pokémon faints before losing the full amount of HP from seeding.

HP draining does not occur if the Pokémon who would be healed (or damaged by Liquid Ooze) faints in the current turn.

HP draining occurs even if the seeded Pokémon knocks itself out with crash damage, recoil damage, or self-inflicted confusion damage, or by making a substitute before the end of its turn. HP draining is done after continuing binding damage and recurrent poison or burn damage. If the target is seeded during a round that it switches in, it will take recurrent damage during that round, but only if its speed is less than or equal to the user's speed.

If the user has a Big Root as its held item, it will recover 30% more HP than it normally would (or take 30% more damage from Liquid Ooze), but this does not increase the damage dealt to the seeded Pokémon.

If the seeder (or the Pokémon who replaced it in the same spot) is under the effect of Heal Block, the seeded Pokémon will take damage normally but the seeder's HP will not be restored. Heal Block does not affect the damage from Liquid Ooze.

A seeded Pokémon will retain this condition even if it gains the Grass-type in battle (such as from Forest's Curse, Conversion, Color Change or by changing species via Transform).

If a seeded Pokémon uses Baton Pass, this status is transferred to its replacement, even if it is Grass-type.

The Pokémon is cured from seeding once it is switched out, the battle ends, or it uses Rapid Spin or Mortal Spin. In Generation I only, Haze heals it as well.

Generation I

1/16 of the seeded Pokémon's HP is drained.

In Generations I and II, the seeding effect is applied after the afflicted Pokémon takes its turn.

If the seeded Pokémon is also under the effect of Toxic (or was under that effect and healed itself with Rest), because Leech Seed and Toxic both use the same damage algorithm, the seeding damage will be affected by Toxic's N parameter, and will increase each turn.

In the localized handheld Generation I games, Leech Seed works normally against a target with a substitute. In the Pokémon Stadium series and the Japanese versions of Generation I games, Leech Seed fails if the target has a substitute.

Generation II

1/8 of the seeded Pokémon's HP is drained instead.

Leech Seed no longer interacts with Toxic damage and Haze no longer affects Leech Seed. The user can no longer plant a seed on a target with a substitute (but setting up a substitute does not release a Pokémon from existing effects of Leech Seed).

Generation III onwards

The seeding effect is now applied after all Pokémon on the field have taken their turns.

In the spin-off games

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series

Main article: Status condition (Mystery Dungeon) → Leech Seed

The Leech Seed status is inflicted by the move of the same name. At the end of every second turn, 10 HP^RBTDS or 5 HP^GtISMD damage will be dealt to the affected Pokémon, and 10 HP^RBTDS or 5 HP^GtISMD will be returned to the Pokémon that inflicted it. The status wears off if the Pokémon that used Leech Seed is defeated. Grass-type Pokémon cannot become affected by Leech Seed.

This status lasts 11-12 turns^RBTDS or 6 turns^GtISMD.

In the anime

Leech Seed failing to affect Chespin

Unlike in the games, Leech Seed does not appear to restore the health of the Pokémon that used the attack in the animated series. It instead seems to trap and immobilize the affected target by draining their energy. Grass-type Pokémon were vulnerable to having their energy drained (despite being immune to the effects of Leech Seed in the games) until Pokémon the Series: XY, where Grass types were still shown to be susceptible to being trapped, but no longer had their energy drained, staying relatively faithful to the games.

Original series

In The Ninja Poké-Showdown, Aya's Venonat was defeated after getting seeded by a Leech Seed from Ash's Bulbasaur.

In The Fourth Round Rumble, during the fourth round of the Indigo Plateau Conference, Jeanette Fisher's Beedrill was seeded by a Leech Seed from Ash's Bulbasaur, who defeated it with a Tackle.

In Ariados, Amigos, Aya's Venonat was once again briefly seeded by a Leech Seed from Ash's Bulbasaur.

In The Grass Route, James's Victreebel was easily defeated after getting seeded by a Leech Seed from Ephraim's Skiploom, Skippy*, who used Double Team to disorient it. Later in the episode, it defeated a Tangela with Leech Seed.

In Tie One On!, Jackson's Shiny Magneton got seeded by a Leech Seed from Ash's Bulbasaur, who defeated it by spinning it around with Vine Whip.

Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire

In Taming of the Shroomish, Alex had a group of Shroomish seed Team Rocket with Leech Seed to suck away their energy.

In Pace - The Final Frontier!, Brandon's Dusclops got seeded by a Leech Seed from Ash's Bulbasaur, contributing to its defeat against the Seed Pokémon. Brandon's Solrock was also seeded later in the episode, with it eventually fainting alongside Bulbasaur.

Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl

In The Grass-Type Is Always Greener!, Ash's Turtwig got seeded by a Leech Seed from Gardenia's own Turtwig, who defeated him with a Tackle.

In The Grass Menagerie!, both Ash's Staravia and Turtwig were seeded by Gardenia's Turtwig's Leech Seed. In Staravia's case, this led to its defeat, and while Ash's Turtwig managed to defeat Gardenia's Turtwig, the Leech Seed damage enabled Gardenia's Roserade to defeat him afterwards.

Pokémon the Series: XY

In The Bamboozling Forest!, Jessie's Pumpkaboo used Leech Seed to immobilize Ash and his friends' Pokémon. Clemont's Chespin was shown to be immune to the energy-draining effect of the move.

In Battling into the Hall of Fame!, Jessie had Pumpkaboo use Leech Seed on the Bulbasaur, Squirtle, and Charmander the Rocket trio had stolen. The seeding effect also drained Squirtle and Charmander's energy until they were freed.

In The Green, Green Grass Types of Home!, during Ash's Gym battle against Ramos, Ramos's Gogoat seeded Ash's Frogadier with Leech Seed.

In The Tiny Caretaker!, Clemont's Bunnelby was briefly seeded by Jessie's Gourgeist's Leech Seed before being defeated by her Seed Bomb.

In the manga

A seeded Gyarados in Pokémon Adventures

The Electric Tale of Pikachu

In Welcome to the Big Leagues, Ash's Bulbasaur used Leech Seed to defeat Jeanette Fisher's Beedrill, just like in the animated series.

Pokémon Adventures

Red, Green & Blue arc

In Gyarados Splashes In!, Red had his Bulbasaur use Leech Seed on a Gyarados to drain its energy and weaken it for capture, unaware that the Gyarados actually belonged to Misty.

In Kalling Kadabra, Red's Ivysaur seeded a Kadabra posing as Professor Oak, draining its energy and forcing it to expose its true form.

Emerald arc

In Gotcha Where I Wantcha, Glalie, Emerald used Sceptile's Leech Seed to secretly drain Noland's rental Glalie of its energy, which went unnoticed by Noland until Glalie was weak enough to be finished off with an Iron Tail.

In Chipping Away at Regirock, Emerald's Sceptile planted a Leech Seed on Brandon's Regirock to drain its health, but it didn't see much use before Brandon had Regirock use Explosion to knock out both itself and Sceptile.

This game mechanic article is part of Project Games, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on the Pokémon games.