Corrupted Zones
Once you have 2 Gym Badges, one route or dungeon in Kanto becomes “corrupted” — carrying powerful bonuses and penalties for anyone brave enough to fight there.
Only one zone is active at a time. It rotates automatically every hour of play time, or burns out early if you win 15 battles inside it.
Entering a Corrupted Zone
The moment you step onto a corrupted map tile, a 3-second announcement bar slides in at the top of the screen:
“Entering [ZONE NAME] — corruption energy surges here.”
No button press needed — it fades on its own. It’s a reminder that the rules have changed.
Effects While Inside a Corrupted Zone
| Effect | Modifier |
|---|---|
| Gear drop chance | 3× base rate |
| Shiny encounter rate | +3× multiplier (stacks with Lucky Charm relic) |
| Wild Pokémon levels | +3 to +5 levels above normal |
The zone is a high-risk, high-reward area. Pokémon are meaningfully harder, but drops and shinies are dramatically more common.
Rotation Rules
The active zone changes when either condition is met first:
| Trigger | Condition |
|---|---|
| Hourly auto-rotation | 1 hour of play time elapses |
| Battle burnout | 15 battles won inside the zone |
Battle burnout only counts wins while you are physically on the corrupted map. Battles elsewhere do not count down the burnout timer.
When the zone burns out or rotates, a non-blocking popup appears at the top of the screen for 3 seconds — no button press needed.
Badge-Gated Zone Pool
Zones unlock as you earn badges. The 28-zone pool:
| Zone | Short | Min Badges |
|---|---|---|
| Route 1 | R01 | 2 |
| Route 2 | R02 | 2 |
| Route 3 | R03 | 2 |
| Route 22 | R22 | 2 |
| Route 4 | R04 | 2 |
| Route 24 | R24 | 3 |
| Route 25 | R25 | 3 |
| Route 5 | R05 | 3 |
| Route 6 | R06 | 3 |
| Route 7 | R07 | 3 |
| Mt. Moon B1F | MtM | 3 |
| Route 8 | R08 | 4 |
| Route 9 | R09 | 4 |
| Route 10 | R10 | 4 |
| Route 11 | R11 | 4 |
| Rock Tunnel 1F | Tun | 5 |
| Route 12 | R12 | 5 |
| Route 13 | R13 | 5 |
| Route 14 | R14 | 5 |
| Route 15 | R15 | 5 |
| Route 16 | R16 | 6 |
| Route 17 | R17 | 6 |
| Route 18 | R18 | 6 |
| Route 19 | R19 | 7 |
| Route 20 | R20 | 7 |
| Route 23 | R23 | 7 |
| Seafoam Islands B1–B4 | Sea | 7 |
| Victory Road 1F–3F | VRd | 8 |
Selection is random from all eligible (unlocked, not currently active) zones.
Multi-floor zones: When Seafoam Islands or Victory Road is the active zone, the corruption covers all of its floors (B1–B4 for Seafoam, 1F–3F for Victory Road). The zone entry message appears on each floor transition.
EMBER Stats Panel
When a zone is active, the ZONE line appears at the bottom of the EMBER stats panel showing:
ZONE: R08 14
This shows the zone’s short name and how many in-zone battles remain before burnout.
The ZONE line is hidden when no zone is active (or before 2 badges).
Interaction with Other Systems
- Well Rested buff stacks with the 3× zone multiplier on drops
- Loot Filter still applies — filtered gear is auto-scrapped silently
- Lucky Drop (3% rarity bump) still applies to zone drops
- Pity counter resets on any drop, zone or otherwise