Aroma Veil (Ability #165)

Current Implementation

Basic Description: "Protects team from infatuation, heal block, and disabling."

Extended Description: "Protects the user and allies from infatuation caused by Attract, heal block effects from Heal Block and Psychic Noise, and disabling moves including Disable, Taunt, Encore, and Torment. This aromatic protective veil can be bypassed by abilities that ignore other abilities like Mold Breaker variants."

Character Count: 300 characters (within 280-300 range)

Code Analysis

Core Implementation

• File: src/abilities.cc (lines 1831-1838)
• Mechanism: Uses onStatusImmune callback with APPLY_ON_ALLY flag
• Breakable: Yes (can be bypassed by Mold Breaker variants)

Protection Scope

The ability protects against three categories of status effects:

1. CHECK_INFATUATE (bit 7): Protects from Attract
2. CHECK_RESTRICTING (bit 8): Protects from disabling moves:
   • Disable
   • Taunt
   • Encore
   • Torment
3. CHECK_HEAL_BLOCK (bit 9): Protects from Heal Block and Psychic Noise

Implementation Details

constexpr Ability AromaVeil = {
    .onStatusImmune = +[](ABILITY_ON_STATUS_IMMUNE) -> int {
        CHECK(status & (CHECK_INFATUATE | CHECK_RESTRICTING | CHECK_HEAL_BLOCK))
        return TRUE;
    },
    .onStatusImmuneFor = APPLY_ON_ALLY,
    .breakable = TRUE,
};

Pokemon Distribution

Notable Pokemon with Aroma Veil:

• Cherrim (ability choice)
• Floette (all forms, ability choice)
• Florges (all forms, ability choice)
• Alcremie (all forms, innate ability)
• Aromatisse variants (ability choice)
• Various Fairy-type and Grass-type Pokemon

Usage Pattern

• Most commonly found on Fairy-type and Grass-type Pokemon
• Often appears as either a regular ability choice or innate ability
• Particularly prevalent in support-oriented Pokemon

Competitive Analysis

Strengths

• Team Support: Protects entire team from common status disruption
• Anti-Control: Counters popular control strategies (Taunt, Encore, Attract)
• Heal Block Counter: Prevents shutdown of recovery strategies
• Doubles/Multi-Battle Utility: Exceptional value in team formats

Weaknesses

• Breakable: Can be bypassed by Mold Breaker variants
• Limited Scope: Only protects against specific status categories
• No Offensive Benefit: Provides no damage or stat benefits
• Situational: Value depends heavily on opponent's team composition

Strategic Applications

• Support Teams: Essential for stall and support-heavy strategies
• Doubles Meta: High value in doubles where control moves are common
• Anti-Meta: Counters teams relying heavily on status disruption
• Recovery Protection: Maintains team's healing capabilities

Interactions and Edge Cases

Ability Interactions

• Mold Breaker variants: Can ignore Aroma Veil protection
• Magic Bounce: May interact with reflected status moves
• Substitutes: Protection applies regardless of substitute presence

Move Interactions

• Attract: Completely blocked for user and allies
• Taunt/Encore/Disable/Torment: All blocked for protected team
• Heal Block/Psychic Noise: Healing prevention is blocked
• Sleep Talk: Not affected (not a restricting status)

Technical Notes

• Uses bitwise checking for multiple status categories
• Applied through battle system's ability status protection framework
• Protection is checked before move effect application