What is Toxic Chain ability in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet? Exploring new ability announced for upcoming DLC

Nintendo's latest event, Nintendo Direct, revealed some details about the content coming to Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's DLC expansion. Titled "The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero!," the DLC will be divided into two parts, The Teal Mask and The Indigo Disk. The former will introduce some new Pocket Monsters and bring back critters from older games into the Paldea region.

During Nintendo Direct, it was revealed that three of the creatures introduced in The Teal Mask expansion pack would have a new ability called Toxic Chain.

As with all new abilities, there is a lot to unpack, and players only have limited insight from the information shared by The Pokemon Company. Here's a deep dive into everything known about Toxic Chain and speculations as to how it might work in-game.

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How will Toxic Chain ability work in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet?

Toxic Chain is a new signature ability that will be introduced in the upcoming DLC of Generation IX Pokemon games. The three creatures, Okidogi, Mukidori, and Fezandipiti, will have access to this ability in the game. Apart from their appearance, it has been confirmed that all three will have Toxic Chain as their primary ability.

Moreover, the video clip at Nintendo Direct showed Fezandipiti fighting against a Meowscarada. The former goes on to use Air Slash (a Flying-type special attack), and in the very next instance, the Meowscarada is said to become "badly poisoned."

While regular poisoning deals the same amount of damage (1/16 of the afflicted creature's total HP) every turn, badly poisoned creatures incur an increasing amount, which rises by 1/16 of the damage taken last turn. This makes the Toxic Chain quite a befitting name for this ability.

Another interesting aspect of the new signature ability is that even special (non-contact) attacks seem to trigger it. While previously, abilities like Poison Point were triggered by contact with a creature possessing it, Toxic Chain will most likely be activated by all possible damaging attacks.

Furthermore, the chances of triggering this ability are yet to be determined. It could work similarly to Garchomp's Rough Skin, which will deal damage every time a physical attack makes contact with it. It could also work similarly to Scald, which has a 30% chance of burning the recipient in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.

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Which Pocket Monsters will have the ability Toxic Chain in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet DLC?

As mentioned above, Toxic Chain will be the signature ability of Okidogi, Mukidori, and Fezandipiti in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's "The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero!" DLC Part 1, "The Teal Mask." Together, the creatures will be called the Heroes of Kitakami, alluding to the location in this addition. With the potential to be game-changing, it will be interesting to see how this ability pans out.