Characters / Pokémon: Generation II - Chikorita to Granbull

Main Character Index > Pokémon: Generation II Families > Chikorita to Granbull (152-210) | Qwilfish to Celebi (211-251)

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Chikorita (Chicorita), Bayleef (Bayleaf), and Meganium

0152: Chikorita / Chicorita (チコリータ chikoriita)
0153: Bayleef / Bayleaf (ベイリーフ beiriifu)
0154: Meganium (メガニウム meganiumu)

Chikorita

Bayleef

Meganium

The first of the Johto starters, Chikorita and its evolutions are plant dinosaurs with a pure-Grass typing. As it grows, Chikorita's ring of buds around its neck sprout into shoots and then petals that give off various scents. Despite being at a disadvantage in the early game compared to the other starters in their debut game, they fare significantly better in the mid and late game. Their adorable looks also keep them a popular pick. The Chikorita line is the only line of Starter Pokémon which doesn't have major differences between its Japanese and English names, with only minor spelling differences for Chikorita and Bayleef.

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• Barrier Warrior: They naturally learn Reflect, Light Screen, and Safeguard.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: Despite the family's feminine Secondary Sexual Characteristics, they have an 87.5% chance of being male, as with every other starter. In fact, the females, having shorter antennae, look less stylized than the males.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference:
  • Chikorita's Gold and Silver sprites gave it a yellow body instead of its current green one; what keeps it from being Off-Model is that the official artwork for Chikorita couldn't decide if its body was yellow as well◊. Crystal and all games after Gold and Silver, as well as later versions of Ken Sugimori's official artwork, went with a green body.
  • Bayleef had a similar issue, except that while its sprites' coloration has been consistent across all games, early TCG artwork (again both by the official artist Ken Sugimori) couldn't decide its body◊ color◊.
• Fantastic Fruits and Vegetables: Chikorita kinda looks like a pear with legs and a face.
• Floral Theme Naming: Most notably Meganium (reminiscent of Geranium), but the others also follow a specific plant-naming theme related to spices.
• Gentle Giant Sauropod: In contrast to most of the other, more fierce-looking and behaving fully-evolved starters, Meganium is incredibly peaceful and friendly-looking, and is said to be capable of removing opponents' will to fight by calming them with their scent.
• Green Thumb: They're pure Grass-types based on sauropods.
• Healing Factor: They can be bred to know Ingrain, which can be added to with Leech Seed and Synthesis.
• Jack of All Stats: Its stats and movepool suggest that it should be played defensively but it can also run a sweeping set with Swords Dance, Earthquake, and Body Slam. This helped it significantly outperform its fellow starters in its generations competitive play, despite its single-player early game challenges. Power Creep through the generations has pushed it more towards being a Master of None, however.
• The Medic: The entire line naturally learns Aromatherapy, with which they can heal all Status Effects on party Pokémon. Also notable is that it's the only starter with access to Heal Pulse. Generation 8 also gave them the Pollen Puff attack via TRs, though the line is not currently available in that generation.
• Moveset Clone: They have the same base stats as the Bulbasaur line, except with Defense and Special Attack switched.
• Palette Swap: The entire line's shiny forms have brown leaves and yellow skins, reflecting the dying plants during autumn season.
• Petal Power: Has access to both Petal Dance and Petal Blizzard.
• Pintsized Powerhouse: Chikorita can learn Solar Beam, Energy Ball, and Grass Knot (with TMs) despite its small stature.
• Poor, Predictable Rock: Their level-up moveset consists only of Grass and Normal attacks in addition to various status moves. Meganium's movepool is a bit better with Move Tutors and TMs, having access to Outrage, Iron Tail, and Earthquake. Subverted with their egg move Ancient Power, which provides excellent complementary coverage with Grass-type attacks.
• The Power of the Sun: Their Hidden Ability, Leaf Guard, protects the line from status conditions in the sun. In addition, the line naturally learns Solar Beam.
• Prehistoric Animal Analogue: Is essentially a Brachiosaurus combined with a massive flower.
• Recurring Element: Of the Bulbasaur line, as the Grass Starter. Notably it's the only Grass starter since Bulbasaur to be purely based on a dinosaur.^note Unless you count the fact that the Alolan Grass starter, Rowlet, is based on an owl, a bird, which are a subset of dinosaurs.
• Secret Art: As a Grass-type starter, Grass Pledge and Frenzy Plant.
• Secondary Sexual Characteristics: Female Meganium have shorter antennae than males.
• Starter Mon: The Grass-type starter of Johto. Chikorita can be considered the game's "hard mode" as it doesn't fare well against the first two Johto gyms.
• Status Buff: They can learn Work Up and Swords Dance through TMs, potentially turning them into bulky sweepers.
• Stone Wall: Meganium has good defenses and can set up Reflect and Light Screen, though its other stats aren't too poor.
• Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Subverted in its favor in Johto’s mid game: The last 3 gyms are of the Steel, Ice, and Dragon types. While this would nominally be a disadvantage for the Grass-type Meganium, this isn’t actually the case thanks to the subtypes in these gyms. The Steel gym only consists of 2 Pokémon, one is part Electric (resisted by Grass) and the other is part Ground (resisted by and weak to Grass). Almost every single Pokémon in the Ice gym is either Water or Ground type (both weak to Grass), and slower than Meganium. Finally, the dragon gym has several water type Horseas and Seadras, with the gym leader having a Kingdra (Water/Dragon) as her signature mon. This results in a mid game that Meganium fares much better in than one would initially think.
• Turns Red: Overgrow boosts their Grass-type attacks when their health becomes low.
• Vine Tentacles: The family has been seen using Vine Whip so often in the anime that you'd be forgiven for thinking that it's part of its level up moveset. However, they only get it as an egg move.

Cyndaquil, Quilava, and Typhlosion (Hinoarashi, Magmarashi, and Bakphoon)

0155: Cyndaquil / Hinoarashi (ヒノアラシ hinoarashi)
0156: Quilava / Magmarashi (マグマラシ magumarashi)
0157: Typhlosion / Bakphoon (バクフーン bakufuun)

Cyndaquil

Quilava

Typhlosion

Hisuian Typhlosion

Hisuian Typhlosion debuts in Legends: Arceus

The second of the Johto starters, Cyndaquil is an adorable little shy fire echidna/hedgehog. However, as it evolves, it grows more ferocious; Quilava often attempts to intimidate enemies with the flames on its back, and Typhlosion, a (nearly) six-foot-tall fire badger known as the Volcano Pokémon, is incredibly quick-tempered with its tendency to resort to Kill It with Fire.

In addition to serving as the fire starter of Johto, the Cyndaquil line also serves as the fire starter for Pokémon Legends: Arceus, forming a trio with Rowlet and Oshawott. As a result of the energies of Mt. Coronet, Quilava in Hisui gain the Ghost-typing upon evolving into Typhlosion, who are much more relaxed than their normal counterpart, possessing flames that will purify spirits consumed by it, but will also incinerate the living if it were to lose control of its emotions.

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• Art Evolution: The line's design has been interpreted differently throughout the series when it comes to the spots/vents that their fire erupts from. Sprite based games depicted this as a continuous fire that mimicked spiky fur, while other media (primarily the anime and spin off games) depicted their flames as used only in battle and normally left off. Starting in Gen VI, the game designs would follow their flameless designs with the flames only activating during attack animations. Pokémon Legends: Arceus would adopt a middle ground, with the flames only active during battle but being on continually during battle instead of only during attack animations.
• Bad Ol' Badger: Typhlosion is a hot-tempered, ferocious Pokémon, and it seems to be at least partially based on badgers.
• Battle Aura: Played with. Typhlosion emits heat shimmer to indicate it's ready for battle, which it can also use to hide itself.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Hisuian Typhlosion is fairly sedate compared to its Johtonian counterpart, but when it does get angry it loses control of its emotions and incinerates opponents until not even ashes remain.
• Burning with Anger: Typhlosion's flames are directly connected to its temper. The angrier it gets, the hotter it burns.
• The Bus Came Back: After not having a prominent role in Pokémon in any non-Johto game and being completely absent in Pokémon Sword and Shield, Cyndaquil returns as the Fire starter in Pokémon Legends: Arceus. Notably, Typhlosion stands out amongst the other final stages of the starters as not having a martial theme thematic to the time period of the game, unlike Decidueye (based on archers) and Samurott (based on a mounted samurai). Instead, its fierce demeanor calms and it takes on aspects of a priest or monk, its ghostly flames forming shapes vaguely like a human magatama necklace.
• Cartoon Creature: Sharing traits of echnidas, badgers, bears, and weasels, the closest the Cyndaquil family can be described as is "mammalian".
• Character Development: Implied through its evolutions. Cyndaquil is naturally timid, but by the time it becomes Typhlosion, it's both confident and as powerful as a Charizard.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Hisuian Typhlosion tend to stare into space a lot, which is believed to be because it's looking into the flow of life energy and spirits.
• Elemental Punch: Can learn Fire Punch and Thunder Punch by TM and some Move Tutors.
• Eyes Always Shut: Cyndaquil in its sprites, models, and artwork.
• Feed It with Fire: Their Hidden Ability, Flash Fire, lets them absorb Fire-type attacks aimed their way to power up their own Fire-type moves.
• Fire Purifies: The flames of Hisuian Typhlosion are said to purify the souls it eats in order to return them to where they belong.
• Four Legs Good, Two Legs Better: Though Typhlosion is usually depicted standing on two legs, the Pokédex classifies it as a quadrupedal Pokémon, and it can run◊ and attack◊ on all fours.
• Fragile Speedster: They are frail, but fast, allowing them to use Eruption effectively.
• Ghostly Animals: Hisuian Typhlosion are part Ghost-type and are based on mammalian species, and make ghost flames that look like ferocious beasts.
• Incendiary Exponent: They all have flames erupting from their back.
• Informed Species: Cyndaquil is called the Fire Mouse Pokémon, but it resembles a spiny mammal more than it does a mouse.
• Made of Explodium: Although they can't learn Explosion, Typhlosion's Silver Pokédex entry claims that their fur can apparently become explosive when large amounts of friction is applied to it. Livid Typhlosion are also known for making everything they touch suddenly burst into flames.
• Magma Man: Quilava and Typhlosion are known as the Volcano Pokémon. All three can learn Lava Plume by level-up, and Typhlosion is one of the few Pokémon that can learn Eruption.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Typhlosion, a combination of "typhoon" and "explosion".
  • One possible interpretation of Cyndaquil's Japanese name, Hinoarashi, is "storm of fire". Magmarashi would be "storm of magma", and Bakphoon is "blast typhoon".
• Moveset Clone: In a sense — this line is completely identical to the Charizard line in terms of stats, with the main difference between the two being Charizard's Flying-type capabilities and wide (albeit non-STAB) Dragon-type movepool, contrasted with Typhlosion's laser focus on Fire in movepool and ability. Later generations further separated the two lines in terms of moves.
• Mystical 108: Hisuian Typhlosion attacks with 108 ghost flames that take the form of various beasts.
• Mythology Gag: Rowlet, Cyndaquil, and Oshawott form the starter trio in Pokémon Legends: Arceus. Each of them is from each of the starter trios available in the original Pokémon Sun and Moon.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Hisuian Typhlosion is a fire-breathing ghost monk badger.
• Non-Elemental: Generation VII granted them access to the rare and powerful Fire-type move Burn Up, which can only be used once, but makes them typeless after being used.
• Non-Indicative Name: Cyndaquil is known as the Fire Mouse Pokémon, but it is primarily based off of the echidna, with some traits of shrews and porcupines.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: Hisuian Typhlosion follows up on Ghost-Type tradition by not being an actual ghost, but rather being a living creature with spiritual powers.
• Playing with Fire: They're Fire-types whose design influences range from echidnas and porcupines to weasels and honey badgers.
• Poor, Predictable Rock: Their normal level-up movepool mainly consists of Fire and Normal-type moves.
• Psychic Powers: They can learn Extrasensory via breeding.
• Psychopomp: Hisuian Typhlosion uses its flames to guide lost spirits to the afterlife.
• Recurring Element: The Johto Fire-type Starter.
• Required Secondary Powers: Quilava's fur is stated to be non-flammable. This presumably applies to Cyndaquil and Typhlosion as well, as it's a requirement when you have fire erupting from your body.
• Secret Art:
  • As a Fire-type starter, Fire Pledge and Blast Burn.
  • It is one of the very few Pokémon (the other being Moltres and Growlithe through breeding) who can learn Burn Up by level up, which deals massive damage in exchange for losing its Fire-type.
  • Hisuian Typhlosion is the only Pokémon that learns Infernal Parade, a Ghost-type move that does double damage if the target already has a status condition and can give them a burn otherwise.
• Shock and Awe: The line can learn Thunder Punch though Move Tutors.
• Shrinking Violet: Many of Cyndaquil's Pokédex entries mention how it's very shy, tending to curl up when approached. Less so once it evolves.
• Soul Eating: Hisuian Typhlosion has been witnessed to eat wayward spirits, but it's believed that the spirits consumed by one will get purified by its flames and returned to where they belong.
• Soul Power: Hisuian Typhlosion is part-Ghost Type, and gains a fuschia-colored wreath of flames.
• Starter Mon:
  • The Fire-type starter of Johto. Cyndaquil manages to fare well against most of the Johto gyms.
  • Cyndaquil also serves as the Fire-type starter in Pokémon Legends: Arceus.
• Technicolor Fire:
  • Their Shiny coloration gives them purple fire in the Generation II games due to technical limitations with the color palette. However this hasn't been the case since Gen II, as they have the same fire color in both Shiny and normal colorations.
  • Hisuian Typhlosion has fuschia flames with a red base.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Hisuian Typhlosion is this for the entirety of the ghost type: instead of playing pranks, scaring people, or being actively malevolent, Hisuian Typhlosion is specifically noted for comforting and purifying souls in the afterlife. Also one for the Cyndaquil line, where Cyndaquil is meek, Quilava is confident but somewhat easily enraged, and regular Typhlosion is typically drawn as the most aggressive of the trio, where Hisuian Typhlosion takes a lot of visual cues from more pacifistic monks.
• Underground Monkey: Due to the energies of Mt. Coronet, Quilava evolve into a variant of Typhlosion that's part-Ghost type. It has a calm demeanor and appearance compared to its usual form, the openings for the flames from its neck extending to the underside of the neck as well, giving the impression of a fiercy necklace when the flames are active. It also gains a longer tail.
• Useless Useful Spell:
  • While Typhlosion can learn moves of other types through TMs, most notably Thunder Punch (a move that allows Typhlosion to take on Water types that would normally counter it), most of them run on their slightly weaker (but still decent) physical attack stat, which normal Johtoan Typhlosion can make some use of with investment.
  • Played Straight with Hisuian Typhlosion who despite having the same physical attack stat as its counterpart, has a slightly higher special attack stat and a wider movepool overall.
• Wreathed in Flames: Just from the hotspots on their backs, instead of their whole bodies. How continuous their flames are has been subject to some Art Evolution over time.

Totodile, Croconaw, and Feraligatr (Waninoko, Alligates, and Ordile)

0158: Totodile / Waninoko (ワニノコ waninoko)
0159: Croconaw / Alligates (アリゲイツ arigeitsu)
0160: Feraligatr / Ordile (オーダイル oodairu)

Totodile

Croconaw

Feraligatr

The final Johto starter, Totodile is a goofy, mischievous crocodile that loves biting whatever they see. Although cute, one must not forget that it evolves into Croconaw, an ill-tempered crocodilian, and finally into Feraligatr, an incredibly ferocious bipedal alligator, which, until Generation V's Serperior, was the largest starter overall.

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• Action Initiative: The line can be bred to learn Aqua Jet, helping them bypass their low speed.
• The Artifact: The one thing that stopped Feraligatr's name from being spelled as Feraligator was the 10-character limit imposed on English Pokémon names at the time, yet its name isn't altered even after Generation VI increased the character limit.
• Bilingual Bonus: Its German name is "Impergator", while the French is "Aligatueur" (killer gator).
• Character Name Limits: The ten-character limit in Gen II is the reason Feraligatr isn't spelled as "Feraligator".
• Cheerful Child: Totodile is depicted as being quite playful.
• Combat Pragmatist: Along with Crunch and Bite as you'd expect from an alligator, the line can also gain the Dark-type Fake Tears and Flatter by breeding, and can also learn Fling by TM.
• Confusion Fu: Along with the usual Water and Ice attacks every Water-type gets, the line also has access to a extensive movepool consisting of Ground, Rock, Dragon, Dark, Normal, Ghost, Steel, and Fighting-type moves.
• Contemporary Caveman: The pattern on Croconaw's belly makes it look a bit like one.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Totodile are described as fun-loving and goofy, but when the chips are down, they can actually get really serious.
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: Totodile's Pokédex entries mention that while it may think it is just playfully nipping at something, its bites can still inflict serious injuries.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • Possibly the reason why Totodile is, to date, the only starter Pokémon that reaches its final stage at level 30. Every other starter needs to be at level 32, 34, 35, or 36 before they can evolve a second time.
  • Due to the ten-character limit in Gen II, Feraligatr is spelled like that and not "Feraligator". Despite the fact that it should be able to fit now, it remains Feraligatr.
• Extra-ore-dinary: They can learn Metal Claw via breeding.
• An Ice Person: They can learn Ice Fang by level up, and Ice Punch^note Generation II only, though it can get it via breeding or Move Tutor in later generations, Ice Beam, Blizzard, and Hail though TMs.
• Informed Ability: While several of Feraligatr's Pokédex entries describe it as being fast, speed is its lowest stat. On the other hand, it can be bred to learn Aqua Jet and Dragon Dance to bypass or improve its low speed, and can also learn Agility by leveling up.
• Making a Splash: They're pure Water-type crocodilians.
• Mighty Glacier: Feraligatr isn't fast, but it hits hard and has decent bulk.
• Moveset Clone: Downplayed in comparison to the other two Johto starters; the line's stats are identical to the Squirtle line, but they've been rearranged from a Stone Wall setup to a physical Mighty Glacier setup.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Feraligatr's name in French is "Aligatueur", which roughly translates to "Killagator".
• Never Smile at a Crocodile: Massive jaws which are used to tear its victims up. According to most of Totodile's Pokédex entries, even its own trainer isn't safe from being accidentally bitten due to its habit of biting everything it can reach.
• Pelts of the Barbarian: Fittingly for its savage temperament, Croconaw's scales resemble a caveman-esque fur pelt.
• Recurring Element: The Johto Water-type Starter.
• Secret Art: As a Water-type starter, they get Water Pledge and Hydro Cannon.
• Shaking the Rump: In Sun and Moon, Totodile will happily wiggle its rump after defeating a Totem or when entering Pokémon Refresh right after a battle.
• Shown Their Work: In Pokémon Sleep, the Totodile line sleeps with one eye open, like real-life crocodilians.
• Starter Mon: The Water-type starter of Johto. It's neutral against most of the gyms.
• Status Buff:
  • They learn Dragon Dance via breeding, beefing up their already good Attack while boosting their mediocre Speed.
  • Feraligatr also has access to Agility, which patches up its poor speed while leaving its attack untouched.
• Stealth Pun: It can learn the move Fake Tears by breeding, which is pretty fitting since they are Crocodile Tears.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Their Hidden Ability, Sheer Force, removes secondary effects from moves like Crunch and Waterfall; in exchange, it boosts the power of those moves.

Sentret and Furret (Otachi and Ootachi)

0161: Sentret / Otachi (オタチ otachi)
0162: Furret / Ootachi (オオタチ ootachi)

Sentret

Furret

The first two new non-Starter Pokémon appearing in the Johto Dex are Sentret and its evolution, Furret. Despite appearing early in the `Dex listing, they are surprisingly rare, only appearing in a handful routes and only capable of appearing when it is daytime in their debut Generation. Despite this, they are the second gen equivalents of Rattata and Raticate, in terms of being early game mammalian Com Mons, despite Rattata and Raticate themselves reprising the same role they had in Generation I.
Sentret is a squirrel-esque mammal with a habit of supporting itself with its tail in order to both scan for potential threats and intimidate foes, while Furret is sleeker in build and is an active predator of Rattata, living in burrows that only it can enter.

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• Action Initiative: Naturally learn Sucker Punch and Quick Attack.
• All Your Powers Combined: Naturally learns Baton Pass. It also gets buffs like Work Up, Hone Claws, and the rather rare Amnesia to pass on.
• Cartoon Creature: They're certainly mammalian, but they draw inspiration from squirrels, raccoons and ferrets.
• Com Mons: Played with. They are very similar to Rattata and its expies from following generations, but they are only found on 2 routes while Rattata is pretty much everywhere in Johto.
• Confusion Fu: This cute little ferret Pokémon can learn moves like Ice Beam, Thunder, and Fire Punch. Unfortunately, it really doesn't have the attack stats to use them well.
• Fragile Speedster: Furret has decent Speed, as well as average HP and attack, but its defenses are poor.
• Frisky Ferret: Furret is stated in the Pokédex to be speedy and nimble and even has Frisk as one of its Abilities.
• Item Caddy: They can get both Frisk and Covet from the Dream World. It's not quite Pickup, but it can be very effective for farming wild Pokémon for items. Furret can also learn Thief via TM, allowing it to steal items off any Pokemon it encounters, including Ghost-types that would otherwise be immune.
• Killer Rabbit: Despite Furret's cute appearance, it's a carnivorous predator; the Pokédex states that it hunts Rattata for food.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: One of their Abilities is Run Away, letting them always escape battles with wild Pokémon.
• Super-Scream: Naturally learn Hyper Voice, and can get Round, Echoed Voice, and Uproar through a combination of TMs and Move Tutors.
• Non-Elemental: They're Normal-types. Both are based on ferrets, though Sentret has some meerkat-like traits.
• Recurring Element: The Normal-typed early mammal with two evolution stages.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Both, but Furret takes the adorableness of a regular ferret and cranks it up.
• Rodents of Unusual Size: Sentret is a giant flying squirrel which stands at 2'07", or 0.8 meters! Although it isn't known if that's its height when standing on its tail or standing on its feet. Furret is nearly 6 feet, but again, this might be its entire length rather than its height.
• Super-Senses: The Keen Eye ability negates all attempts to reduce a Sentret-family Pokémon’s accuracy, and in more recent games, also ignores all attempts to raise an enemy Pokémon’s evasion.
• Support Party Member: In the single player game, Furret is great for stealing stuff off enemy Pokemon such as valuable held items, and in a pinch can be relied upon to weaken but not outright KO most wild Pokemon that a player may want to catch. In competitive play, Furret's ability to learn Tidy Up makes it very useful for clearing away various entry hazards, substitutes, and other dangerous terrain conditions, while also boosting its Attack and Speeds stats. It can then Baton Pass these buffs to an ally, with a guarantee that said ally will land on a clean floor. It also gets Helping Hand to boost allies in double battles, and if any trained Pokemon are using powerful berries or held items, Furret can use Knock Off to slap it straight out of their hands (or hand-analogues).
• Utility Weapon: Furret can learn the HMs Cut, Surf, Strength, and Rock Smash, so even if it isn't used in battle, it can provide field utility.
• Weasel Mascot: Furret is based off a ferret, and it shows.

Hoothoot and Noctowl (Hoho and Yorunozuku)

0163: Hoothoot / Hoho (ホーホー hoohoo)
0164: Noctowl / Yorunozuku (ヨルノズク yorunozuku)

Hoothoot

Noctowl

A pair of owls. In Generation II, they take on the role as Com Mons during the night but they are nowhere to be seen during the day. Hoothoot is designed with an obvious clock theme and does in fact — despite appearing otherwise — have two feet. Upon evolving to Noctowl, it takes on an appearance more akin to a "normal" owl.

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• Abnormal Limb Rotation Range: Noctowl is stated to rotate its neck 180 degrees and upside-down when thinking. Owls can rotate their heads by a lot in real life.
• Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Hoothoot has a clock theme. The markings around its eyes look like clockwork gears and its eyebrows look like clock hands.
• Balance Buff: In Gen VII, Noctowl gained a small buff to its Special Attack, going from a paltry 76 to a somewhat decent 86.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: Hoothoot has large extensions that resemble a clock's hands while Noctowl's look like horns.
• Blow You Away: The classic Flying-type birds with moves like Whirlwind, Fly, Wing Attack and Peck. Later gens gave them Air Slash, Hurricane and Tailwind.
• Com Mons: Hoothoot is common in Johto at night.
• Cute Owl: Hoothoot could arguably be described as cute with its round shape, big red eyes, crazy eyebrows, and "eyeliner". Noctowl, however, completely drops the cute act for a more imposing stature.
• Crutch Character: Noctowl evolves early and is respectably strong for that point, but quickly falls off after the mid-game.
• Foil: The nocturnal bird to diurnal bird Pidgey.
• Heal Thyself: Naturally learn Roost to restore their HP by up to half its maximum.
• Nocturnal Mooks: They mostly appear at night.
• Non-Elemental: Normal-type Pokémon based on owls. However, they lack the expansive moveset associated with the type and instead learn a ton of Psychic-type moves.
• Ominous Owl: While both are based upon owls, Noctowl looks considerably more intimidating and is described as being a hunter that never fails to catch its prey.
• Psychic Powers: They learn several Psychic-type attacks naturally.
• Razor Wind: Naturally learn Air Slash.
• Recurring Element: The early Normal/Flying bird.
• Red Baron: Noctowl have been referred to as the "emperor of dark nights".
• Repetitive Name: Hoothoot. This also applies to its Japanese name, Hoho, and its Chinese name, Gūgū. All of these names are onomatopoeia for the sounds owls make in their own language.
• Scissors Cuts Rock: Their Hidden Ability is Tinted Lens, which doubles the power of resisted attacks used.
• Squishy Wizard: Unusually for a Normal/Flying type, their stats lean more towards its special side. However, this means that its Attack and Defense are very low.
• Status Effects: Naturally learn Hypnosis. They're also among the rare users of the move Psycho Shift, which lets it transfer these from itself to the target.
• Stone Wall: Noctowl has good Special Defense and HP to withstand attacks on the special side, but the rest of its stats are mediocre to poor.
• Super-Scream: Naturally learn Uproar and Echoed Voice, and get Round and Hyper Voice through TMs and Move Tutors, respectively.
• Super-Senses: Noctowl has Super Sight that lets it see far-away objects as long as there is a little light, owing to its success in hunting. Fittingly, the line has the Keen Eye ability, which both prevents Noctowl's accuracy from being lowered and ignores an enemy's evasion boosts.
• Technicolor Eyes: Noctowl has dark red eyes.
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: While many Pokémon have fantastic abilities and powers, Hoothoot's unique trait is that it has a special organ that lets it keep track of time by sensing the Earth's rotation. It can tell the time to an extremely accurate degree, which it uses to hoot at the same time every day. Appropriately, it is partially based on a clock as well as an owl.

Ledyba and Ledian (Rediba and Redian)

0165: Ledyba / Rediba (レディバ rediba)
0166: Ledian / Redian (レディアン redian)

Ledyba

Ledian

Two Ladybug Pokémon, they are both known as Five Star Pokémon due to the five marks on their backs, but chances are that neither would get a five-star rating on their combat abilities. Ledian, however, does use starlight as energy. It was exclusive to Silver and its remake, and even then it's only found in the mornings.

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• Action Initiative: Naturally learn Mach Punch.
• All Your Powers Combined: Naturally learn Baton Pass, and gets buffs like Agility, Swords Dance, and the potential all-over boost from Silver Wind to pass on.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Ledian can learn a surprisingly high variety of punching moves, and its Hidden Ability, Iron Fist, increases the damage dealt by said moves. Sadly, its awful Attack stat tends to limit the effectiveness of these moves, even with the boost.
• Barrier Warrior: Learn Reflect, Light Screen, and Safeguard by level up.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Thy're bug-types based on ladybugs and standing at a height of 1 meter and 1.4 meters respectively.
• Blow You Away: Flying-types, yet got zero Flying-type moves on its debut generation. Later gens have rectified this and now it can learn Tailwind, Air Slash, Acrobatics and Ominous Wind.
• Crutch Character: Ledian evolves at level 18 and gets useful support moves like Reflect and Light Screen before then. Unfortunately, its low stat total, poor typing, and nearly nonexistent offenses mean that it will drop off early in a trainer's journey.
• Death of a Thousand Cuts: Ledian's Moon Pokédex entry states its preferred fighting style: quantity over quality, throwing barrages of punches because each individual punch deals paltry damage.
• Foil: The cute early-riser bug to the scary night-dwelling Spinarak line. In Gold and Silver, they would appear at different times of the day, with Ledyba appearing in the morning.
• Fragile Speedster: Ledian's second-best stat is its above average Speed, but its HP, Defense, and offensive stats are terrible.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Ledyba's Ultra Sun Pokédex entry states they're sensitive to the cold. As a part Flying-type, they're at a disadvantage to Ice attacks.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Despite multiple Pokédex entries describing Ledian's nocturnal behavior, it and its pre-evolution can typically only be encountered in the morning and day.
• The Greys: Ledian's appearance draws cues from stereotypical aliens.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Ledyba has 6 arms (but no legs), Ledian has 4.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Apparently Ledyba are considered cute enough that even the anime counterpart of Misty (who is famous for being afraid of bugs) actually likes them.
• Shrinking Violet: Several dex entries mention how timid Ledyba is to the point of being too afraid to move unless they're in swarms. Their "not pleased" reaction in Amie and Refresh is to wiggle in fear.
• Stone Wall: Ledian's Special Defense is actually pretty high relative to what's available at the point it evolves from Ledyba (and overall is above average), but everything else about it is poor. Especially its pathetic offensive stats of 35 Attack and 50 Special Attack.
• Support Party Member: While Ledian's ability in battle on its own is very limited, it learns a variety of useful support moves such as Light Screen, Reflect, and Safeguard. With its good Special Defense and decent Speed, it can last long enough in battle to set up and use Baton Pass to give the effects of these moves to other teammates.
• Turns Red: Their Swarm Ability boosts the power of their Bug-type attacks when its HP is low.
• Useless Useful Spell: Ledian's Hidden Ability is Iron Fist, which boosts the power of its punching moves. While this is a decent ability, and Ledian actually has a selection of punching attacks that would impress a Hitmonchan, Ledian unfortunately doesn't have the stats to make use of these moves. To put it into perspective, its physical Attack on par with such muscle-bound brawlers as Kadabra.

Spinarak (Itomaru) and Ariados

0167: Spinarak / Itomaru (イトマル itomaru)
0168: Ariados (アリアドス ariadosu)

Spinarak

Ariados

Spinarak is a Spider Pokémon, and so is its evolution Ariados. Spinarak can (surprisingly enough) emote using the "face" on its back; Ariados, on the other hand, seem to have a static angry face on their backs. They are exclusive to Gold and only found at night.

---

• Action Initiative: They can learn Sucker Punch and Shadow Sneak.
• Balance Buff: Ariados got a minor buff to its Special Defense in Gen VII.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: They're bug-types based on spiders and standing at 1 meter tall... yet with six legs.
• Critical Hit Class: Their Hidden Ability is Sniper, which boosts the damage of Critical Hits by 50%.
• Fixed Damage Attack: One of the users of Sonic Boom, which it can learn through breeding.
• Foil: The scary bug to the cute Ledyba line. In Gold and Silver, they would appear at different times of the day, with Spinarak only appearing at night.
• Four-Legged Insect: As spiders, they should have eight legs, not six.
• Giant Spider: Ariados is over 3 feet/1 meter tall and weighs 73 lbs/33 kg.
• Glass Cannon: Ariados has decent Attack, but everything else is pretty lackluster, especially its Speed.
• Mythology Gag: In Gen II, Spinarak's shiny was a purple body with pink legs. From Gen III onwards, it became a blue body with purple legs, making it a replica of its original sprites in Gold and Silver.
• Nocturnal Mooks: Mostly appear at night.
• Non-Damaging Status Infliction Attack: Two of their Secret Arts:
  • Spider Web, shared only with their arachnid cousins. It functions just like Mean Look, preventing the target from switching out or fleeing.
  • Sun and Moon gave them and them alone, Toxic Thread, which lowers the target's speed and poisons them.
• Poisonous Person: They're venomous Poison-types based on spiders that can create poisonous webbing.
• Psychic Powers: Learns Psybeam and Psychic naturally.
• Secret Art:
  • The move Spider Web, shared only with their arachnid cousins. It functions just like Mean Look, preventing the target from switching out or fleeing.
  • Electroweb, which, in Pokémon Black and White, was exclusive to them and Joltik/Galvantula before the sequels made the move available from the Move Tutor.
  • Sun and Moon gave them and them alone Toxic Thread, which lowers the target's speed and poisons them.
• Trap Master: Can be taught both Sticky Web and Toxic Spikes, to slow down and poison switch-ins respectively.
• Turns Red: Their Swarm ability gives Bug-type attacks a boost when their HP is below one-third.
• Viewers Are Geniuses: Ariados' name (even in Japanese) comes from the Greek legend of Ariadne.
• What Measure Is a Non-Cute?: While it's designed to be more intimidating than the Ledyba line, it's still pretty goofy-looking for what is supposed to be a Giant Spider. Spinarak looks outright innocent.
• You Will Not Evade Me:
  • Spider Web prevents any Pokémon it hits from fleeing.
  • It can be bred to know Pursuit, which lets it dish out one last, harsh hit on an opponent currently trying to switch out.

Chinchou and Lanturn (Chonchie and Lantern)

0170: Chinchou / Chonchie (チョンチー chonchii)
0171: Lanturn / Lantern (ランターン rantaan)

Chinchou

Lanturn

You know how anglerfish tend to be hideous-looking? Well, that doesn't apply to Chinchou and Lanturn. These two cute blue and yellow Water/Electric Pokémon not only use their light dangler thing to stun their prey, but also use it to communicate and light their way in the dark depths of the ocean.

---

• Bubble Gun: Both naturally learn Bubble and Bubble Beam.
• Combo: As of Gen VI, they become one of the few Pokémon that learn Soak, and they have a secondary STAB that is strong against Water (Electric). Even as a Stone Wall, this'll put a dent in many teams.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: In the Japanese versions of Gold and Silver, Lanturn has yellow spots near its eyes, which it doesn't have in any other game.
• Elemental Absorption: Volt Absorb heals them if they're hit with Electric-type moves, while Water Absorb heals them with Water-type moves.
• Exotic Eye Designs: Chinchou's are plus signs.
• Friendly, Playful Dolphin: Part of the reason why Lanturn looks so adorable is because it is partially based on one.
• Healing Factor: Naturally learn Aqua Ring, which restores a fraction of their HP at the end of every turn.
• Hydro-Electro Combo: A dual Water/Electric anglerfish that naturally learns moves of both types.
• An Ice Person: Unsurprising for a Water-type, but notable as they are the only Electric-type Pokémon (barring Zap Plate Arceus) capable of learning Ice Beam and the only ones besides Frost Rotom to learn Blizzard, perfect for countering those pesky Ground, Grass, and Dragon-types.
• Light 'em Up: And from the deepest depths of the ocean, too! Illuminate is also one of their abilities.
• Luring in Prey: One of their abilities, Illuminate, lures Pokémon to them (in other words, increased random encounters). Chinchou is mostly described as using its lures to communicate or produce electric attacks, but Lanturn is stated by the Pokédex to use its escas to lure prey and blind it before eating it.
• Making a Splash: They're Water-types based on anglerfish.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Lanturn. It's almost like an angler fish mixed with a dolphin!
• Shock and Awe: Both are Electric-types, yet are mostly associated with the light generated from their antenna. It took until Sun and Moon to clarify that they also have an electrical organ used to shock and kill prey.
• Stone Wall: Lanturn. Its Special Attack isn't that terrible, and it can even raise it with Charge Beam, but it serves better in this role than trying to play a Mighty Glacier.
• Super Spit: Naturally learn the Stockpile/Swallow/Spit Up trio.
• Writers Cannot Do Math: Lanturn's light is said to be visible on the ocean surface from three miles deep. Someone over at Reddit did the math, and it turns out that for Lanturn's light to be visible from such a depth, it would have to be hundreds of times brighter than all the light in the observable universe.

Togepi (Togepy), Togetic (Togechick), and Togekiss

0175: Togepi / Togepy (トゲピー togepii)
0176: Togetic / Togechick (トゲチック togechikku)
0468: Togekiss (トゲキッス togekissu)

Togepi

Togetic

Togekiss

Togekiss debuts in Diamond and Pearl

This evolution line of Fairy Pokémon are largely associated with happiness, luck, and peace. They are also incredibly rare; despite having their debut in Generation II, the only places Togepi are found in the wild are Sinnoh, Unova^note White Version only, in White Forest, and Galar^note in Raid Battles; Togekiss can be found only in Alola^note only on Tuesdays, and only using the Island Scan feature and Galar^note in Raid Battles. Thankfully, you are usually given a Egg to hatch a Togepi yourself, spawning a tradition of being given a free egg with a rare baby Pokémon in it once a game. In X and Y, the Togepi line was retconned to Fairy-types, as they were previously Normal types.

---

• Action Initiative: Togekiss is one of the rare users of Extreme Speed.
• Adaptational Badass: By no means slouches, the entire line became even more fierce in the form of Gold's Togebo in Pokémon Adventures, whom looks and acts absolutely determined to kick ass.
• Awesome, but Impractical:
  • Togekiss is one of the very few Pokémon to get the powerful Extreme Speed, and even had STAB on it before it was Retconned to Fairy in Gen VI. With the ability Hustle, its physical attacks get boosted by 50% at the cost of some accuracy and Extreme Speed could actually hit surprisingly hard, but Togekiss' physical movepool is horrible otherwise and the accuracy debuff will make it so what little you do have will probably miss at inopportune times.
  • A Togekiss with Ominous Wind, Silver Wind, and Ancient Power. 20% chance when attacking of getting a boost to all its stats with Serene Grace, but 60 Power is too low to do decent damage. Then again, that fourth move slot could be anything you like, be it a higher-power move, or Baton Pass… Still, 20% is simply too low to be reliable.
• Badass Adorable: Togepi and Togetic are cute Pokémon with access to the unpredictable Metronome. Togekiss is just as cute, but a lot more powerful and has access to moves like Aura Sphere, Extreme Speed, and Air Slash.
• Black Bead Eyes: Togetic and Togekiss.
• Blow You Away: Togetic and Togekiss are part Flying-types.
• Cartoon Creature: Togepi and Togetic evoke bird hatchlings, but aren't based on any particular bird. Togekiss also bears resemblance to a manta ray.
• Confusion Fu: They have a wide variety of attacks to choose from, being able to learn attacks from all types but Poison, Ice, and Dark. Their non-offensive moves are just as impressive. Then there's Metronome, which is totally random.
• Cycle of Hurting: Woe to you if your Pokémon is outsped by a Serene Grace Togekiss. With a 60% flinch chance on Air Slash, there's a substantial risk that it'll be minced to pieces without getting the chance to do anything. Even worse, Togekiss gets Thunder Wave to nail faster Pokémon, so you'd better have a Ground or Electric-type or a Pokémon with the ability Limber that can stop it.
• Doves Mean Peace: Togekiss is partly based on white doves, and it is said that it only appears where there is no conflict.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Togepi was the second Generation II Pokémon to appear in the anime (after Ho-Oh), and the first to be clearly identified as an unknown Pokémon, featuring very prominently as Misty's companion and in promotional material in the lead up to Gen II.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: In the Pikachu's Vacation short, the Pokédex classifies Togepi as the "Egg Pokémon." Later, when Togepi officially appeared in the games, it would be classified as the "Spike Ball Pokémon."
• Eggshell Clothing: Most of Togepi's body is still covered in the egg it hatched from.
• Evil-Detecting Baby: According to a Pokédex entry from the anime, Togepi is filled with an energy that will vanish in the presence of a person with an impure heart.
• Extra-ore-dinary: Togetic can learn Steel Wing and Smart Strike via TM.
• For Happiness: Togepi evolves into Togetic via high friendship, and both it and Togekiss love the presence of kind and peaceful people.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: According to its Pokédex entry in Legends: Arceus, Togetic has never been seen in the wild. You can find it flitting around in Tranquility Cove, Bolderoll Slope, and Cottonsedge Prairie.
• Informed Species: The line is based on birds crossed with fairies: Togepi being a newly hatched chick, Togetic a fledgling, and Togekiss being fully grown. Of the three, only Togekiss at all visibly birdlike and even its resemblance is quite loose.
• Kamehame Hadoken: Togekiss is one of a select few non-Lucario, non-Legendary Pokémon to learn Aura Sphere.
• Luck-Based Mission
  • Fighting with Togepi in general is this, as, until higher levels, it's stuck with just Metronome, which chooses any other move in the game at random.
  • The Serene Grace ability, which doubles the proc rate of attack effects. For example, Togekiss can learn Air Slash, which normally has a 30% chance of making the opponent flinch; Serene Grace makes this a 60% chance, which can be incredibly helpful if the Random Number God favors you. Serene Grace also works in conjunction with held items like King's Rock and Razor Fang (which gives almost any attack move a 10% chance of causing flinch; Serene Grace doubles this to 20%); while this is a separate check rather than adding on to the existing flinch rate, it nonetheless gives Air Slash a 68% chance of causing flinch.
  • It can also have the Super Luck ability, which raises the critical hit ratio.
• Magikarp Power: Togepi is very weak at first and (apart from the one in HeartGold/SoulSilver) doesn't learn an attacking move until level 33, although this was eventually remedied (slightly) in Sword and Shield, where it starts with Pound. Evolving it requires high friendship, which will take you quite a bit of time, and a rare Shiny Stone. When it finally fully evolves, you'll have a very nice special attacker with flinch-spamming abilities to boot.
• Mighty Glacier: Togekiss is a flying tank, with wonderful Special Attack backed up with great bulk, but its Speed is statistically average. It's not that hard to outspeed, but it's not the slowest in the world, either.
• Mouthy Bird: Togekiss is a bird (or at least looks like a bird), but it doesn't have a beak.
• Mythology Gag: Togepi and Togetic in Gold and Silver were rendered with a yellow-on-white color scheme with their shinies just changing the color of their triangle markings before switching to the pure white style starting in Crystal. Togekiss' shiny coloration gives it the exact same shade of yellow its pre-evolves used in the Gen II games.
• Non-Elemental: Before the retcon in Gen 6, they were previously normal types.
• Our Angels Are Different: In this world, they're birds that spread joy and harmony.
• Our Fairies Are Different: Fairies that vaguely resemble owls and are very kind to complete strangers. While originally, Togepi and its evolutions were only in the Fairy egg-group and all happened to have Normal as a primary type, Togepi became pure Fairy-type while the rest of the line became Fairy/Flying via retcon courtesy of Gen VI.
• Out-of-Character Moment: The line is said to spread joy and promote peace, yet can be bred to know Nasty Plot, which is described as "[stimulating the] brain by thinking bad thoughts".
• Recurring Element: Togepi introduces the tradition of having a free baby Pokémon egg given out by NPCs, and Togepi itself is the most common Pokémon to be given out this way. Togepi eggs have been given out in five different games in the series.^note Gold and Silver as well as their remakes, FireRed and LeafGreen, Platinum, and Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Just look at Togepi; it's a hatchling still wearing its egg shell! To boot, the entire line retains its cuteness when it finally becomes Togekiss. It became The Cutie in the anime even over series mascot Pikachu for several arcs.
• Shock and Awe: The line can learn Thunder Wave via TM, which is useful for slowing down those faster targets and making them flinch.
• Stationary Wings: The Silver/SoulSilver Pokédex confirmed that Togetic is able to stay afloat in midair without having to use its wings.
• Status Buff: Gets Nasty Plot through breeding, which boosts its already impressive Special Attack even higher.
• Stone Wall: Togetic has surprisingly good defenses that can be boosted further through Eviolite, in addition to a wide array of supporting moves. Its best offensive stat is a mediocre 80, though.
• Useless Useful Spell:
  • The Hustle ability, which increases Attack by 1.5x in exchange for lowering the Pokémon's Accuracy by 20%. Togekiss used to have a silly niche with it using Extreme Speed, which worked decently enough due to the surprise factor, but after having its Normal-typing retconned to Fairy in Gen VI and thus losing Extreme Speed's STAB, Hustle lost all use due to the only other Physical STAB moves (Sky Attack and Fly) either needing two turns to work or being too weak to matter (Aerial Ace).
  • Their Hidden Ability, Super Luck. It increases the Critical Hit chance of all attack moves, the obvious issue being that regular attacks have a horrible critical chance in the first place. However, Togekiss has no high-crit moves to abuse it with. Gen VI's updated crit formula makes things slightly better, though.
• Wind from Beneath My Wings: Togepi is flightless as it is just a baby, but when it evolves into Togetic, it grows a pair of wings. When it evolves into Togekiss, the wings and arms appear to combine and it gets access to Air Slash.
• Wolverine Publicity: Togepi was heavily marketed in the lead up to Gen II and it represents one of the newly added features with Pokémon eggs, as well as having an evolution with the newly added friendship mechanic. While it was certainly popular at the time, Togepi's popularity didn't last long enough to make it an iconic feature of the series, and these days they are treated as just another Pokémon.

Natu and Xatu (Naty and Natio)

0177: Natu / Naty (ネイティ neiti)
0178: Xatu / Natio (ネイティオ neitio)

Natu

Xatu

Natu and Xatu are Psychic bird Pokémon that have an unusual Native or South American-inspired design to them. Natu's wings are a bit on the small side, so it tends to hop around pecking or just staring at things. Xatu, on the other hand, tend to stay in the same spot, presumably looking into the past and the future simultaneously. They are very useful in supporting other team members with setting up Reflect or Light Screen, or even healing other team members with Wish.

---

• Action Initiative: Can be bred with Quick Attack and Sucker Punch. Inversely, both birds naturally learn Teleport, which allows the user to voluntarily go last, swapping out after the opponent has already moved or switched.
• Anti-Magic: Its Magic Bounce Ability causes it to reflect status moves, entry hazard moves, etc. back at whatever sent them.
• Bad Future: The Ruby Dex entry claims that Xatu stand still because of the horrible things they see in the future. Its Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon entries say that while it can see the future, it doesn't try to change it — its Ultra Sun entry says it's completely unable to, while its Ultra Moon entry says it has no desire to.
• Blow You Away: Both are Flying-type birds, but in battle, Xatu spends most of its time in the air, in addition to being better at flying than Natu. As of Generation VII, Xatu immediately has the opportunity to learn Air Slash after evolving from Natu, and as of Generation V can use Heat Wave, like many other winged or avian Pokémon.
• Boss Battle: Xatu is the signature Pokémon of Will, the first Elite Four member in Johto.
• Glass Cannon: They have decent speed and special attack, but their defenses are average, and it has low HP.
• Heal Thyself: They can learn Roost to recover their health. They can also learn Giga Drain by either tutor or TM. It also naturally learns Wish, which puts it closer to The Medic territory.
• Magical Native American: Well, more like Magical Ainu (judging by the patterns of its feathers), but its design is heavily inspired by that of a totem pole.
• Psychic Powers: Both are Psychic-types that can predict the future.
• Seers: Xatu can see both the past and the future at the same time. They both learn Future Sight.
• Status Buff: Gets the Stored Power attack, which gains strength for each of these on the user, which works great with Calm Mind.
• Status-Buff Dispel: It can be bred with Haze, allowing it to undo all Status Buffs (and debuffs) on every Pokémon on the field.
• Thousand-Yard Stare: Due to its ability to see Bad Futures, it tends to stand still and stare all day.

Mareep, Flaaffy, and Ampharos (Merriep, Mokoko, and Denryu)

0179: Mareep / Merriep (メリープ meriipu)
0180: Flaaffy / Mokoko (モココ mokoko)
0181: Ampharos / Denryu (デンリュウ denryuu)

Mareep

Flaaffy

Ampharos

Mega Ampharos

Mega Ampharos debuts in X and Y

A family of adorable sheep that bear wool with an electric charge to them. They make excellent Electric Pokémon in the Gen II games and their remakes due to their high Special Attack stat. Unlike most Electric Pokémon, though, they're a bit on the slow side. Ampharos gained a Mega Evolution in X and Y, where it gains a Dragon subtyping and Mold Breaker, but becomes even slower.

---

• Badass Adorable: Don't let its cute looks fool you; Ampharos' electric attacks have some serious kick to them.
• Balance Buff: Gen VI increased Ampharos's base Defense stat by 10, from 75 to 85.
• Bilingual Bonus: Ampharos' Japanese name, Denryu, can translate to "electric dragon".
• Cartoon Creature: Ampharos doesn't quite look like a sheep. Of course, Ampharos' Japanese name Denryu literally means "electric dragon", so that could explain the lack of resemblance to sheep. Its Mega Evolution actually is a dragon, but with wool-like hair. Aside from meaning "electric dragon," Denryu also translates directly to "electric current," which makes far more sense.
• Chromatic Arrangement: Pigment trio by their skin tone, Blue, Pink (Red), and Yellow in evolutionary order.
• Combat Medic: The entire line can learn Heal Bell from a move tutor, giving it an interesting support niche. That being said, a base 115 Special Attack stat means that Ampharos is just as capable of dealing with opposing teams itself.
• Dinosaurs Are Dragons: Ampharos' flippers and long neck may have taken some cues from plesiosaurs, and it gains the Dragon-type upon Mega Evolving.
• Dub-Induced Plot Hole:
  • The reason Ampharos cannot learn Tail Glow, despite using its tail to illuminate lighthouses, is because the Japanese name of Tail Glow is Firefly Light. This doesn't explain how Manaphy, neither a firefly or possessing a tail, can learn it, however.
  • Likewise, Ampharos's Japanese name literally means "electric current", but can also mean "electric dragon", so it becoming a Dragon-type upon Mega Evolution makes perfect sense in Japanese; not so much so elsewhere.
• Elemental Punch: Naturally learn Thunder Punch upon evolving into Ampharos. With a TM or Move Reminder they can also learn Fire Punch.
• Elite Tweak: With base 45 speed, Mega Ampharos is one of the few Megas that would be right at home in a Trick Room team.
• Fantastic Livestock: They're electric sheep farmed for their wool, which is used to make clothing but easily charges with static electricity.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: As its Pokédex entry states, touching Mareep's wool will shock you if its Static ability is of any indication. The same also happens if you try petting its wool in Pokémon Amie.
• Gemstone Assault: All three of them learn Power Gem by leveling up.
• Important Haircut: In a sense. Mareep stores static electricity in its fleece; its gradual loss of the fur as it evolves is because it stores too much electricity and it sheds and develops patches of skin where it can't grow back. That Mega Ampharos gets back some of its lost fleece as hair may reflect that it has better control over its powers and can allow for hair growth again.
• Light 'em Up: Ampharos is known as the "Light Pokémon", and is in fact responsible for keeping the Olivine City Lighthouse in working order. Also, they are some of the few Pokémon that learn Signal Beam naturally.
• Meaningful Name
  • "Mareep" is an anagram of "ampere," which is used to measure electric currents. "Meeh" is also the Japanese version of "baa".
  • Ampharos is 'amp' (as in, electricity) and 'Pharos' (the lighthouse, a.k.a., one of the Wonders of the Ancient World) combined.
• Mighty Glacier: In contrast to most Electric-type Pokémon, which are Fragile Speedsters or Lightning Bruisers. Its Mega Evolution is this even more so, as it loses some speed while gaining better defenses, Attack, and a huge boost to Special Attack. For extra fun, the line can naturally learn Cotton Guard, raising their Defense by three stages.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Mega Ampharos is an electric sheep dragon.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Mega Ampharos is a sheep dragon.
• Power Makes Your Hair Grow: Mega Ampharos gains flowing, bushy, and fluffy hair on its head and tail upon transformation. The evolution line inverts this, however; Flaaffy has less wool than Mareep, and Ampharos has no wool at all.
• Punny Name: Ampharos's Japanese name, Denryu, means "electric current" or "electric dragon".
• Retcon: Gen VI added Dragon Pulse to Ampharos' natural moveset so it has a Special STAB to use with its Mega Evolution's new typing. Prior to this, the only Dragon-type move it had access to was the physical Outrage.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Mareep, and especially Flaaffy. Ampharos is almost as endearing as its younger stages, albeit a bit more odd-looking.
• Shock and Awe: Electric-types based off of sheep (and a dragon for Ampharos). They generate their charge with their wool, storing static electricity with each evolution until Ampharos becomes woolless... at least until Mega Evolution stimulates its genes and it regains the lost fur.
• Status Buff: Gets Agility, which doubles its Speed, and Cotton Guard, which raises its Defense by three stages.
• Super Mode: Ampharos gains a Mega Evolution in X and Y, becoming part Dragon-type and getting the Mold Breaker ability.
• Sweet Sheep: The family is mostly based on sheep and they happen to be very cute and very friendly-looking. This aspect is downplayed with Ampharos, as it becomes more dragon-like (although it is still very cute compared to other dragons).
• Useless Useful Spell: As of Gen VII, Ampharos can learn Thunder Punch as soon as it evolves. While a decently powerful attack with a STAB bonus is nothing to sneeze at, it's easily outclassed by the likes of Thunderbolt in that department due to it running off of Ampharos' inferior Physical Attack stat.^note hilariously enough, in the Gen II games it can learn Thunder Punch via a TM as a Flaaffy.

Azurill, Marill, and Azumarill (Ruriri, Maril, and Marilli)

0298: Azurill / Ruriri (ルリリ ruriri)
0183: Marill / Maril (マリル mariru)
0184: Azumarill / Marilli (マリルリ mariruri)

Azurill

Marill

Azumarill

Azurill debuts in Ruby and Sapphire

A family of blue Water-types, most notable for Marill receiving an Early-Bird Cameo and being one of the first Gen II Pokémon to appear in the anime. These aquatic rodents were initially only found in a single location, Mt. Mortar, but good luck running into one, since they were extremely rare. Being made more common was just one of the improvements later generations would bring, and they also received an ability called Huge Power, which basically doubled their Attack stat, and a Normal-type baby form. In Generation VI, all three members of the line gained the Fairy-type via a retcon.

---

• Action Initiative: Can be bred to know Aqua Jet, which strikes first.
• Armless Biped: Azurill doesn't appear to have any arms at this stage of development.
• Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Marill is part Water-type, and fittingly enough, its body resembles common visualizations of water molecules, with its ears resembling the smaller hydrogen atoms and its spherical body resembling the larger oxygen atom.
• Badass Adorable: Each member of the family can be as cute as a button, but they also can have the ability Huge Power, which outright doubles their attack stat, which can let Azumarill smack opponents that are often double (or more) in size.
• Balance Buff: As the generations went on, the line became more of a powerhouse with more tools at their disposal.
  • In Gen III, they gained Huge Power as their ability, which doubles their current Attack stat, effectively turning them from Stone Wall to Mighty Glacier.
  • In Gen IV, the physical/special split gave them physical Water type moves like Aqua Jet and Waterfall, whereas Water-type attacks were previously all classified as Special moves before Gen IV.
  • In Gen VI, they acquired a secondary Fairy-type, giving them an additional immunity and STAB to work with their colossal Attack.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Their naming schemes in both English and Japanese. Azurill and Marill into Azumarill, Ruriri and Mariru into Mariruri.
• Bunnies for Cuteness: Azumarill is the Aqua Rabbit Pokémon.
• Cartoon Creature: The whole line consists of round shapes with stubby limbs and rodent ears.
• Cast from Hit Points: It gets Belly Drum by breeding, a move that maxes the user's attack (to 400%) while cutting its current HP in half, and with the Huge Power boost on top of that...
• Combo:
  • Get Soak and the Grass-type attack Grass Knot, allowing them to get guaranteed super-effective hits by turning the target into a Water-type and then using Grass Knot. Grass Knot is a Special move, though, so it isn't boosted by Huge Power.
  • The line also learns Defense Curl and Rollout. Using the former grants a Defense boost and increases the power of the latter.
  • The line naturally learns Rain Dance, which creates Weather of War that enhances Water-type attacks.
• Com Mons: In Hoenn, where they're far more common than in Johto.
• Discard and Draw: When Azurill evolves into Marill, it loses its Normal type and gains the Water type.
• Disc-One Nuke: In Black 2 and White 2, Azurill can be acquired at the start of the game, can potentially have Huge Power, and Azumarill's learnset was altered to give it the 90 base Power STAB Aqua Tail at Lv 21 and 120 base power Double-Edge at Lv 25, giving you hard hitting moves from a very strong, fully evolved Pokémon fairly early on in the game.
• Early-Bird Cameo:
  • Marill featured very prominently as one of Tracey Sketchit's Pokémon in the Orange Islands arc of the anime, which preceded the launch of Gold and Silver. Before that, it made its first-ever appearance in Pikachu's Vacation.
  • Azurill was one of the earliest Gen III Pokémon to be revealed, first showing up alongside Kecleon and Wailmer in the Pikachu short, Pikachu's Pikaboo.
• Elemental Absorption: With Sap Sipper, not only do Grass-type moves have no effect, it gets an Attack boost on top of that.
• Fingerless Hands: Marill and Azumarill have no discernible fingers.
• Gender Bender: Due to Azurill having a different gender ratio than its evolved forms (1 male to 3 female as opposed to an even one), there's a 1/3 chance for a female Azurill to evolve into a male Marill. X and Y fixed this so that all female Azurill, even those transferred to Generation VI through Pokémon Bank, will be locked into retaining their gender upon evolving.
• Glacier Waif: Despite its durability and the immense strength Huge Power grants it, it's only two and a half feet tall!
• Green Thumb: Grass Knot is the only Grass-type move they can learn via TM.
• Healing Factor: Naturally learns Aqua Ring, which restores a bit of HP every turn.
• Kevlard: Can have the Thick Fat Ability, which gives it double resistances to both Fire and Ice attacks.
• Kid-Appeal Character: Marill and Azurill, especially the former, owing to its prominence in the anime.
• Killer Rabbit: This line is quite devastating in the later generations, and is a literal case for Azumarill.
• Magically Inept Fighter: While the line's Attack and Special Attack stats are technically equal, Huge Power only doubles their physical Attack, so they're only capable of hitting hard with physical moves.
• Magikarp Power:
  • The line naturally learns Rollout, which deals damage that doubles with each successive turn it hits; it also learns Defense Curl, which doubles Rollout's initial damage.
  • In Generation II, the last move the line could naturally learn was Rain Dance, creating Weather of War that, in conjunction with the same type attack boost, more than doubled the base power of its Water-type attacks.
• Making a Splash: Marill and Azumarill are both Water-types that live on waterfalls and rivers.
• Mighty Glacier: With Huge Power that outright doubles its current Attack stat, it will pack a punch^note With an Attack-boosting nature and maximum investment, Azumarill's Attack is effectively higher than that of a Haxorus. With the Water/Fairy typing, it has six resistances and one immunity, and it also has good HP and decent defenses. It is quite slow, though.
• Non-Elemental: Azurill is part Normal-type.
• Our Fairies Are Different: They're water mouse/rabbit fairies.
• Perpetual Frowner: Azurill's official art and its Generation V sprites show it looking sad and worried.
• Pintsized Powerhouse: Azumarill is less than 3 feet/1 meter tall, but with Huge Power, it packs a massive punch.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: They all look very sweet and friendly, as with most Pokémon in the Fairy egg group.
• Secret Art: Until Gen VI, the only line with access to the Huge Power Ability, although Medicham's Pure Power Ability technically does the same thing. Gen VI gives the Ability to Mawile's Super Mode and Diggersby as a Hidden Ability.
• Status Buff:
  • Marill can learn Belly Drum through breeding. Belly Drum maximizes its Attack stat while cutting its current HP by half.
  • The line learns Defense Curl, which bumps up its in-battle Defense by one level; the technique also Combos with Rollout, doubling the latter's damage output.
• Stone Wall:
  • While the line has poor natural offenses, it has high HP, decent defenses, and a Healing Factor move; its Water/Fairy typing also grant it the great defensive benefits of six resistances and one immunity.
  • Two of three possible abilities also enhance the line's defenses: Thick Fat doubles its resistance to both Fire and Ice attacks, while Sap Sipper gives it another immunity to the Grass type, which it's normally weak to. (The Huge Power ability instead doubles the user's base attack, making these monsters Magically Inept Mighty Glaciers).
• Super-Strength: With Huge Power and proper training, Azumarill can have an Attack power beyond most Legendary Pokémon.
• Useless Useful Spell: The Thick Fat ability gives its user a resistance to Fire and Ice-type attacks; while normally useful, this is redundant on Water-type pokémon like Marill and Azumarill, which already resist those two types. The only member of the whole evolutionary line that can make use of it is the Normal-type Azurill. The line's other two abilities, Huge Power and Sap Sipper, are much more useful.
• Waddling Head: Azurill lacks arms and looks like a mouse head on feet.
• Water Is Blue: Like many other Water-type Pokémon, they have a predominately blue coloration.

Bonsly and Sudowoodo (Usohachi and Usokkie)

0438: Bonsly / Usohachi (ウソハチ usohachi)
0185: Sudowoodo / Usokkie (ウソッキー usokkii)

Bonsly

Sudowoodo

Bonsly debuts in Diamond and Pearl

Much like Snorlax of Generation I, Sudowoodo was something of a roadblock in the Gen II games. It looks like a weirdly shaped tree that moved when touched, and attacks you when you water it. This behavior is due to it actually being a Rock-type instead of a Grass-type — in fact, it's actually the first Rock-type to not have a secondary type. This odd Pokémon was largely ignored until it received a baby in the form of Bonsly. Has it been made more useful by this? No, not really.

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• Action Initiative: It can learn Sucker Punch naturally to bypass its low Speed.
• Becoming the Mask: Despite only pretending to be a tree, Sudowoodo actually can learn the Grass-type attack Wood Hammer. A Tera-Grass Sudowoodo is also Brassius's ace in Paldea.
• Berserk Button: It's easily angered by anybody that tries watering it, since it's often mistaken for a tree, which makes sense given its typing.
• Boss Battle: Sudowoodo is the ace Pokémon of Brassius, Paldea's Grass-type Gym Leader located in Artazon; he uses Terastal to make it fit his type specialty.
• Broken Bridge: In the Generation II games, you'll find a Sudowoodo blocking an important junction between Violet City, Goldenrod City and Ecruteak City. You'll need a Squirt Bottle to make it move.
• The Bus Came Back: Sudowoodo's first Gen III appearance in the mainline series wasn't until Emerald, where it got to reprise its role in GSC by needing to be watered.
• Call-Back: Its appearance in Emerald mirrors its debut appearance.
• Combat Pragmatist: Learns a number of Dark-type moves. Sudowoodo gets Sucker Punch and Feint Attack naturally, Bonsly gets Fake Tears, they both learn the usual array of Dark-type TM moves, and they gained Foul Play via Black 2 and White 2's Move Tutors.
• The Corruption: Sudowoodo appears in Colosseum as one of the available Shadow Pokémon.
• Dishing Out Dirt: They're Rock-types based on petrified wood.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Bonsly, a Gen IV Pokémon, appeared in a side-quest in Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, a Gen III game. You could even use it in battle in one of the minigames, though it only ever had one move.
• Foil: To the Mr. Mime line, who it shares The Gimmick of mimicry with; Mr. Mime is quick and specially-oriented, while Sudowoodo is slow and physically-oriented. Both have a slight edge in their defenses, though.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: A Trevenant horde on Route 20 in X and Y has a small chance of containing Sudowoodo in it, finally allowing it to show off those attempts to blend in with trees that have been talked about since Generation II.
• Green Thumb: It pretends to be this. There is a bit of truth to it when you realize that it can learn the move Wood Hammer, which is pretty much the only thing that lets it stand out from other Rock-types. Gen IX also gave it access to Trailblaze.
• Last Chance Hit Point: Can have the Sturdy Ability, which lets it survive a lethal attack from full health with 1 HP remaining.
• Mighty Glacier: Sudowoodo has high Attack and Defense stats, but its speed is abysmal.
• Not Drawn to Scale: Depending on which dex you are looking at, Bonsly measures between 30 and 60 centimeters. Sudowoodo is at least 1'5 meters tall. Take a second look at the sprites. Notable for being one of the worst offenses in the same evolutionary line.
• Paper-Thin Disguise:
  • Its attempt at being a tree is fooling no-one. Legends: Arceus shows Sudowoodo will continue to pretend it's a tree even when a human can see them moving about, often in an area with no trees. Heck, they'll keep the act up even after a trainer tries to catch them. The only thing that makes them break character is starting a battle with them.
  • In Pokémon X and Y, it's possible to encounter a horde of Trevenant with a Sudowoodo blending in. Unlike some horde encounters, they will not attack Sudowoodo, suggesting that Trevenant actually thought Sudowoodo is one of them.
• Permanently Missable Content:
  • In GSCHGSS and Emerald, Sudowoodo is strangely similar to legendary Pokémon in that it has only solitary single encounters — fail to catch it once you provoke it into battle and you'll never see it again.
  • Inverted in Colosseum, where there's still technically only one catchable Sudowoodo, but even if you don't catch it when you encounter it the first time, it's available to be encountered in later rematches.
• Punny Name: Sudowoodo sounds like "Pseudo-Wood". For bonus points, the deliberate misspelling of Sudowoodo's name reflects how it's an impostor. Also, Bonsly sounds like "bonsai", a type of small tree, and "sly", referring to its imitation tree guise again.
• Recurring Element: Of Snorlax as a Pokémon that blocks the way, requiring a specific item that enrages it and causes it to attack the player. In addition, Sudowoodo happens to be a Mighty Glacier and it receives a baby form in Generation IV, and just as Pokémon Adventures Trainer Red got Snorlax, Trainer Gold keeps a Sudowoodo on his team.
• Silicon-Based Life: Living rock trees.
• Status Buff: Its Hidden Ability Rattled gives Sudowoodo a speed boost if a Bug-, Ghost-, or Dark-type attack hits it. Like other mineral-based Pokémon, it can also learn Rock Polish.
• Stealth Pun: The green parts on its forelegs resemble shamrocks.
• Technicolor Eyes: Bonsly has yellow scleras and black irises.
• Unique Enemy: Only one Sudowoodo can be found in Johto.
• When Trees Attack: Subverted. Sudowoodo poses as a tree, but it's a Rock-type and attacks anyone who tries to water it.

Hoppip, Skiploom, and Jumpluff (Hanecco, Popocco, and Watacco)

0187: Hoppip / Hanecco (ハネッコ hanekko)
0188: Skiploom / Popocco (ポポッコ popokko)
0189: Jumpluff / Watacco (ワタッコ watakko)

Hoppip

Skiploom

Jumpluff

Hoppip is, despite its looks, not based on a tomato, something that should become apparent when it evolves into the green Skiploom and later the blue Jumpluff. Instead, these Pokémon are based on dandelions — they are very light and can fly on the winds, giving them a Grass/Flying typing. Their evolutions reflect the life cycle of a dandelion — weed sprout, flower, and seed pod.

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• Blow You Away: As well as being part Flying-type, they also learn the wind-based move Fairy Wind.
• Cartoon Creature: Besides their dandelion parts, they aren't really based on anything concrete.
• Chromatic Arrangement: Light trio, Red, Green, and Blue in evolutionary order.
• Damage Over Time: The line relies on attacks such as Leech Seed that cause constant damage in order to fight due to its lack of high offensive stats.
• Fragile Speedster: With 110 speed, Jumpluff is one of the faster Grass-types around, but its offensive stats aren't anywhere near as high.
• Green Thumb: They're Grass-types based on dandelions.
• Heal Thyself: They learn Synthesis by leveling up, and Hoppip learns that move at a relatively low level. As of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, they can also get Strength Sap as an Egg Move.
• Kill It with Ice: Being Grass/Flying, it's 4x weak to Ice attacks.
• Our Fairies Are Different:
  • Despite not being Fairy-type, the line is in the Fairy Egg Group.
  • The line can learn Fairy Wind via leveling up and Dazzling Gleam via TM.
• Mundane Utility: How much the flower on Skiploom's head opens depends on the surrounding temperature. Because of that, people sometimes use it as a living thermometer.
• Playful Cat Smile: Jumpluff's mouth looks distinctly catlike so that it looks cuter.
• Power of the Sun: Both of their non-Hidden Abilities involve this. Chlorophyll gives it a substantial speed boost while the sun is out, and Leaf Guard gives it an immunity to Status Effects while the sun is bright. It helps that the line also learns Synthesis naturally.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: A cat-eared bulb that becomes a cotton spore cheerleader with a constant smiley face. Hoppip and Skiploom are both really cute. And Jumpluff? D'awwww!
• Status Buff: It has access to Amnesia, which sharply raises its Special Defense, and Cotton Guard, which drastically raises its Defense.
• Status Effects: Has access to the Poison Powder/Stun Spore/Sleep Powder trio.
• Stone Wall: They have solid defenses and a variety of moves to restore their HP, but their offensive stats are lacking.
• Support Party Member: Jumpluff's attacking stats are very low for a fully-evolved Pokémon. Instead, it relies on its support movepool to contribute to a fight, with Damage Over Time attacks like Leech Seed and Toxic or Non Damaging Status Infliction Attacks like Sleep Powder.
• Theme Naming: Based on the phrase "a hop, skip, and a jump away."

Aipom and Ambipom (Eipam and Eteboth)

0190: Aipom / Eipam (エイパム eipamu)
0424: Ambipom / Eteboth (エテボース eteboosu)

Aipom

Ambipom

Ambipom debuts in Diamond and Pearl

Aipom is a purple monkey with a tail that ends with a three-fingered hand. In Generation IV, it can evolve into Ambipom, which have 2 tails with hands instead. To evolve, it must level up while knowing "Double Hit". The two of these "Long Tail" Pokémon are based on Cymbal Monkeys.

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• Action Initiative: Ambipom sports a Fake Out that's boosted by both Technician and STAB, plus its Attack is higher than both Persian and Smeargle, the only other two Pokémon that can boast the same.
• All Your Powers Combined: Naturally learns Baton Pass, and gets boosts like Agility, Nasty Plot, and Hone Claws to pass on.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Because they use their tail-hands so much, their real hands are pretty clumsy.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Oddly, they learn Mud Bomb through leveling up only in Pokémon Legends: Arceus. Ambipom will try to launch them at you should they spot you in the overworld.
• Fragile Speedster: Ambipom's as fast as Starmie, but isn't taking any hits.
• Glass Cannon: It has above-average Attack, but subpar defenses.
• Interspecies Friendship: Ambipom's Legends: Arceus Pokédex entry says that they form friendship rings by linking their tails together, and on rare occasions accept humans into such rings.
• Item Caddy: If you're looking to make a team just for Pickup abuse, then this line is the way to go. It has the fastest experience gain rate of all Pickup users (level affects what items you get, so the faster you level up, the faster you'll reach the rarer items) and retains its Pickup ability even as an Ambipom. Plus its high Speed and moderate Attack is conducive to quick battles.
• Killer Rabbit: While Aipom looks cute and playful, its Ultra Moon Pokédex entry indicates that it's omnivorous and preys on some other Pokémon, including Bounsweet.
• Multiple-Tailed Beast: After evolving, Ambipom gains an additional tail with another fully functional hand.
• Non-Elemental: Normal-types based off of monkeys.
• Perpetual Smiler: They never seem to lose the smile on their face.
• Power-Up Letdown: Its Hidden Ability is Skill Link. While the ability is very useful on many Pokémon, the only move Ambipom really gets to take advantage of it is Tail Slap (as well as Fury Swipes and Double Slap, which are weaker).
• Prehensile Tail: Not so much "prehensile" as having an actual hand at the end of it. Each of them in the case of Ambipom.
• The Rival: Ambipom's Ultra Sun Dex entry mentions they get into territorial disputes with groups of Passimian over comfortable trees, winning half of the time.
• Stock Animal Diet: In Legends: Arceus, wild Aipom and Ambipom have a chance of holding Nanab Berries, which look like banana bunches.
• Sweet Tooth: They're one of the few species that can be attracted to honey-slathered trees.
• Tail Slap: Gained the ability to learn Tail Slap by breeding in Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon.
• Version-Exclusive Content: In Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, Aipom and Ambipom are exclusive to the Violet version of the Teal Mask DLC.

Sunkern and Sunflora (Himanuts and Kimawari)

0191: Sunkern / Himanuts (ヒマナッツ himanattsu)
0192: Sunflora / Kimawari (キマワリ kimawari)

Sunkern

Sunflora

Sunkern is a Sunflower Seed Pokémon. It can evolve into Sunflora using a Sun Stone. In Generation II, it is possible to get a Sun Stone in the same area that you can catch Sunkern in. This is a good thing, since Sunkern is very weak (used to be the weakest base-stats-wise until Generation VII), and will likely need to evolve in order to be useful to your team.

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• Cast from Hit Points: Solar Power boosts their Special Attack in sunlight, at the cost of 1/8th of their max health every turn.
• A Day in the Limelight: After several generations of being unloved, rare, or otherwise completely absent, Sunflora is shown to be the mascot of Artazon in Gen IX, having a variety of art and statues dedicated to them, and Sunflora feature prominently in Artazon's Gym Challenge. Ironically, however, they are not used by Artazon's Gym Leader Brassius.
• Eyes Always Shut: Sunflora always has its eyes closed.
• Glass Cannon: Sunflora has pretty good Special Attack, and it can have Solar Power to boost it further at an HP cost every turn.
• Green Thumb: Grass-types based on sunflowers.
• Healing Factor: Naturally learns Ingrain. This can be assisted further by its naturally-learned Leech Seed and the three Grass-type draining attacks.
• Jack of All Stats: Sunkern's stats are all 30, making it the weakest Pokémon in the series with a paltry BST of 180, only matched by Blipbug and surpassed by Solo Form Wishiwashi. The same goes for its Pokéathlon potential as well... only that they happen to be five stars each.
• Joke Character: Before Generation VII, in terms of base stat totals, Sunkern was holding the dubious honor of being the weakest Pokémon in the series; nowadays, that position belongs to Solo Form Wishiwashi. Both Wishiwashi and Sunkern have BSTs lower than Pokémon known for their lack of power and called weak in Pokédex entries, including Magikarp and Goomy.
• Lethal Joke Character: While horrible in battle due to bottom-of-the-barrel stats, Sunkern is one of the few Pokémon that can have all Pokéathlon stats maximized in HeartGold and SoulSilver.
• Magikarp Power:
  • Subverted in a sense. While Sunkern is pathetic and Sunflora is indeed a big improvement which can prove dangerous when utilized well, it doesn't have the immediately threatening stats of something like Gyarados and will take effort to bear fruit in battle.
  • Sunkern is played straight in the Pokéathlon, as it can potentially perform as well as Mew and Arceus if you raise its performance.
• Master of None: Sunkern is equal in all of its stats, and all of them are equal to Snorlax's speed. Snorlax is very, very slow. Before Generation VII, Sunkern was the worst Pokémon in any game, stat-wise. Sunflora, thankfully, is more specialized, but it is far from a formidable Pokémon.
• Petal Power: Learns Petal Dance.
• The Power of the Sun: Learns both Sunny Day and Solarbeam by level up, and has two abilities centered around the sun. Solar Power boosts its Special Attack while the sun is up at the cost of losing health each turn, and Chlorophyll boosts its Speed in the sun. In addition, it naturally learns Growth, which doubles both attacking stats if it's used while the sun is out, and, if you keep it as Sunkern long enough, it can learn Synthesis, which heals for more in bright sunlight.
• Power Up Letdown: Early Bird, which cause the user to wake up early, isn't really any better than Solar Power.
• Protection from the Elements: Inverted with their ability Solar Power, which decreases HP for every turn of harsh sunlight.
• Sunny Sunflower Disposition: Sunflora always seems to have a big smile plastered onto its face.

Yanma and Yanmega (Yanyanma and Megayanma)

0193: Yanma / Yanyanma (ヤンヤンマ yan'yanma)
0469: Yanmega / Megayanma (メガヤンマ megayanma)

Yanma

Yanmega

Yanmega debuts in Diamond and Pearl

Yanma is a Dragonfly Pokémon that can evolve into Yanmega if it knows Ancient Power. They can both send shockwaves out when flapping their wings, although Yanmega's are by far more destructive than Yanma's, capable of causing internal damage to its opponents. Yanmega can also carry adult humans while flying.

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• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Yanmega used to be the biggest Bug-type at six feet long before Scolipede was introduced. It is listed as having the strength to carry humans while flying. It can't learn Fly, though.
• Black Bead Eyes: Subverted; Yanma appears to have these at first glance, but see Conjoined Eyes below for the truth.
• Blow You Away: Part Flying-types based on dragonflies. Yanma's Pokédex entry for Legends mention its wings can flap hard enough to blow away houses.
• Conjoined Eyes: Yanma appear to have large green conjoined eyes that take up most of their head. Real dragonflies have similarly large compound eyes.
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: Yanmega's wings beats so strongly it can apparently dislodge trees by accident.
• Dreadful Dragonfly: While Yanma is fairly cute (if not already quite big), Yanmega is monstrous. Not only does it have a very intimidating appearance, it stands at a whopping 6'03 (the biggest Bug-type Pokémon until Scolipede stole the title). Even worse, the Pokédex states that it has powerful jaws that can bite foes and prey in half (and it is quite fond of it) and that it can create shockwaves with its wings. Also, it's very fast.
• Fragile Speedster: As a Yanma, it has decent speed and the Speed Boost ability which raises its speed every turn, but its defensive stats are terrible.
• Informed Ability:
  • Despite its HeartGold Pokédex entry saying that Yanmega can carry an adult long distances, Yanmega cannot learn Fly.
  • Some Dex entries talk about Yanmega having powerful jaws. However, Strong Jaw isn't one of its abilities, and teaching it Bug Bite is actually a waste of its potential because its base Attack stat is a paltry 76.
• Lightning Bruiser: Yanmega retains its speed and its Speed Boost ability, as well as having much better defenses, and a beastly Special Attack stat.
• Make Some Noise: Perhaps its most effective STAB attack is Bug Buzz, which creates a sonic wave (although via its wings rather than its voice) to attack foes. Like other sound-based attacks, it bypasses Substitutes. While not as effective, it can also learn Sonic Boom and Round as well.
• Prehistoric Monster: Yanmega has shades of this, being a giant, primordial-looking dragonfly who can only evolve if its pre-evolution has learned Ancient Power.
• Scissors Cuts Rock: Their Tinted Lens ability doubles the power of resisted moves. This means a resisted move deals as much damage as if it were neutral, and a double-resisted move deals as much damage as if the target only had a single resistance.
• Technicolor Eyes: Yanmega appears to have red compound eyes.
• Wind from Beneath My Wings: They're part Flying-type and based on dragonflies, and they learn air-based moves.

Wooper, Quagsire, and Clodsire (Upah, Nuoh, and Dooh)

0194: Wooper / Upah (ウパー upaa)
0195: Quagsire / Nuoh (ヌオー nuoo)
0980: Clodsire / Dooh (ドオー dooh)

Wooper

Quagsire

Paldean Wooper

Clodsire

Paldean Wooper and Clodsire debut in Scarlet and Violet

Wooper and Quagsire are Mudfish Pokémon based on an animal called Axolotl, with the latter having more in common with giant salamanders as well. Being the first Water/Ground types introduced in the series, it could throw some first-time players off due to being a Water type that's immune to Electric attacks. While its appearances in media are occasional at most, people still think Wooper is adorable with its big smile.

In the Paldea region, Wooper used to live underwater but were forced to relocate to bogs after losing territory disputes. To keep themselves hydrated, they cover their bodies with poisonous film and now have hardened gills after living on land for many years, becoming heavier and slower in the process. They evolve into the very bulky Clodsire, and use the new form to return to living in the water, preferring the bottoms of ponds and swamps.

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• Achievements in Ignorance: The line's Unaware ability allows them to ignore enemy stat boosts just by being too stupid to notice.
• Armless Biped: Wooper has two feet, but no arms. Despite this, they can learn punching moves through TMs or Move Tutors (maybe they use their tail?).
• Ascended Extra: Even before the line exploded in popularity, Wooper often appeared in Johto-related media or with baby Pokémon because it's so darn cute.
• Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Paldean Wooper's bone-like gills make it resemble a skull and crossbones, the universal symbol for a deadly poison.
• Balance Buff: After losing uniqueness due to the Mudkip, Barboach, and Shellos lines gaining their previously unique typing, in Gen V, they gained the Unaware ability, allowing them to ignore opponents stat changes, granting Quagsire a unique niche as a Stone Wall that can ignore boosted sweepers.
• Black Bead Eyes: Quagsire, which helps make its usual expression look more vacant to fit with its dim wit.
• Boss Battle: Clodsire is the ace Pokémon of Rika, a member of Paldea's Elite Four and a specialist in Ground-type Pokémon.
• Breakout Character: Despite being relatively ignored shortly after the release of Gold and Silver, the Wooper line exploded in popularity during the late 2010s and early 2020s, due to a combination of the line being absurdly cute and Quagsire being a Lethal Joke Character in competitive. Already featured prominently in Johto-related media, GameFreak and The Pokémon Company has ramped up the line's publicity in merchandise and other promotional material, culminating in the creation of a new Poison/Ground regional variant. They've even acknowledged certain memes surrounding the line, namely the infamous "This" meme shortly after Paldean Wooper's reveal.
• Combos: Unaware + Swagger. Quagsire doesn't have to worry about the opponent's increased Attack if they manage to hit it, but the opponent does have to worry about it should they hit themselves in confusion.
• Crutch Character: In Johto games, they can be encountered early on, evolve early, naturally learn Earthquake, and can make good use of field moves such as Surf and Strength. But in comparison to other Water-types found in later areas, their stats are a little lackluster.
• Delayed Reaction: Wooper and Quagsire are dim-witted and don't feel much pain, not unlike Slowpoke. Quagsire even has a knack for bonking its head on boat hulls, and hardly noticing it afterwards. Clodsire tends to be sharper than its relatives, but not by much.
• Discard and Draw: Quagsire (temporarily) lost access to Scald in Generation 9, like all other bulky waters. In exchange it gained access to all three entry hazards; Stealth Rock, Spikes, and Toxic Spikes.
• Dishing Out Dirt: All members of the line are Ground-types.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: Wooper's original Gen 2 design had its eyes further apart. The in-game sprites also gave it the same Black Bead Eyes as Quagsire.
• Elemental Absorption: With Water Absorb, Water-type moves will heal them.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • Wooper's skin is said to be coated with poisonous film that is painful to touch. Wooper is not a Poison-type Pokémon, does not evolve into a Poison-type Pokémon, does not have the Poison Point ability, and only learns a single Poison-type move by level up (Toxic, and only from Sword and Shield onwards). Pokemon GO attempts to apply Gameplay and Story Integration by giving it access to poison moves to set it apart from the other Water/Ground types who can't learn them (movepools are significantly more limited in GO).
  • This is averted in Scarlet and Violet, however, as Paldean Wooper is indeed a Poison-type and can have Poison Point.
• Feed It with Fire: Both Quagsire and Clodsire can have Water Absorb as an Ability, which heals them if they're hit by a Water-type move.
• Gentle Giant: Clodsire is significantly larger than Quagsire, but just as gentle and laid back as its relative. That said, it will retaliate against attackers with hidden venomous spikes on its back.
• Healing Factor: Wooper can learn Recover through breeding, which regenerates some of its health.
• Lethal Joke Character: Both Quagsire and Clodsire are deliberately-goofy creatures that have low stat totals of 430. However, their combination of typing, moves, and abilities have made them much more effective than their stats would normally allow. Their Unaware ability notably lets them switch into and face tank stat boosted Pokémon, then inflict a nasty status effect. It may look like a terrible competitive Pokémon at first glance, but a surprise Quagsire could work as a counter against Kyogre.
• Making a Splash: Wooper and Quagsire are Water-types based on axolotls and giant salamanders, respectively. Along with losing their water typing, Paldean Wooper and Clodsire no longer learn any Water-type moves by level up, but retain access to them by TM.
• Nocturnal Mooks: The Wooper line is most active at night.
• No-Sell: Like their Johtonian counterparts, Paldean Wooper and Clodsire can have Water Absorb. This is particularly useful, as they're weak to Water by default. Paldean Wooper and Clodsire are additionally immune to poison and absorb Toxic Spikes.
• Perpetual Smiler: Both Wooper and Quagsire are usually seen smiling.
• Poisonous Person: One of the few non-Poison-types that learns Toxic via-level up, which allows it to poison opponents. Additionally, Paldean Wooper are Poison-type, and may even have the Poison Point ability.
• Power Nullifier: A lot of Quagsire's abilities fall into this category:
  • One of their abilities is Damp, which completely negates self-destruction moves. Self-Destruct, Explosion, Mind Blown, and Misty Explosion just flat-out fail, and the Aftermath ability won't cause damage (though in the latter case, the opponent still faints).
  • Water Absorb lets it heal upon being hit by Water-type attacks (and prevents the damage), rendering them less than useless.
  • Unaware makes boosting to break through it less than useless by wasting turns.
  • They have Ground as a secondary type, meaning Electric moves, the common go-to to deal with most Water-types, are useless on them (though at the expense of a crippling weakness to Grass moves and Freeze Dry).
• Recurring Element: Another two-stage Water-type line characterized by being slow to react and a little dimwitted, but very cheerful regardless, after the Slowpoke line. Both lines also got regional variations that swapped out their Water-type for Poison eight generations after their respective debuts.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: With its large head and huge smile, Wooper is adorable. It's cute enough that it tends to show up a bit in advertising alongside other cute Johto Pokémon like Baby Pokémon, Teddiursa, and Phanpy. Quagsire and Clodsire are cute too, if a bit of a dopey kind of cute.
• Secondary Sexual Characteristics: Female Wooper have shorter head-gills, starting from Diamond and Pearl.
• Shown Their Work: Paldean Wooper and Clodsire diverge from the giant salamander inspiration of the original line to focus on multiple inspirations from the Iberian Ribbed Newt, fittingly found in the same region of the world Paldea is based on, complete with poison-coated projections used for defense that are pushed out through specialized tubercules in the skin (spines in Clodsire, specialized sharp ribs in the newt).
• Skeleton Motif: Paldean Wooper's head fins resemble cross bones and its belly pattern looks like a cartoony ribcage, making it resemble the Iberian ribbed newt which can puncture its ribs out to start secreting poison.
• Slippery Soap: Their skin works like this. Wooper's skin is also slightly poisonous.
• Stone Wall:
  • Quagsire has high HP and decent defenses, but is very slow and only has mediocre Attack. Its Abilities Water Absorb and Unaware make it much more survivable in addition to having Recover to restore its HP.
  • Clodsire shares the defensive Abilities Quagsire has and has much better HP and great Special Defense than its counterpart. All of its other stats range from mediocre to low, with even worse speed and offenses than Quagsire's already poor stats. However, its Poison typing allows it to win by poisoning the opponent and simply outlasting them with its sheer bulk.
• Trap Master: Clodsire can learn all three of Spikes, Toxic Spikes, and Stealth Rock. Combined with its incredible bulk, it can set up a nasty field for any Pokemon coming in.
• Underground Monkey: Paldean Wooper heavily resembles the original, but with more bone-like head gills, a muddier looking colour scheme, and a line going down its belly markings. They have apparently adapted to life on land.
• Uniqueness Decay: The Paldean Wooper family's Poison/Ground type combination was previously unique to Nidoqueen and Nidoking.

Murkrow and Honchkrow (Yamikarasu and Dongkarasu)

0198: Murkrow / Yamikarasu (ヤミカラス yamikarasu)
0430: Honchkrow / Dongkarasu (ドンカラス donkarasu)

Murkrow

Honchkrow

Honchkrow debuts in Diamond and Pearl

Nocturnal crows with feathers that are stylized as hats, they have a bit of a bad reputation of bringers of bad luck. As a Dark/Flying-type, it can somewhat counter the Dark-type's weaknesses to Bug and Fighting, but they really are not suited for defensive roles. With the aid of a Dusk Stone, Murkrow can evolve into the awesome Honchkrow and gain a very high attack stat and an awesome hat. It became a version-exclusive with the Misdreavus line starting in Gen III.

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• Action Initiative: Murkrow has Prankster as its Hidden Ability, which gives all non-attacking moves higher priority. It loses it for Moxie upon evolving, however.
• Armored But Frail: Inverted. Honchkrow has a good base 100 HP stat, but that's its only real defense, since its Defenses are both very poor.
• Bad Boss: Honchkrow will hunt any Murkrow goon of its that fails to bring it food.
• Born Lucky: They have Super Luck as their second ability, which boosts their Critical Hit ratio and in Generation VIII the chances of an encountered wild Pokémon holding an item.
• Boss Battle:
  • The line is Cyrus' strongest Mon during Diamond and Pearl. Doubles as Recurring Boss and Climax Boss.
  • In Pokémon Ranger, Murkrow (alongside four Spinarak) is the boss of mission 6. It acts as a Support Party Member by releasing dark gas to darken the screen, while its goons present most of the threat.
• Brown Note: They can learn Perish Song via breeding.
• Casting a Shadow: Both of them can learn Dark Pulse and Shadow Ball.
• Classy Cravat: The fluffy white feathers on Honchkrow's chest are evocative of both this and a Wizard Beard.
• Combat Pragmatist: Dark-type Pokémon that learn quite a fair bit of underhanded moves.
• Com Mons: Less so in the main series, but in Pokémon GO, they have become ubiquitous immediately after being released, likely to parallel the commonness of crows in real life. Only the swarm of in-game events and the introduction of Pokémon from future generations in later years would serve to contain it.
• Creepy Crows: The Murkrow line are based on crows, with all of the same unlucky connotations.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Can interestingly cause it thanks to Roost, thanks to the move removing the user's Flying-type during the rest of the turn. A Dark/Flying-type Pokémon has no weaknesses in common with a pure Dark-type Pokémon until the introduction of the Fairy type in Generation VI.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Honchkrow orders Murkrow around in a way intentionally reminiscent of The Don ordering members of The Mafia.
• The Don: Honchkrow's motif appears to be part mob boss and part evil wizard. Its Japanese name only reinforces this.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Murkrow's Japanese name, Yamikarasu, literally means "dark crow."
• Face Death with Dignity: In Battle Revolution, Honchkrow tips its "hat" when it gets knocked out.
• Feathered Fiend: These are not pleasant birds to be around. There is one in Johto's Team Rocket HQ that averts this, as it helps you solve the voice-activated password puzzle of its own will.
• Flunky Boss: Wild Honchkrow would rather send their Murkrow cronies to fight than actually getting themselves involved — they only show up to deal the last hit.
• Fragile Speedster: Murkrow has decent speed with good mixed offensive stats, but it's pitiful at taking hits.
• Friendship Trinket: Murkrow adores shiny things, and will sometimes find such trinkets to give to a Trainer it's fond of.
• Glass Cannon: Both of Honchkrow's offensive stats are fantastic, but it's slower than Murkrow. While Honchkrow has a high HP, it doesn't mask the fact that both of its defenses are low.
• Graceful Loser: Honchkrow's fainting animation in Pokémon Battle Revolution shows it tipping its 'hat' at the opponent before being withdrawn.
• Increasingly Lethal Enemy: Honchkrow has Moxie as a Hidden Ability, increasing its Attack every time it defeats an enemy.
• Informed Ability: Its infamous thieving nature is not shown within its natural move set (though it can learn the TM move Thief), nor does it have any ability that involves stealing or item collecting.
• Jerkass: Known for being quite the thief and a harbinger of misfortune. They also like to rile up potential adversaries into chasing them and then get them hopelessly lost in forests or mountains.
• The Mafia: Honchkrow especially evokes images of this. Seriously, it's either a Mafia don or a pimp◊.
• Magic Knight: Murkrow's Attack and Special Attack stats are equal. Honchkrow has higher Attack, but its Special Attack is still perfectly usable.
• Missing Secret: Murkrow gets Punishment as an egg move in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, but is unable to actually have the move bred onto it. The developers likely overlooked that fact that the Vullaby line (the only Pokémon with Punishment that can breed with Murkrow) are female-only.
• Nocturnal Mooks: They mostly appear at night.
• Pimp Duds: Shiny Honchkrow are pink instead of dark blue, which, when combined with the "hat" and the tuft of white feathers on the chest, makes it resemble a pimp.
• Power-Up Letdown: Evolving Murkrow into Honchkrow gives a good boost to its Attack and Special Attack, but downgrades its previously impressive speed. Its Defence is also only slightly better, and cannot be boosted by Eviolite like with Murkrow.
• Retcon: Subverted — contrary to popular belief, Murkrow's witch motif was never replaced by its Mafia motif upon Honchkrow's introduction, as Honchkrow still retains some elements of it (tail resembling a broomstick, patch of feathers resembling a long white beard, official art pose making it look like it's casting a magic spell, etc.). It seems the two motifs were instead blended together, though the Mafia motif became a lot more prominent after a while.
• The Rival: Murkrow and Meowth often war over hoarded items and shiny objects.
• Shown Their Work: In Pokémon Gold and Silver, there's a door in Team Rocket's Johto HQ that can only be opened by saying a specific phrase. The player learns the phrase from a Murkrow that does nothing but say that phrase all the time. In the remakes, the door also requires a specific tone, so the player needs to take the Murkrow to the door and replicate the required tone perfectly. Crows can mimic human speech very well, but their vocabulary is limited.
• Sword of Damocles: The Ultra Sun Pokédex entry for Honchkrow implies that its Bad Boss tendencies are the only thing that keeps its flock in order.
• Thieving Magpie: Murkrow enjoy stealing shiny objects, which frequently results in them competing with Meowth and Gabite for said objects. Its Moon and Ultra Moon Pokédex entries imply it's stealing them to take them to its boss or a trainer it feels close to.
• Wicked Witch: Murkrow, who have feathers that resemble a witch's hat and tails that look like brooms. It upgrades to a mob boss upon evolving into Honchkrow, though elements of a wizard are also there, however subtle.
• Wind from Beneath My Wings: Part Flying-type, with the ability to use Flying-type attacks that use their wings as weapons, such as Wing Attack.
• Wizard Beard: Honchkrow has a white patch of feathers on its front that resembles both a wizard's beard and a Classy Cravat.
• Xtreme Kool Letterz: Lots of K's in their names where there should be C's.
• You Have Failed Me: Downplayed, as it's never specifically stated to kill its underlings, but Honchkrow will still savagely enforce punishment on any Murkrow that fails in the tasks assigned to it.

Misdreavus and Mismagius (Muma and Mumargi)

0200: Misdreavus / Muma (ムウマ muuma)
0429: Mismagius / Mumargi (ムウマージ muumaaji)

Misdreavus

Mismagius

Mismagius debuts in Diamond and Pearl

Misdreavus is the only Ghost-type introduced in Gen II and appeared in the very last area of that game, Mt. Silver. So by the time you encounter one, you already should have a dedicated team of monsters that see your battles through. It gained an evolution in Diamond and Pearl. In the Gen I remakes and beyond, it and Murkrow were apparently made into version exclusives of one another.

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• Boss Battle: Mismagius is Fantina's signature, where she is either the fifth (Diamond and Pearl) or third (Platinum) Gym Leader of Sinnoh. It's also the strongest Pokémon of Iono, the Electric-type Gym Leader located in Levincia, in Scarlet and Violet, though it Terastalizes into an Electric-type for that battle to take advantage of its Levitate ability.
• Brown Note: Misdreavus can learn Perish Song, which makes every Pokémon on the field that can be affected by sound-based moves, including the user, faint in three turns if not removed from battle.
• Curse: Mismagius like to go around cursing people, and among the moves they can learn by level-up are Hex and Spite, though ironically they can only get the move Curse through breeding.
• Cute Witch: Misdreavus is rather little and enjoys playing practical jokes on people. Mismagius meanwhiles expands heavily on the witch elements while also remaining quite cute.
• Emotion Eater: One reason Misdreavus spends so much time spooking people (aside from the fun of it) is that it absorbs its victims' fear through its 'necklace' and turns it into energy.
• The Gadfly: A number of its Pokédex entries notes that Misdreavus loves to screw with people for the sake of seeing their reactions.
• Gemstone Assault: With their necklace-like gems on their necks, they can use Power Gem.
• Late Character Syndrome: Misdreavus is unfortunately relegated into the very final dungeon in the game in its debut, leaving players little to no room to make good use of it. HeartGold and SoulSilver added Misdreavus into the remake-exclusive Cliff Cave west of Cianwood and the neighboring Johto Safari Zone as a rare encounter, but the Dusk Stone needed to evolve it is off-limits until you have obtained the National Dex. Related to this is that no one in the Ecruteak Gym uses a Misdreavus despite its trainers specializing in Ghost-types.
• Love Potion: Mismagius' Moon Dex entry mentions that some people search for it because among the spells it can cast are love spells.
• Mythology Gag: Misdreavus was incorrectly depicted as being purple and pink in its debut games. This coloration was later used for Mismagius.
• Nocturnal Mooks: Mostly appear at night.
• Not Drawn to Scale: Misdreavus' sprites in the Gen II games are drawn to look at least the same size as Gengar. Doesn't help that they can only be encountered in the final dungeon of the game, so it adds up to the impression. Averted in later games, Stadium 2 included, which reveal their actual size.
• Our Banshees Are Louder: They're a relatively lighthearted take on banshees, as they use their cries to scare others for fun as often as they use them to battle. Perish Song, which causes both combatants to faint if they listen to it for three rounds, appears to be their Signature Move, though other Pokémon can use it. They're portrayed as ghosts/witches rather than fairies, and can be male.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: The first one without a secondary type, in fact.
• Pet the Dog: While Mismagius' spells are mostly used to curse people, sometimes they'll cast spells that help people on a whim.
• Playing with Fire
  • Misdreavus obtained from Gen V's Dream World can know Inferno.
  • Mismagius was notably one of two Pokémon that can learn Mystical Fire (the other one being Delphox) when the move debuted in Gen VI; however, it has gained much wider distribution over time.
• Pintsized Powerhouse: Mismagius is a powerful fighter, but it's only as tall as Roserade, Honchkrow, and Magikarp. Look at its Gen VI model, and you'd be surprised how small it is.
• Prehensile Hair: Misdreavus has been shown using its hair as hands.
• Psychic Powers: Misdreavus can learn Psybeam naturally.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: They grin and spin around happily when pleased in Pokémon Amie/Refresh.
• Robe and Wizard Hat: Mismagius' head resembles a wizard's hat, and has a lower-body that resembles robes.
• Secret Art: Misdreavus was the only Pokémon that could learn Pain Split naturally until the Gen V games.
• Soul Power: Ghost-types.
• Squishy Wizard: Despite possessing good special stats, Mismagius has pathetic HP, Defense, and Attack.
• Supernatural Floating Hair: Misdreavus is a ghost resembling a head with streaming hair.
• Weak, but Skilled: Before Mismagius was introduced. Misdreavus, despite its low stats, learns the deadly combination of Mean Look and Perish Song, which could easily bring down even the most defensive of Pokémon if it could survive the turns necessary to set it up.
• When She Smiles: Misdreavus has an adorable laughing grin when it's happy in Pokémon Amie/Pokémon Refresh.
• Wicked Witch: Mismagius definitely looks like one, its name could be literally translated to mean "wicked witch", and its Pokédex entries repeatedly state that Mismagius often curses people (and sometimes grant happiness) with a call that resembles chants.
• Yellow Eyes of Sneakiness: Appropriate for their Gadfly nature.
• Youkai: Misdreavus shares many characteristics with the nukekubi.

Unown (Unknown)

0201: Unown / Unknown (アンノーン annoon)

"F" Unown

! and ? forms debut in FireRed and LeafGreen

Mysterious Pokémon that resemble letters of the Latin alphabet. Unown are terribly weak, with horrendous stats and only one single weak move available; Hidden Power. However, in large numbers, they become incredibly powerful Reality Warpers. Although there are 28 variations, you only need to catch one to fill your Pokédex. In certain games, there is some collector guy who wants you to "Catch Them All", with the reward varying by game. Unown are normally found within their own pocket dimension, but are often found sticking to the walls of ruins.

An event in HeartGold and SoulSilver implies that they're connected to Arceus. The radio signal they emit is seemingly similar to the Azure Flute's melody, and during the Sinjoh Ruins event, they're shown to swarm around Arceus as it begins to create a new Dialga, Palkia, or Giratina.

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• Adaptational Badass: The myriad of Pokémon continuities depict Unown as powerful Reality Warpers on par with Legendary Pokémon; a far cry from the Joke Characters they are in the games.
• Arc Welding: The Gen IV games heavily imply that Unown are directly related to Arceus, something all but confirmed in a special event in Heartgold and Soulsilver where they are used to create another member of the Creation Trio.
• The Artifact: In older generations, a move's type determined whether it is Physical or Special, including Hidden Power; to accommodate this, Unown's Attack and Special Attack are equal. Generation IV changed the system and made Hidden Power always Special regardless of type, leaving Unown with an oddly high physical Attack stat that it can't use for anything outside of Struggle.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: Inverted. It's established that they grow exponentially stronger as their numbers increase. This is shown quite prominently in the anime, but not at all in the games. Then again, six isn't a particularly large number.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: In its first appearance in Pokémon Gold and Silver, the W Unown had a different design, with three short stalks curved to the right. Starting with Pokémon Crystal, the stalks were straightened and elongated, and this design has been used ever since.
• Eldritch Abomination: A Reality-warping Hive Mind from Another Dimension... yeah. The fact that Arceus uses them to create a new Dialga, Palkia, or Giratina just adds to this.
• Eye on a Stalk: Some of the Unown exaggerate this by consisting of an eyestalk and nothing else.
• Faceless Eye: All of them have one eye and little else. How they manage to eat Poképuffs despite lacking visible mouths is not known.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: In large numbers, Unown become massively powerful Reality Warpers. This is impossible to take advantage of in gameplay.
• Hive Mind: They communicate with each other telepathically (or with electromagnetic waves, depending on which in-universe source you're reading) and are generally found in groups.
• Informed Ability: Their Pokédex entry in Platinum says bringing two or more together will unlock a strange power. No matter how many the player owns or has in the party, nothing special will happen.
• Joke Character: Their stats are horrible and they can only learn one move. A move that virtually every Pokémon in the game can learn (before Generation VIII), no less.
• Letter Motif: They all look like the letters of the English alphabet for some reason. The official art for Unown back when Generation II was first released was of the G Unown, but when the Updated Re-release came out, it was changed to F Unown (possibly referencing Gamefreak).
• Master of None: All of its stats are terrible. Its highest stats, its Attack and Special Attack, are still too poor to be considered any more than mediocre, especially with the one low-power move it has access to, so it isn't even really a Glass Cannon.
• No Biological Sex: Genderless. Interestingly, they're unable to breed even with universal breeder Ditto. Where they come from and how they propagate is a complete mystery.
• Our Monsters Are Weird: No, you're not dreaming or hallucinating; there is a Pokémon based on the Roman alphabet and some punctuation marks.
• Poor, Predictable Rock: Unown's only move is Hidden Power, making each one only capable of dealing one type of damage. Unown is even more useless than usual against foes who resist (or, worse, No-Sell) that type.
• Reality Warper:
  • In Pokémon 3, a large group of them are shown being able to warp Professor Hale to another dimension, terraform Greenfield, and create an Entei.
  • In a special event at Sinjoh Ruins in HeartGold and SoulSilver, they appear to help Arceus rewrite the universe and give the player one of Dialgia, Palkia, or Giratina.
• Signature Move: Hidden Power is associated with Unown, mainly due to it being its only move. From Generation 8 onwards Unown is the only Pokémon capable of learning it because the move and the Hidden Power mechanic as a whole has been removed, with both Unown and the move only appearing in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl (as a remake of a game where the move was available) and Legends: Arceus (where the mechanic was buffed to make it always super-effective against the opponent's typing as opposed to being locked to a single invisible type per individual Unown).
• Uniformity Exception: The ! and ? forms introduced in Generation III, in addition to being based on punctuation marks rather than letters, have half-closed eyes as opposed to the wide-open ones of the other forms.
• Weak, but Skilled: The changes to Hidden Power in Legends: Arceus means that Unown will always hit the opponent for super-effective damage if possible. While Unown's low special attack and base power of Hidden Power means that it won't do that much damage overall, it is still a better deal than what it has been stuck with previously.
• Wingdinglish: Downplayed. They appear as hieroglyphs in ancient ruins. However, unlike most uses of this trope, Unown are pretty easy to decode since they're based on the Roman alphabet. Its Pokédex entry in Legends: Arceus implies that the Unown writing is indecipherable to most people, with very few realizing that the species is basically a stylized font. Justified by the fact that the writing systems used in the modern Pokémon world don't look at all like the Roman alphabet.

Wynaut and Wobbuffet (Sohnano and Sonans)

0360: Wynaut / Sohnano (ソーナノ soonano)
0202: Wobbuffet / Sonans (ソーナンス soonansu)

Wynaut

Wobbuffet

Wynaut debuts in Ruby and Sapphire

Counter, Mirror Coat, Encore, Shadow Tag, Destiny Bond, Leftovers, what more do you need?

Wobbuffet and its baby form Wynaut are a pair of Lethal Joke Characters. This is since a pair of Wobbuffet with Leftovers can lock themselves into a neverending duel. (Until Diamond and Pearl.) Despite this tremendous show of force, it should be remembered that they did not always have this power. Wynaut squeeze each other to build up endurance, and Wobbuffet are highly protective of their tail, suspiciously protective...

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• Achilles' Heel: Despite normally being unbelievably hard to take down, Wobbuffet has two of these. Due to the types and mechanics of Counter and Mirror Coat, Wobbuffet is defenseless against Ghost-types who can use physical attacks, like Dusknoir, Banette, Golurk, and Trevenant, and Dark-types who can use special attacks, like Hydreigon, Zoroark, Houndoom, and Honchkrow. This also means that it can't touch the Dark/Ghost Spiritomb and Sableye at all. Unless it knows Destiny Bond, it has no chance of knocking them out and will just keep taking hits until it loses. Plus, Ghost and Dark-type moves are super-effective against Wobbuffet, which allows these Pokémon to knock it out twice as fast. Also, unless it knows Taunt, it's extremely vulnerable to Status Effects, with a particular issue with Toxic.
• Adaptation Personality Change: Wobbuffet were introduced as the "Patient Pokémon", and their Pokédex entries portrayed them as emotionless and mysterious. They were described as dwelling in dark caves, hating the sunlight, and making a lot of effort to hide and protect their strange tail for reasons unknown. The anime introduced a Wobbuffet whose personality was a 180º degree turn of this characterization, being an exuberant and goofy creature with a tendency to salute/slap his forehead and butt in unnanounced into random conversations. The popularity of this character led to some of these changes being transported back into the games. While the Pokédex entries for the Wobbuffet species have not changed much, the body language and attitude reflected in their sprites/models is much more boisterous and jolly, and if a Wobbuffet is focused in at any point during the storyline, it will usually be Played for Laughs. It is particularly noticeable with the aforementioned salute gesture, which is something that nowadays all Wobbuffet are portrayed as doing. In the original Gen II games, Wobbuffet were not shown saluting at all.
• Armored But Frail: Inverted and exploited. They have a high HP stat but low defenses so that their Counter Attacks do more damage while they remain healthy.
• Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Wobbuffet's basically a bobo-doll.
• Balance Buff: Ruby and Sapphire gave Wobbuffet the Shadow Tag ability, making it much more useful in battle by preventing opponents from switching out, forcing them to attack it. It also gained the ability to use Encore, letting it punish a foe who tries to use Status Buff moves.
• Boss in Mook Clothing: X and Y make entering a route with Wobbuffet mandatory for the first time, and the game does not tell the player where Wobbuffet is located or how to defeat it without losing your Pokémon. Nuzlockers beware.
• Breakout Character: Downplayed — Wobbuffet doesn't appear as much in the games, but it's fairly prominent in the anime as one of Jessie from Team Rocket's Pokémon. Of all the Pokémon on the show, only Ash's Pikachu & Team Rocket's Meowth have made more appearances.
• Cartoon Creature: It has been suggested that they're meant to be living punching bags.
• Counter-Attack: This is all they can do.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Wynaut, a Generation III Pokémon, first appears in the Blackthorn City arc of the anime, although only certain Pokémon were able to see it.
• Eyes Always Shut: They never seem to open, even when being smacked around.
• Eyes Do Not Belong There: On their tails. Wobbuffet are said to be very protective of them.
• Iron Butt Monkey: They can take hits supremely well. Appropriately, they look like living punching bags.
• Lethal Joke Character: Despite the fact that Wobbuffet's stats are all really low except for its ridiculously high HP and it can only learn a few moves, those moves and that HP are all it needs. Used right, it can be a dangerous threat. It was prohibited from holding a Leftovers in an official Generation 3 tournament.
• Lost in Translation: While Wynaut's name meaning is roughly translated, Wobbuffet's Japanese name was a pun on the phrase; "sō na-n-su", roughly translating as "That's the way it is", essentially making the Pokémon's name a ceaseless taunt to opponents that got tanked or countered by it. Naturally spin-off media played the pun for all it was worth, which comes off as just a random derpy Pokémon being contextlessly spammed to English audiences.
• Loophole Abuse: They can abuse several mechanics that upgrade standard moves into different, more powerful moves, allowing them to use direct offensive attacks:
  • In Pokémon Sun and Moon and their sequels, Counter and Mirror Coat can be turned into offensive Z-Moves of their type, All-Out Pummeling and Shattered Psyche, respectively.
  • In Pokémon Sword and Shield, when Dynamaxed, their Counter and Mirror Coat becomes Max Knuckle and Max Mindstorm, respectively, which are offensive Max Moves.^note A Dynamax Wobbuffet encountered in a Max Raid may retain Counter and Mirror Coat in addition to the aforementioned Max Moves, however.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Based on the late Japanese comedian Sanpei Hayashiya, whose catch phrase is Wobbuffet's Japanese name.
• Obvious Rule Patch: Due to the endless Wobbuffet vs. Wobbuffet situation, in Gen IV Shadow Tag was changed to not apply to another possessor of the ability, allowing them to freely switch, and Struggle now took off a quarter of the user's health each time it was executed, so that a Struggle duel between two Wobbuffet with Leftovers would eventually end with one knocking itself out.
• Perpetual Smiler: Wynaut is always smiling. The only way to tell if it's angry is when it slaps its tail on the ground.
• Power-Up Letdown: Its Hidden Ability is Telepathy, which makes it immune to ally attacks. Only problem is, Wobbuffet is not a Pokémon intended for Double/Triple Battles^note the opposing team can attack Wobbuffet's partners without having to worry about getting countered until only Wobbuffet's left, and without Shadow Tag, the foe can simply switch out endlessly and prevent Wobbuffet from performing any counterattacks, leaving it useless.
• Sealed Evil in a Duel: In the 3rd Generation, pitting two Wobbuffet against each other would result in an endless battle, because neither can attack directly, and when Struggle kicked in, the negligible damage would be repealed if either one had the Leftovers item, which would heal them enough to repeal the Struggle damage. And neither could switch due to Shadow Tag.
  (Omega) Ruby Pokédex entry: If two or more Wobbuffet meet, they will turn competitive and try to outdo the other's endurance. However, they may try to see which one can endure the longest without food. Trainers need to beware of this habit.
• Shadow Pin: Shadow Tag prevents enemy Pokémon from switching out.
• Stone Wall: It can't directly attack, only counter. But thanks to its movepool, Ability, and massive HP, it can be frustrating to take down, and most likely will not go down without claiming at least one Pokémon. Played with a little: unlike most tanky Pokémon, Wobbuffet has very subpar defense and special defense values, getting by purely on its huge HP. This is just one of Wobbuffet's strange quirks that work in its favor perfectly, since this allows them to sustain tremendous damage and still survive, maximizing the damage to the enemy from Counter/Mirror Coat.
• Taking You with Me: One of its few moves is Destiny Bond, which will make the afflicted Pokémon faint if the user faints.
• Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Female Wobbuffet have lipstick. It's one of the few instances where gender differences are this instead of Secondary Sexual Characteristics.
• Troll: Wobbuffet is a trolling character if there ever was one. It has dirt-quality stats (other than its HP), a very limited movepool, and looks as ridiculous as possible. What the hell can it do? Oh, just lock in that Pokémon you really need alive with Shadow Tag and almost unavoidably destroy it. Much rage can be caused by the use of a Wobbuffet.
• Unintentionally Unwinnable: The possibility of two Wobbuffet carrying Leftovers facing each other (and having the battle get stuck in an endless loop) was not considered while developing the third generation games. The changes to Shadow Tag's behavior and Struggle's recoil damage ensured that not only could neither of the Wobbuffet switch out, but that in the case both trainers only have Wobbuffet, neither of them could ever faint due to Struggle's self-inflicted damage being healed by the Leftovers.
• The Unreveal: Despite some Dex entries making a big deal about Wobbuffet being protective of their tails, even going so far as to suggest that this means there's some secret about said tails, the secret in question has never been revealed. Common fan speculation is that the tail is actually the true Pokémon, with the blue "body" being just a decoy, but this has not been confirmed.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Wobbuffet's movepool consists of exactly seven moves (technically nine, if you count two moves obtainable only from events; Tickle from a Gen III event and Mimic from a Gen II event), four (maybe five) of which are usable. They are more than enough to make Wobbuffet a threat.
• Who's on First?: Wynaut, why not? Played even straighter with both of their Japanese names. It's basically an endless conversation of "Is that right?" "That's how it is" respectively.
• Wingding Eyes: Their faces are styled after Japanese emoticons.

Girafarig and Farigiraf (Kirinriki and Rikikirin)

0203: Girafarig / Kirinriki (キリンリキ kirinriki)
0981: Farigiraf / Rikikirin (リキキリン rikikirin)

Girafarig

Farigiraf

Farigiraf debuts in Scarlet and Violet.

Girafarig is an unusual Pokémon. It's one of the relatively few Normal dual-types that's not part Flying. Instead, it's part-Psychic, meaning that it is neutral to Fighting-type attacks which are normally super effective, while also being immune to Ghost moves. It also has a undeveloped head on the end of its tail that is non-sentient, giving it an appearance similar to a pushmi-pullyu.

Starting in Generation IX, Girafarig gained access to their Secret Art, Twin Beam, enabling them to evolve into Farigiraf. As a result of its evolution, the head of its main body and the head of its tail have become one, increasing its psychic energy and enabling the tail head to act as strong armor for the main head. It can also deal brutal physical damage by swinging its neck around with enough force to pulverize stone and crush steel beams.

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• A Head at Each End: The brain in Girafarig's tail is much less refined, and that head mostly just reacts instinctively to external stimuli.
• All Your Powers Combined: Naturally learns Baton Pass. It has a few boosting moves to choose from for passing, and Sap Sipper can get it a free Attack boost from a Grass-type being careless.
• Cool Helmet: Its evolution Farigiraf has its tail become like a helmet which can close over its whole head for protection.
• Expy: Appears to be inspired by the similarly dual-headed hooved creature, the pushmi-pullyu.
• Fun with Palindromes: Girafarig's English and Japanese names are spelled the same backwards, reflecting how it has two heads on each end. Farigiraf's English name is also a palindrome, though its Japanese name isn't.
• Glass Cannon: Girafarig tended toward this; its base Attack, Special Attack, and Speed all occupy the same fairly high ten point range, while its HP, Defense, and Special Defense are noticeably lower. Subverted with Farigiraf, who has higher HP and slightly higher defenses, meaning it can take more hits in exchange for being slower, pushing it towards being a bulky mixed attacker.
• Mighty Glacier: Farigiraf isn't gonna outspeed many Pokémon, but it can hit hard on both fronts and has a great HP pool.
• Multiple Head Case: Girafarig has an extra head on its tail, which has its own simple brain and can act, perceive and attack separately from the main one. When it evolves, its two heads fuse together, and their brains are now directly connected through thick nerves.
• The Needless: The tail head never needs to sleep, allowing it to keep watch.
• Nested Mouths: After evolving, its regular head ends up sticking out of its second head's mouth.
• Non-Elemental: It is not a pure Psychic-type, but is part Normal. The giraffe is Normal-type, while the tail has psychic powers.
• No-Sell:
  • As part Normal-type Pokemon, they're immune to Ghost-type attacks instead of weak to them.
  • Farigiraf's Armor Tail Ability lets it straight up negate all priority moves for both them and their teammate.
• Power Nullifier: Its Normal-type cancels out the Psychic-type's usual weakness to Ghost.
• Psychic Powers: A Psychic-type based on a giraffe/okapi, the psychic energy it possesses noted specifically to be concentrated in the tail head. As a Farigiraf with the Armor Tail ability its enhanced psychic powers allow it to outright stop opponents from using priority moves against itself or its allies.
• Pun-Based Creature: Its Japanese name "Kirinriki", besides being a palindrome, may be derived from 麒麟 kirin (giraffe) and 念力 nenriki (telekinesis); this may also explain why it's part-Psychic type.
• Secret Art: Farigiraf has one Ability exclusive to it: Armor Tail (which blocks the opponent from using priority moves). It's also the only Pokémon that can learn Twin Beam by level up (which is a Psychic-type, Special Attack version of Double Hit which hits twice), which is required in order to evolve Girafarig into Farigiraf.
• Shown Their Work:
  • Girafarig can learn Hyper Voice by TM despite giraffes having a reputation for being mute. Giraffes can actually be quite loud and vocal, it's just that the majority of their vocalizations are done in a range that humans can't hear.
  • Farigiraf has four ossicones. While all extant giraffids only have two, having four was a common feature in many of their extinct relatives.
  • Girafarig might seem like an odd choice to be native to a region based on the Iberian Peninsula, but fossils of extinct giraffids who lived in that area are well-established, such as the four-ossiconed Decennatherium.
  • Farigiraf's Pokédex entry describes it as using its armored head as a bludgeon. Real giraffes do exactly that when males fight for dominance.
  • Farigiraf's Super-Senses are a reference to the fact that real giraffes, thanks to their height and exceptional vision, are typically the first animals to detect predators and act as a warning to other prey species, while okapis have exceptional hearing instead.
• Significant Anagram: Instead of being a palindrome, Farigiraf's Japanese name (Rikikirin) is an anagram of its pre-evolution's name (Kirinriki).
• Sniff Sniff Nom: The tail head tends to bite whatever smells interesting to it.
• Split-Personality Merge: Like Zweilous' evolution into Hydreigon, Girafarig's two heads merge into a single network when it evolves into Farigiraf.
• Super-Senses: Farigiraf is said to be able to detect danger in an instant, but sometimes its body can't react as quickly as its two brains can think.
• Technicolor Eyes: The face on its tail has yellow sclerae and large black irises.

Pineco and Forretress (Kunugidama and Foretos)

0204: Pineco / Kunugidama (クヌギダマ kunugidama)
0205: Forretress / Foretos (フォレトス foretosu)

Pineco

Forretress

Despite appearing as a pinecone/hand grenade and later as a clam/boulder/depth charge hybrid, it's actually a Bug-type, specifically one based on a bagworm. With its high defenses and a typing that leaves it with a single weakness (which is regretfully a double weakness), it's a very good choice as a defensive wall.

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• Action Bomb: Moreso than any other Pokémon that can learn Self-Destruct and Explosion, only matched by Voltorb and Electrode. What level does Pineco learn Self-Destruct? Level 6.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Bug-Types, though being bagworms, they don't do a lot of crawling.
• Extra-ore-dinary: Forretress gains a Steel typing upon evolution.
• Geo Effects: Prior to Gen VI, Forretress was notable for learning all entry hazard related moves: Spikes, Toxic Spikes, Stealth Rock, and Rapid Spin.
• Glass Cannon: Forretress has access to Power Trick, which lets it switch its Attack and Defense stats, usually letting it hit much harder. Now, its base Attack isn't terrible, so it won't be as vulnerable when doing this as, say, Shuckle, but it does lose a fair amount of survivability.
• Last Chance Hit Point: Come Gen V, its Sturdy ability allows it to survive any hit with 1 HP remaining, so long as it was at full health when the attack hit.
• Metal Slime: It's difficult to find a Pineco in Gold, Silver, Crystal, HeartGold, and SoulSilver due to the headbutt method, and it has a low encounter rate in Emerald. In addition, it knows Self-Destruct at level 6, making it just as difficult to catch.
• Not Completely Useless: As of Generation VI, its Hidden Ability Overcoat also lets it ignore powder-based moves, including the otherwise 100%-accurate sleep-inducing move Spore.
• Power Floats: While it does not have the Levitate ability, Forretress can learn Magnet Rise and is capable of levitation in Scarlet and Violet.
• Power-Up Letdown: Its Hidden Ability is Overcoat, which lets it ignore weather damage. Unfortunately, being Steel-type, it's already immune to Sandstorm damage, meaning the ability only protects against Hail. However, since Gen IX replaced Hail with Snow^note It doesn't damage non-Ice type Pokémon., the only purpose it serves is to protect the line from powder moves.
• Protection from the Elements: Their Hidden Ability, Overcoat, protects them from the residual weather damage of Sandstorm and Hail. And their Steel typing also makes them immune to Sandstorm damage if they otherwise don't have their Hidden Ability.
• Secret Art: In Gold and Silver, they had exclusive access to Spikes.
• Shock and Awe: Forretress can learn a few Electric-type moves like Volt Switch, Magnet Rise, and even Zap Cannon.
• Spectacular Spinning: They both can learn Rapid Spin and are shown to spin during attacks in the 3D games.
• Spin to Deflect Stuff: One of the more notable users of Rapid Spin, which removes entry hazards from its side of the battlefield.
• Stone Wall: Forretress, and it's a very good one thanks to its high Defense and its Bug/Steel typing making almost every hit it takes do neutral damage at most. Just as long as no fire is involved.
• Trap Master: It can discourage switching by setting up Spikes, Toxic Spikes, and Stealth Rock to harm any Pokémon that switches in. It also gets Rapid Spin to remove those same traps from its own side.
• The Unseen: The insides of their shells.
• Weak Against Magic: Forretress may have amazing Defense, but its Special Defense is pretty poor, making it susceptible to special-based attacks, but especially the mostly special-based Fire-type.
• Weak to Fire: As a Bug/Steel-type, Fire is Forretress's only weakness, but it's also a double weakness. Most Fire attacks (especially pre-Gen IV) are also Special, hitting its notably weaker Special Defense stat.

Dunsparce and Dudunsparce (Nokocchi and Nokokocchi)

0206: Dunsparce / Nokocchi (ノコッチ nokocchi)
0982: Dudunsparce / Nokokocchi (ノココッチ nokokocchi)

Dunsparce

Dudunsparce (Two Segment)

Dudunsparce debuts in Scarlet and Violet.

Dunsparce is based on a cryptid known as a Tsuchinoko: a fat-bellied snake that can jump or roll itself like a hoop to move around. Dunsparce is made even weirder by having a drill as a tail and a pair of tiny wings that it can use to fly "a little". They have a strange habit of making themselves extremely scarce, often to the point where encountering one is an event in itself. Every so often, though, they unpredictably appear in huge numbers. Then they go back to making themselves scarce.

Dunsparce are capable of evolving into Dudunsparce once they learn Hyper Drill. As the name would imply, Dudunsparce closely resembles its pre-evolved counterpart, but bigger, a extra body segment, and with more elaborate features. When evolving, Dudunsparce has a 1/100 chance of having three segments on its body instead of two.

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• Belly-Scraping Flight: This is about the extent of its flying capabilities, just enough to barely get it off the ground. Normally it doesn't go even that far, instead flapping its wings to help it in the hopping motions it makes to crawl on the ground. It's theorized in Dunsparce's Sword Dex entry that they might've been more active fliers in the distant past.
• Blow You Away: Dudunsparce's Violet Dex entry mentions that it's capable of blowing enemies out of its nest by filling up its lungs with air and then exhaling, and it can also learn the Flying-type move Hurricane.
• Boring, but Practical: In terms of appearance and behavior, Dudunsparce can be summed up as "Dunsparce, but bigger". Stat-wise, it receives a nice boost to its HP, overall sturdiness, and usable offensive stats, making it an actual viable option rather than a Crutch Character.
• Confusion Fu: It has a fairly wide movepool. It has Rollout, Roost, Drill Run, Air Slash, and Dragon Rush as level-up moves.
• Crutch Character:
  • In HeartGold and SoulSilver, you can catch one before the first gym (1% encounter rate in Dark Cave), and it comes with the ability Serene Grace, which doubles the chances of a move's secondary effect taking place. It can learn Glare (75% chance of causing paralysis, 100% as of Generation VI) and Headbutt (30% chance of causing the opponent to flinch), which, combined with Serene Grace, will leave an opponent only a 30% chance of acting between paralysis and flinching. Though it drops off in usefulness about halfway through Johto due to its low stats.
  • To a lesser extent in X and Y. Again, you can catch one before the first gym, and at the level you can catch it at, it will have the move Rollout on hand; super-effective against Bug-type Pokémon, which just so happens to be the theme of the first gym. Even Fennekin would have trouble when faced with Viola's Surskit, due to its Bug/Water typing; Dunsparce doesn't have this problem.
  • Averted in Scarlet and Violet, where it finally gains an evolution in Dudunsparce, making it more useful.
• Eyes Always Shut:
  • Dunsparce's eyes are depicted as what look like closed slits, but they can still use Glare regardless.
  • Subverted when it evolves, despite initial appearances, Dudunsparce's eyes just look like they're closed when they aren't.
• Gonk: Despite not being very remarkable otherwise, Dunsparce has a very odd and distinctive appearance, resembling a snake crossed with a dragon and a bee. This may be the reason for its unusual popularity, and it eventually receiving an evolution.
• Healing Factor: It learns Roost naturally, which is a healing move. As an added bonus, it doesn't have a Flying-type to lose in using it, making the move extremely useful for it.
• Make Some Noise: Dudunsparce learns Boomburst, a powerful sound-based attack, by level-up.
• Mighty Glacier: Probably the most charitable way to describe Dunsparce's stats. Its HP is good, its Speed is poor, and its other stats are below-average but not as bad as its Speed. Dudunsparce, on the other hand, has high enough Attack and HP to count as a straighter example of the trope.
• Non-Elemental: Serpentine Normal-types based on the Japanese cryptid, tsuchinoko.
• Our Cryptids Are More Mysterious: While primarily based on the tsuchinoko, the fact that Dunsparce also roll around brings to mind a North American cryptid, the hoop snake.
• Prophet Eyes: Dudunsparce's eyes invoke this appearance in that while its eyes look almost the same as Dunsparce's, an extra slit is added to each eye, and the two slits per eye clearly "blink". Thus, it seems the space between the slits is simply what their open eye looks like. They appear to see somehow despite the lack of any visible pupil, though given their subterranean habits, conventional vision may not be an important sense.
• Punny Name: In most languages, Dudunsparce repeats part of Dunsparce's name, while French adds deux (two) and Chinese adds jiē (segment), all of which references that little about it changed visually from Dunsparce besides getting a second body segment.
• Ridiculously Small Wings: Dunsparce has tiny, comical-looking wings similar to those of a bumblebee, but Pokédex entries suggest that it can at least use these wings to get a few inches off the ground — and that in ancient times, it may have used those wings to actually fly through the sky. Dudunsparce gains an extra pair or two, which are as tiny as the original pair.
• Rolling Attack: Since they're based on tsuchinoko, who are said to be capable of rolling around to get places, they learn Rollout via level-up.
• Secret Art: The Dunsparce line is the only Pokémon line that learns Hyper Drill, a Normal-type move that inflicts damage and pierces through shielding moves such as Protect and Detect, and is required to trigger its evolution into Dudunsparce.
• Significant Anagram: Dunsparce's Japanese name, Nokocchi, uses the same kanas that can be spelled out as Nokotsuchi, which can be rearranged into Tsuchinoko.
• This Is a Drill: Its tail is drill-shaped, they can learn Drill Run by level-up, and Dunsparce only evolves upon learning Hyper Drill.
• Tsuchinoko: It's a fat-belled snake based on this Japanese cryptid, made even more unusual by possessing a drill on its tail and insect-like wings. These additions and the vertical stripes on its back are a visual pun on one of the Tsuchinoko's other names, Bachi Hebi, which translates to "Bee Snake". True to it being based on a cryptid, they're often very rare in the wild with an encounter rate of 1% in early games. Dudunsparce plays with this with its rare three segment form.

Gligar and Gliscor (Gliger and Glion)

0207: Gligar / Gliger (グライガー guraigaa)
0472: Gliscor / Glion (グライオン guraion)

Gligar

Gliscor

Gliscor debuts in Diamond and Pearl

A strange cross between a scorpionfly and a bat, Gligar and Gliscor also happen to be the first Ground/Flying-type Pokémon. Gligar can only evolve into Gliscor if it's holding a Razor Fang and levels up at night. They have excellent defense along with decent speed. It's exclusive to Gold, HeartGold, and the Scarlet version of The Teal Mask.

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• Action Initiative: They naturally learn Quick Attack.
• Balance Buff: Generation V blessed them with Hidden Abilities that make them impervious to poison damage. Gligar receives Immunity, which prevents it from being poisoned. Meanwhile, Gliscor gets Poison Heal, which restores its HP if Gliscor's poisoned instead of being damaged by it.
• Bat Out of Hell: Mixed with scorpionflies, for that matter.
• Beware My Stinger Tail: They can use Poison Sting with it.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Despite not being Bug-types, they are based on scorpionflies, they belong to the Bug Egg Group, and they can learn plenty of Bug-type moves.
• Blow You Away: Part Flying-types, although they learn only a handful of Flying-type moves.
• Boss Battle: In Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia, Kincaid battles the player with a Gliscor in his second encounter.
• Cast from Hit Points: They learn Double-Edge through breeding, which deals recoil damage to the user.
• Confusion Fu: The line has a rather diverse movepool that includes a variety of offensive options to work with their typings as well as disruptive moves like Taunt, Stealth Rock, and Defog, making it difficult to guess whether a Gliscor is going to set up and sweep or wall their opponents.
• Critical Hit Class: They can learn six different moves with high-crit ratios, more than any other Pokémon.
• Disability Superpower: Gliscor's Poison Heal causes it to heal HP from poison damage instead of losing it.
• Dishing Out Dirt: They're Ground-types based on bats and scorpions.
• Dump Stat: Gliscor and Gligar both have terrible Special Attack stats, being below even some Starter Pokémon, meaning they really should stick to physical attacks.
• Face Hugger: Gligar is known to fly straight at the face of its opponent.
• Fire, Ice, Lightning: Gliscor can learn all three elemental fangs.
• Healing Factor: Gliscor's Hidden Ability, Poison Heal, will restore 1/8 of its total HP at the end of each turn if it is Poisoned.
• Heal Thyself: Gligar and Gliscor can learn Roost from Generation IV onwards, which restores half of their max HP and temporary loses its Flying-type on that turn.
• Inconsistent Coloring: Gligar is usually pink, but it's a light shade of purple in all Generation III games (including spinoffs), Diamond and Pearl, and some early Generation IV spinoffs; and a darker purple in Platinum.
• Jack of All Stats: Gliscor has good stats across the board, with its best stat being Defense while also having decent Attack and Speed, allowing it to function as both a Stone Wall and Lightning Bruiser. It gets Swords Dance and Rock Polish to boost the latter stats further, as well as Roost and passive healing from Poison Heal to make it incredibly durable. Its typing works offensively as well as defensively — it so happens everything resistant to Flying is weak against Ground and vice-versa, and Gliscor's movepool includes other great moves like Stone Edge and Facade, as well as useful utility options such as Stealth Rock and Tailwind. It does, however, have an atrocious Special Attack, and a 4x weakness to Ice-type moves.
• Kill It with Ice: Being Ground/Flying, it's 4x weak to Ice attacks (with Water as its only other weakness).
• Monochromatic Eyes: Gliscor has solid-yellow eyes, which help make it look more menacing.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: A scorpion-bat hybrid. Notably, the more detailed textures of Scarlet and Violet reveal that while most of its body is smooth like an exoskeleton, the upper surface of its wing membrane is covered in a short layer of bat-like fur.
• Multiform Balance: Gliscor is a Lightning Bruiser capable of filling defensive or offensive niches, while Gligar, with its high base stats for an unevolved Pokémon mean that it's very bulky while having better offenses and speed than the average Stone Wall.
• One-Hit KO: They naturally learn Guillotine.
• Our Vampires Are Different: Gliscor's design has a few vampire-like traits, such as its wings resembling a cape.
• Poisonous Person: Being hybrid scorpions, they naturally learn plenty of Poison-type moves despite not being Poison-types themselves. Their Hidden Abilities make them immune to, and actively healed by, being afflicted with the Poison status condition respectively.
• Prehensile Tail: Gliscor is known for hanging from its tail, and for carrying prey using it.
• Scary Scorpions: And they fly! Of course, it helps that they're technically scorpionflies.
• Secondary Sexual Characteristics: Female Gligar have smaller stingers than males.
• Shoryuken: Both naturally learn Sky Uppercut, a rising punching move, despite not being Fighting-types.
• Uniqueness Decay: As of Generation IX, they're the first non-crustacean Pokémon to learn Crabhammer.

Snubbull and Granbull (Bulu and Granbulu)

0209: Snubbull / Bulu (ブルー buruu)
0210: Granbull / Granbulu (グランブル guranburu)

Snubbull

Granbull

Snubbull and Granbull are based on bulldogs. They used to be Normal-types, but in Generation VI, they were changed to pure Fairy-types, and, as such, are one of the toughest looking fairies in the game. That being said, they're still fairly timid shy creatures despite their fearsome appearances.

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• Awesome, but Impractical: In-verse. Granbull's fangs are huge and sharp. And it has more than enough self-control to keep them off of non-enemy things. Unfortunately, they're also heavy. If a Granbull doesn't keep its head tilted back a bit whenever possible, they'll quickly find their head tilting downward rather quickly.
• Bully Bulldog: Subverted. They're intimidating, but they're actually pretty nice, if not total scaredy cats at times. This became a double-subversion after the Fairy-type retcon, showing how dangerous they can be if you tick them off.
• Cast from Hit Points: To help with its low Speed, it's useful for it to carry a Toxic Orb in conjunction with its Quick Feet Ability to move faster in exchange for losing increasing amounts of HP.
• Confusion Fu: In its level-up movepool alone, Granbull can learn moves from 8 of the 18 types. Throw in its extensive TM, Egg, and Move Tutor pools and that's three more that it can make use of with its hefty attack, and three more that it can't exactly make use of as they're all Special moves. Disregarding those last three, that's still 11 out of 18 types.
• Cute Little Fangs: Snubbull. As you can see, they aren't so cute (or little) on Granbull.
• Dishing Out Dirt: They can learn the Ground-type moves Earthquake, Dig, and Bulldoze. As one of the few Fairy-types capable of being able to learn moves of said type, it is an absolute godsend, as Ground is strong against all of the types that resist Fairy.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Snubbull first appeared in the anime's short film Pikachu's Vacation, albeit under the name Snubble, as it was before the game had an official localization spelling.
• Face of a Thug: The line can have Intimidate as an ability, and Snubbull has a tendency to upset itself when it accidentally scares off other Pokémon with its looks. Many of their Pokédex entries also state that both of them tend to be very timid.
• Fire, Ice, Lightning: Snubbull and Granbull can learn all of the elemental fangs. They'll need to be taken to a move relearner to acquire them, however.
• Mighty Glacier: Granbull has a great attack stat offset by its slow base speed stat. It can learn Bulk Up to make up for its average physical defense stat.
• Mister Muffykins: They're often treated as this by many characters throughout the franchise. However, while Snubbull is small and pink, making it a good fit for this trope, Granbull... isn't.
• Non-Elemental: Normal-type prior to Generation VI, which retconned them into pure Fairy-types.
• Our Fairies Are Different: They're both based on bulldogs, but they're both called "Fairy Pokémon", are in the "Fairy" egg group, and as of Generation VI, are pure Fairy-type Pokémon. Granbull appears very masculine as well.
• Perpetual Frowner: They always look pissed.
• Pink Means Feminine: Very much on Snubbull; three out of every four of them are female.
• Precious Puppies: At least for bulldog lovers. According to the Pokèdex in Gold, Snubbull is noted to have a fandom amongst women who find their aggressive look rather adorable.
• Status Effects: Inflicting one on Granbull will make it faster, thanks to its Quick Feet ability.
• Stout Strength: Granbull has a fairly pudgy physique and its Attack is its best stat.
• Who's Laughing Now?: It used to be that, as Normal-types, they were vulnerable to Fighting-types. Now, as Fairy-types, they have the advantage over Fighting-types!

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