Characters / Pokémon: Generation III - Treecko to Sharpedo

Main Character Index > Pokémon: Generation III Families >
Treecko to Sharpedo (252-319) | Wailmer to Deoxys (320-386) | Super-ancient Pokémon (382-384)

The page for the Generation III Pokémon grew so large that it had to be split. This page has the tropes for National Pokédex numbers 252-319. For the rest, go here.

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Treecko, Grovyle, and Sceptile (Kimori, Juptile, and Jukain)

0252: Treecko / Kimori (キモリ kimori)
0253: Grovyle / Juptile (ジュプトル juputoru)
0254: Sceptile / Jukain (ジュカイン jukain)

Treecko

Grovyle

Sceptile

^{Mega Sceptile}

Mega Sceptile debuts in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire

Hoenn's Grass-type starters, a family of Pokémon inspired by leaf-tailed geckos. They are the Fragile Speedsters of the bunch. Treecko's first STAB move, Absorb, may be weak, but evolve it, and Grovyle and Sceptile get their Secret Art: Leaf Blade. They are masters of jungle combat, moving through the trees with blinding speed. In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, it gained a Mega Evolution, turning it into a Grass/Dragon type along with gaining the Lightning Rod Ability.

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• Abnormal Ammo: Its Mega Evolution fires its tail to attack. Also a case of Shown Their Work, as many real lizards, including geckos, are capable of dropping their tails to escape predators.
• Badass Back: Mega Sceptile keeps its back turned to its opponent all the time, most likely to use its tail as a weapon.
• Beware My Stinger Tail: Mega Sceptile shoots the leafy part of its tail at the opponent when it performs a Special attack. It's essentially shaped like a giant dart and has a sharp, red stinger tip.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: Grovyle and Sceptile fight with leaf-styled blades sprouting from their forearms.
• Breath Weapon: A few of the TCG moves as well as Pokkén Tournament show that they can breathe poison at foes.
• Confusion Fu: Sceptile has a surprisingly diverse movepool, especially compared to most Grass-types. In addition to the usual Grass-type and Normal-type moves, Sceptile can learn numerous Dragon-type and Fighting-type moves while being able to learn some Ground-type, Dark-type, Rock-type, Flying-type, and Bug-type moves, as well as Thunder Punch and Iron Tail.
• Critical Hit Class: Leaf Blade, Grovyle and Sceptile's former signature move, has an increased chance of landing a critical hit.
• Decoy Getaway: In Generation IX, Sceptile can learn the newly-introduced Shed Tail through the Move Reminder, which creates a Substitute at the cost of half its health and immediately switches it out for another Pokémon.
• Discard and Draw: Sceptile gains the Dragon-Type when it Mega Evolves, eliminating its Fire weakness and becoming even more resistant against Water, Grass and Electric-type attacks. It also gains the Lightning Rod Ability, becoming immune to Electric attacks completely while boosting its Special Attack. At the same time, Mega Sceptile becomes vulnerable to Dragon and Fairy-type attacks, and becomes very weak to Ice-type moves.
• Elemental Absorption: Mega Sceptile's Lightning Rod ability will attract all Electric moves towards Mega Sceptile and then it will boost its Special Attack in return rather than receiving damage, which is a useful ability in Double Battles, especially if paired with a Pokémon that knows Discharge which hits all other Pokémon regardless.
• Fragile Speedster: Unlike most Grass-types, they're quite fast, but can't take a hit. Using their Hidden Ability, Unburden, can make them even faster once activated.
• Glass Cannon: Sceptile has good Special Attack and less good but still decent Attack, but it's pretty frail. Mega Sceptile is much faster and has fantastic Attack and Special Attack stats, but it still doesn't like to take a hit.
• Green Thumb: As expected of Grass-type starters, the entire line is primarily Grass-types based on leaf-tailed geckos.
• In a Single Bound: The entire evolutionary line uses its agility to jump through trees.
• Kill It with Ice: Mega Sceptile gains the Dragon type and, as such, becomes even more vulnerable to Ice-type moves. Since its defenses barely improve upon Mega Evolving, it can actually be beneficial to delay doing so for a turn if you anticipate an Ice-type attack.
• Lovable Lizard: Treecko, the gecko-like Pokémon with an adorably determined expression.
• Magic Knight: Upon Mega Evolving, both its Attack and Special Attack stats receive a significant boost, allowing Mega Sceptile to hit much harder.
• Mascot with Attitude: Along with the Torchic line, Treecko and its evolutions look decidedly more anthropomorphic compared to the first two generations' starters. Their cocky expressions, unusually high speed, and Ash's Treecko having a lone cowboy personality in the anime further distinguish them from the predecessors and are reminiscent of snarky Funny Animal protagonists.
• Nerves of Steel: Treecko is always collected and will never panic under any circumstance.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Mega Sceptile is a gecko warrior with leaf-blades, is somehow a bona fide dragon, and has a detachable leafy harpoon for a tail.
• No-Sell: Mega Sceptile has the Lightning Rod ability, making it completely immune to all Electric moves. While the Grass/Dragon typing makes it already 4x resistant to Electric moves, Lightning Rod makes it immune to Thunder Wave as well, meaning it cannot be slowed down by one of the most common paralysis moves.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Sceptile looks very similar to a dragon, and much like Charizard and Gyarados, was practically a dragon in practice, able to breed with them and learning moves like Dragon Claw, Outrage, and Dragon Pulse. Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire drops the pretense and gives it a Mega Evolution that gives it Dragon as a secondary type. Even after Mega Evolutions were axed from Gen VIII onward, it continues to be closely associated with dragons, gaining moves like Scale Shot and Breaking Swipe and even featuring in Drayton's otherwise all-Dragon team.
• Power Up Letdown: Downplayed. Only upon evolving do Grovyle and Sceptile gain access to some decent Grass-type attacks like Leaf Blade and Leaf Storm, but only patiently raising Treecko earns their most effective drainage attack, Giga Drain. However, TMs, Move Tutors, or even the Move Reminder allow for the best of both worlds.
• Raptor Attack: Though the line is more heavily based on geckos, Grovyle and Sceptile have some dromaeosaurid features, and even get a few things right in the depiction with their inward-facing hands and "feathers".
• Recurring Element: The Hoenn Grass Starter.
• Secret Art: They were the only Pokémon to learn Leaf Blade in Generation III. Also, as a Grass starter, Grass Pledge and Frenzy Plant are exclusive to them.
• Starter Mon: The Grass starter Pokémon of Hoenn. Treecko fares decently against many of Hoenn's gyms and is useful against Team Aqua in Sapphire, Emerald, and Alpha Sapphire.
• Super Mode: It gained a Mega Evolution in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire that turns it into a Grass/Dragon type with Lightning Rod.
• Turns Red: Like all Grass-type starters, its Grass-type moves are boosted in potency when it's down to 1/3 of its HP, thanks to its Overgrow ability.
• Wall Crawl: Treecko has spikes on its feet to walk on walls and ceilings. In the anime, Sceptile demonstrates the same ability.

Torchic, Combusken, and Blaziken (Achamo, Wakasyamo, and Bursyamo)

0255: Torchic / Achamo (アチャモ achamo)
0256: Combusken / Wakasyamo (ワカシャモ wakashamo)
0257: Blaziken / Bursyamo (バシャーモ bashaamo)

Torchic

Combusken

Blaziken

^{Mega Blaziken}

Mega Blaziken debuts in X and Y

Hoenn's Fire-type starters, they are based on the cockfighting sport popular in Thailand. Since Roxanne, the first leader, uses Rock-types, some players get discouraged from picking it first. However, it is effective in battles once it evolves, and its Fire/Fighting typing allows it to take down two of the Elite Four as well as the Champion in Ruby and Sapphire. In X and Y, it gained a Mega Evolution, gaining significant boosts to Attack and Speed as well as gaining the Speed Boost Ability.

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• Acrophobic Bird: Unsurprisingly, since they're based on chickens^note chickens can fly, but they're not very good at it, so they typically prefer to stay on the ground. Torchic's wings are way too small to carry it and its evolutions have no wings at all, its wings having instead developed into clawed arms.
• Badass Arm-Fold: Blaziken's way of showing affection in Pokémon-Amie.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Upon evolution, Combusken and Blaziken become part Fighting-type fully capable of uppercutting foes right out of the sky.
• Bird People: Blaziken resembles a person with chicken-like features more than an actual chicken.
• Bishōnen Line: Torchic becomes more humanlike when it evolves, to the point that Blaziken's anatomy resembles Bird People rather than actual birds.
• Breakout Character: Blaziken was first introduced as an Early-Bird Cameo in the Silver Conference of the Johto saga in the anime, but the family as a whole proved to be consistently popular.
  • They were popular enough that Gamefreak created a line in Gen IV with the same type combination in Chimchar, and then did it again in Gen V with Tepig. Blaziken was also the first of the Hoenn starters to receive a Mega Evolution in X and Y while the others had to wait for Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, and a Torchic with Blazikenite was the first event Pokémon to be distributed in Generation VI. While not as pushed to the extent of Lucario initially, it finally caught on in Generation VI with the aforementioned Mega Evolution.
  • Torchic itself was deemed cute enough to appear as a NPC sprite in the Pokémon Diamond and Pearl games despite not being native to the region and even allowed in Amity Square, which is well known for being very selective over who is deemed as "cute". Alhough this likely had more to do with Torchic being one of Junichi Masuda's favorite Pokémon. It is also the only starter Pokémon that can be caught from the Pokéwalker, although it is an extremely rare encounter from an event-only course.
• Cast from Hit Points: Naturally learns Brave Bird and Flare Blitz, both of which are very powerful attacks that cause recoil damage, whittling down Blaziken's HP quickly even if it doesn't get hit in kind.
• Cocky Rooster: The Torchic line is based on chickens, and Combusken and Blaziken dual-typed Fire/Fighting, both associated with aggressiveness and strong attacks. The middle evolution Combusken has a permanent Death Glare and is known for being belligerent.
• Death or Glory Attack: Learns High Jump Kick by level up, a powerful Fighting-type move that causes it to receive damage equal to half of its total HP if it misses.
• Discard and Draw: Torchic gains the Fighting-Type after evolving into Combusken to give it a bit of an edge against the first gym, which uses Rock-Types. The Fighting-Type gets rid of the Rock-Type weakness, becomes resistant to Dark and even more resistent against Bug, while losing resistance to Fairy and becoming weak to Flying- and Psychic-Types, which gives it problems to two later gym leaders.
• Disc-One Nuke: In X and Y, if you got the game in the first three months of release and connected to the internet, you got a free Torchic with the Hidden Ability Speed Boost. Plus, you can get it at the very first Pokémon Center, where it's likely at least the same level as most of your Pokémon. It manages to stay powerful thanks to its useful ability, and the fact that as a trade Pokémon, it gains extra EXP, thus leveling up faster than most. Not to mention it comes with Blazikenite, an item that unlocks Blaziken's Mega Evolution. Of course, being a traded Pokémon, you'd have to limit its level-ups if you plan to use it for the main story, as an over-leveled traded Pokémon will disobey you and become more of a hassle.
• Early-Bird Cameo:
  • Blaziken was the only starter to appear in the anime before its generation debut. And yes, we get the joke "early bird."
  • In Generation VI, Mega Blaziken was obtainable via an event distribution in X and Y before its "true" debut in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire along with the other Mega Evolved Hoenn starters.
• Feathered Fiend: Blaziken is a giant, fiery, kickboxing chicken. Like real-life fighting cocks, Blaziken has a spur on the back of each leg.
• Fragile Speedster: With Speed Boost, it can become a wicked fast sweeper and it can become even stronger with Swords Dance, but those defenses will remain as weak as ever.
• Glass Cannon: It has great Attack and Special Attack, and average Speed with the ability Speed Boost to make it even faster every turn, but pitiful defenses.
• In a Single Bound: Blaziken is said to be able to make clean leaps over 30-story buildings.
• Invisible Anatomy: Blaziken does in fact have chicken-like feet; they're simply covered by feathers◊, save for the claws.
• Kamehame Hadoken: In the Gamecube games, whenever Blaziken uses special attacks like Flamethrower, it does not spit them out. Instead, they come out of its wrists.
• Kiai: Combusken are said to make loud noises when practicing their martial arts moves.
• Magic Knight: To the point where both of its attack stats are actually higher than the highest of its fellow starters (120 Attack to Swampert's 110 and 110 Special Attack to Sceptile's 105).
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Blaziken is a kickboxing fire chicken.
• Playing with Fire: As expected of Fire-type starters, the entire line primarily Fire-type based on chickens.
• Recurring Element: The Hoenn Fire Starter.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Torchic is this. Even its Sapphire and HG/SS Pokédex entries advise you to hug it since it's very warm to the touch.
• Secondary Sexual Characteristics: Male Combusken and Blaziken have longer "cowlick" feathers than females. Torchic also have a difference, but it's just a black speck in the back sprite which appears only for males. It's about one pixel difference, making it very easy to miss. Not present in Mega Blaziken.
• Secret Art: In Generation III, it was the only Pokémon able to learn Blaze Kick. And as a Fire starter, Fire Pledge and Blast Burn are exclusive to it.
• Secret Character: Mega Blaziken in X and Y, whose Mega Stone (Blazikenite) can only be received through an event. No longer the case as of Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.
• Shotoclone: Loosely speaking; Blaziken is a Fighting-type with specially-based Fire-type attacks and the decent Special Attack to use them, has a Hurricane Kick move in its trademark Blaze Kick, and learns the Shoryuken-like Sky Uppercut naturally. It's also occasionally depicted as one half of a Ryu and Ken-like duo with Lucario, as the "Ken" to Lucario's "Ryu". Pokkén Tournament fully depicts Blaziken as one of these, with Heat Wave as its Kamehame Hadoken.
• Shown Their Work: The Secondary Sexual Characteristics of male Torchic having a nearly-imperceptible dot on it's behind is a reference to how real freshly-hatched chicks have (through breeding) a few feathers longer on their wings if they're male. It's completely unnoticeable if you don't know about it already, like Torchic.
• Starter Mon: The Fire starter Pokémon of Hoenn. Torchic has a bit of trouble against the first gym unless it evolves into Combusken. Then it does very well against most of the early gyms but has trouble with the later ones. It also doesn't fare too well against Team Aqua and may even have trouble against Team Magma (except against the Dark-type Pokémon both teams use, which it will easily wreck).
• Status Buff: Started out learning Bulk-Up, Swords Dance, and Focus Energy. Later generations added Agility, Hone Claws and Work Up. Its hidden ability, Speed Boost, rises its speed by one stage at the end of each turn.
• Stealth Pun:
  • Cock fighting, anyone?
  • Blaziken's Pokédex entry says it can clear a 30 story building in one leap. It is literally a spring chicken.
  • The "ken" in Combusken's and Blaziken's names comes from "chicken", but is also Japanese for "fist".
  • They're also Fire-type chickens, just ripe for a "fried/barbecue/roasted/spicy/popcorn chicken" joke.
• Super Mode: Blaziken gained a Mega Evolution in X and Y.
• Temporary Online Content: Originally, the only way to obtain Mega Blaziken was getting its Mega Stone via an event when X and Y first came out that ended in January 2014, meaning anyone who didn't get the event had to trade with other players. However, with the announcement of Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, players can now get the Mega Stone from Steven on Route 120 if Torchic was their starter, and on Route 114 from a salesman if Torchic was not their starter. In the latter event, the Mega Stone is available after the player defeats/captures Kyogre or Groudon.
• Trailers Always Lie: Pre-release material for Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire advertised Blaziken being able to learn Ice Punch. It doesn't.
• Turns Red: Blaze boosts the power of its Fire-type moves when it's about to keel over.
• Vocal Dissonance: Blaizken's voice in the Japanese version of the anime and all versions of Pokkén Tournament is high pitched and squawky to fit the fact it's based off a chicken. The dub of the anime goes with Baritone of Strength instead.
• Uniqueness Decay: The very first Fire/Fighting-type Pokémon... followed by 2 Fire starters in a row with the same type combination.
• Wings Do Nothing: Torchic's wings are too short for flying, while Combusken and Blaziken's wings have changed into arms.
• Wolverine Publicity: Much like Charizard before it, Blaziken was an enormous Breakout Character, and has been used for advertising since. Interestingly, this appears to have been the first case where an intentionally designed Breakout Character became a hit, as Clefairy in Gen I and Togepi in Gen II didn't stick as much; Blaziken was one of the first Pokémon revealed from Gen III, even before Torchic.

Mudkip, Marshtomp, and Swampert (Mizugorou, Numacraw, and Laglarge)

0258: Mudkip / Mizugorou (ミズゴロウ mizugorou)
0259: Marshtomp / Numacraw (ヌマクロー numakuroo)
0260: Swampert / Laglarge (ラグラージ raguraaji)

Mudkip

Marshtomp

Swampert

^{Mega Swampert}

Mega Swampert debuts in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire

Hoenn's Water-type starter, it is a Pokémon based on the axolotl, mudpuppy, or mudskipper. As it evolves, it gains a Ground subtype, removing its Electric weakness but giving it a heavy vulnerability to Grass. Although they may seem mellow and mild-mannered, they are very protective towards others of their kind. They are the best choice for facing Hoenn's Gym Leaders, considering that their Water-type takes care of Roxanne and Flannery, and its Ground-type takes care of Wattson. It gained a Mega Evolution in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.

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• Acrofatic: While Mega Swampert looks bulky, its Swift Swim ability makes it go faster in rain. Subverted, in that unlike most other Pokémon with bulky builds, Mega Swampert actually looks very muscular rather than fat.
• Balance Buff: In Gen VII, thanks to the new Mega Evolution Speed mechanics, Mega Swampert's Speed is increased and Swift Swim activates the turn it Mega Evolves, allowing it to sweep more efficiently, provided it's raining.
• Confusion Fu: Through its main movepools, TMs, and access to the B2W2 move tutors, Swampert can learn attacks of any type apart from Electric, Grass, Bug, Flying, Ghost, or Fairy.
• Discard and Draw: Mudkip gains the Ground-type upon evolving, completely turning the tables on Electric-types and becoming resistant to Rock-type and Poison-type moves. However, it becomes more vulnerable to Water and Ice, and Grass-types are deadly.
• Dishing Out Dirt: The line is of the Ground-type from Marshtomp onward; additionally, it has access to numerous useful Rock moves.
• Faster Than They Look: Swampert doesn't look like it'd be especially fast on land despite being able to swim faster than a jetski, but in Scarlet and Violet it's one of the faster sprinters when using the Synchro Machine.
• Fish People: Marshtomp and Swampert are anthropomorphic mudskippers.
• An Ice Person: Like most Water-types, it can be taught Ice-type moves. This makes its only weakness (Grass) rather difficult to exploit.
• Informed Ability: Swampert's Flavor Text regularly states that it can swim as fast as a jet-ski. Its Speed actually isn't that good and it doesn't have Swift Swim as a Hidden Ability, although that got remedied with Mega Swampert having that Ability.
• Jet Pack: In concept art, Mega Swampert is depicted as using two spouts on its back to propel itself through water when swimming. This justifies its Swift Swim ability.
• Lightning Bruiser: Swampert is said to swim faster than a jet-ski and swings its arms fast enough to shatter boulders, and that's before Mega Evolving into a form specifically designed to build upon those factors — its attack is on par with Groudon! Mega Swampert in rain doubles its speed while its bulk and power are not compromised, making it a very potent rain sweeper. Outside of Swift Swim, though, its speed is pretty poor.
• Making a Splash: As expected of Water-type starters, the entire line is primarily Water-type based on mudskippers.
• Mighty Glacier: Swampert's Speed isn't as bad as some others of similar constitution, but it certainly pales compared to its Attack and defensive stats. Combined with its typing, Swampert is a strong Pokémon that can also take plenty of hits (as long as they're not Grass moves), so even if it gets outsped, it's survivability and ability to dish out with powerful STAB moves makes it a pretty solid Pokémon.
• Mucking in the Mud: Marshtomp's Pokédex entries state that it can easily overwhelm foes that are struggling to move in the mud, thanks to its sturdy legs being well-adapted to ensure its footing.
• Pintsized Powerhouse: According to the Pokédex, Mudkip can crush rocks bigger than itself, and it has the highest base Attack stat of all unevolved water Starter Pokémon at 70. ^note Prior to Generation VIII, Mudkip had the highest attack of all unevolved starters. The highest is now Scorbunny, which has a base attack of 71.
• Power Nullifier: The line's Ground-type cancels out Water's weakness to Electric-types. They also additionally can carry the ability Damp, which prevents self-destruction moves from being used.
• Power Up Letdown: The line gets Damp as their hidden ability, preventing self-destruct moves from being used while they are on field… in the same generation both Self-Destruct and Explosion were massively nerfed.
• Recurring Element: The Hoenn Water Starter.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Mudkip is this, especially with its adorably cute smile and overall appearance.
• Rocket Punch: Mega Swampert has water jets on the back of its fists that propel them for extra force.
• Scunthorpe Problem: Marshtomp's English name has a habit of tripping the Generation V GTS' swear filter.
• Secret Art: It was the only Pokémon to learn Muddy Water in Generation III, and as a Water-type starter, it has exclusive access to Water Pledge and Hydro Cannon.
• Starter Mon: The Water starter Pokémon of Hoenn. When it gains the Ground-type upon evolving into Marshtomp, it becomes a powerhouse that's useful against most of the gyms and Team Magma. It's somewhat neutral against Team Aqua.
• Stout Strength: Like with Acrofatic above, subverted with Mega Swampert, which is very muscular rather than fat.
• Super Mode: Gained a Mega Evolution in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, gaining extremely buff arms, befitting a swimmer, and getting the Swift Swim ability.
• Super-Senses: A couple of Mudkip and Swampert's Pokédex entries mention that their fins act as a sort of radar system, allowing them to sense their surroundings whether in air or water without using their eyes. Swampert uses this to predict storms, which it responds to by piling up boulders to protect itself.
• Super-Strength: The line is known for their incredible strength. Mudkip is strong in spite of its size, being able to lift as well as crush rocks bigger than itself. Swampert has strong, rock-hard arms that can shatter rocks by swinging them at them. They can also can easily drag boulders weighing more than a ton and can swim while towing a large ship.
• Top-Heavy Guy: Mega Swampert has a very bulky upper body compared to its legs, although it doesn't need to walk on its hands to support itself.
• Turns Red: Like all starters, its primary Water-type moves get boosted when it's been pushed to nearly its limit, thanks to its Torrent ability. Another example of this in the line is Mudkip's Pokédex entry for Sapphire, which states that when faced with a tight situation, it will "unleash its amazing power" — crushing rocks bigger than itself.
• Weaksauce Weakness: While their Water/Ground typing will give them a nifty Electric immunity, you better keep them away from anything green as Grass-type moves will make short work of them.

Poochyena and Mightyena (Pochiena and Graena)

0261: Poochyena / Pochiena (ポチエナ pochiena)
0262: Mightyena / Graena (グラエナ guraena)

Poochyena

Mightyena

A hyena-like Pokémon that inhabits the first few routes in Ruby and Sapphire, but graduates to Com Mon in Emerald. Poochyena is somewhat cowardly, running away from foes with its Quick Feet, but Mightyena's fearsome appearance intimidates the opponent, lowering its attack. They are loyal to their Trainers and are popular pets. It should be noted that Poochyena and Mightyena are the first pure Dark-types to have an evolutionary line (prior to this, the only Dark-types that could evolve were ones that were mixed with another type).

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• Action Initiative: Learns Sucker Punch naturally to attack first.
• Com Mons: In Emerald, Poochyena are found very frequently in early routes. Averted in Ruby and Sapphire, where they are limited to the first Route, paralleling Sentret's role in Gold and Silver. They start another trend of making several early route weak mammals as Dark-types.
• Combat Pragmatist: As befitting a Dark-type, they can learn a lot of moves like Sucker Punch, Payback, Throat Chop, Thief and Taunt.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Despite being a mono Dark-type, the Poochyena line can be just as benign or malignant as any other Pokémon, as it all depends on how the trainer raises them. Mightyena specifically are also noted for being extremely loyal to trainers it recognizes as skilled. This actually makes perfect sense, due to the fact hyenas have pack mentalities and naturally submit to the superior leader of a group.
• Disability Superpower: Their Quick Feet ability gives them a speed boost if they develop a status condition, which can take them from a subpar 70 speed to a decent 105.
• The Dreaded: They give obvious signals when preparing to attack, growling deeply and flattening their body. This is the reason they get the Intimidate ability.
• Foil:
  • Pokémon X and Y sets them up as foils to the Purrloin line, in that they're Dark-type Com Mons that are version exclusive: Mightyena in X, Liepard in Y.
  • In Pokémon Diamond and Pearl and Pokémon Black and White, they were foils for Houndour and Houndoom, both being two-stage Dark Pokémon. In Diamond and Pearl, Mightyena and Houndoom can be found in Routes 214 and 215 by using a Poké Radar (Mightyena in Diamond, Houndoom in Pearl). In Black and White, Houndour and Poochyena can be found in Route 9 during its Pokémon outbreak (Houndour in Black, Poochyena in White). This foil isn't as well-known because the Poké Radar can only be received after getting the National Pokédex, and Pokémon outbreaks only appear after getting the National Dex too.
• Heinous Hyena: They are pure Dark-types, the type most associated with amoral behavior and dirty fighting. Their personalities also fit — the Pokédex describes Poochyena as both very aggressive (as it will take a bite out of anything that moves) and cowardly (it will run away as soon as the prey strikes back), and Mightyena are almost universally-utilized by Team Magma or Aqua. Despite this, however, they can also be unyieldingly loyal to trainers that have earned its respect, and their cowardly natures are altogether dropped when it evolves. The intro to Ruby and Sapphire and their remakes also has the player rescue Professor Birch from a wild Poochyena that attacked him.
• Inconsistent Spelling: Mightyena's Japanese name has been officially romanized as both Guraena and Graena.
• Kill Streak: Mightyena's Hidden Ability is Moxie, which gives it an Attack boost whenever it knocks out an opponent.
• Man Bites Man: Notably, Mightyena learns all fang moves like Ice Fang, Poison Fang, Super Fang, etc., with its strongest move being Crunch.
• Master of None: Its only stand-out stat is a higher-than-average Attack of 90. Everything else is pretty much what you'd expect of an early game Pokémon (in other words, not going to get you very far in the big leagues). Even worse, in their debut generation, Dark was a special type, meaning Crunch, its highest-powered move, ran off its weakest stat, Special Attack.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: They share similarities with both canines and hyenas ^note hyenas are more closely related to cats but are more hyena-like than canine-like. Moreover, Mightyena in particular resembles a mix of brown and striped hyenas.
• Recurring Element: Starts the trend of the regional two-stage Dark-typed mammal that evolves early, but becomes outclassed in the late game.
• Status Effects: The ones with the Quick Feet ability gain a speed boost whenever they are afflicted with one of these.
• Undying Loyalty: Mightyena are fiercely loyal to trainers that have either earned their respect, possess serious skill, or both.

Zigzagoon, Linoone, and Obstagoon (Jiguzaguma, Massuguma, and Tachifusaguma)

0263: Zigzagoon / Jiguzaguma (ジグザグマ jiguzaguma)
0264: Linoone / Massuguma (マッスグマ massuguma)
0862: Obstagoon / Tachifusaguma (タチフサグマ tachifusaguma)

Zigzagoon

Linoone

Galarian Zigzagoon

Galarian Linoone

Obstagoon

Galarian forms and Obstagoon debut in Sword and Shield

Respectively a raccoon dog and a badger, Zigzagoon and Linoone are curious Pokémon that have the tendency to find things after battles. They also like to take things from other Pokémon using Covet. They seem to have an appetite for Oran and Sitrus Berries, since they are often found with them.

Zigzagoon in Galar are more aggressive than their foreign counterparts and take on Dark-type characteristics on top of previously-observed Normal-type traits as a result; only Galarian Linoone are capable of evolving into Obstagoon. The Galarian Zigzagoon is also believed to be the older of the two variants.

Obstagoon is the evolution of Galarian Linoone. It is exclusive to the Galar region, as the harsh conditions of Galar and the fierce competition between the Linoone species heighten their survival instincts to the point that evolution is possible. While an extremely combative Pokémon, Obstagoon will almost never attack first, often taunting its opponent into making the first move.

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• Action Initiative: Notably one of the select few Normal-type Pokémon that can learn Extreme Speed^note the others are Arceus and Smeargle, the latter through Sketch; Togekiss was also part of this list until it was changed to a Fairy-type in Gen VI, the strongest priority move in the game — and they get STAB on it. It was originally exclusive to specific individuals (a Zigzagoon obtained in Pokémon Box Ruby & Sapphire and two event Linoone that were distributed in Korea and Japan in 2015) before being able to learn the move by breeding in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon.
• Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Zigzagoon's fur is spiked into zig-zag patterns, while Linoone's fur is streamlined and straight. Obstagoon has a pattern that suggests lines being broken by obstructions.
• Bad Ol' Badger: Galarian Zigzagoon and its evolutions are based on badgers rather than raccoons, and are known for being vicious and violent.
• Beast Man: Obstagoon is not only bipedal, but also has a very humanoid body structure in sharp contrast to its previous stages.
• Beef Gate: A non-respawning Obstagoon is a pre-existing encounter on a wide path situated across the lake by Professor Magnolia's house on Route 2. True to its Pokédex description, it will try to block your way, sliding side to side in front of you if you try to get past it. Downplayed in that it's only level 50, something that should be manageable by the part of the game where you can access that area.
• Big Eater: Implied due to its Gluttony ability.
• Blood Knight: Galarian variants of the species are known to be particularly aggressive compared to their foreign counterparts.
• Boring, but Practical: Like many early-game mammals, they make good HM slaves, learning Cut, Surf, Rock Smash, Strength (Linoone only), and even Whirlpool in HG/SS. Furthermore, their Pickup ability can collect useful items. They were so well-known for this usage that Pickup was reworked in Emerald to have items found be dependent on level; in Ruby and Sapphire, a level 4 Zigzagoon would reliably find Ultra Balls, Nuggets, Super Potions, and Rare Candies. ^note Technically, Pickup first got nerfed in FireRed and LeafGreen, which were released after Ruby and Sapphire but before Emerald; FireRed and LeafGreen’s Pickup item list consisted almost entirely of Berries. However, while not quite as good as hauling in high-end items like Ultra Balls, Revives, and Rare Candies, Pickup was still very useful due to being one of the few ways to acquire Berries in Kanto. Emerald returned to Ruby and Sapphire’s Pickup item list but reformulated it so that high-tier items were only found by high-level Pokémon, which has stuck throughout the rest of the series.
• Combat Pragmatist: The line was able to learn Pursuit, Thief and Switcheroo before Sword and Shield made their regional variant go all the way out, becoming Dark-type and adding Knock-Off, Taunt, Assurance and Parting Shot to their movepool.
• Com Mons:
  • In Ruby and Sapphire, where they can be commonly found on all land routes except those around Mt. Chimney. Averted in Emerald, where Poochyena takes that spot.
  • Downplayed in Sword and Shield: They're common in Routes 2 and 3, and a few northern portions of the Wild Area, but not widespread throughout Galar.
• Confusion Fu: Like many Normal-types, Linoone has an absurdly wide movepool. Unfortunately, many of those moves are Useless Useful Spells for it due to its low Special Attack.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Galarian Zigzagoon and Linoone focus much of their energies on riling up their opponents and causing them to act recklessly, and have both Dark- and Normal-type characteristics. As such, they have a crippling weakness to the more zen-like Fighting-type Pokémon, and Obstagoon may not survive a Fighting-type attack long enough to unleash the power of its Obstruct counterattack.
• Darker and Edgier: Galarian Zigzagoon and Linoone, as well as Obstagoon, take on black-and-white coloration instead of brown-and-beige, and are aggressive troublemakers. Galarian Linoone are actually popular with disaffectionate youth because of this trope.
• Disk One Nuke: Zigzagoon has the Pickup Ability that gives you free items just for being in your party. That includes Nuggets, Ultra Balls, Max Revives, Rare Candies, and King's Rocks. This was nerfed in Emerald to find lower-quality items at lower levels (and conversely not to find higher-quality items until higher levels).
• Evil Is Petty: Galarian Zigzagoon seek to antagonize other Pokémon and trainers, and get especially angry when their victims do not rise to the bait.
• Four Legs Good, Two Legs Better: Unlike its previous two stages, Obstagoon is bipedal.
• The Gadfly: Galarian Zigzagoon love to intentionally provoke others into fighting it. Humans however view this behavior as just playing.
• Glass Cannon: Normally Fragile Speedsters, with a good Speed stat but bad stats everywhere else, both Zigzagoon and Linoone have access to the combination of Belly Drum and Extreme Speed, letting them hit surprisingly hard while attacking first most of the time. That being said, with its poor defenses and Belly Drum reducing its HP by half, if the opponent survives a hit, it's going down, period.
• Item Caddy: Thanks to Pickup and its item-stealing move, Covet. Notably, Linoone is one of the rare few evolved Pokémon (and until the introduction of Obstagoon, a fully-evolved one) who can have Pickup, as that ability usually is only found on first-stage Pokémon. Can also be used for many HM moves, making it a handy traveling partner.
• Jack of All Stats: Aside from a meh 60 Special Attack and shedding 5 points of Speed compared to Linoone, Obstagoon is well balanced with some good bulk and a good 90 Attack.
• Lunacy: Galarian Linoone evolves into Obstagoon at Level 35 at night.
• Maniac Tongue: The Galarian variants have their tongues constantly hang out of their mouths, fitting their more wild, aggressive attitudes.
• Metalhead: Galarian Zigzagoon and its evolutions love the sound of heavy metal music, so much so that they go wild with it. Zigzagoon in particular can sometimes be seen headbanging in Pokémon Camp.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: Zigzagoon has elements of both raccoons, tanukis and small domestic dogs; it has stripes like the former (and the "guma" in its Japanese name brings to mind araiguma, meaning raccoon), but learns Belly Drum in reference to the latter's mythology. Its body shape and scruffy fur also bring resemblances to certain scruffy small dogs, like terriers and the Pekingese.^note Though tanukis and domestic dogs are in the dog family, they are not directly related. Linoone resembles various mustelids, and the whole Galarian line are based on badgers.
• Multiform Balance: Some critical learnset and ability differences make the Hoennian and Galarian lines take on different styles in battle. Hoennian Linoone is better suited as a Glass Cannon, thanks to the unique combination of Belly Drum, Gluttony and STAB Extreme Speed which, given the nature of the combination, can only be used once per battle, and carries the risk of Linoone being KOed before it can act due to its terrible defenses. Obstagoon, on the other hand, lacks both Gluttony and Extreme Speed, and instead goes with a combination of Guts and STAB Facade, which, while not as strong as a max-Attack Extreme Speed, has the advantage of being usable multiple times in battle, as well as being less risky thanks to Obstagoon not being as frail as Linoone.
• Non-Elemental: Both the Galarian and Hoennian lines are Normal-typed, with the expansive movepool usually associated.
• Not Completely Useless: For most Pokémon, Gluttony isn't the best ability. However, after Generation VII buffed the confusion-inducing berries to restore half of the user's health at the cost of activating when their HP hits 25%, a Linoone with Gluttony can use Belly Drum and immediately restore the lost health with its held berry, increasing its survivability (it arguably helps that their other non-Hidden Ability, Pickup, is nigh useless in competitive play). Their subpar defenses mean they still won't be surviving any hard hits, though.
• Our Werebeasts Are Different: Obstagoon evokes a werebadger, and its evolution from Linoone requires it to be night time.
• Rascally Raccoon: The aforementioned Pickup ability and stealing moves. Strangely, Linoone's design is more based on a badger. Justified by the Japanese word for raccoon and badger being roughly the same. The Galarian variants more clearly evoke the badger etymology, as there are no raccoons — but plenty of badgers — in the UK where the region is based.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: The Galarian line all have red eyes, and are far more ornery and combative than their foreign counterparts.
• Secret Art: Obstagoon is the only Pokémon to learn Obstruct, which works like Protect with the additional effect of lowering an attacker's Defense by two stages if it uses a move that makes contact.
• Shout-Out: The designs of the Galarian forms and of Obstagoon give the line a strong liking to the iconic getup of the band members of KISS, especially bassist Gene Simmons. invokedSimmons himself openly likes this, having said, "To see Pokémon pay homage to KISS, is flattering."
• Status Buff:
  • Hoennian Linoone naturally learn the extremely potent Belly Drum, which maximizes its attack at the cost of half of its HP. They also learns Defense Curl, Hone Claws and Work-Up.
  • The Galarian line is more defensively focused, learning Bulk-Up and Iron Defense, aside from Hone Claws and Work-Up. In addition to these, Obstagoon also has Guts and Defiant as abilties, increasing attack when getting a status effect or having its stats lowered by the foe respectiviely.
• Stealth Pun: Obstagoon has a Signature Move involving goading the target into attacking it. That is, it badgers its opponents.
• Super-Scream: Obstagoon's voice is described as "staggering in volume", and the Pokédex describes its signature move Obstruct as a shouting move (though the game doesn't treat it as such). The Galarian line can also learn Snarl via level-up, be taught Hyper Voice, Screech, and Round by TM/TR, and can have Parting Shot as an egg move.
• Tanuki: In addition to raccoons, Zigzagoon also takes some inspiration from tanuki, or raccoon dogs.
• Theme Naming:
  • The original evolution line has names based on zigzag and line, which describes how they like to move. Its Galarian form's evolution continues the theme in this way, with a name derived from words synonymous with impediment like "obstruction", "obstacle", or "obstinate", as in it's impeding a path instead of tracing one like its pre-evolutions.
  • The French name for Obstagoon follows the theme to a T, with the three Pokémon names being, in order, Zigzaton, Linéon, and Ixon, based on their respective visual themes: zigzags, lines, and the letter X.
• Underground Monkey: Zigzagoon and Linoone from Galar are Dark/Normal types unlike the ones from elsewhere. Apparently the whole species actually originated from Galar so its the pure Normal-type Zigzagoon and Linoone that's the example of this trope.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Fighting-type moves will cut through the Galarian line defenses like butter.

Wurmple (Kemusso) and evolutions

0265: Wurmple / Kemusso (ケムッソ kemusso)
0266: Silcoon / Karasalis (カラサリス karasarisu)
0267: Beautifly / Agehunt (アゲハント agehanto)
0268: Cascoon / Mayuld (マユルド mayurudo)
0269: Dustox / Dokucale (ドクケイル dokukeiru)

Wurmple

Silcoon

Beautifly

Cascoon

Dustox

An unusual Pokémon when it comes to evolution. All Wurmple start as the same species, but random factors in the game lead it down two branching evolutionary paths. Some Wurmple evolve into Silcoon, which in turn evolve into the beautiful yet vicious Beautifly. Other Wurmple evolve into Cascoon, which in turn evolve into the poisonous moth Dustox.

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• Balance Buff: In Generation VI, Beautifly gained a small buff in its Special Attack by ten points. For some reason, Dustox did not gain a similar buff.
• Beauty Is Bad: Don't let its appearance fool you, Beautifly aren't exactly nectar sippers...
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: As Bug-types, they are much bigger than their real-life counterparts.
• Blow You Away: If a Wurmple chooses to become a Silcoon, it will evolve into a Beautifly, gaining a Flying-type.
• Com Mons: Wurmple is common throughout Hoenn.
• Crutch Character: They evolve very quickly and both typings of the evolved forms leaves them with a double resistance to Brawly's Fighting-type attacks, not to mention Dustox can learn Confusion early; in Sinnoh, they also boast a double resistance to Gardenia's Grass moves and can hit back with Gust. However, their stats are far outshone by other evolved Pokémon, so don't expect to keep them on your team for long.
• Cyclops: Silcoon's and Cascoon's sprites in Ruby and Sapphire make them look like they have only one eye. It took their anime debuts to confirm that they do have a pair of eyes each, and their sprites are just positioned to make them look like this.
• Diverging Evolutionary Phases: Depending on personality values, Wurmple can either evolve into Silcoon or Cascoon, which go on to become the butterfly-esque Beautifly or the moth-like Dustox respectively.
• Flight: Beautifly. Dustox is similar to Beedrill and Venomoth in that it is airborne, but is neither a Flying type nor has Levitate as an ability.
• Glass Cannon: Beautifly; its highest two stats are its attacking ones, with an emphasis on Special Attack, but its Speed is a bit lower and its defenses stink. It can learn Quiver Dance to set up and become more of a Lightning Bruiser, though its physical Defense still remains vulnerable.
• Healing Factor: Both middle evolutions have Shed Skin, which has a chance of removing a non-volatile status condition at the end of each turn.
• Heal Thyself: Both final evolutions get such a move by level-up. Beautifly gets Morning Sun, and Dustox gets Moonlight. However, both moves are Overshadowed by Awesome by Roost, which both Pokémon can learn from a TM. This is because Morning Sun and Moonlight can only be used half as much as Roost^note before the healing moves in general got nerfed in Gen IX, and because the amount of HP they recover is reduced by half in sandstorms or rain.
• Life Drain: Beautifly's main method of predation is sucking the bodily fluids out of its prey. As such, it naturally learns Absorb, Mega Drain, and Giga Drain. Ironically, it can't learn the Bug-type variant Leech Life, probably because it lacks fangs (and it doesn’t have a good Attack stat, so it would be a Useless Useful Spell anyway).
• Magikarp Power: Downplayed in the same vein as its predecessors, Butterfree and Beedrill, as compared to their previous forms^note Mega Beedrill notwithstanding. Wurmple's poor stats and utterly atrocious movepool make it a liability in serious fights, even among low-level unevolved Pokémon. Its immediate evolutions aren’t much better, but its final forms are significantly stronger than anything else you’re likely to have in the early game (i.e. while all of your other Pokémon (and all the Pokémon you're battling) are still unevolved). Once the rest of your party start evolving, however, their stats will easily surpass Beautifly and Dustox, and they will struggle to hold their own against the more powerful Pokémon of the mid- and late-game.
• Moth Menace: Both of Wurmple's final forms are dangerous lepidopterans: Dustox is a large moth which is known for scattering poisonous scales while flying, while Beautifly is an aggressive butterfly which sucks its prey's bodily fluids.
• Palette Swap: Silcoon and Cascoon share the same typing, stat distribution, abilities, moveset and body shape, their only difference being eye shape and color.
• Power Nullifier: Dustox gets the ability Shield Dust, which protects it from any secondary effects from enemy attacks. Wurmple has the same ability, but it doesn’t exactly make it viable.
• Poisonous Person: If a Wurmple choosing to become a Cascoon, it will evolve into a Dustox, gaining the Poison-type.
• Power-Up Letdown: Dustox's Hidden Ability is Compound Eyes, which raises the accuracy of all attacks by 30%. While this is a decent ability for anything that has a bunch of powerful moves with less-than-perfect accuracy, Dustox doesn't really have any. It only has Poison Powder (largely inferior to Toxic due to the latter inflicting Toxic Poison instead of regular Poison), Toxic (made to be an Always Accurate Attack from X and Y onward when used by a Poison-type, plus 90% accuracy isn't bad in the first place), and Swagger. It's somewhat useful against opponents with Evasion boosts, but if they have enough, you're still fighting an uphill battle.
• Pretty Butterfly: Subverted by Beautifly. It may look pretty, but it's highly aggressive and will stab prey with its proboscis to drain their fluids.
• Psychic Powers: Dustox naturally learns quite a few Psychic-type moves.
• Random Number God: When it was first revealed, many theories cropped up on what exactly determines what Wurmple evolves into (Time-based? Gender-based? Version-based?). It was discovered later that what Wurmple will evolve into is determined by the game's Random Number Generator when the Wurmple is generated by the game and there's no way for the player to influence the result. Your best bet when filling out the Pokédex or wanting one of them as a team member is to evolve several Wurmple or catch a wild Silcoon or Cascoon.
• Recurring Element: Of the Caterpie and Weedle lines, since they are larval Pokémon that show up early in the game, evolve into a cocoon, and end as a flying bug. Wurmple even combines the natural movesets of Caterpie and Weedle (which isn’t saying much). And once it gets to its cocoon form, it has a cheerful Bug vs. menacing Bug-Poison contrasts.
• Secondary Sexual Characteristics: Male Beautifly have larger red spots on their wings than females; Male Dustox likewise have larger antennae than females.
• Situational Sword: Beautifly's Hidden Ability, Rivalry. Its boosts the owner's offenses if they and the opponent are the same gender, but will decrease offenses if the opponent is of the opposite gender.
• Status Buff: Like all moth and butterfly-based Pokémon, Dustox and Beautifly learn Quiver Dance. They also inherit Harden and Iron Defense from their cocoon forms.
• Status Effects:
  • Dustox's Shield Dust prevents any of these that are secondary effects of an attacking move.
  • Beautifly naturally learn Stun Spore while Dustox naturally learns Poison Powder and Toxic.
• Stone Wall: Dustox has a surprisingly hefty Special Defense, and its physical Defense is its second-highest stat — not that it says much, given it's a paltry 70. Bug/Poison is not a bad defensive typing either, and it also learns Roost. Its offenses suck though.
• Turns Red: Beautifly, due to the ability Swarm, gets a boost to its Bug-type attacks at critical health.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Rock-type moves will send Beautifly plummeting to the ground, a staple of the early-game bugs.

Lotad, Lombre, and Ludicolo (Hassboh, Hasubrero, and Runpappa)

0270: Lotad / Hassboh (ハスボー hasuboo)
0271: Lombre / Hasubrero (ハスブレロ hasuburero)
0272: Ludicolo / Runpappa (ルンパッパ runpappa)

Lotad

Lombre

Ludicolo

Water/Grass-type Pokémon that inhabit the freshwater areas of Routes 102 and 114. They have an affinity for rain and bear lily pads on their heads, which they use to ferry small Pokémon across small bodies of water and to catch rainwater to restore HP. Lombre are mischievous and love messing with anglers at night. When Ludicolo hears music, it becomes filled with power and dances like there's no tomorrow. Its typing neutralizes many of its weaknesses and also gives it a highly useful double resistance to Water. It's exclusive to Sapphire.

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• Big Fun: Ludicolo is a large Pokémon that loves to sing and dance.
• Dance Battler: Ludicolo is described as constantly dancing and its body becomes energized upon hearing music, helping it in battle. This is a case of Gameplay and Story Segregation, though, as it doesn't actually learn a lot of dancing moves.
• Foil: To the Seedot family. Same base stat totals, same evolution process (first at Level 14, then next with use of an evolutionary stone), Lotad learning Rain Dance and getting Swift Swim, and Seedot learning Sunny Day and getting Chlorophyll, and exclusive to Sapphire and Ruby, respectively. Ludicolo's stats are more well-rounded in contrast to Shiftry's Glass Cannon setup, and while Shiftry is a wicked Dark-type, Ludicolo is more carefree.
• Fun Personified: Ludicolo lives to dance and celebrate, and its species is "Carefree".
• Green Thumb: They are part Grass-type based on lily pads.
• Healing Factor: They're capable of learning a wide array of health-restoration moves, including Giga Drain, Leech Seed, and Synthesis, and can have the Rain Dish ability to provide gradual recovery in rainy weather.
• Jack of All Stats: It has decent special stats and HP with a good defensive typing that neutralizes its Fire, Ice, and Electric weaknesses. With its standard abilities, it can be played either as a bulky sweeper (with Swift Swim), or a defensive tank (Rain Dish).
• Kappa: The whole line is based on this Youkai. They even have an ability (Rain Dish) that is based on the Kappa's ability to draw power from water collected in their heads.
• Lightning Bruiser: Ludicolo becomes one in the rain, with Swift Swim to double its Speed and powered-up Water moves.
• Lily-Pad Platform: Lotad has been known to let small Pokémon ride on its head leaf across ponds.
• Magikarp Power: Lotad has some pretty pitiful stats prior to evolving, though it at least learns consistent attacking moves via level-up. Lombre is a decent improvement, though not by too much. Once it becomes a Ludicolo, it can start smacking foes around with powerful rain-boosted Water attacks.
• Magnificent Moustaches of Mexico: Befitting Lombre's Mexican-inspired design, the top part of its beak is colored differently to resemble a mustache.
• Making a Splash: Part Water-type, and both of their normal abilities have something to do with rain.
• Mistaken Identity: Lombre is often accidentally mistaken for a human child, according to its Sapphire Pokédex entry.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Ludicolo somewhat resembles a pineapple with a duck bill wearing a lily-pad sombrero. On top of all that it's based off of Kappa, a type of youkai.
• Perpetual Frowner: Lotad and Lombre always sport a frown. In spite of that, their behavior is quite cheerful.
• Recurring Element: A family of Grass-types with a version-exclusive counterpart that needs a stone to fully evolve, much like the Oddish and Bellsprout families.
• Secret Art: Rain Dish was exclusive to them prior to Generation V. They're still the only Pokémon who have it as a normal ability, though.
• Similar Squad: In Emerald, this is The Rival's answer to the Treecko line if they don't have one.
• Status Buff: Learns Hone Claws and Swords Dance. Strangely, it doesn't learn any special boosts despite its stats being special-focused.
• South of the Border: Ludicolo seems to be wearing a sombrero. Lombre is also very similar to the Spanish word "hombre," meaning "man", and sees a lot of informal use among English speakers when referencing cowboys.
• Youkai: They have some Kappa-like elements.

Seedot, Nuzleaf, and Shiftry (Taneboh, Konohana, and Dirteng)

0273: Seedot / Taneboh (タネボー taneboo)
0274: Nuzleaf / Konohana (コノハナ konohana)
0275: Shiftry / Dirteng (ダーテング daatengu)

Seedot

Nuzleaf

Shiftry

Grass-Dark-type Pokémon (Seedot is pure Grass) that share a habitat with the Lotad line and later inhabit Routes 117 and 120. They have an affinity for sunlight. They are, fitting of the Dark-type, notorious pranksters. Seedot loves Jump Scaring random bird Pokémon, Nuzleaf plays pranks and scares people with a grass flute, and Shiftry... well, it's called the "Wicked Pokémon" and is known as a guardian of the forest. Seedot has minimal offensive abilities, while Nuzleaf is able to learn Extrasensory, which allows it to take down the Fighting- and Poison-types that they would be weak to. They're exclusive to Ruby.

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• Action Bomb: Exploding acorns/tengus!
• Animals Lack Attributes: For some reason, Nuzleaf averts one of the attributes, as even females have visible nipples.
• Anti-Frustration Features: The Hoenn remakes lower the levels needed for Nuzleaf to learn its natural moves (particularly the vital Extrasensory), allowing you to evolve it much earlier than before. Generation VIII takes this further by letting Shiftry learn these moves from the Move Reminder, meaning it's safe to evolve your Nuzleaf as soon as you can pick up a Leaf Stone.
• Blow You Away: Shiftry's leaf fans can flap with enough force to blow down a house. Appropriately, it can learn Whirlwind, Razor Wind, and Hurricane. It also has Wind Rider as its ability starting in Gen IX, negating wind-based moves entirely and instead raising Shiftry's attack.
• Combat Pragmatist: Seedot gains the Dark-type upon evolving into Nuzleaf. They have no honor whatsoever when it comes to fighting.
• Clothing Appendage: Shifty's feet resemble one-tooth wooden sandals, which are often called "tengu geta" for their association with said creature.
• Foil: To the Lotad family. Same base stat totals, same evolution process (first at Level 14, then next with use of an evolutionary stone), Lotad learning Rain Dance and getting Swift Swim, and Seedot learning Sunny Day and getting Chlorophyll, and exclusive to Sapphire and Ruby, respectively. Shiftry is a mixed Glass Cannon in contrast to Ludicolo's special-leaning Jack of All Stats setup, and while Ludicolo is happy and carefree, Shiftry is wicked and constantly scowling.
• Fragile Speedster: In intense sunlight with the Chlorophyll ability to increase its Speed. This is helped by the fact that Growth doubles in effectiveness in intense sunlight, allowing it to play as a mixed sweeper.
• The Gadfly: According to its Pokédex entries from Diamond and Pearl, Seedot enjoys scaring other Pokémon.
• Gag Nose: Starting with Nuzleaf, they get very pronounced noses.
• Glass Cannon: Has fair offensive stats and a good mixed movepool, but its low defenses and seven type weaknesses mean it doesn't have much time to make its mark.
• Green Thumb: The entire line is part Grass-type, so naturally they can learn some Grass-type moves.
• Magic Knight: Shiftry has a relatively close 100 Attack and 90 Special Attack and can boost either up with Swords Dance or Nasty Plot, allowing it to hit hard on both ends.
• Magikarp Power: Patience is the name of the game when it comes to training this line. Seedot has some extremely low stats that make it one of the weakest mons to use in combat. Nuzleaf fares better stat-wise, but in most generations, trainers will want to wait for it to learn Extrasensory before evolving into Shiftry.
• Mind Reading: Shiftry is said to be capable of this in the Pokédex to sense an opponent's actions. Sadly, it can't learn Foresight or Mind Reader.
• Obviously Evil: Shiftry's species is the Wicked Pokémon. And it doesn't look very innocent either. This is Subverted though, as none of its dex entries mention it doing anything particularly malicious — they just mention how they arrived on and can create strong winds, and live in forests and used to be feared as forest guardians.
• Power of the Sun: If they have the Chlorophyll ability, their speed doubles while the sun is out. They also have the ability to learn Solar Beam and Solar Blade via TM.
• Psychic Powers: They have the move Extrasensory in their natural movepool, allowing them to take out Fighting and Poison-types easily and potentially make foes flinch. In addition, Shiftry's Pokédex entries state that it has mind-reading powers which it uses to take preemptive action against opponents.
• Recurring Element: A family of grass types with a version exclusive counterpart that needs a stone to fully evolve, much like the Oddish and Bellsprout families.
• Retcon: In Generation IX, Shiftry's Early Bird ability is replaced by Wind Rider.
• Status Buff: The line can learn Nasty Plot through breeding and Swords Dance via TM.
• Tengu: The whole family has these elements, but Shiftry in particular stands out as one.
• Youkai: Shiftry is based on a tengu. Its Japanese, German, and French names are Dirteng, Tengulist, and Tengalice, making this even more obvious. As a bonus, a shiny Shiftry has a red body instead of brown. Tengu were commonly believed to have red skin.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Bug-type moves will wreck these Dark/Grass tengu.

Taillow and Swellow (Subame and Ohsubame)

0276: Taillow / Subame (スバメ subame)
0277: Swellow / Ohsubame (オオスバメ oosubame)

Taillow

Swellow

Swallow Pokémon that inhabit the early routes of Hoenn. Although they may look the part of "regional bird", they're surprisingly not as common in their region as their counterparts Pidgey, Starly, Pidove, Fletchling, and Pikipek are in their regions. They are true Determinators, refusing to give up even when they are near defeat. They have high speed, and their Guts ability allows them to gain an Attack boost when afflicted with a status condition.

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• Action Initiative: While many, many other Pokémon have Quick Attack, Swellow has STAB and usually Guts boosting its power, so keeping it on Swellow's moveset to deal with faster, weakened Pokémon before they can get one last hit in is often a good idea.
• Always Accurate Attack: Aerial Ace, which always hits, is one of the most well-known attacks for it.
• Balance Buff: In Generation VII, Swellow was given a bit more Special Attack, pushing it up to a usable base 75, allowing it to make better use of specially-oriented sets using Boomburst and the Scrappy ability. They also are able to learn Hurricane through breeding, a strong special Flying move.
• Blow You Away: Part Flying-type, with the usual slew of Flying-type moves; Fly, Wing Attack, Aerial Ace, Hurricane, Tailwind, etc.
• Cast from Hit Points:
  • The common strategy with Swellow is to give it a Flame or Toxic Orb, afflicting itself with a burn/poison. This gives it a Facade with a 210 Power (including STAB) and a substantial Attack boost on top of that thanks to Guts. Combined with its blistering base 125 Speed stat, this makes it a rather effective Glass Cannon, at the cost of losing health each turn to the burn/poison.
  • They can learn Brave Bird, a strong Flying-type move which damages the user slightly depending on how much the attack did to the opponent.
• Com Mons: Subverted. Like Sentret, they look like Com Mons, and you expect them to be common, but nope, they are rare to find beyond the early game areas. Also the case in X & Y where Taillow are only found in rare hordes.
• Cute, but Cacophonic: Taillow's Pokédex entries state that it cries loudly if hungry or lonely. This is probably why the line was given access to Boomburst.
• Desperation Attack: Generation VII gave them access to Reversal, which increases in damage as their health drops low. Combines very well with the self-damaging Guts + Flame or Toxic Orb strategy.
• Determinator: What Guts amounts to. While most Pokémon become easier to beat when they have a status effect, Swellow will fight even harder.
• Disability Superpower: Most notable in battling for its Guts Ability, which gives it an Attack boost when afflicted by Status Effects.
• Disc-One Nuke: In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, you can get a Taillow with the egg move Boomburst with the aid of the DexNav as soon as you leave Petalburg City. During the first part of the game, only Pokémon that resist Normal have any chance of taking a hit without getting KOed. Later on, Taillow and Swellow's low Special Attack begins to become noticeable, and Boomburst's power drops from "extremely powerful" to "strong".
• Fragile Speedster: Swellow has a surprisingly high Speed of 125, but its defenses aren't good at all.
• Glass Cannon: Despite Swellow's unremarkable Attack and Special Attack stats and low defenses, it has a set of traits that let it deal a deceptively high amount of damage.
  • In terms of physical attack, Swellow has access to the Guts ability, increasing physical damage by 50% if it's affected by a status condition. Triggering Guts is fairly easy with the use of a Flame Orb (as Guts ignores the damage reduction from burns) or a Toxic Orb, and Swellow gets STAB bonus from Facade, a move that doubles in power when the user is suffering a status condition, therefore getting access to a powerful and reliable physical move. Swellow's already poor survivability is cut even further if attempting to take advantage of Guts, however.
  • In terms of special attack, Swellow's hidden ability is Scrappy, allowing Swellow to bypass the issue of Ghost-types being immune to its powerful Normal-type moves, such as the incredibly powerful Boomburst Taillow gets as an egg move. Boomburst is supported by moves such as Hurricane, which also gets STAB bonus and can confuse the target, and Heat Wave, which lets Swellow damage Steel-type Pokémon super-effectively, unlike physically-oriented ones. Its inability to significantly damage Rock-type Pokémon remains, however.
• Heal Thyself: Can be bred to know Refresh to remove Status Effects on it (ironically enough, given its Ability), and like most Flying types, can learn Roost.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Don't even bother trying to give it a burn, as Guts will just make it stronger.
• Noble Bird of Prey: Like all regional birds before Gen V, Swellow gains raptorial traits upon evolving, though it still take after a swallow overall.
• Non-Elemental: Part Normal-type.
• Recurring Element: Gen III's early route Normal/Flying Pokémon, but they aren't as common as Pidgey was in earlier games.
• Secret Art: The only Pokémon in Ruby and Sapphire to learn Aerial Ace via level-up, though it's always been a TM move.
• Stealth Pun: Both Taillow and Swellow can learn Aerial Ace. The Japanese name for that move is called "Swallow Return" (being named after the signature sword technique of Sasaki Kojiro).
• Super-Scream: Both of them can learn Boomburst, an extremely powerful Normal-type shouting attack.
• Useless Useful Spell: In Pokémon X and Y, they can be bred to know Boomburst, a hugely powerful Normal-type Special Attack, in reference to Taillow's Pokédex entries. Sadly, having an uncompetitive Special Attack of 50 means the move is generally wasted on them... until Generation VII, where it was boosted by a good 25 points to make it more usable. 75 special attack may not sound like a lot, but it's notable that it was not uncommon to see Boomburst Swellow even back when its special attack was a mere 50. STAB Boomburst is just that rare and good.

Wingull (Camome) and Pelipper

0278: Wingull / Camome (キャモメ kyamome)
0279: Pelipper (ペリッパー perippaa)

Wingull

Pelipper

Water and Flying-type seagull/pelican Pokémon that are found everywhere while surfing. Wingull is a Fragile Speedster, learning speed-based attacks like Quick Attack and even Agility, but Pelipper has a much different moveset, learning Hydro Pump and the Stockpile trio, and having a Defense stat of 100 but a Speed stat lower than Wingull. They could be considered sea counterparts to land Taillow/Swellow.

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• Always Accurate Attack: They can learn Swift via Move Tutor or TM in certain games, as well as Aerial Ace through TM, both of which never miss. In addition, if Pelipper has the ability Drizzle, Hurricane functions as this as long as the rain is up.
• Balance Buff: Pelipper receives Drizzle as its ability in Gen VII, as well as having its Special Attack increased by 10 points.
• Black Bead Eyes: Wingull, in contrast to Pelipper's really distinct eyes, has simplistic black eyes.
• Blow You Away: Part Flying-type. Wingull learns more wind-based attacks than Pelipper, though. Notably, it's a very good user of Hurricane in Gen VII since it can always hit thanks to Drizzle.
• Cephalothorax:
  • Wingull's body is pretty much its head with its beak, tail, feet, and wings attached to it. This makes it notably… awkward-looking on the ground, as it has no way to fold its massive wings against its body; as a result, it has to fold them vertically like an carrier aircraft so they're not sticking straight out. The dex, however, points out that Wingull spends most of its time aloft anyways, so it is rare to see it in such a position.
  • Pelipper's massive beak dominates its body, with a tiny head, feet, and undersized wings poking out from it.
• Com Mons: On water routes, they show up very frequently. Considering how much of Hoenn is infamously water, Wingull is overall the most common Pokémon in the Hoenn region.
• Flight: Part Flying-type, as expected of shorebirds.
• Flying Postman: Pelipper's bill makes a handy satchel for delivering items or even small Pokémon. They're in charge of the mail service in the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series.
• Fragile Speedster: Wingull is surprisingly fast for an unevolved Pokémon, but everything else besides a decent Special Attack is poor.
• Heal Thyself: The line naturally learn Roost and Pelipper learns the Stockpile and Swallow combo.
• Healing Factor: Their Hidden Ability, Rain Dish, lets them regain health in the rain.
  • As of Generation VII, Wingull gets the ability Hydration, which heals status conditions in the rain instead.
• Making a Splash: Part Water-type, and as far as Hoenn is concerned, if there is water, they will be there or nearby.
• Mighty Glacier: Pelipper has decent Special Attack and Defense, and can hit even harder with moves like Hurricane and Hydro Pump if its ability is Drizzle, but is slower than its pre-evolved form.
• Mundane Utility: As Wingull is quite common, and can learn both Fly and Surf, it makes an excellent HM user in the oceanic Hoenn.
• Pelican Package Pouch: Pelipper is a pelican described in the Pokédex as "a flying transporter that carries small Pokémon and eggs to safety in its bill", and is sometimes nicknamed the "messenger of the skies". Additionally, you can use one to ferry you about both in the air and the seas by teaching it the Fly and/or Surf HM, though this is a subversion as the animations for this present you as riding on its back rather than in its beak. In the Mystery Dungeon spin-offs, because of their bills, Pelipper are the ones in charge of delivering the mail.
• Piñata Enemy: In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, Pelipper has a rare chance of holding the normally extremely rare EXP-boosting Lucky Egg.
• Power Nullifier: They get the ability Keen Eye, which both prevents their accuracy from decreasing and renders them immune to an enemy's evasion boosts. Additionally, as Flying-types, they are immune to Ground-type attacks.
• Shock and Awe: Despite Electric-type moves being their biggest weakness, they're capable of learning Shock Wave for some reason.
• Similar Squad: In Emerald, this is The Rival's answer to the Mudkip line if they don't have one.
• Skintone Sclerae: Pelipper has really distinct eyes made up of two black semicircles with a horizontal white line between them that have no definition between where the sclerae starts and ends due to its surrounding feathers also being white.
• Weaksauce Weakness: They are unable to take an Electric-type attack thanks to their Flying-type. Ironically, they learn Shock Wave through TM.
• Weather Manipulation: In Generation VII, Pelipper gained the Drizzle ability.

Ralts, Kirlia, Gardevoir (Sirnight), and Gallade (Erereido)

0280: Ralts (ラルトス rarutosu)
0281: Kirlia (キルリア kiruria)
0282: Gardevoir / Sirnight (サーナイト saanaito)
0475: Gallade / Erereido (エルレイド erureido)

Ralts

Kirlia

Gardevoir

^{Mega Gardevoir}

Gallade

^{Mega Gallade}

Gallade debuts in Diamond and Pearl, Mega Gardevoir debuts in X and Y, and Mega Gallade debuts in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire

Psychic-type Pokémon, notable for Kirlia and Gardevoir's feminine appearances, despite having an equal chance of being either male or female. All of them are empaths, a person or thing sensitive to the emotions of the people (and, in this case, Pokémon) around it on a psychic level. Ralts is the youngling of the group whose abilities are still underdeveloped. However, once it evolves into Kirlia, it starts learning a decent variety of Special Attack-based moves. Unfortunately, as Kirlia, it's still not at its full potential. But when a Kirlia evolves into Gardevoir, its Special stats skyrocket to something fierce, and its moveset expands heavily.

Generation IV introduced Gallade. If a male Kirlia is given a Dawn Stone, they evolve into a Gallade, the "masculine" counterpart. Unlike Gardevoir, it has a high physical attack. They gain Fighting-type abilities, which wipes out their former Dark and Bug-type weaknesses and gives them an effective way to deal with Steel types.

In Generation VI, Ralts, Kirlia, and Gardevoir were reclassified to Psychic/Fairy, losing their weaknesses to Bug and Dark for good but gaining weaknesses to Steel and Poison instead. Gardevoir also gained a Mega Evolution, with greatly boosted Special stats and Speed. Gallade gained a Mega Evolution in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire which boosts all of its stats except Special Attack.

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• Action Initiative: Shadow Sneak can be bred onto them to ensure the first hit.
• Ambiguously Human: Ambiguously Human-like in this case. Despite their clearly humanoid designs, the line wasn't in the Human-like egg group until generation VIII, a full five generations after their debut. They were solely in the Amorphous egg group, which raises several questions about the line's biology that the series has never really acknowledged or alluded to.
• Angelic Beauty: The creators say Gardevoir's feminine or more likely androgynous physique is inspired by angels (which might explain their undying will to protect their trainers as a reference to Guardian Angels).
• Armor-Piercing Attack: All but Gallade learn Disarming Voice by level-up, an attack that never misses and bypasses Substitutes; they can also be tutored Hyper Voice, which also bypasses Substitutes.
• Audible Sharpness: Appropriately for Gallade having sword-like arms, their cry sounds like this. It even gains the appropriate new ability called Sharpness which buffs all of Gallade's slashing attacks by 50%, which all happen to be Critical Hit Class.
• Badass Cape: Mega Gallade has a pair of cape-like skins on his back. They can be used to cushion the damage he takes from attacks. Bonus points for coming out of Mega Evolution holding the cape up to his face and then flinging it back dramatically.
• Balance Buff:
  • In Generation 6, the line (sans Gallade) picked up the Fairy-type, eliminating their Dark- and Bug-type weaknesses and giving them an immunity to Dragon-type moves. The Fairy-type also gave them a reliable way at striking back at Dark-types. Gardevoir and Gallade also received Mega Evolutions, making them substantially stronger.
  • After being largely passed over in favor of his counterpart since the birth of the Fairy-type, Gen IX blessed Gallade with the new Sharpness ability, boosting the power of his many cutting attacks by 50%.
• Ballet: Kirlia's design gets a lampshade through some dancing upon completion of the process of evolution from Ralts in Generation VI.
• Berserk Button: Downplayed in that it doesn't drive it berserk per se, but Gardevoir reacts negatively to having the lower green parts of its hair touched in Pokémon-Amie.
• Beware the Nice Ones: The entire evolution line are described as empathic and kind, who fiercely protect the trainers they form their bonds with. That being said, the 'dex entries make it exceedingly clear that the last thing you want to be is the poor sucker who just pissed a Gardevoir/Gallade off by hurting their trainers.^note And this is in a universe where attacking a trainer directly is taboo at best. Gardevoir in particular are apparently known to push their psychic powers to the limit in order to create black holes in defense of its trainer.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: Heavily implied by one of their egg groups being "Amorphous" despite their humanoid shape. How else would you explain how they can breed with Magcargo, Gengar, Mismagius, Dusknoir, Muk, and Weezing?
• Blade Below the Shoulder: Gallade has two of them for elbows.
• Boss Battle: Both Gardevoir and Gallade serve as the Signature Mon of some lategame bosses in the series.
  • Gardevoir is Wally's strongest Pokémon in the original Hoenn games, but in the remakes, he uses a Gallade instead, complete with its Mega Evolution.
  • Gallade is Elite Four Lucian's strongest Pokémon in Platinum.
  • Gardevoir is used by Champion Diantha in X and Y, and she Mega Evolves it.
  • In Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia, Gallade is used by Ice during your third battle against him.
  • In Pokémon Legends: Arceus, Beni uses both a Gardevoir and a Gallade as his signature Mons, which is fitting since he's implied to be the ancestor of Wally.
• Breakout Character: The whole family has become much more prominent in later generations than its first. Initially, they were just a family of Psychic-types that happened to be Wally's signature Pokémon. Then Gen IV gave them Gallade as an alternate male only second-stage evolution, and Generation VI gives both Gardevoir and Gallade Mega Evolutions, with Mega Gardevoir being the signature Pokémon of Kalos's Champion while Wally got Mega Gallade. Gardevoir is also one of the playable characters in Pokkén Tournament and Pokémon Unite.
• Character Select Forcing: GameFreak really wanted you to have a Mega Gardevoir for your battle against Wally. So much so that the only ways to get a Dawn Stone are blocked to either trading with a friend who has one, getting it after the final battle with him in Victory Road, or until after you beat the main story. If you want the Galladite to Mega Evolve him, you'll have to wait until after the Delta Episode.
• Combat Clairvoyance: Heavily Implied by one of Gallade's Pokédex entries: "Because it can sense what its foe is thinking, its attacks burst out first, fast, and fierce." Being part Psychic-type, it makes sense.
• Combat Pragmatist: Gallade can get Night Slash from the move relearner, which is helpful for dealing with Ghost-types.
• Confusion Fu:
  • Gallade's movepool. Psychic, Dark, Grass, Fighting, Rock, Flying, Bug, Ground, and Water, with a fantastic support moveset.
  • Gardevoir's move coverage is nothing to sneeze at either. Psychic, Fairy, Electric, Ghost, Grass, Fighting, Ice, Fire, with a fantastic support moveset.
• Critical Hit Class: Gallade has access to a large quantity of physical moves with high critical hit rates. Specifically, he can use Slash, Night Slash, Leaf Blade, Stone Edge, Psycho Cut, and Aqua Cutter. He has a new ability in Gen IX in Sharpness to take full advantage of their critical hits (though only the ones involving cutting or slashing, which admittedly is all of the above except Stone Edge).
• Cute Monster Girl: Kirlia and Gardevoir appear very feminine and beautiful while being just humanoid enough to qualify and are very very cute. Oddly, they can be male despite this. Gallade is a Cute Monster Boy that trades the feminine look for a masculine one.
• Discard and Draw: Kirlia loses its Fairy typing when it evolves into Gallade, but picks up a Fighting type in return. As a result, it loses its immunity to Dragon-type attacks, but picks up a handy resistance to Rock-type moves instead. Additionally, Gallade is no longer weak to Poison or Steel attacks, but needs to watch out for Fairy and Flying moves.^note Prior to Gen 6, Kirlia went from a pure Psychic type to a Psychic/Fighting Type when it evolved into Gallade. As a result, it gained neutrality to Dark and Bug type attacks, as well as a handy resistance to Rock, but it lost its resistance to Psychic and gained a weakness to Flying.
• Elemental Punch: The entire line can learn the three Elemental Punches; Fire, Thunder, and Ice Punch. Though only Gallade can really take advantage of them. Gardevoir likewise has to Mega Evolve to actually make use of them.
• The Empath: The Ralts line is able to read the emotions of other living beings and will usually take on the current emotion that their trainer is feeling. If a Ralts senses hostility in the area, it will hide immediately. If Kirlia have trainers who are known to express positive emotions, their attacks grow stronger and they even become more beautiful than normal Kirlia. Gardevoir and Gallade take this even further, as both evolutions gravitate towards trainers who have strongly emotional dispositions and become protective of them as well.
• The Fair Folk: They've always had certain characteristics that have made them seem a bit off; when said traits are combined with the new Fairy type, this seems to be the logical conclusion. They're quite benign as far as Fair Folk go, however.
• Fairy Tale Wedding Dress: Mega Gardevoir's skirt is upgraded to look like this, complete with fancy elbow length gloves.
• Final Boss: Mega Gardevoir is the signature Mon of Diantha, Kalos's Champion.
• Good Counterpart: The Ralts line is this to to the Hatenna line in Sword and Shield. They are groups of Psychic/Fairy type Pokémon centered around emotions. While the Ralts line is highly receptive and attracted to strong emotions to the point where they gravitate towards trainers with strongly emotional dispositions, the Hatenna line is easily distressed and overwhelmed by strong emotions, with Hattrem and Hatterene ouright attacking people who show strong emotions, and as such, the Hatenna line gravitates towards trainers with more calm dispositions.
• Gravity Master: Gardevoir's dex entries describe it as unfeeling of the effect of gravity due to its powers and being capable of creating black holes to defend its trainer. Ironically, Gardevoir can't learn the move Gravity.
• Green Thumb: Ralts and Kirlia get Magical Leaf by level-up from Gen IV onwards. Gallade gets the physical Leaf Blade via Move Relearner. The whole line can learn Grass Knot from a TM, while only Gardevoir can learn Energy Ball from a TM.
• Guardian Angel: Gardevoir is based on this. It will protect its trainer even at the cost of its own life. Gallade is also this, possessing a noble spirit and protecting others.
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: The two final evolutions of the line have identical stats except that the feminine, if not necessarily female, Gardevoir has high Special Attack while the always-male Gallade favors physical Attack.
• Happy Dance: When its Trainer is happy, Kirlia joyously dances and spins about.
• Hartman Hips: For some unexplained reason, Gallade's hips are shaped almost like a tutu, likely a remnant of the ballerina outfit from its time as a Kirlia.
• Honor Before Reason: Gallade's Hidden Ability is Justified, which raises his Attack every time he's hit by a Dark-type attack. However, Gallade is one of only three Pokémon with Justified that doesn't resist Dark (the others being Growlithe and Arcanine), so an opponent is far more likely to use Dark on Gallade than other Justified users like Absol. Gallade's low Defense doesn't help, since most Dark-type moves are physical attacks. That being said, Justified is generally more useful than Steadfast, which only activates when Gallade is flinched. Since there are more Dark moves than there are flinching moves, as well as how most flinching moves aren't guaranteed to flinch, Justified is the more reliable ability.
• Horned Humanoid: Ralts's horns migrate to the sides of its head when it evolves into Kirlia, and then move down to its chest when it becomes Gardevoir or Gallade.
• Humanoid Abomination: Implied by the fact they are the only Pokémon to be in both the Human-Like (since Sword and Shield) and Amorphous egg groups^note usually reserved for ghosts and Blob Monsters. And then there's that one Pokédex entry that says that Gardevoir's psychic powers are strong enough to create small black holes...suffice to say, there's a lot of implication that a pissed-off Gardevoir can be downright scary.
• Hu Mons: The Ralts line is among the most human-looking Pokémon out there. Ralts itself looks like a little girl in a long dress or a nightgown, its evolution Kirlia resembles a ballerina with pigtails, and the final evolution Gardevoir looks like a lady in a ballroom gown with pseudo-bangs. The alternate final evolution Gallade is more masculine and resembles a knight. Eventually, the entire line gained the Human-like egg group.
• Inconsistent Spelling: Gallade's Japanese name has often been mistakenly romanized as Erlade.
• Informed Ability: The Pokédex states multiple times that Gardevoir can summon a black hole, but it can't learn any move that resembles one. At least, not until Pokkén Tournament.
• Immune to Flinching: Mega Gallade, thanks to the ability Inner Focus.
• Kamehame Hadoken: In Legends: Arceus, Gardevoir is able to learn Aura Sphere as a level up move. In Sword and Shield, Gallade can learn it via TR. Both can now learn it via TM in Scarlet and Violet, while Gallade does get STAB from it, it runs off his low Special Attack, meaning only Gardevoir can really make use of it, especially if it's Tera-Typed to Fighting.
• Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Despite the cumbersome appearance of Mega Gardevoir, it gains Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed stats.
• Kiss of Death: The line learns the Fairy-type move Draining Kiss by level up, draining the opponents' HP while restoring their own. Gallade didn't didn't learn the move naturally until Generation 8 (Before he had to learn it as a Kirlia), but may not find much use for it due to lacking the Fairy-Type and being a special move.
• Knight in Shining Armor: Gallade is reminiscent of a chivalrous knight, with his focus on protecting the weak and having a variety of blade-based moves. Mega Gallade furthers the knight imagery by becoming more white and gaining two Badass Capes.
• Lady of Black Magic: Gardevoir fits, with its feminine and elegant appearance, dress-like form that turns into a ballgown when it Mega Evolves, and high Special Attack. Its types are also closely associated with magical powers.
• Lady and Knight: Gardevoir's the lady, Gallade's the knight. Given Gardevoir's gender distribution, they're just as likely to be male-and-male or female-and-male versions. Their implied descendant in Violet, Iron Valiant, combines the aspects from both Pokémon into one.
• Late Character Syndrome: In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, you only get the Dawn Stone to evolve Kirlia into Gallade after beating Wally at the end of Victory Road right before facing the Elite Four. Until then, you're stuck with a weak Kirlia if you want to use Gallade. There are other ways to get a Dawn Stone that either involves trading or RNG (such as as a Secret Super Training reward), but Wally is the only guaranteed way.
• Life Drain: The entire line learns Draining Kiss, while Gallade also gets Drain Punch.
• Light Is Good: Gardevoir and Gallade are brightly colored Pokemon who have a white coloring. Gardevoir is based on a Guardian Angel that protects its trainer, while Gallade is based on chivalrous knight who nobly protects the weak. They also are half-Fairy and half-Fighting type respectively, two "heroic" types that also serve as a foil to the Dark-Type.
• Lightning Bruiser: Mega Gallade's Attack is as high as Mega Gardevoir's Special Attack, is even faster than Mega Gardevoir, and gets a considerable boost in his Defense, making him fast, strong, and durable enough to take attacks from both sides. Additionally, he learns Bulk Up to help patch up his Def stat even further and Swords Dance to buff his massive Attack stat.
• Little Black Dress: When a shiny Gardevoir Mega Evolves, it sports a black dress-like design, giving it a funeral-like appearance.
• Mage Killer: With his high Attack and Special Defense, combined with his arsenal of physical attacks, Gallade is well-suited for fighting Squishy Wizards, of which Gardevoir just so happens to fall under.
• Magic Is Feminine: The feminine Kirlia and Gardevoir favor special attacking, compared to the Masculine male-only Gallade, who is a physical attacker.
• Magikarp Power: Ralts is one of seven Pokémon with lower base stats than the Trope Namer, and Kirlia is the weakest of all non-cocoon evolved Pokémon, with base stats on par with unevolved three-stage Pokémon, but Gardevoir is a bulky alternative to Alakazam, and Gallade is a unique Pokémon with a great movepool.
• Making a Splash: The entire line can learn Rain Dance and Life Dew. In Gen IX, Gallade can learn the move Aqua Cutter.
• Mama Bear: Gardevoir will protect its trainer, no matter what.
• The Medic: Gardevoir has access to Wish, Healing Wish, Heal Bell (albeit via Move Tutor), Heal Pulse and Life Dew. Gallade can use the last of those, potentially making him a Combat Medic.
• Mundane Utility:
  • Gallade can learn Mean Look through breeding and naturally learns Hypnosis and False Swipe, making them incredible at catching roaming Legendaries.
  • Gardevoir's Trace ability lets the player see wild Pokémon's abilities without catching them. Combine this with Hypnosis, and you've got a pretty good way of searching for Hidden Ability Pokémon in the Friend Safari. Synchronize also helps search for Pokémon with the same nature as Gardevoir (the ability was buffed in Gen VIII to where it's now a 100% guaranteed), like Ditto.
• Never Trust a Trailer: A minor example. In the trailer that first revealed the new Fairy-type, Gardevoir is shown using one of the new attacks, Fairy Wind. However, it is later revealed that the entire line seems to be incapable of learning that particular move.^note Which turned out to be a good thing since the line can get Dazzling Gleam and Moonblast which are far stronger than Fairy Wind
• Noblewoman's Laugh: One of Gardevoir's in-battle idle animations looks like one of these.
• Not Completely Useless: Mega Gardevoir's Ability Pixilate, which turns all Normal-type moves into Fairy-type and boosts them by 30% (though it got nerfed 20% in Gen VII onwards). The majority of Normal moves it learns are either physical or too low-powered to be of use (Return being an exception). However, it does find a niche use with Hyper Voice; Pixilate and STAB boost it to 175 power, making it even stronger than Moonblast, the normally strongest Fairy-type move, and, as a sound-based attack, Hyper Voice can pierce Substitute. The option became even more viable come ORAS, where Hyper Voice became available from a move tutor (originally, it could only be obtained by importing a Gardevoir from a Gen V game) and it can learn the Awesome, but Impractical Hyper Beam to ensure a guaranteed win if there's one Pokémon left.
• Not Quite Human: From Gens III-VII, the Ralts line was merely part of the Amorphous Egg Group, making this trope nonexistent for them despite their humanoid appearances. However, starting in Gen VIII, the line was given the Human-Like Egg Group as a secondary Egg Group, allowing this trope to take effect.
• One-Gender Race: Gallade can only evolve from male Kirlia.
• Our Fairies Are Different: Ralts, Kirlia, and Gardevoir as of Gen VI. These are more spirit-like. Interestingly, their retyping means that both final evolutions of this line have now overcome their Psychic-type weakness to Dark- and Bug-type attacks.
• Our Angels Are Different: As mentioned earlier, Gardevoir and to a lesser extent Gallade are based on Guardian Angels. This is also referenced with Mega Gallade's pair of cape-like skins on his back, giving him the appearance of having wings.
• Papa Wolf: Gallade is an honorable swordsman who protects the weak from harm. Male Gardevoir will also protect their trainer just as much as the females.
• Poor, Predictable Rock: Before Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, the line's only Fairy-type attack was Dazzling Gleam, which is a TM one can't get until late into the game, although Gardevoir could at least learn Moonblast via level up and it's Mega Evolution's ability Pixilate can remedy this to great effect. To make it worse, a pre-release trailer highlighting the aspects of the Fairy-type shows Gardevoir using Fairy Wind, a move it can't learn in the final version of the game. While they have had a great support movepool in past games (especially Gallade), Gardevoir's attacking movepool was quite barren compared to Gallade's since it had no way to hurt it's newly discovered weakness to Steel types (outside of Energy Ball and Thunderbolt), it wasn't until Gen VIII and IX that it began to avert this by being able to learn Mystic Fire (formerly the Signature Move of Delphox) and Aura Sphere (heavily associated with Lucario) via TMs to finally strike back against Steel types.
• Power Copying: One of the abilities that Gardevoir can have is Trace, which copies an opponent's ability.
• Psychic Powers: All of them are part Psychic type. With the exception of Gallade, they were all pure Psychic types before being Retconned into Psychic/Fairy types.
• Red Mage: Gardevoir's offensive and support movepools are both expansive. It can blast foes with powerful special attacks, and can also use status buffs and healing moves.
• Rei Ayanami Expy: Gardevoir has some aspects of this trope, with its feminine figure, pale skin, red eyes, and unnatural hair color, along with its stoic devotion to its trainer and otherworldly vibes. Its shiny version further emphasizes this by having pale blue hair.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Ralts! It looks like a little toddler in a nightgown! Kirlia is no slouch in the cute department either, especially in its Happy Dance animation which makes it just as adorable as it's pre-evolution. Gardevoir drops most cute elements and becomes a Ridiculously Gorgeous Critter (although it's still cute in it's own right, as seen in its victory animation in Pokkén Tournament where it jumps up and down like a excited young girl, and even strikes some rather cute poses), and Gallade becomes cute and handsome. In hindsight, the entire line just oozes adorableness in every corner and has only gotten cuter over time.
• Significant Anagram: Ralts' name in both English and Japanese kana is a partial anagram of "astral" (アストラル asutoraru), alluding to its psychic powers. The anagram is complete in French and German, where its name is Tarsal and Trasla, respectively.
• Spear Counterpart: Gallade to Gardevoir in appearance, though as stated, Gardevoir can be male too. Gallade can't be female, though. When it's tied to a female character, like Diantha, Gardevoir tends to be female. Even Wally, who originally had a Gardevoir, was Retconned into using Gallade after he was introduced.
• Squishy Wizard: Both of them hit hard (Gardevoir with Special Attack, Gallade with physical Attack) and have great Special Defense, but low HP, Defense, and average speed.
  • Mega Gardevoir is far stronger and faster than both the standard Gardevoir and Gallade and gains a boost to its Special Defense, but its physical Defense and HP remain poor.
• The Stoic: Gardevoir and Gallade show little expression in Pokémon-Amie and Refresh, only responding to your actions by bowing, this changes somewhat in Gen VIII and IX where they're far more expressive when they're camping or in picnics.
• Super Mode: Gardevoir gains a Mega Evolution in X and Y and Gallade gains a Mega Evolution in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.
• Super-Scream: Can learn Disarming Voice by level-up, Hyper Voice via Move Tutor, and Echoed Voice from a TM.
• Sword and Sorcerer: Gallade and Gardevoir, respectively.
• Synchronization: One of the line's abilities is Synchronize, which afflicts opponents with Status Effects that the user takes.
• Tsundere: Kirlia in Pokémon-Amie. Surprisingly, while its design and expression suggests it to be a Type-A, it's actually a Type-B, being very friendly and affectionate towards its trainer. Upsetting it, however, will cause it to react by either putting its hands on its hips and looking away with a "Humph!", or throwing its hands down and opening its mouth at you as if to say "Stop that!". It grows out of this behavior after evolving into Gardevoir/Gallade.
• Undying Loyalty: Gardevoir will devote all its energy to protect its trainer if they're in danger, to the point of creating a black hole if needed. Gallade is also just as protective of its Trainer, using the blades on its elbows to defend them.
• Useless Useful Spell: For some reason, Gardevoir's Mega Evolution raises its physical attack by 20 points, to 85, still far too low to make physical attacks viable (especially compared to 165 Special Attack), not helped by the fact the only physical moves Gardevoir learns are all Normal-type ^note (though said Normal moves get a boost via it's Pixilate ability, even then the only physical Normal move that is remotely usuable under any circumstances is ''Return'', which was removed permanently in Gen VIII) save for Thief, Fling and the Elemental Punches, the former two of which, are of course, absolutely useless for a Mega Evolution. If anything the extra boost to its physical Attack makes it more vulnerable to Foul Play, especially with its low physical Defense.
• Visual Pun: The horn on Gardevoir's chest is said to represent its heart, and when it Mega Evolves, this horn splits into two pieces; thus, Mega Gardevoir is opening its heart. When Gallade Mega Evolves, similar pieces appear on his arms; thus, Mega Gallade wears his heart on his sleeve.
• You Will Not Evade Me: Can be bred with Mean Look, preventing the opponent from switching out.

Surskit and Masquerain (Ametama and Amemoth)

0283: Surskit / Ametama (アメタマ ametama)
0284: Masquerain / Amemoth (アメモース amemoosu)

Surskit

Masquerain

A very rare Pokémon, respectively based on a water-strider and an eye-spotted moth. Surskit is Bug- and Water-typed and has a movepool with limited offensive abilities. Masquerain uses its eye-spotted antennae to intimidate the opponent and has a natural moveset that is more in line with the likes of other flying insects, though it retains some unique coverage such as Ice Beam and Surf. This line is notable for having its unique (prior to Gen VII) type combination of Bug/Water removed upon evolution, to be replaced with the more common Bug/Flying.

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• Action Initiative: Learns Quick Attack and Aqua Jet by level-up.
• Balance Buff: Masquerain got the largest buff in Sun and Moon, boosting its Special Attack and Speed by 20 points each. While it's still not outstanding by any means, it aids Masquerain enough as a Quiver Dance sweeper or a Sticky Web setter.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Bug-types, and Masquerain in particular is 2'07" (0.8 m) tall.
• Blow You Away: Masquerain is part Flying-type... yet only learned two Flying-type moves in Gen III. Later games have tried to rectify this. It also learns Whirlwind and Ominous Wind.
• Blush Sticker: Surskit has two pink dots under its eyes where its cheeks appear to be, giving the appearance of these.
• Confusion Fu: Compared to many early-game Bug Pokémon, they have a surprisingly wide movepool to take advantage of. Including the line's STAB Bug, Water, and Flying moves, they can learn moves such as Ice Beam, Shadow Ball, Mud Shot, Psybeam, and Energy Ball, though Mud Shot and Psybeam are rather weak as far as coverage moves go.
• Crutch Character: In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, it's possible to find a Surskit with Hydro Pump before you even met up with your dad for the catching tutorial by abusing the DevNav feature. It can easily devastate the early part of the game using the move, though it will eventually drop off in usefulness due to its mediocre stats and weak evolution.
• Discard and Draw: Its typing starts off as Bug/Water, before becoming Bug/Flying upon evolution.
• The Dreaded: Masquerain uses the eyespots on its antennae to scare off enemies, giving it the ability Intimidate.
• Flight: Masquerain is able to fly like a winged insect. Notably, it's the four smaller wings on its torso that let it fly, while the larger wing-like structures are actually its antennae.
• Fragile Speedster: Surskit's best stat is a decent (for an unevolved Pokémon) base 65 speed. It should be noted that, prior to Gen VII and its Balance Buff, its evolution Masquerain had a lower speed at 60.
• Glass Cannon: As of Gen VII, Masquerain got a large increase to both its Special Attack and Speed at 100 and 80 respectively. While its Speed is only average, its Special Attack is actually pretty decent. It can further increase these stats with Quiver Dance.
• Heal Thyself: Masquerain is able to learn Roost starting in Gen IV.
• Magikarp Power: While Surskit evolves into Masquerain at a fairly low level 22 and isn't too bad at that point in the game, it doesn't learn its more useful moves of Baton Pass and Sticky Web until much later, leaving a player wanting those moves stuck with the relatively weak Surskit until then.
• Making a Splash: Surskit. While Surskit's Water-typing doesn't carry over in evolution, its water-based moveset does, as Masquerain is capable of learning moves like Scald, Aqua Jet, and Hydro Pump.
• Psychic Powers: It can be bred to learn the Psychic-type move Psybeam for some reason, a move that deals damage with some sort of ray.
• Status Buff: Surskit can learn Agility to boost its speed and also double its speed during a rainstorm with the Swift Swim ability, which it loses upon evolution. Masquerain learns the rare Quiver Dance, a Bug-type move that increases its Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed. Additionally, they can use Baton Pass to transfer the boosts to a teammate.
• Trap Master: With Sticky Web, decreasing the speed of the opponent's Pokémon. They can also learn Defog to remove hazards from the field.
• Uniqueness Decay: Surskit was the only Bug and Water type Pokémon for the first six generations of the franchise, with not even its evolution sharing the same type. Gen VII then introduced two evolutionary lines in the same game with this type combination.
• Walk on Water: As Surskit is based off of a water strider, it's able to glide across the surface of water. Its animations usually depict it moving as such, even when it's on dry land.

Shroomish and Breloom (Kinococo and Kinogassa)

0285: Shroomish / Kinococo (キノココ kinokoko)
0286: Breloom / Kinogassa (キノガッサ kinogassa)

Shroomish

Breloom

Mushroom Pokémon that mainly inhabit forests like Petalburg Forest. They have the Effect Spore ability, which sometimes causes Status Effects on contact. Shroomish is a pure Grass type that favors more Status Effect moves. Breloom gains the Fighting type in addition to its Grass type and gets many effective Fighting-type moves to take advantage of its amazing Attack stat.

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• Action Initiative: Breloom gets Mach Punch to strike first every time, and it also has Technician to boost it to powerful levels.
• Balance Buff: On two separate occasions:
  • Generation IV, in addition to giving Breloom access to physical Grass-type moves, gave it a new ability in Poison Heal, letting it heal at twice the rate Leftovers would give it if it's equipped with a Toxic Orb. This ability allows Breloom to be surprisingly sturdy despite its poor defensive stats.
  • Generation V gave Breloom the hidden ability Technician, greatly increasing the offensive prowess in many of its moves, notably Bullet Seed, Mach Punch, and Rock Tomb.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Breloom becomes part Fighting-type upon evolution. Despite its short stubby arms, Breloom's main form of combat is to punch its foes into submission. It does this via its arms' ability to stretch/shoot out rapidly, giving it substantially greater reach.
• Big Ol' Unibrow: Shroomish has a single large eyebrow over both eyes.
• Boxing Kangaroo: Breloom vaguely resembles a kangaroo. Its running animation even involves it hopping.
• Cute Bruiser: Looking at Breloom, it's easy to forget that it has 130 ATK, making it as strong as the super-buff Machamp.
• Glass Cannon: Breloom has excellent Attack, but the rest of its stats aren't impressive.
• Green Thumb: Grass types based off of mushrooms.
• Healing Factor: If they have the ability Poison Heal, they will heal 1/8 of their total HP at the end of each turn when Poisoned.
• Magikarp Power: Shroomish is useful to a degree, but it doesn't do much apart from spreading status and helping against Roxanne in the early game, while it evolves into the excellent Breloom at the relatively low level of 23. However, it doesn't learn one of its best moves (Spore) until level 40-54 depending on the game, and only Shroomish can learn it, meaning you need to train Shroomish up until then to get it. This was fixed in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl where all evolved forms can learn moves that previously only the pre-evolved forms can learn via a move tutor, including Spore for Breloom.
• Mundane Utility: Breloom is one of the best 'mons for catching wild Pokémon, thanks to learning both Spore and False Swipe. It gets bonus points for being the fastest user of Spore other than Toedscruel, whose status moves (including Spore) automatically go last thanks to its ability Mycelium Might.
• Mushroom Man: Breloom has a mushroom top for a hat-like protrusion from its head and a body shaped like the shaft.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Breloom is a mushroom kangaroo boxer with dinosaur features.
• Our Fairies Are Different: They are in the Fairy Egg Group for some reason. Not Fairy types, though.
• Perpetual Frowner: Shroomish is never shown smiling in its sprites nor artwork.
• Poisonous Person: An interesting variation since it's not technically a Poison type. In addition to learning a few Poison-type moves like most Grass types, Breloom has the ability Poison Heal, which allows Breloom to heal over time if it is afflicted with Poison.
• Power Nullifier: They can be bred to have the move Worry Seed, which replaces the target's Ability with Insomnia (prevents the owner from going to sleep).
• Prehistoric Animal Analogue: While mostly a mix of kangaroo and mushroom, Breloom has some characteristics that may be vaguely dinosaurian. The mushroom cap on its head can be compared to the dome of a pachycephalosaur skull, and the bulbs on its tail could invoke the tail clubs of ankylosaurs (or, among mammals, certain glyptodonts).
• Recurring Element: A Grass-type mushroom-based Pokémon being able to learn Spore introduced in an odd-numbered generation, similar to Paras/Parasect before it.
• Rubber Man: Several Pokédex entries mention that Breloom's arms are capable of rapidly stretching, allowing it to throw powerful punches. One of its attack animations also shows this, the arm extending to several times its normal length in less than a second before retracting back just as fast.
• Signature Move: As Shroomish is based off a mushroom, it's one of the only Pokémon to learn Spore. Given that Breloom is arguably the most effective user of the move, it's quite a bit harder to get on them than on other mushroom Pokémon; only the unevolved Shroomish can learn it at level 45.
• Similar Squad: In Ruby, Sapphire, and their remakes, this is The Rival's answer to the Treecko line if they don't have one.
• Status Effects:
  • Shroomish is one of the few Pokémon to learn Spore, a 100% accurate move that inflicts the target with sleep. Notably, its evolution Breloom doesn't learn Spore, meaning you'll have to hold off from evolving to gain access to the move.
  • Their Effect Spore ability has a chance of inflicting sleep, poison, or paralysis on those who hit them with contact moves.
• Waddling Head: Shroomish has an anatomy that makes it resemble a Goomba.

Slakoth, Vigoroth, and Slaking (Namakero, Yarukimono, and Kekking)

0287: Slakoth / Namakero (ナマケロ namakero)
0288: Vigoroth / Yarukimono (ヤルキモノ yarukimono)
0289: Slaking / Kekking (ケッキング kekkingu)

Slakoth

Vigoroth

Slaking

Notorious for its "ability" to stop attacking every other turn, Slakoth isn't very useful besides its high Attack for an early Pokémon. Its evolution, Vigoroth, is an all-around solid team member, with great Speed and good Attack, Defense, and HP. Vigoroth also defies the laziness of its previous form by becoming extremely hyperactive, temporarily dumping Truant for Vital Spirit, the ability to not fall asleep, so it's basically the peppy adolescent stage. Slaking, however, regains the Truant ability, but its monstrous Attack and HP and excellent Defense and Speed make up for it. In contrast to its earlier forms, with Slakoth being as lazy as a Snorlax and Vigoroth being extremely hyperactive, Slaking has learned to conserve its energy, usually acting just as lazy as a Slakoth, but able to act with all the energy of a Vigoroth at the drop of a hat.

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• Acrofatic: You'd expect the flabby, lazy Slaking to be slowed down by its big gut, right? Nope, it's actually faster than Vigoroth!
• Awesome, but Impractical: Slaking, the Pokémon with the highest BST of any non-legendary and whose first stage is obtainable before the first gym in its debut gen, understandably only moves every other turn due to its ability Truant.
• Big Eater: In contrast to Slakoth only needing to eat three leaves a day, Vigoroth is always hungry because it's constantly rampaging.
• Blessed with Suck: Truant makes it (as Slakoth or Slaking) unable to attack every second turn. Vigoroth averts this by gaining Vital Spirit as an ability.
• Boss Battle: Slaking is Norman's signature, and thus the fifth Gym Boss of Hoenn.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Slaking's stats make it a major Lightning Bruiser that exceeds some Legendaries in its damage output, but its ability means it can't be bothered to pull its weight in battle half the time. Apparently, this is because it takes mini-naps to store energy for its next attack.
• Charged Attack: Slaking's Truant ability is actually the result of it storing up energy while resting, letting it unleash a terrifyingly powerful attack on the next turn. It's also capable of learning Solar Beam via TM, not that it ever would.
• Damage-Sponge Boss: Slaking's HP stat as high as Groudon's Attack stat, and it has decent defenses on top of that.
• Heal Thyself: The line naturally learn Slack Off, a move that heals the user for 50% of their total HP when used.
• Hot-Blooded: Vigoroth's heart beats at a tenfold rate, so it has so much energy that it literally can't stay still. It gets incredibly stressed to the point of getting sick if something keeps it from burning energy.
• Jack of All Stats: Vigoroth's stats are well-rounded (with the exception of its 55 Special Defense), but unremarkable.
• King Kong Copy: Slaking, being essentially a giant ape-like creature with the name to match.
• Kryptonite Factor: Anything that knows Protect or similar moves will make Slaking totally useless, since it can only attack every other turn and thus the opponent can stall them indefinitely unless it finds a way to stop them from using Protect.
• Lightning Bruiser: Slaking, even if it stops attacking every other turn.
• Loophole Abuse: Hyper Beam and Giga Impact's recharging turn takes place on the same turn as Truant, meaning Slaking has less to lose from using these moves than other Pokémon.^note However, this is still a risky strategy, as it prevents the player from switching Slaking out when they could while it's merely truant.
• Magikarp Power: Slakoth is slightly stronger than the Com Mons, but its utility is diminished by its ability. Vigoroth is an all-around solid Pokémon. Slaking hits like a truck, is fast, has loads of HP and decent defenses, and the only thing stopping it is its hindering ability.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: It's a sloth that becomes more apelike as it evolves, ending with what is essentially a gorilla with a sloth's face.
• Mundane Utility: Like the Machop family, Vigoroth is used for manual labor. In Emerald, Vigoroth help the player character's family move into their new home by unloading the moving van and placing furniture.
• Necessary Drawback:
  • In-Universe, Slaking restores its energy while slaking off, so that it could release it in short, powerful spurts. Now, if only it weren't so damn lazy that it skips every other turn...
  • Out of universe, its ability prevents it from being Purposely Overpowered. Slaking has stats on par with those of Groudon and Kyogre, except it's is not a Legendary, but the fully evolved form of a Pokémon that can be captured in the area prior to the first badge. Therefore, its ability brings it down to a level more comparable to rare, powerful Pokémon such as the starters.
• Non-Elemental: Normal-types based off of sloths.
• Secret Art: Slack Off was exclusive to them in Generation III.
• Sluggish Sloths: Slakoth sleeps around for more than twenty hours a day and does not move very much. It also has the ability Truant, which means that it doesn't move every other turn. Vigoroth subverts the trope, being unable to sit still for a minute and gaining Vital Spirit (which prevents it from being put to sleep) in the process, whilst Slaking also plays the trope straight, being considered one of the laziest of Pokémon, and regaining Truant.
• Stout Strength: Slaking is incredibly strong (and fast) despite being extremely fat.
• Useless Useful Spell: The entire line is capable of learning Solar Beam via TM. Not only does it run off their lesser Special Attack, Slakoth and Slaking can't even execute the move (unless the sun is out) since the firing turn gets cancelled out by Truant.
• Weak Against Magic: Slaking has a solid 100 base Defense, but its poor 65 base Special Defense means that it's quite susceptible to special attacks.

Nincada, Ninjask, and Shedinja (Tutinin, Tekkanin, and Nukenin)

0290: Nincada / Tutinin (ツチニン tsuchinin)
0291: Ninjask / Tekkanin (テッカニン tekkanin)
0292: Shedinja / Nukenin (ヌケニン nukenin)

Nincada

Ninjask

Shedinja

Another Bug Pokémon with strange evolution, it is meant to be a Cicada with Ninja elements. Nincada starts out as a Bug/Ground type with a limited moveset. Normally, it evolves into Ninjask, only outpaced by Regieleki and Speed Form Deoxys as the fastest Pokémon, but if you have an empty slot and a spare Poké Ball, it "splits" into the mysterious Shedinja, which has immunity to any non-super-effective attack thanks to its Wonder Guard ability. However, much like the husk that it is, it can't take any punishment at all, having a fixed amount of health no matter the level or effort values: 1. Word of God says this is the discarded shell of Ninjask (much like an actual cicada sheds its shell upon maturing in real life) brought to life.

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• Achilles' Heel: Taken to an extreme with Shedinja, whose ability can allow it to completely No-Sell many an ill-equipped opponent, but will instantly crumple in the face of a super-effective attack or any form of indirect damage.
• Animalistic Abomination: Shedinja is the hollowed out husk of a bug that somehow obtained something resembling life (it's a ghost so it's not technically alive), and looking into its back cavity for too long can suck out your soul.
• Armored But Frail: Shedinja is a (literal) One-Hit-Point Wonder, whose Wonder Guard ability prevents any damage from an attack type that it isn't weak to. However, Wonder Guard also does not protect it from Damage Over Time like poison and burns, from damage inflicted by weather or entry hazards, or from Pokémon with abilities like Mold Breaker (which makes the user's attacks bypass other abilities).
• Awesome, but Impractical: Shedinja's ability to negate damage with Wonder Guard. Having a Pokémon that is potentially invincible against an opponent without the right moves sounds extremely powerful, but its inability to protect itself from non-attack damage makes it much more risky than it would seem at first.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: They're Bug types based on cicadas, and Ninjask and Shedinja are 2'07" (0.8 m) tall.
• Blow You Away: Ninjask is part Flying-type, with moves like Air Slash, Air Cutter and Gust.
• Body Horror: Shedinja is the hollow, eerily pale shed skin of a cicada that somehow sees through two empty eyehole slits. It has indented nubs where Ninjask's limbs were growing, sports "wings" made from its own shredded flesh, and has a hole in its back from where Ninjask popped out.
• Came Back Wrong: In Super Mystery Dungeon and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX, if you defeat a Nincada, a few turns later, a Shedinja will spawn where it was KOed. There's no sign of Ninjask, though...
• Discard and Draw: Figuratively and literally. Nincada drops its Ground-Type for the Flying-Type after evolving into Ninjask. Its hollow shell it once had becomes part-Ghost as Shedinja.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Nincada, being part-Ground-type. Notably, however, they're one of the few Ground-type Pokémon that don't learn the powerful Earthquake, or any damaging Rock-type move. Their highest powered Ground move is Dig.
• Dump Stat: Shedinja has three stats it has no use for: HP, Defense, and Special Defense. All attacks that aren't negated must do at least one point of damage, which means that even if Shedinja had the highest possible defensive stats and its opponents had the lowest possible offensive stats, any super-effective attack will still one-shot it. There are a few rare times when its defenses can actually be used^note if another Pokémon Baton Passes a Substitute to it, if Shedinja uses Power Trick, if the opponent has the ability Download, or if another Pokémon Transforms into Shedinja.
• Flight: Ninjask. Shedinja is also always in the air.
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: The Pokédex claims that looking into the crack in Shedinja's back will allow it to steal your spirit. Said crack is displayed to the player in Shedinja's back sprite.
• Fragile Speedster: Ninjask is the third-fastest Pokémon in the series (second pre-Gen VIII), its ability makes it even faster, and it has decent Attack. Everything else is terrible.
• Guardian Angel: Shedinja might count for this, albeit a much creepier version than Gardevoir. Given its halo and wings, Wonder Guard's Japanese name being "Mysterious Protection", and its tendency to be portrayed in media outside of the games as being a living shield for Ninjask. Although it could simply be an allusion to the ninja technique of leaving behind a decoy to escape.
• Highly-Visible Ninja: Oddly subverted. Ninjask is described as being incredibly loud, enough to leave headaches, but fast enough to get away with it. As in fast enough to be nearly invisible.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Shedinja can learn Sandstorm, which will summon one of the (many) indirect ways to damage (and therefore kill) it, though it is possible to subvert this by giving it the Safety Goggles as an held item.
• Holy Halo: Shedinja has a white one over its head, though it's not complete.
• Informed Ability: It is believed that Shedinja will steal the spirit of anyone peering into its hollow body from its back. Guess what you glance at every time you throw Shedinja into battle? Bupkis!
• Irony: EV yields typically give out in that Pokémons best stat or stats, with Ninjask giving out 2 in Speed. Shedinja gives out 2 in the HP stat, the same as beefy Pokémon like Chansey and Wobbuffet.
• Kryptonite Is Everywhere: Shedinja is impervious to damage! Well, provided that it doesn't get hit by an attack with the type of one of its 5 weaknesses or a Shadow move, is on the field during Hail, Sandstorm, or Shadow Sky, switches in while Stealth Rock, Spikes, or Toxic Spikes are on the field, gets inflicted with Poison, Leech Seed, Confusion, Burn, Curse, Nightmare, or Perish Song, attacks an opponent using Destiny Bond or Spiky Shield or has the abilities Mummy, Wandering Spirit, Lingering Aroma, Rough Skin, or Iron Barbs, or is holding a Rocky Helmet. Or, for that matter, any non-Fighting/Normal attack from a Pokémon with the Mold Breaker, Teravolt, or Turboblaze abilities or the move Gastro Acid, Worry Seed, Entrainment, Simple Beam, Sunsteel Strike, Moongeist Beam, or Photon Geyser, which turn Shedinja into just another One-Hit-Point Wonder.
• Master of None: To offset its potentially powerful Wonder Guard ability, Shedinja has awful stats across the board barring Attack, which is only above average.
• Magically Inept Fighter: Both Ninjask and Shedinja have passable Attack stats at base 90, but their Special Attack stats are terrible — 50 for Ninjask, and 30 for Shedinja, the same as its pre-evolution.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter:
  • Shedinja is famous for being the sole user of Wonder Guard, completely resisting neutral and ineffective attacks in the main series.
  • Shedinja's HP stat does not follow the standard stat formula, being at 1HP regardless of level, EVs and IVs applied. While Shedinja's HP base stat is listed as 1, the standard stat formula in Generation III would have given Shedinja at least 11 HP at Level 1 under normal circumstances.
  • In the TCG, the "only super-effective moves work" ability is discarded due to Pokémon only having one weakness. In its place, it gains a slew of different abilities, ranging from being immune to the attacks of evolved Pokémon, dealing posthumous damage to Pokémon that share the same name as the attacker, and being equippable to another Pokémon to prevent them from giving out Prize Cards on a KO.
• Ninja: Ninjask is based on a ninja, attacking with dual scythe-arms, emphasizing Speed, and learning moves like Double Team, Agility, and Sand-Attack that rely on misdirection and stealth. Even Nincada may be based on the utsusemi no jutsu (cicada skin technique), a ninja technique that uses decoys to misdirect opponents.
• No Biological Sex: Shedinja has no gender. It's the only Pokémon in the series that loses gender upon evolution (which makes sense in a way, since Shedinja is a literal Empty Shell).
• One-Hit-Point Wonder: Shedinja is hard-wired by the programming to always have 1 HP, so it always dies in a single hit. In return, its Wonder Guard ability makes it immune to direct damage from attacks that aren't Flying-, Dark-, Ghost-, Rock-, or Fire-type. It even provides the page image. However, it is averted in Mystery Dungeon games, where wild Shedinja will have 5-10 HP to prevent them from dying to one A-button tackle attack, whereas party Shedinja don't have any special HP cap.
• Our Angels Are Different: Shedinja somewhat resembles an angel due to its wings and a halo.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: Shedinja is a discarded cicada shell with angel wings and a halo.
• Piñata Enemy: Shedinja in Super Mystery Dungeon. In an odd variation, it's not considered as such to the player, but to other enemy Pokémon, which will often seek to KO Shedinja before the player can do so, for an easy evolution. It also has this function in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX, where enemies KO it to get the awakened status or to Mega Evolve.
• Secret Art: Shedinja's unique ability, Wonder Guard. Due to how powerful it could be on another Pokémon, moves like Skill Swap and Role Play don't work on Wonder Guard; only Trace, which copies an opponent's ability upon entering battle, can copy it.
• Soul Power: Shedinja, being a Ghost and all. It can steal the soul of anyone that peers into its hole, and it can learn the moves Poltergeist, Grudge and Shadow Ball.
• Stone Wall: Unlike its evolution, Nincada has respectable physical defense and absolutely nothing else of value.
• Support Party Member: Thanks to its incredible speed and wealth of Status Buff moves, including Speed Boost, as well as access to Substitute, Ninjask is a natural-born Baton Passer.
• This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman:
  • Shedinja is, in every sense of the word, a pure gimmicky One-Hit-Point Wonder... but against many Legendary Pokémon, it's perfect. Since Legendary Pokémon always appear at the same level, all you need to do is look up their moveset at that level. If they don't have something to hit a weakness on Shedinja or inflict indirect damage from weather or status, Shedinja can stall them forever while you keep throwing Poké Balls. In Ruby and Sapphire, for example, Kyogre falls victim to such a blow.
  • Many players have found that Shedinja is absolutely broken in challenge runs and Nuzlockes with the advantage of foresight. You can simply look ahead to see which trainers/wild Pokémon you'll be battling and what moves they have; if a certain Pokemon doesn't have moves that can hit Shedinja (super effective moves, moves like Toxic or Leech Seed, or weather setting moves), then you can safely send in Shedinja to completely wipe the floor with them because they won't be able to hit you. This is greatly aided by moves like Toxic, which let you stall your enemies to death.
• Useless Useful Spell: Shedinja can learn Final Gambit, which faints the user and deals damage equal to their HP. Think about it. To a less notable extent, it can also learn Substitute, Bide and Rest. All will fail when used by Shedinja, since Substitute is Cast from Hit Points, Bide requires you to take damage to deal more damage and Rest restores you back to full health and fails if the user is already at full health.
• You Have Researched Breathing: A cicada Pokémon, the bug with perhaps the most famous buzz of all, cannot learn the move Bug Buzz naturally — only through breeding.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: Looking into the hole on Shedinja's back is said to cause it to steal your soul.

Whismur, Loudred, and Exploud (Gonyonyo, Dogohmb, and Bakuong)

0293: Whismur / Gonyonyo (ゴニョニョ gonyonyo)
0294: Loudred / Dogohmb (ドゴーム dogoomu)
0295: Exploud / Bakuong (バクオング bakuongu)

Whismur

Loudred

Exploud

These strange Normal-type monsters specialize in sound-based moves like Hyper Voice and Uproar. They inhabit caves like Rusturf Tunnel, Victory Road, and Underground Pass. Whismur may seem timid and cute, but please don't scare it — you'll regret it. Loudred and Exploud aren't like that, as they are boisterous and blast with the loudest voices they can... in battle, that is, as they are actually somewhat quiet when communicating with their own kind. They also are resistant to other sound-based moves thanks to their Soundproof ability.

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• Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Whismur's ears resemble the bells of an alarm clock, Loudred's ears look like stereo speakers, while Exploud's "air vents" vaguely allude to those found on a pipe organ.
• Bunnies for Cuteness: Whismur vaguely resembles a cute, very loud rabbit. Emphasis on "vaguely."
• Cartoon Creature: The line starts out as a cute rabbit-like creature and it evolves into a bipedal creature with design elements of a boombox, later a pipe organ, and a face vageuely reminiscent of a hippopotamus.
• Confusion Fu: It has a surprisingly versatile movepool for an otherwise unremarkable Normal-type, and has equal Attack and Special Attack so it's comfortable running off either stat.
  • This even extends to the TCG, where Exploud received the first two cards with four attacks as opposed to the standard one or two.
• Cute, but Cacophonic: Whismur, whose screaming can get as loud as (or louder than) a jet plane. There's even an unobtainable ability in their debut generation called Cacophony that is presumed to have belonged to this line.^note Said ability has a description identical to Soundproof, but most other Soundproof Pokémon are either Animate Inanimate Objects with no discernible ears or are based off of mimes, while this line is presumably immune to sound-based moves because they drown them out. The only other Pokémon with a similar justification for the Soundproof ability, and thus the only other line that likely would've received Cacophony instead (had it continued to exist), is the Jangmo'o line, which didn't debut until Generation VII.
• Cycle of Hurting: Whismur cries so loudly that it scares itself. In response, it starts crying louder, which in turn scares itself even more, and makes it cry even louder. This escalates until it faints from exhaustion.
• Disc-One Nuke: Whismur learns Uproar at Level 5, as a Normal-type move it gets STAB, and as of Generation V Uproar has a power of 90. The result, your little Level 5 Whismur can throw around 135 base-power attacks with no drawback, for three turns in a row, with the added benefit of being immune to Sleep while Uproar is active.
• Fell Asleep Crying: Whismur is prone to startle itself with the sound of its own crying, causing it to cry EVEN LOUDER, until it tires itself out and falls asleep.
• Fire, Ice, Lightning: Exploud can learn the Elemental Fangs via move relearner. It can also learn the Elemental Punches via move tutor in various games.
• Glass Cannon: Its offense and HP are its main assets, with low Speed and defenses. And even then, its offense is very low compared to most 3rd-stage Pokémon, unless it uses Boomburst, which is a 210-Power (factoring in STAB) move that hits everything around it.
• Gonk: Whismur's certainly cute, but Loudred and especially Exploud just look weird.
• Kung-Fu Wizard: Exploud's Attack and Special Attack stats are both equal, and it can learn moves that make use of both. However, due to its special moves being generally more powerful, it leans more towards the special side.
• Meaningful Name: Exploud — explosively loud.
• Metamorphosis Monster: Whismur looks very different from its evolutions, being cute, pink, and having a different eye shape and a smaller mouth.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: "Loudred" sounds like a portmanteau of "loud" and "dread". "Exploud" is not too bad, either.
• Non-Elemental: They are Normal-types capable of gaining a STAB boost with Normal moves, especially Normal type sound-based moves.
• Non-Indicative Name: While Whismur's name is a mixture of "whisper" and "murmur", its voice is anything but quiet.
• No-Sell: Defied with their hidden ability, Scrappy. Ghosts cannot handle their power at all.
• Our Monsters Are Weird: They look like they've been mashed up with various sound equipment and musical instruments.
• Required Secondary Powers: Their ability, Soundproof, protects them from sound-based attacks. This is likely to make sure that they aren't destroying their ears with their screams, similar to real-life bats.
• Super-Scream: The line's entire gimmick. Loudred's Pokédex entries say its screaming can blow up a house and turn over an 18-wheeler while Exploud's screaming can be heard from six miles away and is strong enough to trigger an earthquake. The trio also learn numerous sound-based attacks like Hyper Voice, Uproar, Howl, Boomburst, and Supersonic, and their signature ability grants them immunity to an opponent's sound-based attacks.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Whismur's Hidden Ability is Rattled, which makes it so being hit by a Bug-, Ghost- (which, under normal circumstances, it is immune to), or Dark-type move gives it a boost to Speed.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Their solution to everything is shouting at it. Since the line naturally learn the strongest Special attack without drawback in the game (Boomburst), and they have the ability to hit ghosts with Scrappy, this is really all they need most of the time.
• Wingding Eyes: Whismur's eyes look like crosshairs.

Makuhita and Hariyama (Makunoshita and Hariteyama)

0296: Makuhita / Makunoshita (マクノシタ makunoshita)
0297: Hariyama / Hariteyama (ハリテヤマ hariteyama)

Makuhita

Hariyama

Bulky Fighting-type Pokémon that also like caves. They're based on sumo wrestlers, with Makuhita resembling a punching bag somewhat. They are very strong, and train rigorously and eat much to gain strength. They have high HP as well as high Attack. They are closely associated with the moves Arm Thrust and Smelling Salt.

---

• Action Initiative: Learns Fake Out naturally, and can be bred with Bullet Punch, both of which always go first.
• Always Accurate Attack: Naturally learn Vital Throw, an attack which never misses.
• Armored But Frail: Inverted. Hariyama's actual defensive stats are poor, so it primarily relies on its very large HP stat combined with its Thick Fat Ability, which halves damage from Fire and Ice-type movies, to resist attacks.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: They are Fighting types based on Sumo wrestlers. They fight by punching and slapping its enemies.
• Big Eater: Makuhita is always eating to store energy for evolution.
• Blow You Away: Using its very large hands, Hariyama can learn Whirlwind.
• Boss Battle: Makuhita is the second Gym boss of the Hoenn games, as Brawly's signature.
• Determinator: With Guts, if it's suffering from status conditions such as paralysis or burns, it merely becomes more focused on winning.
• Eyes Always Shut: Makuhita's eyes always appear closed.
• Foil: To Medicham. Both of them are strong Fighting-types, but Hariyama gets that way by eating a lot, training its body and bulking up its physical strength.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Makuhita's Sun Pokédex entry reveals that despite originally being introduced from another region (presumably Hoenn) to Alola, Alolan Makuhita are actually more well-known than their Hoennian counterparts in-universe.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Thought you could stop a Guts Hariyama with Will-O-Wisp or Scald? Nice try, now it's plowing through your team even faster.
• Hu Mons: Hariyama is a stylized sumo wrestler with attributes of its appearance that resemble the attire such a wrestler wears, and has hair that looks like the traditional haircut they have before it's tied in a topknot.
• Kevlard: Hariyama's highest stat is HP, and it's based on a sumo wrestler. No surprise. Its "fat" is said to actually be muscle, and lots of it. Even more so with its Thick Fat ability, which gives it resistances to Fire and Ice attacks.
• Magically Inept Fighter: Hariyama's high base 120 Attack is contrasted by its poor base 40 Special Attack.
• Making a Splash: Strangely, Hariyama learns Brine naturally (albeit only with help from a Move Relearner), and can be taught Surf. The reason it learns Brine is that salt is thrown onto the sumo ring before the match as part of a purification ritual.
• Meaningful Name: Their names refer to sumo rankings.
• The Mentor: The Alola Sun PokéDex claims that as they grow older, Hariyama spend much of their time training younger Makuhita.
• Mighty Glacier: Hariyama has a good base 120 Attack, but a very slow base 50 speed. While its defenses are poor, at base 60 each, they're mitigated by its large base 144 HP stat.
• Shown Their Work: Makuhita's Ultra Moon diet mentions that there are rumors of a traditional recipe for stew that Trainers can use to raise strong Makuhita, a reference to the high protein chankonabe stew sumo wrestlers eat in order to gain and maintain weight for their training.
• Signature Move: Arm Thrust, a damaging move that hit 2-5 times on each use. It was their Secret Art prior to Black and White, but they're still the most well-known users of the move. They are also associated with Smelling Salts, a move that does double damage on opponents that are paralyzed but heals them from paralysis, since other Pokémon can only learn it by breeding.
• Spirited Competitor: Known for challenging others to bouts of strength, but Hariyama's Ultra Sun Dex entry also notes they're known for valuing etiquette, and praise opponents they battle.
• Status Buff: One of the rare users of Belly Drum, giving them a 6-stage Attack boost at the cost of half their HP.
• Stout Strength: Hariyama tests its strength by standing on railroad tracks and trying to stop trains with its bare hands.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Its Hidden Ability, Sheer Force, causes any attacks that have a chance of a secondary effect to drop these in exchange for a power boost, along with the ability to not cause Life Orb recoil.
• Wrestler in All of Us: A Fighting-type based on a sumo wrestler.

Nosepass and Probopass (Dainose)

0299: Nosepass (ノズパス nozupasu)
0476: Probopass / Dainose (ダイノーズ dainoozu)

Nosepass

Probopass

Probopass debuts in Diamond and Pearl

Nose-shaped Rock-type Pokémon that are magnetic and hide in rocks. Nosepass's relation to magnetism allows it to learn Electric-type moves to counter Water-types that would usually take it down easily. Its magnetism has the power to prevent Steel-type Pokémon from switching out of battle as long as Nosepass stays in battle. It also evolves into the Moai-like Probopass in magnetic areas like Mt. Coronet, giving it a Steel type, a strange hat, and a bushy moustache that looks like iron fillings.

---

• Armored But Frail: Probopass has amazing defenses, but its base 60 HP does it no favors.
• Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: When viewed from above, Probopass looks exactly like a compass, with its big red nose as the north-pointing arrow.
• Boss Battle: Nosepass, as it's the signature Mon of Roxanne, the first leader of Hoenn.
• Discard and Draw: Nosepass picks up the Steel type when it becomes Probopass, adding a lot of resistances, losing Grass and Steel weaknesses and strengthening its resistance to Normal and Flying-type moves. It also loses resistance to Fire, while Ground and Fighting-type moves wreck it really bad.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Rock-type Pokémon based off the Maoi statues and compasses.
• Extra-ore-dinary: Probopass gains a Steel-typing upon evolution.
• Fake Ultimate Mook: Just like Onix, Nosepass in its debut is somewhat of a threat in the hands of the first Gym Leader, but stops being so when any of your Pokémon evolves. It's not as bad as Onix at this, however, since unlike Onix, Nosepass has enough Special Defense to take a hit or two and keep going and it isn't completely wrecked by Water and Grass-type moves.
• Gag Nose: Probopass's large nose and bushy mustache has been compared to that of Groucho Marx, the novelty nose and glasses mask used as a Paper-Thin Disguise both in fiction and Real Life inspired by Groucho's memetic look, Mario from the Super Mario Bros. video games, and Mr. Potato Head. Nosepass has a bit of a Gag Nose, too; Probopass's nose is even bigger.
• Gravity Master: Probopass can learn the move Gravity naturally.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • Nosepass's Magnet Pull Ability prevents Steel-types from switching out. Nosepass is a Rock-type, which Steel-types have the type advantage against. Whoops.
  • Nosepass' Ultra Moon Dex entry mentions that while it uses its magnetism to pull in prey, sometimes it pulls in its predators instead.
• Last Chance Hit Point: One of their Abilities is Sturdy, which will leave them with 1 HP if they were at full health when hit with a move that would KO them.
• Living Statue: Nosepass is based on a moai head with small arms and legs. Probopass is just a giant head with no other limbs at all.
• Magnetism Manipulation: Nosepass uses magnetism to pull in its prey. In battle, it can also use this ability to trap Steel-types.
• Metal Muncher: Nosepass apparently uses its magnetism to attract its prey to it, which suggests that it eats mineral-based creatures.
• Missing Secret: Has Head Smash as one of its Egg Moves in HeartGold and SoulSilver. The only Pokémon that could possibly pass it down is Aegislash, which didn't exist back then; the move was removed from the list in Generation V and hasn't been added since then, in spite of the possibility.
• Nobody Here but Us Statues: Wild Nosepass in Kitakami stand completely still, not responding at all to your presence until you actually engage them in battle.
• The Nose Knows: Probopass has a nose that acts as a compass, keeping its trainer from getting lost.
• Our Monsters Are Weird: They're waddling moai statues mixed with compasses. Probopass is a giant head with a huge red nose, a mustache, three small "mini-noses" floating around it, and a circular hat.
• Recurring Element: Nosepass is very much like Onix in its debut generation, being a Rock-type with no evolutionary relatives with low overall stats but high Defense in order to serve as the Signature Mon of the first Gym Leader and in turn the first boss fight, being a defensive early game powerhouse designed to teach the player about type matchups. Like Onix, Nosepass has stats designed to make it a threat when the player first battles it, but it stops being useful or threatening once the player gets access to stronger and evolved Pokémon, and also serves as an uncommon spawn in caves later in the game. Also in a similar vein to Onix, Nosepass gained a part Steel-type evolved form in the subsequent generation after its debut once it outlived its original purpose so that such evolved form would allow it to become more usable.
• Scunthorpe Problem: Nosepass and Probopass have some trouble getting on the GTS without a nickname in Gen V. This was fixed in later games.
• Shock and Awe: Because of their relation to magnetism, they can naturally learns a few Electric-type attacks, including the rarely-seen Zap Cannon.
• Shown Their Work: Probopass is based on what the Moai statues originally looked like in both design and paint scheme, based on research and paint analysis.
• Silicon-Based Life: Living rock compasses.
• Stone Wall: Probopass has very high defenses but mediocre offenses and is very slow. In-story, its Pokédex entry mentions that it only moves a few inches a decade.
• Waddling Head: It's hard to see Nosepass's legs.
• Warm-Up Boss: Much like Onix, Nosepass is the Signature Mon of the first Gym Leader of Hoenn, Roxanne, and serves to teach the player about type matchups. It doesn't fold quite as badly as Onix does to Grass and Water attacks, though.
• You Will Not Evade Me: Learns Block to prevent switching, and inflicts this on all enemy Steel-types (besides the Honedge line, which, as Ghost-types, are immune to trapping) thanks to the Magnet Pull ability.

Skitty and Delcatty (Eneco and Enekororo)

0300: Skitty / Eneco (エネコ eneko)
0301: Delcatty / Enekororo (エネコロロ enekororo)

Skitty

Delcatty

Normal-type Cat-like Pokémon that are generally weak and very hard to find anyway, but are so cute that it's easy to forgive them for that. Skitty is closely associated with Assist, which allows it to randomly select a move from one of the party's Pokémon. A Moon Stone evolves it into Delcatty, which is very prim and acts on its own schedule.

---

• Action Initiative: Gets Fake Out naturally, and can be bred to know Sucker Punch, both of which hit first.
• Adaptational Badass: These Pokémon are cute-but-useless Joke Characters in the main series games, but spinoffs and other media tend to make them more worth using. Notably, the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games dramatically improve Skitty's stats to put it on par with the other choices of starter Pokémon.
• Balance Buff: In Generation VII, Delcatty gained a base speed increase and the line's signature ability Normalize gained the added bonus of increasing the power of all affected attacks by 20%.
• Blessed with Suck: The line's Ability of Normalize allows it to get a STAB bonus on every move it uses and use certain attacks on Pokémon that they usually wouldn't work on (notably, Thunder Wave on Ground-types). However, it also means that it can't get a Super Effective hit on anything outside of a specific type of battle that has yet to be implemented as a multiplayer option and shows up in one specific area in each Gen VI game, it's lousy against Rock- and Steel-types, and it's utterly useless against Ghosts (except if it uses Foresight). It has been buffed to provide a 20% boost to all affected attacks as of Gen VII, though Delcatty's low offenses still mean it isn't too useful.
• Cute Kitten: Skitty is based on a kitten, and in-universe their cute behavior makes them highly popular.
• Extreme Doormat: Delcatty is stated to be extremely passive and submissive in its Pokédex entries, to the point of simply leaving without a fight if approached by another Pokémon.
• Eyes Always Shut: Skitty's eyes are always closed, only opening once it evolves into Delcatty.
• Fragile Speedster: Delcatty's speed was buffed by 20 points in Gen VII to a decent base 90, though even that isn't very high.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • Skitty's Pokédex entries in a few games mention that it's difficult to earn its trust. However, its base happiness is the same as most other Pokémon, so it's about as easy to befriend as any other member of your team.
  • Delcatty's Sapphire Pokédex entry mentions that it won't fight back if another Pokémon approaches it — instead, it'll simply leave. While there are a few Pokémon species that'll run away when encountered in the wild, Delcatty isn't one of them; when encountered, it'll attack your active Pokémon like any other wild Pokémon would.
• Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action: The first half of the Trope Namer. Despite the incredible size difference, the 2'0" 24 pound Skitty is perfectly able to breed with the 47'07" 877 pound Wailord. This is due to them sharing the Field egg group, which applies to many other similarly small Pokémon, but Skitty is the most infamous instance of it.
• Joke Character: Delcatty's best stats are its HP and Speed, at a mediocre base 70, making it comparable to a second stage starter. You're probably not going to be using it much, even if you manage to find one. Even after its aforementioned Balance Buff, it still isn't particularly useful.
• Lunacy: You need a Moon Stone to evolve Skitty.
• Magic Music: Skitty naturally learns Sing, which can put an enemy Pokémon to sleep.
• Master of None: Delcatty's base stats are all fairly close to each other, but even its best stats are pretty low.
• The Medic: Somewhat, due to its access to Wish and Heal Bell (even before Move Tutors made it more accessible).
• Non-Elemental: Typical of Normal-types, but the ability Normalize makes all of its attacks Normal-type. While this makes these Pokémon even worse at battling than they normally are, they have the gimmick of paralyzing Ground-types with a Normal-type Thunder Wave.
• Not Completely Useless: Prior to Gen VII, Normalize offers almost no worthwhile benefits no matter how you slice it, but there's no reason you can't Skill Swap it onto the enemy side in a Double Battle so they have to suffer it instead. It can also be used to inflict paralysis on Ground-types using Thunder Wave, since they're immune to it otherwise.
• Our Fairies Are Different: Despite not being Fairy-type, the line is in the Fairy Egg Group and learns a few Fairy-type moves by level-up.
• Pink Is Feminine: Skitty is a pink kitten that has a 75% chance of being female.
• Punny Name: Delcatty's name is a play on "delicate", referencing its prim, proper nature and near-complete uselessness in battle.
• Recurring Element: Hoenn's resident line of early-game cat Pokémon. They also share a few similarities with the Clefairy and Jigglypuff lines, being cute Normal-types which are rarely encountered in the wild, evolve with a Moon Stone, learn Double Slap and Sing, level up quickly, and have a vast movepool but no outstanding stats.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Skitty! Most of its Pokédex entries allude to how amazingly adorable it is. It even has Cute Charm as one of its abilities, which has a chance of causing opponents of the opposite gender to become attracted to it if they hit it with a contact move.
• Secret Art:
  • Before Generation IV, Assist, which randomly uses another move known by a member of their team.
  • Has a unique Ability in Normalize. The other Pokémon aren't exactly jealous of it.
• Status Effects: Its Hidden Ability is Wonder Skin, which reduces the accuracy of attacks aimed at it that only inflict this, such as Thunder Wave and Toxic.
• Useless Useful Spell: If they have Normalize, they get STAB on everything! Too bad they can't hit worth a damn even with the STAB bonus, and even if they could they can't ever get super effective damage. They are completely walled by Ghost-, Rock-, and Steel-types as a result. It also rends their pretty wide coverage moot.

Sableye (Yamirami)

0302: Sableye / Yamirami (ヤミラミ yamirami)

Sableye

^{Mega Sableye}

Mega Sableye debuts in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire

The first Pokémon to be a Dark- and Ghost-type; previously, this granted it no immediate weaknesses, but this has changed with the introduction of Fairy types. It is a gremlin-like creature that subsists on a diet of rocks and minerals, giving it very strong teeth, a variety of gemstones on its body, and diamond-like eyes. It is exclusive to Sapphire. It gained a Mega Evolution in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. Mega Sableye grows a red gem large enough to hide behind, granting it superb defenses, and the Magic Bounce ability, but it becomes slower from the weight.

---

• Action Initiative:
  • Its Hidden Ability Prankster gives non-attacking moves +1 priority.
  • Inverted with its signature ability Stall, which makes it always move last in its priority bracket.
• Anti-Magic: Mega Sableye has Magic Bounce, which reflects non-damaging attacks back at the user.
• Armored But Frail: Mega Sableye has this stat distribution, with 125 physical defense, 115 special defense, and 50 HP. It also, thanks to its ability Magic Bounce, reflects status moves back at the attacker.
• Blessed with Suck: Stall forces Sableye to always go last. In a series where moving first can often mean the difference between victory and defeat, Stall is downright debilitating.
• Body Horror: The giant gem carried by Mega Sableye was previously embedded in its chest. It grows and tears out upon Mega Evolution, leaving a noticeable hole in its body.
• Cavalry Betrayal: If it's called in to help a Carbink in an SOS battle, it will attack the Carbink instead, eager to nab its gems.
• Combat Pragmatist: A part Dark-type that uses Prankster to use non-attacking moves first.
• Counter-Attack: One of two Pokémon that gets the Metal Burst move through breeding, hitting the opponent for 150% the damage they dealt to it with their attack.
• Crutch Character: In Sapphire and Emerald, Sableye is found early in the game for a Ghost-type and can easily defeat Brawly, especially since it knows Night Shade, a Fixed Damage Attack which ignores the defense boosts from Bulk Up. However, Sableye can't evolve and has meager stats by the standards of fully-evolved Pokémon, so it'll fall behind as the rest of your team evolves.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Its prankster behavior is said to be derived from loneliness, and it apparently has a rather friendly disposition.
• Eat Dirt, Cheap: Gems are its favorite food. So much so that gems form on its skin, especially in its eyes. This also causes Sableye to hunt Carbink, since Carbink are made of gems.
• The Fair Folk: Based off of goblins and kobolds and is thus closer to this than it is to actual ghosts despite being weak to Fairy-type attacks.
• False Friend: If it's called into battle to help another wild Pokémon in Sun and Moon, it will attack the Pokémon that called it instead of your Pokémon.
• Foil:
  • To Mawile, as both of them were version exclusives until Gen VI (and remain as such in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire), have the same base stat total, have two of the best defensive typings in the game, and Mega Evolutions.
  • Their Mega Evolutions take this relationship even further. Mega Mawile has Huge Power, specializing in brute force. Mega Sableye has Magic Bounce and specializes in defense.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: In Sun and Moon, it will attack Carbink if it appears when Carbink calls for help, because it really wants to eat Carbink's gems.
• Gem Tissue: Its eyes were transformed into gems by its diet. Gems also form on its skin.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: It naturally learn Foul Play, which deals damage using the target's Attack stat and any Status Buffs they have. Since the attack drop from being burned doesn't apply unless the user of Foul Play is afflicted with it, Sableye can still use Will-O-Wisp against physical attackers and hit them hard.
• Humanoid Aliens: Based on the famous Kelly-Hopkinsville UFO encounter.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The gems on Sableye are rubies, sapphires, and emeralds.
• Lethal Joke Character: Sableye may have low stats, but it's the only Pokémon with Prankster that gets Recover. Combine this with having exactly 1 weakness and the ability to spread priority Burns with Will-O-Wisp, and Sableye can be deceptively bulky.
• Loophole Abuse: Because turn order is determined before Mega Evolution happens in Generation VI, Sableye's moves will still be affected by Prankster when Mega Evolving despite it being replaced with Magic Bounce. This only lasts for the turn during which it Mega Evolves, though. From Generation VII onwards, that's no longer the case, as turn order is now determined after Mega Evolution happens, meaning a Sableye with Prankster doesn't give priority to status moves when it Mega Evolves.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Mega Sableye uses a giant jewel as a shield. Appropriately, Mega Sableye has much higher defenses than its base form and can use it to reflect status moves with Magic Bounce, but the shield weighs it down and lowers its Speed.
• Master of None: Without Mega Evolving, all of Sableye's stats are very low, especially its HP and Speed.
• Nerf: Gen VI gave it a weakness to Fairy-type attacks, taking away its coveted "no-weaknesses" status.
• Never Trust a Trailer: Pre-release materials stated that Mega Sableye would get a large increase in its Special Attack. In the game proper, its Special Attack does get increased... from 65 to 85, which is still slightly below average. It does have access to Nasty Plot and Calm Mind, so you can still kind of get that as a benefit, but its stat spread is still that of a wall rather than a bulky special attacker.
• No-Sell: Being Dark/Ghost type renders it immune to Normal, Fighting and Psychic attacks.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: Sableye is more of a gremlin than a ghost.
• Our Goblins Are Different: It's the Hopkinsville Goblin cryptid as re-imagined by the Japanese.
• Power Nullifier: Its Ghost-typing cancels out the Dark-type's weakness to Fighting-type. Even better, you can actually get one of these before facing the Fighting-type Gym Leader.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Mega Sableye's eyes are blood red, matching the large crystal it carries with it.
• The Rival: Sun and Moon reveals that Sableye compete with Gabite over Carbink, although the Pokédex says Gabite usually wins. (Which isn’t surprising, since Gabite is much stronger than Sableye, and also has a partial type advantage over Carbink^note Ground beats Rock, so Gabite stands a solid chance despite Fairy beating Dragon while Sableye is unmistakably at a disadvantage^note Fairy beats Dark.)
• Secret Art: The only Pokémon with the Stall ability. It can keep it.
• Slasher Smile: It has a large grin of razor-sharp teeth when its mouth is open. Most visible in its Pokémon Colosseum incarnation, where it smiles mischieviously after every hit.
• Soul Power: A Ghost-type, with moves like Spite, Nightmare and Astonish.
• Stone Wall: Mega Sableye has even less Speed than regular Sableye, slightly below average offenses, and large boosts to its Defense and Special Defense, in addition to Magic Bounce to stop most forms of status infliction. It has three immunities and is at least neutral to everything save for Fairy, and it has access to Recover and various status moves to wear enemies down through sheer attrition.
• Super Mode: Gains a Mega Evolution in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.
• Weak, but Skilled: All of Sableye's stats are pretty low compared to more specialized Pokémon, though access to the rare Prankster ability and a good support movepool mean that it can function as a decent Support Party Member.

Mawile (Kucheat)

0303: Mawile / Kucheat (クチート kuchiito)

Mawile

^{Mega Mawile}

Mega Mawile debuts in X and Y

It may look like a girl with a yellow dress, but take a look at its "hair" and it's easy to see why this monster is unusual. Based on the two-mouthed woman in Japanese mythology, it was the first pure-Steel type Pokémon, but it strangely learns many Dark-type moves. It's exclusive to Ruby. The big black mouth is actually a pair of horns it uses to look more intimidating and attack with. It gained the Fairy type in Generation VI, as well as a Mega Evolution. Its two giant mouths grant it the Huge Power Ability, making it the most powerful physical attacker in the game.

---

• Armored But Frail: Mega Mawile has a solid 125 Defense alongside a great defensive typing, but its base HP is the same as regular Mawile's, at just 50.
• Badass Back: Keeps its back turned towards the opponent in battle, obviously to make it easier to chomp the enemy with its mouth-hair.
• Characterization Marches On: Before Generation VII, the Pokédex stated that Mawile's massive jaws are modified horns. However, the Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon Pokédex claims that it's a fully functional mouth (albeit lacking a sense of taste). Sword and Shield go back to the jaws being modified horns.
• Combat Pragmatist: Even though it's not a Dark-type (it's Steel/Fairy), it learns so many Dark-type moves, including Fake Tears, Crunch, Taunt, and Sucker Punch, that it's easy to assume it's Dark-type at first glance. Pokédex entries mention it uses its cute appearance to lull opponents into letting it get close enough to make use of its massive jaws.
• Counter-Attack: One of two Pokémon that get the Metal Burst move through breeding to return all damage it took from the opponent with 50% interest.
• Crazy-Prepared: Since Gen IV, it's had a rare chance of holding an Occa Berry when found in the wild, which lets it weaken the first super-effective Fire-type attack used on it.
• Crutch Character: In Ruby, Mawile is found early in the game for a Steel-type, and can be quite hard for opponents to take out that early. However, its very low stats will cause it to struggle later on, and other, stronger Steel-types will become available to overshadow it.
• Cute Bruiser: Mega Mawile is an adorable Pokémon with the highest Attack stat in the series.
• Cute Monster Girl: Just try to ignore that growth on its back (and the fact that half of them are male) and it's adorable. However, be warned that it knows this and uses it to its advantage, as described under Combat Pragmatist.
• Developer's Foresight: In the Generation V games, if Mawile is used in the Pokémon Musical, its "back" sprite will be used as its front sprite instead, for a more proper musical.
• Extra-ore-dinary: Downplayed. It's a Steel-type, but you probably wouldn't know it the first time you ran into one (you'd more likely assume it's Dark type based on its moveset).
• The Fair Folk: Certainly fits, given its deceptive behavior and what it's based off of.
• Foil:
  • To Sableye, as both have the same base stat total and were version exclusives until Generation VI (and remain as such in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire), and in that particular generation, they have two of the best defensive typings and Mega Evolutions.
  • Their Mega Evolutions also contrast each other. While Mega Mawile focuses on offense, Mega Sableye focuses on defense.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Regular Mawile has mostly bad stats with a good defensive typing, but nothing else to make it stand out, unlike Sableye with its lack of weaknesses and its Action Initiative. Mega Mawile, meanwhile, has the highest attack stat in the series.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: The Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon Pokédex claims that Mawile's jaws are a fully functional mouth that lack a sense of taste, and Mawile uses it to eat food that it doesn't like. However, it'll still be confused when eating a confusion-causing berry while it hates the taste.
• Girlish Pigtails: Subverted. Those pigtails in its Mega Evolution are actually giant gaping jaws.
• Glacier Waif: Its Mega Evolution gets a hefty defense boost and the highest Attack in the game, although Mawile is very small in size. Of course, half of all Mawile are male.
• Hime Cut: Very subtly, it appears to sport one (especially in its Mega Evolution). It makes sense considering what it's based on.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Mega Mawile has been discovered to be by far the best Foul Play user in the game. Foul Play is a strong Dark-type attack that uses the opponent's attack to calculate damage. Sound like a waste of insane attack? It turns out that Foul Play also calculates the user's boosts, including Huge Power, meaning that the attack is working off the opponent's doubled attack. It can potentially One-Hit Kill a high-attack opponent like Salamence with a neutral, non-STAB attack.
• Killer Rabbit: Looks cute, which it uses to lure foes to its gaping jaws. And then there is the above Hoist by His Own Petard trope to consider as well.
• Master of None: Standard Mawile's stats are overall bad, with its highest being its Attack...which is only average.
• Mighty Glacier: Its Mega Evolution has much higher offensive and defensive stats to fit its fantastic typing, but its base Speed stat remains at that terrible 50 (though this can be bypassed with a well-timed Sucker Punch).
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: The second (and third as Mega Mawile) "mouth(s)."
• Off the Chart: After the boost from Huge Power, Mega Mawile's Attack stat exceeds Base 255 (the highest any stat can be).
• Our Fairies Are Different: Gains Fairy-type in Generation VI. It's rather more folkloric than most fairy-types, having elements of kobolds and Youkai.
• Oxymoronic Being: It still has its original Steel typing (read: what Fairy-types are most notably weak to) in conjunction with Fairy.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Mega Mawile is only a meter^note 3'03'' tall, yet hits harder with Physical moves than anything else in the game.
• Psycho Pink: Mega Mawile is stated to become more aggresive while gaining magenta coloration on its legs and arms.
• Super Mode: It has a Mega Evolution in X and Y, with the ability Huge Power.
• Too Many Mouths: Mawile has two mouths and it grows an extra mouth upon Mega Evolving.
• Took a Level in Badass: One of the Pokémon who benefited the most from Mega Evolution. Regular Mawile has abysmal stats and - unlike its counterpart Sableye, whose paltry stats were compensated by a versatile movepool and a powerful ability in Prankster - nothing to really make up for them (other than good resistances, rendered moot by the terrible stats, and the Intimidate ability, which has many better users). Mega Mawile got its base stats boosted by effectively over 200 points (100 from the Mega Evolution and more from the Huge Power doubling its already respectable 105 attack stat), turning into a monstrous tank that could truly abuse its massive amount of resistances and dish out ridiculous hurt in return. On top of that, it still got to make use of its best non-Mega feature (its Intimidate ability), since it still activated when Mawile switches in for the first time, before it Mega Evolved! Of course, the reason this entire entry uses past-tense is because this form is only available when playing Gen VI and Gen VII titles, due to Mega Evolution being removed completely from Sword and Shield afterwards.
• Youkai: Based on the futakuchi-onna (two-mouthed woman).

Aron, Lairon, and Aggron (Cokodora, Kodora, Bossgodora)

0304: Aron / Cokodora (ココドラ kokodora)
0305: Lairon / Kodora (コドラ kodora)
0306: Aggron / Bossgodora (ボスゴドラ bosugodora)

Aron

Lairon

Aggron

^{Mega Aggron}

Mega Aggron debuts in X and Y

Beastlike Pokémon that are Steel- and Rock-typed. They have a habit of eating any metal they come across, including those that make up railroads and building frames. They are quite territorial, with Lairon engaging in clashes marked with flying sparks, and Aggron will claim an entire mountain as its own and is decorated with scars on its metal body. Like most Steel- and Rock-types, their Defense is their strongest asset, with Aggron's being one of the highest in the entire franchise. Their Attack is good too, but its Speed and other stats are pretty low. Gains a Mega Evolution in X and Y that turns it into a pure Steel-type and gives it the ability Filter on top of a ridiculous Defense boost and formidable Attack boost.

---

• Bruiser with a Soft Center: Aggron is highly protective of the state of the environment in its territory, and in the case of a natural disaster, it will actively work to restore it by hauling in topsoil and planting trees.
• Confusion Fu: Aggron has a gigantic teachable movepool, varying from offensive moves like the elemental punches, Flamethrower/Ice Beam/Thunderbolt, Aqua Tail, and Outrage to support moves like Stealth Rock, Roar, and Thunder Wave.
• Counter-Attack: Gets the "counter anything" Metal Burst move. Combined with Sturdy (and its slowness), it will always succeed and do a load of damage to anything trying to exploit their weaknesses.
• Covered in Scars: Aggron's White 2 Dex entry mentions that the more wounds an Aggron has, the more battles it happens to have been in.
• Crafted from Animals: People are known to use the metal shell Aron sheds once it evolves as a source to create metal products.
• Crutch Character: Similar to Geodude in Kanto, it can be found very early in the Hoenn games and have pretty good defense and offense to hit hard and take punishment. Unfortunately, its typing and low Sp. Def leave it highly open to its increasingly common weaknesses later in the game.
• Discard and Draw: Upon Mega Evolving, Aggron loses its Rock-type and becomes a pure Steel-Type, thus dropping its Rock-type STAB, and losing its Water-type weakness to being weak to Fire-type while taking less damage from its Ground- and Fighting-type weaknesses. It also loses its existing Ability in exchange for Filter, toning down any super-effective attack.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Part Rock-type. Mega Aggron loses this to become a pure Steel-type.
• Eat Dirt, Cheap: Aron and Lairon are known for eating iron and steel.
• Extra-ore-dinary: Part Steel-type with metal armor.
• Foil: They become this to the Larvitar line in Pokémon X and Y. Both of them are Mighty Glaciers that evolve twice, are version exclusives, are part Rock-type, take massive damage from Fighting-type attacks, and have Mega Evolutions that make them even stronger Mighty Glaciers. Additionally, while Aggron is known to preserve its environment, Tyranitar is known to destroy it.
• Goomba Stomp: Can learn Heavy Slam, which deals more damage the heavier the user is compared to the target. An Aggron with its hidden ability Heavy Metal will make Heavy Slam hit even harder, since Heavy Metal doubles its weight (360 kg by default).
• Green Thumb: Aggron can learn Solar Beam, but it's also one in a more literal sense; as mentioned in Bruiser with a Soft Center, in the case of a natural disaster, Aggron will actively work to restore the environment in its territory by hauling in topsoil and planting trees.
• Horn Attack: While it doesn't learn Horn Attack or Megahorn, Aggron is mentioned to attack its enemies by ramming into them horn first, and its horns are capable of punching through iron sheets and bedrock.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Implied by Aggron's incredibly sharp horns and its ability to learn Head Smash. Ouch!
• Last Chance Hit Point: Can have the ability Sturdy, which gives this effect if they're at full HP when hit with a move that would otherwise one-shot them. Combine with Metal Burst to spring a nasty surprise to those who recklessly try to exploit any of its double weaknesses.
• Magically Inept Fighter: True to the tradition of Rock-Types, the line leans heavily on the physical side, with high physical defense and high attack. Despite Aggron's versatile special movepool, its lacks the Special Attack to use them effectively.
• Metal Muncher: Aron and its evolutions eat iron, which makes them a nuisance to railroads.
• Mighty Glacier: Aggron has great physical Defense backed by a decent Attack stat, meaning it can take and dish damage well... as long as it's not Fighting, Ground, Water, or nearly any strong Special Attack whatsoever. Gen V made Sturdy more useful and its Mega Evolution removes its Rock typing, not only ridding it of many weaknesses, but adds Filter to cushion super-effective moves, and boosts its Defense to be the Mightiest Glacier (physically) in the game (to put this in perspective, it would take three Earthquakes from Garchomp to KO it with maxed-out Defense), tying Shuckle for the highest Defense, while also boosting its Attack so that it exceeds that of Salamence.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Exaggerated with Aggron's Japanese name. Specifically, Bossgodora ^note That's equivalent to Boss God Dragon!. It's almost comical how ridiculously intimidating that name is.
• Non-Malicious Monster: A recurring theme in their Pokédex entries is the friction caused between them and humans. For example, Aron occasionally descend from their mountain habitats and start eating steel constructs such as rails and bridges, and Lairon usually clash with humans who attempt to mine the iron ore it usually nests nearby. As for Aggron... "territorial" is an understatement. But while it will viciously attack any intruders upon its territory, it will also work diligently to preserve its territory, and it will work just as diligently to restore its territory if a natural disaster wrecks it. We humans could learn something from Aggron's example.
• Pintsized Powerhouse: Aron is only 16 inches (0.4 meters) tall and can (according to Pokédex entries) destroy a dump truck with a charging attack. Which it then eats.
• Prehistoric Animal Analogue: Lairon and (more obviously) Aggron. Aggron resembles a cross between a Triceratops and a T. rex.
• Primal Stance: Mega Aggron is noticeably hunched over and lower to the ground than its base form, likely due to its heavier armor.
• Recurring Element: Mechanically speaking, the Aron line is Hoenn's equivalent to the Geodude line. It's a three-stage rock type family with a stat distribution greatly favoring the physical side, and it's blessed with typing useful for the early game. However, said typing can also plateau later on, when stronger threats arrive that can capitalize on this Pokémon's weak special defense and two glaring weaknesses.
• Regional Redecoration: Aggron does the inverse of Tyranitar, restoring its environment after natural disasters such as landslides or fire by hauling over topsoil and planting trees.
• Super Mode: Gains a Mega Evolution in X and Y.
• Super-Toughness: Mega Aggron has Filter, which reduces the damage it receives from super-effective attacks.
• Switch-Out Move: Can be taught Dragon Tail, which forces the target Pokémon out and drags in another.
• Use Your Head: They can have Head Smash bred onto them, and not suffer the recoil damage if they have the Rock Head ability. This made them take at least five levels in badass, considering the huge power of Head Smash.
• Useless Useful Spell: Aggron might know a lot of moves, but a good chunk of its movepool is Special, which is useless, since Aggron is a physical attacker.
• Weak to Magic: While it has great Defense, its lackluster Special Defense makes it certain any special attacker (especially Ground- and Fighting- type special moves) will turn it into compost.

Meditite and Medicham (Asanan and Charem)

0307: Meditite / Asanan (アサナン asanan)
0308: Medicham / Charem (チャーレム chaaremu)

Meditite

Medicham

^{Mega Medicham}

Mega Medicham debuts in X and Y

Pokémon that are Fighting and Psychic-typed, probably based on meditating monks. Thanks to their signature Pure Power ability, their Attack is doubled, making it quite high. They are one of the few Pokémon to learn the risky but very powerful High Jump Kick. It gained a Mega Evolution in X and Y, which makes it stronger still.

---

• Action Initiative: Can be bred with Fake Out and Bullet Punch, which always go first. They can also learn the special attack Vacuum Wave from Generation IV move tutors, though it is much weaker than the prior two priority attacks due to not benefiting from Pure Power.
• All Monks Know Kung-Fu: It uses spiritual power to detect the opponent's move and beat them.
• Aura Vision: Medicham is stated to have the ability to see the auras of its opponents.
• Badass Adorable: Meditite may look cute, but their Pure Power ability can potentially give them an attack stat on par with Gyarados.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Part Fighting-types that are based on monks.
• Big Eater: Inverted, they're known to eat only a single Berry per day as part of their Training from Hell.
• Dance Battler: Medicham is said to battle with "elegant, dance-like movements" in some of its Pokedex entries.
• Death or Glory Attack: the line naturally learn High Jump Kick, which has huge power but costs them 50% of their total HP if it fails to hit their target.
• Fire, Ice, Lightning: Medicham can naturally have the three elemental punches, though they have to be relearned.
• Foil: To Hariyama. Both of them are strong fighting-types, but Medicham gets that way by starving itself, sharpening its mind, and tapping into its mystical power.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: In Generations III-V, Meditite is in a Levitating Lotus Position in its battle sprite. However, it never had Levitate as an ability, not even as a Hidden Ability. Averted in Generation VI onwards, where its battle model shows it standing, and it only enters a Levitating Lotus Position when using a special attack.
• Glass Cannon: With Pure Power, Medicham can hit harder than Black Kyurem. Its other stats range from mediocre to terrible.
• Heal Thyself: Naturally learn Recover, a move that heals the user for 50% of their total HP when used.
• Lightning Bruiser: Its Mega Evolution has increased Speed and Attack (maxing out at 656 Attack, the second-highest after Mega Mawile). It still hits harder normally due to its powerful High Jump Kick. Its defenses also increase, though it still isn't particularly bulky.
• Micro Dieting: Part of Meditite's strict training regime involves eating only a single berry a day, in comparison to Makuhita, who eats a lot to pack its body with energy.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Medicham creates four ghostly arms upon Mega Evolving. It uses these arms for physical attacks instead of its actual arms.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: Their limbs are about as thick as a leek, yet their Attack is one of the highest due to their ability.
• Pintsized Powerhouse: Medicham, both in its base form and Mega Evolved, is only 4'3 and 69.4 pounds, but thanks to its Ability it can have an Attack stat on par with Legendaries and, in Mega Medicham's case, even higher. In fact, its Attack stat is only beaten by Mega Mawile.
• Power-Up Letdown: Not only is Telepathy — its Hidden Ability — utterly useless in Single Battles and at best situational in Double or Triple Battles, losing the Pure Power ability strips it of its best stat.
• Psychic Powers: Part Psychic-types, naturally they can learn Psychic moves.
• Secret Art: Pure Power, which doubles their otherwise ineffectual Attack stat. It has the same effect as Huge Power, the former signature ability of the Marill line.
• Super Mode: Gained a Mega Evolution in X and Y. It doesn't gain anything other than some stat boosts, but those boosts are all it really needed to see a return to something akin to its Gen III glory days and then some. Not only does 100 base Speed mean that it's going to outpace a ton of things that it previously wasn't able to, but its boosted Attack combines with Pure Power for a possible maximum of 656, meaning that if you eat a High Jump Kick, there's no way in hell you're getting up from it unless your typing all but nullifies Fighting-type attacks.
• Status Buff: The only Baton Pass user (aside from a few Pokémon that don't learn Baton Pass normally but could get it from being purified in XD: Gale of Darkness) that also learns Acupressure, a move that boosts a random stat by two levels. If it's lucky enough to buff its defenses and/or evasion early, it can potentially maximize every stat and then pass it to something else.
• Training from Hell:
  • Their training involves them practically starving themselves alongside intense yoga and meditation sessions that, if Maylene's Meditite in Masters is of any indication, last pretty much the whole day.
  • Exaggerated with Medicham, who's said to be able to meditate for a month without eating.

Electrike and Manectric (Rakurai and Livolt)

0309: Electrike / Rakurai (ラクライ rakurai)
0310: Manectric / Livolt (ライボルト raiboruto)

Electrike

Manectric

^{Mega Manectric}

Mega Manetric debuts in X and Y

Canine-like Pokémon that are Electric-typed, based on the mythical Raijū. They build up electricity in their fur from running at high speeds, which can heighten their senses or summon thunderclouds. Typical of the typing, they are fast, frail Special Attackers. In X and Y, it gained a Mega Evolution that's faster, stronger, spikier, and more intimidating.

---

• Animal Jingoism: They're electric wolves with Minus as their Hidden Ability, while the Mareep family are electric sheep with Plus.
• Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Manectric's mouth, when closed, looks like a crocodile clip, and Mega Manectric's fur is shaped like a lightning bolt.
• Berserk Button: Don't touch Manectric's muzzle in Pokémon-Amie.
• Boss Battle: Manectric in Emerald is the signature Mon of Wattson.
• The Dreaded: Mega Manectric has the ability Intimidate, which lowers the opponent's Attack when it enters battle. It also activates on the turn Manectric Mega Evolves. Strangely, it gets no in-universe reason for why it suddenly has the ability.
• Elemental Absorption: With Lightningrod, using an Electric-type move on it will just boost its Special Attack even further.
• Fast as Lightning: Electric-types that use lightning to move more quickly.
• Foil:
  • Pokémon X and Y sets them up as foils to the Houndoom line. Both of them are canine Glass Cannon and Fragile Speedster combos who evolve once, are version exclusives (Houndour is exclusive to X and UltraSun while Electrike is exclusive to Y and UltraMoon), and have Mega Evolutions that turn them into Lightning Bruisers.
  • Pokémon Sword and Shield makes them this to their fellow Electric-type canines, the Yamper line, as while Electrike and Manectric tend to rarely appear before people and aggressively chase them in the wild, Yamper and Boltund are close to humans and friendly (In the previous form) in the wild.
• Fragile Speedster: Manectric is really frail but pretty fast. Mega Manectric is slightly less frail, but is also tied with Mega Lopunny as the 6th-fastest Pokémon in the franchise.
• Man Bites Man: Naturally learns the biting moves Bite, Thunder Fang, and Fire Fang, and can be bred to have Ice Fang and Crunch.
• Playing with Fire: Manectric naturally learn the biting move Fire Fang (though you need to take it to a move relearner) and can be bred with Flame Burst, both damaging Fire-type attacks. It can also learn Flamethrower and Overheat via TM in Generation IV and on.
• Raijū: Manectric resembles a blue-and-yellow wolf with a prominent lightning theme, and physically resembles the Raiju more than Raikou itself does.
• Shock and Awe: Electric-types based off of wolves or possibly Raiju.
• Squishy Wizard: Manectric's Special Attack is just as good as its Speed, but it's very frail.
• Status Effects: Its Static ability gives it a chance to inflict Paralysis on opponents that physically strike it.
• Super Mode: Manectric gains a Mega Evolution in X and Y. It becomes much stronger and faster.
• Useless Useful Spell: For some odd reason, Curse is among the moves it can be bred with, even though using it is probably one of the worst things it could possibly do, seeing as how it sacrifices one of its two best stats just to boost its weaker attacking stat and one of its paper-thin defenses.
• Wonder Twin Powers: Their Hidden Ability is Minus, which is only activated when a Pokémon with the Plus ability (or another Minus in Gen V) is fighting alongside it, providing it with a nice boost to its already enviable Special Attack.
• Youkai: May be based off the Raiju, an elemental creature of lightning that is said to take the shape of certain mammals like a wolf.

Plusle (Prasle) and Minun

0311: Plusle / Prasle (プラスル purasuru)
0312: Minun (マイナン mainan)

Plusle

Minun

Cheerleading Electric-type rabbits personifying positive and negative charges. Considered the Pikachu clones of Hoenn, they are version counterparts of each other. Minun is more common in Ruby while Plusle is more common in Sapphire. Their abilities, Plus and Minus respectively, are meant for Double Battles, as when both are in play, their Special Attack increases.

---

• Action Initiative: Both can learn Quick Attack.
• Elemental Absorption: Lightning Rod causes Electric-type moves to raise Plusle's Special Attack, while Volt Absorb causes Electric-type moves to restore Minun's HP.
• Fragile Speedster: Both of them are decently fast and have about average special stats. Their stats are mostly identical to each other, only with Plusle having better offenses while Minun has better defenses.
• Fun Personified: They like to cheer and are rarely taken seriously by most people.
• Kid-Appeal Character: They're meant to repeat Pikachu's popularity.
• Our Fairies Are Different: Not Fairy-types, but both of them are in the Fairy Egg Group.
• Palette Swap: They share the same typing, BST, stat spread and overall design, only differing in color, markings and tail shape. When they were introduced in Gen III, their only differences were ability^note Even though Plus and Minus are mechanically the same, stat allocation and two moves, one of which was an event move. Since then, they have grown a bit more different, though the number of different moves they have can still be counted in one hand.
• Poor, Predictable Rock: While their support moveset is colorful enough to make them worth in a battle, the number of usable attacks they learn is pitiful. It's mostly Electric-type attacks, Grass Knot and Signal Beam...and Signal Beam doesn't even exist in the generation eight games.
• Quirky Bard: They were clearly created to promote the then-new Double Battles, with an Ability that kicks in when both Plusle and Minun are out. Unfortunately, getting them to be at their best requires using up two team slots on identically-typed Pokémon with similar lousy stats and shallow movepools. They've got it even worse in Generation V, when other, much better, Pokémon obtained Plus and Minus as their Hidden Abilities, so now they're even being outdone at their own gimmick.
• Recurring Element: Of Pikachu, considered to be the Pikaclones of Generation III, thanks to being electric mice.
• Secret Art: In Gen III, Plus for Plusle and Minus for Minun. This is no longer the case as of Gen V. As Pikaclones, they're also one of the few Pokémon that can learn Nuzzle.
• Shock and Awe: As expected of Pikachu clones, they are Electric-types.
• Support Party Member: As part of their Double Battles gimmick, they have a lot of support moves; Helping Hand, Fake Tears, Charm, Encore, Wish and Light Screen are the most notable. They were also some of the first Pokémon to get Entrainment in Gen V, Plus and Minus were changed to work with themselves, and in Gen VI got Lightning Rod and Volt Absorb as Hidden Abilities; this allows them to share either a Special Attack boost with their teammates, or give an Electric-weak Pokémon an immunity to said attacks.
• Theme Twin Naming: Plus and Minus.
• Those Two Guys: Almost always seen alongside each other. In fact, the Plus and Minus abilities, which used to be exclusive to them and were pretty much made for them, only work in conjunction with each other.
• Wonder Twin Powers:
  • Their respective abilities, Plus and Minus, only work in conjunction with each other, until Generation V where other Pokémon can have the same ability.
  • In an interesting development, Gen V, in addition to allowing Plus to work with Plus and Minus to work with Minus, also gave both Plusle and Minun the Entrainment move, which lets them force any target to have the same Ability that they do, allowing them to get this boost from any allied Pokémon, as well as give them a Sp. Atk. buff. Just make sure that whatever Plusle/Minun are working alongside isn't too attached to the Ability they already have...

Volbeat (Barubeat) and Illumise

0313: Volbeat / Barubeat (バルビート barubiito)
0314: Illumise (イルミーゼ irumiize)

Volbeat

Illumise

Two fireflies who are classified as different species, they are respectively male and female versions of each other. Illumise is even able to produce Volbeat through breeding. According to the 'dex, Illumise emits a scent that attracts Volbeat, and the Volbeat will fly around the sky in elaborate patterns with its tail glowing to woo the Illumise.

---

• Action Initiative: Both of them have Prankster as their Hidden Ability, which boosts the priority of status moves.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Illumise, who resembles a proper lady, is attracted to Volbeat, who resembles a greaser.
• All Your Powers Combined: As mentioned below, Volbeat is almost specifically designed to Baton Pass Special Attack boosts.
• Balance Buff: Both of them got a boost to Defense and Special Defense in Gen VII, which increases their survivability... and not much else.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: These Bug-types are two feet tall fireflies and in the Human-type egg group.
• Department of Redundancy Department: Volbeat's regular abilities, Swarm and Illuminate. The game doesn't tell you this, but Swarm shares Illuminate's effect of increasing wild Pokémon encounter rates.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Volbeat made its first appearance in Camp Pikachu, a Pikachu short that played alongside Pokémon Heroes.
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Volbeat has higher Attack while Illumise has higher Special Attack.
• Light 'em Up: Volbeat naturally learns Flash as well as Signal Beam.
• Lunacy: They naturally learn Moonlight.
• Master of None: Their stats are rounded but low, with a base stat total of just 430. Speed is their best stat, but 85 is not that fast compared to most Pokémon.
• Scissors Cuts Rock: One of Illumise's abilities is Tinted Lens, boosting ineffective attacks back up to neutral ones.
• Secret Art: Volbeat had Tail Glow (that is actually named Firefly Light in Japan) in Generation III. Signal Beam, too, at least before FireRed and LeafGreen. Although the move is a common HM or TM, Volbeat is the only Pokémon that naturally learn Flash.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: They attract each other.
• Support Party Member: Both of them are pretty much designed as Baton Pass specialists. Volbeat has low defenses, but gets Tail Glow to pass Special Attack boosts to a teammate, while Illumise has higher defenses that allow it to pass Wish and Substitute more consistently. They gained Prankster on Generation V to aid with this role, on top of Tail Glow being buffed to boost Special Attack by 3 stages.
• Status Buff: Volbeat learns the incredibly potent Tail Glow, which boosts Special Attack by 3 stages since Generation V.
• Turns Red: Volbeat can have the Swarm ability, boosting its Bug attacks while it's at low health.

Budew (Subomie), Roselia, and Roserade

0406: Budew / Subomie (スボミー subomii)
0315: Roselia (ロゼリア rozeria)
0407: Roserade (ロズレイド rozureido)

Budew

Roselia

Roserade

Budew and Roserade debut in Diamond and Pearl

A Grass and Poison-typed Pokémon with roses for arms. These roses contain powerful toxins which, when mixed together, can yield fatal results. Unlike most Grass/Poison-types, this one is a bit speedier. Once a standalone Pokémon in Generation III, Roselia was given a baby form as well as an evolved form in Diamond and Pearl. Roserade is one of the only third-stage evolutions that can be legitimately obtained at Level 1, as Roselia can be hatched from an egg and only requires a Shiny Stone to evolve.

---

• Alluring Flowers: Roserade is noted in its Pokédex descriptions to lure prey to itself by using the sweet scent of the roses growing at the end of its arms. Once its target is close enough, it takes it down using vines bristling with venomous thorns. According to its entries in HeartGold and SoulSilver, the sweetness of its scent is directly correlated to the power of its poison.
• Always Accurate Attack: Roserade can learn Magical Leaf at Level 1, which can legitimately be obtained through hatching Roselia and using a Shiny Stone as soon as it hatches. Magical Leaf ignores accuracy checks and with Roserade's Hidden Ability Technician, the move's power rises from 60 to 90, giving Roserade a powerful STAB special attack that can only dodged by going underground/water or into the sky.
• Armless Biped: Budew appears to lack arms, but they are in fact small buds curled up above its head. It can open them slightly to reveal red and blue spots that will presumably grow into its roses as a Roselia.
• Ascended Extra: Back in Generation III, Roselia was a single stage Pokémon with only one great stat (its 100 Special Attack) that was typically passed up in favor of other Grass types such as Sceptile, Ludicolo, and the Oddish family. The Sinnoh games would be far kinder to it: it was given a pre-evolution in Budew and an even more powerful evolution in Roserade, and Budew was easy to find in the early routes, resulting in Roserade being a powerful ally for many players.
• Badass Cape: Roserade has a leafy one to go with its masquerade motif. The female's cape is longer than the male's.
• Berserk Button: Roselia does not like having its flower-hands touched in Pokémon-Amie, though this is more to protect you than anything else, as said flowers are poisonous. Strangely, when it evolves into Roserade, it actually starts to prefer you touching its hands instead.
• Boss Battle: Roserade is the strongest Mon of Gardenia, the second gym leader of Sinnoh. Cynthia also has one on on her own team.
• Casting a Shadow: Can be taught Shadow Ball to cover its weakness to Psychic-types.
• Combat Medic: Learns Aromatherapy to heal its allies of status conditions as well Life Dew in Generation VIII, and still has enough offensive power to fight on its own too.
• Dance Battler: Roserade makes movements similar to a dancer when it's fighting.
• Domino Mask: Roserade has darker leaves around its eyes forming a mask-like shape.
• Eyes Always Shut: This was Roselia's sprite for a long time until Platinum.
• The Fair Folk: Invoked. Both Roselia and Roserade are pretty feminine flower creatures, but they're all too happy to unleash the deadly poisons stored in their flower-hands. Amusingly, as of Gen VI, their typing gives them an advantage over Fairy-types. They're also in the Fairy Egg Group.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Roserade's flower-hands are lethally poisonous according to the Pokédex, but can be petted in Pokémon-Amie with no ill effects.
• Garden Garment: Roserade's "vest" and "cape" are made out of leaves.
• Glass Cannon: Roserade's Special Attack is equal to Exeggutor's — that is, really freaking good. Unlike Exeggutor, Roserade has passable speed and good Special Defense at 105, though Exeggutor does have higher Defense and HP.
• Green Thumb: Grass-types based off of roses.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Roselia has only a leaf-like flap on its front, and Roserade has just a vest and a cape.
• Healing Factor:
  • Their Natural Cure Ability removes any Status Effects that are on them when they switch out.
  • They learn Ingrain naturally. Add Leech Seed, Synthesis, and/or its Life Drain attacks for even greater effect.
• Heal Thyself: Naturally learn Synthesis as Roselia, healing 50% of its total HP.
• High Collar of Doom: The leaf on the back of Roserade's top rose mimics one.
• Informed Ability: Roserade's Pokédex entries say that it uses whips hidden in its arms to attack prey and opponents. And yet it was unable to learn a whip move until Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon (and even then, it would rather use a Special Move such as Giga Drain or Energy Ball).
• Life Drain: Naturally learns the three Grass-type draining attacks, as well as Leech Seed.
• Making a Splash: As Budew, it can learn Water Sport, which effectively cancels out its weakness to Fire attacks.
• Masquerade Ball: Roserade's main concept, using dance-like animations and wearing a mask and cape.
• Nonhumans Lack Attributes: It's rather noticeable here, due to Roserade's clothes-like markings leaving its lower front uncovered, and Roselia having nothing to cover the back. Being plants, it's perfectly justified.
• Not Completely Useless: In X and Y, Hidden Power's Power became fixed at 60 and no longer based on the Pokémon's stats. With its Hidden Ability, Technician, Roserade can now have a 90 power Special Attack of whatever type it wants (except Fairy).
• Not Drawn to Scale: Very much so in the anime. Drew's Roselia comes up to his waist◊ indicating that they're really tall in the anime. Needless to say, this got rather weird for people when Pokémon Adventures and Pokémon Colosseum showed the Thorn Pokémon at its proper height of only a foot tall.
• Our Fairies Are Different: As mentioned above, the line belongs in the Fairy Egg Group despite not being Fairy-types.
• Petal Power: It learns Petal Dance and Petal Blizzard.
• Pintsized Powerhouse: Roserade isn't even three feet tall (except in the anime), yet it's tied with Exeggutor for the highest Special Attack of all Grass-types that aren't Mega Evolutions.
• Plant Person: Roselia and Roserade are humanoid roses.
• Poisonous Person: The only Grass/Poison Pokémon outside of Generations I and V. Additionally, they can have the Poison Point Ability, which may poison opponents that physically strike them.
• Psychic Powers: One of Budew's Egg Moves is Extrasensory, a Psychic-type attack that utilizes a "peculiar power" to deal damage.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Budew is a tiny baby rose bud that's only 8 inches tall.
• Similar Squad: In Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum, this is The Rival's answer to the Turtwig line if he doesn't have one.
• Something about a Rose: Roselia and Roserade have roses as hands. Roserade's are filled with poisons that it may jab into targets.
• Squishy Wizard: Roserade has above-average Special bulk but sub-par Physical bulk.
• Trap Master: They naturally learn the entry hazard Toxic Spikes and can be bred to know Spikes too.

Gulpin and Swalot (Gokulin and Marunoom)

0316: Gulpin / Gokulin (ゴクリン gokurin)
0317: Swalot / Marunoom (マルノーム marunoomu)

Gulpin

Swalot

These poison-typed Pokémon will eat anything they come across. That includes berries, tires, trash, anything. The digestive juices inside their stomachs will digest anything except itself. They are also able to wield quite a few sludge-based attacks.

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• Acid Attack: They're heavily themed around gastric acids, and can learn moves such as Acid Armor and Gastro Acid.
• Anti-Regeneration: They have the Liquid Ooze ability, which causes Pokémon that use Life Drain moves against them to take damage instead of getting healed.
• Big Eater: The clue is in their names. They also get Gluttony as their Hidden Ability, which lets them eat berries that are normally eaten at 25% HP remaining that either heal HP or boost a stat at 50% HP instead.
• Blob Monster: Swalot looks more like the archetypical blob monster seen in many a B-horror flick, though it isn't exactly as amorphous.
• Cartoon Creature: It's hard to chalk up what this line is exactly supposed to be besides living, breathing stomachs. It may take inspiration from giant amoeba that utilize pseudopodia.
• Confusion Fu: The line has a surprising variety of types of moves they can learn, which besides the obvious STAB Poison and omnipresent Normal, they can learn a Ground, Bug, Ghost, Fire, Water, Grass, Electric, Psychic, Ice, and if transferred from a previous generation, Rock or Fighting type move.
• Extreme Omnivore: Swalot moreso than Gulpin, though they both qualify regardless. The biggest thing Swalot can eat is the tire off a car, and both of them have stomach acid that can dissolve anything, including scrap iron, and since it has no teeth, it instead lets the stomach acid melt anything that gets swallowed whole. Could you imagine if it was something that was living? However, there is one thing Swalot and Gulpin couldn't eat even if they tried: their own stomachs.
• Eyes Always Shut: Gulpin's eyes are always closed, and being a Poison-type and a glutton, it is not a pleasant Pokémon to be around.
• Growling Gut: Both of their cries aptly sound like a stomach growling.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Its Liquid Ooze ability can subject users of Life Drain attacks to this, as it causes them to lose health instead of regain it.
• Poisonous Person: Poison-types that are basically nothing but living stomachs.
• Power Nullifier: Naturally learn Gastro Acid, which removes the target's ability.
• Recurring Element: Based on the Grimer line as a two-stage Poison-type Blob Monster.
• Status Buff: It can learn Stockpile, Curse, Acid Armor, and Amnesia, which boost its defensive stats further.
• Stone Wall: Sports a hefty HP stat and good defenses against both physical and special attacks, but has subpar offenses and is really slow.
• Super Spit: Naturally learns Acid Spray, Belch, Gastro Acid, and the Stockpile/Swallow/Spit Up trio.
• Taking You with Me: Can be bred with Destiny Bond, KO'ing the opponent if they KO Swalot with their next move.
• Youkai: Bears a slight resemblance to the Nuppeppo, being an amorphous Blob Monster with vestigial appendages.

Carvanha and Sharpedo (Kibanha and Samehader)

0318: Carvanha / Kibanha (キバニア kibania)
0319: Sharpedo / Samehader (サメハダー samehadaa)

Carvanha

Sharpedo

^{Mega Sharpedo}

Mega Sharpedo debuts in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire

Carvanha is a piranha-like Pokémon that can initially only be found in the river near Mauville City. Sharpedo is a shark-like Pokémon that is pretty easy to find once you get the Super Rod. Their offensive stats and speed are all incredible, but it suffers from low defensive stats. It gained a Mega Evolution in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire that gives it a boost in all stats and the ability Strong Jaw. Despite their ferocity, Sharpedo in Alola are used to ferry people across the water as a Poké Ride. They have enough speed and power to even smash through boulders.

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• Action Initiative: Naturally learn Aqua Jet to strike first.
• Always a Bigger Fish: Sharpedo can tear apart a supertanker and is known as the "bully of the sea"...but it's also hunted by humans who want to use their fins as food.
• Boss Battle: Sharpedo is the signature Mon of Archie in Sapphire, Emerald, and Alpha Sapphire. It can even Mega Evolve in the latter. Doubles as Recurring Boss and Climax Boss.
• Combat Pragmatist: Dark-types, and they can learn Crunch, Assurance, and Night Slash. Compared to most Dark-types, though, it lacks their variety of status attacks that are the Dark-type's forte.
• Covered with Scars: The yellow patterns on Mega Sharpedo are said to be scars.
• Dirty Coward: According to various Pokédex entries, Carvanha attack in groups due to being too timid to hunt alone.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Sharpedo can learn Earthquake via TM.
• Foil: To the Camerupt line. While both of them have good Attack and Special Attack along with a Mega Evolution, Sharpedo is a Water-type, has better Speed, and is the signature Pokémon of Team Aqua's leader Archie.
• Fragile Speedster: It has good speed, plus a Hidden Ability that makes it even faster, but it can't take a hit.
• Glass Cannon: Sharpedo has solid Attack and decent Special Attack and Speed, but its defenses are on par with Bidoof, and average HP doesn't help. Its Mega Evolution makes it only marginally bulkier (basically, it means that it might be able to squeak by with a sliver of HP as opposed to just conking out the minute it takes any sort of hit), but it also allows it to hit a hell of a lot harder and provides it with just enough extra Speed to outpace more things that it previously couldn't.
• Loophole Abuse: Any boosts given by Speed Boost will remain after Mega Evolving, so holding off a turn or two before doing so will make Mega Sharpedo extremely difficult to out-speed without a priority attack.
• Magic Knight: Both regular and Mega Sharpedo have a great Attack stat backed by a decent Special Attack, so it can hit you from either side if it wanted to.
• Making a Splash: Water-types based off of a piranha and shark, respectively.
• Man Bites Man: Can learn Bite, Crunch, Ice Fang, Poison Fang, and Psychic Fangs (and is the only Pokémon other than Bruxish able to learn the latter). Mega Sharpedo's Strong Jaw ability encourages this by making them stronger, and its biting is said to have devastating effects on ships (be they wooden or metal).
• Mix-and-Match Creatures: Regular Sharpedo is a mix of a shark and ocean sunfish. Mega Sharpedo is also a mix of several species of shark: its general appearance is based on the great white and blue sharks. Its snout is long and serrated, like a sawfish; its yellow markings bring a literal interpretation of the tiger shark.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Sharpedo definitely did not earn the nickname of "Bully of the Sea" by being friendly creatures.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Sharpedo is a mix between a torpedo, a shark, and an ocean sunfish. Mega Sharpedo has spikes on its snout that make it resemble a sawfish (though on Mega Sharpedo, these are retractable spikes and in the game only visible during certain attack animations).
• Piranha Problem: Carvanha can tear through boat hulls and they attack in swarms.
• Power-Up Mount:
  • Sharpedo is one of the few Pokémon in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire with a unique model when used for Surfing or Diving, and it moves twice as fast compared to other Pokémon. Unfortunately, you won't be able to fish anything from on top of it because it's risky to let go of Sharpedo's fin.
  • Sharpedo reprises this role in Pokémon Sun and Moon as a Ride Pokémon. Compared to Lapras, Sharpedo is faster and can break through boulders in the water. Like the Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire version, the player can't fish from Sharpedo's back.
• Ripped from the Headlines: Its Moon dex entry mentions that large numbers of it were previously hunted by humans for their fins as a food source, a not-so-subtle reference to the real-life shark fin controversy.
• The Rival: According to Carvanha's Ultra Moon Dex entry, they fight with Basculin over food.
• The Spiny: The original users of the Rough Skin ability, which damages attacking enemies on contact and probably would be more impressive if they could actually take a hit.
• Super Mode: Sharpedo gained a Mega Evolution in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.
• Taking You with Me: As of X and Y, they can be bred to know Destiny Bond to KO their opponent if they KO it.
• Threatening Shark: Sharpedo is said to be so destructive, it only takes one of these creatures to sink and destroy a supertanker. In the Isle of Armor expansion to Pokémon Sword and Shield, they are overworld encounters in the water. They are very aggressive and will actively pursue the player faster than the player can outrun them.
• Useless Useful Spell: The ability Rough Skin^note  Deals 12.5% damage to an opposing Pokémon that makes contact with this Pokémon is amazing... the only problem being that the Sharpedo line can't take a hit, heavily reducing its potential.

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