Characters / Pokémon: Generation IX - Tinkatink to Miraidon

Main Character Index > Pokémon: Generation IX Families > Sprigatito to Espathra (906-956) | Tinkatink to Miraidon (957-978, 996-1004, 1007-1008) | Paradox Pokémon (984-995, 1005-1006, 1009-1010, 1020-1023)

The character sheet for the ninth generation's Pokémon got so big that it had to be split. This page has the tropes for Pokémon numbered 957 to 978, 996 to 1004 and 1007-1008 in the National Pokédex. For the rest, go here. For the Paradox Pokémon, go here. For Pokédex debuting in DLC, go to the main list here.

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Tinkatink, Tinkatuff, and Tinkaton (Kanuchan, Nakanuchan, and Dekanuchan)

0957: Tinkatink / Kanuchan (カヌチャン kanuchan)
0958: Tinkatuff / Nakanuchan (ナカヌチャン nakanuchan)
0959: Tinkaton / Dekanuchan (デカヌチャン dekanuchan)

Tinkatink

Tinkatuff

Tinkaton

An all-female line of Fairy/Steel type metalworkers and blacksmiths. They always carry hammers that they made themselves from scraps of iron. These hammers get larger and larger as they evolve, and as a result they're constantly on the search for more metal to incorporate into their hammers. They're also not above targeting other Steel-type Pokémon for this goal.

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• Badass Adorable: They're small, adorable, all-female sprites. They also wield increasingly large hammers, are very aggressive towards other Steel-types (especially to the Pawniard line), and are noted to even go as far as harassing Corviknight purely for the fun of it. Their signature move, Gigaton Hammer, has a base power of 160, with the drawback of it not being able to be used twice in a row. It's not a recharge turn, no, you can still use other moves. If their Attack stat wasn't so middling, this Pokémon line would be a nightmare for anything to deal with.
• Boss Battle: Tinkaton serves as Steel-type specialist Elite Four Poppy’s ace Pokémon.
• Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon: Being a line of partly Steel-type metalworkers, they all wield hammers that they make themselves from scrap metal that they collect, typically by stealing it from other Steel-type Pokémon. While these Pokémon may not be brutish in appearance, they're certainly brutish in personality due to their tendency to attack other Steel-types. Tinkaton even gets a 160-power Steel-type Secret Art in Gigaton Hammer, which is depicted as her flattening the enemy with her trademark weapon.
• Combat Pragmatist: The line learns a few Dark-type moves naturally, like Brutal Swing and Knock Off. Tinkaton's Pokédex entry also states that they harass Corvikight by knocking rocks at them with their hammers while they fly, which is considered a "daring" feat.
• Cute Bruiser: Adorable pink sprites that carry increasingly large hammers. Indeed, the hammer seems to make up the vast majority of the described 248.7 pound "weight" of Tinkaton, as her actual body is only about a foot taller than her 19-pound first stage and the hammer is stated to weigh 220 pounds.
• Cute and Psycho:
  • Tinkatuff are known for attacking groups of Pawniard and Bisharp to beat them up and take their armor to make their hammers.
  • Tinkaton is stated to routinely use her hammer to launch rocks at other Steel types, such as Corviknights, despite this being "daring" from them.
• The Dog Bites Back: Tinkatink often gets bullied by metal-eating Steel-type Pokémon who steal the hammers she makes, and she has a constant sad and nervous expression on her face. When she evolves, she becomes the threat to other Steel-types, attacking them and stealing their iron for her own use.
• Equipment Upgrade: They improve their weapons as they evolve, fixing onto them various pieces of scrap metal. You can still see Tinkatink's tiny hand mace being used as the central core of Tinkaton's massive hammerhead.
• Excalibur in the Rust: In their shiny forms, the only parts of them that change color are the metal parts on their bodies and their hammers, which are brown as if to resemble rust. Not that it makes their weapons any less usable.
• Extra-ore-dinary: A line of Steel-type Pokémon. Notably, however, this typing seems to be based on the metal hammers they wield rather than any physical attributes; while they all have metal protrusions on their bodies, it's not clear if these are actually part of their bodies or just scrap metal they wear as decorations.
• The Fair Folk: They're Fairy-types who are notably rather violent and combative. Tinkaton launch rocks at other Pokémon, especially Corviknight, just because they can, and Tinkatuff attack Pawniard and Bisharp to steal parts of their bodies. It is also stated that when Tinkaton want something, they just steal it, probably making use of their hammers to smash any resistance.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • The Pokédex says that Tinkaton will attack Corviknight by knocking boulders at them while they fly, but this can't be replicated in-game by wild members as the line is incapable of learning any Rock-type moves naturally (only via TM).
  • Despite wielding a hammer several times her own size and weight with relative ease, her Attack stat (which at least usually correlates with physical strength) is a mediocre 75. For comparison, dedicated Special Attacking Fairy-types like Gardevoir and Sylveon have Attack stats of 65.
• Girl with Psycho Weapon: Tinkatuff and Tinkaton are cute always-female fairies… and both of them wield a large, brutish hammer to clobber stuff with. This especially applies to the latter, whose hammer is bigger than herself.
• Humongous-Headed Hammer: Tinkatink starts out with a small metal club that gets bigger as she evolves. Tinkatuff's hammer is already pretty hefty compared to her body size, and the head of Tinkaton's hammer alone is bigger than her entire body.
• Hunter of His Own Kind: The line goes out of their way to target other Steel-types (with the Pawniard line and Corviknight given as notable examples) and beat them up to steal their metal for themselves, whilst being Steel-type themselves. Dex entries on how Tinkatink often get their iron scraps and halfway-finished hammers stolen and eaten by Metal Muncher Steel types may have something to do with it. It should be noted that the line does not have any immediately apparent metal features on their bodies, instead it's all focused on their weapons, suggesting their half Steel-typing is purely because of the hammers they use.
• Jack of All Stats: All of Tinkaton's stats are average, with the exception of a high Special Defense of 105 and Speed of 94.
• Killer Rabbit: They may have small, adorable, and overall unassuming appearances, but these critters are not to be underestimated, with Tinkaton in particular being a major concern due to their propensity for attacking indiscriminately with their hammers. In fact, their habit of hammer-launching rocks at Corviknight is the reason why they can't be used as Flying Taxis like in Galar lest they risk the riders.
• Little Miss Badass: They're a race of quite small, pink, all-female beings who wield hammers that are potentially multiple times their size and often harass Pokémon that are much bigger and potentially more powerful than them, like Bisharp or Corviknight.
• Loophole Abuse: When Gigaton Hammer is successfully executed, it cannot be selected on its next turn. However, this doesn't mean that Gigaton Hammer cannot be used consecutively if Tinkaton never selects the move to begin with. Sleep Talk, Instruct, and Encore (first turn only) can bypass this restriction and allow Tinkaton to use Gigaton Hammer twice in a row.
• Magikarp Power: Tinkatink is a poor-statted baby with a wide variety of attacking moves but very little capacity to use them (not helped by learning special moves for its STAB early on), with its only advantage being the amazing defensive typing of Fairy/Steel. It doesn't get much better as a Tinkatuff, but raise it up to level 38 and it becomes Tinkaton and finally gains Gigaton Hammer, which it can build around to devastating effect.
• Meaningful Name: The line contains the particle tink, a metallic sound. It may also be a shortened form of "tinker", referring to a tinsmith that works on metal.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: Tinkaton is a two-foot-tall Pokémon who can easily carry a 200-pound hammer.
• Necessary Drawback: Gigaton Hammer is extremely powerful, but it cannot be selected twice in a row. This still effectively makes it a stronger Giga Impact that actually allows the user to take an action during its recharge period, so the sheer raw power of the move is also balanced out by Tinkaton's below average Attack stat of 75.
• An Odd Place to Sleep: Tinkaton is perfectly fine with using her metal hammer as a bed in her sleeping Idle Animation.
• One-Gender Race: This line is all-female.
• Our Dwarves Are All the Same: They resemble classic dwarves, as short fey beings known for crafting weapons and having Stout Strength, though they very much avert the “gruff bearded man” stereotype by being pink, all-female sprites instead.
• Our Goblins Are Different: They're redcaps in all but name, being extremely violent and sadistic dwarven humanoids who love to bludgeon anything they can catch.
• Oxymoronic Being: The whole line are Fairy/Steel types, even though the former type is traditionally weak to the latter. Especially since their small and adorable appearances are offset by the brutish weapons they wield, making it seem like the Steel-typing is purely derived from their hammers (they also have small metal protrusions on their bodies, but it is unclear at present if these are meant to be depicted as decorations they attach to themselves or as part of their bodies).
• Perpetual Frowner: Tinkatuff constantly has an angry frown on its face, fitting its scrappy, combative nature. It becomes more cheerful after evolving into Tinkaton.
• Power Up Letdown: The line's Hidden Ability is Pickpocket^note If this Pokémon has no item, it steals the opponent's when hit by a contact move, which has very little use when compared to Mold Breaker and Own Tempo aiding its devastating attacks.
• Psycho Pink: Tinkatuff and Tinkaton are colored pink like many other Fairy-types, but they have violent dispositions.
• Secret Art: Tinkaton has the exclusive move of Gigaton Hammer, a 160 base power (effectively 240 BP after STAB) Steel-type move that cannot be selected twice in a row.
• Stout Strength: Tinkaton is a Rare Female Example, with a bit of a gut and the strength to casually swing around a 220-pound hammer.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Tinkaton to Mega Mawile (and to a lesser extent Azumarill), having the same typing and a relatively low Atk stat. While Mega Mawile and Azumarill have the ability Huge Power (which doubles the strength of physical attacks), Tinkaton has a signature move with double the base power of Iron Head (the strongest widely-available physical Steel move without a drawback), amounting to a more narrow version of the same effect.
• Tomboyish Ponytail: Tinkatuff is from an all-female species and has a growth on her head that resembles a ponytail. She's also rather aggressive and combative by nature, being known to attack Pawniard and Bisharp for scrap metal, and she wields a brutish-looking hammer. Tinkaton upgrades to really big Girlish Pigtails.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: The final evolution Tinkaton is noticeably more cheerful than the nervous-looking Tinkatink and the Perpetual Frowner Tinkatuff, likely because she now has a hammer big enough to wallop anything that previously gave her grief.
• Trash of the Titans: The species' nests are basically piles of scrap metal they use for making their hammers.
• Unskilled, but Strong: An unusual interpretation of the trope, Tinkaton casually lug around 200 pound hammers like they're nothing, but their actual Attack stat is only 75. This gives the impression that, while quite strong, they don't know how to apply that strength to anything other than wielding their hammers.
• Weak, but Skilled: Tinkaton's stats are quite unimpressive save for her good Special Defense and Speed, but she makes up for it with a severely damaging attack with huge raw power behind it. Having access to Swords Dance and various good utility moves also helps as does abilities like Own Tempo (which prevents confusion and Intimidate attack drops) or Mold Breaker (which lets it ignore any abilities of opposing Pokémon when attacking or using status moves).

Wiglett and Wugtrio (Umidigda and Umitrio)

0960: Wiglett / Umidigda (ウミディグダ umidiguda)
0961: Wugtrio / Umitrio (ウミトリオ umitorio)

Wiglett

Wugtrio

Wiglett and Wugtrio may look like regional variants of Diglett and Dugtrio, but don't be fooled; they're a line of unrelated fish Pokémon that convergently evolved a similar body plan. Wiglett are timid creatures who hide in the sand should anything large approach them, but Wugtrio are aggressive predators with a vicious temperament.

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• Com Mons: Wiglett is very common on the beaches of Paldea, and has highly subpar stats (save Speed) even after evolving.
• Dishing Out Dirt: They can learn several Ground-type moves like their unrelated counterparts.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: In Japanese, Korean, and Chinese, Wiglett's name simply combines the local word for "sea" with their respective names for "Diglett"; literally "sea Diglett". Same goes for Wugtrio, where in those languages it literally means "sea Dugtrio".
• Fragile Speedster: Much like the Dugtrio it resembles (they even have the exact same stats), Wugtrio has very high Speed and decent Attack, but isn’t good at taking hits.
• Making a Splash: They are Water-types that live near beaches. Wugtrio's signature move, Triple Dive, is Water-type.
• The Nose Knows: Wiglett has a keen sense of smell, which is strong enough to detect things 60 feet (20 meters) away.
• Punny Name: Wiglett and Wugtrio not only are "water Diglett/Dugtrio", but their long and noodley garden eel-like designs means they're also "wiggling Diglett/Dugtrio".
• Protection from the Elements: The line has Sand Veil as its hidden ability, which protects against damage from Sandstorm in addition to gaining evasion during it.
• Red Is Violent: Wiglett gains a red body coloration after evolving into Wugtrio, and it's stated to have a vicious temperament, wrapping its bodies around prey to drag them back to its den.
• Secret Art: Wugtrio is the only Pokémon able to learn Triple Dive, a 30 BP Water-type move that hits 3 times.
• Shown Their Work:
  • Wiglett is notable for being the first time convergent evolution has been brought up in the series; although Wiglett has a number of superficial similarities to the Diglett line, they are unrelated species who just happen to look similar due to having similar burrowing lifestyles. In the real world, convergent evolution is relatively common, as similar evolutionary pressures can lead to similar features appearing across different species such as the earthworm and the caecilian.
  • Wiglett is categorized as the Garden Eel Pokémon, and its behavior exactly matches that of the real-life species, which buries itself underneath the seabed, only poking its head and body out to feed and quickly hiding underground when encountering a threat.
• Underground Monkey: Subverted. Initially thought to be a Paldean Diglett, researchers later determined that it is actually a separate species.
• Uniqueness Decay: One of its two Abilities is Gooey, which was previously exclusive to the Goomy line.
• Useless Useful Spell: Much like the Alolan Diglett line with Tangling Hair, the Wiglett line is far too frail to make good use of Gooey, and unlike Alolan Diglett and Dugtrio, Wiglett and Wugtrio don't even have the Steel type to help them take hits from most of the type chart. Rattled is not very useful for this line for the same reason.

Bombirdier (Otoshidori)

0962: Bombirdier / Otoshidori (オトシドリ otoshidori)

Bombirdier

A Flying/Dark Pokémon that resembles a stork. However, this stork does not deliver babies, and prefers dropping rocks and other objects from high up purely for its own amusement. One of them, the gigantic Open Sky Titan, is large enough to drop boulders.

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• Blow You Away: A Flying-type Pokémon based on storks, with the standard Flying-type moves like Brave Bird, Hurricane, and Air Slash. The Titan Bombirdier also has a Flying Tera Type.
• Boss Battle: Bombirdier is one of the Titan Pokémon you have to fight for a Herba Mystica in the Path of Legends storyline.
• Combat Pragmatist: Learns the usual Dark-type suite of moves like Thief, Foul Play, Sucker Punch and Knock Off.
• Dark Is Evil: It's partly a Dark-type and enjoys dropping rocks and other objects just because it finds it fun.
• Delivery Stork: It evokes this imagery with its long shed feathers it makes into an "apron" being used as a makeshift delivery bag, similar to common depictions of this trope. It drops objects instead of babies, though.
• Dishing Out Dirt: It learns several Rock-type moves, and its hidden ability Rocky Payload powers them up.
• Evil Laugh: Its cry sounds like it's chuckling cruelly.
• Feathered Fiend: It gathers things in its apron-like bag and drops them from above. Also, it is part Dark-type.
• For the Evulz: It likes dropping objects like rocks from above purely because they find it fun.
• Fractured Fairy Tale: It's the concept of the Delivery Stork, except warped into a malicious avian that "delivers" objects to its victims by bombarding them.
• Giant Flyer: Not normally, but the Titan Bombirdier is absolutely massive, just like all the Titans before you defeat them. Regular Bombirdier is closer to the size of an actual stork — large, but not too large.
• Jack of All Stats: All of its stats are a bit above average with the exception of a poor Special Attack of 60.
• Muscles Are Meaningful: One of its normal abilites is the Big Pecks ability, which protects it from defense-lowering status moves.
• Punny Name: Its name is a portmanteau of "bombardier" (a soldier who releases bombs) and "bird".
• Secret Art: Bombirdier is the only Pokémon to get Rocky Payload, an Ability which gives it a STAB-like boost to its Rock-type moves.
• Smug Smiler: Bombirdier sports a subtle but wicked smirk on its beak. Combined with its eye shape and generally careless behaviour, and you have a very smug and cruel bird.

Finizen and Palafin (Namiiruka and Irukaman)

0963: Finizen / Namiiruka (ナミイルカ nami'iruka)
0964: Palafin / Irukaman (イルカマン irukaman)

Finizen

Palafin (Zero Form)

Palafin (Hero Form)

Small dolphin Pokémon whose evolved form looks almost identical normally to its previous stage, but possesses tremendous hidden power accessed by a special transformation. The only way to evolve it is through the Union Circle feature.

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• Adjective Noun Fred: Pelagic Protector Palafin.
• Achilles' Heel: Given that Zero to Hero depends on switching Palafin out and back in to work, Anti-Escape Mechanism moves and Abilities utterly cripple it if used before it can transform. However, it can learn Flip Turn, which lets it bypass said moves.
• Animal Jingoism: Barraskewda's Violet Dex entry mentions that it and Finizen compete over prey in the wild.
• Bishōnen Line: Averted with Palafin's Zero form, which is nigh-identical to Finizen, heart mark aside. Palafin's Hero form, though, is more humanoid, growing fingers and standing upright.
• Blue Is Heroic: Both Finizen and Palafin are primarily blue colored, and the latter is a Heroic Dolphin.
• The Cape: Palafin is based on classic superheroes. It has unremarkable stats at first, but transforms into its Hero form when nobody's looking, turning it into an immensely powerful Pokémon which saves drowning people and Pokémon.
• Captain Fishman: Finizen is a Water-type dolphin-esque Pokémon that evolves to a similar dolphin named Palafin, the only difference between them being a heart on the latter's chest. However, Palafin's true powers emerge when they're switched out and then returned to the field. That is when they become a Superman-like character named Palafin Hero Form. Being a Water-type Pokémon, they also learn offensive Water-type moves.
• Flying Seafood Special: In the overworld, both Finizen and Zero Form Palafin follow the trainer around by flying behind them.
• Friendly, Playful Dolphin: Finizen is described as loving to play with other members of its kind.
• From Zero to Hero: The main gimmick of Palafin's Zero to Hero ability involves applying the concept as a Magikarp Power. Palafin's Zero Form has lackluster stats barring solid HP and Speed. But when it transforms into its Hero Form, those stats receive a substantial boost, notably a much higher Attack stat. It learns Flip Turn upon evolving as well, which synergizes with its ability.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: The Violet Pokédex entry for Zero Form Palafin states that its physical capabilities are no different than a Finizen's. While Zero Form Palafin's stats pale in comparison to its Hero Form's, they are actually still greater than Finizen's; adding up to a base stat total of 457 versus Finizen's 315. Likewise, while the Pokédex implies that Hero Form enhances Palafin's speed, its Speed stat actually isn't improved by the transformation (being base 100 in both forms).
• Heroic Dolphin: Palafin saves drowning people and Pokémon and even transforms into a superhero.
• Honor Before Reason: Palafin refuses to ever expose its "secret identity", so it will stay in its much weaker Zero form unless it gets the chance to switch out and change out of sight. It will never enter a battle in Hero form and only changes if it switches out after seeing its opponent. It doesn't matter how desperate the situation is, Palafin will let itself be beaten every time rather than ever break these rules. On the other hand, it has no issue being seen transforming out of Hero form; it's only changing into Hero form that it is so particular about.
• Lightning Bruiser: Palafin's Hero form has high stats all-around. Its standout stat is its amazing 160 base Attack — equal to Mega Blaziken and Regigigas and higher than most of the more physical Attack-biased boxart Legendaries like Groudon and Zekrom — but it also has a good base 106 Special Attack and 100 Speed, and great 100/97/87 defenses. It can also learn Bulk Up, in case its already sky-high physical stats are not enough for you.
• The Load: Palafin's incredible power only comes to the fray by switching it out and back, so bringing it to a Tera Raid where you only control one Pokémon renders the poor dolphin as effectively dead weight, especially in 5 and 6 star raids.
• Magikarp Power: Finizen has middling stats and doesn't evolve until level 38, so it'll be stuck with those stats for quite a while. Palafin's stats in its Zero Form still aren't anything to write home about, but it becomes a Master of All once it shifts into its Hero Form. Of course, the fact that it relies on switching out to do this means that any opponent with an Anti-Escape Mechanism move or ability will effectively cripple it - unless it knows Flip Turn.
• Making a Splash: They're Water-types and both Finizen and Zero Form Palafin exhibit control over water via the water ring they keep formed around the end of their tail (this ring of water is also mixed with a sticky fluid secreted from its blowhole, presumably to help keep its shape), using the ring as a toy when playing with others of its kind. In Hero Form, Palafin uses similar water to form a "mask" as well as gloves, shoulder ornaments, and something like a cape. Its usual single water ring also increases to three rings.
• Master of All: Palafin's Hero Form stats are all very high. It has an amazing base 160 Attack, as well as a decent 106 Special Attack and 100 Speed. While its defenses are lower, they're still very solid, at 100 HP, 97 Defense, and 87 Special Defense.
• Master of None: Palafin's Zero Form stats are all average or below average. The trick is getting it out of the field as soon as possible to transform it into its powerful Hero Form.
• Punny Name:
  • Finizen is a citizen dolphin, while Namiiruka is an "ordinary dolphin", representing how weak and "normal" its first stage is.
  • Palafin's name is derived from "paladin" (in reference to its heroic nature) plus "fin" (in reference to being an aquatic creature). Also contains "pal", as in friend, a hint to its evolution method.
• Purple Is Powerful: Its Shiny is purple colored, and while (initially) weak at first, it becomes much more powerful upon switching in. Doubles as Dark Is Not Evil, since Shiny Hero Form is a much darker purple in appearance.
• Recurring Element:
  • Similarly to Slaking and Regigigas in past generations, Palafin has very high stats but is held back by its Ability. It starts out in its mediocre Zero form with middling stats, and only gets its stat boost after switching out and coming back in as its Hero form. Unlike Slaking and Regigigas, though, that drawback is not only very easy to work around (as you simply need to switch out, or use Flip Turn), but it remains in its Hero form for the rest of the battle.
  • Palafin's gimmick makes it similar to Wishiwashi, being a pure Water-type Pokémon with two forms — a default form with very underwhelming stats^note Palafin's base form's stats are at least better than low-grade Pokémon such as Butterfree, Beedrill, and Spidops, but Wishiwashi's base form is the weakest Pokémon in existence and an enhanced form granted by an exclusive Ability that has a higher BST than pseudo-legendary and minor-to-mid-rank legendary Pokémon. Palafin starts battles in its weaker Zero Form, but all it has to do to transform is switch out and back in, and it gets to stay in Hero Form for the rest of the battle.
• Rocket Punch: Jet Punch is portrayed as such in the anime, where Hero Form Palafin shoots its watery "glove" from its fin at whatever it wants to wallop.
• Secret Art:
  • Palafin is the only Pokémon with the Zero to Hero Ability, which transforms it upon switching out.
  • Palafin is also the only Pokémon that gets access to Jet Punch, a 60 base power, physical Water-type move that always goes first.
• Secret Identity: How Palafin's theme works. Palafin doesn't look very different from Finizen other than a heart mark on its chest (which can glow when it uses attacks), but it turns out it's the alter ego of the superhero Palafin. That said, its identity is no secret in the Pokémon world, but Palafin maintains the out of sight transformation behavior regardless.
• Secret Identity Change Trick: Invoked; the way to get Palafin into Hero Form is to pull them out of battle and then send them back in again, the same way that stereotypical superheroes will leave the scene and return as their heroic identity. The Scarlet Pokédex for Zero Form even states that it never lets anyone see it change.
• Socialization Bonus: Evolving it requires not just getting it to Level 38 or higher, but also to do so while in the Union Circle with another player.
• Something Person: Palafin's Japanese name is Irukaman, literally dolphin man. The name in Korean and Chinese is literally Dolphinman.
• Super-Strength: Palafin while in its Hero Form is said to be so strong that it can easily lift a cruise ship with a single fin. It also has a humongous Attack stat of 160 to emphasize this.
• Superman Substitute: Palafin's overall design is a clear send-up to Superman as part of its whole status as The Cape, with the level it evolves (38) even being a reference to the year Superman made his debut (1938).
• Tailfin Walking: Palafin's heroic form stands on its tailfins while on land.
• Top-Heavy Guy: Exaggerated; Palafin bulks up considerably in its Hero form, which all tapers into its tailfin being used as feet.
• Willfully Weak: Palafin is incredibly powerful in its Hero form, but it refuses to use any of that strength if anyone could see it change, forcing it to fight in the much weaker Zero form until it can get out of sight.

Varoom and Revavroom (Buroron and Burororoom)

0965: Varoom / Buroron (ブロロン buroron)
0966: Revavroom / Burororoom (ブロロローム burororoomu)

Varoom

Revavroom

Strange metallic Pokémon that resemble combustion engines, it is said the species originated when an unknown Poison type Pokémon crawled into an engine at a scrap-processing facility and inspirited it.

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• Achilles' Heel: Ground-type attacks will destroy the entire line - though Revavroom can get Filter as its Hidden Ability, reducing the damage taken.
• The Alleged Car: Varoom's design alludes to this trope, especially given that it has Slow Start as a Hidden Ability.
• Blessed with Suck: Varoom's hidden ability is Slow Start, which halves its attack and speed for the first 5 turns it's on the field. Thankfully, Revavroom replaces it with Filter, which is actually quite useful, especially on a Pokémon with a x4 weakness.
• Boss Battle: On top of Revavroom with modified typings serving as the Starmobiles, an unmodified Revavroom is the ace Pokémon of Atticus, the head of Team Star's Poison-type Navi Squad.
• Eat Dirt, Cheap: Varoom eat minerals to sustain themselves.
• Early-Bird Cameo: The line was Hidden in Plain Sight in the trailers, as they are also the Starmobiles, though the Starmobiles have different typings.
• Enormous Engine: Revavroom moreso than Varoom.
• Extra-ore-dinary: They are part Steel-types, with the metal engine being their actual body. The rocks it clings to and rides around on, complete with wheels of stone the creature fashions for travel, are actually its main food source. They convert the minerals into energy to fuel their activities.
• Flying Car: Notably, both Varoom and Revaroom have demonstrated the ability to levitate in the air in both the wild and battle. The Revavaroom line is usually seen flying around instead of just driving on the ground.^note Revavroom has Magnet Rise in its movepool to let it levitate in battle, though Varoom lacks this.
• Gold Is Yellow: In their shiny forms, the metallic parts of their bodies are goldish yellow.
• Lightning Bruiser: Revavroom has high Attack alongside great Defense and Speed, balanced out with low Special Defense. This battle prowess is balanced by a massive weakness to Ground moves, one of the most common attacking types in the game.
• Magically Inept Fighter: Revavroom has high Attack but a poor base 54 Special Attack.
• Meaningful Name: An engine that goes "vroom", which later becomes an engine that "revs" up to "vroom".
• Mechanical Lifeform: They are living combustion engines.
• Poisonous Person: They are part Poison-types who release poisonous gases and were born when an unknown Poison-type possessed a car engine.
• Protection from the Elements: The Varoom line has Overcoat as their normal Ability, which protects against both weather and powder moves like Sandstorm and Spore.
• Secret Art: The Varoom line are the only Pokémon that are able to learn Spin Out, a Steel-type move that does damage but lowers the user's Speed by two stages. Each Revavroom built into Team Star's Starmobiles has their own unique physical attack whose type matches that of their associated Squad — Wicked/Blazing/Noxious/Magical/Combat Torque, though these are unobtainable via standard play.
• Sentient Vehicle: They are basically sentient car engines, with Revavroom moreso resembling a proper car via the rocks it clings to.
• Uniqueness Decay: Varoom's Hidden Ability, much to its chagrin, is Slow Start, which was previously unique to Regigigas.
• Weak to Magic: Its Special Defense stat of 67 is its second-lowest stat.
• Weapon of X-Slaying: As a Poison/Steel-type, there's no Pokémon more suited to defeating Fairy-types.
• What a Piece of Junk: References the concept, given that it looks like a living car that's made out of rock and scrap, yet can hold its own quite well. It's especially potent against Fairy types, combining both of that type's weaknesses to really lay on the hurt.

Cyclizar (Mototokage)

0967: Cyclizar / Mototokage (モトトカゲ mototokage)

Cyclizar

The Dragon/Normal type Cyclizar has given people rides since ancient times, and is a common sight in Paldea. It also bears a striking resemblance to Koraidon and Miraidon.

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• Cast from Hit Points: Cyclizar's Shed Tail move cuts off half of its HP to create a Substitute, before switching out and giving the Substitute to whichever Pokémon switches in.
• Cool Bike: Much like Koraidon and Miraidon, it physically resembles a bike, having a wide protruding throat with a pattern that resembles a bike wheel with a similar pattern on its underside between its two legs. Fitting, as it's been used as a mount by many households in Paldea since ancient times. The saddles people put on their backs even have bike/motorcycle handlebars. In addition to its body being suited for the job (it can sprint at 70 mph even with a human on its back), it's noted to enjoy carrying people because it can absorb warmth from them.
• Decoy Getaway: It introduces the move Shed Tail, which allows it to create a Substitute at the cost of half of its health and then instantly switch out for another Pokémon — a reference to how many real-life species of lizard will sever their own tails and use them as decoys to distract predators.
• Fragile Speedster: It has excellent Speed and good Attack, but its defenses are mediocre, so it can't take many hits.
• Healing Factor: Has the ability Regenerator, which restores 30% of its HP upon switching out, which combos well with its Shed Tail move.
• Magic Knight: With an Attack stat of 95 and a Special Attack stat of 85, it can do a decent job at attacking from either side of the physical/special split.
• Non-Elemental: A pat Normal-type Pokémon that resembles a lizard.
• Our Ancestors Are Superheroes: Cyclizar's ancient/alternate universe ancestor, Koraidon, is powerful enough to be the box Legendary of its generation.
• Our Dragons Are Different: It's a Dragon/Normal type Pokémon resembling a bipedal lizard (quadrupedal when running or being ridden) with a throat pattern which looks like a tire tread.
• Punny Name: Its English name comes from the words "cycle" and "lizard". Its Japanese name similarly derives from "motor" or "motorcycle" and 蜥蜴 "tokage" (Japanese for lizard).
• Recurring Element: Its connection to the game's box legendaries Miraidon and Koraidon, being the present day version of the two but is otherwise unable to evolve into either, calls back to Carbink and its mysterious connection to the Mythical Pokémon Diancie.
• Shown Their Work: Cyclizar shows off its Shed Tail move in the Competitive Play trailer, in which it sheds its tail to serve as a Substitute, and it happens to have a white tail tip that contrasts with its mostly olive green body. Real life lizards who shed their tails and grow them back often have a lighter replacement than the original appendage.
• Support Party Member: With its high Speed, and moves like Taunt, Knock Off, Rapid Spin, and Shed Tail, it's got great utility to provide to any team.
• Switch-Out Move: Shed Tail creates a Substitute with 50% of Cyclizar's total HP, then switches out and gives it to the Pokémon that switches in after it.
• Uniqueness Decay: It has a Dragon/Normal type combination, which was previously exclusive to Drampa.
• We Can Rebuild Him: Its future/alternate universe descendant, Miraidon, appears to be cybernetically enhanced and is powerful enough to be considered the other box legendary of its generation.

Orthworm (Mimizuzu)

0968: Orthworm / Mimizuzu (ミミズズ mimizuzu)

Orthworm

A Steel-Type Pokémon that resembles a giant earthworm crossed with a subway train. It has at least six retractable tendril-like arms in its clitellum (second segment). One of them is the size of a subway train and is the Lurking Steel Titan.

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• Boss Battle: Orthworm is one of the Titan Pokémon that must be confronted and overcome in order to collect the Herba Mystica in the Path of Legends storyline.
• Decoy Getaway: Like Cyclizar, it's capable of using Shed Tail to create a substitute and escape battle.
• Eat Dirt, Cheap: Literally. One of its abilities is Earth Eater, which allows it to absorb Ground-type moves to regain health. Its Violet Dex entry mentions that it eats the iron within soil to maintain its metal body.
• Elemental Absorption: Earth Eater allows it to absorb Ground-type moves (which it's otherwise weak to) to regain health.
• Extra-ore-dinary: They are Steel-type earthworms with metal bodies.
• Informed Ability: Orthworm is said to be able to use its tendrils to punch opponents, but it can't learn any punching moves.
• Punny Name: It's an earthworm made of ore.
• Retractable Appendages: The blue spots on its body, at least on the band by the head, are actually tentacle arms it extends to use in the animation both for moving faster and for physical moves.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Orthworm's small eyes and big mouth, along with its round features, makes it really cute and endearing, especially in comparison with real earthworms. Arven even calls the Titan Orthworm a "little cutie".
• Sand Worm: A large earthworm made of metal that lives in arid deserts. The Titan version in particular is gigantic in size.
• Secret Art: The only Pokémon that can have the Earth Eater Ability, which allows it to absorb Ground-type moves to regain health.
• Shield Bash: It's capable of learning Body Press, a move that calculates damage from the Defense stat, of which Orthworm has in abundance.
• Stone Wall: Orthworm has very high Defense, but all its other stats are average to below average.
• Vocal Dissonance: It's nearly a couple feet tall in height^note Judging by overworld size. Pokédex sizes likely account for length. and has a rather dopey-looking face, yet it has an unnervingly deep cry.
• Weak Against Magic: Orthworm's monstrous base 145 Defense is contrasted by its terrible base 55 Special Defense, giving it a major weakness to special-based attacks, especially those belonging to the types it's weak to.
• Worm Sign: Leaves a trail in the dirt whenever it moves. The trainer has to follow it around a few times to trigger the Titan Orthworm battle.

Glimmet and Glimmora (Kirame and Kiraflor)

0969: Glimmet / Kirame (キラーメ kiraame)
0970: Glimmora / Kiraflor (キラフロル kirafuroru)

Glimmet

Glimmora

Crystalline Pokémon resembling flowers that live within caves. Glimmora's petals are known to resemble Tera Jewels, but the nature of this connection remains unknown. The petals themselves are made of crystalized poison energy, the Pokémon's actual body being the dark, conical structure the petals attach to.

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• Achilles' Heel: The entire line is heavily vulnerable against Ground-type attacks. In addition, Toxic Debris is nullified by grounded Poison types (who soak up Toxic Spikes).
• Caltrops: They learn Spikes and Toxic Spikes, and their Toxic Debris ability even lets them automatically set up the latter upon taking a physical hit.
• Climax Boss: Glimmora is the Signature Mon of Geeta, the Top Champion of Paldea.
• Crystalline Creature: Their blue, crystalline flower-like appearance, as well as the fact that they're part Poison-type, suggest that they're based on Copper (II) Sulfate, as well as Chalcanthite. They're also part-Rock type.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Crystalline creatures able to learn a variety of Rock-type moves like Power Gem, Stone Edge and Stealth Rock. Notably, they are the rare Rock-type Pokémon that learn very few Ground-type moves; only Earth Power and Mud Shot.
• Eat Dirt, Cheap: They feed by sucking nutrients/minerals from cave walls. Glimmora in particular can often be seen partially buried in the walls of Area Zero, presumably feeding.
• Glowing Eyes: From the front their eyes look like glowing circles set upon the back of their dark, conical body, but when viewed from the side it becomes clear they are somewhat oval structures (narrowing to a more obviously oblong shape when they sleep). Their body is translucent enough to allow the eyes to function despite them being located inside the cone.
• Meaningful Name: Glimmet glimmers, while Glimmora is glimmering flora ore that glimmers more.
• Poisonous Person: Part Poison-types whose bodies are made of crystalized poison.
• Scissors Cuts Rock: Their hidden ability is Corrosion, which allows them to poison the otherwise-immune Steel-types with a Non-Damaging Status Infliction Attack.
• Secret Art: Glimmora is the only Pokémon that learns Mortal Spin, essentially a Poison-type version of Rapid Spin that has lower BP in exchange for poisoning the target. It's also the only line to have the Ability Toxic Debris, which creates Toxic Spikes when they're struck with a physical attack^note  The Revaroom manning the Navi Starmobile also has this ability, but it's unobtainable via standard play.
• Shown Their Work:
  • There are actually several poisonous and even downright acidic rocks and crystals. The entire line is based on such rock and crystal formations, which are absolutely harmful to the human body, such as torbernite, which can cause lung cancer if someone is exposed to them long enough, and Chalcanthite, which, somewhat like Glimmet and Glimmora, leaves behind dangerous debris when mishandled.
  • Its appearance and abilities are also highly reminiscent of asbestos, particularly crocidolite (better known as blue asbestos).
  • The Glimmet line is also based on many carnivorous, deep-sea sponges of the Cladorhizidae family, which include species that do look flower-like, similar to these Pokemon. Even the Toxic Debris ability is based on how sponges are made up of mineralized spicules that they use for defense.
• Status Infliction Attack: Glimmora's Mortal Spin not only damages opponents while removing binding and hazards, but it's also guaranteed to poison the targets it hits.
• Trap Master: It's capable of learning all three damage dealing Entry Hazard moves (Spikes, Toxic Spikes, Stealth Rock) in addition to having the ability Toxic Debris, which scatters Toxic Spikes upon being hit by a physical attack. Ironically, Glimmora is also good at removing said entry hazards with its Mortal Spin move.
• Uniqueness Decay: Both are Rock/Poison types, a type combination previously exclusive to Nihilego. They can also have Corrosion as their hidden ability, previously exclusive to the Salandit line.

Greavard and Houndstone (Bochi and Hakadog)

0971: Greavard / Bochi (ボチ bochi)
0972: Houndstone / Hakadog (ハカドッグ hakadoggu)

Greavard

Houndstone

Ghost-type Pokémon based on dogs. Greavard likes to play with passersby while unintentionally draining their life energy, making them faint. Its evolved form, Houndstone, grows to become the most loyal dog Pokémon.

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• All or Nothing: How Last Respects works. Once your entire party sans Houndstone has fainted, Last Respects becomes a 300 base power move with 100% accuracy. Houndstone also has the ability Sand Rush, doubling its speed and making it decently fast in a Sandstorm. With this (incredibly risky) setup, you must sweep the enemy team; otherwise, you lose, as Houndstone will be your last Pokémon.
• Big Friendly Dog: Houndstone stands at six feet and seven inches tall. Despite its ghostly appearance, it's also considered to be the most loyal dog Pokémon, as it's rumored to have been a deceased dog risen from the grave to stay by its master's side.
• Chest Monster: Greavard is a Reconstruction of this trope after the shift to 3D made it so that Pokémon like Voltorb and Foonguss could not possibly be confused for Poké Balls. Greavard nests itself underneath the ground with the candle on its head sticking out so it can be mistaken for the sparkles that are used to indicate that a random item is in that spot. As a consequence, if you're trying to get through its habitat quickly, you can easily end up running into one by accident while you're trying to pick up items along the same path. It's possible to separate a Greavard from those sparkles, as the flame on its candle is not the same color, but it can be difficult to distinguish that when you're racing through its territory.
• Creepy Good: Houndstone is a large, skeletal ghost dog, but it's just as friendly as it was as a Greavard and it's described as the most loyal of all dog Pokémon.
• Dem Bones: Houndstone is a wholly skeletal dog, seemingly being made up of nothing but bones and hair.
• Desperation Attack: How Last Respects works — the more Pokémon on your team have fainted, the stronger the move will be. With only Houndstone left, the move has a downright terrifying 300 base power, not counting STAB.
• Eyes Out of Sight: They both have long, shaggy bangs that cover their eyes.
• Fast Tunneling: Greavard can bury itself very, very quickly, leaving only its candle above ground, as shown in its reveal trailer. It naturally learns the move Dig to reflect this.
• Friendly Ghost: You'll be hard-pressed to find a Ghost-type that's friendlier than these two. In spite of unintentionally sucking up the life force of those around it, Greavard want nothing more than to become friends with anyone it meets — and on top of Houndstone being rumored to have come back from the grave through The Power of Love, it is regarded as the most loyal dog Pokémon.
• Ghostly Animals: They're dog-like Pokémon that are pure Ghost-type in nature.
• Hates Being Alone: Greavard is rumored in the Scarlet dex to have once been a dog Pokémon that ended up Dying Alone with a Friendless Background, so after being reborn as Greavard, it utterly hates feeling lonely, to the point it will latch onto anybody that bothers to give it attention. Unfortunately, while it genuinely wants to be loved, its passive Life Drain effect means it will become detrimental to whoever draws its attention.
• Hitodama Light: Similarly to Litwick, Greavard has a purple-orange light on its head, and in the reveal trailer the candle glows brighter as it absorbs the narrator's life energy.
• Item Caddy: Greavard has Pickup as an Ability, allowing it to obtain items for the player. Houndstone replaces it with Sand Rush, averting the trope.
• Jagged Mouth: Greavard's mouth ends in jagged points instead of having visible teeth, highlighting its ghostly nature.
• Lantern Jaw of Justice: Though they're both Ghost-types, they're also very friendly and loyal, and also have very large lower jaws. Houndstone's is far more pronounced.
• Life Drain: Greavard unwittingly drains the life force from those that play with it. In its reveal trailer, the narrator plays with it until they fall unconscious from getting their life drained.
• Lunacy: Greavard only evolves into Houndstone at night at level 30 or higher.
• Magically Inept Fighter: Houndstone's good base 101 Attack is contrasted by its poor base 50 Special Attack, and it learns no special-based moves via level-up.
• Meaningful Name: Greavard's English name is a combination of either "grave" or "grieve" and "Briard", a dog breed that originates from France; and "greaves", a byproduct of tallow-based candlemaking that was historically fed to dogs due to their fondness for the stuff.^note Disclaimer: greaves is bad for dogs, so don't feed it to them. Its Japanese name is a combination of "bochi" (graveyard) and Pochi (a stock name for dogs in Japan). Houndstone's English name is a combination of "hound" and "headstone". Its Japanese name is a combination of "haka" (tomb) and "dog".
• Mighty Glacier: Houndstone is strong and tough, but not very fast. Though this can be mitigated with its Sand Rush ability, which doubles its speed during a sandstorm.
• Obliviously Evil: Greavard will unintentionally drain the life force of a person that willingly plays with it, meaning that anyone who tries to be Greavard’s friend will inevitably fall into a comatose state. However, Greavard is completely unaware that it is the cause of this and means no harm to its potential playmates, eagerly running up to them with a happy disposition and licking their faces even after they’ve fallen unconscious, as is the case for the narrator in its reveal trailer.
• Precious Puppy: Greavard is a friendly and adorable Ghost-type dog Pokémon. Even the narrator in its reveal trailer seems smitten with it… until it inadvertently drains the life force out of them.
• Protection from the Elements: Houndstone's main Ability Sand Rush protects it from damage from Sandstorm.
• Secret Art: Houndstone is the only Pokémon that learns Last Respects, a Ghost-type move that increases in power based on how many allies are fainted.
• Soul Power: Greavard is a Ghost-type that looks like a dog with a candle on its head. Its evolution, Houndstone, is a skeletal dog with a headstone replacing the candle. According to their Dex entries, they're both said to be the ghosts of deceased dog Pokémon.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Last Respects gains 50 Base Power for every ally on Houndstone's team that has fainted. If Houndstone is the last Pokémon alive on a full team of six, the move has 300 base power. The game does not subtract from the count if a fainted Pokémon is revived, allowing the base power to keep building up to a cap of 5050.^note Using Pokemon Showdown's damage calculator, it can be estimated that a Tera Ghost Houndstone at level 100 with maximum attack investments and a choice band using a full power Last Respects has a 75% chance to one shot a Tera Dark Eternamax Eternatus with maximum hp and defense investments that is level 200 (In order to do calculations with Pokémon that have a level over 100 you need to import a set with the desired level). Needless to say if the opponent isn't a normal type, they are dying.
• Undying Loyalty: Houndstone are described as the most loyal of all dog Pokémon, taking this very literally by being reborn as a Ghost-type after dying so that they could forever be by their masters' sides.

Flamigo (Karamingo)

0973: Flamigo / Karamingo (カラミンゴ karamingo)

Flamigo

Flamigo are flamingo-like, Fighting/Flying-type Pokémon that live in flocks and are known for attacking in unison.

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• Agent Peacock: Flamigo might look like a silly flamingo, but it packs a high base Attack (115), a pretty good base Speed (90), and a lot of physical moves that can take advantage of it.
• Animate Inanimate Object: Played with. Flamigo looks like a barely altered plastic flamingo at first glance. Then it starts moving like an actual flamingo.
• Anti-Debuff: Flamigo with Scrappy are immune to getting their Attack lowered by Intimidate.
• Blow You Away: Flamigo is part-Flying type, able to learn Air Slash, Tailwind and Brave Bird.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Flamigo is part-Fighting type and attacks with kicks. It even has Scrappy as one of its regular abilities, allowing its Fighting-type moves to hit Ghost-type Pokémon. Combined with its Flying type, there are very few Pokémon that can safely take a hit from it.
• Boss Battle: Flamigo is the ace Pokémon of Larry in his role as a Flying-type specialist and a member of Paldea's Elite Four.
• Disc-One Nuke: Despite being one of the first Pokémon you can catch in Paldea, it has stats that rival the fully evolved starters and a great Flying/Fighting typing that's super effective against four of the five challenges that are easiest to do first level-wise.^note Flying beats Katy and Brassius' gyms, and Fighting beats Titan Klawf and Giacomo's squad. The only exception is Titan Bombirdier.
• Extremity Extremist: Just like with Quaquaval, Flamigo cannot learn any punching-themed Fighting moves, only kicks and attacks that don't specify.
• Fighting Clown: With high attack and speed, this comical-looking flamingo Pokémon is a surprisingly hard hitter.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Flamigo is said to synchronize in flocks to attack its foes. Sure enough, if you encounter a group of them in the wild, they will all go after you at once.
• Glass Cannon: It has great Attack and Speed, but its HP and Defense are average at best, and its Special Defense is low.
• Irony: It's a part-Fighting type, whose appearance is meant to bring to mind a boxing glove, and whose behavior (trying its neck in a knot to store energy) references a boxing glove's strings being tightened to secure it to a person's wrist. It will never learn a move that requires punching.
• Meaningful Name: Both its English and Japanese name reflect its status as a highly social flamingo — "Flamigo" blends "flamingo" with the Spanish and Portugese word for "friend", while "Karamingo" is a mix of "flamingo" and "karami", which is a Japanese word meaning linkage, entanglement, relationship or involvement. The Japanese name also fits with the Pokémon's tendency to tie its neck into knots.
• Punny Name: A combination of "Flamingo" and "amigo" (the Spanish and Portuguese word for "Friend").
• Rubber Man: It ties the base of its neck into a knot to keep energy from escaping its mouth. When interacting with it on picnics, you can occasionally see it untying its neck.
• Scissors Cuts Rock: Has access to the Scrappy ability, which allows it to bypass Ghost's immunity to Fighting.
• Secret Art: Flamigo is the only Pokémon with the Costar Hidden Ability, which copies an ally's stat changes upon Flamigo entering the field.
• Synchronized Swarming: A downplayed example; Flamigo's designation is the "Synchronize Pokemon" and its main gimmick is that it is commonly known to live in flocks, with all of its members working in perfect unison and harmony. This is further reflected in both its name and its Hidden Ability "Costar", which copies its ally's stat changes. Curiously, Flamigo does not have access to the Ability Synchronize.

Cetoddle and Cetitan (Arukujira and Hulkujira)

0974: Cetoddle / Arukujira (アルクジラ arukujira)
0975: Cetitan / Hulkujira (ハルクジラ harukujira)

Cetoddle

Cetitan

Large terrestrial whale Pokémon found in icy habitats. They used to live in the sea but at one point they developed strong legs and now live on land where they feed on minerals found in snow and ice.

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• Ambiguously Related: Cetoddle's Scarlet Dex notes it seems closely related to Wailmer, for both sharing inspiration from whales, and their ancestry, with Wailmer formerly being terrestrial before becoming aquatic, while Cetoddle was formerly aquatic before becoming terrestrial.
• Cheerful Child: Cetoddle are very excitable and playful, and are the unevolved forms of Cetitan. In the wild, they're one of a handful of Pokémon that neither run away nor move to start battles with you, content to just sort of hang around and stare at you curiously.
• Eat Dirt, Cheap: Cetoddle feeds on minerals it finds in snow and ice.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Cetoddle's Japanese name, Arukujira, literally means "walking whale".
• Graceful in Their Element: One of Cetitan's possible Abilities is Slush Rush, which doubles its Speed during a snowstorm.
• An Ice Person: Pure Ice-types based on whales. Cetitan uses its horn to channel cryogenic energies.
• Kevlard: One of Cetitan's possible Abilities is Thick Fat, allowing it to take halved damage from the Fire-type moves it's weak to.
• Mighty Glacier: Cetitan has a monstrously high HP of 170 and a high Attack of 113, but its speed is below average. That being said, it turns into a Lightning Bruiser in a snowstorm if it has the Slush Rush ability.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: They resembles a right or bowhead whale, but their horns are somewhat reminiscent of a narwhal.
• Our Cryptids Are More Mysterious: They bear a resemblance to the Ningen, a modern Japanese cryptid that resembles a bipedal white whale and that was supposedly spotted in the sub-Antarctic area.
• Punny Name:
  • Cetoddle is a toddling (wobbly walking) toddler of a cetacean (whale). Its Japanese name, meanwhile, is a portmanteau of aruku (to walk) and kujira (whale).
  • Cetitan is a titanic cetacean, which is also represented by its Japanese name, which derives from "hulk" and kujira.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Cetoddle is an incredibly adorable waddling whale.
• Secret Art: Cetoddle and Cetitan are the only known Pokémon to learn Ice Spinner by level up. ^note Every other Pokémon that can learn Ice Spinner needs its corresponding TM to learn it..
• Signature Mon: Cetitan is the ace to the Ice-type Gym Leader, Grusha.
• Stout Strength: Cetitan's body is so enormous that it requires huge, strong muscles to support its own weight.
• Terrestrial Sea Life: They're whale Pokémon who left the ocean and grew legs a long time ago.
• Tombstone Teeth: When Cetitan opens its mouth, it shows its uneven, but rectangular teeth, resembling the baleen plates that baleen whales are named after.
• Vocal Dissonance: Cetoddle sounds more like some kind of bird than a whale-like creature. Cetitan makes more fitting sounds.
• Waddling Head: Both of them are large heads with arms, legs, and tails, but Cetoddle is more obvious.

Veluza (Migalusa)

0976: Veluza / Migalusa (ミガルーサ migaruusa)

Veluza

Water/Psychic fish Pokémon that resemble very large hake, they possess a physiology that is rather bizarre even by Pokémon standards. In order to move faster, it sheds its flesh away from its body. Veluza can regrow the flesh and the discarded fillets can be collected and eaten.

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• Cast from Hit Points: Veluza's Secret Art, Fillet Away, boosts its offensive stats at the cost of its own HP.
• Didn't Need Those Anyway!: It can casually slice away "unnecessary/spare" flesh from its body, appearing to be just content as a borderline skeleton.
• Flash Step: Wild Veluza are prone to doing this to attack you if encountered. While you can still see it as it rushes you, it's so fast that there's not much you can do to evade it.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Veluza is stated to shed spare flesh to boost its agility, which it does in gameplay via the Fillet Away move (also boosting its offenses). In the overworld, if one looks carefully, they can see it also uses the Fillet Away animation to enable its nearly Flash Step charges at the player. When used as a follow Pokémon and thus swimming normally, it is appropriately middling in its speed.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Despite supposedly having a potent Healing Factor, it cannot have the ability Regenerator, nor does it naturally learn healing moves; a specific Normal Tera-type Veluza is found with Recover as one of its moves, but it otherwise can only be taught the move through breeding it in from another Pokémon or using a Mirror Herb.
• Glass Cannon: Veluza has good Attack and decent HP, but all its other stats are below average, and is exacerbated by Fillet Away greatly increasing its speed and offensive stats in exchange for half of its HP.
• Good Thing You Can Heal: Veluza's battle and hunting strategy involve literally shedding large amounts of "unnecessary/spare" flesh from its body to heighten its powers. Its excellent regenerative abilities mean the flesh is quickly restored. This also allows many opportunities for people to eat its meat without any lasting harm, which is fortunate for Veluza, as it is quite delicious.
• Making a Splash: Like most fish Pokemon, it's Water-type.
• Meaningful Name: A speedy hake... or in Spanish, una merluza veloz^note Veloz is Portuguese as well.
• Psychic Powers: Part Psychic-type. Shedding its flesh actually heightens its psychic abilities.
• Secret Art: Veluza is the only Pokémon that learns Fillet Away, a move that increases its Attack, Sp. Atk, and Speed stats by two stages at the cost of half its own HP.
• Self-Harm: Its battle strategy involves shedding its own flesh to strengthen itself. This is shown in its Secret Art Fillet Away, which cuts its health by half to sharply boost Attack, Special Attack, and Speed.

Dondozo (Heyrusher)

0977: Dondozo / Heyrusher (ヘイラッシャ heirassha)

Dondozo

A giant Water-type fish Pokémon that resembles a mix between a catfish and some aspects of a sushi chef. Due to its giant size and slow-witted nature, it is not a very good hunter on its own, so it has developed a symbiotic relationship with the small and highly intelligent sushi-like Pokémon Tatsugiri to help it hunt for food. At a whopping 39'04" on average, it is not only the longest Pokémon in Paldea, it's also the second longest Pokémon behind Wailord and the third/fourth longest overall counting both formes of Eternatus. A Dondozo fights alongside a very large Tatsugiri as the False Dragon Titan.

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• Big Eater: Is noted to be a glutton, and its frills resemble a sushi chef's headband.
• Boss Battle: Dondozo is one of the Titan Pokémon that you have to battle for one of the Herba Mystica in the Path of Legends storyline, with the twist that it actually shares this role with Tatsugiri.
• Brains and Brawn: Dondozo is the Brawn between it and Tatsugiri, being a powerful but dimwitted giant fish that follows Tatsugiri's orders.
• Dumb Muscle: Dondozo is described as powerful, but not very smart, contrasting the weak but intelligent Tatsugiri. It is notably intelligent enough to recognize the value of following the Tatsugiri's guidance, though. Fittingly enough, its two main abilities are Oblivious and Unaware.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Dondozo is said to be a dimwitted glutton and a poor hunter, with a base Speed stat of only 35. Its swimming animation has Dondozo swish its tail from side to side like an animal with a vertical tail fin would, even though it has a horizontal tail fin better suited to an "up-and-down" motion.
• Magically Inept Fighter: Dondozo's base 100 Attack is contrasted with its base 65 Special Attack, and the only special move it learns via level-up is Water Gun.
• Making a Splash: Dondozo is pure Water-type and learns Dive and Wave Crash via level-up.
• Meaningful Name:
  • A dozing don of the lake, they also have the Japanese word "dōzo" in their name, which means "Please help yourself" — fitting for a Pokémon resembling a sushi chef.
  • Its Japanese name, Heyrusher, is a corruption of the Japanese phrase "heirasshai" ("Hey, come on in"), which is typically said by sushi chefs while greeting customers.
• Mighty Glacier: Dondozo has enormous HP and great Attack and Defense stats, but a very poor base 35 Speed.
• Oblivious to Love: One of Dondozo's potential abilities is Oblivious, which protects it from becoming infatuated.
• Power Up Letdown: Its Hidden Ability is Water Veil, which prevents burns (and nothing else). Compared with Unaware and Oblivious aiding its tank role, it's a very situational ability; sure, being burned halves Dondozo's solid Attack and deals damage over time, but enemy stat boosts and Taunt are generally far bigger nuisances.
• Secret Art: Dondozo has access to the unique Dragon-type move Order Up, where it inflicts damage and boosts Attack, Defense, or Speed by one stage depending on the form Tatsugiri has ^note Attack for Curly, Defense for Droopy, and Speed for Stretchy (assuming that Dondozo actually has a Tatsugiri partner).^note Note that Dondozo is not a Dragon-type, whereas Tatsugiri is, which just furthers the idea of Order Up being a move that Dondozo and Tatsugiri cooperate to perform. Tatsugiri's presence doesn't actually grant Dondozo STAB on Order Up, but it's still interesting.
• Sequential Boss: The boss fight with the Titan Dondozo doesn't just end with defeating it; you also have to deal with the Titan Tatsugiri that it put in its mouth.
• Shown Their Work: A somewhat roundabout example. Dondozo has a horizontal tail fin, but swims like it has a vertical tail fin - which is exactly how not to swim quickly. Little wonder it's so slow.
• Weak Against Magic: Dondozo's high base 115 Defense is contrasted by its poor base 65 Special Defense, giving it a weakness to special-based moves mitigated only by its enormous HP stat.

Tatsugiri (Syaritatsu)

0978: Tatsugiri / Syaritatsu (シャリタツ sharitatsu)

Tatsugiri (Curly Form)

Tatsugiri (Droopy Form)

Tatsugiri (Stretchy Form)

The pint-sized Tatsugiri is one of the most intelligent dragon Pokémon and comes in three forms: the curly form is orange and feigns weakness to lure in its prey; the droopy form is magenta and plays dead; and the stretchy form is yellow and preys on bird Pokémon. They all have a symbiotic relationship with the much larger and much dumber Dondozo and can give it commands while in its mouth. One of them is the False Dragon Titan and naturally fights alongside a Dondozo.

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• Achilles' Heel: Commander allows Tatsugiri to enter an allied Dondozo's mouth, sharply boosting all its stats. The catch is they are unable to switch out, meaning that Status-Buff Dispel such as Haze and Clear Smog will remove Dondozo's stats boosts from it for the rest of the battle.
• Actually, That's My Assistant: The hunt for the False Dragon Titan implies that the gigantic Dondozo is the titular Titan, only after defeating it reveals that the slightly-larger Tatsugiri is the real False Dragon Titan, with the Dondozo more like its minion.
• Boss Battle: Tatsugiri is one of the Titan Pokémon that you have to battle for one of the Herba Mystica in the Path of Legends storyline, with the twist that it actually shares this role with Dondozo — First you fight Dondozo after it comes to assist the Tatsugiri, then you fight them both after the Tatsugiri eats some Herba Mystica to power up, and finally you fight the Tatsugiri on its own after defeating the Dondozo.
• Brains and Brawn: The Brains between it and Dondozo. Tatsugiri is too weak to hunt on its own, so it coordinates with the much more powerful but dumber Dondozo in order to capture prey and fight.
• Breakout Character: Tatsugiri has gained immense amounts of popularity due to its small and cute design that has great amounts of personality. It has ranked high in popularity polls and gets large amounts of promotion in official material and merchandise.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Tatsugiri come in three different colors (magenta, orange, and yellow); each one boosts a different stat when Dondozo uses Order Up with it in its mouth^note  Attack for Curly, Defense for Droopy, and Speed for Stretchy.
• Elemental Absorption: Its hidden ability, Storm Drain, lets it absorb Water-type moves to boost its Special Attack.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Tatsugiri is described as one of the weakest Dragon-types. While its Attack, HP, and Defense are indeed poor, and it has a limited movepool, its Special Attack is decently high and its Special Defense and Speed are decent. Though it still has the lowest overall Base Stat Total among fully evolved Dragon Pokémon at only 475.
• Lethal Joke Character: Don't let its small movepool and mediocre stats trick you into thinking it's just Commander food for Dondozo. Its Hidden Ability is Storm Drain, which will absorb any incoming water attacks to boost its special attack, and which Tatsugiri gets shockingly decent use from: of all Storm Drain users, it has the highest special attack, and can put that stat to use with Hydro Pump, Hyper Beam, and Draco Meteor, so boosting it once or twice can turn it into an actual threat. Its other stats can still cripple it, but Storm Drain Tatsugiri is not to be dismissed as useless.
• Let's Meet the Meat: Exploited; it deliberately makes itself look like a tasty snack in order to lure in prey for Dondozo, with its forms being based on different types of sushi. It's said that these different forms focus on attracting different kinds of prey. Two trainers near their habitat lampshade this after spotting them, remarking that they look delicious and inspiring a picnicker to make sushi-themed sandwich recipes he'll share with you.
• Loophole Abuse: Normally, after Tatsugiri activates its Commander ability, it can no longer be interacted with until Dondozo faints and takes Tatsugiri with it, leaving Dondozo in a 1-vs-2 situation as Tatsugiri is still considered to be on the battlefield but cannot act. However, there are ways to cause Tatsugiri to faint alone despite being off-the-field, such as giving it Toxic Orb and let the Damage Over Time to do it in or subjecting it to Perish Song before Dondozo comes in.
• Making a Splash: Part Water-type and resembles a fish.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: In double battles, Tatsugiri's ability causes it to jump into an ally Dondozo's mouth to power it up, with the different forms of Tatsugiri giving Dondozo's Secret Art different side effects. This makes Tatsugiri unable to act but cannot be the targeted by any moves for the duration of it, leaving you to fight double battles with a single, more powerful Dondozo until it gets KOed.
• Our Dragons Are Different: This Dragon-type resembles sushi. Unlike other Dragon-types, it's a tiny feeble creature that uses cunning strategies over brute force in order to survive.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Don't let its small, cute appearance fool you — Tatsugiri is packing an impressive 120 base Special Attack and a decent 95 Special Defense and 82 Speed, as well.
• Playing Possum: Droopy Form Tatsugiri's Violet Dex entry mentions that it's willing to play dead to fool its opponents.
• Punny Name: "Tatsu" is Japanese for dragon, while "giri" harks back to "nigirizushi", a type of sushi. Thus, it is a dragon masquerading as an edible.
• Secret Art: Tatsugiri is the only Pokémon with the ability Commander, complementing Dondozo's own Secret Art Order Up.
• Shown Their Work: Tatsugiri's normal colors aren't arbitrary; they are actually based on real types of sushi ^note Curly is based on a shrimp nigiri, Droopy is based on a tuna nigiri, and Stretchy is based on an egg/urchin nigiri. The Shinies◊ play off of this as well ^note Shiny Curly is based on an eel nigiri, Shiny Droopy is based on a halibut/squid nigiri, and Shiny Stretchy is based on a salmon nigiri.
• Squishy Wizard: Tatsugiri has a surprisingly high Special Attack stat, but its poor Defense means it can't take many physical hits.
• Talking Animal: Tatsugiri evidently understand human language enough for an entire island of the things to parrot the words "ai", "suishi" and "taitan" to each other, albeit to varying degrees of clarity. The Titan Tatsugiri seems to understand that it's the Titan Pokémon and loudly exclaims "Ai! Taitan!" both times you meet it.
• Weak, but Skilled: Tatsugiri is a small and frail Dragon-type, but it's smart enough to exploit this in order to lure in prey for Dondozo. They can also take advantage of Dondozo for combat, hiding inside their mouth for protection while boosting Dondozo's stats.

Frigibax, Arctibax, and Baxcalibur (Sebie, Segohru, and Seglaive)

0996: Frigibax / Sebie (セビエ sebie)
0997: Arctibax / Segohru (セゴール segooru)
0998: Baxcalibur / Seglaive (セグレイブ segureibu)

Frigibax

Arctibax

Baxcalibur

These pseudo-legendary Dragon/Ice-type dinosaurian Pokémon can be found roaming around Glaseado Mountain. They use the sails on their backs to cool themselves down. As Frigibax evolves into Arctibax and then the powerful Baxcalibur, it covers its face and sail in a layer of durable ice, letting it use its sail as a razor-sharp glaive.

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• Alternate Company Equivalent: Baxcalibur shares its concept with Glavenus from Capcom's Monster Hunter franchise, as a theropod-like terrestrial dragon with a giant glaive incorporated into its body and serving as its namesake.
• BFS: Baxcalibur has an impressively huge sail on its back that it weaponizes to deal monstrous damage.
• Boss Battle: Baxcalibur is the ace Pokémon of Hassel in his role as a Dragon-type specialist and a member of Paldea's Elite Four.
• Death or Glory Attack: Glaive Rush, Baxcalibur's Secret Art, is this, dealing damage on par with Outrage, but at the cost of making Baxcalibur take double damage from attacks and making all attacks used on it perfectly accurate until the next time it acts. Given Baxcalibur's huge Attack stat, Glaive Rush will deal a ton of damage, but using it against an opponent with a Powerful, but Inaccurate attack and failing to wipe them out is going to end with Baxcalibur taking massive damage itself.
• Dinosaurs Are Dragons: Dragon-type, and all three resemble various dinosaurs. Frigibax's beak and thumb spikes, and Arctibax and Baxcalibur's large back sails and the quills on its forelimbs suggest inspiration from Iguanodon and Concavenator or Spinosaurus,^note both known from the Iberian Peninsula, the region Paldea is based upon respectively.
• An Ice Person: They are a line of Ice-type dragons that use their dorsal fins to convert heat into ice energy. Baxcalibur can unleash freezing breath so cold that it can instantly freeze lava.
• Infinity -1 Sword: The pseudo-legendary line for this generation.
• Left Stuck After Attack: Baxcalibur's blade is located on its back, like a Spinosaurus fin, so it has to flip itself upside-down to make use of it properly. Sure enough, its signature move Glaive Rush renders it completely vulnerable to retaliation while it lies Flipping Helpless on its back with its sword presumably wedged into the ground.
• Lightning Bruiser: Baxcalibur has generally above-average, well-rounded stats aside from a high HP stat of 115 (good enough to be the highest among pseudo-legendaries) and a massive Attack stat of 145. Its defensive stats let it take a hit in most situations, and its Speed of 87, while not amazing, is by no means slow even by pseudo-legendary standards. It can also use Dragon Dance to hit even harder and faster.
• Magically Inept Fighter: Downplayed. While its Special Attack of 75 isn't that bad, it's still the lowest among pseudo-legendary Pokémon (even lower than Garchomp's 80).
• Meaningful Name: Frigibax and Arctibax's names, respectively, contain the words "frigid" (synonym for "cold") and "arctic", in reference to its part Ice-type. Baxcalibur, on the other hand, is named after Excalibur, uses its sail as a sword, and accordingly has the highest base Attack of every pseudo-legendary Pokémon (outside of Mega Evolutions). All of the line's names also include "bax", likely a combination of "back" and "axe", fitting Baxcalibur's main attack.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Baxcalibur is a dinosaur-like Not Zilla ice dragon with a giant ice blade protruding from its back.
• Not Zilla: Baxcalibur looks even more like Godzilla than the expies from previous generations, having the signature dorsal plating, and the animation for its signature move Glaive Rush being based on Godzilla using his atomic breath to propel himself in Godzilla vs. Hedorah.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Dragon-types based on Godzilla and Spinosaurus with swords for dorsal fins.
• Recurring Element: Is the resident pseudo-legendary of the region.
• Savage Spinosaurs: Has a single sail on its back that somewhat resembles that of the famous dinosaur, though they look more like pre-2000s reconstructions of the animal. Baxcalibur's German name is even "Espinodon", making the connection even clearer.
• Secret Art:
  • Baxcalibur is the only Pokémon that can learn Glaive Rush, a Dragon-type move that deals high damage in exchange for the user taking double damage from attacks used afterwards, which are also unable to miss.^note Considering that Baxcalibur is weak to Stone Edge, Focus Blast, and Dragon Rush, three of the series' most infamously Powerful, but Inaccurate attacks… let's just say that using Glaive Rush at an inopportune time will lead to a lot of pain.
  • The Frigibax line are the only Pokémon with the Thermal Exchange Ability, which causes their Attack to be raised upon being hit by a Fire-type move and prevents burning.
• T. Rexpy: Like Tyranitar, it only vaguely resembles T. rex and more closely resembles Godzilla or an outdated Spinosaurus, though the similarities to both Godzilla and real-life dinosaurs are stronger in Baxcalibur's case.
• Uniqueness Decay: The entire line is Dragon/Ice type, a type combination previously exclusive to Kyurem.
• Waddling Head: Frigibax is a waddling Cephalothorax of a baby dragon, though it gains a more conventional dinosaur-like body shape when it evolves.

Gimmighoul and Gholdengo (Collecurei and Surfugo)

0999: Gimmighoul / Collecurei (コレクレー korekuree)
1000: Gholdengo / Surfugo (サーフゴー saafugoo)

Gimmighoul (Chest Form)

Gimmighoul (Roaming Form)

Gholdengo

Gimmighoul are Ghost-types that spend their time either wandering for or guarding a chest filled with gold coins. Getting enough will cause them to evolve into Gholdengo, a golden surfboarder known for firing coins at its enemies.

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• Abnormal Ammo: Gholdengo fires coins to overwhelm its enemies.
• Awesome, but Impractical: From a lore standpoint: the treasure chest Gimmighoul hides in gives it solid defense, but the heavy weight means it moves very slowly. This is even reflected in its gameplay stats. Chest Form Gimmighoul's Base Speed is 10, compared to its Roaming Form's 80.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Gholdengo is one of the friendliest Pokémon out there, but it just so happens to have a base stat total of 550 with a Special Attack stat on par with legendaries such as Darkrai, Lunala, and Miraidon. Coupled with the fact that Ghost/Steel is statistically the best defensive type in the game means that it both hits hard and take hits like a champ. Good as Gold basically removes all other threats to its dominance.
• Chest Monster: The Chest Forme of Gimmighoul is an odd subversion. Gimmighoul strongly resembles the classic Mimic enemy from RPGs such as Dragon Quest; however, items in the Pokémon universe don't look like chests at all, but rather Poké Balls. The series has already featured Poké-Ball-esque designs in the shape of Voltorb/Electrode and Foongus/Amoonguss, which behave more like a traditional chest monster, whereas Gimmighoul is more of an homage to the visual design of a chest monster while not really functioning like one.
• Chrome Champion: Its evolution, Gholdengo, is covered head to toe in a golden-like metallic shine.
• Demonic Possession: Gimmighoul has the ability to control other living beings using ghostly energy, and it uses this ability to force them to give it more coins. It is also noted to keep an especially tight grip on its victims, since it is otherwise often alone in isolated areas.
• Dowsing Device: As seen in their introductory trailers, Roaming Form Gimmighoul's antennae swivel and point towards things of interest, often coins.
• Early-Bird Cameo: After being teased in trailers for Scarlet & Violet, Gimmighoul first appeared in Pokémon GO a little under two weeks before the mainline games were released. It would follow the trainer across the map after they interacted with gold PokéStops and collected special coins.
• Extra-ore-dinary: Gholdengo is part Steel-type and has a body made of gold.
• Friendly Ghost: In contrast to most Ghost-types and even its pre-evolution, Gholdengo is rather sociable and is quick to make friends with anyone it meets.
• Hover Board: Gholdengo moves around at high speed by riding on its golden floating surfboard.
• Immunity Disability: Gholdengo's Good as Gold ability doesn't just protect it from opponent's status moves, it also protects it from its own allies' status moves. This means teammate-aiding status moves like Heal Pulse or Helping Hand also won't benefit it.
• Invincible Minor Minion: In this case, Uncatchable Minor Minion:
  • In Scarlet and Violet, Roaming Form Gimmighoul will randomly show up in certain spots (such as watchtowers, road signs, and other mildly interesting locations). You can't start an encounter by bumping them, throwing your Pokémon at them has no effect, and interacting with them only causes them to give you their coin and flee. They even have stats, despite having no way to use them in this game.
  • When it first debuted in Pokémon GO, wild Roaming Form Gimmighoul appeared in the overworld and followed players when they spun a gold Pokéstop. They couldn't be caught when tapped on, and it took Scarlet and Violet's release for Roaming Gimmighoul to actually be catchable (which enables the Coin Bag to spawn Gimmighoul encounters).
• Loot-Making Attack: Gholdengo's Secret Art Make It Rain gives money after the battle ends like Pay Day.
• Magikarp Power: Gimmighoul has a lowly base stat total of 300, doesn't learn any other moves by leveling up aside from Astonish and Tackle, and although this can be somewhat mitigated through TMs, the fact remains that its movepool is still very shallow. Evolving one into Gholdengo requires getting 999 Gimmighoul Coins, which forces the player to look into every nook and cranny of Paldea to find other Gimmighoul, even though the grinding is made much more bearable by the fact that they periodically respawn. The payoff is tremendously worth it, though, as Gholdengo is a fantastic special attacker with a varied movepool, a great defensive typing in Steel/Ghost, and a very useful ability that renders it immune to status moves.
• Man of Kryptonite: Gholdengo serves as a counter to all of the Loyal Three, resisting or being outright immune to all of their STAB attacks and their Toxic Chain ability, while being able to deal super-effective damage to both Munkidori and Fezandipiti.
• Meaningful Name: Gimmighoul is derived from "gimme" (referencing its greedy nature) and "ghoul". Gholdengo is derived from "ghoul", "golden", "go", and "tengo", Spanish for "(I) have" (referencing the fact that it has coins to spare.)
• Mighty Glacier: Bordering on Lightning Bruiser. Although its physical Attack stat is mediocre, Gholdengo has an excellent Special Attack (which can be further boosted with Nasty Plot) coupled with above-average defenses and a great defensive typing, but its speed is just short of being good.
• Money Mauling: Gholdengo's Secret Art Make It Rain causes a huge spray of coins as a high-power special attack, lowering the user's Special Attack by one stage and also gives money after the battle ends (like Pay Day). Unlike the Normal-type Pay Day, Make it Rain is a Steel-type attack.
• No Biological Sex: The entire line is genderless.
• No-Sell: Gholdengo's Good as Gold ability makes it immune to Non-Damaging Status Infliction Attack moves except those that target themselves. This includes ally status moves that target it, meaning that moves like Heal Pulse, Helping Hand, and Instruct also won't work. This is taken even further if they hold the Covert Cloak, making them immune to secondary effects as well, meaning that they're completely immune to anything that isn't direct damage.
• Numerological Motif:
  • Gimmighoul is #999 in the National Pokédex, evolving one requires the use of 999 Gimmighoul coins combined with leveling up, and 999 is a synonym for 24 karat or "pure" gold.
  • Gholdengo is #1000 in the National Pokédex, and has a body made from 1,000 gold coins.
• Our Ghouls Are Creepier: As indicated by its English name, Gimmighoul has some similarities with the mythological ghoul — albeit not its well-known trait of eating people, and instead its lesser known habits of luring people astray and stealing coins.
• Pooled Funds: Gimmighoul is small enough that it's able to do this with a treasure chest full of coins.
• Punny Name: Gimmighoul is pronounced similarly to "gimme gold", reflecting its coin-seeking nature. Similarly, its Japanese name sounds like kore wo kure, a very blunt way to say "give me that".
• Secret Art: Gholdengo is the only Pokémon that learns the move Make It Rain and the only Pokémon that has the Good as Gold ability.
• Shock and Awe: Gholdengo is able to learn Electric-type moves such as Charge Beam and Thunder Punch.
• Soul Power: Gimmighoul is a tiny Ghost-type that loves gold coins and normally hides in treasure chests, ambushing and controlling anyone that gets too close. Gholdengo, meanwhile, is made entirely of gold coins, and is one of the more benevolent Ghost-types in the entire series.
• Surfer Dude: Gholdengo has the appearance and personality of one, down to having the word "surf" in its Japanese name. It's capable of accompanying the player on the water during Let's Go Mode by riding a surfboard made of gold coins.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Gimmighoul is a fairly malicious Ghost-type fueled by greed, going so far as to control people just to obtain more coins. But once it evolves into Gholdengo, it becomes a lot friendlier.
• Totally Radical: Gholdengo's dex entry depicts it pulling a sick skateboard trick next to the roof of a Pokémon Center.
• Uncle Pennybags: Gholdengo is made of gold and requires 999 Gimmighoul coins to evolve. It's also very friendly and gets along well with just about anyone.
• Uniqueness Decay: Gholdengo has the Steel/Ghost type combination, which was previously exclusive to the Honedge family.
• Useless Useful Spell: Roaming Form Gimmighoul's Ability is Run Away, allowing it to flee from any wild encounter regardless of Speed or trapping effects – which its Ghost type already allows it to do.

Treasures of Ruin: Wo-Chien, Chien-Pao, Ting-Lu, and Chi-Yu (Chionjen, Paojian, Dinlu, and Yiyui)

The Treasures of Ruin
1001: Wo-Chien / Chionjen (チオンジェン chionjen)
1002: Chien-Pao / Paojian (パオジアン paojian)
1003: Ting-Lu / Dinlu (ディンルー dinruu)
1004: Chi-Yu / Yiyui (イーユイ iiyui)

Wo-Chien

Chien-Pao

Ting-Lu

Chi-Yu

A quartet of Legendary Pokémon based off the Four Perils of Chinese Mythology. Wo-Chien is the Taowu, Chien-Pao is the Qiongqi, Ting-Lu is the Taotie, and Chi-Yu is the Hundun.

Originally valuable but mundane objects, long ago they were brought to Paldea by a merchant from "The East" and were sold to an evil Paldean king. However, after many long years of accumulating the negative emotions of humanity, the rapacity of the greedy king was the final touch needed to transform them. They suddenly came to life as Pokémon and started to wreak havoc in Paldea, destroying the king's castle in a single night. It took many strong Pokémon wielders and magic to finally subdue them and seal them away in shrines. They are held in place by magical stakes in out of the way locations all over Paldea, stakes that can only be removed by a powerful trainer with a pure heart. If someone were able to remove them all, this will unseal the shrines.

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• Abstract Apotheosis: They each represent one of the Chinese Four Perils, with part of their design indicating it:
  • Wo-Chien: Resentment, which is represented by its constant, squinty-eyed Death Glare.
  • Chien-Pao: Hate, shown by how its brow is constantly narrowed in anger.
  • Ting-Lu: Fear, and it takes the form of a cervine such as a deer, which are typically easy to scare.
  • Chi-Yu: Envy, easily seen in how its eyes are more prominent than the rest of its body.
• Achilles' Heel: Among the four Treasures, two of the members are heavily vulnerable to a certain type; Wo-Chien is extremely vulnerable to Bug-type moves, while Chien-Pao is a sitting duck, err, cat, to Fighting-type moves.
• Ambiguous Innocence: Chien-Pao is described as innocently playing in snow… created from the massive avalanches it causes. In general, the destruction they cause has an air of innocence to it, and it is unclear how much they understand the damage they are doing.
• Ambiguously Evil: Their Pokédex entries both describe them as causing massive havoc and joyfully playing around, leaving it unclear as to their degree of malice. Their rampage in the past destroyed a castle, they are born from accumulated negative emotions, and they are all Dark Type, which in Japan can be translated as "evil type," but they are described with a level of Ambiguous Innocence. It as a result is unclear if their actions are case of Obliviously Evil or if, like past Pokémon like Gourgeist and Tapu Lele, are motivated by sadism. Either way, you can capture them as Pokémon, so if they are evil, their evil can at least be controlled/removed under the guidance of the right trainer.
• Animalistic Abomination: They're all cursed items that have taken on the form of Pokémon based on different animals whose bodies appear to be each made out of a different element. Wo-Chien resembles a giant snail made of grass, leaves, and moss with the treasure, the wooden tablets spiraling into the shell. Chien-Pao can only be at best explained as a giant saber-toothed snow leopard made of ice and snow with the broken sword being its frontal fangs. Ting-Lu looks like some type of deer made of stone with its treasure, a giant bowl, forming the antlers. And finally Chi-Yu, the beads, looks like a small floating fish made up of fire with the beads acting as eyes.
• Animate Inanimate Object: For all of them, the true body are the artifacts themselves while the animal bodies are just various elemental constructs.
• Armored But Frail: Chi-Yu has high Special Defense, but its base HP is very low, leaving it vulnerable to moves that can bypass defenses.
• Artifact of Doom: They used to be ordinary objects: A giant bowl, a sword, wooden tablets for writing, and beads that had been tainted by humanity's fear, hatred, grudges, and envy. The tipping point was when they were sold to the king of the Paldean empire.
• Badass Adorable: Chi-Yu is a small and cute fish that is also a very dangerous artifact.
• Cats Are Mean: Chien-Pao is a leopard formed from snow who's also an embodiment of hate.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Something present with each of them in their Dex entries is that while they are highly destructive when left to their own devices and were born of negative human emotions, they do not appear to be actively malevolent. Rather, their destructive "rampages" are borne out of innocence combined with their great power as they play or go about instinctive activities. Although the possibility that they may become too much for the player character to handle is brought up...
• Dishing Out Dirt: Ting-Lu is part Ground-type^note the only one introduced in Scarlet and Violet who doesn't evolve from or resemble a past Pokémon, in fact and creates earthquakes by banging its heavy head against the ground.
• Elemental Embodiment: All of them look like their bodies are made out of their respective element, rather than simply being adorned with them as is the case with other Pokémon. Wo-Chien has a body made of fuzzy moss and a head from discarded leaves, Chien-Pao's stark white hide makes it look like it's a Snowlem, Ting-Lu has a layered appearance as if it were made from the side of a clay mountain, and Chi-Yu just straight up looks like a goldfish-shaped fireball.
• Evil Counterpart:
  • The Treasures of Ruin fill this role to the Tapus. Both groups are quartets of Legendary Pokémon that share a common typing (Fairy for the Tapus, Dark for the Treasures), with said common typings having an oppositional relationship (Fairy being Light/Holy while Dark is… well, Dark/Evil). Both sets have their members bearing a BST of 570. Both sets have a Secret Art of their shared typing (Nature's Madness for the Tapus, Ruination for the Treasures) that deals damage equal to half of the target's current HP and is classified as a Special attack by the game. Each member of each quartet also has an Ability unique to themselves, that has an effect similar to the Abilities of the other members of their quartet.
  • From a meta perspective, the Treasures of Ruin are also this to the Forces of Nature, being based on the Four Perils where the Forces of Nature's Therian Forms are based on the Four Auspicious Beasts.
• Evil Is Burning Hot: Chi-Yu is a goldfish made of fire (and obviously part Fire-type) which was created by envy.
• Evil Is Deathly Cold: Chien-Pao is part Ice-type, creates avalanches, and was created by hatred.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Each of their names in every language are just combinations of their object of origin and animal design, with Wo-Chien being a bamboo slip snail, Chien-Pao being a sword leopard, Ting-Lu being a cauldron deer, and Chi-Yu being a jade goldfish. The Chinese translation goes extra "on the tin" by tacking gǔ (ancient) onto each one in reference to their Sealed Evil in a Can status.
• Fangs Are Evil: Chien-Pao sports a pair of very sharp and nasty-looking fangs made from the two halves of a (possibly) broken sword.
• Fiendish Fish: Chi-Yu is a part Dark-type Pokémon based on a goldfish that is an embodiment of envy.
• Flying Seafood Special: Chi-Yu is able to float in the air. However, it can swim through even pure rock... given how it's hot enough to melt straight through it.
• Four Is Death: Possibly the reason why they're a quartet. Given their Chinese-inspired names and designs, the fact that they are four cursed items bought by the king of Paldea who eventually gained physical form is a reference to the Chinese belief that purchasing four items is very unlucky.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Chi-Yu is envy given form. Bonus points for the beads that make up its eyes being made of jade, making it a literal example of this.
• Green Thumb: Wo-Chien is part-Grass-type and is partially made of leaves.
• An Ice Person: Chien-Pao is part Ice-type with a body constructed from ice and snow. It can control up to 100 tons of fallen snow.
• Killer Rabbit: Chi-Yu's small and cute appearance belies the fact that it's still a highly dangerous being.
• Lightning Bruiser:
  • Chien-Pao has excellent Attack and Speed, and has good HP and Defense, with its only low stat being Special Defense.
  • Chi-Yu has excellent Special Attack and Special Defense, great Speed, and average Defense, with its lowest stat being HP.
• Made of Evil: All four of them are primarily Dark-types and each represents a different negative emotion. Wo-Chien represents grudges, Chien-Pao represents hatred, Ting-Lu represents fear, and Chi-Yu represents envy. That said, this is Played With regarding the creatures themselves not necessarily being truly evil.
• Mighty Glacier: Ting-Lu has high HP, Attack, and Defense, but its base 45 Speed is very poor.
• Nerf: They all took a 10 point reduction to their base stat total in the first patch for Scarlet and Violet, which is noticeable, given how rarely Pokémon changes such things, even when transitioning between generations.
• Non-Standard Character Design: They look rather weird compared to the rest of the dex. Justified when you consider they're all previously inanimate objects brought to life by negative emotions.
• No-Sell: Each member has an immunity to the Psychic type thanks to their Dark type. Each of their secondary types grants another immunity; Ting-Lu's Ground-type makes it immune to Electric-type moves, Wo-Chien's Grass-type makes it immune to powder and spore moves, Chi-Yu's Fire-type means it cannot be burned, and Chien-Pao's Ice-type means it cannot be frozen.
• Obliviously Evil: Their destructive rampages weren't out of any inherent malicious intent, but an innocence due to their sudden transformation from objects to living beings making them unaware of the consequences their instinctive actions have for others. Under a skilled enough trainer, they would learn to use their abilities without undue risk.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Chi-Yu is around the size of a Pikachu or Sprigatito. It does not stop it from being one of the strongest Pokémon in the game with its ridiculous Special Attack stat.
• Playing with Fire: Chi-Yu is part Fire-type and it constructed a body of fire for itself that burns so hot it can "swim" through land by melting it into lava.
• The Power of Hate: Chien-Pao was formed from the accumulated hatred of those who died to the sword, while Wo-Chien is the embodiment of the grudges of a person who was punished for writing down a king's evil deeds.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Being the dangerous embodiment of envy aside, Chi-Yu is a cute little fishy with big round eyes!
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The four were sealed within shrines in ancient times due to their destructive behavior until the player character breaks their bindings.
• Secret Art:
  • The four are the only Pokémon that learn Ruination, a Dark-type move that removes half of the opponent's HP.
  • Each of the four has an Ability that lowers a base stat for all Pokémon on the field apart from themselves:
    • Wo-Chien has Tablets of Ruin, which lowers Attack.
    • Chien-Pao has Sword of Ruin, which lowers Defense.
    • Ting-Lu has Vessel of Ruin, which lowers Special Attack.
    • Chi-Yu has Beads of Ruin, which lowers Special Defense.
• Self-Constructed Being: They're all objects imbued with awareness by an immense accumulation of intense negative emotions. What looks like their bodies are actually elemental constructs to allow them mobility and interaction with their surroundings.
• Snowlems: Chien-Pao's entire body is composed of ice and snow, save for the sword that makes up its fangs.
• Snowy Sabertooths: Chien-Pao is a cross between a saber-toothed cat and a snow leopard, and naturally is part Ice-type.
• Stealth Pun:
  • Chien-Pao wears its sword body as fangs, making it a literal saber-toothed cat.
  • Chinese players may note that Ting-Lu is a deer with a cauldron.
• Stone Wall: Wo-Chien has very high special defense, and its Tablets of Ruin ability functionally gives it strong physical bulk as well. However, its offensive stats are subpar by Legendary standards.
• Tailor-Made Prison: Implied — their seals are color-coded in the same way as certain Pokémon types, implying that they were bound via the power of types that counter them:
  • Wo-Chien's seal is purple like the Poison-type, which is strong against Grass.
  • Ting-Lu's seal is green like the Grass-type, which is strong against Ground.
  • Chien-Pao's seal is orange like the Fire-type, which is strong against Ice.
  • Chi-Yu's seal is blue like the Water-type, which is strong against Fire.
• Takes One to Kill One: Their Ruination attack, being a Percent Damage Attack, bypasses their Attack and Defense stat disrupting abilities while also quickly chipping away health to one. This means that by capturing one, it becomes much easier to capture the others.
• Uniqueness Decay:
  • Chien-Pao is Dark/Ice, a combination previously exclusive to the Johtonian Sneasel line.
  • Ting-Lu is Dark/Ground, a type combination that was once exclusive to Sandile and its evolutions.
• Useless Useful Spell: Their Secret Art, Ruination, reduces the target's HP by half. While Wo-Chien (and, to an extent, Ting-Lu) might be able to get some mileage out of the move, the others have high enough attacking stats that they can usually take off much more than half a health bar with a single attack.
• Walking Wasteland: Wo-Chien drains the life force from vegetation around it, causing plant life to wither and fields to turn barren. Ironically (or not), it's part Grass-type (rather than, say, part-Poison).^note This makes it the only member of the Treasures of Ruin to share a type with a member of the Tapus, the Good Counterpart (of a sort) to the Treasures.
• Weak Against Magic: Chien-Pao has okay Defense but a very poor base Special Defense stat, giving it a major weakness against special-based moves.
• Wicked Weasel: Chien-Pao is supposed to be a leopard, but its long, slender body also gives it elements of a mustelid. It is, like its compatriots, Ambiguously Evil.
• You Will Not Evade Me: All four members learn Mean Look, which prevents enemies from escaping.

Paradox Duo: Koraidon and Miraidon (UNMARKED ENDGAME SPOILERS)

1007: Koraidon (コライドン koraidon)
Tsubasa no Oh (ツバサノオウ tsubasanoō)
1008: Miraidon (ミライドン miraidon)
Tetsu no Orochi (テツノオロチ Tetsunoorochi)

Koraidon

Miraidon

The cover legendaries for Scarlet and Violet are Koraidon and Miraidon, prehistoric and cybernetic Paradox forms of Cyclizar respectively. These two reptilian Pokémon are the player’s partner mounts to ride across Paldea and both can change forms to suit the terrain they travel. Koraidon is known for being proud of its power and acting fearless against any and all opponents, pummeling them with overwhelming power. Miraidon has a more analytical disposition and prefers to take down its opponents by hitting them at their weakest.

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• All Animals Are Dogs: While much of their behavior is more cat-like, they still lick Penny's face when they first meet her — much to her displeasure.
• Badass Adorable: The first Koraidon/Miraidon you obtain is this. While they're fierce and powerful dragons, they also have big-eyed, expressive faces and friendly kitten-like personalities that bring Toothless to mind, and have a very endearing love for sandwiches.
• Badass Normal: In-Universe, most Legendary Pokémon with a base 670+ stat spread — and especially "cover" Legendaries — have some sort of lore involved which explain the immense strength as deriving from some greater aspect or control over the world. Not these two. While the game implies that they are extremely uncommon in the past/future where they come from, they are still just normal Pokémon. To drive it home, their modern relative Cyclizar are downright common in the wilds of Paldea and are often used by humans as simple mounts and pack animals.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Koraidon is part Fighting-type. Its Scarlet Pokédex entry even mentions how it split the land with its bare fists.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: The Raidon decides to save the protagonist from a Houndoom after they gave it a sandwich to eat. It would then become their main mode of transportation throughout their entire journey.
• Big Damn Heroes: Gets this twice.
  • First, in the Inlet Grotto early in the game, Koraidon/Miraidon intervenes when the player's Pokémon is bested by the Houndoom and drives them back with a tail whip. Then, when the Houndoom summons the Houndour swarm to mob them both, the Legendary grabs the player and escapes the grotto with them.
  • Secondly, the Paradise Protection Protocol summons its own Koraidon/Miraidon and locks all Poké Balls not registered to the original professor. But since the player's Koraidon/Miraidon did belong to the professor, it's able to face the being that tormented it before and beat it down in a Curb-Stomp Battle.
• Bizarre Alien Locomotion: As a cyborg, Miraidon is able to turn its throat/chest and tail into wheels for its Drive Mode, something that a fully organic being wouldn't be able to do.
• Boss Subtitles: The Koraidon/Miraidon that the Paradise Protection Protocol sends out is called "Koraidon/Miraidon, the Guardian of Paradise".
• Breaking Old Trends: Koraidon and Miraidon do this in several ways to previous box legendaries.
  • They're obtained automatically near the start of the game, though they still can't be used in battle until near the end.
  • Unlike most Legendary Pokémon, they aren't Famed In-Story; there's barely any lore associated with them, nor did they have a significant role in the history of their region, and are the only box Legendaries to explicitly avert Single Specimen Species within their game's story with a second member showing up as part of the plot toward its end. At the end of the day, Koraidon and Miraidon are just the ancestor and descendant of Cyclizar that happen to have the fewest known specimens of all the Paradox Pokémon, albeit some of the stronger kinds.
  • Instead of being implied to be just single specimens, they are implied to have more of their kind hailing from their time periods of origin, given how they're the ancestor and descendant of Cyclizar and also meet the player character after fleeing from a second Raidon.
• Break the Haughty: In an instance that's implied through gameplay, when facing against the territorial Koraidon/Miraidon in the post game, it no longer knows the move Taunt.
• Can't Drop the Hero: Even after your original 'raidon regains its battle abilities, it can never be put in a Box or released because it is your primary mode of transportation throughout Paldea. Fortunately, it doesn't take up one of your six party slots if you're using it solely as a motorcycle.
• Cartoon Creature: Koraidon is intended to be some sort of dinosaur with lizard characteristics, but it doesn't match up perfectly to any extant species. While it most closely resembles theropods, it can also run on all fours and has long forelimbs that act as arms in its Apex Build, which no real-life theropods were known to have and was more commonly seen with hadrosaurs and iguanodontids.
• Catlike Dragons: Both of them, but especially Koraidon, exhibit various cat-like mannerisms, especially in terms of how they walk and run, and what they look like when they curl up. Their cries even sound like variations of a wildcat roar.
• Character Development: Koraidon/Miraidon in the player's possession manages to gain one over the course of the game for a Pokémon. It refuses to battle even after regaining its abilities, and was outright terrified of Area Zero since its Evil Counterpart was also living there. Once it gains its Heroic Resolve to fight with the player, it'll defend its new master to defeat its counterpart under the player's control.
• Chekhov's Gun: Early on in the game, you learn that the Koraidon/Miraidon you befriend as well as the Pokéball that houses them used to belong to Professor Sada/Turo. During the final battle, Paradise Protection Protocol jams everyone's Pokéball and disallows anyone from using Pokémon other than those registered under the professors' ID... then you are reminded that one such Pokémon has been with you all this time.
• Chekhov's Gunman: In The Teal Mask, Koraidon/Miraidon pops out of its ball when the Player is conversing with Kieran, hinting at further involvement between the two. In the finale of The Indigo Disk, Koraidon/Miraidon is sent out to take a blast from a presumably angry Stellar-form Terapagos for Kieran, potentially saving the boy’s life.
• Conditioned to Be Weak: When the Player first meets Miraidon/Kiraidon, they're rather weak and incapable of fighting. Whilst the player gradually helps them get their abilities back, this doesn't include their ability to fight, suggesting that a mental block is a reason for this. The end of the game confirms this to be the case thanks to the result of an attack from a more vicious Miraidon/Kiraidon, which severely traumatized them - once they overcome their trauma, they become able to fight again.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: The antagonist Raidon is this with Giratina from Pokémon Legends: Arceus. They're both powerful Legendary Pokémon from the distant past (or future) and were highly aggressive. With Giratina, it was a Blood Knight that loves violence, and was banished to the Distortion World for it by Arceus. The second Raidon is a very aggressive member of its own species to the point of fighting the protagonist Raidon over a territorial dispute that got a Professor killed. They both ended up being defeated in battle while being wielded by an antagonist, and ends up being humbled being captured by the protagonist, and will eventually form a Heel–Face Turn.
• Cool Bike: Visually the two emulate motorbikes. They both have wide, protruding throats with a pattern that resembles tire treads^note with similar patterns on the underside between the legs for the back "wheel" (actually its curled up tail) on Koraidon, spikes extending from their shoulders reminiscent of handlebars and protrusions sticking up just before the tail that form a chair from their backs. Koraidon and Miraidon are based on a chopper and tourer respectively. Unlike its counterpart, Koraidon doesn't use its belly "wheels" for locomotion (since they are not actual wheels, but a throat sac and tail, respectively), instead running on all fours.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The player's Koraidon/Miraidon was on the receiving end of this from a more violent, aggressive specimen, driving it out of Area Zero and injuring it to the point where it couldn't assume its Apex Build/Ultimate Form for extended periods. In the final battle against the Paradise Protection Protocol, the player gets to turn the tables on the second Koraidon/Miraidon by having their own Terastalize and wipe the floor with it in a few moves.
• Cybernetic Mythical Beast: Miraidon has all the earmarks of a serpentine dragon and is evidently a cyborg.
• Death Glare: The second Koraidon/Miraidon gives a withering glare to the first after their brief reunion before heading inside the Zero Gate.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Notable in this case for applying to the box duo directly. They were tormented by another of their kind and spent the entire game traumatized from it. Overcoming this at the climax and defeating their rival allows their trainer to catch it, and the two will react if the player chooses to put it in the party. The two specimens get along well enough during picnics.
• Delinquent Hair: Koraidon sports a flock of feathers on the top of its head to give it a "hairdo", with one curled forward like a cowlick, giving an appearance of a rebellious biker. This also makes it look more wild and primal compared to the more subdued and futuristic Miraidon.
• Deuteragonist: In Scarlet and Violet, they travel with the protagonist throughout their entire journey as their trusty companion and are the focus of the overarching plot, especially with the "Path of Legends" quest and the final storyline, "The Way Home".
• Discard and Draw: Much like other Paradox Pokémon, both Koraidon and Miraidon are related to the dual-typed Cyclizar, shedding its Normal typing for Fighting and Electric, respectively.
• Dinosaurs Are Dragons: Koraidon's Apex Build resembles a bipedal theropod dinosaur complete with feathers, fitting for its prehistoric nature, although it doesn't seem to be based on any species in particular and is instead some sort of fantastical dino. In the TCG, it has an Ability called "Dino Cry".
• Doing In the Wizard: In a way unusual for box legendaries, like Solgaleo and Lunala before them, Koraidon and Miraidon are at their core not much more special than Paradox variants of Cyclizar, legendary-appropriate power aside.
• Duel Boss: The climax of the battle against the Paradise Protection Protocol pits you and your Koraidon/Miraidon against another one.
• Eating Machine: Although cybernetic in appearance, Miraidon is capable of eating food like any other Pokémon.
• Exotic Eye Designs: Their combat forms have two-color irises — adding an additional ring of yellow around the pupil — to signify that they're stronger than their traversal forms, which have no such thing.
• Feathered Dragons: Koraidon is a Dragon-type coated in magnificent feathers. Like Roaring Moon, they make it look more ferocious, primal, and dinosaur-like.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: It's revealed in the climax of the game that Koraidon and Miraidon are, respectively, ancient/future forms of the modern Cyclizar, brought to Paldea by the professors of each version.
• Foil:
  • To Arven's Mabosstiff. It was severely injured in Area Zero and ultimately had to be steadily nursed back to health by a kind trainer. However, whereas Mabosstiff ultimately made a full recovery through the love and care of Arven, even regaining its will to battle, Koraidon/Miraidon's trauma from Area Zero is so deeply embedded into it that even after the friendship and care of the player character, it cannot overcome this mental block until it finally confronts the source of its trauma.
  • Also to Penny. Penny notes that she can understand how Koraidon/Miraidon feels in regards to their respective traumas (her bullying, and its trauma in Area Zero), and how it's difficult to confront one's trauma, feeling like it would be better to hide away.
• Game-Breaking Injury: The reason for Koraidon/Miraidon being weak when the player first encountered it. A territorial battle between it and a second, aggressive one injured it to the point that it couldn't assume its Apex Build/Ultimate Mode for long without getting tired, and could barely stand up to a pair of Houndour. It spends much of the game in its Limited Build/Low Power Mode, unable to battle, and requires the Herba Mystica to heal it and restore its original powers.
• Gameplay and Story Integration:
  • Once the ride Koraidon/Miraidon you received fully joins your party (becoming able to battle), it joins you with a maxed-out friendship. This is because this Koraidon/Miraidon has been with you since the start of the game and thus would have bonded with you and your party Pokémon all the way to the end-game of the main scenario to post-game, having a maxed-out friendship as a result. Both are also locked to the Quirky Nature, which is neutral to all flavours and fits them liking all of the Herba Mystica sandwiches as well as their oddball nature.
  • If Koraidon/Miraidon is added to your party, using them as transport will forcibly remove them from your party. It also cannot be boxed or traded, necessitating the capture of the second Koraidon/Miraidon in the wild if the player wants to trade it (since they always need to have access to the ride feature), or simply if they do not want to deal with constantly fiddling with the player's party just to use them while having access to riding Koraidon/Miraidon.
  • The second Koraidon/Miraidon, when battled post-game, has both a higher level and an optimal nature that boosts its main attack stat at the expense of the other attack stat, representing how it's at base stronger than the ride Legendary.
  • Koraidon's Violet and Miraidon's Scarlet Dex entries mention how they're more "ferocious" or "ruthless" than Cyclizar, and that little is known about them. The concept of Ancient/Future Paradox Pokémon doesn't really exist in the opposite game's universe, and the only way to obtain the opposite game's box legendary is to trade for the second, more vicious one encountered in the postgame — the friendly partner Koraidon/Miraidon can't be traded away.
• Glowing Mechanical Eyes: Miraidon's eyes resemble arrays of colored LEDs, suggesting that it may be robotic in nature. This is similar to the Future Paradox specimens, hinting at their connection.
• Heel–Face Turn: In the postgame, you can capture the second Koraidon/Miraidon that attacked yours and was used by the Paradise Protection Protocol, and raise it to be just as friendly as the Koraidon/Miraidon that you got at the start of your adventure. This is helpful in that it lets you use one in battle without having to manually take your first one out of ride mode every time.
• Hero Killer: The second Koraidon/Miraidon ended up unintentionally killing the original Sada/Turo, who was trying to protect its gentler counterpart when the two got into a violent battle for territory. Whether it attacked the professor directly during this or the destruction of the research station killed them is unclear.
• Hihi'irokane: Koraidon's ability Hihi'iro no Koudou ("Scarlet Pulse", localised as "Orichalcum Pulse") references the metal, down to its association with pseudo-historical ancient civilisations and ability to generate heat.
• Home Field Advantage: Miraidon's Ability, Hadron Engine, combines the effects of Electric Surge and Quark Drive by setting up Electric Terrain when it enters battle and boosting its Special Attack when under the effect of said Terrain. Notably, despite being mechanically identical to Orichalcum Pulse, Miraidon generally benefits more from it than Koraidon due to already having Electric-type STAB that is further amplified by Electric Terrain.
• Hover Bike: Fitting with Miraidon's future theme, it floats on its own and it has a front tire pattern on its chest, its feet can transform into rocket engines, its rear resembles a seat, and its shoulders resemble handlebars. Both Pokémon are used in the game for surfing, riding, flying and climbing.
• Hoist by Their Own Petard: Koraidon has a penchant of being not great in 7 Star Tera Raids, with more than a few reasons being tied to how its ability makes the Starter Raid Bosses even more dangerous.
• In a Single Bound: Both Raidons can jump to impressively large heights while in their travel forms.
• Jerkass: The Koraidon/Miraidon kept in Area Zero, the second brought through by Sada/Turo, is shown to be a violent, aggressive bully. It got into a territorial fight with its weaker counterpart that resulted in the latter getting injured and driven out, a base being destroyed, and Sada/Turo being killed in the crossfire. When the player meets it guarding the last level of Area Zero, it quickly intimidates its fellow Paradox Pokémon again and would have started another fight had the opening doors to the lab not distracted it.
• Kaiju: Invoked. Either one of them gets mistaken by one by Kieran during the Teal Mask.
• Knight of Cerebus: The second one is definitely this, by the series' standards. For a Pokémon antagonist (and an actual Pokémon at that), it stands out. As not only did it injure and near-cripple the first bike dragon, but it even outright (albeit unintentionally) directly or indirectly killed the original professor of the game, marking the first time a major character ever died outside of a flashback in one of the core games' stories. And by the time you reach the final area where it's located, the story tone takes an unexpectedly darker turn.
• Law of Chromatic Superiority: Unlike any of the other Pokémon, including other legends such as the Treasures of Ruin, Koraidon and Miraidon's Pokédex picture borders are gold and show off their wheels instead of just being a simple green box.
• Lightning Bruiser: As expected from the box legendaries, Koraidon and Miraidon are both exceptionally powerful, boasting excellent offensive stats and Speed (Koraidon is physical, and Miraidon is special), and great defenses.
• Lightning/Fire Juxtaposition: Miraidon is Electric type and sets Electric Terrain with its ability, and Koraidon learns Fire type moves and sets Fire-boosting sunny weather with its ability.
• Licked by the Dog:
  • Even if the player is suspicious of Penny, the fact that the Legendary instantly likes her is a good indicator that she's Good All Along. Bonus points for the Running Gag involving the two being a literal example as well.
  • Its affection for Professor Sada/Turo also shows this — that for all the Professor's flaws, they had love in their heart.
• Like a Son to Me: Implied to be the case between the Raidon and Professor Sada/Turo — the Professor's journal describes the Legendary's arrival in a way that almost sounds like they're talking about the birth of a second child (as they were already at least expecting Arven by this point) and they sacrificed their life to save the Legendary when its counterpart attacked it. This is also shown to be part of why Arven resented the Legendary at first.
• Lovable Lizard: Both Koraidon and Miraidon are absolutely adorable, with expressive faces and cute pet-like mannerisms, making it easy to forget just how powerful (and potentially dangerous) they can be. Also overlaps with Delightful Dragon given their typing.
• Meaningful Name: Both of their names combine a Japanese word thematically relating to them (Koraidon having "korai", meaning "ancient", and Miraidon having "mirai", meaning "future") with the Spanish word "don", meaning "lord" (making them the Ancient Lord and Future Lord), while also containing the sound of "ride on", referencing their bike-like aesthetics.
• Mercury's Wings: They both have retractable wings on their heads. They extend them during Flight Mode to glide through the air during gameplay.
• Mirror Boss: A souped-up Koraidon (in Scarlet) or Miraidon (in Violet) called the "Guardian of Paradise" is the Paradise Protection Protocol's ultimate Pokémon, and you fight it with your own Koraidon/Miraidon one-on-one.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: Koraidon is meant to be a dinosaur, but is also based on modern lizards like its relative Cyclizar. It doesn't seem to be based on any dinosaur species in particular and instead resembles a mishmash of various species with the general body plan of a theropod (albeit with the ability to run on all fours in its ride forms, similar to hadrosaurs and iguanodontids).
• More Hateable Minor Villain: While Professor Sada/Turo was the cause of the rampant Paradox Pokémon becoming a threat to Paldea, it was due to their unchecked ambitions rather than malice, and they do show genuine love for Arven, and their Raidon. By contrast, the Guardian of Paradise is little more than a smug bully who's beatdown of their counterpart traumatized them, and also killed the professor in the crossfire.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Koraidon and Miraidon are dragons that function as vehicles. Koraidon also has aspects of dinosaurs, while Miraidon has aspects of robots. And despite all that, they act more like housecats than anything.
• No Biological Sex: Like other cover legendaries, they're both classified as genderless. However, this could be because, like the other Paradox Pokémon, there simply isn't enough known about them to determine what their genders are. Their modern relative Cyclizar has genders, so it's more likely that they have genders too. Koraidon is described as also known as the "Winged king", which may imply that it's a male, but it's never said definetly.
• Not Afraid of You Anymore: The player's Koraidon/Miraidon was driven out of Area Zero by a more aggressive member of the same species, and is very reluctant to return. When the player has no other options to face the second Koraidon/Miraidon after the Paradise Protection Protocol locks all Balls not owned by the Professor, their own dragon regains its full power and manages to overcome the other dragon to save Paldea.
• Olympus Mons: Subverted; while they're presented as the cover legendaries of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet and they boast impressive stats like many other Legendary Pokémon, it turns out that they're not cosmic entities or even particularly Famed In-Story — they're just the ancestor (Koraidon) and descendant (Miraidon) of the regular present-day Pokémon Cyclizar. Since they were only discovered through a secret research project, there are little to no legends known about them and most people tend to assume they're just rare but weird-looking variants of Cyclizar.
• Orichalcum: Referenced by Koraidon's ability in the English version, as a Cultural Translation of Hihi'irokane ("scarletite"). Though orichalcum and hihi'irokane are sometimes considered to be the same substance anyway.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Koraidon and Miraidon are both part Dragon-type and resemble a bipedal Feathered Dragon and a robotic serpentine dragon respectively. Both of them resemble the lizard-like Cyclizar, but Koraidon is known as the "Winged King", is some sort of fantastical dinosaur, while Miraidon is known as the "Iron Serpent" and has features of Eastern dragons.
• Phlebotinum du Jour: Both species generate power from Applied Phlebotinum, as shown in their abilities — Koraidon's archaic "Orichalcum Pulse" ("Scarlet Pulse" in Japanese") and Miraidon's futuristic "Hadron Engine".
• Playing with Fire: Like Groudon and Solgaleo, Koraidon is associated with fire despite not actually having the typing. It can learn most Fire-type attacks via TM, and can Terastallize into a Fire-type to make them even stronger when combined with the sun that it sets up.
• Post-Final Boss: At the climax of the game, a Koraidon/Miraidon is the final Pokémon used by the Paradise Protection Protocol, and it needs to be defeated using your own Koraidon/Miraidon in a one-on-one match. It's pretty much scripted for you to win however, and comes immediately after a genuinely difficult battle.
• The Power of the Sun: Koraidon's Orichalcum Pulse combines the effects of Drought and Protosynthesis, setting up strong sunlight whenever it enters battle and getting a boost to its Attack while said weather condition is active. Notably, despite being mechanically identical to Hadron Engine, Koraidon generally benefits less from it than Miraidon due to not having a Fire-type STAB to take full advantage of the sunlight, although it can still learn physical Fire-type moves.
• Power Up Mount: The Raidons serve as your method of transport around Paldea. Specifically, you can ride around the terrain, swim, climb cliffs, and even fly around on them.
• Primal Stance: The Raidon in the player's possession will take this stance. It can stand on its own two feet in its battle form, but will walk in all fours in Ride mode.
• Recurring Element:
  • Koraidon and Miraidon's relation to Cyclizar is reminiscent of Diancie's relation to Carbink, being a powered-up version that the more common Pokémon cannot actually evolve into in-game.
  • Koraidon and Miraidon follow very similar story beats and gameplay roles to Reshiram and Zekrom or Solgaleo and Lunala: they're actually with you for most of the adventure in some capacity, but aren't really combat-viable until the last leg of the story (because they're traumatized, hibernating as a stone, or not fully-evolved). Compared to Reshiram and Zekrom specifically, one of them is a futuristic Electric/Dragon type, the other is designed to look more historic and is stronger in the sun, and story-wise they follow a similar path to their role in Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, namely that you have two battles with Reshiram or Zekrom in B2/W2 and two battles with the Koraidon or Miraidon that you can actually catch in Scarlet and Violet. The first battle happens with the legendary Pokémon in the possession of another Trainer (N and AI Sada/Turo, respectively), preventing you from catching it, while the second battle has it as a wild Pokémon that can be caught.
  • After Groudon, Koraidon is the second "red" version mascot to learn fire moves and automatically summon fire boosting harsh sunlight without actually being Fire-type.
• Red Baron: "Winged King" and "Iron Serpent", respectively. Their actual names are provided, unlike the other Paradox Pokémon, making their descriptive titles into a case of this instead.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Koraidon is the Red Oni, being a proud, highly aggressive, and expressive physical attacker that is wary of humans, but is willing to play with them on occasion due to a combination of curiosity and capriciousness. Miraidon is the blue, being an analytical, stoic special attacker that fights with precision and uses its power of insight to deem humans okay to interact with.
• Required Party Member: You're not allowed to release or trade away the Raidon you start with, given that it also serves as a way to traverse Paldea in its entirety. Luckily, a second Raidon, the same one that attacked it at the beginning, can be caught and traded.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Koraidon and Miraidon are both noted by their opposing Pokédex entries to be more aggressive than Cyclizar, their shared descendant/ancestor. While the Koraidon/Miraidon that the player comes to own averts this, the one kept in Area Zero does not — it is extremely aggressive, traumatizing its weaker counterpart and explicitly killing (directly or indirectly via the research station being destroyed) the Professor (though their AI counterpart puts the blame on them for underestimating its power and using their own body to shield the weaker Koraidon/Miraidon from the resulting destruction). Area Zero's specimen is the only Koraidon that can exist in Violet, and the only Miraidon that can exist in Scarlet, as the partner Raidon can't be traded away.
• Running on All Fours: Koraidon walks and runs on all fours in its Limited Build/Low Power Modes or being ridden upon, and stand up for battles in Apex Build/Ultimate Mode. Miraidon, on the other hand, doesn't so much stand up as hover, and it converts its throat/chest and tail into wheels and hind limbs into jet thrusters for faster travel.
• Scripted Battle: The Post-Final Boss fight is one of these. It's impossible to lose — in fact, at one point, the player's Koraidon/Miraidon sustains what would normally be a fatal blow, but hangs on with one HP; this affection effect is a mechanic present in several previous Pokémon games, but it is the first time it has played such an explicit role in the story.
• Secret Art:
  • Koraidon has Collision Course while Miraidon has Electro Drift. Both function in the same way, being moves that get a ~33% increase in power if they land a super-effective hit. Collision Course runs on Koraidon's stronger physical attack and gets Fighting-type STAB, while Electro Drift uses Miraidon's more potent special attack and has Electric-type STAB.
  • Koraidon and Miraidon are the only Pokémon that can have the abilities Orichalcum Pulse and Hadron Engine respectively, which both summon a specific field effect upon entering combat while granting the user a ~33% buff to one of their attacking stats if that field effect is currently active. Orichalcum Pulse summons harsh sunlight and buffs Koraidon's Attack, while Hadron Engine summons Electric Terrain and buffs Miraidon's Sp. Atk.
• Shock and Awe: Miraidon is part Electric-type, befitting its robotic nature. Its Violet Pokédex entry mentions how it turned the land into ash with its lightning.
• Short Range Guy, Long Range Guy: Most of the moves Koraidon learns by levelling up are hands-on physical Fighting-type moves, which is contrasted by Miraidon's level-up learnset, primarily comprised of non-contact special Electric-type moves. Also, Koraidon's stronger physical stats (135 Attack and 115 Defense) are allocated identically to Miraidon's stronger special stats (135 Special Attack and 115 Special Defense).
• The Stoic: Miraidon is said to have a calm and collected disposition and has a limited ability to show its emotions, with the only way to tell what it's feeling being the shape and color of its eyes.
• A Taste of Power: Subverted. After you revive your Raidon with a sandwich, it transforms into its battle form to help you climb back up to the lighthouse you fall from. However, your Raidon will not help you fend off wild Pokémon other than scaring some Houndours in cutscenes (though wild Pokémon you find here are weak enough that you shouldn't have any problem battling them), and after your Hopeless Boss Fight against a Lv. 40 Houndoom, your Raidon instead opts to bail you out without a fight, then loses its battle form for most of the game afterwards.
• Tastes Like Friendship: They become friendly with the player after the player offers them a sandwich their mother made for them.
• Trademark Favourite Food: Sandwiches. After the player offers a sandwich their mother made to Koraidon/Miraidon upon finding it in a weakened state, it develops a taste for them — to the point where the mere mention of sandwiches makes it pop out of its Poké Ball. Their attachment to sandwiches have pretty much become a source of humor that follows it in any another piece of Pokémon media they're presented. In the February 2024 Pokémon Presents teaser for Pokémon Café Mix shows them consuming a pile of sandwiches larger than they are in a single sitting. Likewise, in Pokémon Unite, in order to recruit Miraidon for free, players needs to collect 1,000 sandwich points.
• Transforming Vehicle: They can be made to ride around the terrain, swim, and even climb cliffs and fly, and they have form changes designed for each. Miraidon fits the bill even closer, as its chest/throat and tail turn into actual wheels and its legs tuck in to form thrusters.
• Trauma Button: The player's Koraidon/Miraidon has this in the second, more aggressive specimen, which bested it in a violent territorial struggle that destroyed research station 4 and killed the original Professor Sada/Turo in the process. The fear of encountering it again makes the player's Box Legendary reluctant to return to Area Zero — it hides in its Poké Ball for the majority of the descent, and when it finally encounters the other Koraidon/Miraidon, it cowers in terror before it. When the Paradise Protection Protocol locks the player's Poké Balls from working, however, Koraidon/Miraidon overcomes its fear and confronts its counterpart one-on-one to protect the player and their friends.
• T. Rexpy: Koraidon is a dinosaurian Pokémon known as the "Winged King". It has some Tyrannosaurus rex features in its Mix-and-Match Critters makeup, and is the most powerful of the Ancient Paradox Pokémon, let alone among explicitly prehistoric Pokémon in general. The second one in Pokémon Scarlet in particular is a terrifying foe responsible for your partner Koraidon's injuries and trauma.
• Uniqueness Decay: Koraidon has the Fighting/Dragon type combination, which was previously exclusive to Jangmo-o's evolutions. While Miraidon's Electric/Dragon type combination has been used by multiple Pokémon before, it's the second box legendary mascot with the typing after Zekrom and the first instance since Gen II of a repeated dual typing between distinct box mascots, after Charizard and Ho-Oh's shared Fire/Flying typing.^note While there have been repeated box legendary typings before, these have all been between different forms of the same Pokémon such as Kyurem or Kyogre, or single-type instances like with Blastoise, Suicune and (again) Kyogre.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The large majority of Paldea's society don't really seem to notice or comment much on Koraidon/Miraidon outside of the few major characters involved. This is justified in that Koraidon/Miraidon, due to their Fish out of Temporal Water status and being part of an obscure research project, are not Famed In-Story, let alone treated as Physical Gods, like previous version-mascot Legendary Pokémon were; most people don’t even know enough about them to recognize them as being anything special. Their similarities to Cyclizar make people of the present think that the Paradox duo are just weird-looking but rare Cyclizar variants instead, as a Black Belt trainer in the cliffs of Asado Desert lampshades it by wondering if Cyclizar can regularly climb.
• Walking Spoiler: While their existence and box Legendary status had been heavily advertised, their actual role in the plot only gets revealed near the very end of the game, especially how a second specimen of the version's Legendary becomes the Post-Final Boss.
• Wall Crawl: An upgrade lets them traverse walls and cliffs this way, making it possible to scale the mountains of Paldea.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: The ride legend is on the receiving end of this by Arven near the end of The Way Home as he recounts why he believes it has what it takes to stand up to its rival.
  Arven: Koraidon/Miraidon! You've really ruined my childhood, you know. But it's not like seeing you cowering and scared outta your wits makes me feel any better about it. You've got amazing powers, if you just use 'em! And you got us, too! So... So... So don't you even think about losing to that jerk! Be brave - stand up and fight!
• You Have Researched Breathing: You can't nickname the Koraidon/Miraidon you travel with until its Apex Build/Ultimate Mode is unlocked after beating the game, which allows access to its status screen. Slightly justified as Koraidon/Miraidon was initially registered under Sada/Turo's ID and did not technically become your Pokemon until the post-game.

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