Characters / Pokémon: Generation V - Victini to Zoroark

Main Character Index > Pokémon: Generation V Families > Victini to Zoroark (494-571) | Minccino to Volcarona (572-637) | Cobalion to Genesect (638-649)

This page has the tropes for Pokémon numbered 494 to 571 in the National Pokédex.

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Victini

0494: Victini (ビクティニ bikutini)

Victini

An odd rabbit critter, number 000 on the Unova Pokédex. Victini is said to be the incarnation of victory itself, with in-game legends claiming that if you have a Victini in your party, you are guaranteed a victory in some way. With balanced stats to go around, it may or may not hold this status when put to practice. Being a Mythical Pokémon, it is exclusive to events.

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• Artistic License – Economics: Its Pokédex entry states that it creates infinite energy within its body. In the real world, something or someone like Victini that had the ability to produce infinite energy would have vast, history-altering effects on economic development, as this ability would mean the demise of all energy-related industries. Of course, this may partly be the reason why it was hidden away in a cozy room of a lighthouse for 200 years or so and/or why it's such a rare Pokémon.
• Badass Adorable: This lovable critter looks like a fiery Pikachu, has great stats, and can know some of the most powerful moves in the series.
• Breaking Old Trends: It's the first mythical Pokémon to be distributed and encountered at the beginning of its generation's titles rather than later. It's also the first non-glitch Pokémon to have a Dex number of 0.
• Cartoon Creature: It looks like a very stylized rabbit and is based on a traditional method of cutting apple slices in a way that makes them look like rabbits.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: It may look slightly goofy in comparison to the Tao dragons and Musketeer trio, but it packs one hell of a punch. Case in point, Victini is one of two Pokémon that can have the move V-create. V-create is a Fire-type move with a colossal 180 Power, and Victini is the only one who gets STAB on it. Likewise, if it holds Firium Z, it has the strongest Z-Move in the game when running off of V-create (and again, it gets STAB).
• Cute Little Fangs: It's based off of a fox and has some lupine elements, so of course it has fangs. However, its fangs help it look cuter.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: V-create is one of the most powerful moves in the game, only outdone by Z-Moves and moves that prompt the user to faint, and as a Fire-type move, Victini gets STAB on top of it. It also lowers both its defenses and its Speed, leaving it vulnerable to whatever survives it/is sent out afterwards.
• Disc-One Nuke: The 'little legend' of the fifth generation, but could be caught at a relatively low level — even before obtaining the third badge (whose Leader prefers Bug-types, giving Victini's Fire-type a distinct advantage).
• Fireballs: Its signature move Searing Shot bombards the opponent with fireballs. Notably one of the few Fire-type moves to actually involve these.
• Furry Ear Dissonance: Justified because of its V-for-victory motif.
• Gilded Cage: You find Victini in a nice, cozy bedroom in the basement of an island lighthouse. It's suggested that the family who bought the land built the room as a place for Victini to hide in so it would be safe from those who would exploit its powers. But after the player catches it, everyone agrees that it's safer in your hands.
• An Ice Person: Gets Kyurem's Secret Art, Glaciate, via an event.
• Informed Ability: The Pokédex entry claims anyone with a Victini in their party will win any battle, no exceptions. For obvious reasons, this isn't always the case in-game.
• Killer Rabbit: Apart from the whole v motif, Victini's ears are designed after usagi-ringo, a way of cutting apples to make them look like they have rabbit ears. Nonetheless, as a Mew clone it's adorable and extremely powerful.
• Late Character Syndrome: Victini is one of an elite few Mythical Pokémon to avert this; if the player has the Liberty Pass in Pokémon Black and White, they can travel to Liberty Garden as soon as they enter Castelia City (which is only two badges into the adventure), and at Level 15, Victini has little catching up to do with the rest of your party. Even then, its balanced and high stats help bridge the level gap until then.
• Letter Motif: Victini, V sign motif, with the signature move V-create, introduced in Generation V.
• Master of All: With Victini's debut, you can make a full team of Mew expies, and all of them have equally massive stats.
• My Hero, Zero: #000 in the Unova Pokédex.
• No Biological Sex: It is, like most Mythical Pokémon, genderless. However, it is always referred to as male in side games.
• Olympus Mons: The first one to appear at the beginning of the Pokédex.
• Pintsized Powerhouse: As expected from having 100 stats all around, this is to be expected. However, Victini takes this trope to rather extreme lengths, since it can get some rather obscenely powerful moves via special distributions; namely, the signature moves of Reshiram, Zekrom, and Kyurem. ^note Except Ice Burn and Freeze Shock. And also the aforementioned V-create.
• Playing with Fire: Fire-type. The special event Victini can have Reshiram's Fusion Flare and Blue Flare too, making a good STAB option.
• Psychic Powers: It is a Psychic-type Mythical Pokémon that can learn a variety of Psychic-type moves such as Psyshock and Zen Headbutt.
• Purposely Overpowered: Restricted usage in the Battle Subway and official tournaments, due to being a Mythical Pokémon.
• Recurring Element: It's the Mew clone of Gen V, with 100 in every stat. For a bit of a subversion, it comes at the beginning of the Dex instead of the end.
• Secret Art: It's the only Pokémon to learn Searing Shot and V-Create, though prior to Generation VIII the latter move was an event-exclusive move also available to Rayquaza. Other Gen V Wi-Fi Victini came with the signature moves of Reshiram, Zekrom, and Kyurem, but such events have never been repeated for later generations.
• Secret Character: Encountering Victini in-game requires receiving a special item or just receiving it directly from special distributions.
• Shock and Awe: Has access to Zekrom's signature Fusion Bolt and Bolt Strike via special distributions.
• Taking You with Me: Learns Final Gambit by level-up. It also has more HP to fuel the move than anything else that gets it.
• Temporary Online Content: The Liberty Pass necessary to have in order to catch it in Pokémon Black and White was only ever distributed around the original release of the game, and thus you can't get it without hacking. Victini itself has only been available post-Black and White as direct (and inevitably discontinued) downloads. Notably, Victini distributed this way were the only ones with V-create prior to Pokémon Sword and Shield.
• V-Sign: This is Victini's entire motif. One of its event only signature moves (until Generation VIII makes it available via level-up), V-create, plays on this.
• You Nuke 'Em: It is described as having limitless energy and "guaranteeing victory", suggesting that its powers are based around nuclear energy.

Snivy, Servine, and Serperior (Tsutarja, Janovy, and Jalorda)

0495: Snivy / Tsutarja (ツタージャ tsutaaja)
0496: Servine / Janovy (ジャノビー janobii)
0497: Serperior / Jalorda (ジャローダ jarooda)

Snivy

Servine

Serperior

Unova's Grass-type starter. This little fellow's quite the Smug Snake, isn't it? As it evolves, its limbs become less prominent and it starts looking more like the snake it was meant to resemble. While Serperior has very high defenses and speed, it has very lackluster offensive stats and a shallow movepool. However, those very stats make it an excellent user of Status Buffs - used well, Serperior can easily turn itself into a Nigh-Invulnerable Lightning Bruiser. Also of note is its hidden ability Contrary, allowing Serperior to use Leaf Storm, one of the most powerful Grass-type moves in the game, to sharply boost its Sp. Atk and become more powerful every turn.

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• Ass Kicking Pose: Serperior instinctively raises its head to intimidate intruding Pokémon; it might work in-game, given the snake is over three meters long. To players however, this only makes it look snobby and arrogant.
• Badass Armfold: Snivy folds its arms in its sprite animation (which typically show up when Pokémon are in battle and facing their opponents) in Black and White.
• Basilisk and Cockatrice: Serperior takes the concept of the basilisk as the king of serpents and runs away with it: a serpent with the look of a French king and a prideful attitude to match, and a Death Glare just like its mythical roots.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: Compared to other snakelike Pokémon, like Ekans, Arbok and Seviper, Serperior is a noble and beautiful creature, while its two prior evolutions are simply adorable.
• Blue Blood: Its design motif is European royalty; there's even a fleur-de-lis on Snivy's tail. Serperior's even called the "Regal Pokémon".
• Boss in Mook Clothing: Fully-evolved wild Serperior can be caught in Pokémon Sun and Moon via Island Scan.
• The Bus Came Back: Three of the twelve Pokémon who spent six years on the bus after Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon before coming back in "The Indigo Disk".
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: The line learns Leaf Storm, which sharply lowers Special Attack whenever used. Should it have Contrary, however, that drop becomes a Status Buff instead.
• Death Glare: As Serperior, which can even stop a target's movements with one. It starts with Leer when obtained as starter, and can learn Glare and Mean Look by breeding, fittingly.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Has quite a few weaknesses for a defensive Pokémon and not many moves to choose from, but with the right ones, it can turn into an unstoppable Lightning Bruiser.
• Dreary Half-Lidded Eyes: Snivy has semicircle eyes, making them look smug and confident. Their evolutions lose the smug attitude and the half lids turn to more harsh-looking Tsurime Eyes.
• Emotionless Reptile: They all have an aloof and calm demeanor, and Serperior especially has a very stoic expression.
• Flechette Storm: Can naturally learn Leaf Tornado and Leaf Storm.
• Green Thumb: A Grass-type starter evolutionary line based on skinks and snakes. Snivy and Servine use their leaf tails to photosynthesize.
• Hates Being Alone: Inverted. Snivy's Violet Dex entry mentions that as a rule it doesn't like groups and prefers to be alone.
• Hoist by Their Own Petard: Thanks to their hidden ability Contrary. Be careful using moves like Psychic or Moonblast that have a chance to lower the opponent's stats, because they'll get stat boosts instead. Also, don't teach Growth or Coil to them if they have their Hidden Ability; it'll just weaken them.
• Honor Before Reason: Similar to Charizard, Serperior's White Dex entry states that it would only choose to fight against formidable opponents.
• I Work Alone: Servine's Violet Dex entry mentions that due to its pride, it takes a while for them to be able to work with other Pokémon in a team.
• Poor, Predictable Rock: Starters normally have extremely diverse movepools, which makes the fact that this line's movepool is not ^note Almost no TMs that half the Pokédex doesn't already get, only Grass and Normal-type offensive attacks via level up quite noticeable. Even move tutors only grant it a single decent Special attack for coverage, Dragon Pulse.
• Pride: A species trait, presumably due to their connection to royalty.
• Red Baron: Serperior's Violet Dex entry reveals that due to its gaze and appearance, it is known as "The Lord of the Forest."
• Recurring Element: The Grass Starter with reptilian inspiration.
• Reverse Arm-Fold: In an interview with Sugimori, he comments on that the leaves on the sides of Serperior's body are meant to be hands it keeps folded behind it, making it look more regal.
• Secret Art: As Grass starters they get exclusive access to Grass Pledge and Frenzy Plant.
• Signature Move: The line is strongly associated with Leaf Tornado and Coil.
• Slobs vs. Snobs: Serperior can be seen as a snob counterpart to Decidueye based on appearance. Decidueye is partially based on an archer, which is commonly depicted as being based in the outskirts of civilization, and its appearance is very shabby. Meanwhile, Serperior's appearance is based on royalty with even the facial expression to match. Coincidentally, Serperior can be caught in Alola through Island Scan.
• Smug Smiler: Snivy is always giving a confident smirk.
• Smug Snake: Figuratively and literally! All three of them are actual snakes who have an arrogant attitude and an Honor Before Reason mindset.
• Snakes Are Sinister: Played with. Snakelike Pokémon in the past were rarely portrayed as friendly (Seviper and Ekans/Arbok come to mind), which makes Snivy and its evolutions stand out as more heroic serpents. That said, they also have an arrogant attitude and Serperior is said to have an intimidating presence.
• Starter Mon: The Grass Starter of the Unova region. Their fighting style heavily relies on Status Buffs.
• Stone Wall: Serperior has high Speed and defensive stats, but has lackluster offensive stats. That said, it can become a Lightning Bruiser through the use of Coil or Contrary and Leaf Storm.
• Turns Red: Like all Grass starters, its Ability Overgrow boosts the power of its Grass-type moves when at a third of its health.
• Useless Useful Spell: One of the line's Signature Moves is a Status Buff, which turns into a debuff if it has Contrary.
• Vine Tentacles: Servine's preferred method of combat, according to the Pokédex, is rapid and masterful use of Vine Whip.
• Vocal Dissonance: All three have strange high-pitched screechy cries.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…:
  • Serperior has relatively few offensive attacks to choose from, but once it's done boosting, it won't really matter anymore.
  • The only notable move a Serperior can abuse with Contrary is Leaf Storm. But it's a 130 power STAB attack that gives it a boost equivalent to Nasty Plot with each usage — that's enough to be good as long as Serperior has other moves to use the boost with.
• You Will Not Evade Me: Naturally learns Wrap, and can be bred with Mean Look (prevents opponent from switching) and Pursuit (which takes priority over switching and deals double damage).

Tepig, Pignite and Emboar (Pokabu, Chaoboo, and Enbuoh)

0498: Tepig / Pokabu (ポカブ pokabu)
0499: Pignite / Chaoboo (チャオブー chaobuu)
0500: Emboar / Enbuoh (エンブオー enbuoo)

Tepig

Pignite

Emboar

Unova's Fire-type starter, an orange fire-breathing pig that gets bigger, heavier, and bulkier with each evolution. While its defenses and speed aren't the greatest, it has the highest Attack of any non-Mega Evolved starter line yet. Emboar's Hidden Ability "Reckless" powers up its many recoil moves (although, at the same time, it takes more damage from them). To complement the previous generation's Infernape, Emboar is a Fire/Fighting starter evolution rooted in Chinese Mythology — in this case, the soldier Zhang Fei from Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

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• Action Initiative: As of Generation VI, the line can be bred to know Sucker Punch.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Tepig becomes a biped when it evolves to brawl better with its opponents and gains the Fighting-type.
• Big Eater: Tepig's Violet Dex entry describes it as a ravenous glutton.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: Emboar has these in place of the ears its pre-evolutions had.
• Bishōnen Line: Starts as a cute little piglet, ends as a tough-looking Pig Man.
• Boss in Mook Clothing: Fully-evolved wild Emboar can be caught in Pokémon Sun and Moon via Island Scan.
• The Bus Came Back: Three of the twelve Pokémon who spent six years on the bus after Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon before coming back in "The Indigo Disk".
• Cast from Hit Points: Emboar naturally learns moves like Head Smash and Flare Blitz, and can be taught Wild Charge via TM. Add its Hidden Ability Reckless, and the recoil gets severe even for its Hit Points.
• Confusion Fu: Emboar has a relatively large movepool to choose from; interestingly, it's one of only a few Pokémon capable of learning a combination of Grass, Fire, and Water-type offensive moves. Its Black 2 and White 2 Pokédex entries even state that "it is adept at using many different moves."
• Damage-Sponge Boss: Emboar has a high HP stat, but its mediocre defenses prevent it from being a Mighty Glacier.
• Faster Than They Look: Tepig is said to be far more nimble than it looks, easily darting around opponents while firing fireballs from its nose.
• Flaming Hair: Emboar's fire beard.
• Full-Boar Action: Emboar, obviously; it's a big boar who packs a punch in battle.
• Glass Cannon: Emboar's offenses are respectable, but having the worst defenses of any fully-evolved starter and a ton of recoil moves mitigates the fact that it has the best HP of the same crowd.
• Good Counterpart: To Incineroar in Pokémon Sun and Moon. Emboar is actually catchable via Island Scan in Alola. They're both Fire-Type Pokémon with similar design gimmicks based on Fighters/Wrestlers and low speed (Emboar is only slightly faster (65) than Incineroar (60)). The biggest contrast is that Emboar is part-Fighting Type, while Incineroar is part-Dark, further emphasizing the counter aspect between them.
• Goomba Stomp: Can learn Heavy Slam in addition to their Secret Art, Heat Crash.
• Kevlard: This evolutionary line's second-highest stat is HP, with Emboar possessing the highest HP stat of all non-Legendary Fire-types (only Entei is higher), and they are rather porky. Tepig and Pignite also have Thick Fat as their hidden ability.
• Making a Splash: Emboar is one of a small number of Fire-types that can learn a damage-dealing Water-type move (Scald). It was the only non-legendary Pokémon with this trait until Sword and Shield, when Sizzlipede, Centiskorch, Carkol, and Coalossal were introduced and all of them were capable of learning the same move.
• Pig Man: Pignite and Emboar are chubby humanoid pigs.
• Playing with Fire: A Fire-type starter evolutionary line based on pigs. The entire line can shoot fire from their noses instead of their mouths.
• Recurring Element: The Unova Fire Starter, and a triple-point for being the third in a row to be a Fire/Fighting-type and the second in a row to be based on Chinese Mythology.
• Rule of Three: The third Fire/Fighting-type starter.
• Secret Art: Heat Crash, an attack that deals more damage if the target is extremely light compared to the user. However, Heat Crash was given to more Pokémon in Sword and Shield. Also, as a Fire starter, Fire Pledge and Blast Burn. They are also strongly associated with Flame Charge.
• Situational Sword:
  • Heat Crash's damage is based off of the weight difference between the user and the target, with the most damage being dealt if the user is way heavier. While Emboar's weight is way above-average, the way the damage formula works^noteThe short version is that the target needs to weigh 1/3 of the user's weight or less for Heat Crash/Heavy Slam to do respectable damage; for Emboar, this requires that the target be 110.1 lbs (50kg) or less to out-damage the Boring, but Practical Fire Punch means that the move does very unimpressive damage to a lot of potential targets that are fully evolved.
  • Reckless boosts the strength of recoil moves, but at the same time also increasing the amount of HP they consume as well. With their spectacularly abysmal defenses and speed, the line needs that HP in order to do much at all.
• Spirited Competitor: Emboar is said to love combat and its Violet Dex entry mentions that it actually gets even more excited in dire conditions.
• Starter Mon: The Fire type starter of Unova. Emboar is the most useful of the starters due to it gaining a secondary typing as it evolves and a wider movepool. It manages to do well against most of the gyms in Unova.
• Stout Strength: Emboar is quite tubby, and it hits appropriately hard, especially with Heat Crash, which does more damage if the user weighs more than the opponent.
• Technicolor Fire: Shiny Emboar have blue fire for their beards.
• Turns Red: Like all Fire starters, its Ability Blaze boosts the power of its Fire-type moves when at a third of its health.
• Useless Useful Spell:
  • Heat Crash for Tepig and Pignite. They're so light that they can't do a lot of damage with it. Even for Emboar, Heat Crash is usually weaker than Fire Punch (see Situational Sword above).
  • Tepig and Pignite also have Thick Fat as their hidden ability. Not very useful, considering they already resist both Fire and Ice-type moves naturally.
• Verbal Tic:
  • In the English dub of the anime, Tepig makes normal pig noises.
    Tepig: Teeeeeeepig~ ...oink.
  • Technically happens in Japanese, too, where its name is Pokabu. "Buu" is the sound pigs make in the Japanese language.
• Wrestler in All of Us: Emboar is based on a professional wrestler.
• You Have Researched Breathing: Emboar's Pokédex entries say it can use its beard to light its punches on fire. It can only learn Fire Punch via Move Tutors.

Oshawott, Dewott, and Samurott (Mijumaru, Futachimaru, and Daikenki)

0501: Oshawott / Mijumaru (ミジュマル mijumaru)
0502: Dewott / Futachimaru (フタチマル futachimaru)
0503: Samurott / Daikenki (ダイケンキ daikenki)

Oshawott

Dewott

Samurott

Hisuian Samurott

Hisuian Samurott debuts in Legends: Arceus

Unova's Water-type starter, being based on the sea otter and then a sea lion, with emphasis on how otters use their bellies to crack the shells of shellfish to eat the insides. Oshawott may be silly-looking, but don't be fooled, because it can use the "scalchop" on its chest as a blade. As it evolves, Dewott becomes less silly-looking and more fierce (though it is still cute at the same time); by the time it becomes a Samurott, it's become a full-on samurai sea lion, complete with dual swords (called "seamitars", which are sheathed in its front legs). A well-rounded starter choice, it's slow but can hit hard from both sides of the spectrum.

In addition to serving as the water starter of Unova, the Oshawott line also serves as the water starter for Pokémon Legends: Arceus, forming a trio with Rowlet and Cyndaquil. Compared to the honorable Samurott found anywhere else, Hisuian Samurott are cold-hearted Water/Dark-types who will do anything to win against those who face one, using its seamitars to strike like a torrent of waves when the opponent is least expecting it.

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• Absurdly Sharp Blade: Hisuian Samurott's Hidden Ability Sharpness significantly boosts the power of slashing moves, of which it has quite a few to choose from, including the line's Signature Move Razor Shell and its Secret Art, Ceaseless Edge.
• Animal-Themed Fighting Style: Inverted and played with. Oshawott's Violet Dex entry mentions that it gained the idea to sharpen its scalchop with riverbed stones from observing humans using whetstones, while Dewott's Scarlet Dex entry mentions that humans modeled their swordplay by observing its dual scalchop style.
• Action Initiative: Naturally learns Aqua Jet to strike first every turn.
• Badass Adorable: Dewott can use its scalchops like swords, but it's also small and cute.
• Black Knight: Hisuan Samurott is the samurai equivalent in comparison to its Unovan counterpart. In addition to literal darker armor, it has a harsher temperament than its kin, and its Dark typing means it's far more prone to using unsavory tactics to win a battle.
• Boss in Mook Clothing: Fully-evolved wild Samurott can be caught in Pokémon Sun and Moon via Island Scan.
• The Bus Came Back: After not having a prominent role in Pokémon since 2012 and being completely absent in Pokémon Sword and Shield, Oshawott returns as the Water starter in Pokémon Legends: Arceus, where the line's samurai basis fits right in with the feudal Japanese theme.
• Combat Pragmatist: Compared to Unovan Samurott who fights fair, the Dark-type Hisuian Samurott is known for being willing to do anything to win in battle, including cheap shots and surprise attacks.
• Cool Helmet: Samurott gets a pointed helmet fashioned from shells.
• Critical Hit: Its Hidden Ability Shell Armor makes it immune to critical hits.
• Cultural Translation: For reasons unknown, the family's French-translated names are based on sailors/naval ranks rather than samurai.
• Cute Little Fangs: Oshawott's fangs do not detract from its adorable look and do the opposite.
• Dark Is Evil: The Dark-type Hisuian Samurott is noted to be hard of heart and has an overall more edgy appearance then its Unovan counterpart, such as its more jagged horn.
• Death Glare: A simple glare from Samurott quiets everybody.
• Distaff Counterpart: Samurott can be seen as a masculine counterpart to Primarina (though they share a gender ratio) in Pokémon Sun and Moon. Through Island Scan, Samurott is able to be caught in Alola. Both Pokémon are based on sea lions, the difference being that Primarina has many feminine Tertiary Sexual Characteristics, while Samurott has masculine ones, including prominent headwear for both of them. Furthermore, Hisuian Samurott has a secondary typing of Dark, which is often depicted as a foil to the Fairy type that Primarina has.
• Dual Wielding: Dewott and Samurott wield two scalchops/seamitars, although the latter doesn't show this in its in-game sprites.
• Hammerspace: Samurott's seamitars appear to compress when it has them sheathed, which is most visible in Pokédex 3D and the Generation VI games.
• Hidden Weapons: Oshawott's and Dewott's scalchop weapons aren't immediately noticeable. Samurott's swords are located on the sheaths of its front legs.
• Horn Attack: Samurott's helmet isn't just for protection, as it can learn Megahorn. You'll need to take it to the Move Relearner to have the move, though.
• Jack of All Stats: Well-rounded stats across the board, but none of them really stand out. Hisuian Samurott has a slightly more specialized stat spread, focusing on offenses and speed while slightly reducing its already low defenses.
• The Kirk: According to official sources, it was designed as a Pokémon that would step in to stop a fight between Serperior and Emboar.
• Magic Knight: Its Attack and Special Attack are about the same, and it naturally learns strong moves to abuse both. Unovan Samurott, despite its samurai-like appearance, actually slightly leans towards the "magic" side, while Hisuian Samurott is more "knight".
• Making a Splash: A Water-type starter evolutionary line based on otters.
• Mighty Roar: "Samurott's cry alone is enough to intimidate most enemies." Samurott can't actually learn Roar, but its cry is as close to a roar as you'll get.
• Missing Secret: In Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, Oshawott can get Sacred Sword through breeding, but no Pokémon in its Egg Group learns the move naturally. The only way to get an Oshawott with Sacred Sword is via a Smeargle that learned the move using Sketch.
• Mythology Gag: Rowlet, Cyndaquil and Oshawott form the starter trio in Pokémon Legends: Arceus. Each of them is from each of the starter trios available in the original Pokémon Sun and Moon.
• Recurring Element: The Unova Water Starter, and as previously for most of them, it's a bulky physical attacker.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Hisuian Samurott is noted to be cold-hearted, and it has red irises.
• Removable Shell: They are considered a part of its body, but can be removed to be used as weapons.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Oshawott, even according to official sources.
• Rōnin:
  • Dewott's legs look like the traditional ronin legwear, and it is clearly still in training to be a full samurai.
  • Hisuian Samurott appears to be based on the ronin archetype as well, what with its Dark-type and hardened temperament. The kanji 浪 from 浪人 (rōnin) literally means "wave", which might explain the wave-like designs all over Hisuian Samurott's body.
• Samurai: The entire line's design aesthetic, down to Samurott having a Punny Name based on the idea and wearing armor inspired by samurai wear.
• Secret Art: Hisuian Samurott is the only Pokémon that can learn Ceaseless Edge, a Dark-type move that does damage and continues to damage the target for a few turns afterwards (in Legends: Arceus) or plants a layer of Spikes (in the more conventional entries).
• Signature Move: Heavily associated with Razor Shell. As Water-type starters, they can be tutored Water Pledge and Hydro Cannon.
• Starter Mon:
  • The Water Starter of Unova. Samurott has a decent movepool but not as big as previous Water Starters. It's neutral against most of the gyms.
  • Oshawott is also the Water-type starter in Pokémon Legends: Arceus.
• Turns Red: Like all Water starters, its Ability Torrent boosts the power of its Water-type moves when at a third of its health.
• Underground Monkey: In the Hisui region Dewott evolve into the part Dark-type Hisuian Samurott.
• Weak, but Skilled: Despite having the lowest stat total of all Water starters, Samurott learns moves of a wide variety of types, including Bug attacks (Fury Cutter, Megahorn, and X-Scissor) to counteract specially-defended Grass opponents who wouldn't be afraid of Ice moves.
• Wound That Will Not Heal: It's said that wounds inflicted by Hisuian Samurott's seamitars will not heal for many years. This is somewhat reflected in its signature move Ceaseless Edge, which leaves jagged shell splinters in the opponent that continue to deal damage for several turns.
• Youthful Freckles: Oshawott has undeveloped whiskers which look like freckles.

Patrat and Watchog (Minezumi and Miruhog)

0504: Patrat / Minezumi (ミネズミ minezumi)
0505: Watchog / Miruhog (ミルホッグ miruhoggu)

Patrat

Watchog

Common across the Unova region, Patrat form groups and rotate their lookout duties. They often hold seeds in their cheek pouches, and can use them to attack when endangered. The patterns on Watchog's body can light up in order to alert other members of the species to danger.

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• Bioluminescence Is Cool: Watchog's body and eyes have developed luminescent material, granting it the ability to flash and ward off predators^*which manifests itself in-game as the Illuminate ability. Its torso is marked like a neon safety vest.
• Boring, but Practical:
  • Access to Hypnosis, Super Fang, and Mean Look make them perfect for helping capture wild Pokémon.
  • From an in-universe perspective, their ability to flash to ward off predators and their habit of having regimented watches is this. Sure, they aren't going to be felling Hydreigons or beating up Unfezants, but these very simple strategies keep the line alive.
• Boss Battle: Lenora's ace, where she's the second gym leader in Black and White.
• Bullet Seed: Watchhog's PokéDex entries in Black, Y, and Alpha Sapphire state that it spits out seeds from the berries stored in their cheek pouches at enemies. Despite this, they could not learn the move Bullet Seed until Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, where Patrat could learn it as an Egg Move.
• Com Mons: Found in many places across Unova.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: The Pokédex states that Watchog's bioluminescence is used to theaten and ward off predators. The ability that corresponds to this, Illuminate, increases the chance of encountering wild Pokémon.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: They have glowing markers that encircle their Black Bead Eyes. On Watchog, the bioluminescence is not limited to its head^note though this portrayal is inconsistent. In the game, they are explicitly described as a part of its eyes. But when put to sleep in the games, only the beads close◊, but in the manga and the anime, the entire thing closes (sometimes)◊.
• Master of None: Watchog's stats are all close together, but all of them are below-average, with only its Attack breaking base 80 points.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: They have features of prairie dogs, meerkats and pack-rats.
• Non-Elemental: They're pure Normal-type rodents.
• Put on a Bus: Two of the nine Pokémon who haven't been usable in a main series game since Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon in 2017.
• Recurring Element: Standard early-game small mammal like the Rattata line.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Though they appear to have red eyes, they're actually Glowing Eyes of Doom.
• Rodents of Unusual Size: At 3'07", Watchog is the tallest unambiguously rodent-like Pokémon, discounting Totem Raticate and Gigantamax forms.
• Status Effects: They can learn Hypnosis, Confuse Ray, and Thunder Wave, which may cause players trouble in-game.
• Super-Senses: Has enhanced vision to the point it can see safely in the dark and (in the anime) preternaturally see through walls and underground.

Lillipup, Herdier, and Stoutland (Yorterrie, Herderrie, and Mooland)

0506: Lillipup / Yorterrie (ヨーテリー yooterii)
0507: Herdier / Herderrie (ハーデリア haaderia)
0508: Stoutland / Mooland (ムーランド muurando)

Lillipup

Herdier

Stoutland

Another common canine species resembling Yorkshire Terriers that gain features of different dogs as they evolve. They are known to be courageous in battle but intelligent enough to flee when overpowered and outperformed. They are also known for their loyalty to the group. Their thick fur protects them from attacks and harsh environments, and their facial hair doubles as a form of sensory radar. This knack for finding objects has been put to good use by the people of Alola as a Ride Pokémon.

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• Acrofatic: Stoutland's pretty chunky, but it moves pretty fast as a Ride Pokémon and it can have Sand Rush, which boosts its speed in a sandstorm.
• Big Friendly Dog: Stoutland has a big gut and an even bigger heart, is noted as being good with children, and even a wild Stoutland will completely warm up to people within three days.
• Big Fun: Stoutland are fairly plump, 3'11", and known for being very friendly Pokémon.
• Boring, but Practical: A Normal-type Com Mon isn't anything that most players get excited over, but Stoutland's decent stats across the board, decent enough movepool (with moves likes Wild Charge, Crunch, and the elemental Fangs), and the possible ability of Intimidate will keep it useful well into the late-game.
• Com Mons: A very common sight in the early game. Though unlike some other examples in the series, they still have their uses in the late game to avoid being a Crutch Character.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Herdier and Stoutland can have Sand Rush as an Ability, which doubles their Speed in a Sandstorm while giving them an immunity to sandstorm-based damage.
• Disk One Nuke: In Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, Lillipup can be found at the second area the player visits (Floccesy Ranch). Not long after, the player is handed the TM for Return (a Normal-type move that does more damage the more friendly the user is with the trainer) and a Silk Scarf (a held item boosting the power of Normal-type attacks). Once the Lillipup has max friendship (not hard to do by just walking around a lot), you've got a Pokémon that can dominate early and easily remain useful through the story.
• Dowsing Device: Stoutland serves as one in Pokémon Sun and Moon as a Ride Pokémon, functioning similarly to the Dousing Machine.
• Fire, Ice, Lightning: Stoutland can learn Fire Fang, Ice Fang, and Thunder Fang.
• Gameplay and Story Integration:
  • Stoutland is noted for rescuing people at sea, and is one of the few non Water-types capable of learning Surf via TM/TR.
  • Lillipup is said to check the strength of its opponent to know if it's worth engaging in a fight. Lillipup can have the ability Run Away, which allows it to flee from random encounters without fail.
• Heroic Dog: The entire line is noted in the Pokédex to be brave and loyal, and Stoutland helps people stranded in the mountains or at sea.
• Item Caddy: Lillipup can have Pickup as an Ability, which makes it pick up items used by Pokémon in battles or in the overworld.
• Kevlard: Stoutland's a fat Pokémon whose second best stats are its Defense and Special Defense.
• Know When to Fold 'Em:
  • Lillipup's Run Away ability grants it a 100% chance to flee from random encounters.
  • Lillipup are also noted to have a pretty good sense of knowing when they're outmatched and deciding to flee.
• Jack of All Stats: Bar a bad Special Attack, they're pretty decent all-around.
• Magically Inept Fighter: Stoutland's good Attack is contrasted by its poor base 45 Special Attack stat, and it learns no special-based moves via level-up.
• Magikarp Power: Due to its poor stats and even poorer moveset, most Lillipup and Herdier will get knocked out while you're trying to train them, but if manage to level up your little puppy to Level 32, it becomes a big dog that can learn Fire/Thunder/Ice Fang and Giga Impact.
• Making a Splash: Stoutland is one of the few non Water-type Pokémon capable of learning Surf via TM/TR.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: Herdier resembles a mix between a Yorkshire terrier and a Scottish terrier while Stoutland looks like a Yorkshire terrier with traits from a shih tzu and a St. Bernard.
• Non-Elemental: A Normal-type with no special powers, instead focusing on physical combat.
• Policeman Dog: In the Unova games, which are restricted to Pokémon introduced in the fifth generation, the sheepdog-like Herdier and Stoutland serve as the primary sidekicks for police officers. This actually makes a lot of sense, as many breeds that were originally bred to herd sheep, such as the German Shepherd, are now used as police dogs because they're bred to be good at chasing others.
• Precious Puppies: Lillipup is a playful puppy that tries to be brave but flees from danger if the foe is clearly stronger.
• Saint-Bernard Rescue: Stoutland's Pokédex entries mention that it was used to rescue people stranded in the mountains.
• Status Buff: One of its abilities is Sand Rush, which will double its otherwise okay base speed of 80 in a sandstorm (plus giving it an immunity to Sandstorm damage).
• Stout Strength: Stoutland has a rather fat build (hence the name) and it does have a good base attack of 110. And it can learn Strength, too.
• Team Dad: Or Team Mom if they're female, as Herdier are known to help trainers raise other Pokémon.

Purrloin and Liepard (Choroneko and Lepardas)

0509: Purrloin / Choroneko (チョロネコ choroneko)
0510: Liepard / Lepardas (レパルダス reparudasu)

Purrloin

Liepard

Rather tricky feline Pokémon, Purrloin are known to steal human belongings and put on a cute facade when confronted. When threatened, however, they strike back with their sharp claws. After evolving, they prefer stealthy hunting.

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• Action Initiative: Naturally learns Fake Out and Sucker Punch, and their Hidden Ability is Prankster, which gives all status moves priority. You can combine it with Assist for Metronome-esque shenanigans.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Purrloin puts on a cute act to get people's guards down and steal from them.
• Cats Are Mean:
  • Purrloin likes to steal from people. It and Liepard are even categorized specifically as "Devious" and "Cruel" Pokémon respectively.
  • Liepard are noted as being moody and vicious, and are aggressive in Sword and Shields overworld.
• Classy Cat-Burglar: Purrloin is based on one, being bipedal and designed to look like it's wearing a mask, leotard, and gloves. Oh, and it's also a cat.
• Combat Pragmatist: As Dark-types, they know many disrupting moves like Thief, Torment, and Snatch.
• Com Mons: They're found in several locations across Unova.
• Crutch Character: Decent early on but get outclassed really quickly.
• Cute Kitten: Purrloin is adorable, which helps people not be angry at it.
• Cuteness Equals Forgiveness: Purrloin is so cute that people can't help but forgive it.
• Dark Is Evil: It is a Dark/Evil-type and is associated with stealing.
• Deceptively Cute Critter: Purrloin enjoys stealing for fun. It's so cute, however, that its victims can't help but forgive it.
• Depending on the Artist:
  • Adaptations tend to make Purrloin bipedal like Meowth (which itself is sometimes seen moving on four legs in adaptations).
  • With X and Y and its Pokémon-Amie depiction, this would appear to be canon in the games, as well.
• Foil: Pokémon X and Y sets them up as foils to the Poochyena line, in that they're two-stage Dark-type Com Mons that are version exclusive (Mightyena in X, Liepard in Y). Also, obviously, the feline Purrloin line versus the canine Poochyena line.
• Four Legs Good, Two Legs Better: Purrloin was first depicted as a quadrupedal Pokémon in Black and White, but the anime and then X and Y made it bipedal.
• Fragile Speedster: Excellent Speed, but frail defenses.
• Meaningful Name: To "purloin" means to steal.
• Panthera Awesome: Liepard, partially based on a leopard.
• Recurring Element:
  • Of the Meowth line, being a two-stage line based on cats that starts off bipedal and becomes quadrupedal upon evolving.
  • Gameplay-wise, they're similar to Poochyena and Mightyena in that they're pure Dark-types that are found on the first routes of the game.
• The Rival: The Gen VIII Pokédex entries for Purrloin describe it as being a rival to Nickit, which continues once both evolve. Both are pure Dark-type Com Mons.
• Shed Armor, Gain Speed: With its Unburden Ability, it becomes even faster when it loses its held item.
• You Have Researched Breathing: In spite of its description, it does not naturally learn the item-stealing moves "Thief" or "Covet" (though it does learn the effect-stealing move "Snatch"); "Thief" can only be taught by TM. It doesn't have the Frisk ability either.

Elemental Monkeys

0511: Pansage / Yanappu (ヤナップ yanappu)
0512: Simisage / Yanakkie (ヤナッキー yanakkii)
0513: Pansear / Baoppu (バオップ baoppu)
0514: Simisear / Baokkie (バオッキー baokkii)
0515: Panpour / Hiyappu (ヒヤップ hiyappu)
0516: Simipour / Hiyakkie (ヒヤッキー hiyakkii)

Pansage

Simisage

Pansear

Simisear

Panpour

Simipour

A trio of monkey Pokémon with the elemental affinities of the starter Pokémon (Grass, Fire, and Water). The tufts on the Pan's heads can be used to revitalize others, roast berries, and store water, respectively, and they use these abilities intelligently in the wild. Their personalities greatly differ after evolution, and their attacks become much more potent. In Black and White, one of them is given to the player before the first gym to help them counter the Gym Leader they're challenging, depending on which starter the player chose.

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• Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Grass-type Pansage's head tuft looks like brocolii, Fire-type Pansear's like a flame, and Water-type Panpour's like a geyser.
• Beware My Stinger Tail: All of them have dangerous tails that they presumably use during Fury Swipes. Simisage's has thorns while Panpour and Pansear can shoot water and fire from them.
• Big Eater: They all have the Gluttony ability and they all can learn Natural Gift, a one-time move that uses up the user's Berry to attack.
• Boss Battle: The three of them, though you only battle one in the first gym, depending of which starter you choose.
• Character Select Forcing: As part of a Player Nudge to build varied team compositions that have responses to multiple elements, these monkeys are practically necessary to beat Striaton Gym without grinding. The leaders of the gym change to always fight the player with the strongest type in their starters' weakness loop, so picking up one of the monkeys gives the player an option to hit back with a different super effective type. Even for players who picked Oshawott (and will be fighting the Grass-type Cilan), the game is designed so that early-game Flying-type birds which likewise hit supereffectively against him don't start appearing until after Striaton.
• Combat Pragmatist: They learn quite a few Dark-Type moves via level-up.
• Crutch Character: In Black and White, the one weak to your starter is given to the player for free to help beat the first gym (which uses the member of the trio strong against your starter). After this, however, they must deal with their low stats and a long wait to get good moves, which you won't get if you evolve them for better stats early. A good number of non-starter Water, Fire, and Grass Pokémon are easy to obtain and much easier to use.
• Divergent Character Evolution: They all look far more distinct from each other after evolving.
• Elemental Powers: Each of them have a different element.
• Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: The monkeys are a pseudo-starter triangle of the Grass-type, Fire-type, and Water-type, each one weak to the one that follows.
• Eyes Always Shut: Subverted; Panpour and Simipour appear to have these, but that's just how their pupils are shaped.
• Fragile Speedster: High Speed, but can't take hits.
• Glass Cannon: They can hit hard, but they are defensively frail.
• Green Thumb: Pansage and Simisage are Grass-types.
• Gyaru Girl: Simipour is partially modeled after a kogal (though like its counterparts, it has a higher chance of being male than female).
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Simisage is described as being ill-tempered.
• Irony: Pansage, Pansear, and Panpour are Pokémon whose designs are based on the Three Wise Monkeys: Pansage representing "speak no evil", Pansear representing "hear no evil", and Panpour representing "see no evil". The designs of their evolved forms imply that the three Pokémon failed in their assigned Wise Monkey roles. Simisage is patterned after Yankiis, who are known to be foul-mouthed and rude. Simisear's design is based on a bosozoku, who make loud noise by removing the mufflers on their motorcycles. Simipour is modeled after a kogal, who value their appearance more than anything else.
• Japanese Delinquents: Simisage, Simisear, and Simipour each represent a different subset of them. Simisage has the yankii pompadour and foul temperament. Simisear is bosozoku, as shown by its fingerless glove markings on its hands, the collar of fur on its neck giving it the appearance of wearing a jacket, and its hands reach out to grab invisible handles bars as if it's on a motorcycle. And Simipour is all dolled up like a kogal would-be.
• Magic Knight: Their Attack and Special Attack are equal and they have a number of moves to use for both.
• Making a Splash: Panpour and Simipour are Water-types.
• Monkey Morality Pose: The Gimmick of this set is that these monkeys refuse to be wise—Pansage is supposed to speak no evil, but its hands aren't guarding its open mouth; Pansear is supposed to hear no evil, but it's got a hand cupped to its ear so it can hear even better; Panpour is supposed to see no evil, but its eyes aren't protected by its hands, and now its underused eyes are always squinting. Each of them finds their destiny by evolving into some kind of Japanese Delinquent.
• Mundane Utility: A book in the Nacrene Library in Black and White 2 mentions Pansear are used in pottery due to their flames.
• Nice Guy: Pansage will share berries and stress-relieving leaves with its friends, and Pansear likes to help people.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: These monkeys are a poor man's substitute for starter pokémon; in Pokémon Black and White they're Crutch Characters that may help round out the player's early game team, but they don't have the same long-term potential and will soon fall behind.
• Planimal: Pansage and Simisage have leaves growing from the tops of their heads, and Simisage also has a tail covered in thorns.
• Playing with Fire: Pansear and Simisear are Fire-types.
• Put on a Bus: Six of the nine Pokémon who haven't been usable in a main series game since Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon in 2017.
• Secret Art: Respectively, Panpour (and, by extension, Simipour) and Pansage/Simisage are the only ones who learn Scald and Grass Knot naturally.
• Stealth Pun: Based on the saying "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" (the order is reversed for them, though).
• Starter Mon: An interesting case, as they've never been used as a real starting Pokémon in the games.
  • Their entire gimmick mimics the concept of starter Pokémon: Three families that are Grass, Fire, and Water types. They even have the same gender ratio as the starters (Seven males to one female), their hidden abilities are the standard Starter Pokémon abilities (Overgrow, Blaze, and Torrent) and^note as of Sun and Moon they can even be taught the Pledge moves (a series of moves otherwise exclusive to starters).
  • They do, however, serve the same purpose as the starter trio: they act as a tutorial for Pokémon's type triangle. In Black and White, you have the opportunity to obtain the monkey that's weak to your starter. This is useful against the Striation City gym, where the gym leader you fight will be strong against your starter and the monkey you obtained earlier would be strong against it.
• Sweet Tooth: Simisear loves sweets because they make especially good fuel for the fire in its body.
• Theme Naming: For the suffixes in each of their names have a theme related to cooking: we have "sage" (a type of herb), "sear" (cooking meat with flames, usually to give meat a deep, brown color), and "pour" (to transfer fluids from one container to another).
• Trademark Favorite Food: All of them appear to have an affinity towards berries and all of them have Gluttony as a standard ability. In the Gen V games, Pansage may be holding an Occa Berry (which reduces Fire-type damage), Pansear may be holding a Passho Berry (reduces Water-type damage), and Panpour may be holding a Rindo Berry (reduces Grass-type damage).
• Turns Red: They can each have the starters' signature abilities Overgrow, Torrent, and Blaze as their Hidden Abilities.
• Underground Monkey: Their first forms all look very similar to each other.
• Visual Pun: Respectively, Pansage and Simisage, and Panpour and Simipour the leaf and sea monkeys.

Munna and Musharna

0517: Munna (ムンナ munna)
0518: Musharna (ムシャーナ mushaana)

Munna

Musharna

Odd Psychic-type Pokémon that consume the dreams of humans and Pokémon alike. Munna and Musharna can produce a "Dream Mist" after eating; looking into the mist shows the contents of the consumed dream. This ability makes them rather valuable Pokémon in terms of research and study.

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• Awesome, but Impractical: Like most Pokémon that evolve with a stone too early, Musharna will lose its ability to even learn any new moves, which makes its improved stats less useful.
• Baku: Munna and Musharna are tapir-based 'mons, and are themed quite heavily around dreams and sleep. They also take cues from cartoon "dream clouds".
• Combat Clairvoyance: Its Forewarn Ability, which warns it about its opponent's strongest move when it's first sent out.
• Dream Stealer: Like the Drowzee line, they have an appetite for dreams.
• Elite Tweak: Watch it go from Mighty Glacier to Lightning Bruiser in Trick Room.
• Flower Motifs: Munna's skin is covered in flower patterns, but it loses them upon evolution.
• Friendly Fire Proof: Telepathy prevents them from getting hit by allies' Herd Hitting Attacks in Double and Triple Battles.
• Heal Thyself: Gets Moonlight.
• Lunacy: You need a Moon Stone to evolve Munna.
• Master of Illusion: An individual Musharna is, as shown in an in-game event.
• Mighty Glacier: Musharna's got great HP and Defenses and hits about as hard as Samurott, but it's not going to win any races.
• Mushroom Samba: The smoke coming from Musharna's head sends anyone who comes in contact with it into a magical dream world — not unlike a certain green plant that can be smoked to get similar effects.
• Mythology Gag:
  • In Gen I, there was a girl that wanted a pink Pokémon with flower(s) on it. Now she can get it in the form of Munna!
  • In Gen III, a scientist in Hoenn was working on a machine to see Pokémon dreams. In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, the same scientist talks about it once more... While also mentioning that a scientist in Unova (most likely Fennel) was making headway in this exact research.
• Our Monsters Are Weird: They're psychic pink floating tapir fetus-like creatures that spew pink mist from their heads.
• Psychic Powers: They're both Psychic-types based on the Youkai Baku.
• Recurring Element: Of the Drowzee line, being a two-stage Psychic type based on the dream-eating tapir-like Baku. According to Drowzee's Pokédex entry in Sun, both lines are believed to share a common ancestry.
• Status Buff: Learns a few of these, including Calm Mind, Curse, and Barrier. More notably, it naturally learns Stored Power, an attack whose Power increases for each one of these that it's built up.
• Status Effects:
  • Naturally learns Yawn, Nightmare, and Dream Eater. The former causes opponents to fall asleep, while the other two are damaging moves that require the target to be asleep.
  • One of its Abilities is Synchronize, which causes its opponent to also get hit with whatever Status Effects that it does.
• Youkai: Like Drowzee and Hypno, they're based off the baku.

Pidove, Tranquill, and Unfezant (Mamepato, Hatoboh, and Kenhallow)

0519: Pidove / Mamepato (マメパト mamepato)
0520: Tranquill / Hatoboh (ハトーボー hatooboo)
0521: Unfezant / Kenhallow (ケンホロウ kenhorou)

Pidove

Tranquill

Male and Female Unfezant

Fulfilling the role of the regional bird, Pidove are somewhat unintelligent Pokémon that gather in social groups, while Tranquill live in deep forests. Male and female Unfezant differ greatly; the males have a large, flamboyant "mask", while the duller females are known to have much greater flying abilities.

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• Balance Buff: Received a small boost to its Attack stat in Gen VI, going from a base 105 to a base 115.
• Black Mage: It learns mostly Special attacks in its level-up movepool.
• Blow You Away: They are Flying type that can learn a variety of wind-based attacks.
• Born Lucky: Can have the Super Luck ability, which bumps up their critical hit rate.
• Breaking Old Trends: The first early birds to not become raptorial predators upon fully evolving, being modeled more on galliformes than raptors and putting more emphasis on their beauty and loyalty. The Unovan raptor niche seems to be filled by Braviary and Mandibuzz instead.
• Com Mons: As the resident early bird, they're quite common.
• The Ditz: Pidove will obediently wait for an order from their trainer. Even though they already have one.
• Doves Mean Peace: They take a lot of inspiration from turtle doves and homing pigeons. They're also extremely loyal, with Tranquil's Pokédex entry noting that they're rumored to live in a place where no war exists.
• Flight: Flying-type pigeons.
• Glass Cannon: Unfezant has a decent Attack stat, but it's frail like you'd expect from a bird.
• Heal Thyself: One of the few Generation V birds to learn "Roost" by leveling up.
• Herbivores Are Friendly: A subtle case. They're based on pigeons and gamebirds instead of raptors like previous regional birds, and unlike birds like Staraptor and Swellow (who develop raptorial traits like sharp talons and robust beaks), Unfezant does not gain predatory adaptations upon fully evolving (its claws and beak appear weak compared to those of its predecessors). This suggests that Unfezant and its pre-evolutions are all seed-eaters like real life pheasants — and they become this trope due to their relatively even tempers and Undying Loyalty to their trainers.
• Kindhearted Simpleton: Pidove's Shield entry states that, despite how unintelligent it is, many trainers love it for its friendly nature and sincerity.
• Magically Inept Fighter: Unfezant's base Attack is a pretty good 115 (105 in its debut Generation), but its base Special Attack is a pretty low 65. This is particularly unfortunate, considering the line's movepool primarily consists of Special moves (though they can still learn Physical moves via TMs and HMs, softening the blow a bit).
• Muscles Are Meaningful: Can have the Big Pecks ability, which protects them from defense-lowering status moves.
• Noble Bird of Prey: Surprisingly averted this time — they're the first regional bird to not fill the "bird of prey" niche of their region, with Toucannon being the second (Braviary and Mandibuzz seem to fill Unova's raptor niche instead). They're still noble, though.
• Non-Elemental: They're part Normal-type avian Pokémon.
• Punny Name: Tranquil + quill = Tranquill. In Unfezant's case, it's unpleasant + pheasant or unfazed + pheasant (or all three words).
• Retcon: Their original Pokédex entries stated that the females' flying abilities were greater than that of the males. In Sword and Shield, their entries instead state that both genders have exceptional flying abilities but excel in different areas; females have greater stamina, but the males are faster.
• Recurring Element: Standard early-game bird.
• Shown Their Work: Male Unfezant are more colorful than the female, like real-life pheasants. The fact that female ones are said to be better flyers than male ones may be a reference to the fact that some male pheasants have long, heavy tails that weigh them down in flight (indeed, some pheasants even shed their tails if they're being chased by a predator), though male and female Unfezants have tails that appear to be the same length.
• Undying Loyalty: According to their Pokédex entries, they tend to have an extreme amount of loyalty to their trainers.
  "They will never let themselves feel close to anyone other than their Trainers."
• Useless Useful Spell: Mainly learns Special attacks by level-up when they're physical attackers.
• Weak to Magic: Their Special Defense is their lowest stat, being at a mere 55.

Blitzle and Zebstrika (Shimama and Zebraika)

0522: Blitzle / Shimama (シママ shimama)
0523: Zebstrika / Zebraika (ゼブライカ zeburaika)

Blitzle

Zebstrika

Electric-type zebras. During thunderstorms, herds of Blitzle and Zebstrika gather to collect the electrical charges from lightning bolts. Both can light up their manes and body patterns to communicate, and Zebstrika are known for their violent tempers and explosive outbursts of energy. Their high-pitched cries will let you know when they're coming.

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• Boss Battle: As Zebstrika is Elesa's strongest Mon in both pairs of games, this is expected.
• The Bus Came Back: They were among the twenty-one Pokémon who weren't usable in a main series game since Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon in 2017, finally returning in The Indigo Disk at the end of 2023.
• Com Mons: Common in Unova.
• Cool Horse: A lightning zebra in this case.
• Feed It with Fire: All of the line's abilities are designed to absorb incoming attacks to boost its stats. Lighting Rod boosts its Special Attack if hit by Electric-type moves, while Motor Drive does similar with Speed. Sap Sipper meanwhile absorbs Grass-type moves to increase its Attack.
• Glass Cannon: Zebstrika has good attack and speed, but absolutely cannot take a hit.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Zebstrika is said to be ill-tempered and when it gets angry, it shoots lightning from its mane in all directions.
• Lightning/Fire Juxtaposition: The Electric-type Blitzle line is Unova's answer to Kanto's Fire-type Ponyta line.
• Meaningful Name: Blitzle and Zebstrika learn quite a few ramming attacks like Wild Charge, Spark, and Flame Charge.
• Playing with Fire: They can naturally learn Flame Charge, an attack normally exclusive to Fire-types (and Genesect).
• Poor, Predictable Rock: The line's stats gear it to be a physical sweeper, but until Pokémon Scarlet and Violet their physical movepool was exceptionally bad, with no access to any useful high-powered moves aside from the recoil-inducing Wild Charge at base 90 and the situationally strong Low Kick, leaving them forced to round out their sets with weak moves. Generation IX would at last give them some extra physical options in Supercell Slam and High Horsepower, though that still leaves them with few strong choices compared to most physical sweepers.
• Recurring Element: It's similar to the Ponyta line, only with electricity instead of flames.
• Shock and Awe: They're pure Electric-type zebras.
• Unicorn: Sort of. Blitzle's "horn" is a fully functional extension of its mane. When it evolves, it gains a second "horn," also made from its mane. These mane "horns" are stiff enough to enable them to learn the Steel type horn move Smart Strike via Technical Machine.

Roggenrola, Boldore, and Gigalith (Dangoro, Gantle, and Gigaiath)

0524: Roggenrola / Dongoro (ダンゴロ dangoro)
0525: Boldore / Gantle (ガントル gantoru)
0526: Gigalith / Gigaiath (ギガイアス gigaiasu)

Roggenrola

Boldore

Gigalith

A family of Rock-type Pokémon whose bodies are compressed by underground pressure, making them harder than iron. Roggenrola hold cores of energy in their bodies, which leak out and form orange crystals upon evolution. This energy gives them potent fighting ability, and Gigalith can even absorb sunlight into the crystals to fire intense solarbeams. Boldore needs to be traded in order to evolve into the mighty Gigalith.

---

• Action Bomb: Naturally learns Explosion. Thankfully, this takes a while. You're unlikely to see wild specimens using it in the first games, but in Black 2 and White 2, look out for Explosion-learning Boldores in the later areas of the game (Twist Mountain, for example).
• Com Mons: Like the Geodude line, they're common in Unova.
• Disc-One Nuke:
  • Roggenrola, an extremely easy-to-get Pokémon, evolves into Boldore at level 25 and evolves into Gigalith by trade, meaning you can get a Gigalith earlier than you can fully evolve any of your starters. Gigalith, mind you, has absurdly high defense — and even higher attack.
  • In Black/White 2 you can get a Gigalith by trading an Emolga with a hiker in Route 7, next to Mistralton City. He has great stats and nature (Adamant, increasing his attack stat even more), and knows great attacks like Smack Down and Rock Slide, making the fight against Skyla pretty easy. And only a level after you get him, he learns Stealth Rock.
• Dishing Out Dirt: They are Rock-type based on geodes that can learn a variety of Rock type moves.
• Elite Tweak: Get it into Trick Room, and watch as Gigalith becomes the third fastest fully-evolved Pokémon.
• Eyeless Face: Roggenrola; that dent at its center is actually its ear. Boldore as well, in a sense. Only Gigalith has actual facial features, including eyes inside the ears.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Gigalith actually can learn SolarBeam and Flash Cannon, though despite the Black entries saying that it can demolish a mountain, its dismal Special Attack means that trying it is generally not recommended. Its Sun Pokédex entry states it can't use SolarBeam at night or when it's raining, which is mercifully not a problem for players.
• Last Chance Hit Point: Their Sturdy ability lets them survive an otherwise lethal hit if they were at full health. This makes it excellent for catching them, but also makes them annoying random encounters.
• Magically Inept Fighter: Gigalith has an Attack stat on par with the pseudo-legendary Metagross, but has a poor base 60 Special Attack.
• Meaningful Name: Gigalith's name comes from the Greek words for "giant" (gigas) and "stone" (lithos).
• Mighty Glacier: Gigalith hits as hard as Metagross, matches it in Defense, and slightly outdoes it in HP. Its Speed? With a base Speed of 25, which makes it the third-slowest fully-evolved Pokémon^note second place is in a three-way tie between Torkoal, Escavalier, and Ferrothorn, you'd be surprised if it outruns something. Not even Rock Polish will help.
• Poor, Predictable Rock: Pun aside, Gigalith's movepool is really, really, really shallow. You won't be seeing many interesting moves on this guy. Stone Edge, Earthquake, and Stealth Rock are its mainstays, and there's not much else viable to run on it.
• The Power of the Sun: Gigalith's dex entry says that it stores solar energy in its crystals, and can use it to attack. Appropriately enough, it has access to Solar Beam.
• Punny Name: Rock'n'roll(er), anyone?
• Recurring Element: Of the Geodude line, with similar stats, habitats and identical evolution methods. Seeing as Black and White used Gen V Pokémon exclusively until the Elite Four as well as N and Ghetsis were defeated, many Com Mons were replaced.
• Shed Armor, Gain Speed: Roggenrola and Boldore gained the Weak Armor ability in Generation VII, raising their Speed but lowering Defense each time they take a hit.
• Silicon Based Pokémon: And with quite an alien feel while we are at it.
• Sitcom Archnemesis: Roggenrola likes to measure itself against Geodude and Carbink to see which has the sturdiest body.
• Socialization Bonus: Needs to be traded in order to fully evolve, although for Black 2 and White 2 players, there's an in-game trade for one.
• Spider Tank: Gigalith has a body shape like one, somewhat like Metagross.
• Trap Master: One of the few Gen V mons to naturally learn Stealth Rock.
• Weather Manipulation: In Generation VII, Gigalith gained Sand Stream as one of its possible abilities.

Woobat and Swoobat (Koromori and Kokoromori)

0527: Woobat / Koromori (コロモリ koromori)
0528: Swoobat / Kokoromori (ココロモリ kokoromori)

Woobat

Swoobat

These rather cute-looking Psychic/Flying Pokémon live in caves and attach themselves to walls using their nostrils' suction, leaving heart-shaped stamps when they wake. They can also release ultrasonic waves from their nostrils; Swoobat's are powerful enough to damage boulders and are used in courtship.

---

• Achievements in Ignorance: Its Unaware Ability causes them to ignore changes to the opponent's stats.
• Blind Bats: Woobat may or may not have eyes, but if so these are completely covered by its dense fur.
• Blow You Away: They're Flying types that can learn some wind-based attacks.
• Cephalothorax: Woobat has no visible body, with its wings emerging from the same fluffy round mass as its adorable face.
• Com Mons: Compared to all the other monsters that had this type combination up to this point, but you will be seeing a lot more Basculin, Boldore, and Herdier in Unova.
• Flight: As bats, they can fly and are part Flying-type.
• Fragile Speedster: Swoobat has both a lousy Base Stat Total of 425 and a whopping base speed of 114.
• Heart Symbol: As their snouts indicate and their Japanese names ("Kokoromori" is a portmanteau of "kokoro", heart, and "komori", bat) confirm, it's their motif.
• Oculothorax: Woobat looks like an example, but it isn't. However, its nose is sometimes mistaken for being its eye.
• The Power of Friendship: Woobat evolves at full happiness.
• Psychic Powers: They're part Psychic-type based on bats.
• Razor Wind: Naturally learns Air Cutter and Air Slash.
• Recurring Element: The family is a bat found in caves that evolves into its final form through friendship, much like Zubat, though they are nowhere near as common and have a different secondary type.
• Secret Art: Heart Stamp; while it's not the only one that learns it, this move is still associated with this family the most. Woobat learns it very early on at level 15.
• Shown Their Work: Swoobat is surprisingly anatomically accurate compared to most cartoon bats, including the previous Zubat line. Just like a real bat, it has visible thumbs, ear ridges, and knees that bend backwards (though its feet still face forwards).
• Status Buff: Its Hidden Ability, Simple, which doubles any stat changes, allowing it to utilize Calm Mind well. It also gets Stored Power to try to abuse accelerated Status Buffs, but unfortunately, it's a Fragile Speedster.
• Story and Gameplay Segregation: Despite its Pokédex entries saying its ultrasonic cries at times can break even rock, they don't have access to Boomburst (which would be ineffective against Rock-types anyway) and can only learn the move Supersonic through breeding.

Drilbur and Excadrill (Mogurew and Doryuzu)

0529: Drilbur / Mogurew (モグリュー moguryuu)
0530: Excadrill / Doryuzu (ドリュウズ doryuuzu)

Drilbur

Excadrill

Underground-dwelling Ground-type moles that dig extensive networks of tunnels. Drilbur quickly makes holes by pressing its claws together and turning. Excadrill has the ability to form rounded drills with their bodies by holding their claws over their heads, allowing them to drill through iron plating and subway tunnels. It gains the Steel subtyping when it evolves.

---

• Acrofatic: Excadrill might be bottom heavy and have a bit of a hump on its shoulders, but it's got a decent Speed stat that gets even better in a sandstorm.
• Badass Adorable: Drilbur is very cute for something that can kick ass to a degree.
• Boss Battle: Excadrill is Clay's signature Pokémon, and thus acts as the final challenge in the gym battle with him. Likewise, Clay's daughter Lacey fields Excadrill as her primary powerhouse.
• Damage-Sponge Boss: Excadrill's HP stat is surprisingly high and compensates for its bad defenses.
• Dishing Out Dirt: They're Ground-type based on moles.
• Drill Mole: They're moles with drills for hands.
• Extra-ore-dinary: Excadrill is part Steel-type upon evolution.
• Lightning Bruiser: Excadrill is in a 3-way tie for the highest Attack stat of all Steel-types, its high HP stat and numerous resistances give it decent bulk despite its somewhat low defenses, and its Speed stat is decent. Not bad enough to make it a Mighty Glacier, but not the best either. In a sandstorm, however, it is the best!
• Mole Miner: Drill mole miners!
• One-Hit KO: Naturally learns both Horn Drill and Fissure.
• Pintsized Powerhouse: Excadrill actually beats both Mismagius and Honchkrow in this regard, as it apparently stands at a whopping two feet and four inches tall. Yeah, would you believe this thing that can Earthquake and Rock Slide your entire team dead is barely any taller than a Scraggy? Oh, and Excadrill's base Attack stat? 135. It matches Pokémon such as fellow Steel-types Metagross and Escavalier.
• Recurring Element: To the Sandshrew family in terms of evolution pattern, look, and typing, though Excadrill is stronger stat-wise and gains a secondary type upon evolution. They're also fast Ground types based on digging moles, much like Diglett and Dugtrio, although they were based more on whack-a-moles.
• Signature Move: Highly associated with Drill Run.
• Spin to Deflect Stuff: Naturally learns Rapid Spin.
• Status Buff: Both of their normal abilities during a Sandstorm. Sand Rush doubles their Speed while Sand Force increases the power of Ground, Rock, and Steel moves by 33%.
• This Is a Drill: They can form themselves into drills, and the name should give it away.
• Tunnel King: Excadrill's Pokédex entries show that it is one.
• Wolverine Claws: Sharp enough to bore through solid steel, and their Attack stat shows it.

Audino (Tabunne)

0531: Audino / Tabunne (タブンネ tabunne)

Audino

^{Mega Audino}

Mega Audino debuts in X and Y

Extremely rare in the wild (or at least meant to be; shaking grass isn't too hard to make appear), Normal-type Audino are natural-born medics with the ability to use their stethoscope-ears to hear the heartbeats of others and assess their health. This extreme hearing ability is also used to detect its surroundings. They seem to be thought of fondly by Unova's locals, and trainers commonly seek them out, but not to catch... For Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, it receives a Mega Evolution where it becomes a Normal/Fairy type.

---

• Armor-Piercing Attack: It's able to learn Disarming Voice, an attack that always hits and bypasses Substitutes.
• Bootstrapped Leitmotif: The Rare Wild Pokémon Battle music is what you'll always hear when encountering an Audino. Though it is shared with a lot of other Pokémon that appear in rustling grass, Audino is the most common one to appear.
• Combat Medic: Audino has a ridiculously diverse offensive movepool in addition to its array of support moves.
• Commonplace Rare: In Pokémon X and Y. While still encountered via a rustling bush, as actual grass doesn't rustle in Kalos, Audino only appears on Kalos Route 6, and on top of that, it actually is rare by this encounter, with Venipede being far more common.
• Confusion Fu: Though its level-up movepool is rather barren, it learns a ton of TM and Tutor moves, both physical and special... too bad its offensive stats leave a lot to be desired.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Its movepool is so heavily focused on support moves for Double and Triple battles (Heal Pulse, Helping Hand, After You, etc.) that its effectiveness in single combat is hobbled quite a bit.
• Dressed to Heal: Mega Audino. Befitting its status as The Medic, its visual appearance resembles that of a stereotypical doctor, with a stethoscope around its neck and a Labcoat of Science and Medicine.
• Ear Wings: Mega Audino's ears highly resemble feathery wings.
• Healing Factor: Can have the ability Regenerator, which restores some HP when recalled. Even better, it can potentially use the Entrainment move to give an ally in Double/Triple Battles the same Ability.
• Healing Shiv: It learns Heal Pulse, which heals a target other than the user. Nice when a high-leveled one uses it on you!
• Helpful Mook: Occasionally, wild Audino may use Heal Pulse to heal your Pokémon. This is the only thing they do in the Pokémon Rumble series.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: To the point it's able to learn Baby-doll Eyes, a priority move that lowers the opponent's attack.
• Labcoat of Science and Medicine: Mega Audino looks like it's wearing one of these, which fits with its healing capabilities.
• The Medic: In addition to its support-heavy movepool (including Heal Pulse, Heal Bell, Wish, and Healing Wish), one of its Abilities actually is Healer; it gives Audino a chance at the end of each turn to heal Status Effects on its allies in Double or Triple battles. Its Mega Evolution makes this even more obvious, turning it white so it looks more like a nurse and giving it a stethoscope around its neck.
• Mood-Swinger: High-level wild ones in the games can come across as this due to A.I. Roulette, often clobbering your Pokémon with a STAB-boosted Double-Edge one turn, then healing the damage right back in the very next.
• Non-Elemental: Pure Normal-type in its base form, and part Normal-type when Mega Evolved.
• Our Angels Are Different: Mega Audino has a very angelic appearance in conjunction with its caring attitude — ears that look like wings, a yellow and gold color scheme, and an even more benevolent appearance than before.
• Our Fairies Are Different: Becomes a Fairy-type upon Mega Evolution.
• Piñata Enemy: Pretty much their main purpose is to give you lots of experience points. Wild ones in X and Y are too rare and at too low a level for this purpose, but Audino used by Furisode Girls in the Battle Chateau can be as high as Level 65.
• Power-Up Letdown:
  • Its Hidden Ability? Klutz. Granted, Audino can use Entrainment to force this Ability onto opponents, but if you're that dead-set on using that strategy, you might as well just use Lopunny for it.
  • Mega Audino's ability is Healer, which isn't really much help in single battles, and you would need to give up a held item and a Mega slot in your party for it.
• Recurring Element: To Chansey; pink colored, similar design, healing-themed, supposed to be rare, and takes its place in Unova Pokémon Centers.
• Secret Art: The only Pokémon to learn Secret Power naturally; in Gen V, breeding/events/transfer were the only ways to get another Pokémon knowing the move, due to it no longer being a TM.
• Status Buff: It's one of the rare Pokémon to get Simple Beam, which changes its target's Ability to Simple, causing these (as well as Status Debuffs) to have double the usual effect.
• Stone Wall: Although not spectacular, Audino's highest stats are its HP and defenses. Its Mega Evolution is designed to boost the latter and make it even more of a Stone Wall.
• Super Mode: Mega Audino. Also notably the first (and so far only) Gen V Pokémon to receive a Mega Evolution.
• Tareme Eyes: Mega Audino gains these and averts Red Eyes, Take Warning.
• White Mage: It can learn a variety of support moves, and its Healer Ability can randomly remove an ally's status effect while both are on the field.
• Who's on First?: Its Japanese name Tabunne translates to "maybe"; its English name sounds like "I dunno"; its German name, "Ohrdoch", sounds like "Oh, doch!" (literally "Oh, yes!"); its French name, "Nanmeouie", sounds like "Non mais oui" (No but yes); its Korean name, "Dabuni", sounds like "dabunhi" (quite); and its Chinese name literally means almost doll.

Timburr, Gurdurr, and Conkeldurr (Dokkorer, Dotekkotsu, and Roubushin)

0532: Timburr / Dokkerer (ドッコラー dokkoraa)
0533: Gurdurr / Dotekkotsu (ドテッコツ dotekkotsu)
0534: Conkeldurr / Roubushin (ローブシン roobushin)

Timburr

Gurdurr

Conkeldurr

Humanoid Fighting-type Pokémon that strengthen themselves by carrying heavy objects, which double as weapons in battle. As they evolve, their muscles get stronger to the point that they can freely swing their weapons in battle. It needs to be traded to reach its final form.

---

• Action Initiative: Can learn Mach Punch to bypass its low Speed.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: While best known for the weapon(s) carried around, the entire line is still quite capable of punching opponents into submission quite effectively.
• Boss Battle: Conkeldurr is Elite Four Marshall's strongest Mon during his rematch in Black and White (where Mienshao takes the spot in the first battle) and all of Black and White 2.
• Carry a Big Stick: What Timburr wields. It's then replaced with an iron beam and then two concrete pillars as it evolves.
• Clown Species: Both Gurdurr's and Conkeldurr's appearances evoke circus strongmen. Each sport large, round, red noses and even larger, brightly-colored sinews; the contrast they have against the species' bare skin is reminiscent of a clown's colorful clothing. In Gurdurr's case, the top of its head is shaped like a typical clown wig.
• Confusion Fu: All three of their abilities boost their offensive output in some way, with each ability lending itself to different movesets and builds, meaning you'll be hard-pressed to figure out exactly what they'll do until they make their first move.
• Cool Old Guy: Conkeldurr, as hinted by the "elder" pun in its name and its White Dex entry (it uses its concrete pillars as walking canes).
• Dishing Out Dirt: Despite not being Rock-types, they can learn Rock-type moves via level up, most notably Rock Slide and Stone Edge.
• Dog Faces: Most pronounced in Timburr, but the entire line does give that impression.
• Dual Wielding: Conkeldurr wields two concrete pillars.
• Genius Bruiser: Conkeldurr is thought to have invented concrete two thousand years ago, and its Sword Dex entry states that concrete mixed by Conkeldurr is more durable than normal concrete even if made of the same material. Its B2W2 Dex entries also note its skill in using centrifugal force rather than brute strength for its attacks.
• Gonk: Like Slaking, the line may have been deliberately designed as ugly. Timburr's okay, though.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: According to its Shield Dex entry, when Conkeldurr goes all out, it casts its stone pillars aside and leaps at its opponents to pummel them with its fists.
• Improbable Weapon User: They all wield a big heavy object to fight with, namely a wooden bar for Timburr, a steel girder for Gurdurr, and two concrete slabs for Conkeldurr.
• Knuckle Cracking: Conkeldurr cracks its neck muscles as an idle animation in Gen VI.
• Mighty Glacier: Conkeldurr hits extremely hard, especially with Sheer Force or Iron Fist, but its Speed leaves much to be desired. Its commonly-used Mach Punch allows it to bypass its low Speed. Also, Focus Punch has negative priority for anyone, but Conkeldurr has the strongest Focus Punch in the game. Pair it with a fast After You user like Lopunny and you can easily turn battles in your favor. Its low speed can be used to its advantage on a Trick Room team, however, and it is indeed commonly used as a powerhouse on such teams.
• Punny Name: Timber, Girder.
• Recurring Element: To the Machop family in terms of evolution pattern, typing, and stats. The Machop line are body builders, the Timburr line are construction workers (or circus sideshow strongmen).
• Socialization Bonus: Needs to be traded in order to fully evolve.
• The Rival: To the Machop family. Both lines work in the construction industry, but the Timburr family is jealous of the Machop family's popularity.
• Top-Heavy Guy: Timburr, Gurdurr, and Conkeldurr have huge, strong, muscular arms and torso, but tiny legs! That's why they're so slow.

Tympole, Palpitoad, and Seismitoad (Otamaro, Gamagaru, and Gamageroge)

0535: Tympole / Otamaro (オタマロ otamaro)
0536: Palpitoad / Gamagaru (ガマガル gamagaru)
0537: Seismitoad / Gamageroge (ガマゲロゲ gamageroge)

Tympole

Palpitoad

Seismitoad

Tadpole/toad Water-type Pokémon that produce vibrations from special growths on their bodies. While Tympole usually uses vibrations for communication, Palpitoad and Seismitoad use them for more offensive purposes like shockwaves, boulder-smashing punches, or even earthquakes, which can be made more powerful in groups. It gains the Ground subtyping upon evolving.

---

• Achilles' Heel: While Palpitoad's and Seismitoad's Ground sub-typing allows it to No-Sell Electric attacks, one of the major weaknesses of Water types, this also makes it receive quadruple damage from any Grass-type moves.
• Badass Adorable: Tympole with its cute Playful Cat Smile-like mouth and big black Puppy-Dog Eyes.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: Tympole's. It loses them as it evolves.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Palpitoad and Seismitoad are part Ground-type, though Tympole also learns some Ground-type moves naturally.
• Frog Men: Seismitoad resembles a bipedal frog.
• An Ice Person: While it cannot learn traditional TM Ice attacks like Ice Beam and Blizzard, it can learn Ice Punch (only as Seismitoad) and Icy Wind through move tutors.
• In My Language, That Sounds Like...: Seismitoad is called "Crapustule" in French (from crapaud, which is French for "toad"), which caused GTS trading problems similar to Cofagrigus.
• Jack of All Stats: Seismitoad has pretty average stats, with slightly higher offenses and good HP. It also has access to Swift Swim + Rain Dance, which turns it into a Lightning Bruiser due to the speed boost and the boost to its Water-type moves.
• Life Drain: Seismitoad is one of the few Pokémon that can naturally learn Drain Punch through level up.
• Make Some Noise: They learn many different sound-based moves and attacks, a lot of them naturally.
• Making a Splash: The entire line is Water-type, of course.
• Mundane Utility: Seismitoad's Shield dex entry says that the elderly like having them vibrate their lumps for massages.
• No-Sell: Gains Ground typing upon evolving into Palpitoad, which grants immunity against Electric, one of the major counters against Water-type.
• Poisonous Person: Seismitoad can have the Poison Touch ability, which gives it a chance to poison with its contact moves. It can also learn Sludge Wave, Sludge Bomb, and Poison Jab, can shoot a paralyzing liquid from their headbumps, and happens to be related to fellow frog Pokémon Toxicroak, a true Poison-type.
• Power-Up Letdown: Seismitoad received a boost in its Attack in Generation VI; however, it cannot learn any physical Water moves such as Waterfall, relying only on Earthquake to deliver powerful STAB attacks. At least Seismitoad gets Ice Punch. This actually got downplayed in Sword and Shield, where Seismitoad is able to learn Liquidation.
• Recurring Element: They're quite similar to the Poliwag family, as a family of frogs with some kind of disorienting defense mechanism (swirling intestinal patterns for Poliwag; vibrating noises for Tympole).

Throh and Sawk (Nageki and Dageki)

0538: Throh / Nageki (ナゲキ nageki)
0539: Sawk / Dageki (ダゲキ dageki)

Throh

Sawk

A duo of Fighting-type martial artists that practice Judo and Karate, respectively. They train themselves in forests and mountains. By tightening their belts, Throh and Sawk boost their strength. Known to be aggressive towards trespassers who disturb their training or pose a large perceived threat. Throh is more easily found in White and White 2 versions while Sawk is more easily found in Black and Black 2 versions.

---

• Bare-Fisted Monk: As martial artists, they mainly rely on hand-to-hand attacks.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: Shaped like a T and an S, respectively.
• Brought to You by the Letter "S": Their English names perfectly match up with the respective lettering that appears to mark their faces.
• Disc-One Nuke:
  • In Black and White, they're both catchable at the outskirts of Pinwheel Forest, which is accessible even before you beat the second gym. Said gym type is Normal and the leader is considered a difficult boss... but probably not with a Sawk or Throh in your party.
  • In Black 2 and White 2, these guys aren't found until Route 23 and Victory Road. However, when the Dream World was active, these guys were immediately available. Thus, they could be obtained before the third town. With the Dream World now offline, this is no more.
• Determinator: Throh can have the ability Guts. This actually works in Throh's favor since, unlike most Pokémon with such an ability, Throh has high enough defenses to make it withstand status effects like Burn or Poison.
• Fat and Skinny: Throh is rather chunky while Sawk is pretty skinny.
• Glass Cannon: Sawk, especially when compared to Throh, having a high base 125 Attack but base 75 defenses. Oddly, the abilities Throh and Sawk have that aren't shared with the other are the opposite of what one would expect. Sawk, a Glass Cannon, has the ability Sturdy, which is usually seen on Stone Walls or Mighty Glaciers like Throh to prevent them from getting knocked out immediately due to a lucky or unexpected hit.
• The Grappler: Throh is based off the judoka technique and learns "throwing" moves like Circle Throw, Vital Throw, and Storm Throw.
• Last Chance Hit Point: Sawk may have the Sturdy ability, which lets them survive an otherwise lethal hit if they were at full health. This is especially useful considering Sawk's poor defenses.
• Late Character Syndrome: Both got hit with this in Black 2 and White 2, having been relegated to Route 23 and Victory Road.
• Magically Inept Fighter: As with most fighting types, Throh and Sawk both have high physical Attack but abysmal base 30 Special Attack.
• Meaningful Name: Both of them, overlapping with Punny Name:
  • Throh sounds like the word "throw." Being a judo specialist, he's going to throw you to the ground.
  • Sawk sounds like the word "sock." Being a karate specialist, he's going to sock you in the face.
• Mighty Glacier: Throh; high HP, decent attack and defense (both base and special), lousy speed. Oddly, the abilities Throh and Sawk have that aren't shared with the other are the opposite of what one would expect. Throh, a Mighty Glacier, has the ability Guts, which is typically found on Glass Cannons like Sawk, who use it by inflicting poison/burn on themselves so they can deal out even harder hits before inevitably going down.
• One-Gender Race: Always male.
• Recurring Element: Both of them appear to be a throwback to Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan, a pair of semi-related Fighting types that specialize in a certain fighting art (Hitmonlee is kick-fighting, Hitmonchan is boxing, Throh is judo, and Sawk is karate).
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: They're a more literal interpretation of this. Both of them behave like red Onis though.
• Secret Art:
  • Throh's Storm Throw, until Pinsir got it as well.
  • Sawk was the only Pokémon that naturally learned Rock Smash until Pokémon Sun and Moon.
• Useless Useful Spell: In Generation VII, Throh can learn Mat Block, a move that blocks any attacks to it and its ally. Since Mat Block has no priority and Throh is very slow, it can't make good use of the move under normal circumstances.

Sewaddle, Swadloon, and Leavanny (Kurumiru, Kurumayu, and Hahakomori)

0540: Sewaddle / Kurumiru (クルミル kurumiru)
0541: Swadloon / Kurumayu (クルマユ kurumayu)
0542: Leavanny / Hahakomori (ハハコモリ hahakomori)

Sewaddle

Swadloon

Leavanny

These bug Pokémon make their homes deep in forests and use silk to cleverly stitch together leaves to make clothing for themselves, hence the grass subtyping. These leaves also double as a food source for them as well. It has been observed that temperate forests tend to be healthier when these Pokémon inhabit them as they also eat the fallen leaves that would otherwise choke out the underbrush. One needs to raise Swadloon's happiness in order to evolve it into a Leavanny.

---

• Absurdly Sharp Blade: Leavanny's Scarlet Dex entry mentions that it can slice a tree in half with a single swing of its arms.
• Action Fashionista: Leavanny is elegant-looking. But, it also possesses dangerous leaf blade hands and has a very good attack stat.
• Badass Adorable: Leavanny is a cute, dainty looking leaf bug with a taste in fashion and a motherly personality. It's also a respectable Glass Cannon that learns Swords Dance by level up, making it pretty decent at sweeping the opposition, provided it survives using the move.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Leavanny's Violet Dex entry describes it as kind, but merciless towards those who harm young Pokémon.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: The line are primarily Bug-Type. Leavanny in particular is 20 centimeters taller than Beedrill (about 4 feet tall).
• Blade Below the Shoulder: Leavanny has two of them, and comes with plenty of slashing moves to make good use of them.
• Boss Battle: Leavanny, as Burgh's signature.
• Crutch Character: It and its fellow early-route Bug Type Venipede avert the trend of early bug types being this trope. Unlike the likes of Beedrill and Beautifly, who are fully evolved by Level 10, Sewaddle doesn't evolve until level 20. And when you get Leavanny (likely not much later after Swadloon, as it evolves via friendship), you end up with a Glass Cannon that can hold its own throughout the whole game, if you can work past its numerous weaknesses.
• Cute Little Fangs: Sewaddle has a pair of fangs which make it look cuter.
• Cute Monster Girl: Leavanny can be either gender, but looks very feminine and quite fashionable.
• Emo Teen: If one takes a three-stage evolution as baby or child->adolescent->adult, Swadloon, what with its Perpetual Frowner status and being physically and emotionally closed off (covering its head and evolving again only after meeting the Friendship/Happiness threshold), can somewhat reference this trope.
• The Fashionista: Leavanny uses its silk to sew clothes out of leaves for Sewaddle and other small Pokémon.
• Foil: To the Venipede Line, as they are both groups of early game Bug-types with a second type (Grass or Poison), and can be usually found in the same area, evolve in their early 20's into a middle "bulky" form (Swadloon/Whirlipede), learns Protect naturally through level-up, before finally evolving into a final form, which is a Glass Cannon.
• Fragile Speedster: While it's fairly strong and fast (especially with the ability Chlorophyll) and far from being another forgettable bug-type, its defenses are poor. Its typing is a double-edged sword, giving it resistances to Fighting and Electric, and a double resistance to Earthquake (and other Ground-type moves), as well as Grass-type moves. But, it has double-weaknesses to Fire and Flying and standard weaknesses to Rock and Ice (among a few other, less problematic, weaknesses).
• Fully-Dressed Cartoon Animal: They're insects that wear leaf-based clothes. Sewaddle wears a onesie with a hood it can cover its face with. Swadloon swaddles itself with a leaf blanket. Leavanny has the more complex ensemble, with pant legs, a cloak for their abdomen, and a high collar for their heads.
• Garden Garment: Bug-types that wear leaves for clothes.
• Glass Cannon: Leavanny has a high Attack stat, further boostable by Swords Dance, which it learns naturally, but its defenses are average and it has a whopping six type weaknesses, two of which are quad weaknesses.
• Green Thumb: Bug-Types that are also part Grass-type, and they learn leaf-based moves like Razor Leaf, Leaf Blade, and Leaf Storm naturally.
• Hikikomori: Swadloon is based on this. Leavanny's Japanese name, Hahakomori, is even a pun on the word. In order to evolve into Leavanny, Swadloon has to become closer to their trainer. Hahakomori also doubles as a portmanteau of "haha" (meaning mother), and "komori" (meaning babysitting).
• Improvised Clothes: Their clothes are made out of leaves.
• Kryptonite Is Everywhere: The line's typing (Bug/Grass) has a lot of useful resistances, possessing excellent resistances to Ground, Fighting, and Electric moves. But at that same time, they are weak to a lot of things as well — six types in all — and even have the misfortune of taking quadruple damage from Fire- and Flying-Type moves.
• Piñata Enemy: The Mental Herb item can immediately negate the effects of Taunt or Encore. It is often used to ruin Support Party Members and offensive Pokémon that set up Status Buffs before attacking, respectively. The only way to get them in Gen V is to pick them off of these guys.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Leavanny is less than 4 feet tall and has high Attack. It even learns Swords Dance to further raise that strength.
• The Power of the Sun: Leavanny can have the Ability Chlorophyll, which increases its speed in sunny weather. It can even use the Entrainment move to give allies the same Ability.
• Protection from the Elements: Their Overcoat hidden ability protects them from the residual damage of Sandstorm and Hail.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Subverted. Leavanny has red eyes, but it's a friendly leaf bug who will happily clothe whatever small Pokémon it comes across. It's called the Nurturing Pokémon for a reason.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: By Bug-type standards, Sewaddle is adorable.
• Slaying Mantis: Double subverted. Leavanny, while based more on a phasmid (aka the leaf insect) than a mantid, has limbs like a mantis, but it'd rather use its raptorial appendages to cut leaves into clothes than cut up its opponents. That said, it's still a great battler in its own right. There's a reason it's Burgh's signature Pokémon.
• Silk Hiding Steel: It's a caring parent and a seamstress, and its leaf-based dress is quite fashionable, but those arm blades are more than just for sewing. Its attack stat is its highest stat at 103, and comes packing with hard hitting attacks and Swords Dance to hit even harder.
• Team Mom: Leavanny exhibits very motherly behavior regardless of gender. And it will make clothes for any small Pokémon, but cares especially for its Sewaddle.
• Textile Work Is Feminine: Downplayed with Leavanny. While it can technically be either gender, it has a very feminine appearance and a motherly personality, and it uses its silk to make clothes out of leaves.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: Swadloon's perpetually downcast expression changes into a wide smile once it evolves into Leavanny. As you achieve that by raising its friendship, it's got quite a few reasons why it should be.
• Turns Red: Swarm gives its Bug-type attacks a boost when its health is low.

Venipede, Whirlipede, and Scolipede (Fushide, Wheega, and Pendror)

0543: Venipede / Fushide (フシデ fushide)
0544: Whirlipede / Wheega (ホイーガ hoiiga)
0545: Scolipede / Pendror (ペンドラー pendoraa)

Venipede

Whirlipede

Scolipede

Highly aggressive Bug/Poison Pokémon, they are basically the Weedle family on steroids. They are effective hunters that use poison to subdue their prey and for defense against bird Pokémon that may want to eat them. Scolipede is over eight feet tall and weighs in at over 440 lbs; it is a bug Pokémon of titanic proportions and not to be underestimated.

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• Acrofatic: Despite being rather bulky-looking and weighing 442lbs, Scolipede is quite fast with a base speed of 112. Its Hidden Ability in Gen VI has also been changed into Speed Boost.
• Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: The way Scolipede carries itself is evocative of a horse, another animal known for its speed. Its four most developed legs are proportioned like an unguligrade's, complete with hooves. What's more, Scolipede always holds its head high, with the upper half of its body resembling a neck.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Its Hidden Ability in Generation V is Quick Feet, which increases its speed by 50% if it has a status effect. However, it's immune to Poison, a Burn would cripple their primary offensive stat, and Paralysis still may paralyze it each turn. As a result, it's hard to reliably use. In Generation VI, however, its Hidden Ability was changed to Speed Boost. This gives it a boost in Speed each turn without any need for status ailments.
• Balance Buff: Scolipede got two boosts in the transition from Gen V to VI. Its base attack was bumped from a mediocre 90 to a more respectable 100, and its hidden ability, the relatively useless Quick Feet^note Scolipede can't be poisoned, and getting burned will ruin its attack stat. was replaced with the far more useful Speed Boost^note Increases Scolipede's speed every turn, letting it snowball out of control if it can stay on the field..
• Beware My Stinger Tail: It can potentially get you from both ends. It is also the only Bug-type that can learn Poison Tail naturally and can pass it on other Pokémon like Skorupi and Gligar.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Scolipede is so big, it actually knocked Yanmega, (a six-foot dragonfly) out of its title for largest bug in the Pokémon world by being an enormous 8-foot centipede, that is until Gen VIII's Centiskorch came in and it manages to beat Scolipede by a foot and three fourths. And if that isn't scary enough, consider that arthropods that size actually existed about 340 to 280 million years ago. ^note Fortunately, they were herbivorous and non-aggressive. Be glad. Very glad.
• Boss Battle: Whirlipede takes the center of the stage during Roxie's gym battle in Black and White 2.
• Creepy Centipedes: Especially creepy when it's an 8-foot tall Super-Persistent Predator.
• Crutch Character: It and its fellow early-route Bug Type Sewaddle avert the trend of early bug types being this trope. It becomes fully evolved at level 30, far later than most Bug Types. You're rewarded with a speedy Glass Cannon (less emphasis on the glass compared to Leavanny, thanks to a better type combo) that can hold its own throughout the entire journey.
• Dishing Out Dirt: An interesting case. Scolipede has a larger set of moves it can learn, notably gaining several Rock- and Ground-Type moves — possibly just because it's big enough to shake the ground!
• Foil: To the Sewaddle Line, as they are both groups of early game Bug-types with a second type (Grass or Poison), and can be usually found in the same area, evolve in their early 20's into a middle "bulky" form (Swadloon/Whirlipede), learns Protect naturally through level-up, before finally evolving into a final form, which is a Glass Cannon.
• Dreary Half-Lidded Eyes: The lines eyes are always half-lidded, emphasizing its intimidating appearance.
• Fragile Speedster: Scolipede has a shockingly fast base 112 Speed stat, but its physical bulk is mediocre and it's quite weak to special attacks.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Venipede and Scolipede's Pokédex entries mention their fierce territorial battles with Centiskorch; despite this, the Scolipede and Centiskorch lines are found nowhere near each other in-game. In Galar, the Scolipede line is exclusively found in the Isle of Armor, while Centiskorch can be found in the mainland and the Crown Tundra, but not in the Isle of Armor.
• Glass Cannon: It has a good Attack stat of 100, which got boosted from 90 in Generation VI; and while its Defense is okay, its HP and Special Defense are not.
• Meaningful Name: Scolopendra is a genus of centipedes which contains one of the largest known centipedes: the Peruvian giant yellow-leg centipede, one of the largest representatives of that genus with a length of up to 30 cm (11.8 inches), which is a lot more tolerable than 8 feet.
• Mighty Roar: Scolipede. That's right, folks, a roaring giant centipede.
• Monowheel Mayhem: Whirlipede is shaped like a wheel.
• Poisonous Person: The entire line is part Poison-type.
• The Rival: Venipede's Isle of Armor Sword Dex entry mentions that it and Sizzlipede don't get along, while Scolipede's Shield Dex entry mentions that it engages in "fierce territorial battles" with Centiskorch, with the loser becoming the victor's dinner.
• Rolling Attack: Aside from Steamroller, Venipede and its line can learn Rollout since level 1.
• Secret Art: Steamroller; while Golem can also learn it, the idea of an 8-foot roaring centipede that can bowl you over is slightly scarier than a living boulder doing the same. Also, Scolipede gets STAB on it.
• Shown Their Work: It may seem odd for Scolipede to be so fast, but centipedes really are one of the top predators of the bug world due to their excellent speed and agility.

Cottonee and Whimsicott (Monmen and Elfuun)

0546: Cottonee / Monmen (モンメン monmen)
0547: Whimsicott / Elfuun (エルフーン erufuun)

Cottonee

Whimsicott

Vaguely sheep-like Grass-type creatures that use the wind to float about, they stop floating if they get waterlogged and need to be dried out before they can fly again. They are extremely quick for grass Pokémon and gain priority if they use a non-attacking move. They appear in the wild only in the Black version (you can trade for one in White) and are also exclusive to Pokémon Sun. They gained the Fairy type in Generation VI.

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• Badass Adorable: Whimsicott's a big fluffy cotton ball with a cute critter attached to it! It also has Prankster to give priority to every status move.
• Blow You Away: Whimsicott learns a few Flying-type moves naturally. It's notable for being one of the two non-Flying-types that learn Hurricane (Volcarona is the other).
• Elite Tweak: Facilitates one. Whimsicott gained notoriety in Generation V Doubles due to using Beat Up on partner Pokémon with the Justified ability, which would triple its partner's Attack stat. It is also capable of using Prankster Worry Seed on a teammate with a hindering ability, such as Regigigas or Slaking to unleash their full potential.
• The Fair Folk: Its behavior is par for the course for a mischievous fae.
• Fantastic Fruits and Vegetables: Besides the cotton fruit, Whimsicott also draws some origin off the mythical plant known as the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary, a plant with sheep for its fruit (hence it being a Grass-type sheep).
• Fauns and Satyrs: Whimsicott is reminiscent of a cutified version of them.
• Foil: To the Petilil line, being cute Grass-types that are version-exclusive and evolve by use of a Sun Stone.
• Fragile Speedster: Whimsicott's extremely fast at 116 speed, but it's not so good elsewhere. Its defenses are slightly better than other speedsters, though. Slightly being the keyword here. Its Hidden Ability of Chlorophyll doubles that incredible speed in intense sunlight, to the point that only priority users, speedy Choice Scarf-wearers, or Pokémon swimming in speed boosts are going to outspeed it.
• Green Thumb: They were pure Grass-types before becoming part Grass-types.
• Our Fairies Are Different: Whimsicott (and Cottonee) is Grass/Fairy via retcon.
• The Prankster: As shown by its ability Prankster (which increases the priority of all non-attacking moves by one stage).
• Recurring Element: A family of grass types with a version exclusive counterpart that needs a stone to fully evolve, much like the Oddish and Bellsprout families.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Both! Cottonee is a little cotton puffball with big eyes and Whimsicott is a fluffy cotton/sheep fairy.
• Support Party Member: While its defenses are respectable in Single battles, Whimsicott truly excels in Double battles, where it can utilize its supporting moves and Prankster ability to the fullest to support a partner by setting Tailwind and then disrupting opponents with moves like Worry Seed and Taunt.
• Sweet Sheep: While they're mostly based on cotton plants, Whimsicott incorporates sheep-like design elements that make them look adorable.
• There Was a Door: Even if there wasn't, Whimsicott gets inside houses through any crack.
• Useless Useful Spell: Sort of. It can learn Trick Room, but doing so requires Whimsicott to move last (in fact, later than almost every other move) and make it vulnerable — and the Action Initiative of Trick Room is so low that even Prankster isn't going to help it out in that regard. Fortunately, Prankster's Action Initiative allows it to ignore the turn order inversion afterwards, but for those Whimsicott without it... yeah, they'll be moving last most of the time.

Petilil and Lilligant (Churine and Dredear)

0548: Petilil / Churine (チュリネ churine)
0549: Lilligant / Dredear (ドレディア doredia)

Petilil

Lilligant

Hisuian Lilligant

Hisuian Lilligant debuts in Legends: Arceus

Petilil is a cute little Grass-type with a tulip bulb for a head. They appear to prefer places with rich soil and clean water so wherever Petilil choose to live is a good place to grow crops. With the help of a Sun Stone they evolve into Lilligant, a gorgeous Pokémon who knows a number of dancing moves. They resemble Bellossom in a way. They appear in the wild only in the White version (though you can get one through a trade in Black) and are also exclusive to Pokémon Moon.
Compared to the grassy regions of Unova, the past Hisui's snowy mountains are not fit for a creature like Lilligant; as such, the Hisuian Lilligant grew well-developed legs to climb the mountainous region and skate across icy areas on its specialized feet, making them gain the Fighting-type. The scent from Lilligant's flower crown has said to hearten those in proximity.

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• Bare-Fisted Monk: Hisuian Lilligant is part Fighting-type.
• Boss Battle: Hisuian Lilligant serves as a Noble Pokémon in Legends: Arceus.
• Boyish Short Hair: In contrast to Unovan Lilligant having a leaf on the back of their heads that resembles long hair, Hisuian Lilligant's head leaf is shorter, appropriate for a Bare-Fisted Monk regional form.
• Combat Medic: Naturally learns Aromatherapy, and can be bred to know Healing Wish.
• Dance Battler: Lilligant learns many moves that involve dancing, including Quiver Dance, Swords Dance, and Teeter Dance. Hisuian Lilligant is based on a ballerina and ice skater, elegantly dances in battle, and has her own unique move titled Victory Dance. Even the frenzied Noble Lilligant fights the player in her battle with ballet-style moves that pack quite a punch. In Scarlet and Violet, Hisuian Lilligant adds the likes of Acrobatics and Ice Spinner to the moves it can be taught.
• Difficult, but Awesome:
  • At first sight, Lilligant appears to be a frail Pokémon. But train them well and put your rival to sleep, use Quiver Dance as much as you can, and, if these cute flowers survive, they become beastly sweepers able to pulverize even advantageous foes using Petal Dance combined with the Own Tempo ability (unless the enemy has the Sap Sipper ability, a double resistance to Grass, or an insane Special Defense like Blissey). Lilligant can even heal themselves using Giga Drain.
  • Hisuian Lilligant in Scarlet and Violet. Its signature move Victory Dance is basically Quiver Dance, but it raises physical stats instead. It's also faster than standard Lilligant, which means a higher chance of using Sleep Powder before the enemy moves. Also, Hisuian Lilligant can make great use of coverage moves like Poison Jab, Axe Kick, and Ice Spinner against potential foes that would be able to wall the Unovan variant, as well as countering Sap Sipper users. Not being locked into Petal Dance allows for more versatility. Overall, if used well, the cute ballet dancer has even more potential of making mincemeat out of unprepared teams than Unovan Lilligant.
• Disc-One Nuke:
  • In Black, you can obtain one with high IVs (all 20 out of 31, except for Special Attack, which is maxed) and a good nature (Modest, boosting Special Attack further) early on via an in-game trade. Then, when you get the Sun Stone to evolve her in Nimbasa City, she will soon learn Quiver Dance via level up, an insanely powerful boosting move. But it is recommended to let her learn Giga Drain first.
  • In Black 2, the in-game trade Petilil is not quite as strong, but faster, having instead the Timid Nature that boosts Speed. It still has the same IV Spread and high base Special Attack to pack a punch, though.
• Foil: To the Cottonee line, being cute Grass-types that are version-exclusive and evolve by use of a Sun Stone.
• Fragile Speedster: In sunny weather, their Chlorophyll ability doubles their Speed, and Growth boosts their Attack and Sp. Atk twice. Still has awful defenses. Hisuian Lilligant even has a 15-point Speed increase compared to its base form, making it fairly quick even without Chlorophyll.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Hisuian Lilligant's Pokédex entry states it developed its powerful legs from spending its life on mountains covered in deep snow, but it cannot be found in the Alabaster Icelands nor the Coronet Highlands. Hisuian Lilligant can only be found in the Crimson Mirelands—and only during massive mass outbreaks, at that.
• Glass Cannon: Great Special Attack (or Physical Attack for its Hisuian form), not so great defenses.
• Green Thumb: The entire line is Grass-type.
• Heal Thyself: Can learn Synthesis to restore its HP.
• Healing Factor: Can be bred to know Ingrain, which can be added to with Leech Seed, granting it a lot of healing every turn.
• Kick Chick: Hisuian Lilligant is an exclusively female species that has ballet-styled Dance Battler skills along with long, slender legs which not only comprise nearly a third of its height, but have a wild onion-like white-and-purple coloration that make them really stand out. It is one of only three Pokémon currently able to learn the move Axe Kick, and it learns Mega Kick as well.
• Lady of War: Hisuian Lilligant, who are part Fighting-type. The Noble Lilligant is called "Lady of the Ridge" and she's noted to retain her gracefulness even while frenzied, attacking the player with ballet-like kicks and twirls.
• Life Drain: Naturally gets the three Grass draining attacks, plus Leech Seed. Hisuian Lilligant also gets access to Drain Punch.
• Magically Inept Fighter: In contrast to their foreign counterparts, Hisuian Lilligant boasts a fairly good Attack stat at the expense of having poor Special Attack.
• Magic Dance: Lilligant has a lot of moves that involve dancing. They can perform the confusion-inducing Teeter Dance, the stat-improving Quiver Dance ¹(usually only given to butterflies and moths) and Swords Dance ²(boosts physical attack, so it is useless on Unovan Lilligant, who is a special attacker, until Legends: Arceus where it raises both physical and special attack), the extremely powerful Petal Dance ³(a strong move in the hands of an Unovan Lilligant which has no downsides if she has Own Tempo besides being locked into the move), and Entrainment ⁴(which is described as a dance). Hisuian Lilligant can learn Victory Dance ⁵(raises Lilligant's attack and defense stats while also boosting her damage output by 50%), which is exclusive to their species.
• Meaningful Name: Petilil is a little lily while Lilligant is an elegant lily.
• No Mouth: None of them appear to have mouths.
• Not Completely Useless: The ability Own Tempo. Since Confusion-inducing attacks are rarely used in the metagame, players would normally pass up the confusion-preventing Own Tempo for the Speed-boosting Chlorophyll without a second thought. However, in this case, it allows them to spam their best attack with no repercussions, especially since their poor movepool means that being locked into it isn't a real issue either, and sufficient use of Quiver Dance (their main advantage) means that it can do respectable damage even to some Pokémon that resist it. It also helps that they can learn Entrainment, and thus force this Ability onto her opponent (who is very unlikely to be able to use it nearly as well as she can). This makes it nice for making sure that opponents can't stop the onslaught with annoying little tricks like Sap Sipper, Insomnia, and Vital Spirit.
• One-Gender Race: Always female.
• Petal Power: Can use the powerful attack Petal Dance to great effect thanks to their high Special Attack. If Lilligant possesses the Own Tempo ability, they can use it without any ill effects beyond being locked into it for a few turns.
• Plant Person: Appears to be a humanoid figure with a dress (or leotard, in Hisuian Lilligant's case) of leaves and hair of leaves and a flower.
• Poor, Predictable Rock:
  • Outside of Hidden Power, Dream Eater, and a handful of common Normal moves, they don't get any attacks to complement their Grass STAB. But if the trainer plays their cards right, that's all they really need.
  • Their variant from Legends: Arceus is a bit better, having access to several Flying and Fighting-type moves, as well as Poison Jab and Ice Spinner to give them more varied movesets.
• Recurring Element: A family of grass types with a version exclusive counterpart that needs a stone to fully evolve, much like the Oddish and Bellsprout families.
• Rollerblade Good: Hisuian Lilligant doesn't walk or run, but skates on its ice-skate-like feet everywhere it goes.
• Secret Art: Hisuian Lilligant is the only Pokémon that learns Victory Dance, a Fighting-type move that enhances their offensive and defensive stats while giving a 50% boost to its attacking moves. In the conventional entries, it raises Attack, Defense, and Speed by 1 stage each.
• Southern Belle: Petilil, which looks somewhat like a cute little girl in a dress. Unovan Lilligant also has a fancy "dress" and a "hat". They're also always female, and fits the Eagle Land theme of Gen V.
• Squishy Wizard: With an application of Quiver Dance or two to raise their Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed. Still has problems with physical Defense, though.
• Status Buff: A very notable example is the fact that she's one of the few non-Bug-types to obtain Quiver Dance, which buffs Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed all at once.
• Stealth Pun: A rather complex pun. Hisuian Lilligant has white-to-purple gradient legs like wild onions, the genus onions belong to (Allium) was once considered part of the lily family, and its Secret Art is Victory Dance. So in a sense, it can be considered a "victory onion" (Allium victorialis), which held cultural significance to the Ainu people Hisuian natives are based on.
• Sultry Belly Dancer: Unovan Lilligant uncovered midsection and lower body resembling puffy genie pants and curved shoes gives it a strong resemblance to a stereotypical belly dancer, on top of learning numerous dance moves.
• Useless Useful Spell:
  • Lilligant can be taught Swords Dance, which holds no purpose for a special attacker like Lilligant, as it only boosts the user's physical attack stat.
  • Averted in Legends: Arceus, where Swords Dance raises both physical and special attack stats, so it benefits Hisuian Lilligant (read: a physical attacker) as well.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Through and through. Lilligant in a nutshell: Shut down opponent with Sleep Powder, build up with Quiver Dance, then let loose with Petal Dance until everything that's not on your side is dead. Hisuian Lilligant is a bit more versatile.

Basculin and Basculegion (Bassrao and Idaitou)

0550: Basculin / Bassrao (バスラオ basurao)
0902: Basculegion / Idaitou (イダイトウ idaitou)

Red-Striped and Blue-Striped Basculin

White-Striped Basculin

Male and Female Basculegion

White-Striped Basculin and Basculegion debut in Legends: Arceus

Inhabiting the lakes, rivers, and streams of Unova are not Magikarp, but this Water-type Pokémon. It distinctly comes in two forms: a Red-striped form and a Blue-striped form. Both are the same species and the differences appear to be cosmetic (although Reds and Blues do have differing abilities, and their meat is noticeably different). This doesn't stop them from feuding with one another. But there are instances of one kind being found in the other kind's school. You'll normally fish up Red-striped Basculin in Black or Black 2, and Blue-striped Basculin in White or White 2, although it's possible to find the other variety in special fishing spots.
In the ancient Hisui region, the unusually docile White-Striped Basculin would have their numbers whittle down as they swam upstream, and the souls of the perished Basculin can gather inside the remaining Basculin to enable them to evolve into the Water/Ghost-type Basculegion. Basculegion is powered by its kind's souls, as they attack relentlessly if they sense animosity. They also provide it with amazing stamina as a swimmer.

While absent from modern Sinnoh, White-Striped Basculin and thus Basculegion continue to thrive in the land of Kitakami.

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• Action Initiative: Naturally learns Aqua Jet, letting it get the first attack.
• Always a Bigger Fish: Despite their viciousness, the Violet Dex entry for Red-Striped Basculin mentions that they're still regularly targeted as prey by Bombirdier and Dondozo, the latter being a literal example of the trope since it's a giant catfish.
• Anti-Frustration Features: White-Striped's recoil-induced evolution method is acknowledged in-universe via a few of these.
  • In Legends: Arceus, the Pokédex's research tasks for Basculin involve seeing it use Wave Crash and Double-Edge, both of which deal recoil damage to the user, exactly the type of moves it needs to evolve.
  • In The Teal Mask DLC for Scarlet/Violet, White-Striped Basculin can learn Take Down via level up at Level 36, but it can also be taught to them at a lower level via TM, thus drastically speeding the process up.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Their Black 2 and White 2 Pokédex entry says this: "Red- and blue-striped Basculin are very violent and always fighting. They are also remarkably tasty."
• Cast from Hit Points:
  • Red-Striped's Reckless Ability takes this even further, increasing the damage, and thus the recoil, of its recoil moves.
  • Blue-Striped's Rock Head Ability defies this by removing the recoil damage from any attack that would normally cause it.
  • White-Striped Basculin can only evolve into Basculegion after suffering at least 294 HP worth of non-lethal recoil damage.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience:
  • One of Unovan Basculin's Abilities varies depending on their color, with Red-Striped boasting Reckless, while Blue-Striped go with Rock Head.
  • For Basculegion, the male is colored red, while the female is colored blue.
• Com Mons: In Black/White they're pretty much the only thing you will find when surfing on early non-sea routes, and there are several routes where it's common while fishing, too.
• Face of a Thug: White-Striped Basculin look even more vicious than their Unova counterparts, with a mouth filled with sharp teeth, but they're actually gentle in temperament and will flee from humans.
• Fiendish Fish: Basculin are bass-like fish with powerful jaws and violent attitudes; water bodies where they settle are quickly emptied of other living things save for the Corphish line, and they're known as "the thugs of the lake". They also fight incessantly among each other, as red-striped and blue-striped Basculin detest one another. Basculegion and the souls that it hosts to will attack any danger it senses until the enemy is defeated.
• Friend or Foe?: According to the Pokédex in White, though the red-striped and blue-striped Basculin are supposed to be very vicious and hostile to the other, occasionally you can find them mingling peacefully.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: The souls that wrap around Basculegion provide Basculegion with the power to swim without tiring. This is reflected in one of their Abilities, Swift Swim.
• Girls With Mustaches: Both genders of Basculegion have whiskers made of wisps on their faces that resemble mustaches, though they're somewhat shorter on the female.
• Glass Cannon: Basculin have high Attack and Speed, but poor defenses.
• Goroawase Number: The specific amount of recoil damage needed for White-Striped Basculin to evolve into Basculegion, 294 HP, may be goroawase for 憎し nikushi, which is archaic Japanese for "hatred".
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Male Basculegion have a high Attack stat, while female Basculegion have a high Special Attack stat.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Red and blue-striped Basculin are extremely aggressive and quick to anger, especially towards each other. Averted in the case of white-striped Basculin, which are passive.
• Hard Head:
  • Blue-striped Basculin get Rock Head, which negates damage from Recoil moves. Red-striped Basculin get Reckless instead, which increases the damage (and recoil) of recoil moves.
  • A glitch in Black and White had both kinds get Reckless save for an in-game trade of a Blue-stripe Basculin with Rock Head. This is partially fixed in Black 2 and White 2, where wild blue-striped Basculin have Rock Head, but have Reckless if bred.
• Hitodama Light: Basculegion's tail is shrouded in a swirling haze of soul energy that fades from red/blue into white, meant to represent the souls possessing it.
• Magic Knight: High Attack — 92 — but also high enough Special Attack — 80 — that it can pull off mixed sets. Adaptability also helps in making those Hydro Pumps hit a lot harder. Depending on gender, Basculegion gains a 20-point boost to either Attack (male) or Special Attack (female).
• Making a Splash: Basculin is a Water-type and it gets the Adaptability Ability as well, causing the STAB on its Water attacks to double their power, rather than increasing them to 150% of the normal damage as usual.
• Man Bites Man: They learn Bite and Crunch naturally, and as of Sword/Shield they can also be taught Ice Fang and Psychic Fangs.
• Master of Illusion: Female Basculegion's Violet Dex entry mentions that it's capable of creating terrifying illusions under its control.
• Mellow Fellow: White-striped Basculin, in stark contrast to its Unovan counterparts, is gentle and categorized as the Mellow Pokémon.
• Metal Slime: Unlike their other counterparts, White-Striped Basculin tend to flee from the player if you so much as breathe in their general direction, making them much tougher to catch. But if you do, you'll be able to evolve it into a real powerhouse.
• Mighty Glacier: Basculegion noticeably loses 20 points in speed compared to Basculin, but gains a tremendous 50-point boost to its HP and a serviceable one to its attacking stats and Special Defense.
• Mind Hive: Basculegion is described in the official description to contain the souls of the other Basculin who couldn't withstand the journey upstream. While the original Basculin remains in control as the Basculegion itself, the souls of its comrades possessing it cooperate with it and can attack of their own accord.
• Misplaced Wildlife: Invoked. Basculin's Sword Dex entry mentions that people have been known to introduce them to lakes illicitly due to the fight they give once hooked.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: Basculegion is a part-Ghost type whose body is inhabited by many restless Basculin spirits.
• Pale Females, Dark Males: Female Basculegion have bluish-white markings in contrast to males' darker red ones.
• Piranha Problem: Seabass in real life can be really aggressive animals, and Basculin is noted to be very foul-tempered, especially towards other Basculin with different markings.
• Powers via Possession: By being possessed by many other Basculin souls from its school, a Basculin gains the power to evolve into Basculegion. In this new form, its comrades within its body can aid it in battle by attacking with their own ghostly powers.
• Power Up Mount: A male Basculegion is the main Pokémon used for water traversal in Pokémon Legends: Arceus.
• Punny Name: A combination of "bass" and "masculine". It's evolution is likewise "bass" and "legion."
• Red Hot Masculinity: Not literally since it's not Fire-type, but male Basculegion have the souls of its fallen Basculin comrades tint it red.
• Red Is Violent: Male Basculegion's Violet Dex entry mentions that parts of its body are tinged red due to the rage of its fallen comrades.
• The Rival: Carvanha's Ultra Moon Dex entry mentions that it fights over food with them.
• Secondary Sexual Characteristics: Male Basculegion have red accents, a fiercer expression, longer barbels, growths on its chin resembling a stubble, and have higher Attack stat. Female Basculegion instead have pale blue accents, a melancholic expression, shorter barbels, additional accents around its face resembling makeup, and specialize in the Special Attack stat.
• Secret Art: In Legends: Arceus, White-Stripe Basculin is one of only two Pokémon (the other being Empoleon) with access to Wave Crash, a physical Water-type recoil move that boosts the user's action speed. This is no longer the case in Generation IX, where it's been distributed to several other physical-oriented Water-types both old and new, including the other Basculin. In the same generation it's evolution Basculegion also gained access to Last Respects, which is only otherwise learned by Houndstone.
• Shout-Out Theme Naming: In French, Basculin and Basculegion are named "Bargantua" and "Paragruel" respectively, named after the titular pair of giants from the classical French novel series, The Life of Gargantua and Pantagruel.
• Soul Power: Basculegion is part Ghost-type and is partially comprised of the souls of its fellow schoolmates.
• Symbiotic Possession: The souls of the fallen White-Striped Basculin that possess Basculegion retain a will of their own. They wrap around Basculegion's rear half, tint it a different color depending on its gender, gift Basculegion with the stamina to swim without tiring, and assist Basculegion at attacking its foes.
• Taking You with Me: Unovan Basculin can learn Final Gambit, which causes it to faint itself while also dealing damage equal to its HP to the opponent.
• Transformation of the Possessed: A benign example. Basculin evolves into Basculegion in Hisui when a Basculin gets possessed by the souls of its comrades that died trying to make it upstream, but rather than doing it harm, they assist Basculegion, both in battle and by granting it the ability to swim without tiring.
• True Blue Femininity: Female Basculegion have the souls of its fallen Basculin comrades tint it blue.
• Uniqueness Decay: Basculegion is the second Water/Ghost type after the Frillish Line.
• Useless Useful Spell: They get Soak, turning the opponent into a Water-type. Sadly, Unovan Basculin gets nothing to take advantage of that; in fact, considering that it's liable to use Water-type moves itself, using Soak is entirely counter-productive to it.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Invoked by its standard ability, Adaptability. It doesn't have an additional type to take advantage from, but Adaptability-boosted Liquidation, Aqua Jet, and Hydro Pump hit hard enough that usually that is enough to make Unovan Basculin worthwhile in battle.

Sandile, Krokorok, and Krookodile (Meguroco, Waruvile, and Waruvial)

0551: Sandile / Meguroco (メグロコ meguroko)
0552: Krokorok / Waruvile (ワルビル warubiru)
0553: Krookodile / Waruvial (ワルビアル warubiaru)

Sandile

Krokorok

Krookodile

Ravenous Ground/Dark desert-dwelling crocodilian Pokémon. This line is based on the gavial, but has a little inspiration from thieves and bandits — hence the mask-like eyes and typing. Their eyes are equipped to handle both the light reflected off desert sand and low-light situations.

---

• Bash Brothers: According to the Alolan Pokédex, wild Krookodile have this dynamic with Flygon; Flygon whip up sandstorms to conceal Krookodile, and the team splits the prey they catch. Strangely enough, this occurs even though Sandiles prey on Trapinches.
• Berserk Button: Its Hidden Ability, Anger Point, maxes their Attack stat if hit with a critical hit.
• Black Bead Eyes: The entire line, evidenced by their Shiny colorations; when the "shades" part of their design is turned a different color, their eyes are revealed to be black dots in the middle of them.
• Charged Attack: Its signature move Power Trip. It's a Physical, Dark-type counterpart to Stored Power.
• Combat Pragmatist: As Dark-types are entirely based around dirty fighting, they can learn moves like Knock Off and Foul Play. Krookodile also gets Ground-type moves with similar connotations, like Sand-Attack and Mud Slap.
• Combos: Its signature move Power Trip raises in power with every positive stat boost the user has. Consider how one of its possible abilities is Moxie, which raises its attack every time it knocks out an opponent... Not exactly a practical strategy, but it does sound pretty badass.
• Cool Shades:
  • Markings around their eyes give off this appearance.
  • In the Anime, Ash has one that actually wears sunglasses, though they don't resemble the marks around its eyes. Details here.
  • Both the Anime and White Pokédex entries describe those as having a function^note that is, to protect their eyes from sunlight similar to that of actual sunglasses.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Ground-type, and learns many such moves. Almost taken literally with them knowing Mud Slap and Sand Attack to kick sand and mud in the opponent's face.
• Domino Mask: Sandile's eyes are evocative of this.
• Gangsters Are Cool:
  • Krookodile definitely looks like one of those shady people wearing Cool Shades. Alternatively, the Cool Shades can also be interpreted as a burglar's mask.
  • Their line is also used by the gangsters on Unova Route 9. The Roughnecks even wear a jacket with a Krookodile head on it◊!
• Kill Streak: Can have the ability Moxie, giving them an Attack boost every time they KO something.
• Lightning Bruiser: Krookodile has a high Attack stat, good Speed, and decent defenses. Its abilities both improve its combat performance as well, with Intimidate effectively giving it more physical bulk upon switching in, or Moxie letting it boost its already high Atk for each KO it gets.
• Never Smile at a Crocodile: Played with. Though they are clearly based on and named after crocodiles, they're brown and red and live in the desert, and their Ground-type means they'd want to stay away from Water. Still bad news to run across, though.
• Not Completely Useless: For a while, Anger Point was a highly situational ability, since they would either have to hope for a critical hit to both land and not KO it with its decent-but-not-amazing defenses, or get hit by the guaranteed-crit Storm Throw or Frost Breath, both of which it was weak to. Sword and Shield, however, introduced Urshifu, whose Single Strike Form packs the guaranteed-crit Wicked Blow, which Krookodile can tank quite nicely as a Dark-type and safely activate Anger Point with.
• Sand Is Water: Based on the gharial, the most aquatic crocodilian still alive, and yet it is a sand-dwelling Ground-type. It is a direct play on the trope, with Sandile's Pokédex entries implying the line swims in sand as if it was water.
• Secret Art: Generation VII gave Krookodile exclusive access to Power Trip, a physical attack that gains power for each Status Buff the user has.
• Shown Their Work: Sandile's eyes are given a layer of protection from the sun by a thin membrane covering them. This is a reference to how real crocodiles have a thin, translucent membrane to cover their eyes when submerging underwater, protecting it from the water but still allowing them to see.
• Simple, yet Awesome: High Attack, solid Speed, a very good offensive typing in Ground/Dark, a pretty good movepool, and two great abilities, which either make it tankier on the physical side (Intimidate) or allows it to get even stronger through knocking out opponents (Moxie). All of this combine to make Krookodile a pretty formidable physical attacker.
• Super-Persistent Predator: According to the Black Dex Entry: "They never allow prey to escape. Their jaws are so powerful, they can crush the body of an automobile."
• Super-Senses: According to the White Dex Entry, "It can expand the focus of its eyes, enabling it to see objects in the far distance as if it were using binoculars".
• Trademark Favorite Food: Sandile like to eat Trapinch.
• Triangle Shades: The markings around its eyes become triangular at the Krookodile stage.
• Unstoppable Rage: If they have the ability Anger Point, their Attack stat will automatically become maxed out if they survive a Critical Hit.
  • Shown also in the last move they learn by level: as Sandile or Krokorok, it learns Thrash, while as Krookodile, it learns Outrage instead (both are 120 power moves which consist of unstoppable berserk attacks for 2-3 turns, with the difference of Thrash being Normal-type and Outrage being Dragon-type).
• Xtreme Kool Letterz: The K's and R's in their name.

Darumaka and Darmanitan (Darumakka and Hihidaruma)

0554: Darumaka / Darumakka (ダルマッカ darumakka)
0555: Darmanitan / Hihidaruma (ヒヒダルマ hihidaruma)

Darumaka

Darmanitan

^{Zen Darmanitan}

Galarian Darumaka

Galarian Darmanitan

^{Zen Galarian Darmanitan}

Galarian forms debut in Sword and Shield and are exclusive to Sword

Darumaka is a small, red, Fire-aligned creature resembling a Dharma doll. Even its poop is hot enough to be used to keep warm on cold nights. Darmanitan looks more like a baboon, and has all the manic energy you'd expect from one. But when Darmanitan is in trouble, it goes into "Zen Mode"; its body goes stock still and becomes rock solid, while its latent Psychic Powers activate.

In the Galar region, the line have adapted to a frosty climate in the wake of climate change and have ditched Fire for a pure Ice-typing and a distinctly yeti-like appearance, their fire sacs atrophying as they developed organs that created ice instead. Galarian Darumaka are known for playing with one another in snowball fights, while Galarian Darmanitan carry a large snowball on their head to store food and ice over to use powerful headbutts. Unlike their Unovan cousins, Galarian Darmanitan have a more timid disposition and pretend to be snowmen in the presence of humans. However, Galarian Darmanitan keeps access to the Zen Mode ability, and upon entering the state, the species' original fiery disposition flares up again as it takes on a dual Ice/Fire-typing, a berserk temperament, and a resemblance to a snowman.

---

• An Ice Person: They're Ice-types in the Galar region.
• Afro Asskicker: The silly appearance of Galarian Darmanitan doesn't take away from the fact it has the same stats as its Unovan counterpart. Fittingly, in Zen Mode, this snowball looks less like an afro and more like a very pissed-off snowman head with a spike of flame for a nose.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Zen Mode Darmanitan only activates at half HP (reverting back if it gets healed), wasting the forme's otherwise great defenses. It also has higher Special Attack than Attack, so you'll either have to deal with having some moves be completely worthless on Darmanitan unless it's in the Forme that can utilize both or just have a Standard Forme one that can't hit back. There's also the issue of surviving hits, as Darmanitan is quite frail. This is far less of an issue in the case of Galarian Darmanitan, who instead receives a boost to its already superior physical attack stat and speed, allowing it not only to continue using its regular moveset, but to very likely outspeed and get a good hit on its opponent before it can be knocked out.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Despite neither known variant being a Fighting-type, Darmanitan learns powerful Fighting-type moves such as Superpower, Hammer Arm, and Brick Break.
• Berserk Mode: In a stark contrast to its Unovan equivalent and what its name would suggest, Galarian Darmanitan's Zen Mode is closer to this than anything, regaining a Fire typing as it enters a flame-spewing rampage. Even its regular form's Gorilla Tactics qualifies it as The Berserker, since it gives it a power boost at the expense of not being able to switch moves.
• Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: Galarian Darmanitan's status as a large, blue-skinned ape in a snowy climate definitely bring yetis to mind.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: Darmanitan sports a pair of huge eyebrows formed from flames.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Galarian Darmanitan's only non-hidden ability is "Gorilla Tactics", giving it buffed physical attacks at the cost of being locked into one move until it switches out.
• Critical Status Buff: Zen Mode functions as this for Galarian Darmanitan, where instead of switching from a physical Glass Cannon to a special Mighty Glacier, its already-high Attack and Speed are buffed immensely once its HP sinks below half.
• Enlightenment Superpowers: Zen Mode basically amounts to this with Unovan Darmanitan.
• Elite Tweak: Unova Darmanitan with Zen Mode require some specific strategies to be used at their most effective, but can be quite potent within those strategies.
  • Galarian Darmanitan with both Gorilla Tactics and Zen Mode can be quite frustrating to use in normal gameplay, but excel in competitive formats, especially when combined with Dynamax, as it deactivates effects that restricts move selection, allowing Darmanitan with Gorilla Tactics to freely use moves.
• Fiery Redhead: Unovan Darmanitan looks aggressive and energetic, and has flaming red hair and a red body.
• Fragile Speedster: Galarian Darmanitan's Zen Mode is this, what with a whopping base 135 speed, only being activated when Darmantian has 50% or less HP, and retaining the awful defenses of its base form. It is also the fastest Ice-type and Fire-type Pokémon, beating the records of the previous holders Weavile (125 base) and Talonflame (126 base), respectively. Both variants of Standard Mode Darmanitan are also fairly fast.
• Glass Cannon:
  • Standard Mode has a much higher Attack stat as well as being quite fast, but pitiful defenses undermine its high HP and prevent it from taking many hits.
  • Even more so for Galarian Darmanitan, who sports the same stats with the infamously poor defensive typing of Ice. Galarian Darmanitan's signature ability, Gorilla Tactics, boosts physical attack at the cost of locking into a single move, effectively functioning as a built in Choice Band. However it also stacks with an actual Choice Band, or Choice Scarf can be used to supplement Galarian Darmanitan's speed.
  • This carries over even further to Galarian Darmanitan's Zen Mode, gaining an absurd 160 Attack and 135 Speed at the cost even lower defenses and only being accessible when its HP is halved. However, unlike Unovan Darmanitan's Zen Mode shifting to boost special attack, Galarian Darmanitan's stat shift also pairs naturally with Belly Drum.
• Lost in Translation: Galarian Darmanitan's design and Ice typing is a pun on snowmen being called yukidaruma ("snow daruma") in Japanese. Similarly, translating the ability Daruma Mode as Zen Mode made it a Non-Indicative Name for its Galarian version, though it still wouldn't have made much sense to an English speaker.
• Metal Slime: As of now, Galarian Darmanitan with Zen Mode are a rare, chance in encounter in Max Raid battles, and cannot be found outside of them.
• Mighty Glacier: Unovan Darmanitan's Zen Mode has awful Speed, but high defenses and Special Attack, though being at half health hampers that.
• Monkey Morality Pose: Zen Mode Darmanitan seems to be this (even more so than the Elemental monkeys), as it has pupil-less eyes, a closed mouth, and its hands are positioned in a way that makes it look like it's covering its ears (though it does not actually have visible ears). Its Galarian counterpart comes off as an inversion, with it striking a Slasher Smile, having red marking around the eyes that resemble eyes and it displaying its hands out like it is trying to hear better.
• Multiform Balance: Darmanitan is normally a Glass Cannon with high Attack and good Speed, but awful defenses. When Unovan Darmanitan enters Zen Mode, however, its Attack and Speed drop like a rock, but its defenses and Special Attack increase to make it a Mighty Glacier.
• Nobody Poops: Averted. Darumaka's Pokédex entry explicitly states that its droppings are so hot that people used to put them in their clothes to keep themselves warm.
• Non-Indicative Name: Rather than the Enlightenment Superpowers of Unovan Darmanitan, "Zen Mode" hardly seems like an appropriate name for the Galarian variant's form, which they enter upon experiencing Unstoppable Rage. Averted in Japanese, where Daruma can refer to both the form its Unovan variant takes and a snowman.
• Oxymoronic Being: Galarian Darmanitan's type when in Zen Mode is Ice/Fire, which are pretty much polar opposites in terms of elemental temperature - and unlike other examples of this trope in the series, this is explored in its Pokédex entry, stating that a Zen Mode Galarian Darmanitan can melt if it's in this mode for too long. Furthermore, it expresses Unstoppable Rage while in that form, completely opposite to the name "Zen Mode".
• Playing with Fire: The Unovan line are both Fire-types and fire-spewing, though this only applies to Zen Mode in the case of the Galarian variant. Uniquely, the Galarian forms are the only Ice-types capable of learning damaging Fire-type moves.
• Psychic Powers: In Zen Mode, Unovan Darmanitan is part Psychic-type. It can still use the move Psychic in its Standard Forme, but don't expect to do much damage with its low Special Attack.
• Pun: The standard ability of Galarian Darmanitan, "Gorilla Tactics" is one on "guerilla tactics."
• Quirky Bard: The Zen Mode variant of Unovan Darmanitan. While the stats of Zen Mode are perfectly usable, Darmanitan only enters Zen Mode at 50% HP, so you need to let the opponent weaken it enough to get into Zen Mode, which isn't easy since it has awful defenses normally. Once you succeed, it only remains in Zen Mode as long as its HP remains below 50%; healing it in any way turns it back to normal. And because of the completely different stat distribution of its two forms, trying to make it work as both is very difficult.
• Really 700 Years Old: There are a half-dozen Zen Mode Darmanitan sleeping outside the entrance to the Relic Castle. According to Professor Juniper, it's very likely that they've been there for centuries. And you can catch all of them.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Unovan Darmanitan's different forms act in battle according to their colors; standard Darmanitan is fast and physical-hitting while Zen Mode is slow and special-hitting. This is reversed with Galarian Darmanitan, who has a gentle and docile demeanor in its standard form along with a cold color scheme, and goes apeshit upon entering Zen Mode, which regains several fiery attributes and warmer colors.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Darumaka.
• Secret Art: The Zen Mode and Gorilla Tactics abilities are exclusive to Darmanitan, and the latter is exclusive to its Galarian Form.
• Significant Anagram: The letters in Darmanitan's name can be rearranged to spell "A Damn Train", which is exactly how hard it hits.
• Slasher Smile: Darmanitan sports a large toothy grin and the eyes to make it look particularly creepy. Not the case with its Galarian form, but comes back in full force once it enters Zen Mode.
• Status Effects: Averted; the line's "Sheer Force" ability trades any chance a move has to cause one for a 30% attack power boost. Keep in mind that nearly every Fire-type attack has a side-effect of burning. A Sheer Force and STAB-boosted Flare Blitz will really hurt a lot of Pokémon, provided they aren't immune to it, have a double Fire resistance, or have really high defenses.
• Top-Heavy Guy: Darmanitan has arms and an upper body far larger than its legs and pelvic region.
• Turns Red: Theoretically the case with regular Zen Mode Darmanitan, which gets higher stats overall when it reaches half health but has various issues associated with the form that render it Awesome, but Impractical. On the other hand, Galarian Darmanitan's Zen Mode gives it a direct upgrade to its base stats, making it much more practical and dangerous.
• Underground Monkey: Much like Alolan Vulpix and Ninetales, Galarian Darumaka and Darmanitan dropped their Fire-typing in favor of being Ice-types instead. Although it regains this trait upon entering Zen Mode.
• Unique Enemy: Well, Darmanitan and Darumaka are actually fairly common, but post-game, you can get RageCandyBars with which you can wake up one of the Zen Mode Darmanitan outside Relic Castle. In Black 2 and White 2, only one is available, and that's N's Darmanitan, which you'll randomly find along with several of his other Pokémon after activating the Unova Link to Black or White.
• Unskilled, but Strong: The non-Hidden Abilities the entire line has involve increasing a move's power while adding an undesirable trait on them:
  • Darumaka's Hustle increases the power of physical moves by 50%, but their accuracy is reduced by 20%.
  • Unovan Darmanitan's Sheer Force increases the power of moves with secondary effects by 30%, at the expense of said secondary effects.
  • Galarian Darmanitan's Gorilla Tactics increases the power of physical moves by 50%, but it gets locked to the first move they use until they switch out.
• Unstoppable Rage: According to the Pokédex, Galarian Zen Mode Darmanitan will not stop spewing flames until it calms down, even if it causes its body to melt.
• Unusual Eyebrows: Unovan Darmanitan has flaming ones.
• Useless Useful Spell:
  • Unovan Darmanitan can learn Flame Charge and Power-Up Punch, which boost Speed and Attack (respectively) after each use. This would be very useful... except Sheer Force negates those boosts entirely, and it's not useful at all for Zen Mode Darmanitan.
  • However, Galarian Darmanitan averts it due to having a different ability and Galarian Zen Mode Darmanitan's monstrous 160 Attack lets it use Power-Up Punch with no drawbacks.
  • Gorilla Tactics has no effect whatsoever when Galarian Darmanitan is Dynamaxed.
• Version-Exclusive Content: In Generation VIII, Galarian Darumaka and Galarian Darmanitan are exclusive to Pokémon Sword.
• Visual Pun: Galarian Darmanitan is based on a yeti, and its Zen Mode is a snowman. It's literally an Abominable Snowman. In the Japanese version, snowmen are known as yukidaruma, hence its Daruma Mode.

Maractus (Maracacchi)

0556: Maractus / Maracacchi (マラカッチ marakacchi)

Maractus

This rabbit-eared Grass-type cactus is found in the Desert Resort. It's well adapted to desert life by absorbing any moisture it can, even from Pokémon attacks if it has to. It also drives away bird Pokémon that may try to eat its seeds by shaking its body, which sounds much like maracas.

---

• Action Initiative: It learns Sucker Punch naturally, giving it first strike if the opponent is about to attack it.
• All Deserts Have Cacti: Justified in this case. Since Unova is an American-based setting, it would be logical to have a cactus Pokémon, since deserts in the U.S. have cacti.
• Cactus Person: Maractus resembles a humanoid prickly pear, with ear-like lobes each tipped with a flower. It's found chiefly in desert routes. Rather than shooting needles, however, it's themed around shaking its limbs to make sounds like maracas. Its nutrient-rich seeds are also noted to be a valuable food source in the desert.
• Dance Battler: According to the Pokédex, it uses dancing and singing to drive away predators. Also naturally learns Petal Dance.
• Defend Command: One of the few Pokémon able to learn Spiky Shield, which protects the user from most moves, with the added bonus of damaging anybody who uses a contact move on them.
• Fragile Speedster: It can potentially approach this with the Chlorophyll ability, which doubles its Speed, while still having poor defenses. It helps that it also learns Sunny Day naturally.
• Glass Cannon: Maractus has good Special Attack, but it's quite frail and won't be winning many speed awards. Much like the Hoenn cactus, it can learn Sucker Punch to get around that.
• Green Thumb: Grass-type with plant-based attacks.
• Heal Thyself: Can have Synthesis to heal itself.
• Healing Factor: Naturally learns Ingrain, which can be added to by breeding it with Leech Seed to grant it healing every turn. Water Absorb lets it gain HP when hit with Water-type moves.
• Life Drain: Naturally learns all three Grass-type draining attacks, and can be bred with Leech Seed.
• Playful Cat Smile: They sport a cheerful, catlike grin.
• The Power of the Sun: In addition to its speed-boosting Chlorophyll ability, it learns Sunny Day, Synthesis, Solarbeam, and Growth naturally, the former of which brings out the sun, and the latter three moves benefit from the sun.
• Punny Name: Maractus/Maracacchi is a cactus that performs mariachi-like dancing that causes it to rattle like maracas
• Spike Shooter: It learns Pin Missile, which fires spikes at the enemy 2-5 times. You'll probably only keep it until a direct attack is available.
• Stand Your Ground: Knows Ingrain, which keeps it from getting switched out by either side, for better or worse.
• Status Buff: One of the rare users of Cotton Guard, which drastically boosts its Defense stat. It can learn Acupressure, which sharply boosts a random stat, including Evasion and Accuracy.
• Too Dumb to Live: In the Gen V games, Maractus can only be found in the always sandstorm-infected Desert Resort... except that it has absolutely no ability that prevents it from being affected by sandstorms, meaning that wild Maractus will always be damaged by the sandstorm.

Dwebble and Crustle (Ishizumai and Iwapalace)

0557: Dwebble / Ishizumai (イシズマイ ishizumai)
0558: Crustle / Iwapalace (イワパレス iwaparesu)

Dwebble

Crustle

This Bug/Rock Pokémon family bears a passing resemblance to Paras and Parasect, but instead of a brainwashing mushroom, it carries a rock, which it has carved for itself and now lives inside. This rocky shell proves to be a great form of defense, but it isn't exactly maneuverable. Luckily, it has access to the move Shell Smash, which can fix that drawback.

---

• Armored But Frail: Downplayed. Crustle has a good base 125 Defense but a below-average base 70 HP.
• Awesome, but Impractical: They've become the second evolutionary line to have access to Rock Wrecker. That recharge turn doesn't look much better on them (though their Sturdy ability mitigates this somewhat).
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Oddly enough, they are Bug-type, unlike most crab-like Pokémon. Somewhat Truth in Television, as crustaceans are the closest living relatives of insects (even more so than arachnids and myriapods).
• Boring, but Practical: Learns Stealth Rock early, which makes it great support against Elesa in the first Black and White games, as her team's Signature Move forces them to switch out with each use.
• Depending on the Artist: In the video games, Crustle's body is orange; in the anime, its body is red.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Rock-type, represented by their armor being a large boulder.
• Giant Enemy Crab: Though, despite being based on hermit crabs (at least in the case of Dwebble), they mostly dwell in arid areas rather than near the water (though there are exceptions). And unlike the Krabby and Corphish lines, they aren't Water-types.
• Improvised Armour: A rock shell and a layer of sediment, respectively.
• Last Chance Hit Point: One of their abilities is Sturdy, which lets them survive an otherwise lethal hit if they were at full health. This can allow them to do a lot of damage with Flail as well as make it more likely to hit with Rock Wrecker or get in a Stealth Rock.
• Magically Inept Fighter: Crustle's Special Attack is its second lowest base stat (after Speed), being at a below-average 65. This in contrast to its base Attack, which is a decent 95.
• Mighty Glacier: Great Defense and decent numbers in its other defensive stats, only somewhat weaker Attack, terrible Speed.
• Piñata Enemy: Wild ones have a small chance to be found carrying a Rare Bone, which sells for high prices.
• Power Pincers: Crustle's forelimbs are a pair of pincers, which its Pokédex entry states is strong enough to break the hide of a Rhyperior.
• Punny Name: Dwebble/Ishizumai dwells (sumai) within a pebble-like stone (ishi), while Crustle/Iwapalace is a crustacean that makes a castle/palace out of a piece of rocky (iwa) crust.
• Recurring Element: In Black 2 and White 2, a group of Crustle serve as a Pokémon roadblock that requires an item to remove them. They left peacefully the first time they are forced to flee from Unova Route 4, but when the player does this on a single Crustle in the Seaside Cave, it will attack them.
  • Incidentally, another one appears in Sword and Shield, where it guards an optional path to the Brick Break TM and disappears entirely once defeated.
• The Rival: Dwebble are rivals with Roggenrola and Rolycoly. Understandable, given Dwebble like finding rocks to live in, and Roggenrole and Rolycoly are rocks.
• Sand Is Water: Desert hermit crabs.
• Security Blanket: They are very attached to their rocks. Dwebble get very nervous if they can't find one, while Crustle become weak and confused.
• Status Buff: Dwebble and Crustle can learn several moves that boosts many of its stats. Rock Polish raises their Speed twice. Curse increases their Attack and Defense at the cost of lowering Speed. Shell Smash greatly increases their Attack, Special Attack, and Speed at the cost of Defense and Special Defense. Also, their Hidden Ability, Weak Armor, works in a similar way to Shell Smash, but only raises its Speed and decreases its Defense.
• Super Spit: They spit out a liquid that lets them carve up rocks that they live in. It apparently is not good enough to translate into any moves for battling, though.
• Trap Master: Learns the entry hazards Stealth Rock and Spikes, though the latter only through breeding.

Scraggy and Scrafty (Zuruggu and Zuruzukin)

0559: Scraggy / Zuruggu (ズルッグ zuruggu)
0560: Scrafty / Zuruzukin (ズルズキン zuruzukin)

Scraggy

Scrafty

Extremely territorial lizards with a penchant for beating up passers-by and trespassers. These gangsters are really tough opponents thanks to their unique Dark/Fighting typing, a great movepool, great defenses, and great abilities. Scrafty can play very well as either a bulky defensive character or as an all-offense sweeper.

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• Armored But Frail: Scrafty's amazing 115 Defenses are offset by its 65 HP.
• Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Since they're lizards based on urban gangsters, their design uses their shed skin as baggy pants and hoodies.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Their barefoot kick attacks can crack concrete blocks and even Conkeldurr's pillars, which are made of more durable concrete than the normal one.
• Combat Pragmatist: Dark-type, natch; Scrafty are known to beat up anyone who intrudes on their territory, and they will gang up on them in numbers to do it.
• Foil: The Scraggy line received one the following generation with the Pancham line: Both are two-stage Fighting-type lines with a Fighting/Dark final evolution, with the first stage based on a gangster and the final stage based on a gang leader. However, whereas the Scraggy line is based on western thugs, the Pancham line is based on Japanese Delinquents. In addition, the Scraggy line is truly malicious where the Pangoro line is good-hearted.
• Gangbangers: Their main inspiration, what with the baggy "pants" and the skin on their neck resembling a hoodie. They also often gang up on their foes and beat up anyone who intrudes on their territory. The fact they're found in a Big Applesauce setting definitely helps.
• Gangsters Are Cool: They're known for ganging up on and pummeling anyone who trespasses in their territory, and can smash concrete with their kicks. Scraggy is also used by the gangsters on Unova Route 9.
• Glacier Waif: Scrafty has good Attack and defenses, yet it only measures three feet tall and weighs 66 pounds.
• Glasgow Grin: Scraggy's mouth lines up with a line going around the head, giving it this look. The line vanishes upon evolution.
• Healing Factor: Can have the Shed Skin ability, giving them a chance to heal their status ailments at the end of the turn.
• Informed Ability: Despite the Pokédex entries stating that it gangs up on opponents and is able to spit acid, Scrafty does not learn Beat Up, Acid, Gastro Acid, or Acid Spray. It can learn Sludge Bomb, though. Downplayed in Sword and Shield where it learns Beat Up via level up and TM and Acid Spray by breeding.
• In the Hood: Scrafty is based on urban gang members of the 1990s to now (the bottom molted skin resembles sagging pants, and the skin on its neck is a hoodie) with a 1980s punk element (the mohawk). Scraggy is the same, but with only the pants.
• I Shall Taunt You: Scrafty provokes the enemy by spitting acidic saliva. Both also can learn Taunt.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Scrafty behaves like a rude ruffian but takes care of its friends, family and territory.
• Kill Streak: The ability Moxie, which can increase their strength to frightening levels.
• Lizard Folk: They're humanoid lizards that wear their shed skin as pants and hoodies, and are based on urban youth subcultures.
• Magic Pants: The molted skin they wear is fairly elastic. They pull it up to use as a shield.
• Mighty Glacier: Scrafty has good defenses and decent attack. Intimidate and Bulk Up can help on the physical side, too, and Amnesia on the Special (defensive) side. They're inherently slow, though, but even that's not impossible to get over with Dragon Dance.
• Mythology Gag: Scraggy's PokéDex entry in Pokémon Sword might as well be referring to Ash's Scraggy:
  Galar PokéDex: If it locks eyes with you, watch out! Nothing and no one is safe from the reckless headbutts of this troublesome Pokémon.
• Nerf: Scrafty did not take the introduction of Fairy-types very well, as its defenses look a lot less impressive when a Fairy-type attack deals 4x damage to it. Not helping matters is the fact that Fairy-types resist both of its STABs. They can learn Poison Jab and Iron Head to help fight back, though.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Because of their slight reptilian-ness, they're classified in the Dragon egg group, and can be taught Dragon-type moves through various means. This includes Dragon Dance, which can be used to shore up their low speed.
• The Quincy Punk: Scrafty, thanks to its mohawk (which is the kind of mohawk associated with punk culture, whether it's the late 1970s British punk scene or the early 1980s American punk scene).
• Status Buff: Gets Dragon Dance through TR and breeding and Amnesia via breeding. They also get Bulk Up and Iron Defense through TM or TR and can have the Moxie ability, giving them quite a few options for buffing their stats.
• Truth in Television: The Scraggy line may owe its inspiration to the real life late 1980s to 1990s boom of owning more exotic pets, most of all which includes lizards, from not just snakes but tortoises, iguanas, bearded dragons, and monitor lizards. One such inspiration of owning more exotic pets is from media celebrities, and perhaps one owed the most for this would be Saul "Slash" Hudson of Guns N' Roses for his documented and once massive ownership of reptiles, Gene Simmons of KISS move over.
• Use Your Head: Headbutt and Head Smash are commonly associated with the family. Scraggy is very prone to headbutting anyone who makes eye contact with it, as shown in the anime.

Sigilyph (Symboler)

0561: Sigilyph / Symboler (シンボラー shinboraa)

Sigilyph

This bizarre Psychic/Flying Pokémon raises a number of questions about its existence, both in-universe and in real life. They appear to be artificial, but it is able to breed with other bird Pokémon. They fly around the desert in the same set of areas and appear be guarding something, but what exactly? They are very enigmatic.

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• Blow You Away: Flying-type, with Gust, Air Cutter, and Whirlwind.
• Confusion Fu: As of Generation VI, it has a really wide movepool, being able to learn a damaging move from each type except Fighting, Poison, Ground, Water, or Dragon. And Sigilyph gets Special Moves from the same types as its physical moves, allowing it to use its better Special Attack. And that's just without Hidden Power.
• Eye on a Stalk: Its 'head' resembles one of these, which only serves to increase the amount of questions being asked about it.
• Gravity Master: Naturally learns the move Gravity.
• Guardian Entity: It's said that they used to guard an ancient city in the desert, which explains why they're only found in the Desert Resort.
• Jack of All Stats: Decent Special Attack and Speed, and about average defenses.
• Mayincatec: Its general design aesthetic.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Sigilyph's a Psychic Totem Pole Nazca Line hummingbird Kachina doll, with a touch of western art worked in.
• Our Monsters Are Weird: It's based on the birds shown in the Nazca Lines, which is why it has such a bizarre body type. The color scheme, on the other hand, is just completely strange.
• Protection from the Elements: Its Magic Guard ability protects it from the residual damage of Sandstorm and Hail.
• Psychic Powers: Psychic-type, thus it learns them.
• Scissors Cuts Rock: Thanks to its Hidden Ability of Tinted Lens, any attacks it throws that are resisted get one resistance canceled out. It also comes out of the egg with Miracle Eye, which lets it ignore the Dark-type immunity to Psychic attacks.
• Squishy Wizard: Like most Psychic-types, its Physical attack is its lowest stat in contrast to its Special Attack, which is its highest stat.
• Status Buff: One of the rare users of Cosmic Power, which increases Defense and Special Defense.
• Starfish Aliens: Like many Psychic-types, it certainly gives off these vibes, though there's no confirmation yet that it's actually an alien.
• Third Eye: It has two eyes on its body and one on the top where its approximate head is.
• Useless Useful Spell: Its Wonder Skin ability, which only works on moves that specifically inflict status conditions such as Thunder Wave and Spore (as well as debuff moves such as Screech and Fake Tears), and thus is useless against attacks that have a bonus of inflicting a status condition or debuff. Now, that wouldn't make it useless on its own, but its other ability is Magic Guard, which makes it immune to all indirect damage, and as such is usually combined with a Flame Orb or Toxic Orb, making them immune to such conditions anyway. Furthermore, they can be bred to have Psycho Shift, allowing them to remove their status condition by transmitting it to the opponent.

Yamask, Cofagrigus, and Runerigus (Desumasu, Desukarn, and Desuban)

0562: Yamask / Desumasu (デスマス desumasu)
0563: Cofagrigus / Desukarn (デスカーン desukaan)
0867: Runerigus / Desuban (デスバーン desuban)

Yamask

Cofagrigus

Galarian Yamask

Runerigus

Galarian Yamask and Runerigus debut in Sword and Shield

Yamask is said to be the spirit of a human being that was transformed into a Ghost-type Pokémon. The mask it carries is what its face looked like, perhaps inspired by the ancient Egyptian death masks. Despite its origins, it evolves into Cofagrigus, a sarcophagus monster with four arms and a hellish grin. Cofagrigus lay wait in tombs, and when a grave robber tries to disturb the peace... well, they learn a valuable lesson about respecting the dead.

In the Galar region, Yamask becomes a Ground/Ghost-type, and sports a slab with red engravings in place of a mask. It is said that slab took possession of the creature and is absorbing its dark power. These variants evolve into Runerigus, a serpentine Pokémon consisting of dark tendrils connecting multiple small runestones, said to curse those who touch its body with the horrific memories behind the painting they depict.

While not the most mobile line of Pokémon, they play a very effective defensive game, partially thanks to their ability to overwrite the abilities of their opponents.

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• Abnormal Limb Rotation Range:
  • Being ethereal, their arms and fingers can bend either way. Yamask demonstrates this in the Pokédex 3D app.
  • Runerigus occasionally spins its head 360 degrees.
• And I Must Scream: Galarian Yamask are being sapped by the spirits of the stones they carry, and they only evolve when taken to a certain stone bridge while low on health. The implication is that when they're weakened, they're no longer able to resist the power of the entity in the stones, and it is able to build itself with more stone pieces to become Runerigus, presumably consuming Yamask entirely.
• Armored But Frail: Their Defense is pretty good and their Special Defense is above average, but their HP is less than impressive. However, this does mean that Pain Split will work in their favor a lot of the time.
• Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Unovan Yamask have a small dot at the corner of their eyes that make them appear to be on the verge of tears, very appropriate for a being said to weep as they look at their masks and remember their past lives. Galarian Yamask, who's (un)life is slowly being sapped away by an evil spirit, have two little dots instead.
• Bling of War: According to Cofagrigus' entry, that coffin is made of pure gold.
• Cool Mask: Unovan Yamask carries a gold mask, which the Pokédex states to have been its face when it was human. Galarian Yamask carries a stone tablet instead.
• Creepily Long Arms: Cofagrigus in particular; it's known to grab tomb robbers that try to open it and imprison them inside its body. Runerigus has arms of similar length, though at least in its case there's a single pair rather than two.
• Cyclops: In contrast to the other members of the family, Runerigus has a single eye in the same spot as its painting's eye.
• Death of Personality: Upon evolving into Cofagrigus, the person Yamask used to be might have "died" for good, as one dex entry states it is said to no longer remember once being human.
• Demonic Possession: Galarian Yamask are possessed by a cursed clay slab, making it an interesting case in which a ghost is the one possessed rather than the other way around. It's implied that they were ordinary Unovan Yamask before they were possessed, as only their eye design and carried object is different.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Galarian Yamask and Runerigus boast a Ground typing in addition to Ghost, and learn several Ground and Rock moves their Unovan counterparts lack.
• Elite Tweak: All members of the line can learn Trick Room, which can promptly turn both evolved forms into Lightning Bruisers.
• Floating Mask: Unovan Yamask's design aesthetic is that of a spirit that's possessed a tomb mask. The anime shows that its shadowy body can actually turn invisible to leave the appearance of a levitating mask, invoking this trope even further.
• Guide Dang It!: In order to evolve Galarian Yamask into Runerigus, you need to let it have at least 49 HP lost without fainting or healing, then go under the huge stone arch in the Dusty Bowl area. You're probably not going to figure this one out on your own.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: While both Mummy and Wandering Spirit are great at wrecking melee attackers that are reliant on their ability, attacking a Pokémon with these abilities is one of the few things that can remove Slaking's Truant ability, and it can also fix other opponents with hindering abilities, such as Regigigas and Archeops. Mummy can also easily spread to your own Pokémon (in 2-on-2, 3-on-3, and horde battles) if you're not careful about what attacks you are using. Wandering Spirit also has a similar potential drawback, as attacking an opponent with a detrimental ability will cause a Runerigus to take that ability instead, which could potentially be crippling.
• I Taste Delicious: Cofagrigus loves gold bars despite having a body made of pure gold.
• I'm a Humanitarian: Cofagrigus also eats humans despite being a former human.
• Living Drawing: Runerigus is actually a cursed painting which gained sentience after absorbing a Yamask's spirit.
• Loss of Identity: According to Sword's Pokédex entry for Cofagrigus, people say it no longer remembers it used to be human.
• Mighty Glacier: Both evolved forms of the line have excellent defensive stats and a respectable offensive stat (Special Attack for Cofagrigus and Attack for Runerigus) at the cost of having the speed you'd expect from a sarcophagus or monolith. This does, however, make them excellent Trick Room users, since their low speed will often guarantee going first against opponents that they would ordinarily be outsped by. Cofagrigus can boost its status as this even further, either becoming an offensive powerhouse with Nasty Plot or by buffing both of its specially-oriented stats in one with Calm Mind.
• Mind Rape: Touch a Runerigus, and you get to forcibly relive the memories behind the paintings depicted on them. And they're not pleasant ones, either.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Cofagrigus has four arms and is one of the most frightening creatures in the Pokédex, preying on tomb robbers by turning them into mummies.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: Yamask is said to be a former human being (a first for any Ghost-type. Phantump^note the Ghost/Grass type said to be the spirit of a dead kid who got lost in the woods from Generation VI would be the second). And that mask carried by the Unovan form? That was the face of its spirit as a human. Cofagrigus, on the other hand, is a possessed coffin made of solid gold that loves to trick grave robbers and turn them into mummies with its Mummy ability. The whole "former human" aspect is less emphatic with the Galarian line^note Galarian Yamask's description as the combination of a cursed slab and a "vengeful spirit" seems to confirm this as still being true for the family, but Runerigus' status as a vengeful spirit inhabiting a monstrously animated cave painting certainly places it in this trope.
• Our Monsters Are Weird: Yamask looks pretty strange, but is relatively harmless. Cofagrigus, however, is a possessed four-armed coffin and is more of a threat. Runerigus is similarly unsettling, being pieces of runestones connected by dark tendrils into a vaguely serpentine shape.
• Power Fist: Runerigus's fingers emerge from two of the rock slabs comprising its body, creating the appearance of rock gauntlets. This is largely visual, however, as besides Shadow Claw (which it learns upon evolution) it sports little in the way of hand-based moves.
• Power Parasite: Wandering Spirit makes the Galarian members of the line able to swap their ability with that of an opponent who makes physical contact with it.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Cofagrigus. Its unevolved form also has red eyes, but they don't look nearly as menacing (especially since it looks as if it has a tear hanging from it).
• Runic Magic: Runerigus resemble runestone of the type created by historic Germanic people and are engraved with runes said to be cursed.
• Scunthorpe Problem: Cofagrigus has been known to set off a good amount of censor filters on Internet forums since "fag" in American slang is used as a homophobic slur against gay men. For a long time, it wasn't allowed to be traded on the GTS unless it had a nickname.
• Secret Art: The Yamask family are the only Pokémon capable of learning Crafty Shield, which blocks all status moves aimed at allied Pokémon, in Pokémon Sword and Shield due to Klefki and Magearna not making it into those games.
• Slasher Smile:
  • Cofagrigus sports a very deadly-looking grin. The expression almost never changes aside from the occasional annoyed frown, as seen in the anime.
  • While it lacks an actual mouth, the serpentine rune that gives Runerigus its "face" gives it the permanent appearance of a fanged grin, which becomes rather unsettling in conjunction with its blank, one-eyed stare.
• Soul Power: They're Ghost-types with moves like Hex and Shadow Ball.
• Spooky Painting: Runerigus is stated to be a cursed painting that absorbed the spirit of a Yamask and gained the ability to move as a result.
• Taking You with Me: All members of the line naturally learn Destiny Bond as their final move, which KO's the opponent if they KO it with their next attack.
• Underground Monkey: Unlike Yamask seen elsewhere, Galarian Yamask don't carry masks on their tails but are instead fused to a slab of clay. Instead of evolving into a sarcophagus-like Cofagrigus, it instead evolves into a different Pokémon, Runerigus and gains Ground typing from the clay.
• The Virus:
  • The Mummy ability, which is the trademark ability of Unovan Yamask and Cofagrigus, replaces the ability of any Pokémon who make physical contact with its bearer.
  • The Wandering Spirit ability, which Galarian Yamask and Runerigus have instead of Mummy, causes those Pokémon to swap abilities with a Pokémon that makes physical contact with them, and the swapping can continue if physical contact is made with said attacker.
• Was Once a Man: Unovan Yamask is explicitly stated to be a former human, which by extension also applies to Cofagrigus. Runerigus is an interesting case, as it falls under "was once a Yamask", having consumed the energy of the Yamask when it evolved, after already possessing it and draining its essence. The spirit that makes Runerigus is also implied to have memories, though where it came from is unexplained.
• You Will Not Evade Me: Naturally learns Mean Look, preventing switch-outs.

Tirtouga and Carracosta (Protoga and Abagoura)

0564: Tirtouga / Protoga (プロトーガ purotooga)
0565: Carracosta / Abagoura (アバゴーラ abagoora)

Tirtouga

Carracosta

A Water/Rock fossil Pokémon based on an extinct creature. Tirtouga and Carracosta are chelonian Pokémon of the sea turtle variety. They may not have back-mounted water cannons like Blastoise, but their bites can effortlessly crunch through steel beams and their prey, and their slaps can tear holes in oil tankers. Their rock-hard shells grant them a high defense, but they're rather slow.

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• Action Initiative: Can learn Aqua Jet, which allows them to attack first and overcome their otherwise slow speed.
• Animals Not to Scale: An interesting variant — Carracosta is based on the real life sea turtle Archelon, but whereas Archelon was immense by turtle standards (13 feet long and 16 feet wide, a photo for reference◊), Carracosta's official size estimates show that it's no taller than the player character (a human child!).
• Bilingual Bonus: Their names are derived from two Spanish words, namely "tortuga" for turtle and "costa" for coast.
• Dishing Out Dirt: The entire line is Rock-type.
• Foil: To the Archen line; both are fossils, but are more or less polar opposites — Tirtouga and Carracosta are heavily built turtle-like Pokémon who are sturdy but not fast, while Archen and Archeops are delicate looking bird-like Pokémon who are fast but not sturdy. Their abilities are opposite, even. Tirtouga and Carracosta have "Sturdy", which allows them to withstand One-Hit KO attacks, while Archen and Archeops have "Defeatist", which cuts their attack stats in half once their HP drops to a certain point. The dichotomy can be further reinforced by Tirtouga and Carracosta possessing the then-new move "Shell Smash": with such a move, Tirtouga and Carracosta lower their defense stats in exchange for doubling their attack stats and speed. As such, while they start off being able to take hits but always moving second thanks to their high Defense, they can endure a hit with Sturdy and then use Shell Smash to increase their offensive prowess and lowering their defensive prowess in a pinch, becoming a sweeper that can hit hard and somewhat fast before ultimately going down. Archen and Archeops contrarily possess naturally high attack stats and Speed, hitting hard and fast from the get go, but due to their ability "Defeatist", they will become weaker once their HP falls below a certain point (easy to do thanks to their poor defense stats) and lose the ability to sweep and hit hard before going down, unless they recover their HP with "Roost".
• Fossil Revival: How you obtain them; revive them from the Cover Fossil.
• Last Chance Hit Point: They can have the Sturdy ability, which allows them to survive a lethal hit from full health.
• Made of Iron: Appropriately more durable than its counterpart, being a giant rock turtle.
• Making a Splash: Part Water-type. Interestingly, they're the only fossil Pokémon which has a primary type other than Rock.
• Mighty Glacier: Packs a punch and has good defenses, and often has the ability "Sturdy", but its base speed is, fittingly for a turtle, an extremely low 32 or 22 for Tirtouga.
• Prehistoric Monster: Based on the ancient archelon sea turtle.
• Recurring Element: The Fossil Duo along with the Archen line. Specifically, both of them seem to be throwbacks to the fossil Pokémon of Gen I. For Tirtouga's case, it's a shelled creature with a combination of Water and Rock, just like Kabuto and Omanyte.
• Sea Monster: Based on a huge prehistoric sea turtle.
• Stone Wall: They have extremely high defense, fitting for a giant turtle.
• Sturdy and Steady Turtles: Tirtouga and Carracosta have excellent defense, and are also Rock-types, an elemental type that tends to have a lot of resistances. Combined with one of their abilities, Solid Rock, which reduces the damage done by moves that would normally be super-effective against them, this makes them very well suited to tanking out damage. They need this, because they are also very, very slow.

Archen and Archeops (Archeos)

0566: Archen (アーケン aaken)
0567: Archeops / Archeos (アーケオス aakeosu)

Archen

Archeops

The Rock/Flying fossil Pokémon they claim to be the ancestor of all bird Pokémon, Archen and Archeops have colorful plumage, but they also have mouths full of teeth, claws on their wings, and long tails. Unlike the tanky Carracosta, Archeops is a glass cannon in the truest sense. It possesses amazing stats, but an ability that keeps it from being too overpowered.

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• Acrophobic Bird: Archen can't fly at all, and while Archeops can, it's very bad at it. Truth in Television, as many primitive birds hadn't gotten the hang of flying yet.
• Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: The Archen lineup have colorful plumage, rather than the mostly-black plumage possessed by the real-life animal they are based on. This is on par with most fictional portrayals of Archaeopteryx.
• Arc Number: 567^note referencing the classification of winged dinosaurs in the Dewey Decimal System at 567.9, Archeops's base stat total and National Pokédex number.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Due to its Defeatist ability, which cuts its Attack and Special Attack in half when it hits 50% HP. It can also learn Head Smash through breeding; because, of course, when you have a Pokémon that drops to half its offensive potential when it loses half its HP, the best move to teach it is one that inflicts recoil damage.
• Blessed with Suck: Is fast, and has good Attack and Special Attack... both of which are put to waste once its health drops below half.
• Blow You Away: Flying-type, though it doesn't learn any of their typical wing-based attacks.
• Changing Gameplay Priorities: Once it loses half its health, it changes from a Glass Cannon to a Fragile Speedster. While its Attack and Special Attack are halved by its Defeatist ability, it retains its decent Speed stat, allowing it to use support moves such as Stealth Rock or Tailwind when its attacks are no longer effective.
• Cowardly Lion: Archeops is very strong and fast, and it has a base stat total of 567, putting it close to lesser Legendaries like the Island Guardians (whose base stat total is 570). However, it starts to give up hope once its health gets below half, cutting its Attack and Special Attack by half.
• Difficult, but Awesome: It's entirely harmful Defeatist ability will greatly hamper its offense when it drops below half health, but with clever play it can avoid this detriment and terrorize its opposition with ease (which is more than can be said for similarly hindered Pokémon like Regigigas and Slaking).
• Dinosaurs Are Dragons: Learns a few Dragon-type moves by level-up and quite a few more by breeding, tutors, and TMs, and it also shows up on Iris' team in Black 2 and White 2. In real-life, the original Archaeopteryx was believed to be a dragon when first discovered.
• Disc-One Nuke:
  • In Black and White, the Plume Fossil (which is used to revive Archen) can be found in the area before the 4th gym, and some backtracking to the Nacrene Museum will reward you with this very powerful Pokémon's pre-evolved form. Do note that it's weak to the 4th gym's specialty type, and available Rock-type moves are weak and few in number.
  • One example specifically for this Pokémon is Acrobatics, a move which does double damage if the user isn't holding an item — to 110. It also gains STAB, boosting it to 165. Give it a Flying Gem? ^note Don't try this out of battles where held items are replenished; it's impractical for regular use. Since the Gem is consumed before the move checks if the user is holding anything, its power bloats up to 248. The best part? Archen learns this move three levels after it's revived.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Rock-types due to being Fossils.
• Doomed Defeatist:
  • As mentioned above, Archeops hits like a wet noodle once its HP dips below half. It can learn Roost by move tutor in Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, and by TM in X and Y to make it easier. However, it will have difficulty finding times to heal against an aggressive opponent.
  • You get a better clue about why Archeops has Defeatist in X and Y: its animation shows it flapping its wings as hard as it can to stay aloft.◊
• Feathered Fiend: Based off Archaeopteryx, one of the first birds. It also has traits with dromaeosaurids.
• Flight: Barely, though. They're much better on the ground, and Archeops has to flap its wings as hard as it can to stay aloft.
• Foil: To the Tirtouga line; both are fossils, but are more or less polar opposites — Tirtouga and Carracosta are heavily built turtle-like Pokémon who are sturdy but not fast, while Archen and Archeops are delicate looking bird-like Pokémon who are fast but not sturdy. Their abilities are opposite, even. Tirtouga and Carracosta have "Sturdy", which allows them to withstand One-Hit KO attacks, while Archen and Archeops have "Defeatist", which cuts their attack states in half once their HP drops to a certain point. The dichotomy can be further reinforced by Tirtouga and Carracosta possessing the then-new move "Shell Smash": with such a move, Tirtouga and Carracosta lower their defense stats in exchange for doubling their attack stats and speed. As such, while they start off being able to take hits but always moving second thanks to their high Defense, they can endure a hit with Sturdy and then use Shell Smash to increase their offensive prowess and lowering their defensive prowess in a pinch, becoming a sweeper that can hit hard and somewhat fast before ultimately going down. Archen and Archeops contrarily possess naturally high attack stats and Speed, hitting hard and fast from the get go, but due to their ability "Defeatist", they will become weaker once their HP falls below a certain point (easy to do thanks to their poor defense stats) and lose the ability to sweep and hit hard before going down, unless they recover their HP with "Roost".
• Fossil Revival: How you obtain it; extract its DNA from the Plume fossil.
• Fragile Speedster: Contrasting perfectly with Tirtouga/Carracosta's Mighty Glacier status, Archen/Archeops has very poor defense stats (its base defense stat as Archen is 45, and as Archeops it's 65) but excellent attacking and speed stats, as well as an ability that severely cripples the former but not the latter when it loses half of its HP.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Archen has the Flying-type immunity to Ground-types, despite being flightless.
• Glass Cannon: Its Attack, Special Attack, and Speed are impressive. Its defenses are not. Once it hits 50% HP, its ability kicks in, slicing Attack and Special Attack in half, making it just a Fragile Speedster, so even if it survives a hit it likely won't be able to meaningfully retaliate. It keeps the nice Speed, at least.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Can inflict this when hit with moves that replace its ability with another one or swap abilities with the opponent. For instance, hitting a Cofagrigus and having the crippling Defeatist ability replaced with the more neutral Mummy ability.
• Injured Vulnerability: Its Attack is cut in half when its health gets low.
• It Can Think: The Pokédex states that Archeops is intelligent and able to coordinate into a pack to hunt its prey. In the Moon Pokédex, it's claimed that when one member of the pack has its prey cornered, another will swoop in out of nowhere to land the finishing blow, showing that these little birds are strategists as well.
• Making a Splash: Oddly enough, the family is in the Water 3 Egg Group, despite not being Water-types and not even appearing to be associated with water whatsoever. They can learn Aqua Tail via Move Tutors, however.
• Necessary Drawback: Since Archeops's aforementioned gimmick gives it a BST of 567 that would otherwise be way above the weight class of most non-legendaries (including its fellow fossil Pokémon Carracosta, with a respectable but more typical 495), Defeatist keeps its stats in check.
• Power Nullifier: The Rock-type weakness to Ground is cancelled out by their Flying-type.
• Prehistoric Monster: Based on Archaeopteryx.
• Raptor Attack: It's partly based on dromaeosaurids. One of its 'dex entries even states that it was a pack hunter.
• Recurring Element:
  • The Fossil Duo along with the Tirtouga line. Specifically, both of them seem to be throwbacks to the fossil Pokémon of Gen I. For Archen's case, it's a winged predator with a combination of Flying and Rock, just like Aerodactyl.
  • Archeops is also the resident "very strong Pokémon with an awful ability to keep it in check", similar to Regigigas and Slaking. It's more of a Glass Cannon, as rather than be crippled immediately or only able to act every other turn, Archeops must be careful not to have its health drop below half, otherwise it becomes useless.
• Shown Their Work:
  • You revive them from a fossilized feather — the very first known fossil of Archaeopteryx was indeed a fossilized feather.
  • Archeops has smaller wings on its hind legs like a real Archaeopteryx, something the media often forgets. Also, like Archaeopteryx it isn't adept at flight and prefers terrestrial life.
  • One episode of the anime shows it doing "wing assisted incline running" (that is, running up a vertical surface while flapping its wings, something maniraptor-type dinosaurs are believed to have been capable of in real life).
  • Archen's Ultra Sun Pokédex entry states that it was first thought to be the ancestor of all bird Pokémon, but that now it's believed it could not be the case. The Archaeopteryx has a similar story in real life, at first thought to be the lost link between dinosaurs and birds, only for that to be jossed once many more feathered dinosaurs were discovered, and is now considered to be just another feathered dinosaur, with no actual link to modern birds. Although, Archen's Shield Pokédex entry still says it's the ancestor of all bird Pokémon as does Archeops's Ultra Moon Pokédex entry.
  • Archen's coloration is based on early reconstructions of Archeopteryx that imagined it as something akin to a parrot.
• Stealth Pun: Archen is a primitive bird who cannot fly until it evolves into a more advanced stage.
• Toothy Bird: They both have teeth, though not many. Justified for both of them, as they and the creature they're based on are more reptilian than bird-like.

Trubbish and Garbodor (Yabukuron and Dustdas)

0568: Trubbish / Yabukuron (ヤブクロン yabukuron)
0569: Garbodor / Dustdas (ダストダス dasutodasu)

Trubbish

Garbodor

^{Gigantamax Garbodor}

Unova appears to have a problem with waste disposal. This problem appears to be so bad that the garbage itself came to life. Trubbish and Garbodor have bodies that consists of trash that's barely held together by a thin and easily damaged garbage bag skin. Luckily, this problem is solved by consuming more garbage. So it's possible that Unova's garbage problem will solve itself with these Pokémon.

A special Garbodor caught in a Raid Battle in Galar has the ability to Gigantamax, giving it access to the Poison-type move G-Max Malodor, that deals damage and also poisons the opponent.

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• Action Bomb: That's right, both Pokémon can learn/be taught Explosion or Self-Destruct. In addition, its Hidden Ability is Aftermath, which deals one last hit if a Pokémon knocks it out with an attack that made physical contact.
• Acrofatic: Garbodor, despite being a bulky trash creature, has a rather respectable speed stat. Not a magnificent one, mind, but it's much faster than what its appearance would suggest.
• Animate Inanimate Object: They're animate trash bags full of decomposing waste.
• Arm Cannon: Garbodor is said to shoot poison from its right arm.
• Awesome, but Impractical: It is possible to deal some damage with special attacks by hitting the opponent with the Special Defense-reducing Acid Spray first. However, that defense reduction is easily undone by just switching the Pokémon out, and it's still relying on a significantly weaker attacking stat.
• Boss Battle: Gigantamax Garbodor is Oleana's ace and final Pokémon in Pokémon Sword and Shield.
• Confusion Fu: Subverted. Garbodor actually gets a wide variety of attacks... most of which run off of its poor Special Attack stat.
• Fun with Homophones: Its Japanese name Dustdas is a homophone for the English phrase "dust to dust".
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Like Gigalith, Garbodor gets a surprising aversion in that the psychic energy actually comes into play in its moveset, which contains Psychic. Unfortunately, like its dex entry says, its Special Attack is very low.
• Gonk: Garbodor looks like it was designed to be as aesthetically displeasing as possible. Not that you'd expect a literal garbage Pokémon to look good.
• Grail in the Garbage: Quite literally in this case, as they can sometimes be carrying valuable Nuggets when you catch them.
• Jack of All Stats: Except for a slightly higher physical Attack and a rather low Special Attack, its stats are all quite close together.
• Meaningful Name: Garbodor's Japanese name "Dustdas" (Dasutodasu) can literally translate to "to spew garbage". Meanwhile, "Garbodor" is a portmanteau of "garbage" and "odor" and Trubbish is a portmanteau of "trash" and its (usually British) synonym "rubbish."
• Muck Monster: In a similar way to cousins Muk and Weezing, in that it's a personification of pollution (litter, in this case). In addition, like Muk, it can have the Stench ability. On the one hand, Garbodor doesn't have a priority move like Muk does to ensure it has a chance of going off, but on the other, Garbodor is significantly faster than Muk and has access to the sometimes-paralyzing Body Slam, giving it more opponents that it can outspeed and getting that flinch chance in on.
• Mundane Utility: Janitors tend to use them to pull in garbage.
• Piñata Enemy: Both have a chance to be carrying a Nugget when found in the wild, which sells for thousands of dollars. Additionally, Garbodor have a chance to be found carrying a Big Nugget in the wild, one of the most valuable items in the game worth a fortune.
• Poisonous Pokémon: Both were created from garbage and industrial waste. Trubbish's poisonous gases will leave its victims unconscious for a week, while Garbodor's will just out-and-out kill you, and Gigantamax Garbodor's will seep down to your bones.
• Recurring Element: Forms a triad with Grimer/Muk and Koffing/Weezing in terms of pollution: Water, Air, and Land, respectively. It's also in the "blob-like Poison-type in each odd-numbered generation" category with Grimer/Muk and Gulpin/Swalot.
• Refuge in Audacity: To add to the already bizarre world of animal/object/people mash-ups that make up Pokémon, we now have exploding garbage bags, one of which manages to be a Ridiculously Cute Critter!
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Garbage bags aren't cute at all, particularly those that are living and whose evolved form looks like a mound of trash spewing from a burst bag, but Trubbish somehow pulls it off◊.
• The Right Hand of Doom: Garbodor's right hand has valves from which it sprays poisonous fluids.
• The Rival: Are natural enemies with the Grimer Line, who lowered their population in Alola following their introduction to the region, with Trubbish's Ultra Sun Dex entry mentioning that Muk find their aroma enticing, and Garbodor's Ultra Moon Dex entry mentioning that Alolan Garbodor tend to be stronger than their relatives elsewhere simply because of the presence of their natural enemy.
• Secret Art: Gigantamax Garbodor has G-Max Malodor replace its Poison-type moves, which deals damage and poisons the opponent's active Pokémon.
• Shed Armor, Gain Speed: While having the Weak Armor ability, every hit will make it faster at the cost of reducing defense.
• Status-Buff Dispel: Can learn Haze and Clear Smog to remove status buffs from the opponent.
• Stealth Pun: They can be found carrying Nuggets or Big Nuggets sometimes. Nuggets' only use is to be sold for money. It's also a reference to the old saying, "One man's trash is another man's treasure," meaning something useless to one person can be useful to another.
• Super Mode: Gains the ability to Gigantamax in Pokémon Sword and Shield, which condenses its toxic gases so much, they become the shape of discarded toys and also gives it access to the move G-Max Malodor.
• Super Spit: A strange aversion. This line is among the few Pokémon who can learn Stockpile and Swallow, but not Spit Up. Which makes sense given they psychically draw in garbage into themselves.
• Trap Master: Learns the entry hazard Toxic Spikes naturally, and can be bred with Spikes.
• Walking Wasteland: Subverted with Garbodor. Despite looking like it should leave behind waste and filth (like Grimer and Muk from Generation I), Garbodor actually has a low-grade psychic energy that attracts garbage to itself (which, as mentioned before, is why janitors use them to clean up messes).

Zorua and Zoroark

0570: Zorua (ゾロア zoroa)
0571: Zoroark (ゾロアーク zoroaaku)

Zorua

Zoroark

Hisuian Zorua

Hisuian Zoroark

Hisuian forms debut in Legends: Arceus

Another family of fox/kitsune based Pokémon, Zorua and its evolution Zoroark were the first Generation V Pokémon to be revealed (having starred in the 13th movie). They have the interesting ability "Illusion", which makes them appear to be another Pokémon in their trainer's party (trust us, it actually works quite effectively, at least until the "Cloyster" you're battling uses Night Daze). As you may have guessed, Zoroark's design follows many of the same cues as the popular Lucario — it was initially intended as the mascot for Generation 5. Initially event-exclusives, they became obtainable via normal gameplay in the Unova sequels, and became normally catchable wild Pokémon in subsequent games.
Long ago some Zorua migrated to the Hisui region after being shunned by people for their uncanny illusions, but they were unable to deal with the harsh environment and competition with native Pokémon, and as a result, they perished. Their lingering souls were reborn as Ghost/Normal types and show malice towards humans and other Pokémon. They also use their illusions to inspire terror and subsequentially draw energy from it.

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• Abandoned Mascot: Zoroark was marketed as a Lucario replacement during the end of Gen IV and the release of Black and White, but by the time Black 2 and White 2 rolled around it had become just another Pokémon in the series.
• A.I. Breaker: The AI does not seem to understand that the Illusion ability exists. If you disguise Zorua or Zoroark as a Psychic-weak Pokémon, the AI will continuously spam Psychic attacks (if they have them) and not recognize why they aren't working. Most notable during the fight against Caitlin of the Elite 4 in Black 2 and White 2, where this will happen and let you curb stomp her. This trick works in later games and proves to be extremely effective against Ultra Necrozma in Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon.
• Asian Fox Spirit: They're based on kitsune like the Vulpix line, but they focus more on the darker illusory side. The Hisuian forms focus on the light side, completing the lunar eclipse kitsune mask, but are far closer to the Korean gumiho on the personality end of things, as they are extremely violent, aggressive, and hateful and will attack the living on sight.
• Ax-Crazy: While regular Zoroark isn't a fit for this, Hisuian Zoroark definitely is, attacking its enemies with a lot of pent up hatred to the point that lacerations start appearing on it's body.
• Badass Adorable: Zorua isn't half-bad at battling, and it's quite adorable as well.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Unovan Zoroark might not be as sadistic as the Hisuian variants, but they will still trap you in an illusion if you tick them off. In Sword and Shield, if a Zoroark notices you, it attacks.
• Casting a Shadow: Unlike most Dark-types, these two have actual shadow powers. Their illusory abilities also count.
• Changeling Tale: As Zorua's Ultra Moon Pokédex entry indicates, it sometimes takes the place of children, but are not very talkative, giving them away sometimes.
• Combat Pragmatist: Besides actually having dark powers, they can still fight dirty.
• Cunning Like a Fox: The line is based off foxes or kitsune.
• Cute Little Fangs: Zorua has a pair of fangs, which contribute to its adorable nature.
• Cutscene Power to the Max: As a symptom of Legends: Arceus doing away with abilities, Hisuian Zorua and Zoroark are incapable of using the illusory powers in battle that got it exiled from human lands to start with. They are still able to conjure illusions outside of battle, though; one quest has them doing exactly that.
• Dark Is Not Evil: They have the power to trap people in powerful illusions, but they usually only do it to protect themselves. Otherwise, they are very close to their packs, and are generally a magnanimous species — it says something that N has a Zorua closely associated with him. It is also possible to befriend a Zorua/Zoroark you catch like other dark-type/ghost-type Pokémon.
• Demoted to Extra: It got this half-way during Gen V's run. When Pokémon Black and White was announced, it got promoted as a super rare Pokémon, and in-game it was only available through in-game events that involved transferring Legendary Pokémon like Celebi and the shiny Legendary Beasts from the Gen IV games (via a special method only available for these specific Pokémon, and only once per beast period). However, by Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, Zorua is given to you as a gift, although Zoroark appears as the main antagonist's Pokémon in the works of Pokéstar Studios. Since Pokémon X and Y, they are able to be caught in the wild.
• Developer's Foresight: When using their Ability to disguise themselves as one of their other team members, they'll even copy the type of Pokéball used to catch the Pokémon they're disguised as.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Zoroark's Illusion ability combined with its fragility can make taking advantage of it difficult (at least against other people), often requiring tailoring the team as a whole for it and playing mind games to do so, but can be extremely effective if done right.
• Early-Bird Cameo: First appeared in the 13th movie, which was released before Black and White. They were also part of the first batch of Gen V Pokémon revealed.
• Fragile Speedster: They have excellent special attack, physical attack, and speed, but are low in defense and special defense.
• Ghostly Animals: The Hisuian variants are part Ghost Types and resemble foxes.
• Ghostly Chill:
  • Hisuian Zoroark invokes this with its new Ghost type move Bitter Malice, which in Legends: Arceus has a chance of inducing the Frostbite status in targets.
  • While Frostbite does not exist in other games, this aspect of Hisuian Zoroark is carried over in it being able to be taught the moves Snowscape and Icy Wind, both moves regular Zoroark has no access to (conversely, Hisuian Zoroark cannot learn the heat-raising Sunny Day, while regular Zoroark can).
• Glamour Failure: There are quite a few ways for this to happen, actually. Note that most of these only tip off human opponents; the AI is almost always fooled.
  • The ability will be negated if the user takes any direct damage.
  • It can blow its cover the second it switches in, if the opponent notices that "Ninetales" took the wrong amount of Stealth Rock damage or that "Aegislash" got poisoned due to Toxic Spikes.
  • Taking Sandstorm or Hail damage when your disguise shouldn't be able to.
  • Ditto's Impostor ability doesn't work when Illusion is active (you can copy Zorua/Zoroark after the Illusion's been disabled).
  • Trace and Role Play cannot copy it, and Skill Swap and Entrainment do not replace it.
  • Some abilities activate or are accompanied by a notification whenever the owner enters the field, which Illusion does not replicate. For some, like Drought or Pressure, this is the only ability the Pokémon has, so disguising as them isn't smart.
  • In Ranking double and triple battles, where every Pokémon on a team has to be a different species, seeing two of the same Pokémon at once is an instant red flag that one of them is Zoroark. You still have to make a decision on which is the genuine article before Zoroark's cover is blown, though.
  • If they try to use a Z-Move, the Illusion will instantly break before executing it... for some reason.
  • In Generation VII, if you've seen a Pokémon before, you'll get a report on which moves are effective, ineffective, etc. This report will be inexplicably absent if you haven't seen Zoroark, but have seen the Pokémon it's disguised as (e.g. the second Gladion battle in USUM, where it will likely be disguised as his signature Type: Null, unless you have a Zoroark of your own)... and just as inexplicably present if you have seen Zoroark but not the Pokémon it's disguised as (such as the third Gladion battle, which is the first time you'll see Silvally unless you trade one in).
  • In Pokémon GO, Zorua will spawn in disguised as your Buddy Pokémon. This includes buddies that don't appear naturally under current spawn rotations, so seeing a legendary, mythical, or anything that isn't a Com Mon is a red flag for Zorua. If your buddy happens to be a shiny, Zorua will also spawn with a shiny disguise on the map, which will also give it away as shinies don't actually appear as such until viewed in the encounter screen.
  • In Scarlet and Violet, Zorua and Zoroark always appear in the overworld disguised as another Pokémon, but if one looks closely they will notice that a Pokémon that is actually a disguised Zorua/Zoroark will not behave the way the Pokémon usually would upon seeing you and instead stand in place watching you. For example, a Toedscool normally immediately flees upon seeing you (or charges you if it is with a Toedscruel), and so a Zoroark disguised as one will always be easy to identify.
• Glass Cannon: They'll realistically only survive a hit if Illusion baits the opponent into hitting them with a resisted attack, as their defenses are very thin. However, their Special Attack is high enough that one resisted attack is often the only opening they need to bring an opponent down, and their physical Attack isn't terrible either.
• Hammerspace Hair: Zoroark hides its young in its mane.
• Hidden Elf Village: Zoroark tend to live in packs which use their powers over illusion to hide from others.
• Hitodama Light: The Hisuian variants have white fur that poofs out into red tails, reflecting their Ghost-Type.
• I Know You Know I Know: Zig-Zagged. Team Preview reveals that you have one in your party and can potentially cause some mind games, but the jig is up as soon as your disguise is broken, which is likely to happen almost immediately due to the amount of ways Glamour Failure can happen. This can actually be used to the Zoroark trainer's advantage in formats that make you pick some Pokémon from your full team. There's no way to tell if Zoroark was actually selected until you've seen it all...
• Inexplicably Tailless: Zorua has a tail, but Unovan Zoroark do not. Hisuian Zoroark, do, however.
• It Only Works Once: Though you can switch Zoroark out and then back in to re-activate Illusion, potentially disguising it as something different than before, Zoroark's cover will likely be blown by any prior damage or status ailments dealt to it. For instance, if you send out a Steelix that's been Poisoned, or it has half its HP when you hadn't sent out Steelix before, it's a slight tip-off.
• Irony: Hisuian Zoroark's sole weakness is Dark - the type of its Unovan counterpart.
• Lighter and Softer: The Pokédex entries for Hisuian Zorua mention how it's fuelled mainly by malice, but one encountered in a quest in Legends: Arceus just uses those powers to trick people into giving it food.
• Light Is Not Good: Both Hisuian Zorua and Zoroark have bright, white-and-red color schemes, but are described as incredibly spiteful and aggressive towards humans and Pokémon alike.
• Magic Knight: Has good Attack and high Special Attack, with a decent movepool to compliment this.
• Mama Bear:
  • In the 13th Pokémon movie Zoroark is violently protective of her Zorua ward.
  • In the Restored Footage trailer for Legends: Arceus, Hisuian Zoroark attacks once the researcher filming gets too close to the Zorua they're with.
• Master of Illusion: Their Ability, the aptly named Illusion, makes them appear like the last Pokémon in your party, down to the nickname and Poké Ball. Master of Illusions is even the English name for the movie featuring them.
• Min-Maxing: The Zorua you get as a gift in Black 2 and White 2 has pre-set stats, a nature meant for a fast Mixed Attacker, and its Hidden Power will always be the max possible Power and Fighting-type.^*Its Individual Values are all 30, which is the highest they can be for a Fighting-type Hidden Power and almost "perfect" since the max any IV can be is 31. The combination of Fighting and Dark attacks also hit nearly every Pokémon in the series for neutral damage in Gen V, only being resisted by Heracross, Croagunk, and Toxicroak.
• Non-Elemental: Their Hisuian forms are part Normal-type.
• No-Sell: Being Dark type, the Unovan forms are immune to Psychic attacks as well as moves boosted by Prankster. Due to its unique typing, the Hisuian forms are immune to attacks of both of its own types (and a third one, Fighting). Both forms can exploit their immunities by disguising as a Pokémon weak to said types.
• Not So Above It All: Hisuian Zorua and Zoroark are spirits fuelled by malice and hatred against the living humans and Pokémon that drove them into this state. It doesn't stop one specimen from taking advantage of the events of the "Daybreak" quest chain to disguise itself as Mai and her Munchlax in order to con the player out of several mushroom cakes. Seems they aren't above general mischief against humans.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: Their Hisuian forms are part Ghost-type. This is due to being unable to deal with Hisui's harsh environment and Pokémon. They perished and were reborn in this form.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: While it is mostly based on a kitsune, Zoroark does have a few werewolf elements, such as its large claws and its anthropomorphic appearance.
• Permanently Missable Content: In Pokémon Black and White, outside of trading, you can only get Zorua if you have a specific Celebi, and Zoroark if you have at least one specific Raikou, Entei, or Suicune (all four of which were only ever distributed just prior to the games' release, are now lost forever, and are programmed to only activate their assigned events once ever). Fortunately, they became regular captures in later games starting with the sequels.
• The Power of Hate: While returning to life as Ghost types is far from unique among Pokémon, the Zorua who died out in ancient Hisui specifically used the intense hatred they felt toward every other living thing Pokémon and human alike (due to the ones that contributed to their deaths) as a power source to enable their resurrection. Said spite is also literally a power source they use to attack, and to make their illusions far more frightening and dangerous than regular Zorua and Zoroark.
• Power-Up Letdown: As Multiplayer battles usually show a preview of what Pokémon players will be using, this gives away its presence in a team and thus makes it more difficult to take advantage of the Illusion ability.
• Primal Stance: Present with all Zoroark but more apparent in the more hunched-over Hisuian Zoroark to draw attention to its vindictive, wild nature. While they normally stand on two legs, this stance makes it easy for them to switch to four legs and run on their long limbs.
• Psycho Pink: Hisuian Zoroark have pink in its pallete in contrast to the red coloration from typical Zoroarks, and are also hostile and spite-driven Vengeful Ghosts.
• Raising the Steaks: Hisuian Zoroark are covered in red, wound-like welts, the red on its white mane looks more like it's blood-soaked instead of being a natural shade, and it has white lines all over that evoke scars or emaciated bones, giving it an overall "dead animal" theme.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Hisuian Zorua is adorable, with the researcher who discovered one even calling it such.
• Secret Art:
  • Night Daze, a high-power attack that can sometimes lower an opponent's accuracy. Aside from Lunala, it is the only Pokémon able to learn this move.
  • Hisuian Zoroark is the only Pokémon that learns Bitter Malice, a Ghost-type move that can cause frostbite and does double damage to a target that already has a status condition. In the more traditional games, it instead deals damage and reduces the target's Attack.
• Secret Character: It used to hold this status when it was first introduced. In Pokémon Black and White, the only way to obtain one without trading from another game is to import special exclusive Pokémon from Generation IV, which triggers an in-game encounter with either a Zorua or Zoroark one time only per special Pokémon. No longer the case as of Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, where the old Team Plasma will give you one, in later games, they can be found in the wild.
• So Much for Stealth: Assuming your human opponent was paying attention and has a general idea of individual Pokémon's movesets, you'll more than likely break your cover if you have your disguised Zorua/Zoroark use a move the disguise can't learn.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: Hisuian Zorua and Zoroark have golden eyes and are part Ghost-type.
• Talking Animal: One of the movies features a Zorua that can speak via telepathy, but most lack this ability. Indeed, the Pokédex notes that if a normally talkative child suddenly stops talking, it may mean that a Zorua is disguising itself as that child. Legends: Arceus shows that at least some of the Hisuian form can outright speak like a human when disguised as a human (or perhaps project the illusion they are speaking), doing so to con people into giving them food.
• Tareme Eyes: Hisuian Zorua have a downward slant in their eyes that gives them a more sorrowful appearance than regular Zorua.
• This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman:
  • While it is very useful in a general game run, it really shines when used against Caitlin of the Elite Four due to the Artificial Stupidity factor. Just throw something weak to Psychic in the back of the line-up and watch Zoroark render all attacks useless. For good measure, add Flamethrower to it for Metagross (in the rematches for the first game, at least). It also works well against Ultra Necrozma in Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, as it is able to nullify its most powerful attack, and can be found very early in the game (in the garden around the Trainers' School). It also gets the move Punishment, which does more damage to the opponent the more stat boosts (like say, a Totem Aura) said opponent has.
  • Hisuian Zoroark's typing alone makes it one of the best Annihilape counters, as the combination of Ghost/Normal allows the former to completely nulify the latter´s two STAB moves, severely crippling an opposing Annihilape that doesn't know any Dark-type moves.
• This Was His True Form: Hitting or knocking out a Zorua or Zoroark while it's in disguise will make it revert to normal.
• True Companions: When there's a pack of Zorua and Zoroark, they will never abandon each other no matter what.
• Tsurime Eyes: Regular Zorua have an upward slant in their eyes which, combined with their smile, gives them a mischievous look.
• Underground Monkey: The Hisuian Zorua and Zoroark are derived from a population of Zorua that were driven from other lands. Unable to cope with the harsh environment they found themselves in, not to mention competition with the native Pokémon, they eventually perished. Like the Galarian Corsola, they were able to return to life in the living world as Ghost types.
• Undying Loyalty: Despite (or perhaps even due to) their general hostility towards people and Pokémon, it's noted that if someone can establish trust with a Hisuian Zoroark they are very dependable allies.
• Useless Useful Stealth:
  • Applies mostly to other players in that Team Preview lets them know Zoroark is in the line-up. However, since Team Preview only applies to Wi-Fi battles, N's Zoroark can catch you off-guard even when you know it's there ("Klinklang used Flamethrower!").
  • There is some potential functionality in disguising Zoroark as something that is weak to types Zoroark resists — for example, disguising it as a Poison-type to bait out Psychic moves that it's immune to. The catch is, outside of Psychic-types, Zoroark's terrible defenses and HP mean even neutral or resisted hits are going to hurt it a lot. Gladion makes use of this trick in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon by acquiring a Zorua early on and having it impersonate a Zubat, then a Golbat later on. The Zubat line and the Zorua line have no common weaknesses or resistances, and there's nothing in-game to warn the player that Gladion has a Zorua (which he originally didn't in Sun and Moon).
  • Sidney of the Hoenn Elite Four uses one in rematches in Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire disguised as an Absol, which is also a pure Dark-type and thus has the same weaknesses and resistances as Zoroark, and all of Zoroark's moves are perfectly acceptable on an Absol anyway. It just moves a bit faster and has stronger special hits.
• Vengeful Ghost: The Hisuian variants of Zorua and Zoroark are based on the combined concepts of kitsune and onryō, having perished and become vengeful spirits full of rage and hatred towards both humans and other Pokémon.
• Voluntary Shapeshifter: Thanks to their Illusion ability — in some cases, you'll even find one (outside of battle) shift into a human.
• White and Red and Eerie All Over: While Hisuian Zorua is adorable, Hisuian Zoroark looks very otherworldly and unsettling with its white body and red highlights.

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