Ancient Paradox Pokémon
Future Paradox Pokémon
"As we descended further into Area Zero, we began to catch glimpses of mysterious Pokémon—though we wondered if these huge, ferocious beasts/compact, cruel beasts were indeed Pokémon at all."
— The Scarlet/Violet Book, "Monsters of Area Zero"
Paradox Pokémon are versions of Pokémon that seemingly originate from the past and future, yet somehow exist in the present, hence the term "paradox". Most of them can be found in Area Zero. They are divided into two categories: the Scarlet-exclusive Ancient Pokémon and the Violet-exclusive Future Pokémon.
Koraidon and Miraidon can be found here.
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In General
- Ambiguous Situation: They're described in-story as Pokémon brought from the past and future, but their history carries a big paradox, suggesting that it might not be the actual past or future that they're being brought from, but the truth remains unclear. Said paradox is how it was most of them are described in the Scarlet/Violet Book as having existed in the Great Crater of Paldea long before Sada/Turo built their time machine (which was built specifically because there were no past/future Pokémon present), raising questions of just where they really come from and what power is causing them to appear. Just what time period they supposedly come from is likewise unknown, as only the Pokémon themselves can be brought from it, no fossils of the ancient ones are known, and no other observations are possible without becoming trapped in the past or future. It doesn't help that the only other "lore" available for them consists of paranormal magazine articles which are explicitly noted to have all been made up by the authors of the articles, at most said authors being simply inspired by the descriptions of the creatures in the Scarlet/Violet Book. Muddying things further, when the player character at last meets the real Professor Sada/Turo, they explain the goal of their research was not simply to summon Pokémon from the past or future, but the pasts and futures of different timelines, which would make the Paradox Pokémon even less connected to the history of the Pokémon worlds we play the games in.
- Discard and Draw: Both played straight and inverted. Most of the Pokémon they are based on are dual-typed, and the Paradox Pokémon share exactly one type with their contemporary relatives, while substituting the other type for a different one.
- Scream Tail is part-Psychic instead of part-Normal.
- Brute Bonnet is part-Dark instead of part-Poison.
- Slither Wing is part-Fighting instead of part-Fire.
- Roaring Moon is part-Dark instead of part-Flying.
- Sandy Shocks is part-Ground instead of part-Steel.
- Iron Bundle is part-Water instead of part-Flying.
- Iron Jugulis is part-Flying instead of part-Dragon.
- Iron Moth is part-Poison instead of part-Bug.
- Iron Thorns is part-Electric instead of part-Dark.
- Iron Valiant is Fairy/Fighting instead of either Psychic/Fairy or Psychic/Fighting.
- Iron Leaves, Iron Boulder, and Iron Crown are part-Psychic instead of part-Fighting.
- Dub Name Change: Since they're only known by codenames, they join Type: Null as the only Pokémon with unique Spanish and Italian names.
- Final Boss: Roaring Moon for AI Sada in Scarlet, and Iron Valiant for AI Turo in Violet. Both will be sent out last, holding Booster Energy to activate their abilities without sunlight for the former or Electric Terrain for the latter. The following fight against the "Guardian of Paradise" Koraidon/Miraidon is somewhat scripted.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: They were brought to the present from the ancient past (in Scarlet) or the distant future (in Violet) by a time machine.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Most Paradox Pokémon have the "attack on sight" temperament, and will charge the moment they see you.
- Irony: Despite the past Paradox Pokémon being exclusive to Scarlet, two are based on Misdreavus and Salamence, who are exclusive to Violet. And the future Paradox Pokémon, exclusive to Violet, have robotic versions of Hydreigon and Tyranitar, who are both exclusive to Scarlet.
- Lurid Tales of Doom: The Pokédex descriptions for each of the Paradox mons in the opposite version are derived from paranormal magazines, and as such have rather wild theories about the Pokémon usually based on no actual evidence.
- Mirror Character: Several of the Paradox Pokémon are designed as counterparts to each other, filling similar roles in the structure of Scarlet and Violet.
- Scream Tail and Iron Bundle. Both of them resemble a cute, but very weak modern-day Pokémon, but are far stronger and more aggressive, causing Penny to be caught off guard when she encounters one in Area Zero. Both of them are much faster than their modern counterparts, but while Scream Tail is a fast Stone Wall, Iron Bundle is a Fragile Speedster with more offensive power.
- Roaring Moon and Iron Valiant. Both of them are even stronger and more elusive than the other Paradox Pokémon, having 590 BST instead of 570, and are only mentioned in a hidden issue of Occulture magazine. Both of them are also the only Paradox Pokémon to be based off of Mega Evolutions. They each serve as the Final Boss of their respective game version, being the strongest Pokémon of AI Sada and Turo, respectively. Where Roaring Moon is a Lightning Bruiser with a bad Special Attack stat, Iron Valiant is a fast Magic Knight with bad defensive stats. Both of Iron Valiant's types are also super effective against Roaring Moon. Design-wise, Roaring Moon leans into Dark Is Evil, having a darker color scheme and more monstrous design than Salamence to play up its ferocity, while Iron Valiant falls under Light Is Not Good, maintaining the sleekness and color scheme of Gardevoir and Gallade while being much more ruthless.
- No Biological Sex: They're officially genderless, though with more of an implication that their biology hasn't been properly researched, so like with Ultra Beasts, the Pokédex simply lacks the ability to determine their genders. Self explanatory with the future Pokémon given they’re cybernetic androids.
- Numerological Motif: All Ancient Pokémon's base stats are odd numbers, all Future Pokémon's are even. Koraidon and Miraidon are exceptions, having mirrored stat spreads of each other instead.
- Odd Name Out: In contrast to native Pokémon, Paradox Pokémon don't have names in the typical manner for the franchise. Their names are more like descriptors.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Unlike most Pokémon, the Paradox Pokémon's names are only descriptions of what they are rather than legitimate names. The exceptions are Koraidon and Miraidon, who were originally known as Winged King and Iron Serpent respectively, before being given 'proper' names by Professor Sada/Turo.
- Our Cryptids Are More Mysterious: Unlike a lot of Pokémon that often have in-depth descriptions, these Pokémon are enigmas with scarce information and extremely rare sightings. Even their Pokédex entries are worded in a way that makes it ambiguous if they're actually the creatures described in documents. Some of them also appear to be references to real world cryptids and paranormal creatures — the Great Tusk vaguely resembles Mokele-Mbembe, Flutter Mane is alluded to being a "ghostly pterosaur", Iron Moth is thought to be an alien, etc.
- Outside-Context Problem: A la invasive species. Paldea's ecology is not adapted for these Pokémon hailing from distant past/far future, and were they to break out of Area Zero in sufficient numbers, they would likely devastate Paldea's ecology.
- Paradox Person: The central concept of the Paradox Pokémon is that what is known of why they exist is a contradiction. As Arven details, his parent summoned the Pokémon via the time machine they constructed, inspired by the stories and descriptions of such creatures in the Scarlet/Violet book. Yet, if the creatures were not in Area Zero before this machine summoned them there over the course of the past few years, then how is it that this book from two hundred years ago contained so many observations of them in Area Zero? Paradox Pokémon are also often incongruous with existing Pokémon they resemble, as noted in their Pokédex entries. Six of them (Walking Wake, Iron Leaves, Gouging Fire, Iron Boulder Raging Bolt, Iron Crown) even resemble creatures that the Scarlet/Violet book explicitly state were not based on any observations but were merely imagined by the artist, leading to the question of how is it they ended up actually existing.
- Recurring Element: The Paradox Pokémon are similar to the Ultra Beasts, a previous set of Pokémon alien to the modern day world that run the risk of causing ecological havoc or worse. Like the Ultra Beasts, they're a class of Pokémon that are not quite Legendary Pokémon, but share many characteristics with them. Their abilities (Protosynthesis and Quark Drive) are similar to Beast Boost in that they boost the Pokémon's highest stat, although the activation condition is different.
- Rule of Seven: All Paradox Pokémon learn new moves via level-up at multiples of 7, and there were both seven non-Legendary ancient Paradox Pokémon and seven non-Legendary future Paradox Pokémon in the base game.
- Secret Art: The Ancient Pokémon all share Protosynthesis, while the Future Pokémon all share Quark Drive. Both abilities boosts the user's highest stat by 30% in harsh sunlight (Protosynthesis) or Electric Terrain (Quark Drive), which is increased to 50% if said stat is Speed. If they're holding a Booster Energy, it can be consumed to instantly activate their ability even without the respective field condition, giving them a one-time unconditional boost.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: The Paradox Pokémon, at least thematically, closely resemble the Ultra Beasts from Sun and Moon, being dangerous, strong Pokémon whose power can match legendaries, but are displaced through time rather than being extradimensional. Also, while Ultra Beasts at least have enough data and observations to reveal their behaviors and give them names, there is absolutely no concrete information available about Paradox Pokémon even in their Dex entry.
- Theremin: The music for Area Zero and battle with Paradox Pokémon prominently features a theremin to emphasize the paranormal nature of Paradox Pokémon.
- Underground Monkey: Subverted. They all bear a strong resemblance to other Pokémon found in the present, even being speculated to be their ancestors and descendants. But from a gameplay standpoint, they are still technically classified as separate species.
- Version-Exclusive Content: The Ancient Pokémon are only available in Scarlet, while the Future Pokémon are only available in Violet.
- Walking Spoiler: The Paradox Pokémon in general are a big endgame spoiler due to their connection to Area Zero and the Professor.
Ancient Pokémon
In General
- Dire Beast: The Ancient Paradox Pokémon are larger and often more powerful than their supposed descendants.
- Evolution Power-Up: Subverted for the Ancient Pokémon. They are quite a bit stronger and fiercer than their equivalents in the present day, being on par with Legendary Pokemon. Some of the Ancients aren't even in their final stage and, seeing as they still can't evolve, may not have needed it. Only Roaring Moon plays this somewhat straight, as much like its fellow pseudo-legendary paradoxes, it has a lower base stat total than its descendant Salamence, but it still has Protosynthesis which is a stat boost independent of the stat boosts or drop granted by or imposed by the likes of a regular Salamence's potential Moxie or Intimidate, allowing it to potentially outshine all Salamence in harsh sunlight should further stat boosts prove unneeded.
- Facial Markings: Each one of them have colored and pointed markings outlining their eyes to sell the image of being prehistoric for each one, though Sandy Shocks only has these on the top face's eye. Flutter Mane's markings are thicker since Misdreavus already has a black outline around its eyes.
- Fangs Are Evil: Almost all of them possess visible fangs in their mouths with the three exceptions being Brute Bonnet with a fanged beak, Slither Wing with no visible mouth (or mouth parts for that matter), and Sandy Shocks who instead appears to have dotted holes on the top face that form a smile or frown. Downplayed in that they are less "evil" and more "hyper-aggressive", with Scream Tail and Flutter Mane verging on cute little fangs, but the aesthetic still stands.
- Goofy Feathered Dinosaur: Inverted: Some of them have a feathered appearance to befit their role as ancient, prehistoric Pokémon, but they're actually just as threatening if not moreso than their modern counterparts and the feathers are used in their design to make them look cooler, like with Koraidon's magnificent mohawk or Roaring Moon's gigantic wings.
- Hellish Pupils: Great Tusk, Brute Bonnet, Flutter Mane, Roaring Moon, and even Slither Wing and Walking Wake to an extent each have slit-like eyes, to make them appear more wild and aggressive. The remaining ones do not: Scream Tail lacks these as does its descendant, and Sandy Shocks's eyes surprisingly reflect light in them — unlike its descendants — to make it feel more like an organic creature.
- Line-of-Sight Name: All the Ancient Paradoxes have names that feel like whoever came up with them just cribbed it from their appearances or abilities. It's especially apparent with Great Tusk and Slither Wing.
- Our Ancestors Are Superheroes: The Ancient Pokémon are usually more powerful than their modern-day counterparts, some with different typing granting strengths their contemporary descendants don't have.
- The Power of the Sun: The Paradox Pokémon from the past all have the Ability Protosynthesis, which boosts their highest stat under sunlight. Also, all of them naturally learn Sunny Day to activate that Ability by themselves.
- Prehistoric Monster: The Ancient Paradox Pokémon are creatures from the distant past, speculated to be the ancestors of modern Pokémon. They're also shown to be highly aggressive towards humans, unlike a lot of the Pokémon they're derived from. Oddly, as far as is known, no actual fossils matching them have been found.
- The Quincy Punk: Punk imagery such as wild hair and face markings resembling makeup are used in their designs to set them up as hostile Dire Beast versions of their apparent descendants.
- Supernatural Gold Eyes: One other notable characteristic of the ancient Paradox Pokémon aside from Raging Bolt and Gouging Fire is that they all have yellow sclera or irises; Great Tusk, Brute Bonnet, Sandy Shocks, and Roaring Moon each have yellow sclera (with Slither Wing having yellow compound eyes) while Scream Tail and Flutter Mane have yellow irises instead (Flutter Mane's eye colors are switched with Misdreavus's since Misdreavus already has yellow sclera).
- Spikes of Villainy: The only ones among them to lack spikes of any sort are Scream Tail and Walking Wake, and even then, their unruly locks/mane evoke the image to an extent. This is downplayed on account of them not being truly villainous, but just more savage in general.
- Time Traveler's Dinosaur: They are seemingly the ancestors of various Pokémon, which rememble dinosaurs, brought over to the present day via time machine.
Main Game
Great Tusk (Idaina Kiba)
0984: Great Tusk / Idaina Kiba (イダイナキバ idainakiba)
Great Tusk
An ancient Pokémon, named after its massive tusks. It bears a heavy resemblance to Donphan. In Scarlet, one of these Pokémon managed to escape from Area Zero and made its home in the Asado Desert, which it is known as the Quaking Earth Titan.
- Bare-Fisted Monk: It's part Fighting-type, able to learn Brick Break and Close Combat.
- Boss Battle: A Great Tusk that escaped Area Zero is one of the Titan Pokémon that must be fought for the Herba Mystica in the Path of Legends storyline in the Scarlet version.
- Cruel Elephant: Its aggressive nature led to a member of Heath's expedition getting fatally injured by one. The wild one found in Asado Desert does at least co-exist peacefully with its modern relatives, Phanpy and Donphan, around it.
- Dishing Out Dirt: It's part Ground-type, much like its present-day relative.
- Jagged Mouth: Its lips have large, jagged projections that invoke a toothy look.
- Lightning Bruiser: Great Tusk sports excellent HP, Attack, and Defense, and its Speed is high enough to be useful, but its Special Defense is quite low.
- Magically Inept Fighter: Its Special Attack is tied for its worst stat.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: It resembles a short-haired mammoth or mastodon version of Donpan but with a reptilian tail.
- Psychic Powers: A strange inclusion to its movepool, perhaps an oversight, is that it is capable of learning Psyshock.
- Rolling Attack: Much like its descendant Donphan, Great Tusk can learn Rollout. Unlike them, it usually moves about by walking.
- Weak to Magic: Its Special Defense is tied for its worst stat.
Scream Tail (Sakebu Shippo)
0985: Scream Tail / Sakebu Shippo (サケブシッポ sakebushippo)
Scream Tail
An ancient Pokémon named after its screaming powers and its tail-like head hair. It looks a lot like Jigglypuff. The magazine Occulture presents a rumor that it is a Jigglypuff from a billion years ago, but said rumor is based purely on its "primitive" appearance rather than any actual evidence.
- Com Mons: As far as Area Zero goes, since it and Brute Bonnet are the most common Paradox Pokémon in Scarlet and can be found in all parts of the area.
- Cute Little Fangs: One difference they have from Jigglypuff is a small pair of fangs, which only adds to their cuteness.
- Killer Rabbit: They share Jigglypuff's cute looks, but they tend to be more aggressive. In Scarlet, Penny mistakes one for an ordinary Jigglypuff and almost gets harmed when she approaches what she thinks is just a cute creature.
- Meaningful Name: It has a hairstyle that evokes a tail, and learns multiple voice-based moves.
- Our Fairies Are Different: It's part Fairy-type, much like its present-day presumed relative.
- Psychic Powers: It's part Psychic-type, although Psychic Fangs and Rest are the only Psychic moves it learns via level-up.
- Stone Wall: Scream Tail has excellent defensive stats and Speed, but its offensive stats are utterly laughable.
Brute Bonnet (Araburu Take)
0986: Brute Bonnet / Araburu Take (アラブルタケ araburutake)
Brute Bonnet
An ancient Pokémon named after its bonnet-like headpiece. It heavily resembles an Amoonguss. It is said to be a cross between a mushroom and a dinosaur. It's also said to have a low intelligence but its stature makes it a savage fighter.
- Achilles' Heel: It will crumple very easily against Bug-type damage.
- Alliterative Name: Brute Bonnet.
- Combat Pragmatist: It's part Dark-type, with moves like Payback, Sucker Punch, and Thief.
- Com Mons: As far as Area Zero goes, since it and Scream Tail are the most common Paradox Pokémon in Scarlet and can be found in all parts of the area.
- Dumb Muscle: Brute Bonnet is said to be very physically strong, but not very intelligent.
- Green Thumb: It's part Grass-type, much like its present-day relative.
- Mighty Glacier: Brute Bonnet has excellent Attack and great defensive stats, but low Speed.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: According to the Pokédex, it looks like a creature described as a cross between a mushroom and a dinosaur in a dubious magazine, which in turn based its information on accounts in the Scarlet Book.
- Obvious Rule Patch: Its base stat total is allocated in a very, very specific way such that it's impossible to min-max its Speed in a way that Booster Energy/Protosynthesis will boost it as its highest stat.note This is done so that Brute Bonnet is incapable of easily outspeeding everything else and rendering whole teams unconscious by spamming the fully-accurate Spore.
- Our Centaurs Are Different: Unlike its descendant Amoonguss, it has two pairs of stubby little legs which, together with its arms, makes it look vaguely like a centaur.
- Vocal Dissonance: It's fairly large and vicious-looking, but it has the same squeaky cry as its descendant Amoonguss.
Flutter Mane (Habataku Kami)
0987: Flutter Mane / Habataku Kami (ハバタクカミ habatakukami)
Flutter Mane
An ancient Pokémon named after the wing-like tuffs on its head. It seems to resemble a Misdreavus. It is rumored to be the ghost of a pterosaur.
- Armored But Frail: On the special side, it has 135 Special Defense, but only 55 HP. Not the case on the physical side, though, where it's just plain frail.
- Cute Little Fangs: Manages to have a snaggletooth despite being a ghost.
- Fashionable Asymmetry: Its upper-left wing is a lighter shade than the others (and white when shiny). In addition, one of the ghostly wisps on its left is a carmine red.
- Glass Cannon: It has monstrous Speed and Special Attack… combined with low HP and physical Defense. Fittingly, it's essentially a jacked-up Mismagius stats-wise.
- Irony: Despite being a Scarlet exclusive, it's based on Misdreavus, who is a Violet exclusive.
- Mistaken Identity: Rather bizarrely, its dex entry in Violet claims that it bears a close resemblance to a ghostly pterosaur that was featured in a dubious paranormal magazine, yet Flutter Mane looks nothing of the sort. Clearly they were looking at it from below from a distance…
- Noblewoman's Laugh: Can be seen doing this in the "1000 Pokemon!" celebration video.
- Non-Malicious Monster: In the Area Zero overworld, Flutter Mane is the only ancient Paradox Pokémon that doesn't immediately get aggressive with the player on sight. Instead, it emotes a curious question mark and stares at the player like most gentle-natured wild Pokémon. That said, instigating a battle, auto or otherwise, within its sight will set it off to aggressively pursuing the player.
- No-Sell: It's completely immune to Normal, Fighting, and Dragon-type damage.
- Our Fairies Are Different: It's part Fairy-type, able to learn Moonblast and Dazzling Gleam.
- Resistant to Magic: Very physically frail, but it's able to shrug off most special attacks with its huge base 135 Special Defense.
- Soul Power: It's part Ghost-type, much like its present-day relative.
- Squishy Wizard: Flutter Mane's Special Attack and Special Defense are fantastic, and it has equally great Speed to make use of them, but its physical Attack, physical Defense, and HP stats are awful.
- Uniqueness Decay: It dethroned Mimikyu as the only Ghost/Fairy Pokémon in existence.
Slither Wing (Chi wo Hau Hane)
0988: Slither Wing / Chi wo Hau Hane (チヲハウハネ chiwohauhane)
Slither Wing
An ancient Pokémon named for the way it moves and the wings it has. It looks a lot like a Volcarona. Some theories state that it was revived from a fossil, but no such fossils of Volcarona have ever been found.
- Achilles' Heel: Slither Wing takes quadruple damage from Flying-type attacks.
- Bare-Fisted Monk: It's part Fighting-type, able to learn Close Combat and Superpower.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: Like its present-day relative, it's a giant moth that's more than ten feet long on average, making it the longest Bug-type Pokémon.
- Four-Legged Insect: Being a bestial moth means that Slither Wing loses two legs compared to all other Pokémon in its "family".
- Four Legs Good, Two Legs Better: Zigzagged. Normally, it wanders around on all fours but will prop itself up on its hind legs in battle or when idle and looking around, much like a bear. It'll drop back down once it's done.
- Fossil Revival: The Occulture magazine invokes this with the theory that it is the result of the fossil revival technology relatively common in the Pokémon world being used on a prehistoric Volcarona fossil. However, the book then notes that no actual fossils of Volcarona from such ancient times are actually known to exist.
- Mighty Glacier: Slither Wing has excellent Attack, great Special Defense, above average HP, and average Special Attack and Speed.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: It resembles a monstrous moth with a long, reptilian tail. Downplayed in that the tail is still segmented the way one would expect of an arthropod's abdomen. The reptile inspiration is limited to the dorsal spines on the tail and its overall shape.
- Primal Stance: Unlike the Power Floats exhibited by its successors Volcarona and Iron Moth, Slither Wing stays hunched on all fours in this manner, moreso resembling how Larvesta looks but with longer limbs. In battle it will take a more erect stance.
- Playing with Fire: Since it's similar to Volcarona, it still has access to a few Fire-type moves, notably Flame Charge and Flare Blitz, despite not being a Fire-type itself.
- Wings Do Nothing: It has large wings, but only moves around by crawling, with the Japanese name implying these wings tend to drag along the earth as it walks and there being no indication it can fly or even glide. Downplayed in that it does learn various attacks that use its wings, such as Gust, Dual Wingbeat, and Hurricane. That it beats its wings for one of its attack animations suggests it uses them for other attacks as well.
Sandy Shocks (Suna no Kegawa)
0989: Sandy Shocks / Suna no Kegawa (スナノケガワ sunanokegawa)
Sandy Shocks
An ancient Pokémon named after its electrical and earthly powers. It greatly resembles Magneton.
- Alliterative Name: Sandy Shocks.
- Dishing Out Dirt: It's part Ground-type, though the only Ground-type move it gets via level-up is Earth Power.
- Fighting Clown: Its design is purposefully ridiculous as a "hairy" Magneton running on its side-magnets as "legs", but it has a significantly higher BST than even its descendant's evolved form Magnezone.
- Hollywood Prehistory: Played With: amongst the otherwise dinosaur-like ancient Pokémon, Sandy Shocks instead combines Magneton's appearance with something closer to a prehistoric human. Its iron filament attachments resembles scruffy, dark hair, and it wears Facial Markings on its topmost head. The most dinosaur thing about it is its metallic tail.
- Lightning Bruiser: Sandy Shocks has great Special Attack and Speed, and its defensive stats are above average.
- Mechanical Lifeforms: Just like its supposed descendants, it is a robotic creature using magnets for appendages.
- Oxymoronic Being: It's a prehistoric, primal variant of what's essentially a robot. Magnemite was already implied to have originated from further in the past than one would expect (being depicted in the Ruins of Alph's inscriptions), but Sandy Shocks' existence suggests that it evolved from something that's over ten thousand years old.
- Poor, Predictable Rock: Despite its monstrous Special Attack stat, Sandy Shocks only learns a few damaging Steel, Normal, and Rock-type moves and one Fighting-type move outside of its Ground and Electric-type ones.
- Robot Hair: It appears to have hair made of assorted metal fragments it's picked up over time, coating both ends of all six magnets, as well as some of its screws.
- Shock and Awe: It's part Electric-type, much like its present-day relative, able to learn Volt Switch and Thunder.
- Uniqueness Decay: Unovan Stunfisk is no longer the only Pokémon with the Electric and Ground typing.
Roaring Moon (Todoroku Tsuki)
1005: Roaring Moon / Todoroku Tsuki (トドロクツキ todorokutsuki)
Roaring Moon
An ancient Pokémon named for the shape of its crescent-shaped wings. It heavily resembles Mega Salamence.
- Achilles' Heel: Roaring Moon takes quadruple damage from Fairy-type attacks.
- Call-Back: Roaring Moon resembles Mega Salamence, and its Violet Dex entry claims it has a connection to "a phenomenon from a certain region", referencing Mega Evolution.
- Casting a Shadow: Like most Dark-types, it can learn darkness-based moves of the type such as Dark Pulse, but these fall under Useless Useful Spell due to its poor Sp. Atk.
- Combat Pragmatist: It's part Dark-type and has moves that reflect it fighting vicious and dirty. It's also said to be more savage than Salamence.
- Dark Is Evil: A Dragon/Dark type, and according to the magazine "Occulture", it's more vicious than the already-nasty Salamence.
- Dinosaurs Are Dragons: Inverted; it's a European dragon that is treated more like a dinosaur than a mythical beast in-universe, and has some primeval traits meant to make it feel more like an archosaur or other general prehistoric reptile.
- Dragons Are Demonic: It's a savage and highly aggressive prehistoric dragon that's part Dark-type, and its Occulture article warns to stay away from it at all costs.
- Feathered Dragons: Like Koraidon (and unlike the present Salamence), it's a Dragon-type that has feathers adorning its body, giving it more of a primeval, dinosaur-like feel. It apparently scatters them when chasing its prey, which could be reflected by its once-signature move, Scale Shot.
- Giant Flyer: It's over 6 feet long,note weighs over 800 pounds, and flies through the sky on its gigantic red wings just like its Dragon/Flying alleged descendant.
- Irony:
- Despite being a Scarlet exclusive, it's based on Salamencenote , who is a Violet exclusive.
- Salamence's version-exclusive counterpart in Scarlet is Tyranitar, which has a Future counterpart in Iron Thorns. However, Roaring Moon's own Violet counterpartnote isn't Iron Thorns, but Iron Valiant.
- Lightning Bruiser: Roaring Moon boasts very high Attack and Speed, and great HP and Special Defense, balanced out by its below average Defense.
- Magically Inept Fighter: Despite its all-around high stats, it has a pitiful 55 Special Attack.note
- Our Dragons Are Different: It's part Dragon-type, much like its present-day relative, and seemingly comes from the past. As such, it's a Prehistoric Monster take on the classic European dragon that Salamence is based on.
- Playing with Fire: Like Salamence, it learns some Fire-type moves via level-up, though unlike its descendant most of them fall under Useless Useful Spell due to its low Special Attack.note
- Pre-Final Boss: Roaring Moon is the final Pokémon in AI Sada's team, and fought directly before the Post-Final Boss fight with the other Koraidon. Appropriately, like its Violet counterpart Iron Valiant, it has a higher Base Stat Total than other Paradox Pokémon of its version, is the only one based on Mega Evolutions, and is listed later in the Pokédex alongside the game's legendaries.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: Like fellow Dark/Dragon-type Hydreigon, it's mostly blue (well, cyan) with some red and black accents to reflect its vicious nature, namely its huge red wings and black tail feathers.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: It has the same typing as Guzzlord, and like that Pokémon, it's the "leader" of a group of special anomalous non-Legendary Pokémon (as indicated via its higher base stats and position in the Dex and story).
- Uniqueness Decay: This Pokémon, alongside the Mabosstiff line, gets access to Jaw Lock, a move that was previously exclusive to the Chewtle line.
- You Will Not Evade Me: Jaw Lock prevents both its user and its opponent from escaping until one of them faints.
Post-Release
In General
A trio of ancient Pokémon that heavily resemble the Legendary Beasts.
- Ambiguously Related:
- It is unclear if any of them are supposed to be the Imagined Pokémon depicted in the Scarlet Book, since while the creature in the Scarlet Book is a combination between the Legendary Beasts, they only resemble a single member of the Legendary Beasts. The official website makes mention of the Scarlet Book connection with Walking Wake, but likewise draws no conclusions.
- Unlike the other Paradox Pokémon that can reasonably be considered ancestors or descendants, the Legendary Beasts' backstory of being one of three beasts resurrected by Ho-Oh makes it questionable if any of them are related to their modern-day counterparts at all, since if the tale is to be believed, not a single one of them could have had an ancestor to evolve from — unless, of course, they are related to the Pokémon that became their respective Legendary Beast.
- Catlike Dragons: While their modern-day counterparts already have feline-like characteristics, these Paradox Pokémon also add dinosaur-like traits to the mix while also being part Dragon-type.
- Dinosaurs Are Dragons: All of them are dinosaur-esque Pokémon mixed with the Legendary Beasts and are all part Dragon-type with Walking Wake resembling a theropod, Gouging Fire resembling a ceratopsian, and Raging Bolt resembling a brachiosaur.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: They're dinosaur-cat-dragons.
Walking Wake (Uneru Minamo)
1009: Walking Wake / Uneru Minamo (ウネルミナモ uneruminamo)
Walking Wake
An ancient Pokémon named after its flowing mane and its ability to walk on water. It heavily resembles Suicune.- Achilles' Heel: It's very vulnerable to the move Freeze-Dry, which deals extra damage to both Water- and Dragon-types.
- Alliterative Name: Walking Wake.
- Lightning Bruiser: Walking Wake hits hard and fast, with decent defenses and HP all-around.
- Literal Metaphor: Walking Wake's Secret Art Hydro Steam is equally powerful in two different weather conditions; in the rain, it's powered up by 50% because it's a Water-type move (which are powered up by rain), and in the sun, it's also powered up by 50% because of how the move works (increasing from 80 to 120 base power when harsh sunlight is in effect). Therefore, it's a move that is powerful, come rain or shine (literally).
- Making a Splash: Like Suicune, it's part Water type.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: It combines the traits of the canine/kirin-like Suicune with those of a theropod dinosaur. It also has prominent fur, unlike any extant dinosaur, but some artwork makes it clear that it has scales as well.
- Multiple-Tailed Beast: One of its most distinctive physical traits is its two long, flexible tails, which resemble Suicune's white streamers.
- Permanently Missable Content: Played with — Walking Wake and Iron Leaves were both initially distributed as special, limited time Tera Raids. While they were brought back later (with the promise of bringing them back again after), they are easy to miss if you don't have access to the online features and if you do capture them, they cannot be re-obtained by any means afterward (making it unwise to trade them away). If you haven't obtained them before their deadline is up, then you're out of luck until the next time the game decides to distribute them.
- Playing with Fire: It learns Flamethrower by level up.
- Secret Art: It's the only known Pokémon to learn the move Hydro Steam, a Water-type move that increases in power under intense sunlight, rather than being weakened by it.
- Secret Character: Despite not being a Mythical Pokémon, Walking Wake cannot be obtained ingame, and can only be caught in event raids. For this reason, it's listed after Terapagos and the other two members of its group as though it were a Mythical Pokemon, and is therefore not required to obtain rewards.
- Violation of Common Sense: Because it has Protosynthesis, it gains a stat boost from the Sun… which naturally weakens Water-type moves, which are used by Walking Wake. To circumvent this, it has the Secret Art Hydro Steam, which gains power under Sun rather than losing it.
- Walk on Water: Walking Wake is capable of standing and moving around on the surface of water, like the creature it resembles, Suicune.
Gouging Fire (Ugatsu Homura)
1020: Gouging Fire / Ugatsu Homura (ウガツホムラ ugatsuhomura)
Gouging Fire
An ancient Pokémon named for its sharp horns. It heavily resembles Entei.
- BFS: Its nose horn is a gigantic golden jagged blade, making it more than deserving of its name.
- Fiery Lion: Just like Entei, it's part Fire-type and is based on a Chinese guardian lion — albeit crossed with a Styracosaurus in this case. It retains Entei's feline gait, posture, and claws.
- Fossil Revival: According to its Violet Dex entry, it was said in a in-universe fictional article to be an Entei regenerated from a fossil.
- Jack of All Stats: Compared to Walking Wake and Raging Bolt, Gouging Fire's stats are more balanced, with a focus on Defense and Attack. Its only standout low stat is its Special Attack, which it doesn't even need most of the time. Although its stats and Secret Art suggest a Stone Wall, in practice it's more of a Lightning Bruiser that hits like a nuke with Dragon Dance and sunny weather (plus Protosynthesis) boosting its Fire-type attacks.
- Magically Inept Fighter: It's got above-average base stats in all respects except Special Attack, which is a middling 65.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: It combines traits of the shisa-like Entei with a Styracosaurus, the second most famous ceratopsian after Triceratops, and also has Entei's signature shaggy fur. Notably, it has both fur and scales, as it can learn Scale Shot via TM while the other members of its trio can't.
- Playing with Fire: Like Entei, it's part Fire-type rampaging and spouting pillars of flame.
- Savage Spiked Weapons: A built-in example, in that it's a savage Pokémon whose head is covered in (and who's named after its) sharp spikes, especially its sword-like nose horn.
- Secret Art: Gouging Fire is the only Pokémon that learns Burning Bulwark, a variant of Protect that also burns any Pokémon making direct contact.
- Temper-Ceratops: This Styracosaurus-like creature has been described as rampaging while spouting pillars of flame. Given that it resembles Entei, it acts more like a lion than a bull or rhino like most examples of this trope — although ceratopsians were known to occasionally eat meat.
Raging Bolt (Takeru Raiko)
1021: Raging Bolt / Takeru Raiko (タケルライコ takeruraiko)
Raging Bolt
An ancient Pokémon named for its mane resembling a thundercloud. It heavily resembles Raikou.
- Irony: While Raging Bolt resembles Raikou, Raikou's own design was based on a prehistoric animal to begin with — specifically, the saber-toothed cat genus Smilodon.
- Long Neck: One of its main characteristics is its tall neck.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: It combines traits of the felid-like Raikou with those of a brachiosaur. Notably, it's covered in fur, unlike any extant dinosaur, while it lacks visible scales if any. Due to its mammalian traits on a long-necked frame, it ends up resembling a giraffe of all things. Notably, it walks like a giraffe as well (moving the legs on one side together, then switching to the other side) and sleeps standing up.
- Mighty Glacier: Raging Bolt has great bulk and a fantastic base 137 Special Attack, but unlike its alleged descendant Raikou, it has a below average Speed stat at 75.
- Pun-Based Creature: It's based on Raikou (a Shock and Awe-based creature) mixed with a sauropod dinosaur, one of the most famous of which being Brontosaurus, which means "thunder lizard" in Greek. It could also serve as a Visual Pun towards the extinct genus of sabertooth cats known as Dinofelis, being a literal wildcat dinosaur.
- Secret Art: Raging Bolt is the only Pokémon that learns Thunderclap, an Electric-type version of Sucker Punch.
- Shock and Awe: Like Raikou, it is part Electric-type, launching lightning from the fur around its neck.
- Shown Their Work: Its appearance is strange and doesn't seem to make any sense, especially when compared to Raikou, at least at first. However, it's based on a sauropod (admittedly more a brachiosaurid than a diplodocid like Brontosaurus, though its longer front limbs may also be a cat-like trait carried over from Raikou), one of the most famous of which is Brontosaurus, which means "thunder lizard."
- Supernatural Floating Hair: A variant - Raging Bolt's mane gathers around its head in a way that makes it look like it's peering out from behind a stormcloud.
Future Pokémon
In General
- Chromatic Arrangement: Their Shiny forms take away most of the color of their main bodies to emphasize their glowing accents, which come in the various colors of the rainbow: rednote , orangenote , yellownote , greennote , bluenote , salmonnote , fuschianote , and of course violetnote .
- Chrome Champion: The Shiny forms of the Future Paradox Pokémon are all seemingly unpainted, leaving their bodies a uniform silver. Instead of making them look more unique like most Shiny forms do, it makes them look more inorganic if anything, and mostly serves to emphasize their Chromatic Arrangement as their glowing parts retain their color.
- Electronic Eyes: They all have these, looking like LED screen-like features where normal eyes would be.
- Everything Is an iPod in the Future: The Future Paradox Pokémon all have a sleek, smooth, and shiny look. Taken further with their shiny forms, which all have a bright-grey coloration for the shiny metal.
- Future Badass: The Future Pokémon are powerful robotic versions of present-day Pokémon. While it's downplayed by most of them, which are based off of Pokémon that were strong to begin with, it's played straight by Iron Bundle, a powerful and fast Pokémon modeled on Delibird.
- Killer Robot: They're all Mechanical Lifeforms, and most of them are incredibly aggressive.
- Lightning Can Do Anything: The Paradox Pokémon from the future all have the ability Quark Drive, boosting their best stat in Electric Terrain. All of them also naturally learn Electric Terrain to initiate that boost.
- Mechanical Abomination: Downplayed and implied. They come from parallel timelines and their technology in some cases is so bizarre and otherwordly that some Paradox forms like Iron Moth are considered alien scouts. Iron Jugulis, on the other hand, is described as the offspring of a Hydreigon and a robot. That being said, all of this are theories by a not-very-trustworthy magazine and they could just be very advanced robots.
- Mechanical Lifeforms: They are essentially robotic creatures in appearance, supposedly from far off into the future and based on Pokémon found in the present. They even "power down" when they sleep, rather than the sleeping animations seen in even most other Pokémon that have a mechanical appearance. However, as far as is seen, they function in every other way just like fully organic Pokémon and unlike most examples of machine-like Pokémon from past games, only two of them are even Steel-types, making their metallic aspects of little importance to their actual type attributes for most of them. Notably the official website describes Iron Leaves' skin as having a "metallic texture" rather than actually being metal, while Miraidon is noted in the game to have a genetic structure that is comparable to the obviously organic Cyclizar, indicating that in some sense these creatures may be organic.
- Non-Indicative Name: Despite seemingly being at least partly robots and all having "Iron" in their names, none of them except for Iron Treads and Iron Crown are Steel-type Pokémon.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: The Future Paradox Pokémon (save Miraidon) are both smaller and (often) more powerful than their modern day counterparts, reflecting how technology tends to get more compact as it improves.
- Power-Up Letdown: Played with from a species standpoint, not a gameplay standpoint. The Paradox Pokémon are supposedly descendants of current Pokémon, and sport sleeker, more compact designs that give credence to the idea that they've been upgraded from their old selves. While this is mostly true (Iron Bundle is several magnitudes stronger than Delibird, for example), the Paradox Pokémon variants for the pseudo-legendaries have lower base stat totals (570 as opposed to the requisite 600); Iron Jugulis is frailer and less powerful but faster than Hydreigon, and Iron Thorns only matches Tyranitar in power and defense and exceeds Tyranitar in Speed; every other stat besides its HP is a marked downgrade. On the other hand, Iron Jugulis trades its Dragon type for a Flying type to give it a natural immunity to Ground-typed moves without needing Levitate and gets Quark Drive which can boost its proficient stat, unlike Hydreigon; Iron Thorns is in a similar boat as it trades Sand Stream and Unnerve for Quark Drive as well, allowing its own proficient stat to be boosted as well.
- Shock and Awe: All of them can learn Electric Terrain to capitalize on their Quark Drive.
- Theme Naming: All of their names start with "Iron".
- We Can Rebuild Him: Assuming they're not attempts at fully robotic replacements, the Future Pokémon might be cybernetically modified present day species, comparable to Genesect.
Main Game
Iron Treads (Tetsu no Wadachi)
0990: Iron Treads / Tetsu no Wadachi (テツノワダチ tetsunowadachi)
Iron Treads
A Pokémon from the distant future, named for the tread-like trunk it has. It heavily resembles a Donphan. In Violet, one of these Pokémon managed to escape from Area Zero and made its home in the Asado Desert, which it is known as the Quaking Earth Titan.
- Alien Invasion: A paranormal magazine claims that Iron Treads is a "scientific weapon" sent to the Paldea region by aliens.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: Its trunk and tusks are no longer part of its face, as it instead has a grumpy-looking face on the front of its body with the trunk above and the tusks below.
- Boss Battle: An Iron Treads that escaped Area Zero is one of the Titan Pokémon that must be fought for the Herba Mystica in the Path of Legends storyline in the Violet version.
- Cruel Elephant: Much like Great Tusk, Iron Treads is described in the Violet Book as having mortally wounded an explorer. The wild one found in Asado Desert does at least co-exist peacefully with its modern relatives, Phanpy and Donphan, around it.
- Dishing Out Dirt: It's part Ground-type, much like its present-day relative.
- Extra-ore-dinary: It's part Steel-type, fitting of a Pokémon with "Iron" in its name.
- Lightning Bruiser: Iron Treads has great HP, Attack, Defense, and Speed, balanced out by its below average Special Defense.
- Magically Inept Fighter: Compared to its strong 112 Attack, its Special Attack (72) is lackluster.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: It's just shy of 3 feet tall, and it's a Lightning Bruiser with high Attack, Defense, and Speed.
- Rolling Attack: Much like Donphan and Great Tusk, Iron Treads can learn moves such as Rollout and Steel Roller.
Iron Bundle (Tetsu no Tsutsumi)
0991: Iron Bundle / Tetsu no Tsutsumi (テツノツツミ tetsunotsutsumi)
Iron Bundle
A Pokémon from the distant future, named for the bag-like appendage it appears to have attached to it. It heavily resembles a Delibird.
- Abnormal Limb Rotation Range: Iron Bundle is able to turn its head 360 degrees in one of its idle animations.
- Armored But Frail: It has a solid 114 base Defense, but a very low 56 base HP, so moves which bypass that high Defense make short work of it.
- Badass Adorable: A tiny and cute robotic penguin whose head tends to pop up like a toy which happens to have stats on par with legendaries.
- Bad Santa: It bears a resemblance to Santa Claus like its supposed ancestor, and it's just as violent as the other Paradox Pokémon.
- Com Mons: As far as Area Zero goes, since it and Iron Hands are the most common Paradox Pokémon in Violet and can be found in all parts of the area.
- Fighting Clown: Unlike its modern day counterpart Delibird, Iron Bundle boasts a high base Speed stat of 136 (beating others like Flutter Mane, Koraidon, and Miraidon by just one point) and high Special Attack and Defense stats.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: From a plucky postal bird to a malicious robot whose threat level is treated as on par with the Ultra Beasts.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: A roundabout version. Quark Drive gives it a whopping 50% boost to Speed on Electric Terrain. Electric Terrain also boosts the power of Electric type moves (which it is weak to) by 30%. Combined with Electric types tending towards being Special Attackers and Iron Bundle being Weak to Magic, Quark Drive can end up being a Power Up Let Down.
- An Ice Person: It's part Ice-type, much like its present-day relative.
- Killer Rabbit: In Violet, Penny mistakes one for an ordinary Delibird and almost gets harmed when she approaches what she thinks is just a cute creature.
- Lightning Bruiser: In huge contrast to its mediocre present-day counterpart, Iron Bundle has very high Defense, Special Attack, and Speed, balanced out by its poor HP and Special Defense.
- Mage Killer: Inverted; it’s a Fighter Killer. Iron Bundle has very high Defense and Special Attack, making it excellent at battling physically-oriented Pokémon that typically have lower Sp. Defense, but its Attack and Special Defense are considerably less impressive.
- Making a Splash: It's part Water-type, based on aquatic birds and able to learn moves like Chilling Water and Hydro Pump.
- Mechanical Lifeforms: It's speculated by a paranormal magazine that this Pokémon may be the robotic byproduct of an ancient civilization long ago.
- Took a Level in Badass: Its Delibird ancestors are pitifully weak creatures designed around a highly limited gimmick, but Iron Bundle with its new Ice/Water typing, combined with its higher stats and better movepool, can easily give Legendary Pokémon a run for their money.
- Weak to Magic: Its Special Defense is only 60, compared to its higher physical Defense of 114.
Iron Hands (Tetsu no Kaina)
0992: Iron Hands / Tetsu no Kaina (テツノカイナ tetsunokaina)
Iron Hands
A Pokémon from the distant future, named after its massive hands. It appears to resemble Hariyama.
- Bare-Fisted Monk: It's part Fighting-type, much like its present-day relative.
- Com Mons: As far as Area Zero goes, since it and Iron Bundle are the most common Paradox Pokémon in Violet and can be found in all parts of the area.
- Confusion Fu: It has a surprising amount of coverage in its movepool: alongside its Electric and Fighting type and associated attacks, it can also learn Ice, Fire, Ground, Rock, Fairy, Normal, and Steel attacks, meaning that it's able to effectively counter all but Ghost and Fairy types (which, as a partial Fighting type, it has no business trying to fight anyways).
- Floating Limbs: Iron Hands' hands are detached from the rest of its body, although they stick back to its body when it sleeps.
- Magically Inept Fighter: Iron Hands' Attack is very high, but its base Special Attack is a poor base 50.
- Mighty Glacier: Iron Hands has monstrously high HP and Attack, and high Defense, but its Speed is low.
- Power Fist: Much like its ancestor, it has gigantic hands to smash enemies with.
- Shock and Awe: It's part Electric-type, able to learn moves like Thunder Punch and Wild Charge.
- We Can Rebuild Him: A paranormal magazine claims that it's actually an athlete who was converted into a cyborg after an accident.
- Weak Against Magic: Iron Hands has a high base 108 Defense stat, but a poor base 68 Special Defense stat, giving it a critical weakness against special-based moves.
Iron Jugulis (Tetsu no Koube)
0993: Iron Jugulis / Tetsu no Koube (テツノコウベ tetsunokoube)
Iron Jugulis
A Pokémon from the distant future, named after its three heads. It resembles Hydreigon.
- Blow You Away: It's part Flying-type, and can learn Hurricane, Air Slash, and Tailwind.
- Casting a Shadow: It's able to learn Dark Pulse.
- Combat Pragmatist: Downplayed. It's part Dark-type, much like its present-day relative; however, it lacks most of the Dark-type moves that emphasize the pragmatic nature of the typing.
- Dub Name Change: Its Japanese name translates literally into "Iron Head", which became the more fantastical "Iron Jugulis" in English, likely due to Iron Head already being the name of a move. This wasn't a problem in Japanese, where this Pokémon's name translates into "Iron Head" while the move's name is "Iron Head" in Gratuitous English.
- Glowing Mechanical Eyes: Exaggerated; the entire upper jaw of each of its heads is an LED screen that turns off when it falls asleep.
- Irony: Despite being a Violet exclusive, it's based on Hydreigon, who is a Scarlet exclusive.
- Lightning Bruiser: Iron Jugulis has very good Special Attack and Speed, and its defenses are only average at worst.
- Multiple Head Case: Like its ancestor, it has three heads (with the side heads now being detached floating drones instead of "arms"), though no detail is given on whether only the central head controls everything like with Hydreigon. Unlike with Hydreigon, the eyes on its secondary heads can emote, for what it's worth.
- Non-Malicious Monster: Despite being descended from the notoriously-temperamental Hydreigon, Iron Jugulis is the only future Paradox Pokémon to not be immediately aggressive.
- Odd Name Out: Iron Jugulis is the only Paradox Pokémon whose English name includes a made-up word, as "jugulis" is not an English term and is instead a derivative from the term jugulum (Latin for "throat" or "neck", same root as "jugular vein"). This was likely because the direct translation, "Iron Head", was already taken by a move (which, amusingly, Iron Jugulis can actually learn).
- Our Dragons Are Different: Much like Charizard and Gyarados, it's not Dragon-type, but it is based on Hydreigon and learns most of the same Dragon-type moves that it does.
- Robosexual: There is a paranormal magazine that speculates that it might be the offspring of a Hydreigon and a machine it somehow mated with.
Iron Moth (Tetsu no Dokuga)
0994: Iron Moth / Tetsu no Dokuga (テツノドクガ tetsunodokuga)
Iron Moth
A Pokémon from the distant future named for its vague resemblance to a moth. It looks quite a bit like Volcarona.
- Achilles' Heel: Iron Moth takes quadruple damage from Ground-type attacks.
- Alien Invasion: Speculated to be a hostile alien UFO of some sort, observing Earth from orbit and sometimes descending to attack.
- Dub Name Change: Its Japanese name translates most literally to "Iron Poisonous/Venomous Moth," but since English trainers have had Venomoth since day one and to save text space, it was dropped in translation.
- Mechanical Insects: It is the mechanized version of Volcarona, minus the Bug-typing.
- Playing with Fire: It's part Fire-type, much like its present-day relative.
- Poisonous Person: It's part Poison-type, though it doesn't actually learn that many Poison-type moves, with its moveset being mostly similar to Volcarona's.
- Squishy Wizard: Iron Moth has incredible Special Attack, along with high Special Defense and Speed, but low Defense.
- Uniqueness Decay:
- With Iron Moth's introduction, the Salandit family are no longer the sole Poison/Fire types.
- It's now the second Fiery Dance user after Volcarona.
- Wingding Eyes: Its eyes briefly turn into X symbols when it faints.
Iron Thorns (Tetsu no Ibara)
0995: Iron Thorns / Tetsu no Ibara (テツノイバラ tetsunoibara)
Iron Thorns
A Pokémon from the distant future, named for the spikes it has on its body. It looks a lot like Tyranitar.
- Achilles' Heel: Ground-type attacks are its bane.
- Call-Back: It resembles the MT props fought in the Pokéstar Studios in Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 — more specifically, one fought in the Big Monster movie, which featured a giant, robotic Tyranitar.
- Dishing Out Dirt: It's part Rock-type, much like its present-day relative.
- Face of a Thug: Iron Thorns looks like a robotic Tyranitar and is just as intimidating. However, the magazine "Occulture" claims that it's calm and prefers to avoid conflict, in contrast to Tyranitar's insolent, destructive Blood Knight nature.
- Fire, Ice, Lightning: It notably has access to all elemental fang attacks, all elemental punch attacks, Flamethrower/Ice Beam/Thunderbolt, and Fire Blast/Blizzard/Thunder, though it can't really make use of the last two trios well due to its low Special Attack, especially the Electric side as it would have granted it STAB.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: Iron Thorns is stated to be calmer than Tyranitar and to avoid unnecessary conflict, but it's as aggressive as most of the other Paradox Pokémon on the overworld.
- Genius Bruiser: Iron Thorns is said to be calmer and more intelligent than Tyranitar, and it's just as strong.
- Irony: Despite being a Violet exclusive, it's based on Tyranitar, who is a Scarlet exclusive.
- It's also more of a physical brute that can make use of any physical attacks (including the Elemental Fangs and Punches), compared to its present-day ancestor who's far more balanced overall that can make use of Flamethrower, Thunderbolt, and Ice Beam (and their stronger-but-less accurate counterparts) on top of the Fangs and Punches (while still being mostly physical based).
- Magically Inept Fighter: Its Special Attack is its lowest stat, adding to the Irony above, as it can't make use of Flamethrower, Thunderbolt, nor Ice Beam, nor their stronger counterparts (the middle which grants STAB), forcing Iron Thorns to go completely physical.
- Mighty Glacier: Iron Thorns has very high Attack, great HP and Defense, and above average Special Defense, at the cost of having below average Speed (though it's slightly faster than it's present-day counterpart, much like it's Mega Evolution).
- Shock and Awe: It's part Electric-type, able to learn moves like Wild Charge, Thunder Punch, Thunder Fang and Thunderbolt.
- Shout-Out: Like Duraladon and the aforementioned MT props, this robotic Tyranitar serves as one to Mechagodzilla. The shiny coloration plays it even straighter by being silver colored.
- Uniqueness Decay: The Alolan Geodude family are no longer the only Pokémon to have the Rock and Electric type combination.
Iron Valiant (Tetsu no Bujin)
1006: Iron Valiant / Tetsu no Bujin (テツノブジン tetsunobujin)
Iron Valiant
A Pokémon from the distant future, named after its knight-like appearance. It resembles both Gardevoir and Gallade, including elements of both their base and Mega Evolved forms.
- Affably Evil: While a bloodthirsty fighting machine, it still bows in respect to its trainer when spoken to like its modern day counterparts.
- All Your Powers Combined: It combines the physical traits and most of the ability traits of not just Gallade and Gardevoir, but their Mega Evolutions as well. It has Gallade's thick legs, disc-shaped waist, and its light blue headcrest, while the glowing red arm blades are taken from its Mega-Evolved form. From Gardevoir, it has taken its facial structure and "hairstyle", with the dress parts taken from its Mega Evolution. Like both Mega Gardevoir and Mega Gallade, its upper torso is white instead of green. Power-wise, its typing is a combination of both Pokémon's secondary types, though it can also learn Psychic-type moves, along with merging the Attack spec of Gallade and Special Attack spec of Gardevoir into being a Magic Knight. Its cries also sound like a mix of Gardevoir's and Gallade's mixed in with the Future Paradox sound that the "Iron" mons have.
- Badass Longcoat: Has one as part of its body, evoking both Gardevoir's dress and Mega Gallade's cape, and it's a powerful warrior.
- Bare-Fisted Monk: It's part Fighting-type, much like one of its present-day relatives.
- Bioweapon Beast: A paranormal magazine postulates that a Mad Scientist might have created it, but due to the dubious nature of the magazine, it's likely untrue.
- Blade Below the Shoulder: Has red blades extending from its arms resembling those of Mega Gallade. It can also detach them and combine them into a handheld Double Weapon.
- Call-Back: While not as obvious as its Scarlet counterpart Roaring Moon, Iron Valiant takes design cues from its ancestors' Mega Evolved forms, most noticeably in its white upper torso and red arm blades.
- Confusion Fu: It has inherited its ancestors' expansive movesets, and its excellent attacking stats means that it can make use of all of the moves regardless of whether it's Physical or Special. It's almost always an offensive Pokémon due to its bad defensive stats, so it's not a Master of All, but seeing an Iron Valiant on the opposing team won't do anything to help you determine whether it will hit you from the physical or special side (or both), nor what types are safe to send into it.
- Double Weapon: Can detach and combine its arm blades into a double-ended sword.
- Epic Fail: A in-universe magazine presents the idea that it was designed to create the ultimate Psychic type. Not only is it a Fairy/Fighting type, the latter type makes it weak to Psychic, and its poor Special Defense means most Psychic attacks will deal heavy damage regardless of its weakness.
- Evil Counterpart: It resembles a mixture of Gardevoir and Gallade, but lacks their empathy and heroic qualities, though as seen under Jerk with a Heart of Gold below, not all of its empathy was robbed.
- The Fair Folk: Possesses a part Fairy-type and appears to be an honorable warrior like its present day counterparts, but its viciousness and cruelty show that Iron Valiant is anything but.
- Glass Cannon: Iron Valiant sports excellent offensive stats and Speed, but it's balanced out by below average HP (which is slightly better than Gardevoir's and Gallade's base 68 HP stat) and low Special Defense. Its physical Defense is decent, but it's still not very bulky on that side.
- Irony: According to the paranormal magazine Occulture (located in the laboratory under the Poco Path Lighthouse), the Mad Scientist who made it intended to make it the ultimate Psychic-type, the only typing it didn't get from being a combination of Gardevoir and Gallade. For extra irony, it is even weak to it, a problem not helped by its poor Special Defense, which adds a third ironic point as both of its counterparts have a good Special Defense stat.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: It's ordinarily a violent brawler and a major far cry from the otherwise more conventionally heroic personas of its ancestors, but under the command of a capable Trainer who proves their worth, Iron Valiant does possess the capacity to be friendly and affectionate, implying that not all of its empathy was robbed during its conversion. It's best seen during a picnic, where its eyes may occasionally change appearance to look like it's happy, making it look oddly adorable.
- Light Is Not Good: It may look like a mechanical mixture of two of the series' most chivalrous and empathic Pokémon, but it's a ruthless being that won't hesitate to cut down its enemies with its shining blade.
- Magic Knight: Almost literally. Iron Valiant has excellent Attack and Special Attack, with its Attack being slightly higher, and it has both Fairy and Fighting types (the former is geared more towards special attacks, the latter is geared more towards physical attacks).
- Our Fairies Are Different: It's part Fairy-type, much like one of its present-day relatives.
- Pre-Final Boss: Iron Valiant is the final Pokémon of AI Turo's team, and is directly succeeded by the Post-Final Boss fight against the other Miraidon. Appropriately, like its Scarlet counterpart Roaring Moon, it has a higher Base Stat Total than other Paradox Pokémon of its version, is the only one based on Mega Evolutions, and is listed later in the Pokédex alongside the game's legendaries.
- Psycho Pink: Iron Valiant has pink accents and is known to be a merciless warrior.
- Recurring Element: Iron Valiant being claimed to be an artifical creation in an attempt to create the ultimate Psychic-type Pokémon makes it similar to Mewtwo, Genesect, and Silvally before it, who were artificially created with similar goals of creating the most powerful Pokémon. Though unlike them, whether or not Iron Valiant was actually created for this purpose is speculative at best.
- Robot Hair: It has two small metal pigtails that resemble Poppi α.
- Robot Wizard: Despite being a robot-like entity, it is part-Fairy, the type most associated with magic. It also does learn a few Special-based Fairy moves naturally.
- Square Race, Round Class: A mild example, but its massive physical attack stat is not very helpful with its Fairy typing, as it does not learn the best Fairy-type physical move, Play Rough, limiting its usefulness as a full physical attacker. The only physical Fairy move it gets is Spirit Break, which is slightly weaker but more accurate and also lowers the enemy's Special Attack, a benefit not completely lost on Iron Valiant.
- Uniqueness Decay: It learns Spirit Break, which was exclusive to Grimmsnarl in the previous generation. Which is rather fitting for a merciless cold-hearted warrior like Iron Valiant.
- Ultimate Life Form: According to a rumor thought up by the Occulture magazine, it was meant to be the ultimate Psychic-type, a typing that it lacks completely without Terastallizing into it.
- Useless Useful Spell: Iron Valiant learns Skill Swap, which switches the passive Ability of the user and target, and can enable some pretty scary strategies in the hands of a clever Trainer. However, certain Abilities will cause Skill Swap to fail if either the user or target has them… and one of them is Quark Drive, the only Ability that Iron Valiant can have. Oops.
- Weak to Magic: It has a poor Special Defense base stat of 60, which is a huge contrast to its counterparts.note
Post-Release
In General
A trio of Pokémon from the distant future that heavily resemble the Swords of Justice sans Keldeo.
- Ambiguously Related: It is unclear if any of them is supposed to be the Imagined Pokémon depicted in the Violet Book, since while the creature in the Violet Book is a combination between the members of the Swords of Justice sans Keldeo, each of them only resemble a single member of the Swords of Justice. The official website makes mention of the Violet Book's creature possibly having some kind of connection to Iron Leaves, but likewise draws no conclusions.
- Psychic Powers: All of them are part Psychic-type replacing the Fighting-type of their modern-day counterparts.
Iron Leaves (Tetsu no Isaha)
1010: Iron Leaves / Tetsu no Isaha (テツノイサハ tetsunoisaha)
Iron Leaves
A Pokémon from the distant future noted for the leaf-like appendages on to its neck and its metal-like skin texture. It heavily resembles Virizion.- Absurdly Sharp Blade: According to its Violet Dex entry, it can julienne (That is, cut into thin strips) large trees and boulders.
- Achilles' Heel: Bug-type attacks will flatten it with ease.
- Green Thumb: Like Virizion, it's part Grass-type.
- Lightning Bruiser: Iron Leaves is fast, hits hard, and is very durable.
- Mage Killer: Iron Leaves has high Special Defense and Attack for attacking Squishy Wizards with weak Defense.
- Magically Inept Fighter: Iron Leaves' high base 130 Attack is contrasted with its base 70 Special Attack.
- Master Swordsman: Much like its ancestor, Iron Leaves utilizes lots of slicing and slashing moves, with its Secret Art being a very powerful Psychic-type slash that hits even harder in Electric Terrain.
- Permanently Missable Content: Played with — Walking Wake and Iron Leaves were both initially distributed as special, limited time Tera Raids. While they were brought back later (with the promise of bringing them back again after), they are easy to miss if you don't have access to the online features and if you do capture them, they cannot be re-obtained by any means afterward (making it unwise to trade them away). If you haven't obtained them before their deadline is up, then you're out of luck until the next time the game decides to distribute them.
- Retractable Weapon: The pink glowing parts of its head and neck extend into sword-like Natural Weapons when attacking.
- Secret Art: It's the only Pokémon to learn the move Psyblade, a Psychic-type move that increases in power under Electric Terrain. It's also the only damaging Psychic-type move it can learn.
- Secret Character: Despite not being a Mythical Pokémon, Iron Leaves cannot be obtained ingame, and can only be caught in event raids. For this reason, it's listed after Terapagos and the other two members of its group as though it were a Mythical Pokemon, and is therefore not required to obtain rewards.
Iron Boulder (Tetsu no Iwao)
1022: Iron Boulder / Tetsu no Iwao (テツノイワオ "tetsunoiwao")
Iron Boulder
A Pokémon from the distant future named after its Rock-typing. It heavily resembles Terrakion.
- Bifurcated Weapon: Iron Boulder's horns turn into a single massive sword when attacking.
- Call-Back: Its Scarlet Pokédex description of being (in a in-universe fictional article) a Unova Pokémon being cybernetically modified by an evil organization is a reference to Genesect's creation by Team Plasma.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Like Terrakion, Iron Boulder is part Rock-type.
- Lightning Bruiser: Iron Boulder has high Attack and Speed, and above-average defenses.
- Magically Inept Fighter: Iron Boulder's high base 120 Attack is contrasted with its base 68 Special Attack.
- Secret Art: Iron Boulder is the only Pokémon that learns Mighty Cleave, a move that bypasses Protect and other similar defensive moves.
Iron Crown (Tetsu no Kashira)
1023: Iron Crown / Tetsu no Kashira (テツノカシラ tetsunokashira)
Iron Crown
A Pokémon from the distant future named for its horns and leader status. It heavily resembles Cobalion.
- Dub Name Change: Its Japanese name is "Tetsu no Kashira". Much like Iron Jugulis's Japanese name, this translates literally to "Iron Head". This presents difficulties, since there's already a Steel-type move called "Iron Head".
- Extra-ore-dinary: Like Cobalion, it's part Steel-type.
- Lightning Bruiser: Iron Crown has excellent Special Attack and defenses, and great Speed, with its worst stat being Attack.
- Secret Art: It's the only Pokémon to learn Tachyon Cutter, a Steel-type move that never misses and is guaranteed to hit twice.
- Stealth Pun: "Head" can also be taken to mean "leader", referring to Cobalion's status as the leader of the Swords of Justice.
- Sword Beam: Fires shining blades from its horns.
