Pokémon The Alola Pokedex

[Persephone]

Pelipper (Wingull)

Overview

A handful of species have established nearly global ranges. For the most part these are small and hardy pokémon. Few have the power or majesty to attract worship. Yet pelipper plays a central role in several world mythologies and have earned the fear and respect of sailors the world over.

Pelipper are widespread and worshipped because of their almost unique ability to manipulate wind and rain. In the wild, they congregate in groups of hundreds or thousands and beat their wings and use water attacks in coordination. This can change wind currents and bring rain. Some captive pelipper have been taught to do something similar on their own, albeit on a much smaller scale.

Alolan mythology holds that pelipper came to Alola alongside humans. Indeed, there is some evidence that Polynesian cultures may have tamed pelipper as hunting companions in much the same way canine and feline pokémon were tamed and used elsewhere.

The parallels to dogs and cats are easy to see. Pelipper are social and relatively intelligent. Wild pelipper do not have clear hierarchies, but their communal nature makes them adapt well to captivity. They eat many of the same fish species as humans and can learn to hunt in tandem. However, they have never been properly domesticated anywhere in the world. While pelipper can respect and use humans they are proud and unruly and even the most docile refuse to submit completely to anyone, bird or human.

The attributes listed above make them a decent choice pokémon for beginning trainers. They also make for an excellent gateway to raising and battling with flying-types, although it should be noted that pelipper generally do not get along with other species of birds.

Physiology

Wingull have rather simple builds. They have long, flat, and straight wings. These are useful for gliding and catching thermal updrafts. Wingull beaks tend to be about as long as their core body. They have short trains of several long, blue feathers.

The core body of a wingull is rather small and contains a short digestive tract, heart, and air cavity. This cavity functions as both lungs and a swim bladder. Curiously, wingull do not need to breathe. Instead they can intake air from small slits beside their beak and release it through similar slits on the posterior. They can only do this while flying. While grounded or swimming, they must breathe through their beak. Due to the small size of their air cavity wingull cannot hold their breath for long. As such wingull seen out of flight will usually be gaping with their beak wide open.

The vast majority of a pelipper’s body is made up of their bill and supporting organs. The Alolan pelipper’s bill is pink and looks like a large scoop, with the upper half of the bill forming a nearly flat lid. Pelipper do not have a proper stomach. Instead, they pump digestive acids into the bill itself and digest it there. Because of this pelipper have to land shortly after filling their bill with food in order to safely digest it without the risk of acid sloshing outside of their very durable bill. A pelipper with a full beak is also quite heavy, making it difficult to fly even with aerokinesis. Pelipper’s lungs are much stronger than wingull and allow them to breathe even if their mouth is closed for several hours. Their nostrils are located beneath their eyes.

Pelipper have waterproof pale blue feathers. They have short, thin legs and webbed feet. Unlike most other subspecies, the Alolan pelipper has a trail of feathers that it uses to sense the wind. Alolan pelipper also have a much longer wingspan and wing surface area than any other subspecies. As the largest and heaviest subspecies, they need large wings to catch air currents and stay aloft. Between these changes, the Alolan pelipper looks more like a conventional bird of prey than other subspecies do. There is a theory, preliminarily supported by DNA tests, that the pelipper in Alola may have had widespread interbreeding with toucannon and mantine in the past. At present wild pelipper infrequently leave their flock to mate with another species of bird pokémon. The resulting offspring are sometimes reproductively viable and are often accepted into a pelipper flock if they wish to join.

Pelipper can have a wingspan of up to 1.8 meters and a mass of 30 kilograms. They usually live for eight to twelve years in the wild and up to twenty in captivity.

Behavior

Individual pelipper have moderately powerful aerokinesis and water elemental abilities. In large groups they can combine their gusts to form large, powerful storms that have minimal impact on individual pelipper. It is unclear exactly how they manage this coordination as they do not appear to possess a hivemind and, while intelligent, there are far smarter birds that cannot coordinate as well as pelipper can.

Pelipper’s storms are their primary means of hunting. Their preferred food are wishiwashi. Turbulent waters disrupt wishiwashi’s ability to school, making it hard for them to defend against pelipper scooping them up. Other surface-dwelling fish such as finneon and luvdisc are also often unable to navigate well during pelipper storms.

The Alolan pelipper is more audacious in confronting other birds than any other tropical subspecies. They will often swarm the rookeries where migrating birds congregate. Roughly two-thirds of the flock will keep up a powerful storm to ground or disorient the adult birds. The rest will swoop in and try to make off with eggs or young birds. Braviary are generally able to power through the winds and can easily take down a pelipper. Mandibuzz have taken to roosting further inland or placing their nest inside of a crevice or other area difficult for pelipper to reach. Hawlucha and delibird have fewer adaptations, forcing them to live within the same range as braviary or dragons to stand a chance.

Pelipper have a few predators themselves. Talonflame are skilled fliers that mind water far less than other fire-types. They are known to kill pelipper for food and sport. Vikavolt show a particular resentment towards pelipper and hodad will sometimes cull pelipper colonies that get too brash. Pelipper are salamence’s favorite prey; there is very little even a flock of pelipper can do against a large airborne dragon.

The Alolan pelipper is the only subspecies that does not rest in cliff faces or trees. Instead a flock descends upon a beach and makes itself at home. On most days scores of pelipper can be seen wandering around Hau’oli Beach. They sometimes wander into the city to explore. If provoked pelipper rear up and start flapping their wings while honking as loud as they can. This summons more pelipper who engage in the same behavior. Grounded pelipper are not particularly strong but this scares off most predators that attempt to attack their nesting grounds.

If intimidation does not scare predators away some pelipper will spew the acidic, partially digested content of their bills at the attacker. Because this costs them a meal it is a last resort.

Husbandry

It is best to obtain a pelipper as either an egg or a wingull. They will be ornery regardless, but the younger a pelipper is exposed to humans the less aggressive it will be. Generally, pelipper are tolerant of their own trainer after a few days, weeks or months of adjustment. They will also usually harass any other human they come across using the method detailed in the Behavior section.

Pelipper are perfectly tolerant of pokéballs during the night and the bulk of the day. They prefer to be fed in the morning and be given a few hours to sit still and digest food. When necessary, pelipper feedings can be pushed back until the afternoon or evening to allow for a morning battle. However, they will be somewhat aggressive until fed. Wingull are more tolerant of their pokéball than pelipper and are far more tolerant of varying feeding schedules.

Wingull and pelipper should be fed diets consisting largely of fish, poultry and eggs. Some wingull enjoy berries, but the birds cannot digest them well enough to be primarily herbivorous. Pelipper tend not to enjoy anything but meat and eggs. They should be fed roughly half the volume of their bill every day and the full volume after strenuous battles or training.

Once a pelipper has adapted to having a trainer they will typically demand nearly all of their trainer’s time when they are outside of their pokéball. They do not tend to play with other pokémon aside from other wingull or pelipper. As such many pelipper trainers find it easier to keep a mated pair than an individual.

Pelipper are clever. However, their lack of a functional beak or talons means that most bird enrichment items will not work for them. Some trainers have reported that pelipper will push around and harass a beach ball for hours at a time treating it like a living organism intruding upon their territory. In general visually interesting objects or items a pelipper can shove away make for the best toys.

Wingull are even more curious and playful than pelipper. They also have a much more useful beak. Puzzle items that require manipulation to obtain treats are always popular with the gulls. Small eggs or seeds make for good rewards. Wingull can also be target-trained, biting at items in exchange for food. More than anything, wingull enjoy being allowed to fly around an area and explore it. However there are many predators willing to attack a solitary wingull. If a wingull is allowed to explore they must be supervised (ideally by an electric- or ice-type that can scare other birds away).

Wingull and pelipper do not have an anus. Instead, they dispose of waste by regurgitating it. Wingull can be housebroken and taught to do so outside or in a specific location. If they did not learn as a wingull, pelipper will refuse to learn on principle. Because their digestive processes are not particularly efficient, a pelipper can produce a lot of waste. Trainers of non-housebroken pelipper should be prepared to have to clean it up at inconvenient times and in inconvenient places.

Illness

Because their beak is not good for grooming, pelipper struggle to keep parasites at bay. In the wild the fierce storms pelipper fly in clear away lice and fleas.Captive pelipper that have not learned how to create a storm on their own do not have this advantage. It is important for trainers to brush their pelipper once every two to four days. Unfortunately, pelipper have a strong dislike for having their feathers touched even by trusted humans. But an unbrushed pelipper will quickly develop disease or feather problems that make it harder for them to swim or fly. While these can be medically treated, it is ultimately easier to just regularly groom your pelipper, however unpleasant it may be for everyone involved.

Evolution

Pelipper has a combination of normal growth and flash evolution. Wingull steadily increase in size after birth. After they gain enough experience with flight, aerokinesis and their environment, they undergo flash evolution into a pelipper of roughly the same mass. They then steadily grow until they reach their final size.

In captivity, wingull evolution can be sped up by providing them with plenty of toys and chances to explore. Learning new moves and battling also accelerate the process. Conversely, an everstone can keep a wingull from evolving. There is some evidence that wingull learn skills more readily than pelipper and they are generally easier to keep in line. Some trainers have kept their wingull from evolving for the full course of their life with no apparent side effects. However, pelipper are far better battlers. Trainers on an island challenge should evolve their wingull at the first opportunity.

Battle

Pelipper are far less powerful on their own than in a flock. The Alolan pelipper’s size makes it better at fighting alone than most subspecies but it will still take extensive training to teach one to summon and control storms. This is the primary advantage of capturing a wild pelipper; they will have been taught by other pelipper since birth how to master the winds. Trainers willing to exchange more hardships in husbandry for a simpler training process should keep this in mind.

There are many other pokémon that can alter the weather on small temporal and spatial scales. Some, such as castform and politoed, are even better than pelipper at summoning rain. But pelipper is the only pokémon in Alola that can instinctively whip up a full storm, gale-force winds and all. Other birds can be taught to summon rain and provide wind on their own, but their rain tends to take longer to summon and then falters shortly after they leave the field. When all of this is taken together, pelipper is easily the best cornerstone for rain teams on the competitive circuit.

Pelipper functions as an arena-controlling zoner in battle. They take to the skies and spend most of their time and effort controlling their storm. When they must attack directly they fire off water-attacks or manipulate gusts of wind into striking their opponent. A skilled pelipper trainer will only have their pokémon land to use roost. Most pelipper on the competitive battling scene carry toxic and scald to wear down opponents over time.

Pelipper still have two glaring weaknesses. Electric-types can usually target and knock them out easily and pelipper have few options for defending against thunderbolts. They are also not fast movers on the ground and must be in the air to control their storm. Once the first thunderbolt knocks them down to earth, they can very seldom get back up before they are knocked out entirely. The second weakness is to more imposing birds or dragons. As in the wild braviary, talonflame and salamence can usually fly through a pelipper’s storm and land a quick knockout in close-quarters combat.

In addition to their role as a rain-setter pelipper are good at taking down teams that only have a rock or ice type as their bird check. However the recent rise of vikavolt has been horrible for pelipper and for rain teams as a whole.

It is extremely unlikely that a trainer on the island challenge can teach a pelipper to summon a full storm before they complete all of the trials. Pelipper are neither bulky nor powerful enough to hold their own after the second island. They still make for excellent pets after the challenge ends but trainers should manage their expectations during the actual challenge itself.

Absent a full storm pelipper function as relatively bulky but weak birds. They should try to stay in the air as much as possible and rely on wind and water attacks to take down opponents from a distance. If they do get knocked down pelipper have few good options up close. Their main defense mechanism in the wild, regurgitation, requires feeding the pelipper a large meal before battle. This keeps them from flying and also only works once. As such it is not a particularly good strategy. Toxic and scald are the best moves for the amateur’s pelipper. Whirlwind is an option for warding off losing matchups. Despite these tricks, when pelipper find themselves at a disadvantage they often lose spectacularly and quickly. It is unlikely they have a chance to land a whirlwind.

Wingull play very differently from pelipper. Generally they will need to get up close and strike with their beak. Wingull also have rather weak wings and need assistance to get into the air. The solution to this is that a trainer should toss their wingull at the start of the match. Then all effort should be put into making sure the wingull stays airborne. A grounded wingull can still often hold their own against weaker opponents through intimidation displays and pecks but they are much less useful than a wingull able to circle their opponent and wait for the opportune moment to strike.

Acquisition

Wingull and pelipper are found on practically every beach in Alola, except for areas where braviary are actively breeding. They also avoid the black sand beaches on Ula’Ula. Wingull require a Class I license to adopt or purchase and a Class II license to capture. Pelipper require a Class III license to capture, adopt or purchase. Trainers should be warned that approaching a pelipper flock with the intent of capturing a wingull or pelipper will likely lead to a confrontation with the entire flock. It is best to pick on isolated pelipper off exploring.

Wingull that have grown accustomed to captivity generally fare poorly in the wild. Some pelipper owners eventually decide cleaning up after their pet is more trouble than it’s worth. As such there are usually wingull and pelipper in the major pokémon shelters. These birds will also have already acclimated to people and been housebroken (if possible). The easiest way to obtain a wingull or pelipper is to adopt one.

Alternatively, the Seafolk sell pelipper that are trained to manipulate winds on their own. They typically charge between $5,000 and $10,000 for one. This prices out most trainers on an island challenge, but established trainers who want to explore rain teams may be interested.

Breeding

Pelipper mate for life. Generally a male interested in a female will go out and hunt well before dawn, before the flock wakes and conducts their own hunt. The male will fill up their bill with fish but not begin digesting it. They will then swim to shore (it is usually too difficult to fly solo with a full beak). The male will find their prospective mate and present them with the catch. If the female accepts it, they will begin to stay close to each other at all times, seldom getting more than 15 meters apart.

Pelipper breed at the height of rainy season, typically in January or February. Most migratory birds are absent at this time. The female lays a single egg each season. The parents will spend most of their time huddled around the egg. If small predators approach one parent will leave to harass them away. If a large predator is spotted near the flock half of the birds will take to the air and attempt to force them away. The other half will guard the eggs. Similarly, half of the flock will leave each morning to hunt. They will then share part of their catch with the partner watching the egg. Males and females alternate hunting and defense duties.

It is impossible to identify the sex of a pelipper or wingull without very close examination of their genitals. This is best done by a veterinarian while the bird is under anesthesia. The procedure is viewed as elective and nurses at public centers will charge for it. Unless a trainer wishes to breed their pelipper it is easiest to just randomly assign a gender. The pelipper will not understand or mind.

Trainers who do wish to breed their pelipper are encouraged to get their pokémon tested. Then they should adopt or purchase a pelipper of the opposite sex. The male should be given the chance to hunt on their own until they court the female. Females are pregnant for roughly three weeks before laying their egg, which will take another month to hatch. Once the egg has been laid neither member of the pair should be withdrawn into their pokéball or disturbed outside of feedings.

Pelipper are devoted parents to their wingull for the first two months. The parents will behave very aggressively towards anyone except for their trainer during this time and one should always be outside of their pokéball with the child. Around the two month mark the parents will begin losing interest and the wingull will become essentially independent. Normal husbandry routines may be resumed at this time.

Subspecies

Most of the eight subspecies of pelipper are rather similar to the Alolan pelipper. They have slight differences in build, color and behaviors to adapt to their environments, prey and predators. Only one is particularly notable.

The blessed, or African, pelipper is the most migratory subspecies. They seldom settle down for long, preferring to constantly travel across the continent bringing heavy rains. The blessed pelipper flies at night and collects moisture. Their wingbeats and winds can sound like drums and whispers, respectively. One of the oldest pelipper in the flock stays above the clouds, occasionally dipping down to communicate with the others. It is believed that this elder is navigating by starlight. Just before dawn, the flock abruptly stops and circles in place. They unleash all collected moisture in a single, powerful rain. Then individual members of the flock begin to swoop down and pick on anything scurrying for shelter. They also scavenge any fire types killed by the torrent.

The blessed pelipper rests during the day. They are the most curious and intelligent subspecies and some individuals will wander to nearby settlements to exchange songs. The blessed pelipper is very skilled at manipulating sound using their throat pouches and they have a very good individual and collective memory. Anthropologists have taken to eavesdropping on blessed pelipper flocks to learn long-forgotten words and ancient melodies.

Once a year, all of the blessed pelipper fly to Mt. Kilimanjaro. They intermingle and breed there. Members are exchanged between flocks and, at the end of breeding season, they all rise above the Serengeti in one massive swarm of birds before dispersing again. One female remains on the mountain and waits there for the rest to return.

 

[Persephone]

Alakazam (Abra, Kadabra)
Medicus magicae

Overview

Pokémon are generally considered to be separate from other lifeforms based on their ability to manipulate elements. In essence, there is one set of physics and biology that binds humans and other animals and a whole separate set that governs pokémon.

As with everything in nature that clean binary gets messier the more it’s examined. Some pokémon are so similar to baseline plants or animals that only genetic testing has marked them as pokémon. And some humans can do things that violate simple biological explanation. The most notable subgroup of these elemental humans are the psychics. Human psychics are split into nearly a dozen subclasses. Scientific research as to how and why psychic powers work is still a new field. But the psychics themselves are not new. In ancient times, they were viewed as priests of the gods and played outsized roles in court politics. There is some evidence that psychics played a major role in the early domestication and taming of pokémon.

They also played a key role in the spread of alakazam.

Alakazam possess an incredible intellect. They are also some of the most powerful telepaths in the world. Yet alakazam’s greatest gifts hold them back in the wild. From their final evolution on, alakzam scan the minds of everyone around them. They reflexively store most of this information and almost never forget any of it. But the more information an alakazam has stored, the less quickly they can process all of it. Alakazam are also deeply afraid of making poor decisions and looking foolish so they check their entire memory for relevant information before acting. As such an elderly alakazam can stand motionless for hours or even days before making even a simple decision.

Humans can be very helpful in this regard. They can make most of the short-term decisions for an alakazam. If the decision leads to a bad result, the alakazam sees themselves as virtually blameless and they feel only mild shame from it. In exchange alakazam make for fearsome protectors, powerful telepaths and very wise advisers. Because alakazam are constantly sifting through the thoughts and memories of everyone around them only natural psychics can withstand their presence for long enough to gain their trust. All others will develop horrible migraines and, if exposed for months on end, cancer or dementia.

Because of their utility to psychics and psychics’ prominent role in early civilization, alakazam were traded between courts and brought by conquerors to their new lands. In time, captive alakazam spread throughout most of Asia and established small populations around court centers in Europe and Africa. In the wild they are still limited to areas with either large silver deposits or a long lineage of alakazam that have left their spoons behind.

Alola’s silver deposits are so small and diluted that commercial mining is infeasible. Alakazam were also introduced less than a century ago. These factors sharply limit the size and range of the population to a handful of small, uninhabited islands and the city of Hau’oli. The former site has several active mineshafts that let abra get below the surface and begin sifting for silver. The latter has an abundance of silver that can be stolen. As such abra are usually seen as a pest species in Alola.

There have been serious discussions of culling the wild population and imposing a mandatory genetic registry of existing alakazam. These efforts have never moved past the proposal stage. It is extremely difficult to capture an abra and even harder to kill one. In practice, only psychics and baseline humans with highly specialized (and expensive) equipment can do so. Alakazam have a history of destroying said equipment when they learn about it. Human psychics are often reluctant to help destroy a pool of potential partners.

Trainers who test beneath a 150 on a PSY test are strongly discouraged from training abra. But if you happen to have psychic gifts, alakazam should be seriously considered as a partner.

Physiology

All stages of the evolutionary line are classified as pure psychic-types. This ruling is not controversial.

Abra are bipedal. Their torso, groin and feet are covered in thick, tan, leathery skin. Their arms and legs do not have as much protection and are instead covered in fine tan hairs. The skin covering their torso is either brown or, more rarely, purple.

Abra’s head is disproportionately large for their size. Most of it is also covered in tan fur. They have large eyes and vaguely feline ears. While abra mostly experience the world through telepathy they require powerful hearing to listen for the dark types they cannot psychically detect. Abra also have a long, thin tail.

Kadabra for the most part look like larger and bulkier abra, but there are a few notable differences. Kadabra have a much longer and fluffier tail. The volume of this tail usually exceeds that of the rest of their body. Kadabra gain a small ridge under their groin that appears to help with moving the tail. They also gain a set of red markings on their groin and forehead. These markings are unique for each individual. Kadabra also have much longer and sharper claws than abra do. In addition, kadabra grow a long moustache that droops down past their chin.

The main external differences between kadabra and alakazam are that the latter loses their tail and red markings. Alakazam also tend to have much larger heads than kadabra. An alakazam’s head continues to grow throughout its life. While the muscles in their frame clearly cannot support this, no stage of the evolutionary line has any particular reliance on their muscles. Sometimes a cornered kadabra or alakazam might lash out with their claws, but even these movements are powered by auto-telekinesis rather than any sort of muscles. In fact, alakazam’s musculature is only powerful enough to keep them alive and slowly moving for roughly one hour.

Alakzam grow up to five feet tall. Excluding their spoons they weigh only about fifty-five pounds. Alakazam live for about eight years in the wild or twelve in captivity.

Behavior

Wild alakazam are nocturnal and forage for fruit and root vegetables under the cover of darkness. This initially confused researchers because alakazam’s greatest threats are dark-types, which are generally nocturnal. However, this makes a degree of sense. During the day alakazam rely on their telepathy to detect threats and teleport away from them. They cannot easily read dark types, meaning that one can ambush and kill alakazam without much effort. So long as they are awake at night their vision and hearing can help them detect predators.

Abra do little but sleep and teleport away from danger, often at the same time. Sometimes they even forage while asleep by levitating or teleporting up to the canopy and telekinetically picking berries to eat. Trainers with any desire to interact with a wild abra will likely be unable to do so as any intention to approach the pokémon will be interpreted as hostility and trigger a teleport.

Kadabra are only a little less lethargic than abra. They begin actively exploring human minds shortly after evolution to pick up on information they should know. But they are still very anxious and will only approach human settlements in the dead of night. Should anyone begin to stir the kadabra will teleport away before they are detected

Unlike abra, kadabra and alakazam are fiercely territorial. Some common areas are recognized around silver deposits or human settlements. Outside of these areas every single tree is claimed by one kadabra or alakazam and one only. They will not enter the territory of another even to mate or challenge another alakazam. Instead, they will go to the border of the territory and send out telepathic waves inviting the territory’s owner to come closer. Then they will either mate or engage in a contest of minds and wills until one party backs down and cedes part of their territory. This has led to viral videos of two alakazam staring at each other for hours, or even days, with no outward signs of aggression. Do not be fooled; these alakazam are at their most dangerous. Getting near a territorial dispute will give all but the strongest of psychics powerful migraines and possible mental illness.

Kadabra and alakazam are well known for their massive silver spoons. These channel and amplify their powers. This makes alakazam the most powerful terrestrial telepaths, legendary pokémon aside. Some alakazam do forge their spoons from earth. They begin to telekinetically sift through large quantities of soil and take out the trace amounts of silver until they have enough to assemble their spoon. As their life comes to a natural end, many alakazam will bury or hide their spoons. They leave a subtle telepathic ringing in them that attracts abra in need of a spoon. About half of kadabra in Alola get their first spoon this way. Kadabra tend to create their own second spoon and leave the buried ones for abra to claim.

It is unclear exactly how alakazam turn tiny fragments of silver into a solid object. When asked the head of the Pokémon Studies department at the University of Hau’oli (an alakazam trainer himself) suggested magic. Alakazam silver is chemically different from normal silver. It is far harder to bend or break and does not corrode. There is also a popular rumor that food eaten from an alakazam’s spoon tastes better than normal. This is actually true. Sometimes an elderly alakazam will leave one or both spoons to their trainer. There is usually an understanding that they will be gifted to the alakazam’s children when it comes time for them to evolve. But the alakazam will also usually lace the spoon with telepathic waves that induce mild feelings of pleasure and satisfaction in anyone who comes into contact with them as a parting gift to their trainer.

Alakazam are rather short lived for an intelligent humanoid species; most true psychics have human-comparable life spans and several intelligent species can live for centuries. Alakazam owe their short lives to their greatest gift: their intellect. In the wild elderly alakazam become so burdened with stored information that even simple decisions about food become impossible to make before they must sleep again. Eventually wild alakazam begin to starve to death. When this time comes, they will usually set out to hide their spoons. Then they will retreat to their favorite place in their territory, sit down and stay motionless until death takes them.

Even captive alakazam tend not to live much longer. Because they usually die around eight years of age in the wild macroevolution has not selected against deformities and illnesses that kill an alakazam later on. As such, modern medicine can only rarely allow an alakzam to see their fifteenth birthday.

Husbandry

Abra can be competently raised by non-psychics, but it is a rather difficult endeavor. Non-psychic trainers are not encouraged to raise a wild-caught abra as they will probably escape at the earliest opportunity. Already tame abra are a different story as they generally recognize their trainer and stay within 30 yards at all times. They will seldom allow anyone to come closer and will simply teleport away when approached. Because of this habit they will need to be fed by placing berries in a tray and leaving them alone. Abra should be fed roughly one-tenth of their body weight each day.

Fortunately, all stages of the evolutionary line are very tolerant of pokéballs. Kadabra and alakazam will enjoy socialization time to pick up new knowledge, but abra only need to be released for feeding. Unlike oranguru, alakazam absorb information passively. They also grow more and more wary of acquiring new information as they age, leading to them becoming rather reclusive. Most appreciate talking to their trainer, but they will not need puzzles or books to learn from. Alakazam are also not particularly emotional or affectionate; most conversations with them tend to be about the business at hand or intellectual curiosities rather than either party’s feelings.

All stages eat a diet of fruit, nuts, and root vegetables. They can eat most human food that does not contain meat or dairy. Some alakazam will come to resent a trainer who only gives them raw, unseasoned food while the trainer eats prepared meals. Others do not care or learn to cook their own food, insisting that they can do so better than any human. Alakazam need to drink every few days. What little waste they produce is often discreetly teleported away to avoid embarrassment.

Illness

Outside of old age alakazam seldom get sick. They groom themselves by telekinetically lifting all particles and parasites off of themselves up to six times a day and they can generally detect rot with a quick telekinetic scan of an object. Poisoning and infection are rare. Alakazam also heal rather quickly on their own. When cut they can create barriers to hold blood inside of them, and they can set their own bones when needed.

Very strong physical hits can potentially kill an alakazam. Most high-level trainers know to pull their punches against alakazam; in return, alakazam trainers should know the limits of their pokémon and withdraw them whenever the potential for immediate lethal harm exists.

As they age alakazam begin to develop many health problems. Most illnesses affecting the body can be easily cured. Diseases of the brain are much more difficult. Strokes are the most common cause of death for alakazam. There are relatively few warning signs, beyond perhaps a telepathic warning from the alakazam themselves. Brain cancer and dementia are also rather common over the age of ten. Due to the risks of a sick and unrestrained psychic, most alakazam will request either euthanasia or the right to retreat to the wilderness to die alone when their time draws near. This is a decision the alakazam must be allowed to make for themselves, however long it takes them.

Evolution

As abra grow up, their tail begins to get bushier and their armor gets bulkier. At about the time they physically begin to resemble kadabra they will set out to acquire their first spoon. At some point in the future the kadabra will create their second spoon. Shortly after this their tail will fall off and their red markings will fade. The timing of these events is highly variable from pokémon to pokémon; the only real constant is that most alakazam will have reached their final stage by their fourth birthday.

The formal cutoffs between evolutionary stages are marked by the acquisition or creation of the first and second spoon.

Battle

Alakazam has often the single most used pokémon on the competitive pokémon scene over the last century. This is due to two main factors. To start with, alakazam are undeniably powerful. They think quickly, can teleport away from strikes, and their telepathic assaults can quickly faint almost anything that isn’t resistant to them. While most trainers have at least one pokémon that is, once those checks are removed alakzam can be terrifying sweepers.

Human psychics are also disproportionally represented in the upper echelons of competitive play. Humans with a PSY score of 150 or higher make up less than 0.4% of the population. Those with PSY scores of 200 or higher make up less than 0.1%. Yet, among the Top 100 trainers, 17 test above 150 and 5 test above 200. All but two of those trainers have used an alakazam over the course of their career.

Twelve of the Top 100 trainers have an alakzam on their core team. While this may not sound dominant, only four pokémon are used more. No pokémon has ever had more than 20 ranked trainers using it at a time.

In competitive play alakzam usually function as rather simple sweepers. If they must fight something resistant to telepathic attack they can use focus blast, signal beam or shadow ball. Alakazam have surprisingly small and narrow elemental reserves leaving them mostly confined to the above three coverage attacks and hidden power.

There is an adage that if an alakazam is not attacking it is losing. This is not entirely true. Alakazam have access to a few defensive and utility options. Teleport combined with telepathic scans for incoming attacks is a common defensive strategy. Some incredibly fast pokémon can form and unleash an attack so quickly that alakazam do not have the time to prepare a teleport. In these cases alakazam also have access to recover, barrier, reflect, and light screen. Even a protected alakazam is still frail. Sometimes trainers using a dual screens alakazam forget this to their detriment. Alakazam can also use trick, encore and disable to prevent opponents from attacking at all.

Alakazam can be checked and countered. While they are terrifyingly powerful, they are also one of the frailest pokémon that sees regular competitive use. Anything fast enough to score a hit on an alakazam has a good chance of knocking it out or forcing the trainer to withdraw it. Area of effect attacks can also make it harder for an alakazam to simply teleport out of the way. Telepathically resistant pokémon also give alakazam no end of trouble. Vikavolt has a mindset just alien enough that alakazam usually struggle to crack it and bring them down before they take a thunderbolt. Some powerful dark-types such as hydreigon, ghareign, spiritomb and tyranitar also check alakazam. All but spirtomb will not appreciate taking a focus blast but it usually will not knock them out in less than three hits.

On the island challenge trainers with a kadabra or alakazam will likely need to put less thought into using them than they would on the competitive scene. Almost nothing can withstand the combination of shadow ball, focus blast, dazzling gleams and psychic. While some of those moves might be difficult to acquire TMs for, alakazam benefit from passive telepathic learning. If they spend enough time around or battling against pokémon that know those moves they will pick them up as well.

Abra will not be willing to fight until they are very near evolution. Otherwise, they will simply sense the intent to harm them the moment their opponent is on the field and then teleport out of bounds.

Acquisition

Kadabra and alakazam require a Class V license to possess for any trainer with a PSY score below 150. As such, trainers who do not qualify or expect to qualify are advised against obtaining an abra, even from another trainer. Non-psychic trainers can still capture, purchase or adopt an abra with a Class III license, but they will have to forfeit or release the pokémon upon evolution if they do not have a Class V license.

The rest of this section will assume the trainer has a PSY score above 150.

Abra and kadabra can be captured with a Class I license, or purchased or adopted with a Class III license. There is no compelling husbandry or safety reason for this disparity. It is simply designed to get trainers to capture wild specimens and remove a nuisance.

Alakazam cannot be captured from the wild as they are generally too stubborn and powerful to be captured and trained safely. They can be adopted or purchased with a Class IV license.

As mentioned above, abra and kadabra are most common in the area immediately around Hau’oli City. Zoroark predation has led to a decline in numbers near Route 1. In practice most kadabra are found in the woods immediately north of the city. Some abra also live in the largest urban parks.

Kadabra and abra are far more common in the minor islands west of Poni. Trainers will need to pay a fee to access these areas and another fee for each pokémon captured.

Breeding

Alakazam mate once in their life. They will head to the edge of their territory and send signals to another alakazam. The two will meet at the border and have a silent discussion. This conversation can be broken several times for sleep or foraging. Neither will leave their own territory throughout this process.

Alakazam and the true psychics form a strange family of pokémon that has neither sexual nor asexual reproduction. Instead there is a meeting of the minds that results in the spontaneous creation of four to six eggs. Both parents will alternate caring for the eggs until they hatch. This takes about ten weeks.

After the eggs hatch alakazam pay no attention to their children or mates whatsoever.

Gender appears to be vestigial in alakazam. Homosexual and heterosexual reproduction are both possible. Alakazam appear to select mates based on territory size and intelligence more than gender.

In the wild alakazam do not crossbreed with other species. In captivity they can reproduce with most true psychics. Alakazam prefer not to mate with other party members. Instead, trainers should partner with the trainer of a potential mate to arrange meetings. Both trainers should be present and the meeting should happen on neutral ground to best simulate the conditions of wild encounters. After reproduction occurs the eggs can be divided between the trainers. Alakazam need not look after their eggs directly so long as they believe that the eggs are safe. While they are comfortable living with their children until they evolve, they will not assist in caring for them.

Relatives

Some alakazam from different regions have slightly different colorations, personalities, and abilities. The alakazam of Greece (M. m. parthenos) are well known for their extremely high wisdom and intelligence but rather low lifespans and offensive power. Congolese alakazam (M. desilva) have green stripes and a much greater telepathic range than the other subspecies in exchange for a lack of power. Tibetan alakzam (M. m. montisage) have rather thick fur and exceptional teleportation abilities but weaker mundane senses than most other subspecies.

The alakazam in Alola come from a mix of several different species, subspecies and breeds. As such no single subspecies indication is used for the Alolan population. Most Alolan alakazam are descended from the East Asian population (M. m. consiliaregum). Ancestry from South Asian and North European subspecies is also common. Inter-breed pairings are very common in both the wild and captivity. Individual alakzam have different strengths and weaknesses depending on their lineage.

 

[Persephone]

Persian (Meowth)

Overview

Historically, the popularity of torracat in Alola has limited the desire for any other cat species. Other islands’ experiences with invasive cats have also led the Commonwealth government to restrict feline importation. Pyroar, their most notable failure, is a large predator that only occupies territory and a niche once held by torracat. As such pyroar’s introduction has really only hurt one native species.

Persian is the only other cat to gain any sort of foothold in Alola.

The species was brought by early trading expeditions from Japan, the only place where they are endemic. For a few generations persian were the beloved pets of the Alolan royal family. Then King Ka’eo ascended to the throne. One of his first acts was to give away all of the persian in the royal court. It is believed that he did so out of a long-running spat with a persian during his childhood. In any case, many of the persian found their way into the homes of Japanese immigrants in Malie City or the rising merchants of Hau’oli City. Their owners viewed Persian ownership as a status symbol that set them apart from the torracat of the lower classes.

Ironically, the Alolan persian has had extensive interbreeding with torracat during the last few centuries. This, combined with some breeders actively selecting for darker coats, led to the differences between the Japanese and Alolan persian.

Persian are proud and temperamental, but they can be loyal and affectionate to their trainer. They are also deceptively fast and powerful. Trainers who do not want to pick litten as a starter but would like a feline are encouraged to consider persian.

Physiology

Meowth and persian are both classified as pure dark-types. This is due to the unique properties of their thick fur, which disrupts telepathy of all kinds. A shorn persian has no special psychic resistance. As such there is a push for a dual dark- and normal-typing. Because meowth are born with a coat of fur and never lose it, the Department of Agriculture has previously rejected a typing change.

While mostly quadrupedal, meowth are capable of standing on their hind legs for short periods. Their coat is dark gray with slightly lighter fur at the end of their feet and tip of their tail. Meowth have furry, padded paws on both their arms and legs. They also have a long prehensile tail they can use for balance and grip. Meowth’s most notable feature are their wide, ovular heads. Part of this shape is an exaggeration created by their fur; their actual head is about half as large as it appears. Meowth have long, prominent whiskers. The ears have tufts of fur in them. They also have what appears to be a golden coin growing out of their forehead. This object is actually metallic. It is slowly grown from small quantities of scrap metal that meowth eat. While meowth can live without it, the coin is directly attached to their skull. This makes removal only possible through surgery and almost always inadvisable. It is unknown at this time what purpose the coin serves.

Persian are slender and quadrupedal. Their claws are much longer than a mewoth’s and their ears are rounded rather than pointed. Persian also lose their coin in favor of a small gem. The color of this gem varies but it is usually blue. The gem is bioluminescent and can be used to provide dim silvery light to help persian see on the darkest of nights.

Meowth and persian produce sounds over a range of pitches very similar to humans. Persian screams sound uncannily like a screaming human woman and they make them often to scare away other cats or predators. Roughly one-eighth of the Malie Police Department’s nighttime calls are in response to persian screams.

Persian grow up to 1.3 meters in length including their tail. They typically have a mass around 15 kilograms. The average persian lives for about 12 years in the wild and 18 in captivity. The oldest Alolan persian on record lived to be 31 years old.

Behavior

Meowth tend to stay on the ground when they are not with their mother or sleeping. They hunt at night. Most of meowth’s prey are sick, wounded, or starving rattata, although they will also hunt insect pokémon and abra. Unlike persian, meowth are rather social. Meowth that have left their mothers congregate in groups to sleep, groom and socialize. They hunt on their own.

Persian occupy an entirely different physical space and ecological role in the environment than meowth. While they tend to tolerate banks of meowth, they are fiercely territorial towards other persian. Persian are built for the arboreal life. Their sharp retractable claws and long prehensile tail allow them to move along tree branches and rooftops almost as easily as they move on land. Persian can jump up to four meters vertically or six horizontally. Their light is nearly indistinguishable from moonlight and thus doesn’t trigger panicked reactions from drowsy prey species. Persian primarily hunt small bird pokémon resting for the night. They love eggs and will frequently raid nests. If persian cannot find any birds they are prone to lying in wait on tree branches and then pouncing on any prey that walks beneath them.

Persian are often described as cruel. It is true that persian are prone to breaking the wings of their prey before killing and consuming them. However, this is often to provide their babies practice in killing without subjecting them to actual danger. When female persian do this while they are not nursing or pregnant it is usually a sign that they are in heat and would like to mate. Males are considerably less likely to prolong killings than females are.

Meowth and persian are among the most playful of feline pokémon. In the wild they will approach and explore any changes in their territory. They will occasionally dissect unfamiliar species, but only after killing them. Persian are prone to digging through unsecured garbage cans to find new playthings. Meowth do this as well, but their purpose is mostly to find metal.

Husbandry

Meowth are curious, social, and nocturnal. These traits make them somewhat more difficult to care for than litten, eevee, and most canine pokémon.

A stationary trainer can provide a meowth with many toys or periodically rearrange their environment. Meowth should be played with around dusk and dawn. At night they should be given access to their trainer’s bed. They will disturb their trainer’s sleep on most nights, but if physically separated from their trainer they are liable to scream like a murder victim until they are given attention. Meowth should not be put into their pokéball at night if the environment is safe for them to explore; containing them for too many nights in a row will lead to the pokémon becoming very irritated when released.

Most successful meowth trainers have at least one other social nocturnal pokémon on their team. This pokémon can keep the meowth company at night and generally keep the cat away from their trainer. A powerful nocturnal pokémon can also supervise a meowth during journeys as they explore their environment. It should be noted that persian will not usually be willing to supervise a meowth and will almost never tolerate another persian (see Breeding).

Meowth can be fed eggs, fish, and most types of meat. Some meowth have a preference as to whether their food should be cooked or raw but they will usually tolerate it either way. Their diet should be shifted periodically to prevent them from getting bored. Metal supplements should be purchased from specialty pokémon stores and fed as directed. Meowth require only very small amounts of metal in their diets and trainers trying to play it by ear will usually give their meowth far too much. This can lead to metal poisoning (see Illness). Both persian and meowth should be fed roughly 4% of their body weight per day.

Persian are nearly as playful as meowth but they express it differently. Traveling trainers should try and camp near trees and allow their persian to explore at night. This is banned in some protected areas or near vulnerable bird populations. Check with local Pokémon Centers as to where persian can be left unsupervised.

Stationary trainers should provide their persian with many perches and walkways positioned so that the persian can move from one to another without touching the ground. They will usually drag their toys up onto a perch to play with. Persian have a habit of viewing anything shiny or unfamiliar as a toy. This can lead to all of their trainer’s keys and jewelry being hidden on top of cabinets or on high shelves.

The bulk of a persian’s diet should be made up of eggs and poultry. Other meats should be provided from time to time. Persian generally will not eat generic cat mixes and will need to be fed raw or cooked meat.

Persian will generally want to be in the same space as their trainer around dusk and dawn. Sometimes they will approach their trainer to be pet. They will generally hiss or scream at any other humans who try to touch them. At night persian will alternate between exploring their perches and lying down near their trainer.

Illness

The most common illness among captive meowth is metal poisoning. If a meowth is exposed to too much metal it may vomit, run a fever, become lethargic or, in extreme cases, die. If your meowth exhibits any of these symptoms or an abrupt change in behaviors cut metal out of their diet for a week. If the symptoms persist consult a veterinarian.

Metal deficiency is possible but rare in captive meowth. A metal-deficient meowth will begin to ignore orders, rummage through garbage or attempt to eat jewelry or electronics. The solution to this problem is to gradually increase the amount of metal in the meowth’s diet until the symptoms stop. It should be noted that meowth naturally hoard and are fascinated by shiny objects. It is only when they begin to bite into metallic objects outside of their food bowl that action should be taken.

Evolution

Meowth gradually evolve into persian. They become lethargic for a time and seek out easy kills, including garbage left out by humans. Over the course of one to two months their spine extends and they stop standing bipedally. Towards the end of this process the meowth’s coin will fall off and reveal a gem underneath it.

In the wild this process occurs earlier and faster if the meowth is integrated into a bank of other meowth. The evolving pokémon’s comrades will provide protection and food during this critical period. Captive meowth also experience a faster, earlier, and smoother evolution if they have a great deal of trust in their trainer or teammates.

Battle

The Alolan persian is the least powerful of the three subspecies. Snow persian are very fast and perrserker are bulky enough to tank most neutral hits. The Alolan persian is not quite fast enough to carve out a quickstall or hyper offense niche and not quite bulky enough to function on slower stall or bulky offense teams. They are also hindered by their hunting strategy – ambush from above – being near impossible to replicate in an arena.

Persian also don’t have a particularly deep utility movepool. While their coats is good for defense, persian’s bones are much more fragile. Persian’s elemental reserves and physical strength are adequate on casual circuits but nothing special in competitive leagues. To make things worse, absol does many of the same things with a sharper blade, better movepool, and precognition to make up for their slightly lower speed.

On the island challenge persian’s weaknesses are mitigated by the lower power level. They are quite fast, have sharp claws, and their fur can blunt the impact of most attacks. Persian function best with the help of a few utility moves for dodging blows. Good moves include parting shot, protect and double team. Persian should be instructed to use trees and any other obstacles on the battlefield to maneuver around opponents.

Meowth are brutal scrappers, even if their claws aren’t as long or sharp as those of a persian. Trainers should always put their meowth on the attack, getting into the opponent’s face and never letting up for even one second.

Acquisition

The DNR attempts to limit the spread of persian beyond the city limits of Malie and Hau’oli. Persian and meowth captured outside of these areas may carry a bounty if the trainer chooses to trade the pokémon in. This policy leads to a large number of persian and meowth in shelters available for purchase.

Meowth may be adopted, purchased or captured with a Class I license. Persian can be adopted or purchased with a Class II license, captured with a Class II license inside city limits and captured with a Class I license outside of city limits.

Trainers who want to capture a meowth are advised to stay motionless in a public park at night. Ideally a predatory pokémon with night vision should assist. It is legal to bait meowth within city limits. Raw fish and eggs generally work best. Because meowth hunt alone it is likely that only one will show up. If a larger group arrives, proceed with caution.

Persian are more difficult to spot or capture. They tend to move above human’s heads, a problem compounded by their coat serving as good camouflage at night. Persian baiting is legal but generally unsuccessful. Any attacks strong enough to shake a persian out of a park tree is also likely to damage the tree itself. It is generally easier to look for persian in the daytime while they are resting. It is still very difficult to spot them, but they will usually be too lethargic to immediately put up a fight.

Breeding

Wild persian are territorial and are only social during breeding season in the winter. Persian have a roughly eight week pregnancy. They typically give birth to twins although triplets are not uncommon. Mothers will stay with their children for roughly three months before they start to behave aggressively towards their young to get them to leave.

Persian are not territorial towards meowth banks. They are known to keep a watchful eye over the meowth in their territory and intervene to stop predators or, in some cases, prevent starvation.

Captive persian should not be kept with other persian or the adults of any other cat species. Foxes are occasionally but not always accepted. Trainers wishing to breed their female persian should arrange for a male to join the team during breeding season. The pair should be separated once pregnancy is confirmed or the female begins to become aggressive towards the male. It is important to give away the meowth when their mother begins to reject them. There is some evidence that persian prefer to have occasional contact with their children until they evolve.

Subspecies

Alolan persian sometimes have varying coat patterns depending upon their parentage. Torracat-persian hybrids, the most common in Alola, tend to have dark stripes faintly visible in the coat. Umbreon-persian hybrids tend to have spots. Pyroar-persian hybrids occasionally have a small mane.

Two other subspecies are recognized. The snow persian has a wide range stretching from the Urals to the Pacific and from the taiga to the Himalayas. They are also found on Japan. The snow persian has a mottled tan coat in the summer and a white coat in the winter. This lets them blend in to cliff faces and wait for something to pass below or for another cliff climber to get close enough to ambush. They are also fast enough to rush down most prey on flat ground and strong enough to then drag the prey into a tree or up the cliff face, away from larger predators.

The Norse meowth has a much higher tolerance for metal than the other two subspecies. This allows it to consume enough metal that its nails, teeth, and even much of its hair becomes metallic. Attempting to strike a Norse meowth can feel like punching a wall of needles. To obtain enough metal they have been known to sneak into human settlements and steal whatever they can. Their evolution, perrserker, are prone to forming war parties and more brazenly taking their prizes. Unusually, both the Norse meowth and perrserker are primarily bipedal.

 

[Persephone]

Magnezone (Magnemite, Magneton)
Magnusmagne triumverate

Overview

Wild magnezone are responsible for billions of dollars in property damage every year. Their strongest attacks can fry electronics within a six-mile radius. The electricity in human settlements draws them to the places where they are the most dangerous. They rarely directly kill anyone, but they’re still a major economic threat.

Captive magnezone are perfectly fine companions so long as personal electronics are heavily shielded. Magnemite are solid battlers. By the time they evolve twice, they can easily help carry a team through the end of the island challenge. Personalities are variable but usually not particularly extreme.

Why, then, is there such a difference? The answer comes down to restraint and values. Wild magnezone care little for humans and do not know how much they should care back. Even if they did, they probably wouldn’t. Captive magnezone, especially those that have lived with humans since they were a magnemite, know their limits and how to avoid frying nearby electronics. They still might when excited or startled, but no more frequently than other electric-types.

Physiology

All stages of the evolutionary line are classified as dual steel- and electric-types.

Magnemite’s main body is made up of concentric metal shells. The exact alloy varies by the region of birth. All but the outermost shell are constantly spinning in different directions and at different rates. The pattern allows the magnemite to fly and attack. Magnemite change the rotation of their layers by using the three screws protruding from their body, one that they keep oriented upwards and two beneath their eye.

Magnemite have a single eye protruding from their shell. Curiously, this eye is only a feature of the outermost layer; it does not extend any deeper than the shell. The eye does not appear to function like human eyes, but does absorb and process light. It is believed that a small chip at the base of this eye contains all of magnemite’s nervous system. Magnemite can react to sound, but it is unknown how they hear.

Magnemite channel attacks through two horseshoe magnets, one on each side of their body. Right before they attack the magnets begin to spin very quickly with a small orb of energy appearing in the center. The magnets will abruptly stop spinning and an attack is unleashed from the orb.

Magneton are formed by three magnemite in an equilateral triangle. One is dominant and remains positioned at the top of the triangle. This magnemite retains all of its screws. The other two sacrifice one of their external screws to fuse them to the dominant magnemite. The resulting magneton retains the personality and behaviors of the dominant with only very small additions from the two others. All three processing chips remain active.

Magnezone look rather different from their pre-evolutions. Their body is split into three connected but distinct chambers. The largest is a spheroid in the center of the pokémon. This chamber holds three separate rotating shell structures. The upper portion of the spheroid has a barrier separating it from the bottom. This segment contains a large network of chips, circuitry and rotating spheres. There has not been a chance to study this network in detail as magnezone explode shortly after their deaths. As such, all observations have been conducted with very specialized equipment capable of scanning electric-types. Magnezone are not easily sedated and do not like being confined in tight spaces, making it difficult to observe them for long. There is a long antenna on top of the spheroid. This is used for receiving and transmitting signals (see Behavior).

The two other chambers of a magnezone are shaped like magnemite fused into the spheroid. Each have a single shell structure inside of them. Magnezone have three eyes, one on each chamber. The central eye is far larger than the other two. In fact, the other two eyes only seem to become active when the magnezone is preparing an attack, suggesting that they are only used for aiming. Magnezone have two very large screws on them, both attached to the back half of the magnemite portions. They have three large horseshoe magnets, one in front of each magnemite and one behind the spheroid. The back magnet is not used for attacking and appears to be entirely devoted to navigation, and perhaps to moving the three spheres inside the spheroid.

All three stages move in part by repelling themselves from the earth. They are also capable of creating a poorly understood force tentatively named “anti-gravity” that helps them levitate.

Magnezone typically grow to be about six feet across and weigh around one ton. Magnezone live for about thirty years in the wild and fifty years in captivity.

Behavior

Magnemite feed upon electricity. In the past this restricted them to predation or parasitism on electric-types. Sometimes electric-types would congregate in such numbers that the environment itself became charged; magnemite were most abundant in these places and they are, to this day, their primary breeding grounds.

Modernity has led to an explosion in the number of magnemite in the world and the areas in which they can live. From the earliest days of modern electricity, guards have been required at power plants and along wires. Magnemite learned and began to prey upon the places where the lines connected to the homes themselves, as well as upon the generators of rural homes.

Magnemite and magneton are not particularly intelligent. They behave like automatons concerned only with feeding and survival. Some, mostly under trainer care, develop a sense of curiosity; their hardware is not well equipped for this feeling. In time they inevitably become paranoid and obsessed with triangles. In the very rare circumstances that these magnemite become dominant upon evolution and evolve again (see Evolution), the resulting magnezone are known to almost immediately attack centers of media, government, and commerce. They also have a well-documented hatred of mushroom farms.

Despite their lack of creativity and intelligence, magnemite are known to congregate in large swarms. The individuals do not seem to interact with or acknowledge each other and they do not coordinate collective strategies. Rather, it seems like they all have roughly the same ability to sense unsecured power sources and they all have the same analytical process for choosing which one to swarm.

Magneton behaviors are nearly identical to magnemite.

Magnezone behave rather differently than magnemite and magneton. To start with, they very seldom descend to the ground. Magnezone are most often found among the clouds absorbing static electricity. Clouds with a magnezone in them produce far less lightning. Magnezone are not social, although they are constantly emitting and receiving signals. This discovery and magnezone’s bizarre anatomy and appearance led to widespread speculation that they are extraterrestrial. There is no solid evidence one way or another. Their signals are used to communicate with conspecifics on Earth. When a magnezone does descend to breed, another inevitably comes to the same location even if they started out hundreds or thousands of miles away.

Curiously, magnezone have a strong sense of justice. Magnezone on the surface are known to badly wound any carnivores they witness hunting. Human criminals caught stealing or engaged in violent crime will also catch a powerful thunderbolt, although it will seldom be lethal. Magnezone have a strong aversion to killing and can apparently calculate how to badly wound their target without dealing a fatal blow.

Husbandry

Magnemite are quite easy to care for so long as their trainer is very mindful of any electronics around. Most Pokémon Centers have well insulated rooms and equipment. If this is the case, then magnemite can be safely allowed to explore their trainer’s room. Introducing a magnemite to a common area is still usually a faux pas due to the damage they can do to other trainers’ personal electronics. Most pokédex models are well insulated, but most cell phones are not. Magnemite won’t kill a device just by being in the same room as it. Using an attack nearby or getting within a meter is likely to fry anything sophisticated and unprotected.

The entire line feeds upon electricity. They prefer direct current but will happily lap up alternating current as well. Many Pokémon Centers have specially designated power feeding rooms for electric-types. Those that do not will have batteries for sale that are designed for feeding electric-types. Magnemite will know what to do in either case. In an emergency, magnemite can feed directly from a generator. The trainer should ask permission before doing this. When a magnemite begins to droop closer to the ground or move slower, they should be fed. If a magnemite has a far higher energy level than usual, their intake should be reduced and they should be used in battle immediately to prevent random EMPs.

As mentioned above, magnemite are neither social nor curious. They will sometimes orbit their trainer, but this is about as far as they go in terms of play. Because they do not get bored, magnemite and magneton are quite comfortable spending almost all of their time inside of a pokéball. If a trainer really wants to interact with their pokémon, polishing the shell appears to make a magnemite happier.

Magneton and magnezone are far more prone to firing out random EMPs than magnemite. Magneton care is much the same as magnemite. Trainers should take time to learn the pokémon’s new personality quirks and ease them into their new power away from human civilization and its unshielded electronics.

Magnezone are a slightly different story. Unlike magnemite, which bond to anything that regularly feeds them, magnezone can always just drift off into the clouds if they want food. It is very difficult to bond with a magnezone unless they already have some faith in their trainer. Even then, newly evolved magnezone are still prone to just drifting off and never coming back. They will usually only stay with trainers who battle with them often and well. Magnezone like to spend at least a few hours at night out of their pokéballs. This should be allowed, if only because charge taken from the clouds is charge that does not have to be paid for. Magnezone are always emitting waves, but most of these are harmless to human health. They can be absolutely devastating to personal electronics. Magnezone that grew up in human care typically know how to avoid damaging electronics, but any unshielded device that gets too close to their body may still end up fried. It is best to keep them in their pokéball whenever possible in the city.

As with their prior stages, magnezone do not require socialization. It is believed that they are always communicating with other magnezone and don’t see a point in bonding with humans or other species. Training and polishing are all they want from a trainer.

Illness

Most magnemite “illnesses” are simply a result of low charge. If they are behaving unusually and have not been charged since their last battle or within the last week, let the magnemite charge for a while and then see if the problem is resolved.

Physical damage is rare. Most battles with a magnemite end when they lose charge, not when they’re shell is broken. If the shell is ever broken, they were probably in a battle where they were dramatically outclassed. There is also very little that can be done to repair a wounded magnemite. If a magnezone is on hand, the repairs can be made. However, the force required to twist a magnemite back into shape is likely to generate powerful EMPs and alter the magnemite’s personality upon reboot.

If a magnezone gets seriously wounded they will float as high as it can and explode. Should a magnezone be killed in a way that does not even allow them to do that, they will probably explode within fifteen minutes of death.

Evolution

Magnemite evolve when a group of three combat-tested magnemite encounter each other. They will engage in a three-way melee until only one still has charge. The winner will charge themselves and then bond with the other two. This involves removing one screw from each, releasing the caps of their own screws and then linking their screws through the holes left in the other magnemite. The new magneton will position themselves in the air so that the dominant magnemite is on top.

Magneton only evolve in places where a very large amount of electricity has been readily available for some time. The magneton will spend even more time than usual charging. Sometimes they will leave to pick up the pieces of dead magnemite and integrate them into their own body. When there are no dead magnemite around, the magneton will simply kill one for parts. During the period where the dominant magnemite’s body is being expanded and restructured, most of the magneton’s cognition occurs in the auxiliary magnemite’s processing chips.

Once a magnezone body is fully completed, the newly evolved pokémon will fly up into the clouds. They will only descend again to breed.

Battle

Magnezone has a limited number of strategies and a limited movepool. But it is very effective at using what options it does have.

Their main role in combat is to levitate high enough over the field that grounded melee attacks cannot reach them. From there they fire off devastating thunderbolts, flash cannons and hyper beams until their target faints. They can also take a moment to lock onto a fast-moving target and all but guarantee that their next attack fries them. This makes them a particularly good counter to glass cannons and arena controllers.

Magnezone are also one of the best counters to steel-types in the metagame. Their unique abilities prevent steel-types from being withdrawn from the field while magnezone is in play. Magnezone can hover above a steel-type and then use their magnetism to pull their target up into the air. Once the target is almost to magnezone, they can be repulsed down towards the ground. This can be repeated until the target has fainted or magnezone runs out of charge.

Magnezone essentially only faint when they lose power. This means that every action, offensive and defensive, takes a toll on their staying power. As such using protect to avoid injury is actually counter-productive, because the shield costs more power than just taking the impact would. This means that stalling them out with a pokémon who can take all of the hits a magnezone can dish out and keep going is usually the best counter-strategy. Blissey, gastrodon, swampert, hippowdon and snorlax can’t do much to hurt magnezone, but magnezone can do very little to hurt them, either. Because magnezone have a clear tell in their attacks (an orb forming in their horseshoe magnets), it’s easy enough to outplay them with mixed protects, recovery moves and occasional attacks. Magnezone will inevitably switch out, but this at least gives the opponent some time to set up hazards or stat boosts.

The best offensive checks to magnezone are generally dragons that can take them on in the air and dish out powerful fire attacks. Hydreigon is their most reliable counter in the metagame, although they are quite rare. Flygon are a tricky matchup: magnezone is likely to take them down with two or three locked-on hyper beams, but flygon’s ground-type attacks can dampen and drain electrical charge, wearing magnezone down quickly. Who goes down first is essentially random.

Due to their limited movepool, magnezone battle similarly on the island challenge as in the competitive circuits. Any trainer with a magnezone is likely to breeze through all but the toughest of late challenge fights.

Magnemite are a common enough choice on the island challenge. They are surprisingly bulky, especially if their trainer can afford an eviolite. Their defensive typing and limited ability to hover away from attacks enhances this. They aren’t particularly weak, either, and unlike most walls they won’t have to rely on poisons or chip damage. However, anything they can’t hurt with thunderbolt probably won’t be hurt at all. Fighting- and fire-types can also usually overpower magnemite.

Magneton are stronger than magnemite offensively but have similar speed and most of the same defensive weaknesses. They can still pull their weight through the end of the island challenge.

Acquisition

The DNR runs a campaign to capture any magnemite they find near human settlements. There are very few wild magneton in Alola. Occasionally a magnezone will show up and undo all of the DNR’s hard work, but this is a once-in-a-decade event.

There are only two permanent magnemite colonies in Alola. The first is usually around Hau’oli City. They move between homes and infrastructure with unsecured electricity, finding a new home when they are shooed away. Locating the colony after a move carries a $500 reward. The other colony is on the outlying islands. Most magneton that do manage to evolve are relocated here, which in turn makes it the place that magnezone usually descend to breed (see Breeding). The government operates a poorly secured offshore windfarm here to drive magnemite away from the populated areas. The property itself is run by a private corporation that charges trainers for each magnemite captured.

Magnemite require a Class II license to adopt, purchase or capture.

Magneton and magnezone may not be captured due to the risks involved in bringing a wild specimen into an urban area. They may be purchased or adopted so long as their original trainer captured them as a magnemite. Magneton and magnezone require a Class III license to possess.

Breeding

Some mineral pokémon reproduce in a way that, in spite of their strange biology, actually bears a good deal of resemblance to conventional organic reproduction. Magnezone is not one of these pokémon.

Sometimes two magnezone will depart from their trainer or orbit and meet up at the place where one member of the pair evolved at. The pair will first conduct repairs on all magnemite and magneton present. When this is finished, the native magnezone will scrounge up enough material to create eight new magnemite. They prefer to do this by recycling the bodies of magnemite that were beyond repair, but they can use their magnetism to mine and purify the necessary materials if need be. Then the non-native magnezone will shape the materials into their final form. The resulting babies have (roughly) the material composition of the native magnezone and the structure of the non-native magnezone.

Anecdotal reports from trainers suggest that magnezone reproduce exactly twice in their lives. They typically do so during periods of unusual solar radiation, such as during sunspots. Sometimes meteorite strikes or passing comets will also trigger reproduction.

It is impossible to breed magnezone in captivity. Captive magnezone will simply float away to reproduce whenever and wherever they feel like it. Some will return after roughly three weeks. Most will not. If your magnezone departs, stay in roughly the same area and make frequent phone calls. If the magnezone has not returned after six weeks then they are not coming back.

Relatives

It is difficult to determine the closest relatives to mineral pokémon as they lack DNA. Some have theorized that magnezone are related to metagross as they are both potential or confirmed extraterrestrials that assemble their offspring and live off the ground. There are good reasons to doubt this connection. Magnezone need to absorb electricity from the environment. Metagross contain a series of reactors that power themselves, although they do occasionally eat meat for fun or intimidation. Radioactive material need to be consumed from time to time to power their reactors. Metagross reproduction also only involves one parent and begins a steady countdown to their demise. Magnezone appear to need two parents but the process does not actively harm either.

Probopass have similar connections to magnezone and assemble their offspring. The composition of probopass is rather different from magnezone as they contain more non-metallic materials. They also cannot fly very high into the air. Instead of scavenging on electricity they feed upon metal and ambient magnetic fields.

For the time being, magnezone are classified in the order Magne with probopass. The classification is controversial within the scientific community.

 

[Persephone]

Muk (Grimer)
Oleumedunt facticius

Overview

In his 1913 novel “March of the Muk,” author Henry Blackstone laid out a vision of muk as a strange creation of sludge and lunar x-rays that rose up from the oceans to destroy the cities. With humanity’s greatest insults to the wilderness gone, the muk die off as if they had never been there at all. The view of muk as a scourge upon the civilized world was not new at the time. They seemed to come from nowhere around the turn of the 20th Century and thrived in the rancid sewers and industrial areas of the world’s cities. While they first appeared near Japan, they quickly and almost simultaneously appeared near almost all of the world’s coasts.

In truth, muk are not the creation of anything so fanciful as lunar x-rays. They were also not made by, or even in response to, humans. While they do not fossilize well, it is believed that muk may have been living for hundreds of millions of years on the seafloor. The Challenger expedition captured a grimer years before muk were seen on the surface. The ship was above the abyssal plains of the Mid-Atlantic at the time, half the world away from their eventual surfacing point.

The deep sea has no sunlight. No new plant life can grow there. The entire food chain is based off of scavenging the scraps that come from above. The abyssal muk is a slime mold that feeds not on the falling matter itself, but upon the bacteria and fungi that start to break it down. If necessary, they can kill other organisms and then wait for them to decompose.

The shelf muk is the subspecies that eventually came to the surface. They can function as a decomposer of decomposers, but they prefer to feed upon oil and natural gas leaking up from the seafloor. They do not directly eat the petroleum themselves. Rather, colonies of bacteria living inside of them break the oil and gas down into usable energy and put it back into the food web. When humans started bringing oil to shore and letting it run back into the sea, muk just followed the path until they found themselves in the harbors and rivers. Eventually, some mutated to live comfortably on land.

Once their food source and biology was better understood, engineers, chemist and biologists started to harvest terrestrial, shelf, and abyssal muk to selectively cross-breed them. These processes eventually created a new pokémon, the LifeChem, Inc. muk. The species is more commonly known as the domestic muk. The domestic muk is patented and regularly “updated” to keep the newer breeds protected by the law. Older breeds are no longer patented and can be purchased, captured and bred at will.

The domestic muk readily breaks down most microbes, organic matter and plastics without seriously damaging glass or metal. This allows for the cleaned waste products to be easily recycled. Some breeds only consume liquid oil, leaving plastics behind for recycling. The newest breed can break plastic down into a liquid form for remolding. Products cleaned by muk are very sterile because they consume bacteria and their bodies themselves rarely leave behind toxins. Their flesh still should not be consumed; the “muk slime challenge” can be fatal. Unless they are actively defending themselves, though, domestic muk are usually safe to touch and even hug so long as the crystals are avoided.

Muk are good battlers that can cut down on the amount of trash a trainer has to carry with them between disposal sites. They are also relatively easy to feed, as they can feed on decomposing plant and animal matter. They are not recommended for households with young children.

Physiology

Muk’s typing is widely disputed. A poison primary typing is agreed upon; the second slot is a toss-up. Unlike most muk species, the domestic muk is very resistant to psychic attacks that can fry the nervous systems of almost anything without a proper brain. They are also nocturnal. These factors suggest a dark-typing. However, muk are semi-liquid, most comfortable in the water, and need to fully submerge themselves at least once every few days. This suggests a water-typing. Other pokémon related to fungi have been given grass-typings. For now the Department of Agriculture has given them a preliminary dark-typing and left the issue open to comment and discussion.

Grimer and muk have similar physiology. As such, this section will not go through the anatomy of all three stages in detail.

Muk are closely related to slime molds. This means that they are an amalgam of many separate single-celled organisms, most capable of surviving outside of the collective. Some of these cells have dissolved the cell boundaries between each other, resulting in massive cells with multiple nuclei. This is also why they are so amorphous. Outside of their crystals, muk contain no hard structures.

Domestic muk generally stratify into specialized layers similar to organs. These layers often have different colors. Some layers are devoted to dissolving specific microorganisms, others to digesting plastic, and others still to generating attacks or neural processing. Despite their lack of a brain, muk are reasonably intelligent pokémon capable of solving puzzles, learning new moves, and displaying affection for their trainer.

Muk sense the world primarily through vibrations. This allows them to hear spoken words and differentiate between the voices and footsteps of individual humans. Muk appear to have eyes complex eyes. These are actually simple eye spots. Muk can only determine whether light is present or absent. The species can also apparently sense chemicals in the air and water. This is how they find food.

Unlike the other species, the domestic muk does not keep many poisons inside of their flesh. They do keep resident bacteria colonies inside of them, but these are mostly to help with digestion of plastics and other bacteria and they not actively attack living tissue. The domestic muk stores excess or particularly toxic materials inside of their crystals. When attacked they absorb the crystals into their body to temporarily make their flesh more toxic. This helps deter any would-be predators and harm anything that keeps attacking them. These crystals can be removed and sometimes fall out on their own.

All stages of the evolutionary line appear to have a mouth. This is used to wholly absorb rotting materials, letting them break it down from all angles. Sometimes a muk will engulf an opponent to maximize their exposure to toxins and prevent them from fleeing. Grimer and muk have crystalline teeth lining their mouth for extra utility in battle.

Grimer are very similar to muk, except smaller and with crystals limited to their mouth and the area around their eye spots.

New variants of domestic muk can only reach widths of eight feet and weights of up to 300 pounds. Some older breeds can grow slightly larger.

Behavior

Muk are generally sedentary creatures. They will sit still and digest food when they find it. When a food source runs out muk will retreat into the water for digestion, healing and safety. Muk prefer stagnant water, especially dirty water that lets them passively feed on bacteria. Adults are willing to enter running water, but grimer will generally avoid it unless they desperately need to hydrate.

A very hungry muk will attempt to hunt. Because of their low speed, they are mostly limited to sedentary Pokémon, animals and plants. Muk are one of the very few species that can digest slowpoke, but most will not take advantage of this. Lazy as they are, slowpoke still move faster than bacteria.

Muk were once believed to be a highly social pokémon. Terrestrial muk were almost always found in large colonies known as dumps. Shelf muk are also usually found congregated together. However, outside of crossover (see Breeding), members of all species don’t interact with conspecifics. Terrestrial and shelf muk only form groups because their largest food sources tend to be constant and unmoving, allowing for many muk to find a particular spot and coexist peacefully. Muk do not fight each other for territory, but if a given dump is at capacity would-be newcomers tend to turn away and find their food elsewhere.

Domestic muk tend to rest during the day and become active at night. This was bred into them to make their circadian rhythm align to the times janitors need them most. While muk do not properly sleep, they do enter periods of low activity. While inactive their mouth seems to disappear and they become a circular pile of colorful sludge with a very slight bulge and two white eye spots in the middle.

As mentioned in Physiology, muk respond to potential threats by breaking off crystals into their body. They will then rise up as high as they can and begin to groan. If the threat has still not left, they may begin to attack. If they do kill their assailant, the muk will stay near the same spot for days until the body is sufficiently decomposed to eat.

Husbandry

Grimer and muk can be fed every few days. They have been bred to eat a diet matching the typical load at a landfill. The average trainer’s trash will usually keep a muk satiated. They may supplement their diet by roaming their environment and eating any bacteria they find. This, combined with their sterile exterior, makes them popular with hospitals for sterilizing equipment and rooms. The sludge mix muk require can be purchased at most Pokémon Centers, hardware stores, or pokémon supply stores.

Muk will adjust the concentrations of bacteria in their body to match their average long-term diet. Newly captured or purchased muk should be fed more or less the same things they were previously eating and slowly be weaned into whatever a trainer needs them to eat. To maintain maximum size, a muk should be fed about thirty pounds of trash a week.

Muk are aquatic pokémon and should be given the chance to fully submerge themselves at least once a week. If this is not possible, they should at least be stored in a dive ball. These are not perfect substitutes for actual submersion and muk are happiest if they can swim frequently, but dive balls will at least keep a muk alive. Muk prefer stagnant pools, but have no preferences on water temperature, pH, or salinity.

Many trainers are often surprised to learn that grimer and muk can be rather affectionate to the humans who feed them. Some will initiate cuddling. Most will at least tolerate it. Before they embrace their human, muk will slowly move all of their crystals to one side of their body. They should only be touched from the other side. If initiating contact, slowly stroke one area of the body. This should lead the muk to shift their crystals. If the muk keeps their crystals in place, they probably do not want to be touched.

Do not touch a muk within 24 hours of battle.

Muk can slowly be trained to be diurnal, but will always be a little sluggish in the day. Stern verbal commands can usually stir an inactive muk into moving. It is easiest to train a muk to be awake in the day if the pokémon is kept in a brightly lit area with water at night, and in a dark room with food during the day. After two weeks of this, almost all muk will have shifted their sleep schedule.

Muk sometimes enjoy puzzles. Systems of tubes with trash at the end are a favorite of the species. However, muk will usually try to eat pvc pipes and other plastic obstacles instead of playing with them. Metal toys work best. Because they sense the world through vibrations, many muk have shown a fondness for music. They usually settle upon a preferred genre or artist in time.

Illness

Most muk illnesses fall into three categories: dehydration, nutrient deprivation or starvation.

Dehydration illnesses manifest as muk being slower or less obedient. If a muk’s movement speed is noticeably slower than usual, allow them to be submerged in water until they decide to leave. The same applies if a muk is disobedient or aggressive for no clear reason, as they could be trying to get away and find water. Long term dehydration can lead to muk disincorporating into a pile of toxic crystals and bacteria-laced sludge.

Disincorporation is perhaps the only way a muk can die. Dehydration is by far the most common cause of death in domestic and terrestrial muk. It can also be caused by extensive attack damage, particularly from sound- and wave-based attacks (see Battling).

Nutrient deprivation illnesses manifest as one layer growing much larger than before or one layer growing smaller. As most layers correspond to one digestive function, check the muk breed’s guidebook to figure out what needs to be increased or reduced in their diet. Long-term deprivation of one nutrient usually will not kill a muk, but it will render them permanently unable to digest one food source.

Starvation results in a muk growing smaller over time. Reproduction and damage in battle can also result in shrinkage. If muk looks smaller or weighs less than usual, their feedings should be increased in size or frequency.

If any of the above remedies do not solve a problem, or if muk begins shedding more than one crystal a month, seek professional veterinarian help from a Pokémon Center or LifeChem store.

Evolution

Muk stay in much the same shape throughout their entire lives. Whether or not grimer should even be a recognized as a distinct stage is a hotly debated question. The main anatomical differences between grimer and muk are their size.

Newborn grimer have yet to stratify into different color bands. Stratification takes roughly six months. Once stratification has occurred, the grimer begins to slowly grow crystals. These develop first in the mouth and later in the areas around it. When the first crystal grows away from the face area, the grimer has formally evolved into muk.

Muk is the rare species of pokémon that doesn’t experience a rapid increase in growth and maturation rates in times of frequent combat. Instead, their growth is almost entirely tied to the amount of food they consume. Grimer can incorporate up to one one-quarter of their body weight every day and muk up to one-sixth.

Battle

Both domestic and terrestrial muk and frequently used in the international circuits. Muk don’t have conventional organs or weak points to damage. They are hurt the most by vibrations or attacks that affect their entire body at once. This makes muk the best counter in the metagame to technical physical attackers such as scizor, weavile, and sceptile. Physical birds often struggle against muk as well because their beaks and talons generally can’t do enough damage to muk to justify the proximity. Full body impacts run a very high risk of poisoning.

Domestic muk are more frequently used than terrestrial muk at this time. Domestic muk are highly resistant to telepathic attacks, the best counter to terrestrial muk. However, terrestrial muk can be far more toxic than domestic muk. This makes domestic muk an excellent wallbreaker; anything slow enough to be caught up in their body has a very limited amount of time left on the field. Because their bodies are filled with natural herbicides, domestic muk are also a counter to many physical or defensive grass-type pokémon. This has been famously exploited by Miguel Cabrera, champion of the Amazonian Federation, fifth highest ranked trainer in the world, and winner of 27 of the last 40 Pan-American Invitationals. The South and Central American metagames are filled with grass-types and technical attackers and are short on ground-types, making his muk almost as iconic and useful as his harpyre.

Both species are countered by any decently fast pokémon with a strong seismic move. Some powerful water-type attacks, such as surf or muddy water, can also serve the same purpose. Fast fliers with projectile attacks can usually dodge most of muk’s attacks and fire back their own. However, these birds are often unable to deal serious damage to muk, allowing the opposing trainer to run down the clock and switch.

A muk’s usual offensive movepool includes poison jab, toxic, venoshock and a projectile poison move such as gunk shot or sludge wave to hit fliers and fast projectile users. Protect, acid armor, torment, disable, pain split and substitute are useful for surviving earthquakes, but they can’t save muk in the long term. Even the most defensive of muk usually will not hold out long enough to be able to switch out against a powerful earthquake user. These moves dramatically boost muk’s ability to wall non-earthquake users (and-non psychics, in the case of terrestrial muk). Their elemental well is not large, but some muk are taught thunderbolt, ice beam and stone edge to increase their ranged offensive options.

Like the South American leagues, the Pan-Pacific metagame is dominated by grass-, water-, and flying-type pokémon. On the few islands where ground-types exist in large numbers, most serious trainers don’t bother to catch them. This makes powerful water-type moves the only real counter for muk on the island challenge, with ranged fliers like vikavolt serving as an important check. Powerful physical attackers that know earthquake, while rare outside of the very top teams, can also wreck a muk.

Grimer is an extremely good pokémon for the early island challenge as almost all weak pokémon function as technical attackers. This allows muk to single-handedly take down almost all teams on the first island and most of the second. Muk stays useful up to and including the pokémon league. Trainers are unlikely to be able to teach their muk the full list of defensive moves outlined above, but one or two in combination with toxic and venoshock are all muk really needs to succeed. Trainers can also use a dark-type move such as knock off to take advantage of muk’s telepathy resistance and turn them into psychic-slayers.

Acquisition

Grimer requires a Class II license to capture, purchase, or adopt. Muk require a Class III license to purchase or adopt. Only grimer may be legally captured in the region.

Most grimer in Alola are held in the four Waste Depository Centers, one on each of the main islands. They can also be purchased from private trainers and LiveChem stores. From time to time the Waste Depository Centers will release excess grimer into the area around them for trainers to capture. These releases are usually publicized a week after they happen in to allow the grimer some time to spread out. After a certain period of time passes, the DNR sets out to recapture any muk that still exist in the wild.

These four centers are in East Hau’oli, Route 4, Malie Cape, and The Battle Tree.

Breeding

Muk imitate sexual reproduction through two separate events. The first is crossover. This occurs when two muk are around each other for a long period of time and develop a mutual respect. The two muk will coalesce into one pile and then pull apart into two distinct muk. This process works across species and results in sister muk that are essentially the biological offspring of the pair. In captivity the trainer that the new muks choose to follow is essentially random, with one going with each trainer roughly half the time and both going with one the other half. Which muk remembers which moves and strategies is also essentially random. Crossover can be prevented by not allowing a muk to spend more than two weeks with another member of their species.

Grimer are produced asexually. Muk prefer not to get above a certain size, although their exact terminal mass varies by individual. When a muk is at terminal mass and consumes more food, they will mix some of every layer in their body into a ball and release it. The grimer awakens and begins moving within six hours of formation. Grimere are sometimes loyal to their parent’s trainer and often retain knowledge of most of the same moves, even if they do not have the proper anatomy or energy well for using them yet. Some specialty breeders exploit this to sell grimer with deep movepools and battle experience.

After a captive muk produces a grimer, the muk should be weighed to determine the mass they reproduce at. If you do not desire any more reproduction, make sure to keep the muk below that mass.

Relatives

As mentioned in the introduction, there are four species of muk. The domestic muk has been covered above.

The terrestrial muk (O. invasor) are shelf muk that have further evolved for life near human habitations. They are the most toxic of the species and can wilt small plants just by passing within ten feet. They are only found around the most polluted of industrial waste sites and landfills. They must hydrate daily which further restricts their range. Modern environmental laws have rendered the terrestrial muk all but extinct in developed economies, with the remaining populations persisting at facilities explicitly designed for keeping the terrestrial muk alive. These centers are often run by professional trainers who are fond of muk, but are sometimes run by environmentalists who want the species to live on for its intrinsic value.

Terrestrial muk are still a major health concern in some developing economies. Portions of coastal Brazil, the Gold Coast of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Indonesian archipelago still have very high concentrations of terrestrial muk, usually along the coast but sometimes in ponds or rivers.

Shelf muk (O. basisputei) usually live along the seafloor at the edge of the continental shelf. They are the lightest species, but usually spread out to about the area the average domestic muk takes up. Submersible observation suggests that most shelf muk stay unmoving for months at a time. They only appear to move when one of the rare pokémon that preys on gelatinous organisms approaches. They begin to move quite quickly when predators are nearby, rising off of the seafloor and flapping their body in a pattern remarkably similar to a jellyfish. Shelf muk usually attack by sending out jets of highly toxic water or wrapping themselves around an attacker. They can also make sudden movements that send pressure waves through the water, but these are only usually powerful enough to stun an opponent. While shelf muk can go above the surface for very short periods of time, they are extremely reluctant to do so. The difficulty of capturing them and their expensive diet make them uncommon in captivity, but some LifeChem breeding centers and public aquariums keep them.

Abyssal muk (O. challengeri) have been sighted on the abyssal plains of the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Like most decomposers, they are most common in equatorial areas where surface primary productivity is rather high. They are seldom seen near the continental shelf, outside the tropics, or in ocean trenches. They also appear to be absent from hydrothermal vent ecosystems.

The abyssal muk is pure white. They are the heaviest, widest, and thinnest species, seldom becoming more than two inches thick. When food falls, they move along the seafloor like a shallow white wave. It is unclear how long muk stay in one place, but captive specimens have gone up to three years without eating before they became agitated. There is video of muk attacking and consuming wimpod and pyukumuku, suggesting that they may be both a scavenger and the apex predator of the seafloor. The abyssal muk appears to be hydrokinetic and able to still the waters ahead of themselves while they move, which keeps prey from being alerted to their presence.

LifeChem used to keep abyssal muk in their breeding centers. This is where almost all of our knowledge of the species comes from. It took months to adjust abyssal muk to surface pressures and they never seemed to fare well in captivity; most died of apparent nutrient deficiency within five years. The abyssal muk breeding program was discontinued in 2008. It is still not known what else they needed in their diet to survive.

 

[Persephone]

Mr. Mime (Mime Jr.)
Spectaculi ioculator

Nomenclature

Unusually, this entry must begin with a note on a species name. The species whose adult form is usually referred to as “mr. mime” does not appear to have a biological sex. They reproduce by a bonded pair manifesting a physical egg. No physical contact is required to do this. The species does not communicate telepathically with even very experienced psychics. As such, they cannot directly communicate whether or not they have a gender identity. Individuals given access to human clothing tend to use both male- and female-coded items indiscriminately. Most quickly get bored and stop putting on any at all. There is substantial debate as to whether or not a gendered clothing preference would even matter.

In 1997, the Department of Agriculture renamed mr. mime to mime sr. After the most recent volume of this text was published, the government abruptly reversed that decision without a notice and comment period. Unusually, they did not provide a statement justifying the decision.

While we are ordinarily hesitant to speculate on the reasoning of the Department of Agriculture, the current President of the United States once said during a campaign speech: “Folks, men are under attack. When I grew up it was mr. mime, now it’s, get this, ‘mime sr.’ Can you believe that? We—they always say, look, women need to be proud right? Well, what about men? Why can’t men be proud? In China they’re proud. That’s why they’re winning. [Eleven pages of transcript discussing China, automobiles, CNN, his hotels on the Arabian Peninsula, an actress, three primary opponents, his hands, European clocks, daylight savings time, and recycled plastic have been omitted.] And let me tell you, when I’m president we’re going to make mime mr. again. Believe me. Believe me.”

Reflecting the formal guidance of the Department of Agriculture, future versions of this guidebook will be updated to change references from mime sr. to mr. mime. For now, the online and pokédex models will begin with this note. The rest of the entry will refer to the adult form of the species as mr. mime.

Introduction

Pokémon are usually grouped into three superkingdoms: the organics, the machines, and the phantoms. Organic pokémon more or less obey the rules of biology, with a few quirks and biologically inexplicable powers. Machines at least imitate biology, even if they reproduce asexually and are based on silica rather than carbon. The phantoms usually don’t have any sort of recognizable biology.

There does appear to be a ‘missing link’ between the organics and phantoms that is still very much alive today: the true psychic family. True psychics imitate biology when alive and often have typically mammalian hairs and body shapes. They even DNA that appears to determine phenotypes.

Everything else about them is bizarre. They appear to feed on emotions, thoughts and other mental and spiritual energies like the phantoms often do. Their bodies disappear when they die. True psychics also distort the dimensional fabric around them to a much greater degree than even the phantoms.

Mr. mime was originally native to Kalos. They became a popular companion of traveling bards for their uncanny ability to mimic the movements of others and to create invisible barriers out of thin air. They were steadily exported to other regions as bards traveled farther and farther with advances in naval technology and international trade routes. Backlash often followed. The king of Paldea found them to be creepy and demonic, and he tried to cull every single mr. mime in the country as a response.

In 1956, a circus was set up in Hau’oli. While initially popular, it found itself deeply in debt and with declining attendance. The owner decided to close the circus and release all of the pokémon in it. This established the first colony of mr. mime on Alola. The DNR determined that Mr. Mime are relatively harmless, don’t compete for organic food, and are popular with competitive battlers, wealthy families, and some children. They are thus a low priority for removal.

Mr. mime are incredibly solid battlers, often willing to help with routine chores, and do not require their trainer to purchase and carry around food for them. Trainers trainers can put up with their need for attention and creepy appearance should strongly consider adding one to their team.

Physiology

Both mr. mime and mime jr. have an undisputed psychic-typing. Both have historically regarded as fairies in Kalos and are often found in fairy courts. This makes their fairy-typing also relatively uncontroversial.

Mime jr. generally have short, stocky bodies. Their legs are very short and they have no knees. The lower portion of their body is coated in blue fur, the exact shade of which varies between individuals. Their upper body is covered in pink, purple or red fur. The one exception is their head, which is covered in long, thick, blue hair that tends to clump together and stick up. Mime jr. like to seek out a pearl, bead, or other round object to put on top of their hair. They try to keep the object balanced and will cry if it falls off.

Mime jr. have long, thin arms. They also have two small red growths on their body, one on their navel and one on their nose. Neither mime jr. nor mr. mime has ears. They do have eyes and a mouth, but no vocal cords or lungs. Mr. mime never have any apparent reproductive organs. They may have a heart, kidneys, liver, stomach, intestines, appendix, or gall bladder. They may also not have any or all of those organs. In any case, the heart does not beat and none of the other organs appear to function.

Mr. mime has a disc-like torso covered in white fur. They have the same red outgrowths as mime jr., but much larger and located at the base of their limbs, their navel, and on their cheeks. They have four small red growths on the ends of their fingers. Mr. mime has the same red fur as mime jr. on their face. They lose their visible nose but retain a nasal slit. Mr. mime also lose their eyelids. Instead of one long clump of hair, mr. mime usually have two with one jutting out from either side of their head. They usually outgrow their habit of balancing objects by this point. All of mr. mime’s limbs are long, thin, and coated in a layer of white hairs. Mr. mime have four joints on each limb and are double jointed on all four. At the end of their legs, mr. mime have long feet that curl up at the end. They are usually the same color as their juvenile blue fur, except they are hard structures made of keratin. Mr. Mime have long, broad hands. Their fingers are double-jointed and have more joints than the average human hand.

A fully-grown mr. mime usually has a mass of about eighty pounds. Fully extended, they can reach heights of sixty inches. The lifespan of mr. mime in the wild and in captivity closely tracks the average human lifespan in the area.

Behavior

Rather than normal food, mr. mime and mime jr. appear to feed off of human attention and fascination. They prefer to live near large human settlements and will often venture into cities to give performances on street corners or in public parks. Mr. mime used in arenas or other places with many people being entertained (see Battling) usually have brighter fur and more energy than the average specimen. When they are not performing, mr. mime find a secluded area and sit down, fold their limbs to appear small as possible, and stop moving. During their resting state they remain smiling with their eyes wide open.

Mr. mime hate interacting with conspecifics. They only seek each other out to mate and they abandon their mate and child immediately after reproduction occurs (see Breeding). The one exception is that mr. mime held in very active public places will sometimes tolerate each other, but they will not interact unless ordered to do so and they will constantly try to upstage the rest of their circus.

Mime jr. will usually seek out surrogate parents. These can be humans, other true psychics (or alakazam), fey courts, or individual fairy or bipedal pokémon. They are very nervous when they are not being watched over by their surrogate parent. When they feel safe, mime jr. are very playful and will constantly play games with themselves or attempt to perform for someone else. They are perfectionists and will often break down in tears at the slightest mistake, even though they are not yet very skilled at mimicry or even graceful movement.

Mr. mime never speak, even telepathically. They lack ears but can understand spoken commands. They cannot understand music and recorded voices. Mr. mime ordinarily use telepathy to read the nervous systems of similarly structured creatures. This allows them to perfectly mimic the movements of humans. Less well known is their ability to project their own movements onto humans and other bipeds. This is usually only possible after a psychic link is established through mimicry. Mr. Mime never cause the being they are controlling to speak or write.

Husbandry

The species is generally safe around humans. There are three broad exceptions. Mime jr. or mr. mime in a fey court are every bit as dangerous as every other member of a fey court. Most mr. mime will lash out violently if their performance is interrupted or mocked. Finally, some specimens become too attached to one individual and become addicted to their attention. If this attention is ever withdrawn, the pokémon may kidnap the target of their affection and, if necessary, keep their body controlled and performing gestures of affection forever. Trainers of mr. mime are strongly urged to keep another pokémon as well to prevent this from happening. Bringing other humans in to watch the mr. mime or having multiple family members give the pokémon roughly equal amounts of attention is also advised.

So long as these warnings are followed, mr. mime are excellent partner pokémon. They do not require food. They can sleep up to sixteen hours a day. They are also fascinated enough with humans that they can sometimes be convinced to do routine human tasks such as sweeping, mopping or cleaning dishes. If a mr. mime does not want to do these things, they should never be forced to do them.

The main drawback of keeping mr. mime is their need for attention. They will expect their trainer to spend several hours with them a day, either venting to the mr. mime (they are very good listeners), watching a performance, or allowing them to mimic their trainer’s movements while in public or doing a complex task. On rare occasions, they may take over their trainer’s body for an hour or so.

Mime Jr. are even more demanding in their own way. They are typically content to just watch what their trainer does and try to imitate it, but they will sometimes want to perform. Both present problems. Mime jr. will inevitably make mistakes in their spontaneous imitations and performances, causing them great emotional distress. Their trainer will then need to drop whatever they were doing and console them. It is speculated that they even make mistakes on purpose from time to time to get attention. They are also less used to linking their nervous systems than mr. mime are; this can sometimes result in involuntary twitches or inexplicable sensations in nearby humans. Sometimes weirder results such as full body or perception swaps can occur.

Mr. mime should be given a secluded place to sleep in, ideally one humans rarely enter. Mime jr. should be allowed to sleep in their trainer’s bed. They are more than tough enough to survive a human rolling onto them and they can’t choke on blankets because they don’t breathe. Their pokéballs should be used very sparingly, ideally only when the pokémon is injured or right before major formal matches.

Illness

When a mr. mime receives insufficient attention, they may become withdrawn, lethargic and bitter. This, ironically, results in the pokémon receiving even less attention than they were before. Taking a day and doing nothing but playing with a Mr. Mime can usually reverse this.

The vast majority of trainers will experience only temporary maladies from mime jr. attempting nervous systems links. The more serious cases tend to be spotted fairly quickly. Some powerful human or pokémon psychics can resolve these problems without permanent side effects.

Evolution

When a mime jr. has enough confidence in their own mimicry abilities, they will evolve. They are not gradual or flash evolvers; they are in a rare third category that simply disappears and reappears a moment later in their adult form. This process is literally faster than blinking. There is no bright flash of light. Evolution simply happens. Curiously, the new mr. mime will almost never acknowledge that they were ever a juvenile and will immediately begin acting as if everything is normal.

Evolution cannot be accelerated by battling, but can be hastened by the mime jr.’s surrogate parents spending more time with them. Trainers who want to evolve their mime jr. quickly should play with their pokémon whenever possible and never stray more than a few yards away.

Battling

Mr. mime are seen on almost every professional battlefield—on the sidelines. A rhydon cannot go all out with a seismic attack without leveling all but the sturdiest of structures around them. A missed hydreigon draco meteor could easily kill several spectators. Arguably, high level professional battling is only possible because of mr. mime. The pokémon put on a show at the start of most professional matches, although this part is usually omitted from telecasts. This gives the pokémon a boost in power and confidence that allows them to form shields around the battlefield. These barriers keep attacks, field effects, and pokémon inside of the arena while still allowing all but the harshest of lights and sounds to pass through.

Mr. mime form these shields in one of two ways. The more powerful method is belief. If someone nearby believes that their walls are real and can block attacks, they spontaneously become real. These walls persist until physically broken, the belief falters, or the last believer leaves the area. Mr. mime can also create temporary barriers by using small vibrations of their fingertips to still molecules in front of them. They can create a feedback loop where the temporary barrier visibly holds, convincing bystanders that it is real. This, in turn, causes the barrier to become far stronger, which fosters more belief in the power of the barrier, which causes the barrier to become stronger, and so on. This makes mr. mime shields uniquely powerful in large stadiums where powerful attacks routinely hit their shields without breaking them.

There is some debate as to whether trainers themselves should be allowed to use mr. mime in stadium matches, or whether stadium capacity should be limited for professional battles where one side has a mr. mime. It has been repeatedly shown that trainer’s Mr. Mime are less powerful in isolated matches, such as remotely telecast matches fought on top of Mt. Silver or on desert islands. Mr. mime on the battlefield do not appear to receive assistance from specimens on the sidelines of the battlefield. This is not surprising given Mr. Mime’s antipathy towards others of their species.

In 2006, at the peak of baton pass teams’ popularity, eleven of the top one-hundred trainers used a mr. mime on their main team. Rule changes to punish the playstyle have decreased mr. mime’s prominence, but they are still among the top thirty most used pokémon in major tournaments.

Every baton pass team, and a fair few bulky and hyper offense teams, have a mr. mime at their core. The pokémon can temporarily distract an opponent through disable, encore, taunt or torment. Then they start to set up the shields. Only the very strongest of opponents, or those with unique shield-breaking abilities, can get around the barriers in less than one minute. In the meantime, mr. mime meditate through nasty plot or calm mind. They periodically fortify the shields as needed and then resume boosting up. Once the switch timer runs out, they immediately baton pass to either another link in the baton pass chain or to an offensive pokémon. A hydreigon with fifteen minutes of nasty plot boosting and mr. mime shields behind it (and maybe other boosts from the rest of the chain) can sweep most full, healthy teams.

Most baton pass counters, such as merciless offense, toxic, perish song, and taunt, do not work on mr. mime because of their shields, bizarre biology, or deafness. Instead, their weakness is their relative lack of offensive presence. Some trainers will let mr. mime do whatever it wants behind the barrier. In the meantime, they have their own pokémon set up. This can take the form of stat boosting or arena control. The above hydreigon can theoretically sweep a team, but not if their first opponent also has several minutes worth of boosts or extremely favorable arena conditions

Mr. mime can use their own offensive abilities and shoot out attacks such as dazzling gleam or charge beam through the barrier. But even with several minutes of boosting (or baton pass boosts of their own), mr. mime are only powerful enough to match the average top tier offensive pokemon. And every second spent attacking is a second that mr. mime isn’t boosting or fortifying their barriers. While they lack conventional weak points, mr. mime are still rather fragile and can’t take many hits once their walls come down.

As such, mr. mime is increasingly viewed as an insurance policy: one way or another, the winner of the matchup right after mr. mime baton passes out is going to take the match. If a trainer has had a very bad match and is left with only mr. mime and a special attacker, they can effectively wipe out the rest of the match beforehand. This has led to some rumblings about banning baton pass altogether because it “takes the skill out of battling.”

Island Challenge battles are not fought in front of sold out stadiums. Only the champion, the challenger and a referee are allowed in the throne room during title defense matches. The elite four chambers and the throne room are all guarded by technology derived from bronzong and partially fortified by ninetales, not Mr. Mime, to get around the lack of crowds. The Malie Gym uses mr. mime, and Alola Stadium (still under construction as of this volume’s publication) will use mr. mime.

The lack of attention diminishes effectiveness, but in turn not many enemies can dish out professional tier attacks. This means that mr. mime can still make shields that hold off most opponents for at least a minute, even with relatively few spectators. After evolution or capture mr. mime should be taught a few offensive attacks such as charge beam and dazzling gleam. Then training should focus on boosting moves. A mr. mime can do very well for themselves up until the elite four without knowing baton pass. The default strategy for using mr. mime in casual battle is to disrupt the opponent, set up shields, boost for a minute or so, and then start firing out attacks. Opponents who take the time to counter-boost can be troublesome, as mr. mime has no good way to boost their defenses outside of their barriers.

Mime jr. should only be battled with in very controlled settings against weak opponents. They strongly prefer friendly play to battle and losses can upset their self-confidence for days or even weeks.

Acquisition

Mime jr. and mr. mime can be captured, adopted, or purchased with a Class III license.

They are most commonly found in the suburbs of Hau’oli, although they sometimes venture into more rural areas or into the heart of the city. Mr. mime are most often seen while performing. These performances should never be disrupted, as the mr. mime will fly into a rage and, if captured, never trust their trainer. Mr. mime are creative, vindictive, and have psychic powers; angering one and then keeping it close is folly of the highest degree.

Mr. mime are best captured by simply approaching one moving between locations or sitting down next to a resting mr. mime. Showing the pokémon a pokéball and watching a full performance with suitably vigorous applause at the end will usually gain the pokémon’s trust and they will allow themselves to be captured. They feed off of attention and are entirely willing to be trained by humans if it means a constant source of food.

Mime jr. are somewhat trickier to capture. A mime jr. that has not found a surrogate parent after a few hours will usually cry very loudly until either a predator or potential parent approaches. Walking around the woods north of Hau’oli or the suburbs of the city and listening for tears is as good a way to find one. Any unclaimed mime jr. will be very friendly to potential surrogate parents and will make no effort whatsoever to resist capture. If a mime jr. already has parents or shows disinterest in capture, it is best to leave the pokémon alone to avoid angering their parents.

Breeding

Mr. mime do not need physical contact to breed. In fact, a pair have successfully mated through a video link while sixty miles apart. When two receptive mr. mime see each other, one will spontaneously begin performing while the other watches. The other will reply with a performance of their own. If both are reasonably impressed, they will begin a synchronized routine that lasts for one to two hours. Then both will stand motionless for several minutes until a mime jr. spontaneously appears next to one of them. Both parents will then immediately ignore the child and each other. Mr. mime can mate several times throughout their lives, but they will never mate with (or even acknowledge) a past partner again.

Relatives

There is a second known species of mr. mime. Mr. Mime was banished from southern Galar during The Protectorate and largely moved north and away from human civilization. Deprived of their usual energy source, they turned to entertaining wild pokémon in harsh environments. On occasion they have been known to kidnap travelers to have a literally captive audience. The captive will usually be let go when a new human comes along. Northern mr. mime (S. gelidapedes) are ice-types that can freeze the ground beneath them and move through snow and ice without problem. In addition to telepathic barriers, northern mr. mime can also create elaborate ice sculptures and walls. Some have been known to form mazes of ice and invisible walls.

Northern mr. mime can evolve into mr. rime in the same disappearance-reappearance manner as their first evolution. Mr. rime are slightly shorter than their counterparts and always carry a prop made of ice. This is usually a cane. Their prop has an enormous amount of elemental energy stored into it and can be used as a focus point for powerful attacks. However, they are not quite as fast as mr. mime. They tend to evolve from specimens that engage in a lot more combat than is typical for the species. The loss of speed and stamina matters little if the mr. mime historically has not been able to avoid fights, anyway. Mr. rime do not run, but they can unleash devastating effects and form ice constructs that appear to move and breathe. They often use their constructs to entertain others. Their mimicry abilities also seem to have been dampened by evolution.

 

[Persephone]

Arbok (Ekans)
Toxiconstrictor vocatmortem

Introduction

Before 1955, arbok was mostly notable as the link between the constrictors and the venomous snakes. The former group use their muscles and the element of surprise to wrap themselves around their prey and squeeze until their target dies of suffocation. The venomous snakes make a single strike and inject their prey with venom from their fangs. Then the snake slinks away and waits until their prey dies. Arbok is a constrictor, but they also have venom.

This venom is a paralytic that has psychoactive effects on most mammals, reptiles, and birds. They deliver this venom by spitting it through the air onto their targets face. Arbok can reliably hit a stationary target from twenty meters, and they can usually hit a moving target from fifteen feet. Once the venom reaches its target, it starts to give off noxious fumes. The fumes, when inhaled, cause the target’s muscles to lock. This is not distressing. In fact, the venom has a strong calming effect. Mammals, birds and reptiles under the effect of arbok venom are perfectly aware of what is happening and can even feel pain; they just passively accept all of it.

In 1938, the surgeon general of the United States released a report on the long- and short-term effects of hypnosis on the human mind. Hypnosis had previously been the preferred method of anesthesia in most of the world’s operating theaters. However, the surgeon general’s report suggested that hypnosis, especially from hypno and ghost-types, could add or delete memories, impair future sleep or memory formation, and cause or exacerbate serious mental illnesses. Congress had banned it for medical purposes within one year.

However, there was no good alternative to take hypnosis’ place. Faced with the option between painless surgery with potential psychological risks or painful, often lethal surgery without anesthesia, most patients who could afford to do so left the country for operations. Many who could not afford to travel died or were left severely traumatized. In 1941, after just twenty months, the ban on hypnotism was reversed.

In 1955, a monk from the Mount Otsukimi Monastery, was admitted to the newly formed NTT Hospital in Saffron. His particular sect did not allow priests to be hypnotized and the doctors advised him that he would almost certainly die without hypnosis. The monk recommended arbok venom be used, citing his experiences on the slopes of Mount Otsukimi watching arbok crush tranquil prey to death. The hospital consulted with the Sekichiki Dojo, the owners of the only captive arbok in Japan that had not been defanged. An arbok was brought to NTT for the surgery and, to the astonishment of all present save the monk himself, the surgery was successful and the patient woke up less than one day after the surgery’s completion with no ill effects. Arbok venom is now the standard anesthesia method across the world.

People under the effect of arbok venom also retain their memories, albeit rendered less traumatic than they otherwise would be. This makes the criminal applications of arbok venom rather limited. Theoretically arbok venom can be used to paralyze a target in order to murder them, but there are far more efficient ways to kill someone with a pokémon. Studies on the addictiveness of arbok venom have shown mixed results. The current consensus is that if arbok venom is addictive at all, then it is only psychologically addictive and does not cause chemical dependence. Nevertheless, arbok venom was included in the 1971 Prevention of Pokémon Drug Abuse Act and most subsequent legislation on the topic. It is currently illegal to transport arbok or ekans across regional or national borders with intent to breed the pokémon. It is also illegal to keep the pokémon there for over thirty days. Violation of the act carries a forty year mandatory minimum sentence.

In 1975, Alola found itself facing a shortage of arbok. No arbok had ever given birth to live babies in Alola and importation of more was impossible. In a last-ditch effort to avoid returning to hypno within a decade, the regional government released twenty arbok into the wild on Route 2 to see if they would breed.

They did.

There are now nearly 1300 ekans and roughly 80 wild arbok on Melemele. The federal government has even granted a partial exception to the importation ban to keep the wild population genetically diverse. In 2017 the regional government began to allow trainers on the island challenge to capture ekans.

Physiology

Ekans and arbok are classified as pure poison-types. The ruling is not disputed.

Ekans are long, thin snakes. Their backs are usually purple, but can also be green, pink, red, grey or gold. Their bellies are almost always a light-yellow color. They have large yellow eyes, but they primarily sense the world through smell. Ekans and arbok often flick their tongues out to get a sense of the heat signatures and scents in their surroundings. Ekans and arbok are entirely colorblind. Both stages have nostrils. While they cannot smell with them, the nostrils are useful for breathing while they eat.

Young ekans have no venom or poison abilities whatsoever. Older ekans gain some ability to use poison-elemental attacks, but they do not have natural venom. They instead have powerful muscles that let them crush anything they are fast enough to wrap themselves around. Additionally, their jaw is detachable to allow them to eat meals larger than they are. Ekans have a rattle at the tip of their tail. This can be shaken to create a sound that has been described as a breathy scream.

Arbok lose their rattle. They gain a large hood directly beneath their head. This hood is usually not expanded and just appears as a slight bulge at the top of their body. When expanded, it displays a distorted face. The exact pattern varies (see Relatives). It was previously believed that this pattern terrified opponents into freezing up, allowing arbok to safely constrict and eat them. It is now believed that this hood allows them to momentarily stun prey so that they can be more reliably poisoned. It is also useful for making the arbok look bigger than it is when scaring off potential predators.

Arbok are not particularly large snakes; they are less than half the length and less than one third the weight of the largest constrictors. However, they are the strongest non-draconic constrictors on record. Arbok have been observed crushing oil drums and snapping trees and bones.

Arbok can grow up to twelve feet in length and weigh up to 180 pounds in mass in their native range. In tropical environments they tend to grow up to fifteen feet and 220 pounds. They can live up to 17 years in the wild and 36 in captivity.

Behavior

On Honshu ekans almost exclusively eat eggs. They are adept climbers and are generally shorter than the grasses in the rugged savannas they inhabit. This allows them to stealthily reach both grounded and arboreal nests and eat the contents. In Alola ekans have run up against a slight problem. The most common bird pokémon is toucannon. Even if an ekans got into a nest, it would be no match for the mother toucannon inside. Pelipper, the next most common bird, fiercely protect their eggs.

There is a plethora of birds that nest on the eastern side of Melemele. There is also very sparse grass cover, forcing ekans to be exposed if they want to enter the area. In addition to being their most common source of food, large birds are ekans’ most common predators. The risk of exposing themselves to an army of mandibuzz, braviary and fearow does not make up for the risk of entering the eastern cliffs.

As such, ekans are confined to the western edge of Melemele. Their main targets here are honchkrow, delibird, golduck, fearow, and oricorio eggs. This predation has led to the near-extripation of oricorio from Route 2, as well as the decline of the local honchkrow , fearow, and delibird populations. The oricorio decline has been treated as an acceptable casualty. Melemele Meadow is routinely monitored for ekans; if any are found there, they will be removed to protect the oricorio population.

Between the breeding seasons of their prey ekans will target small pokémon. In practice, this is usually rattata. Ekans prefer to stay hidden deep in thick grass and wait for something to pass by them. They will also hide in trees and drop down on something that passes beneath them.

Arbok have no common predators of Route 2 and suburban Hau’oli. Even arcanine are unwilling to pick fights with them. Arbok spend most of their time basking in well-lit areas. They seldom fully sleep, instead keeping themselves alert enough to be able to respond to threats. Arbok have no eyelids which makes it difficult to tell if one is asleep or not. A wild basking arbok should be left alone. They are not dangerous unless disturbed.

Arbok prefer to lurk at the edge of tall grass patches. When something passes by them outside of the grass they will rise up and hiss. Arbok hisses sound like a mix of metal scraping against metal, a screaming infant, and a roaring flame. They are loud and scary enough that most creatures will reflexively look towards them, be frightened by the hood into a second of stunned stillness, and then get a blast of venom to the eyes or nose. When the prey is poisoned arbok will slither over and crush it until death occurs. Then they will dislocate their jaw and eat it whole.

Arbok’s main prey are raticate, and they will sometimes go well out of their way to hunt one. Arbok are diurnal and will approach a nest during the day while the raticate and most rattata are asleep. They will hiss to wake up the raticate, poison it, and then either scare the remaining rattata away or kill them and leave the bodies for ekans or other scavengers.

In addition to raticate, arbok often eat delibird, golduck, smeargle, growlithe (but not arcanine), and lopunny. They will sometimes deliberately kill pikachu, pichu and raichu to bait a hodad into attacking them. When the hodad approaches, they will get a shot of venom between the eyes before they can locate and attack the arbok. Given the type disadvantage, this is often a bad strategy but some arbok seem to almost exclusively hunt hodad. These are usually removed from the wild to avoid straining the hodad population.

Outside of their venom, arbok are most notable for their hibernation. The species never ventures far from caves in either their native range or in Alola. Even though they are generally territorial, during the winter arbok and ekans will all swarm together and descend into a nearby cave. They will huddle together for warmth and create a pile of hundreds of snakes. They seek out caves because they tend to stay warmer than the outside air during the winter. However, the caves are still not particularly warm. Arbok go into brumation in the winter, where their metabolism sharply drops. Arbok and ekans can go the entire winter without hunting, although they will sometimes prey on a cave pokémon unfortunate or reckless enough to approach the den.

In Alola, some arbok brumate during the wet season (see Reproduction). Almost no ekans do. Even at the coldest point in the year the surface is still warmer than the world beneath it.

Husbandry

Recreational use of arbok venom is strongly discouraged. While not chemically addictive, it can cause psychological dependency. It can also cause fatal allergic reactions in some people. Even if it is not instantaneously lethal, someone under the effects of arbok venom will be unable to help themselves if danger appears. Some people have mild allergic reactions to arbok venom causing them to vomit; if they cannot move their head, this can cause suffocation.

Ekans will require at least twenty hours of basking time a week in either natural sunlight or under a heat lamp. If basking outside they should be provided some protection from predatory birds. Arbok require thirty to fifty hours of basking time but seldom need to be protected. Ekans should be provided with enrichment in the form of climbing structures. Arbok will not use them. Both will play with pipe systems, although it is difficult to construct one large and sturdy enough for an arbok.

Ekans can be housebroken rather easily. Arbok will generally refuse to learn if they are not already housebroken.

Ekans and arbok are rather tolerant of pokéballs so long as they are sometimes allowed to train, explore, and bask. They prefer balls designed for ectotherms and these roughly halve the required basking time. They can tolerate almost every pokéball.

Ekans should be fed primarily a diet of eggs. One large egg a day is generally enough for a small ekans, although larger ekans may begin to eat more. Neither ekans nor arbok will eat when they are not hungry, which makes putting slightly more eggs than necessary in an ekans living quarters a good strategy. Eggs can also be used for enrichment if the ekans has to sniff out and find them.

Almost all carnivorous pokémon will eat dry food, or at least ground meat. This allows trainers some disconnect between the food and its components. Arbok and large ekans will only eat their prey whole. It should be recently dead or thawed out. Some general pokémon supply stores and almost all reptile specialty stores will sell frozen or freshly killed food. Trainers who are not comfortable feeding a dead pokémon to their arbok should not train the species.

Arbok can eat rattata and raticate, yungoos and gumshoos, most small- to mid-size birds, small fish, golbat, and some larger insects. They strongly prefer eating pokémon to ordinary animals and should be fed a dead pokémon at least once a month. Arbok should be offered food one week after small meals, ten days after medium-sized meals, and two weeks after large ones. If they are hungry and go too long without food arbok will kill and consume small pokémon around them, including teammates, pets, and endangered species.

Arbok captured as an ekans are generally harmless to humans. They will often wrap around their trainer as a sign of affection, but they will not squeeze tightly enough to kill. The very few cases where an arbok kept in captivity before evolution went on to kill their trainer were generally in cases of severe neglect or abuse. Arbok and ekans can even be trusted around children, although this is generally not recommended. Kids tend to either be traumatized by arbok or harass them while they bask.

If an arbok rears up at you, it is best to slowly sit down, look away from them, and speak in soft tones. If they do not spit venom immediately, they are simply showing that they are irritated or threatened. They may also be sick.

Illness

Snake illnesses tend to require professional care to treat. The most common symptoms are random displays of aggression and a refusal to eat. These could signal anything from a minor infection to a life-threatening illness. The pokémon should be kept in their ball and taken to a veterinarian as soon as possible in these cases.

The most common disease in arbok is blister disease. This manifests as a series of blisters, warts, or sores on the belly of the snake. It is recommended that trainers examine their pokémon’s belly every few days to make sure that this is caught early. Ekans are often very hesitant to have their belly scratched at first, but will quickly warm to it and even turn over to encourage their trainers to pet them. Arbok and ekans should be stroked towards the tail. If an arbok has not yet been trained to accept scratches, it is best to have a professional handle the process. The disease is caused by excess moisture in the environment, something that often happens when a snake native to temperate scrubland is introduced to a tropical region.

Another common symptom is mouth rot. This manifests as bleeding gums, open sores in the mouth, and white pus. Ekans are always reluctant to have their teeth checked, but trainers should always be watching for signs.

Annual checkups are also useful for catching parasites, slight internal damage, developmental problems, and endocrine disorders.

Arbok are necessary for most modern operations and the restrictions on importation have led veterinarians to try and find every possible way to keep one alive. Almost all illnesses can be cured if caught early enough. The one exception is inclusive body disease. (IBD) The affected snake will be immediately euthanized. This has made many trainers unwilling to bring a snake showing signs of IBD in to be treated. This is selfish on two fronts: death from IBD is inevitable and painful, and the arbok might infect the wild and domestic populations the Alolan healthcare system depends on. Not euthanizing the infected pokémon is also cruel and pointless. IBD is an immunosuppressive and degenerative disease that causes tremors, aggression, paralysis, and ultimate death from secondary infections. There is no cure and the disease is 100% lethal.

Evolution

Around the time they reach six feet in length, ekans begin to develop flaps of skin behind their head. These eventually grow into a full hood, with colorful scales growing in to form the facial markings. Their venom sacs mature around the same time. The formal demarcation line between ekans and arbok is the rattle falling off, temporarily leaving the new arbok with a stump tail before the tip grows back.

Evolution usually occurs around twenty-four months of age in Honshu. Wild Ekans evolve around the sixteen-month mark in Alola due to abundant prey year-round and the lack of a hibernation period. Captive ekans can evolve marginally sooner than wild ekans, but this is a matter of six weeks at most.

Battling

Arbok are not often used on the competitive circuits. They are physically powerful and have a useful ability to disable opponents. However, they have some serious drawbacks. Arbok, like most poison-types, respond poorly to earth and psychic elemental attacks. Psychic types are abundant on the competitive scene and earthquake is a widespread attack among physical powerhouses. Arbok simply do not have the bulk to tank many of these hits.

Arbok venom can theoretically disable an opponent in one shot, but there are some drawbacks here as well. Generally, arbok only carry enough venom to disable something the size of a tauros. This allows them to shut down many smaller pokémon. In theory. The venom is nearly useless against mineral and phantom pokémon, and some organics with bizarre biology don’t experience any effects at all. Pokémon with very simple or extremely complex nervous systems can also resist the psychoactive effects, allowing some elemental attacks to be launched even as the pokémon remains paralyzed.

Many of the smaller pokémon arbok could theoretically disable are psychic-types with some sort of a barrier move to block the hit. Wild arbok rely on catching their opponent off guard. This is not an advantage they have on the battlefield. Most of the remaining small pokémon that see use are either too fast to hit (ninjask) or have tricks to block or mitigate the venom (smeargle).

In practice arbok’s use is limited to countering a small number of Pokémon or physically overpowering any pokémon without psychic or ground attacks that’s slower than arbok. Only one trainer in the top 100 uses one on their main team. That trainer, Elena Chirlov, is a dragon and reptile specialist who wanted a counter to most common fairy-types such as clefable, sylveon and florges.

Arbok is very good on the island challenge. Seismic attacks are uncommon outside of stadium battles and ground-types are quite rare in the South Pacific metagame. Most pokémon that the average trainer uses are small enough to succumb to arbok venom and most casual trainers will not have a premade strategy for dealing with the snake. The only issue is training an arbok to crush something to injury without killing them. This may require professional assistance.

Ekans can struggle before they evolve. Their poison attacks are not particularly potent, they are not fast, and as ambush predators they have few instincts to guide them in a one-on-one fight in the open. The best strategy is usually to poison the opponent with toxic or a similar move and then coil tightly and lash out when anything gets too close. This strategy is shut down by anything with a neutral ranged attack and more speed than the ekans.

Acquisition

Ekans can be captured or adopted with a Class II license. Arbok capture is prohibited but they may be adopted with a Class III license. Purchase of arbok and ekans is prohibited under federal law. Capture of arbok is prohibited by the regional government to ensure that breeding adults stay in the wild.

Ekans may be found all over Route 2, but particularly in the tall grass savannas near the coast. They can also be found in the forests north of Hau’oli. Most of these forests are nature reserves that do not allow capture. Consult a reserve’s website before going hunting inside of it.

Breeding

Female arbok attempt to eat as much as possible in the months before the wet season. Females that eat enough will be willing to reproduce. They will slither to the high-water mark of cool, but not cold, caves. This describes the Melemele caves that are not in the Seaward Cave complex. The depths of Verdant Cavern, beyond the trial site, are closed off in the wet season because of the number of arbok there.

In Alola the females will refuse entry to most males. They will either fight the males themselves or force them to fight each other. A handful of winners are allowed to stay; the rest must leave the cave and either hibernate elsewhere or not go into brumation at all. In their native range all arbok go into brumation, although only a handful of females are receptive to mating and they will ward off any male they see as an unworthy partner.

One female may mate with multiple males in the week before brumation begins. Once all mating occurs the snakes tangle together into one large pile. The females undergo a five-month pregnancy during brumation. They give live birth to three to five ekans upon emergence. Mothers will monitor their children for one to two weeks and then abandon them.

In captivity it is essential for breeding that arbok be given extra training and food in the months leading up to brumation. They should also have access to a secluded area kept between fifty and sixty degrees Fahrenheit and big enough for multiple arbok to rest comfortably in. The arbok should be allowed to explore this area towards the start of the dry season and then periodically return to check on it. If the female decides she wants to reproduce a powerful male who is already aware of the brumation chamber should also be introduced to it.

Arbok will sometimes mate with other large snakes and will seldom kill or reject them from the chamber. The chances of mating, successful birth, and viable offspring all increase in arbok-arbok pairings. Even a well fed and powerful female may not decide to mate in a given year. This is not concerning. If she has never gone into brumation in the available chamber, then a larger one should be provided the next year.

Relatives

There is some debate as to whether arbok with different colorations and hood markings should qualify as different subspecies. Because they have the same general elemental wells, physiology, behaviors, and range, almost all scientific bodies have accepted that there are no subspecies of arbok. While arbok have a slight preference for mates with similar appearances, wild and captive arbok will pick a stronger mate with a different phenotype over a weaker one with the same.

 

[Persephone]

Dudunsparce (Dunsparce)
Talpadraconis magnus

Overview

The dragons hold special places in almost every culture. They are seen as messengers of the gods, or as gods in their own right. Even the cultures that do not worship them know the importance of approaching them with respect and fear. In general, dragons are split into three groups: the true dragons, the pseudodragons, and the elemental dragons. The latter category will be set aside for now.

Pseudodragons evolved from snake pokémon and the true dragons evolved from pseudodragons. The true dragons are mostly bipedal or quadrupedal and often have wings. The most well known pseudodragons, milotic and gyarados, are sea serpents revered as gods of peace and war around the world.

Dudunsparce is the third pseudodragon. They are not worshipped by any known culture.

Rather than being fearsome apex predators like most true dragons and gyarados, dunsparce are scavengers and herbivores. They are extremely timid and flee into the earth at the first sign of trouble. All of this has led dunsparce being mocked as the little dragon that couldn’t. Even upon evolution dudunsparce still spend almost all of their lives alone underground.

But all hope is not lost for the only terrestrial pseudodragon. Research has shown that they easily outlive milotic and gyarados. Dudunsparce, while not as strong as their cousins, are still reasonably competent in battle. They are also far friendlier than the temperamental gyarados and mercurial milotic.

Physiology

Both stages are classified as pure normal types. They are not true dragons and do not wield draconic energy as well as the elemental dragons can. Despite their digging abilities, they are not terrakinetic. These limitations rule out dragon and ground typings, and there is no other typing that would fit them.

Dunsparce are relatively short, thick snakes. They are typically about five feet long and one foot wide. The body is split into three segments: a large head, a thick middle body, and a drill-tipped tail. Most of their back is covered in yellow scales and their belly is lined with teal ones. The one exception to this rule is a patch of scales between their wings. This pattern, unique to each individual, is a mix of tan and teal scales.

Dunsparce have two short white wings with soft feathers. The species is not capable of flight, but they can hover for short periods. Their wings beat rapidly while they do this, but the flight itself is an elemental ability and not the product of mechanical force. Dunsparce have two very wide eyes with eyelids. However, these eyes are almost always shut. Sometimes a captive dunsparce will open them for a minute or so, but they will then close their eyes continuously for nearly a decade. No wild dunsparce has been observed with their eyes open.

At the end of a dunsparce’s tail is a drill. They can spin this drill rapidly to create a limited twister attack that carves out a tunnel behind the pokémon. Dunsparce slither backwards faster than they slither forwards; it is believed that dunsparce always move backwards in their tunnels, and only move forwards in large caverns and on the surface.

Dunsparce have two thick whiskers that are often confused with fangs. These are extremely sensitive and pick up vibrations for miles around them. A dunsparce buried deep inside of its burrow likely has a good idea of the weight and gait of creatures moving on the surface.

Dudunsparce are similar to dunsparce, just larger and with more segments. Their body, rather than having one thick segment before the tail, contains two or three segments that taper off before bulging into the next one. This is unique among organic snakes and believed to be the result of mutation. Dudunsparce also have two or three sets of wings. Their odd configuration of body segments and limbs makes them the possible ancestor of six-limbed dragons like salamence or dragonite. Dudunsparce trade their unevolved form’s whispers for three short patches of many whiskers that increase their awareness of space within one hundred feet of them but provide a lesser range. Dudunsparce have been known to open their eyes on the surface and when floating.

Dudunsparce typically have a mass between two to three hundred pounds. They can grow to be twelve feet long, although lengths of eight to ten feet are more common. One captive dudunsparce, Don Velez, was captured as an adult in 1467 and has shown no aging-related health problems. He has grown two inches in this time.

Behavior

Dunsparce are extremely timid. This makes observation of them in the wild difficult. When approached on the surface, they will immediately burrow back underground. When approached inside of caves, they will immediately burrow even further down. Pokémon and drones sent into their tunnels typically send the dunsparce into a full panic as they try to tunnel away as fast as possible, occasionally lobbing out attacks if they get outrun. They will go limp and play dead if anything gets too close. They will stop playing dead and escape the first time an opportunity presents itself.

There are a few things that are known about wild dunsparce behavior. They frequent caves that are not flooded or part of an active volcano. In fact, they appear on every continent (including Antarctica) and have frequently shown up on Melemele and other volcanic islands. There is no record of the indigenous people bringing them to the island. Dunsparce were already established on Melemele when Europeans discovered it. This suggests that they can dig under or swim through the oceans if need be. Because dunsparce seem even more afraid of water than they are of people (see Husbandry), the former is far more likely.

Dunsparce often share caverns with all subspecies of dugtrio. They appear to tolerate the presence of dugtrio and diglett in the wild. The only high-quality study of wild dunsparce was done by attaching cameras to dugtrio and having them check in every few days on any dunsparce they found. It appeared as if most dunsparce stay perfectly still for months at a time.

The study did manage to film a dunsparce eating. A cave fish killed a small crab in a nearby stream and the dunsparce slithered over, created a high-pitched grinding sound with their drill to scare the fish away, and then ate the crab. Captive dunsparce have never killed and eaten live prey. Between the two data points, it appears as if dunsparce are primarily scavengers. Captive specimens are fond of root vegetables and the roots of many grasses and shrubs. This suggests that part of dunsparce’s trips to the surface may be partially to eat plant material.

Dunsparce are usually sighted on the surface after very heavy rains. Presumably, they surface primarily to escape their flooding tunnels. Some dunsparce are also seen surfacing in the winter in areas where arbok live. They could be avoiding the den of much larger snakes that is temporarily occupying their home. While on the surface, dunsparce prefer to hide in thick grasses, piles of boulders, or other places that provide them with cover.

Dudunsparce sightings are more common than those of dunsparce even though they are likely far rarer. Dudunsparce react with curiosity to drones or pokémon entering their burrows and will often gently bite them and take them to the surface before letting them go. On occasion they even surface on cool, dark nights to float around for a time before going back into their burrow. Dudunsparce are exceedingly gentle and have been known to protect injured pokémon they encounter. Micro-seismological studies suggest that dudunsparce are quite rare. There are six known individuals in Alola with three more theorized but unseen. Dudunsparce on the surface have been observed floating up to berries and eating them. Scavenging behavior is not well documented in the wild but is supported by captive studies.

The longest known dudunsparce burrow was roughly three miles long and was 4000 feet deep. There were a handful of branching paths but it was remarkably linear for its length. Dudunsparce are believed to spend most of their time in a larger cavern at the center of the burrow.

Husbandry

Dunsparce are probably the most difficult species to capture and train in this entire guide. While the process is far safer than trying to tame a vanilluxe, volcarona or metagross, it makes up for the relative safety through the sheer time, inconvenience and frustration involved.

Capturing a dunsparce is no easy task (see Acquisition). After a trainer manages to capture one, they then face the problem that whenever they are let out of their pokéball, dunsparce will attempt to burrow into the ground and escape. They will do this even if held in love, luxury, or friend balls.

To avoid this, the trainer must immediately go onto a boat and release the dunsparce. The pseudodragon will burrow through the boat, hit water, panic, and stop digging. If the boat can take on water and not sink, then the trainer can stay inside of it. If not, the trainer should pick up the dunsparce (the pokémon will struggle and they are deceptively strong; many trainers break a rib at this step), get onto a ride pokémon, and then get onto another boat.

The dunsparce will not attempt to burrow deeper so long as they can see and smell the ocean and feel the rocking of the waves. Now, the trainer can acclimate their pokémon to humans. The dunsparce must be left out of their ball for the entire process, ideally with a small, shaded and enclosed box or cavity they can retreat into. Their trainer must stay with them the entire time to slowly get the dunsparce to accept that humans are not a threat. Then, the trainer should feed the dunsparce at least ten times.

This may sound easy. There is a catch. Dunsparce eat at most once a month. Their trainer will need to stay with them on a boat for up to a year. The trainer can leave the boat to take a break, but it is recommended that breaks be kept to one hour a week. The dunsparce will also need to be acclimated to all of the pokémon species they will interact with on the team, many of whom are more intimidating than humans. It is also difficult to acclimate a dunsparce to a steelix while on a boat or to convince any ground-types to stay on a boat away from solid earth out of their pokéball at all times for a year.

Togekiss and blissey are among the best possible teammates for dunsparce as they have calming auras and eggs, respectively. They can halve the time it takes for a dunsparce to bond with a human, reduce the risk of flight, and all but eliminate stress-based diseases (see Illness).

If the dunsparce is not acclimated to humans and used to taking meals from them by the time they are allowed onto solid land, they will immediately try to escape and render the whole process fruitless.

Captive dunsparce should be fed roughly once a month. The recommended diet is a mix of fresh crustaceans, dog biscuits, wet cat food, fish, and root vegetables. They will not have the appetite to eat more than three standard servings of food at a given feeding. Dunsparce do not like to battle and will often burrow if spooked, although they sometimes will come back to a longtime trainer when they think the coast is clear. If a dunsparce is battled with, they should be fed once every two weeks. They should be provided with a stationary water dish in an easy to access place.

Dunsparce urinate roughly once a week and defecate twice a month. They cannot technically be housebroken, but they move so little that if they are set on a plastic sheet or in a pool, they will probably just relieve themselves where they are at.

It is unclear if dunsparce sleep or how often they do. But they prefer to stay motionless unless they need to move for food, to obey a command from a trainer they are loyal to, or to get away from something that intimidates them. Some dunsparce will explore their surroundings, but this is a relative rarity. The favored enrichment item of dunsparce is a network of plastic, metal or glass tubes big enough for them to slither through. The Lumiose Museum of Natural History has a popular burrowing species exhibit where the pokémon can move through a series of glass tunnels, concrete caverns and enclosed piles of dirt and rocks that spans nearly the entire museum. Their dunsparce, Lucille and Royal, are the most active captive specimens in the world

Dunsparce are not affectionate. They will accept petting from trusted humans, but they will never initiate it or show much reaction at all.

Most dunsparce kept today are not pets, but are research or museum specimens. The others are the pokémon of long-dead sailors who thought that a months long transoceanic voyage in a massive ship was as good a chance as any to train a dunsparce. Even in the 1400s, having a tame dunsparce was seen as a monumental accomplishment in the nascent world of pokémon trainers. By 1700 the impossible had already been done a dozen times over and most of Europe’s naval academies had at least one donated dunsparce in their collection. Dunsparce have remained uncommon in the centuries since, limited primarily to science museums

Dudunsparce are far more manageable than their juvenile form. They are more confident and curious and generally more accepting of being on the surface. The ideal way to keep one is to maintain a large rural property and allow the pokémon to burrow freely. They can be bribed to come to the surface by treats on the nights around a new moon or just the promise of friendship. Dudunsparce seem to enjoy being pet and cuddled. They also seem interested in music, either live or through a recording. Sometimes they can be convinced to leave the property with a trainer for an extended period of time. If burrowing will not be allowed they can be given a dark chamber with soft blankets, music, and small amounts of food. A translator can be used to convince them to stay in the cavern for short periods of time without burrowing out. Dudunsparce are reasonably intelligent and can understand and accept simple logic chains. They still generally refuse to answer questions about themselves or their species through a translator. Answers given tend to conflict with those from other individuals, opening up the possibility that dudunsparce may deliberately be playing pranks on researchers.

Dudunsparce’s diet should consist of a mix of fresh fruit, roots, tubers, and greens and proteins in the form of carnivore pellets or frozen meat. Dudunsparce only need to eat once or twice a month but will nibble on fruit or fresh greens if offered.

Small pokémon make the best teammates for dudunsparce. While they do not see humans as a threat, large carnivores or very large herbivores can still set dudunsparce on edge or drive them to spend more time beneath the surface. Pokémon that will lie next to dudunsparce without moving for extended periods of time are excellent teammates. So are musically inclined pokémon.

Illness

Sometimes dunsparce will hover in the air for no apparent reason. This will often be accompanied by a constant whirring of their drill. It is believed that this is a sign of stress as they often stop when they are left entirely alone in the dark. Dunsparce will also rapidly shed scales when they experience prolonged stress. Both stages will usually react to acute pain or major stressors by burrowing into the earth. One dunsparce died of stress when frequently used in battle for several months with while being held on a ship: this is the most recent reported accidental death of a captive dunsparce. That incident happened in 1550. Most of the world’s 45 captive dunsparce have had centuries-long runs of perfect health. Dudunsparce fare even better. Cancer has not been observed in the species, even though fairly major mutations (two vs. three segmented bodies) are common. They may be fully immune.

Evolution

No captive dunsparce has evolved. Dudunsparce are believed to be exceedingly old given their slow growth rates and answers given through translators. No dunsparce or dudunsparce have been found longer than six feet but shorter than eight. This suggests that they flash evolve between the stages. The exact conditions needed to trigger evolution are not understood at this time.

Battling

Normal-types and dragons have the widest elemental wells on average. Dudunsparce are no exception. They can learn a wide variety of coverage and supporting moves with time. Their nigh-inexhaustible patience and curiosity let them master many techniques as well. Most dudunsparce play the role of a wall or gradual booster. They are masters of spreading paralysis with glare and can easily set stealth rocks. Roost can allow them to recover damage. Moves like calm mind or coil slowly boost up both their offenses and defenses. In time they can attempt a sweep with normal-type moves or coverage attacks. The exact coverage and supporting moves can vary with the situation.

Dudunsparce lack immediate power and durability. Anything that hits exceedingly hard and has at least modest bulk can try to win the fight quickly before the dudunsparce can boost. Moves like haze and psych up can negate boosts altogether. Taunt can prevent most supporting and setup options. Essentially, the best way to counter a dudunsparce is to either prevent it from setting up or take the boosts away. A dudunsparce given time to get going can swing the match in its teams favor even if it does not entirely sweep the opponent.

On the competitive circuits extremely hard-hitting pokémon or even more impenetrable walls than a boosted dudunsparce are common. Anti-setup options are nearly mandatory on every team. This limits dudunsparce’s viability. On the island challenge dudunsparce can be a major asset against every opponent save some kahunas and the dragon trial.

Only trainers willing to risk scaring off their dunsparce for good should attempt to battle with them.

Acquisition

Dunsparce can be captured with a Class V license. Dunsparce can also be purchased or adopted with a Class V license, but trainers should be warned that all but the tamest of dunsparce will attempt to flee from a new trainer.

The best way to find a dunsparce is to search the tallest, thickest grass of Route 2 after a particularly fearsome rainstorm. This is best done with thermal goggles or a tracking pokémon used to the scent of dunsparce. At this point, trainers have three options for attempting the capture:

• They can throw a quick ball or ultra ball and hope they hit the target and successfully capture it on the first try.
• They can use a trapper to block off escape. Chandelure, gothielle and mega gengar are among the most popular with professional hunters. Some telekinetics can also suspend the dunsparce in mid-air for a moment, and even guide the pokéball towards the target.
• Use a faster pokémon to defeat dunsparce in battle. Dugtrio have the advantage of being able to outrun and outfight dunsparce even when they try to dig below the surface. Some variants of dugtrio can also try trapping dunsparce on the surface, but they are usually able to slip through the trap. Some birds can also swoop in and pick up a dunsparce in their talons. The snake can then be weakened with a few solid pecks.

The first strategy is entirely luck-based, the latter two require specialized teams. Between the trapper and a pokémon to ease the bonding process, many trainers need two rare and powerful pokémon to even be able to capture and raise a relatively weak, if interesting, new team member.

Dudunsparce can be captured, purchased, or adopted with a Class III license. The main challenge is finding one. They rarely surface in the same places and only do so around the new moon. Finding a known burrow entrance, laying down or hoisting a pile of buries, and playing gentle music is the best way to lure one out. Even then this can take months of attempts.

Breeding

Dudunsparce have never been bred in captivity. It is unknown how they breed in the wild.

Relatives

All dudunsparce populations are remarkably similar in phenotype and genotype, despite their vast range.

 

[Persephone]

Arcanine (Growlithe)
Canignus deorum

Introduction

Arcanine was one of the first pokémon to be tamed. There are 30,000-year-old cave paintings in Central Asia depicting human hunters fighting alongside an arcanine. The species’ bones are often found near Paleolithic archeological sites in the region. Yet, arcanine were not common in captivity until the Industrial Revolution.

The Chinese used tame arcanine as far back as 500 B.C.E. They were the mounts of the highest-ranking generals and imperial messengers, as well as the pets and guardians of the emperors themselves. All tame arcanine in the empire belonged to the emperor and were loaned out at their discretion. Occasionally a clan in Mongolia or the steppes would use a pack of arcanine in conquests, and in times of crisis the empire occasionally granted arcanine to other kingdoms in exchange for gold or military support, but for the most part the only tame arcanine were the property of the Chinese emperor.

Two developments around 1800 C.E. changed that. Growlithe ownership had previously been restricted by the species’ unwillingness to leave their own pack to join humans. The pokéball made it easier to capture and tame individual growlithe. But it was large scale mining operations that made full domestication possible. Growlithe evolve very slowly in the wild. However, exposure to some elementally-charged stones can lead to their evolution occurring much earlier and faster with few long-term health consequences. Growlithe realized that humans had very large numbers of fire stones and entire packs began to approach human settlements and practically beg for capture. The massive influx of captive arcanine, the temporary weakening of China, and the rise of global trade networks led to the species quickly becoming commonplace guard dogs and pets throughout the world.

The remaining wild packs tend to be made up of particularly rebellious spirits or those with bad experiences towards humans. Some are deliberately released by governments to give trainers on journeys a chance to capture a powerful and loyal friend. The Alolan pack is a mix of the two.

Physiology

Both arcanine and growlithe are classified as pure fire-types. Neither ruling is controversial.

Growlithe look like rather typical canines. Most of their body is coated in red fur with black stripes running through it. A growlithe’s stripe pattern is unique to them. Their bellies, tails, and the top of their head are coated in light brown fur.

Arcanine mostly resemble a very large growlithe. The main difference is that brown tufts of fur expand to cover most of their face as well as the backside of their legs.

The species has one of the strongest senses of smell of any pokémon species as well as an above average sense of hearing. They can track prey from two-week-old scent trails if there has not been any rain. These heightened senses compensate for their rather weak vision. Growlithe can see large shapes and some colors, but they are usually not able to identify small objects from sight alone.

Arcanine have no open flames at any point in their evolutionary line. This makes them more resistant to rain than other fire-types. They even enjoy swimming. The reason they are fire-types is that they have a series of flame sacs at the base of their neck and around their stomach and intestines. Their normal digestion process is slow and they have more capacity than most canines their size in their bowels. When needed, arcanine can radically increase the speed of digestion by physically burning all stored food. This reduces the amount of nutrients they can incorporate in exchange for fire and short-term energy. With this boost, arcanine can run up to 300 miles an hour for 20 hours straight.

Arcanine typically reach a height of six feet at the withers and a mass of 1600 pounds. They can live for 350 years in the wild and in captivity.

Behavior

Wild growlithe live in packs of ten to thirty individuals. They are fiercely territorial and will attack or kill any other canines, including other growlithe packs, that hunt inside of their territory. Growlithe packs will tolerate arcanine since the adults will sometimes share their kills with the pack. The packs are also strongly hierarchal. Each pack has a dominant male and a dominant female who demand submission from all other members of their sex. Not submitting, eating too much, or other violations of social etiquette will lead to exile. Other packs will not allow in another growlithe without the permission of both packs’ dominant pair or unless an arcanine insists upon it. Exile is effectively a death sentence for a growlithe.

The species displays aggression through growls and barks. They communicate within the pack through whistles, yapping, whines, and sneezes. Because of their poor sight growlithe do not have the elaborate body language that many other social canines do.

Growlithe hunt by having three to five growlithe chase down their prey at a time. If they get tired, another team of growlithe will take over for them and continue the chase. Flagging prey will bee torn into by the nearest growlithe. These tactics allow them to outlast anything that can’t fly (and even some things that can). It does not work on anything that growlithe cannot convince to run. This strategy is well adapted to the speed-oriented ecosystem of the plains and deserts of Central Asia. Kills are shared equally among all members, including the young, injured, and sick who cannot hunt.

Arcanine tend to be solitary in the wild outside of mating and childrearing (see Breeding). They hunt by chasing down prey and finishing them off with one or two bites. Arcanine can also get into a direct fight and win against almost everything in their home range. This is riskier than simply intimidating something until it runs so it is not the preferred strategy.

Outside of hunts arcanine and growlithe tend to lie around doing nothing. They usually live near an oasis, lake or river inside of their territory. This gives them a reliable source of water and draws prey to them. The species’ sense of smell is acute enough that they can track prey down themselves if nothing comes to them. In times of abundance, growlithe and arcanine are far more playful and will patrol their territory, pick fights with local pokémon, investigate natural and man-made structures, and go swimming. They are usually not dangerous to humans unless provoked.

Growlithe packs sleep together in a heap at night. They do not leave a sentry awake. Growlithe have virtually no natural predators in their home territory as even flygon rarely risk drawing an arcanine’s ire.

Husbandry

Growlithe and arcanine can survive on as little as 0.5% of their body weight a day in meat. They can eat up to 5% a day and they will be more active and more powerful for it. The species does not eat any plants, which eliminates some dog food as options, but some brands are still readily digestible. They still strongly prefer raw or cooked meat. Growlithe drink more water than other common canines. Many new growlithe owners make the mistake of assuming their fire-type will not need to drink water.

Growlithe can adjust quickly to captivity due to their strict wild heirarchies. They should submit fully to their trainer within a few days of capture or adoption. The process is faster and more absolute if the trainer is the same sex as them. Transgender people who are on hormone replacement therapy will be read as their identified gender due to their altered scent.

In the wild rule-breaking can mean exile and a slow death from thirst or starvation. This makes growlithe very sensitive to the obedience of social. They will typically refuse to work for or even outright attack trainers who harm or steal from other humans. The species can even be upset by the idea of battling for money as they see it as akin to attacking another human and taking their food. Cash exchanges are best done away from growlithe.

Growlithe are perfectly fine being inside of pokéballs during the day. Well-fed growlithe will still want to explore and play with their trainer around dawn and dusk. Growlithe will lose respect for their trainer if they are not allowed to sleep in their trainer’s bed at night in an imitation of their usual sleeping habits in the wild. They prefer to sleep with all other team members as well, but will sometimes make an exception for nocturnal pokémon, pokémon that do not sleep, or for pokémon that this is obviously impractical for. Growlithe are fluffy and warm but not hot, making them excellent sleeping companions.

Wild growlithe share a community latrine. This makes them exceptionally easy to housebreak, as they just need a litter box placed near their trainer’s toilet. They will quickly figure out what to do from there.

Growlithe can be overly territorial. They will bark at or even bite any unfamiliar human who gets near their trainer’s home. They have even been known to growl at people who bump into their trainer on a crowded street. Discipline and good training can reduce this impulse.

Arcanine are not as hierarchal as growlithe are. This makes them far more difficult to train. The difficulty is only slightly offset by their respect for a trainer who got them to evolve before they naturally would have (see Evolution). Most of the above paragraphs on growlithe care also apply to arcanine. However, trainers should note that arcanine have substantially more energy than growlithe do. They will demand to play with their trainer for at least an hour a day, and they often object to being held in pokéballs for more than a few hours at a time. Arcanine will also insist on continuing to sleep alongside their trainer, even if they are now much, much larger. They are less sensitive to rule-breaking than growlithe are, although they will sometimes go too far in retaliating against anyone who threatens their trainer. This reflects their natural behavior of hunting down and killing any predators who attack growlithe.

Fully grown arcanine can be trained to wear a harness and give rides to their trainer. Their fur is not particularly hot.

Illness

Arcanine are not susceptible to many internal parasites because of the intense heat that they sometimes generate inside of their body. They can still get flea and tick bites, and they should be regularly groomed to check for them. The most threatening diseases to wild and captive arcanine in other parts of the world are rabies and canine distemper virus. All wild and captive arcanine in Alola are vaccinated against these illnesses, and any imported arcanine must also be vaccinated.

Evolution

Throughout their lifetime growlithe slowly develop larger flame sacs and more ability to control their own flames. The evolution process begins when they are extremely experienced with pyrokinesis. Evolution takes roughly three years of growth to bring a growlithe to their full size. Growlithe grow very little between their tenth birth day and evolution so any growlithe larger than the average and still growing is assumed to be evolving. In the wild growlithe typically evolve between 100 and 200 years of age.

They can evolve much, much earlier through the use of fire stones. These should be kept near the growlithe as they sleep. This means the trainer must also share a bed with a very hot rock every night. Fire resistant bedding is advised. The fire stone will stimulate the growth of the growlithe’s fire sacs as the body mistakenly believes that the growlithe itself is able to generate the fire energy and they need larger sacs to handle the flames. Evolution via fire stone takes roughly six months, as opposed to three years.

The advantage of this is that the growlithe will evolve within their trainer’s lifetime. There are several disadvantages, though.

As mentioned above (see Husbandry), arcanine are harder to keep in line than growlithe. By virtue of being much larger they also require more space and more food. Most importantly, growlithe that evolve prematurely are not yet able to safely and effectively harness the flames they can now produce. This makes any use of their fire potentially dangerous for up to two years after premature evolution. Even the most experienced of trainers will have to drop all other training paths and focus solely on their arcanine’s fire control. This process will still take several years to complete, even for professional arcanine breeders.

Battling

Arcanine are massive, have powerful flames, and can move faster than almost any other grounded pokémon. This gives them several options in battle. They can be zoners that use their speed and powerful fire attacks to keep other pokémon away. They can also be very effective rushdown attackers, using a burst of speed to close the gap and ripping into their opponent with powerful elementally infused full body tackles such as close combat, flare blitz or wild charge. They can also use thunder or fire fang and crunch to take advantage of their powerful bite. Alternatively, they can play defense. They are very large and can repel anything that gets close, or scare them off with roar. Their speed also allows them to dodge many attacks. Morning sun or rest, combined with toxic and burns, lets them outlast their opponent.

Arcanine are not the best at any of these strategies. There are bulkier pokémon with more reliable methods of recovery or attack blocking. There are better zoners and rushdown attackers. There are even better fire-types at some of these things. But there are vanishingly few pokémon that are better at all three strategies. This makes arcanine versatile, able to change up their playstyle to match the opponent or to take out particularly troublesome threats. They are used on the main team of four of the world’s Top 100 trainers.

Few island challengers have an arcanine. Their evolution takes half the length of the average island challenge lasts and they cannot usually be adopted or captured (see Acquisition). Even if a trainer did have a recently evolved arcanine, they are unlikely to be able to safely wield their fire attacks and will have to rely on their size and other elemental moves.

Growlithe function differently than arcanine in battle. They typically do not have the life experience to learn the sheer variety of moves that an old arcanine will know. Growlithe typically depend on bites, moderately powerful fire attacks, and a few utility moves such as agility or roar. They function as fairly typical rushdown pokémon, getting in close with an initial sprint and then tearing away with bites. Growlithe are strong for the first part of the island challenge, but they will be underpowered by the end of the second island.

Acquisition

Growlithe can be captured with a Class III license or purchased or adopted with a Class II license. Arcanine capture in Alola is forbidden without DNR permission. Arcanine can be adopted or purchased with a Class IV license.

Alola’s growlithe pack hunts in the coastal plains of Routes 2 and 3. They rest along the Anahula River on Route 2. They have successfully driven zorua, furfrou and rockruff into the forests, urban areas, and mountains of Melemele, respectively. Ambushing a growlithe to capture them is not recommended; the entire pack will band together to resist an unwanted capture. The best way to capture a growlithe is to camp out near the Anahula river for a few days with non-canine pokémon. Eventually a growlithe may approach and test the trainer. If they decide the trainer is worthy, they will go willingly.

Growlithe can also be purchased or adopted from most canine breeders and pokémon shelters in Alola. The Alolan government prefers to get arcanine out of the archipelago due to the disruptive effect they can have on local ecology. Aside from the occasional salamence or hydreigon, arcanine would be the most fearsome predator on Melemele.

Breeding

Arcanine are not as territorial with each other as growlithe packs are. They will often share overlapping ranges. They hunt separately. Territorial boundaries are more strictly enforced in times of scarcity. In more abundant times arcanine will sometimes cross paths and briefly socialize. Sometimes a male and female arcanine with overlapping territory will develop a respect for each other and, eventually, mate. The female has a forty-month pregnancy, during which time the male will typically guard and even hunt for his mate. Arcanine have litters of eight to twelve puppies. The arcanine pair will care for them until they reach roughly two years of age when they can begin to hunt on their own. The female arcanine will go around to every growlithe pack in the range and give one to three puppies to each pack to care for.

In captivity, a pair of arcanine can share the same trainer and space. They may eventually mate. Arcanine will trust their trainer to distribute the puppies once they are of proper age. Arcanine will grow aggressive towards their puppies if they stay on the same team for more than three years.

Relatives

There is one documented subspecies of arcanine. C. d. laventon live in the islands of northern Japan. Their fur is actually a mineral with a similar composition to asbestos, making them highly resistant to heat and electricity. The fur also provides a measure of defense against physical attacks. To carry the extra weight the Hisuian arcanine have more developed musculature and a slightly larger size. Even with the extra muscle the Hisuian arcanine are still unable to swim very well. The nature of their fur also meant that their wardens need to have particular medicines available at all times, access to a healing pokémon, or wear a mask when around the arcanine.

By the time of Japanese colonization of Hisui the native arcanine were already declining due to shifting weather patterns and a decrease in prey. Within the next century they were driven to the brink of extinction from competition with introduced canines, hunting by farmers, and a deliberate culling campaign by the Japanese government to eliminate key pokémon allies and religious traditions of the native populations. There are now only two surviving arcanine and five growlithe. The arcanine are held in the Sekichiku Grand Safari on behalf of the Japanese government. Their offspring, born in 1952, were briefly reintroduced to Faiyāsupitto Species Survival Area in Sinnoh. Of the eight growlithe, three were lost to poaching within two years. The project was subsequently abandoned and the growlithe were split into two groups. The females live in the Enju City Zoological Park and the males were donated to Sylph, Inc. for research into potential cures for mesothelioma.

 

[Persephone]

Hypno (Drowzee)
Somniantes raptor

Overview

Hypno is one of the easiest psychic-types to care for in Alola. They are intelligent and social creatures with distinct personalities. They don’t require the same level of enrichment as slowking and oranguru. They do not need to sleep, drink or eat physical food. Their diet is provided routinely and automatically by their trainer and teammates. They are protective of humans, especially children. Contrary to their reputation, hypno are an entirely safe family pokémon.

Perhaps most importantly, they can respect and communicate with humans with even below-average PSY scores.

Physiology

Hypno and drowzee are both classified as pure-psychic types.

Hypno are true psychics. Like most true psychics, their organ structure is usually similar to humans but contains many irregularities distinct to each individual. See the mime sr. entry for more details. Their bodies disappear upon death. Hypno and musharna make up a branch of the true psychics referred to as the dream psychics. They do not warp the fabric of reality to the same degree as mime sr., but they have extraordinarily powerful telepathy related to sleep and dreams. Their telepathy works on anything with a sleep or resting stage, even if the species is ordinarily very resistant to mental attacks.

Drowzee are born with dark brown fur. As they grow older, golden spots and stripes begin to appear. Eventually, the colors settle into dark brown fur on their bottom half and golden fur on the upper half. The pattern at the border of the two areas is unique to the individual. Drowzee are primarily quadrupedal, although they can stand on two legs when necessary. Drowzee’s most notable feature is their proboscis. They have large mouths and often produce vocalizations that sound like whines or yawns.

Hypno have golden fur across almost their entire body. The exception is a ring of thick, fluffy white fur around their neck. Hypno lose their proboscis’ mobility as it shortens and hardens into a hooked nose. Hypno also lose their mouths, although they often retain stomachs and lungs with no connection to the outside of the body. Hypno’s ears grow continuously until they die, growing more powerful with age. Both drowzee and hypno have functional eyes, but their light-based vision is very limited. They are almost entirely bipedal.

Hypno typically grow to a height of five feet and weights of 100 to 120 pounds. Their lifespan closely tracks the average human lifespan in their habitat.

Behavior

Both drowzee and hypno feed upon dreams. They strongly prefer human dreams, or at least those of highly intelligent pokémon, but they will settle for any species’ dreams. They also prefer younger prey as they have more REM sleep than older members of their species.

Drowzee do not yet have powerful hypnotic abilities. Their means of putting something to sleep are limited to yawns that carry a telepathic signal, relaxing everything that hears them. Two to five of these yawns (depending upon the age of the drowzee and the exhaustion of the human) can put a human to sleep. Once their prey is asleep, drowzee put their proboscis over the nostrils of their prey. Their breath keeps their prey knocked out for the duration of the feeding and stimulates dreaming. Drowzee are satiated after two to three hours of consuming human dreams.

Hypno have more effective ways of knocking out prey. They can initiate a telepathic link by eye contact. This link can be manipulated by means of a pendulum with a swaying pattern is slightly altered by telekinetic pushes. With half a second of eye contact hypno can convince a target to follow rudimentary orders or to enter into a dormant stage. This dormancy is similar to sleep, but differs in two key ways. The first is that the target’s eyes are open aside from blinking. The second is that the sleep has proportionally more REM sleep than the prey would otherwise have. Hypno lose control of their target after three full seconds of broken eye contact. They typically order their target to sleep and forget when feeding ends. Their prey wakes up refreshed and confused after a few more hours of sleep.

Both drowzee and hypno have a strong preference for happy individuals, especially happy children. This is because they often have more filling and tastier happy dreams. Hypno are very defensive of children of all species in their territory to conserve young, happy prey. They have been known to knock out abusive parents and take their children. Hypno do not keep these children long-term. They simply move the child away and leave them with a new adult. So-called “hypno orphans” usually wake up with all traumatic and otherwise unpleasant memories erased, along with all memories that could be used to identify their old parent. This process can make hypno sick for up to two months but the same hypno have been documented doing it multiple times, fully aware of the cost to themselves.

Husbandry

Hypno and drowzee are rather easy to feed. They should simply be let out of their pokéball while their trainer sleeps. Drowzee feedings will lead to less rejuvenation per hour slept with a total cost of around one hour of effective sleep per night. Hypno trances do not have an impact on the quality of rest and allow their trainers to perfectly set their sleep schedule.

Hypno and drowzee will sometimes show their trainers very good dreams they have fed upon in the past. They can also prevent trainers from remembering nightmares at the cost of the hypno’s health.

Hypno feeding is physically addictive. However, the only symptoms are felt upon withdrawal. A hypno trainer can freely feed their pokémon with very minimal risk of withdrawal. Hypno have been phased out of regular hospital use because getting someone addicted to the trances and then taking them away can lead to headaches, insomnia, nausea, dizziness, and forgetfulness for up to twenty days.

Hypno will grow frustrated with depressed trainers. This does mean that they will do everything in their power to keep their trainer happy. However, chronic depression will limit the ability of a trainer to feed their pokémon. As such, depressed trainers should not capture drowzee or hypno. Trainers who become depressed after capturing a hypno should acquire other teammates for the hypno to feed upon.

The best partner for hypno is komala (see Acquisition). Other good partners are intelligent pokémon that are not psychic- or dark-types. Pokémon of those types can make it more difficult for hypno to absorb dreams from them. Good dream providers include sylveon, lapras, primarina, passimian, blissey, lucario, and dragonite. Other nocturnal pokémon and psychic-types can keep a hypno entertained while they are not feeding.

Hypno prefer to hide and relax during the day, even if they do not properly sleep. They are fine being in pokéballs from dawn until dusk. They do not need much social interaction with their trainer while awake because of the form their telepathy takes. Trainers without a high PSY score will not be able to have a standard telepathic conversation with their hypno. All but the most powerful of telepaths will not be able to talk to their hypno without making eye contact.

Hypno can talk to almost all humans in dreams. Shortly before or after feeding hypno can create an artificial dreamscape and talk to their trainer. Hypno may retain their form, take a human form, or go with something else entirely. The majority of hypno use either a distinctly male or distinctly female telepathic voice and seem to identify with that gender. Hypno do not have an anatomical sex (see Breeding). Hypno do not have full control over the dreamscape and must integrate elements from dreams they have fed upon to create it. Older hypno have more options and more dreams in reserve and can create more elaborate dreamscapes. Most hypno are very pleasant to everyone, especially the person that feeds them, and will create peaceful experiences. Angry hypno can be terrifying in the dreamscape as they control reality itself and there is nothing the victim can do to break free. Thankfully it is difficult to provoke this wrath outside of combat or abusing children or the hypno themselves.

Hypno do not produce waste. They do not need to drink or breathe. Trainers can literally satisfy socialization and enrichment needs in their sleep. Their intelligence and dreamscape control also make them a good and loyal friend. They can also be trusted to carefully protect children and other family members.

Illness

Hypno illnesses are temporary and untreatable. They can be brought on by injury in battle, consuming too many unpleasant dreams, or not consuming enough dreams. The solution to all injuries is rest, food, and a break from battles. Hypno’s more physical injuries can also be cured by some herbal remedies, pokémon moves, and artificial medicines.

The usual symptoms of more mental hypno illnesses include grumpiness, antisocial behavior, a lack of energy, pained expressions with no apparent cause, and an aversion to light.

Evolution

Drowzee gradually evolve into hypno between five and eight years of age. The formal demarcation point is when the pokémon begins to play with pendulums. Hypno do not reach sexual maturity until they are roughly sixteen years old, although they otherwise reach their final size and appearance around twelve years of age.

Their evolution can be accelerated a little by frequent battling, but not to nearly the same extent as most other species.

Battle

Hypno’s effectiveness in a metagame depends on what the relevant sleep clause is. The United States Competitive Pokémon Association bans sleep moves if at least one pokémon on the opposing team has already been put to sleep. However, a pokémon being asleep does not cause the switch timer to expire or move at a faster rate.

This means that hypno is best used as the only sleep-inducer on a team. They should immediately set about trying to hypnotize the opponent. Unfortunately, this is easily countered by the simple command, “Close your eyes!” This still leaves opponents blind.

Hypno have more physical strength than the average true psychic but not much more than the average pokémon. Their telekinesis is also somewhat limited. They can be absolutely devastating to the psyche of a sleeping opponent, warping the dreamscape to break the opponent’s will to fight. They will need a few minutes to boost to be a threat outside of the dreamscape. Thankfully, hypno are very good at buying time.

Hypno are best played by trying to control the field and disrupt the opposing pokémon until they make the mistake of opening their eyes to navigate. They can do this with barrier, light screen and reflect, poison gas, thunder wave, disable, and psychic terrain. While the opponent is asleep hypno can boost or pursue a knock out in the dreamscape.

Unfortunately, this dependence on many utility moves makes hypno rather hard to train for the island challenge. Part of this is that gaining proficiency in many moves is harder and more time consuming than gaining mastery over one. Part of the difficulty is just learning the basics of the moves themselves. Several of these moves are TMs or require expensive and time-consuming specialist tutoring. Hypno can bridge the gap a little by eating the dreams and combing the memories of pokémon that can use these attacks. However, this requires having teammates who already know these moves. Sometimes memory eating destroys the memory itself and requires a retraining of the pokémon the move was learned from.

Drowzee are less able to inflict ranged sleep and are best used as somewhat bulky physical attackers who can hit up close with their fists or relatively weak elemental attacks. Both drowzee and hypno can take a few hits before falling, especially if those hits are weakened by a utility move. Drowzee can compliment their weak offensive abilities and decent bulk through poison gas or toxic, allowing them to fit on more stall-oriented teams.

Acquisition

Drowzee and hypno can be purchased, adopted, or captured with a Class II license.

The species has been introduced to all four tapu islands to help protect the local komala population. Hypno adore komala because they are always asleep and usually happy. Hypno are incredibly protective of their preferred food source and will fight any would-be predators of the endangered komala.

Hypno have been removed from Ula’Ula. The komala population had recovered enough to allow for capture and hypno attacked trainers who tried to catch a komala. Hypno and drowzee capture is allowed on Melemele and Poni, but not on Akala. They are most often found at the edge of forests along the coast. The species takes shelter in forests during the day. Pokémon dreaming by the sea are apparently tastier. Drowzee and hypno are best captured by waiting for them to come to you. Stay awake at night in prime hypno territory with only one pokémon out. If a drowzee approaches, try to capture it. If a hypno does, it is best to tell your pokémon to back down and try to reason with the hypno in the dreamscape. Hypno will usually join up with trainers with tasty dreams.

Breeding

Hypno often have identified genders. Roughly 40% identify as male, 40% as female, and 20% identify as both or neither. Hypno have no genitalia and no physical differences based on gender. Hypno can reproduce with any other hypno regardless of the gender of the two parents.

When a hypno finds someone with very good dreams, they implant part of their psyche into the prey. This is not noticeable outside of direct psychic attacks or scans. It does make the prey more resistant to telepathy and may provide a slight boost to intelligence.

If another hypno feeds from the same prey, and agrees that the dreams are very good, they will remove the embedded psyche, merge it with a fragment of their own, and give it physical form. The resulting drowzee will have an appearance and genome equivalent to a child made through sexual reproduction between the parents. The personality and instincts will be a mix of the two hypno parents and the host used to create the child.

This may sound like a strange way to reproduce but hypno are equally baffled by human reproduction.

Hypno do not like sharing the same trainer in captivity. In effect hypno breeding requires having two hypno and only using one at a time. Because they are social and intelligent pokémon that trainers can converse with, most are unwilling to do this. Hypno are generally fine with not reproducing if doing so would require leaving their trainer.

After birth drowzee is cared for by the second parent for the first eight to ten years of their life. Hypno can reproduce multiple times over the course of their life and are willing to raise multiple children at once. Newborn drowzee are only about four inches long and spend most of their time in their parent’s soft neck fur. As they grow older hypno allow their offspring to rest their head against the fur while being carried. Hypno carry “rescued” children in a similar manner. It is believed that this fur induces calmness and drowsiness. The effect is lost when the fur is removed from the hypno.

Relatives

Hypno and musharna form the genus Somniantes. Both are true psychics that feed primarily on dreams and have a long proboscis. Determining their exact genetic relationship is difficult as true psychics often don’t have DNA or have essentially junk genetic codes with random gaps and little discernable information. Both species are physically and behaviorally similar across their entire range. Musharna are native to North America and have seen some introductions from captive individuals. Hypno are believed to have originated in Europe but were already common throughout the Old World by 2000 B.C.E. They were often seen as priests of the gods and servants of noble households. Hypno were persecuted and even extirpated from some areas when they attempted to abduct a noble’s abused or neglected children. In time they were almost always reintroduced as they were the safest and most reliable form of anesthesia and sleep control available.

 

[Persephone]

Hariyama (Makuhita)
Gravisbellator sumo solisamans

Overview

Hariyama were not the first pokémon to be tamed on Alola. They aren’t even native to the islands. But their importation marked the start of training as a sport, pokémon battles as an alternative to war, and the island challenge itself.

Hariyama are eager to train, generally submissive, and terrifyingly powerful. For the first time in Alolan history a fairly average pokémon trainer could reliably wield a companion with the strength of two dozen soldiers. Training went from an accessory to hunting, agriculture, or scholarship to a means to political and military power. The island challenge was instituted to present aspiring trainers with a relatively peaceful way to prove themselves to the tapus as potential kahuna material and, later, as a means of replacing the monarch.

Today the political significance has been stripped away from the island challenge and scores of species are routinely trained. Hariyama still remains one of the best choices trainers have available given their relatively modest care requirements, willingness to work, and raw power. They also have very distinct personalities and can make good companions long after the island challenge ends.

Physiology

Both makuhita and hariyama are classified as pure fighting-types.

Makuhita are stocky bipeds. Thin, fuzzy fur coats their body. Most of this fur is yellow, but black stripes around the neck and hands are common. The hands have three very short fingers and a thumb and are nearly useless for anything but punches and push-ups. Makuhita generally have red rings on their cheeks and a long tuft of hair on top of their head. They have ear slits that let them detect sounds but not necessarily where they are coming from. They have a high body fat content for fighting-types.

Hariyama, by contrast, have virtually no body fat. In fact, they have so little that it can cause them health problems (see Illness). Evolution makes them substantially bulkier, but this bulk is almost entirely solid muscle. Their hands are giant and flat with three wide fingers. The hair on the upper half of their body falls out, and their skin is very light grey. A tan plate of armor on their chest helps protect their internal organs, and a bony blue visor on their head protects the brain and outer ears. Hariyama’s lower half retains its fur, but replaces the old yellow coat with a blue one. They gain a series of flaps around their waist that help them regulate their internal temperature while exercising.

Hariyama can grow up to eight feet tall and can weigh 1100 pounds. Hariyama typically live for twelve years in the wild and thirty in captivity.

Behavior

Fighting-types tend to be split into two groups. The first are naturally powerful pokémon that always act feral, even when raised from birth in captivity. The other are relentlessly focused on improving their body and martial arts skills through training. Hariyama are a quintessential example of a Type II fighting type.

Wild hariyama prefer to form dojos with other Type IIs and humans. Lucario are their preferred pokémon partners in Alola. This partnership instinct is because makuhita can struggle to feed themselves as they are herbivores that lack useful fingers or a prehensile tail and are not tall enough to browse. Absent partners they must feed by hitting berry trees until the fruit (or the tree itself) fall down. Then they do push-ups to eat the berries off of the ground. This method is inefficient enough that makhuita and hariyama without a mixed-species dojo can spend up to two-thirds of their waking hours eating.

In exchange for the assistance with feeding (and tying their hair), hariyama will use their bulk to scare away any would-be predators. Lucario are skilled and have fearsome ranged attacks that struggle against large, slow predators. Hariyama can take on almost any large wild pokémon in Alola and overpower them.

Hariyama revel in challenging anything approaching their power. They are known to take on buses, trains, and even airplanes during landing and takeoff. Members of the Melemele dojo routinely pick fights with visiting salamence. Hawlucha occasionally visit the western half of the island to test themselves as well. Cameras in the Poni Colosseum have recorded several matches between kommo-o and hariyama with makuhita and jangmo-o sitting in the audience.

Makuhita are less aggressive in finding challengers. They mostly fight within their dojo, although they will defend themselves from anything that attacks them. Some particularly oblivious makuhita on Poni Island have mistakenly attacked exeggutor only to get launched one hundred back. The exeggutor make no attempt to warn makuhita of their mistake and have even been seen shuffling into groves and standing dead still whenever makuhita approach.

Husbandry

Makuhita have fairly normal food needs, although they will need their berries handed to them. They should be fed until they refuse food. Mint leaves are a favorite snack of the species. Water bowls should be tall enough for the pokémon to drink out of it mid-push up. Housebreaking usually isn’t an issue but they do learn fastest when trained with something close to what humans use. Small bowls filled with litter or holes in the ground outside do the trick.

The main problem with makuhita training is the training.

Makuhita rise at dawn and they go to sleep at sunset. Between the two they are almost exclusively concerned with food and exercise. Trainers who want a break can simply give makuhita a berry pile tall enough to eat. On the trail makuhita view hiking and carrying gear as an exercise. They can also be left alone with barbells or a punching bag while their trainer goes about their business.

Ideally, a makuhita trainer will be very fit and capable of exercising alongside their makuhita. Being able to teach the pokémon martial arts moves is the best way to gain their respect. Balancing their strengths and weaknesses, makuhita is the best partner possible on the island challenge for athletic, motivated trainers who want to be the best and are willing to put in the work. Otherwise, they should be avoided in favor of Type I fighting-types like passimian, pancham, crabrawler, and scrafty.

Hariyama are more concerned with showing off their strength than improving it. Unlike makuhita, hariyama are willing to go into pokéballs for several hours a day (and all of the night) if they are routinely given worthy fights. In the absence of high-level battles, they will need a gym with weights of at least a metric ton. After an island challenge is over hariyama can be safely released on either Poni or Melemele if their trainer is unwilling to make the lifestyle or monetary concessions needed to raise a hariyama.

Illness

Very young makuhita and very old hariyama often develop cancers or respiratory problems. Most of these problems can be easily treated if caught early. The line can also catch and transmit several common diseases in humans such as influenza.

The main health problem that hariyama suffer from is internal organ damage. Hariyama have very little body fat, relying instead on layers of powerful muscles to protect themselves. When flexed, the muscles form a nigh-unbreakable shield. If caught off guard the shockwave from an attack can rupture an organ and potentially kill them. A hariyama should always be made aware that it is about to go into battle and even playful sneak attacks should be avoided.

Evolution

When makuhita are strong enough, experienced enough, and have stored enough food, they will flash evolve. Makuhita drop all training and spend all of their waking hours eating in the leadup to evolution. After evolution they will set out on a path of wanton destruction to test their newfound strength. Evolution typically occurs between four and five years of age in the wild, and two to four in captivity.

Trainers wishing to hasten the process should provide their makuhita with plenty of training and interesting fights. For the year after evolution ends the new hariyama will need to be used in several battles a week against worthy opponents. Otherwise, they will begin to seek out their own challenges, some of which can be quite costly.

Battle

Hariyama is one of the most physically powerful pokémon in the world. They are also very, very tough and can keep on fighting at full strength for hours. While slow, this seldom matters because eventually a hariyama will land a hit and it is difficult for most pokémon to land meaningful blows on them. They fight mainly with their open palm slaps, shockwaves, and thrown rock attacks. Hariyama have a few other tricks, such as whirlwind and elementally charged punches, but for the most part hariyama does one thing and they do it terrifyingly well. Any team without a solid hariyama counter or a few checks will be crushed by a well-trained hariyama with a competent trainer.

Unfortunately for hariyama their counters abound in the competitive circuits. Alakazam are their hardest counter since the psychic-type can hover above shockwaves and teleport away from whirlwinds, thrown rocks, and physical assaults while simultaneously tripping hariyama up with utility moves and hitting them in the brain. Gardevoir, espeon, mega slowbro, and mime sr. are not quite as effective but can still usually take down a hariyama.

Floating steel-types and very fast ranged fliers can also put a stop to hariyama. Neither has much to fear from rock attacks (due to natural resistance or speed) and can stay well out of range of physical blows and shockwaves. The fliers are usually strong enough to power through a whirlwind, and the steel-types are too heavy to really care. This makes the relatively common bronzong, skarmory, magnezone, corviknight, vikavolt, yanmega, dragonite, noivern, and talonflame solid counters to hariyama. More exotic picks such as harpyre and metagross are even more effective.

Quickstall teams can also make hariyama much less useful. Their members are usually fast enough to outpace hariyama, bulky enough to take the shockwaves or thrown rocks, and tricky enough to slowly wear their enemy down while keeping themselves healthy.

Finally, bulky ghost types such as South Isle decidueye, dusknoir, golurk, cursola, and jellicent can phase through the worst of hariyama’s hits while using a variety of tricks to bypass hariyama’s natural defenses. These matches tend to be close and hariyama prevails more often than not, but the hariyama’s sweep ends very shortly afterwards.

Almost every professional trainer has at least one counter to hariyama at the ready. But a clever hariyama trainer can still play the long game, wear down or take out the checks, and then unleash an unstoppable force at the end. Hariyama can also be played as a mid-game wallbreaker, since they can break down common stall pokémon and allow a teammate to sweep. It is also inadvisable to try and set up a sweep with a pokémon hariyama checks so long as the fighting-type is still reasonably healthy.

If the metagame were any less hostile to hariyama it would be the single most threatening pokémon commonly held by professional trainers. Even as things are hariyama is still one of the biggest threats in the world and skilled professional and amateur trainers should always have a counter plan in mind.

On the island challenge makuhita are effective in battle but require patience. They are reasonably bulky and quite powerful but rather slow. The trick is setting up a situation where the makuhita can get in a solid hit or two. If this is possible they can defeat most young pokémon. If it isn’t they will probably be worn down and defeated in the end.

Hariyama’s rather limited pool of tricks makes them a good choice for the island challenge. Simple hand slaps with a few rock and seismic attacks to hit distant foes is all hariyama really needs. Be wary of the counters listed above but otherwise hariyama are likely to carry the match.

Acquisition

Makuhita can be found on Route 2 and on the eastern end of Poni. Only makuhita at least three feet tall may be captured. They require a Class I license to capture or purchase.

Hariyama can be found in many of the same places as makuhita. The ones that do not wish to go with a trainer have already been captured by the Melemele Dojo and the Poni National Park rangers. All others are legal catches with a Class III license (purchase requires a Class I, adoption is impossible as unwanted makuhita and hariyama are released to the wild).

Both stages are very insistent upon a proper capture battle. If a trainer cannot overpower them with any single team member the pokémon will refuse to listen to them.

Breeding

Hariyama can be bred in captivity but they strongly prefer being released to the wild to reproduce. The species can form emotional attachments to fighting-types of any gender. However, only heterosexual pairings with other hariyama or closely related primates will produce offspring. Mating tends to happen after a hariyama’s tenth birthday but they reach sexual maturity upon evolution. Older hariyama often settle down, have kids, and devote the rest of their lives to training makuhita.

Relatives

The Alolan hariyama is slightly taller and substantially heavier than the Asian hariyama (G. sumo sumo). This is due to the abundance of food in Alola.

Asian hariyama live in the temperate portion of Asia’s Pacific coast, from central China to Korea and Japan. They typically live in caves and only leave to eat. Alolan hariyama sometimes take shelter in caves from bad storms but otherwise avoid them. There is no consensus on why Asian hariyama prefer to live underground when they are large herbivores that need to spend several hours a day grazing.

 

[Persephone]

Smeargle
Caudartifex pereo

Overview

Neanderthal settlements in Southwestern Europe tend to have smeargle bones or objects stained in smeargle ink nearby. In many areas early cave paintings are right next to ancient smeargle marks. Kingdoms the world over prized smeargle for their dyes, which are vibrant, easily produced, and capable of lasting for millennia under the right conditions.

Kamehameha the Great imported smeargle to the islands to paint the new capitol city of Hau’oli when Ihā Palace was deemed too traditional for the new era. Many of those smeargles’ descendants now live on Melemele. The DNR allows them to stay as a tourist attraction and force for peace among wild pokémon. Captures by trainers with an artistic bent keeps the population in check.

Smeargle are not useful in a fight unless very well trained. Still, they are creative and affectionate companions for trainers concerned with their future after the island challenge ends.

Physiology

Smeargle is classified as a pure normal-type. They are capable of wielding every wavelength of the elemental spectrum in a way that only eevee, ditto, and the recently created silvally can begin to match.

Smeargle are actually feliforms, not caniforms as many believe. Gumshoos is their closest relative in Alola. Smeargle have long, lithe bodies and large paws, eyes, and ears. Their tongue is rather long and is often left hanging out of their mouth. This also helps them regulate their internal temperature. A floppy cap of skin and fur adorns their head. There is not a scientific consensus on what purpose, if any, the cap serves. Their fur is short and white except for brown patches on the ears and around the eyes. Smeargle also have brown bands above their paws. The exact number and width of these bands varies by individual.

The species is most famous for their ink secretions. Smeargle have long prehensile tails with a tuft of fur and an ink gland on the end. The color of the ink varies by the individual and the shade varies with diet, mood, exhaustion, and the solar and lunar cycles. This ink is resistant to almost everything except for smeargle’s saliva. Sanding the surface, extreme high and low temperatures, and some corrosive attacks will also work in a pinch.

Smeargle can reach heights of forty inches and can weigh up to twenty-five pounds. They live for up to seven years in the wild and ten in captivity.

Behavior

Smeargle ink has mild psychoactive effects until it dries. Prolonged exposure can cause hallucinations, hunger, decreased aggression, and bursts of inspiration that are quickly forgotten. The species is not entirely immune to the effects of their own ink; smeargle with amputated or dried tails (see Illness) display far fewer typical signs of smeargle ink exposure.

Smeargle palettes have a distinctive territory map. There will be a center area where socialization freely occurs, disputes are resolved, and collaborative art projects are undertaken. Radiating out from this hub are various wedge-shaped territories that grow wider the farther they are from the center. Each wedge is occupied by a single smeargle or a female and her young offspring (see Breeding). The edges of each territory are full of elaborate markings. Every smeargle uses thirty to one hundred individual marking patterns. Over 12,000 unique patterns have been identified worldwide. No two smeargle have been found with the same set. Smeargle are aggressive towards other conspecifics entering their territory but are friendly with their neighbors in the center.

Smeargle’s circadian rhythm changes over the lunar cycle. They are fully diurnal on new moons and fully nocturnal on the nights of full moons. Individuals get about twelve hours of sleep in every 24-hour period regardless of when they get it. All the smeargle in a gallery will convene in the hub on the days of new moons and the nights of full moons to collaborate on elaborate art projects, socialize, court potential mates, and trade objects and art tips. Smeargle with a very close bond (platonic or otherwise) will often ask their friend to place an ink-coated foot on their back as a permanent sign of their bond. They very carefully avoid removing these paw markings while grooming themselves.

Smeargle’s ability to track energy patterns combined with their perpetually altered mental state makes them excellent at seeing through all kinds of lies, illusions, and supernatural activity.

In the wild smeargle tend to be accidental peacekeepers. Their bodies are toxic enough that few predators will bother to eat them. Most moderately intelligent pokémon appreciate the complex markings they leave across their territory. In turn smeargle eat only plants and the occasional scavenged carcass and they don’t eat enough or breed quickly enough to be a nuisance to other pokémon. Smeargle territories, especially territory edges and the central hub, tend to be home to unusually high amounts of wild pokémon. Predator and prey typically have a truce period during the new and full moon conventions. Several interspecies summits have been seen during these times and violent organized interspecies conflicts are almost non-existent in the places where smeargle are common. Many pokémon will take advantage of the opportunity to trade items with other pokémon and human onlookers as well as to evaluate potential friends, trainers, rivals, and mates.

Husbandry

Smeargle are reasonably intelligent pokémon and should always be treated with a certain amount of dignity. Many have aversions to pet names, strict schedules, or insults. Anything that suggests the pokémon is not viewed as a relative equal can set them off. These triggers can include lies, making important decisions without their input or consent, forcing them to use a more degrading place for urination and defecation than their trainer uses, excessive amounts of time spent in a pokéball, ignoring their feelings, or routinely being given food that their trainer would never settle for. In short, the relationship between a trainer and smeargle is best handled like a relationship between two human friends.

Smeargle make poor partners for dark, fairy, and ghost types because of the tendency of those species to pull pranks and create illusions. While smeargle may have personality clashes with ditto, ditto are excellent for teaching smeargle new moves. Lucario make for very good partners. Most smeargle will tolerate other conspecifics on the team so long as they each have a personal space to retreat to that they can freely mark up,

The bulk of smeargle’s diet should be made up of berries and vegetables. They will also happily eat meat, but this should only be an occasional treat. Almost all smeargle prefer their meat to be cooked rather than raw. Kibble will be taken as an insult either immediately or when the smeargle realizes that their trainer doesn’t and won’t eat it.

The species requires relatively little in the way of exercise unless being used as serious battlers. Instead, they need time to socialize and practice painting. They prefer artistic trainers who can offer them meaningful advice on their craft but will tolerate any trainer willing to give them reasonable respect, independence, and praise. Trainers should be mindful of the pokémon’s rotating circadian rhythm. They should also accept that if easels and canvas are not provided smeargle will mark up walls.

Illness

Smeargle can share diseases with gumshoos and several other mammals. They should receive a full round of vaccinations within one month of capture or within six months of birth. It helps to explain to the pokémon what is going to happen in advance as randomly suffering a series of seemingly unprovoked attacks can make smeargle distrust their trainer and medical professionals.

Inkwell problems are a set of maladies that are unique to smeargle. These can range from amputated tails to frequent muscle spasms or seizures to heavy or very low ink flow. All of these problems have different causes and treatments. Some will result in a permanent loss or impairment of painting ability. These pokémon will require substantial emotional support and assistance in learning how to paint with brushes meant for humans. Smeargle unable to create anything at all will quickly become depressed and stop eating.

Evolution

N/A

Battle

Smeargle can use nearly every pokémon technique, even those that rely on unique anatomical structures, by copying the elemental patterns. The species is also intelligent enough to learn about one new attack every month. Some older smeargle can use over 100 moves, one of the largest effective movepools of any pokémon.

Just because smeargle can use an attack does not mean they can use it well. They are incredibly frail, have less physical strength than a yungoos, and their elemental wells are equally unimpressive. The species is reasonably agile but even their speed is below average in competitive circuits.

In the past smeargle was almost always a lead that used a technique to incapacitate an opponent for a long period of time and then used a series of powerful boosting moves while the opponent was down. When the switch clock ran smeargle would then baton pass the boosts to either another member of a baton pass chain or to a sweeper capable of using them well.

After the Global Battle Federation banned baton pass chains and several other leagues followed, smeargle’s typical strategy changed. Now they are mostly used to incapacitate the opposing lead, set up a full suite of arena hazards and effects, and eventually surrender or get knocked out. Smeargle teams can effectively start with the terrain in their favor at the cost of fighting with five pokémon.

No ranked trainer currently uses a smeargle. Even in their one good role some pokémon manage to prevent smeargle from setting up. A handful can not only block smeargle but use them as set up bait. Even though smeargle can unleash hydro cannons, frenzy plants, and blast burns, the species’ limited elemental well means that they hit about as hard as a water gun, leafage, and ember from any other competitive pokémon.

Smeargle fare worse on the island challenge than in competitive circuits. The average trainer will be able to teach their pokémon twelve moves during the full course of the challenge. Other common utility pokémon such as forretress, blissey, toxapex, and gengar are able to learn a decent number of utility moves while also being powerful or bulky. Early on smeargle can use a myriad of super effective attacks and their not-yet-outclassed offensive stats to win battles. By the middle of the second island smeargle will be near deadweight.

Acquisition

Smeargle can be adopted, captured, or purchased with a Class I license.

There are annual capture limits to preserve their role as a calming influence on a traditional early journey route. Any wild smeargle must come willingly with a trainer. A Pokémon Center nurse will need to verify that the capture was consensual within thirty days or the capture will automatically be classified as illegal. There is a healthy captive breeding program of smeargle and importation is legal. Adoption is usually the better option. Wild specimens can be most easily convinced to follow by showing them your own art. Other smeargle simply want an opportunity to see new sights and learn new moves and will actively seek out trainers. Smeargle not only don’t require a battle to test their prospective trainer but get angry when a potential friend chooses to beat them up as an apparent show of superiority and a threat against future misbehavior.

Capture of all wild pokémon is forbidden during smeargle conventions and in the three hours before and after them.

Breeding

In the wild courtship can go on for several years or only a few minutes before any mating occurs. Sometimes both parents help raise the child and sometimes the male leaves immediately after conception. Relationships can last anywhere from a few days to the full adult life of both partners. Smeargle are about as likely to form homosexual bonds as heterosexual ones, although only heterosexual unions produce offspring. Most wild smeargle will engage in both types of partnerships in their lives.

Smeargle pregnancies last two to four months and result in a single child. The child undergoes a rite of passage at their thirteenth convention at which point they leave their mother and take their own territory.

Because smeargle are free spirits with often brief, passionate relationships and specific preferences, it is difficult to breed smeargle in captivity unless a full palette is held in a large territory that mimics natural conditions. Their popularity as a pet means that many such farms exist around the world. There is no current farm in Alola due to the established wild population and high cost of land.

Relatives

The biggest variations between smeargle populations are in ink coloration and preferred markings. Anatomical changes across populations are small. Smeargle were originally native to the river valleys of Mesopotamia but have since been introduced to many countries around the world. Small populations often pop up around artist collectives, although only a few of these are introduced in large enough numbers in a place with the right environment for a self-sustaining population.

 

[Persephone]

Crabominable (Crabrawler)
Cocoescancer mons

Overview

When measured from base to peak, Mt. Lanakila is the tallest mountain on Earth. It is also the only mountain in Oceania covered in snow year-round. This unique environment—a tall, frozen mountain in the middle of tropical lowland—provides a home for many species not found elsewhere in Alola as well as a few endemic species. Crabominable is uniquely adapted to the Lanakila ecosystem. They begin life as a small herbivorous crustacean that hugs the warm shores before some move up to hunt in the perpetual cold.

Crabrawler are not particularly intelligent or affectionate. Evolution makes them affectionate and violent without increasing their intelligence. This can be a dangerous combination. They are powerful, easy to care for, and adjust well to captivity. Crabrawler can be easily released at the end of the challenge or when they become outclassed. Crabominable are strong enough to keep up through the end of the challenge but are harder to care for and not easily disposed of. Trainers thinking of raising one are strongly encouraged to train a crabrawler for a few months before committing.

Physiology

Crabrawler are classified as pure fighting-types. Crabominable are dual ice- and fighting-types. Some scholars argue that crabrawler should have a secondary water- or bug-type, but they do not exhibit many of the classical traits of a water-type (primarily or exclusively aquatic, hydrokinetic, well-adapted for life in the water) and are poor manipulators of bug elemental energy.

The hardened carapace of crabrawler is purple. They have four long, spindly legs with hook-like hairs at the end. Shortly after molting (see Illness), crabrawler are light tan in color. Two of crabrawler’s legs are shorter and have very large pincers at the end. Unlike other crustacean pokémon, these pincers are not primarily used for crushing objects. Instead, crabrawler punches things. Actual gripping attacks are rare and their crushing strength is unimpressive. Crabrawler have a long, sharp spine on top of their head that makes them harder to attack from above.

The species has crude lungs instead of gills. They are unable to breathe in water after their planktonic stage (see Breeding).

Crabominable tend to be far bulkier than their pre-evolution. Their legs remain about the same total length but now support a much larger frame. This makes crabominable rather slow. Thick hair covers crabominable’s entire body. The hook-like hairs used for climbing disappear as there are few trees large enough to support their weight on Lanakila. The horn on top of their head is replaced by tufts of red or blond fur. When crabominable are buried, this fur resembles a lichen patch. Finally, crabominable have massive pincers that are no longer capable of gripping anything at all. They are instead spectacularly effective blunt instruments and crabominable can break even sandslash armor in a few solid hits. The pincers can be fired off in an explosive blast if needed but this leaves the crabominable down a pincer and is rarely done in the wild.

Crabominable can grow to be six feet across and weigh up to 120 pounds. They can live for over a century.

Behavior

Crabrawler are primarily herbivorous. They climb up berry and coconut trees, get a solid grip with their legs, and then punch the branches until the food they want falls down. If coconuts are not shattered on impact the crabrawler will continue to punch them until they burst. Once the fruit has been cracked or splattered crabrawler will lower their mouth to the ground and eat. Crabrawler don’t care about picking up grass or sand alongside the berry flesh and juice; any minerals that aren’t needed for shell growth will be harmlessly excreted.

Crabrawler will fiercely defend any food they knock down, even taking on far stronger birds in defense of what is rightfully theirs. They will fight humans who approach their food. Unless provoked or feeding, crabrawler are relatively calm and will seldom initiate hostilities. Cabrawler prefer to defend themselves with a barrage of quick, untrained punches. If this does not succeed, they will attempt trickery to make an escape (see Illness).

During low tides crabrawler burrow into the sand and sleep. When the tide comes in crabrawler leave their nests to feed. A single beach can house hundreds of crabrawler. Despite living in close quarters, crabrawler are not particularly social creatures and only interact to mate or fight over territory.

Crabominable are primarily carnivorous. While they can eat plants in captivity (see Husbandry), they have never been observed eating any in the wild. Crabominable’s ice-type attacks are the product of endothermic reactions inside of their gut. These attacks, along with their fur, keep crabominable warm in even the harshest of conditions. This allows them to hunt ice-type pokémon with relatively little risk of harm. Crabominable are primarily ambush predators that disguise themselves as a lichen before lashing out with one or two powerful hits. Alternatively, they will leave half a kill and bury themselves nearby to attract other carnivores. Sandslash, weavile, and snorunt are their primary prey. They may also attack vulpix. Video evidence suggests that crabominable have begun to hunt vanilluxe.

Outside of their feeding habits very little is known about wild crabominable. The Alolan monarchs and Ula’Ula kahunas have historically prevented scientific studies on the mountain. Wild pokémon have continued to make field studies difficult even after the construction of the Alolan Pokémon League Headquarters.

Husbandry

Crabrawler spend almost all of their day buried or searching for food. This makes them very tolerant of pokéballs. So long as they are adequately fed they are willing to spend almost all of their time in one. Net balls are preferable although nest balls or standard stasis balls are also fine. Dive balls and other aquatic habitat balls are not. The pokémon should be let out of their balls to eat, defecate, and explore for at least a half hour a day.

While exploring crabrawler will often try to climb things. They may punch things they believe to be coconuts or fruits. Crabrawler almost universally believe that vases look like coconuts. Most believe the same about lamps and light bulbs.

Crabrawler cannot technically be housebroken but they generally prefer to defecate on wood shavings, grass, mulch, or damp sand. If there is only one area around that fits the description, they will conduct their business there.

Crabrawler, but not crabominable, get stand-offish around birds. Type I fighting-types like hariyama, machamp, and lucario will often grow frustrated with crabrawler’s refusal to discipline themselves or train in a martial art. Sometimes crabrawler will start fights with other arthropods. Crabominable may view ice-type teammates as food and try to eat them. Conversely, crabominable are very wary around dogs and foxes.

Crabrawler should be fed a fruit-rich diet with mice or small fish occasionally thrown in as treats. They will need water bowls to drink from. Crabrawler cannot breathe underwater so all water features in their environment should be shallow.

Crabominable are primarily carnivorous in the wild, but they can be fed a fruit-heavy diet in captivity with few apparent side effects. They can drink water from dishes, but they prefer getting it from ice crystals or snow. Evolution makes them more curious and they will appreciate a chance to hide in a box or bury under dirt or blankets while watching others go by. The trainer should always be at the ready to withdraw the crabominable if anything gets too close. Even the best trained crabominable will seldom pass up a tasty meal that walks right by them. Some trainers have found success placing large, high-resolution televisions several yards away from the crabominable’s hiding place. This way the pokemon can watch moving images without any getting close enough to attack. Crabominable are very fond of back rubs; crabrawler are not. The same goes for cuddling with a known and trusted human.

Crabominable should either have an ice-specific habitat ball or a cold place they can retreat to at least once a day. A crabominable kept in a glacier ball will only need two to three hours a day outside of it.

Illness

Most crabs foam at the mouth as a means of regulating their internal salinity. Crabrawler don’t have to worry about that but they still foam. This is their means of producing relatively weak bubble attacks that can serve as a distraction for an escape. It can also intimidate predatory mammals away out of fear that their would-be prey has rabies. Crabrawler are incapable of developing rabies. Foaming is a normal behavior and nothing that a veterinarian needs to be consulted about.

The overwhelming majority of health problems occur during molting. Very young crabrawler can shed their shell in favor of a new one once a week. For the first year of their life on land crabrawler don’t even bother to grow a hard shell between molts and instead move between gastropod shells and other found objects. During molting wild crabrawler burrow to a point just above the water table and stay there for several days until their new shell hardens. In captivity crabrawler should be kept in one place and not withdrawn into their pokéball during the process. Ideally, they should be given a dark and cramped place to hide. Until the process is complete crabrawler are soft and very vulnerable to injury. Wounds that ordinarily wouldn’t be felt can be fatal in this state.

As they grow older crabrawler molt less frequently, but each molt gets more dangerous. Getting out of their shell and growing a new one is increasingly energy expensive. Eventually crabrawler can have a three-week softshell period during which they will have to go out and hunt for food. In captivity this danger is somewhat alleviated.

Crabrawler never really stop growing, although their molting becomes less frequent as they age. They will eat everything they can and well-fed crabrawler will grow (and die) faster. Trainers who don’t intend to evolve their crabrawler should limit their pokémon to the equivalent of one coconut’s worth of food a day.

Crabominable don’t usually molt unless their carapace is badly damaged. Their molts can take a month, during which they will almost certainly have to hunt to get enough nutrients to build the new carapace. Captive crabominable usually survive but the process is best handled under inpatient veterinary care.

Evolution

There is a healthy amount of debate as to whether crabrawler should be classified as a second stage pokémon. Their larval form is planktonic and even after emerging from the water young crabrawler have very different behaviors than adult crabrawler (see Breeding). The official stance of the USDA is that crabrawler is the first stage of a two-stage line as tiny planktonic forms are not counted as proper evolutionary stages and juvenile crabrawler are morphologically similar to adult crabrawler.

Crabrawler on Melemele, Akala, and Poni Island will almost never evolve. On Ula’Ula crabrawler approaching adulthood will begin to migrate towards Mt. Lanakila. They will spend a few weeks foraging near the base, usually in Ula’Ula Meadow, before they begin their ascent. Evolution is triggered by a combination of cold and elevation. Simulating it in a lab requires thinning the air as well as cooling it.

On top of the mountain crabrawler will retreat into one of Lanakila’s slightly warmer caves, tuck themselves into a dark, isolated corner, and begin to molt. They typically molt four times in rapid succession, growing larger with each stage. At the end of the final molt the newly evolved crabominable will exit the caves and begin hunting.

Trainers who wish to evolve their crabrawler are best off going up Lanakila with their crabrawler out of its pokéball. The Pokémon League Center has an area devoted to evolving crabrawler. Trainers who completed their island challenge within the last year may use the facilities once free of charge.

Mt. Lanakila is the most dangerous location in Alola due to dangerous weather, terrain, and wild pokémon. The mountain is currently infested with vanilluxe who go out of their way to kill vulnerable humans. Weavile won’t hesitate to finish off a badly injured human or pokémon. Froslass will sometimes lure male humans to their deaths. Crabominable themselves can and will kill anything that gets too close to them. Ninetales will seldom kill a human outright, but they will stir up the weather to make further progress impossible and then escort the trainer down when they finally give in and decide to leave. The snowstorms can obscure chasms and crabominable, making further progress inadvisable.

Even with marked paths, summitting Mt. Lanakila on foot is an incredibly dangerous endeavor. Only trainers who have completed an island challenge or otherwise earned the permission of all four kahunas are permitted to attempt it.

Crabrawler taken up the lift or flown up to the summit will not begin to evolve. Lab studies suggest that temperature, air pressure, and thinness must be gradually reduced to trigger evolution.

Battle

Crabominable does not see any use in professional battling. They are undeniably strong, but also slow and undisciplined. It is hard to justify their use when pokémon like machamp and hariyama exist. Theoretically the ice crab has a niche as a hail-team counter, but hail teams have never been common enough to dedicate an entire team slot to dealing with them.

Ice-types in general are rare in Alola as most are restricted to the inhospitable Mt. Lanakila. Crabominable’s main advantage over hariyama, machamp, and other Type I fighting-types is simply that they require almost nothing in the way of training. Put them in front of a target and they know what to do. They are stronger in battle than an untrained machoke or hariyama but weaker than well-trained specimens.

When playing against crabominable it is important to keep a distance between the crustacean and your pokémon. Their ranged attacking options are limited and their speed and endurance are unimpressive. Eventually the crabominable will get frustrated and open themselves up for a finishing blow. Hits strong enough to crack the exoskeleton can also put crabominable out of commission but are generally frowned upon due to the risks of molting. Psychics that can teleport or move faster than crabominable can bypass their armor and knock them out with ease.

Most trainers on an island challenge will be using crabrawler, and not crabominable, until at least the Elite Four. Crabrawler start running into serious problems on the second island. By the end of the third they will be near deadweight. They can be taught some useful moves, such as thunder punch, power-up-punch, and rock-type attacks, but they will never hone their technique in the same way that Type I fighting types can. The species’ supporting movepool and willingness to use it are both limited. When playing against crabrawler early on it is wise to follow the same advice pertaining to crabominable. Later on in the island challenge they can be rushed and overpowered by most physical attackers.

Acquisition

Crabrawler can be found on almost all of Alola’s shores. As the tide starts coming in camp out near a berry or coconut tree near the coast. A crabrawler will probably come. They can be captured or purchased with a Class I license. Alolan shelters usually release crabrawler unless they are seriously injured; adoptions are handled on a case-by-case basis.

A quick proving battle and a few days with a steady provision of food, water, and shelter crabrawler is usually enough to get a crabrawler to listen to orders. It can take them an additional few days to make a connection between an attack and its name and a few more to actually use the attack their trainer tells them to.

Crabominable capture is illegal due to a lack of information on how many exist in the wild and what impact recent disturbances on Mt. Lanakila have had on the species. They can be purchased with a Class III license.

Breeding

Crabrawler mate in late September. After the eggs are fertilized females wade into the water and release their clutch before moving back onto land. After one to two weeks the eggs hatch and microscopic zooplankton emerge. If the plankton approach a shore after a ninety-day period they will begin to grow and develop into crabrawler about the size of a grain of sand. The new crabrawler will swim towards the land. Once beached, it will begin to rapidly grow and develop lungs. They are typically ten inches across within four months. Crabrawler do not reach their maximum size or reproductive maturity until they are at least thirty years old.

Crabominable clearly reproduce. Occasionally a female can be seen coming down to the surface, dozens of juveniles about eight inches across clinging to her body. She deposits them and heads back up the mountain. Deposited juveniles have a phenotype and genotype identical to their crabrawler-born peers. It is not known how crabominable mate or raise young.

Crabmominable have never been successfully bred in captivity.

Relatives

There is one species of crabrawler that ranges from the southeastern coast of Africa to coastal India to northern Australia to Alola. They live anywhere in the Indo-Pacific with large fruit-bearing trees near the coast. There are no subspecies documented.

All crabrawler have the potential to evolve into crabominable. This has been shown with crabrawler from Madagascar and Australia transplanted to Ula’Ula. The crabs quickly understood what they needed to do and began to climb the mountain after a few weeks of gorging themselves. Mt. Lanakila is the only place in the Western or Central Pacific with the right conditions (a permanently snow-capped mountain visible from a tropical coast) to trigger evolution.

 

[windskull]

So this is fun! I’ve never looked into any fan pokedexes before, and it’s obvious that you’ve spent a lot of time researching and writing this one. I’ve only looked through the first three “chapters,” but it’s been a treat to read so far, with all sorts of little explanations for pokemon biology and nods to in-universe disputes and issues (such as the typing of decidueye, for an obvious example.) The husbandry sections in particular were fun for me to read.

It’s kind of hard for me to critique this with my own limited knowledge, so I’m not going to say much more, but I do want to point out a couple typos I spotted.

almost as large as the population of the total population of the Alolan decidueye.

Looks like an editing hicup here. I think you probably meant “almost as large as the total population.”

If a torracat does not like their trainer, they will weather sprays out of wpite..

*spite

I don’t really have much more to say, but all in all, definitely something I'm going to read more of in the future.

 

[Persephone]

Gengar (Gastly, Haunter)
Noxvenator cinimalus

Overview

Throughout history ghost pokémon have been treated with a mix of fear and reverence. Gengar are the most common ghosts worldwide. They have inspired far more fear than reverence everywhere they are found. Gengar have been historically seen as malevolent tricksters that sometimes form partnerships of convenience with human trainers. Now there is an increasingly popular theory that gengar may have complex emotional lives and a tragic misunderstanding of their circumstances.

This does not make them harmless.

Many trainers mistake “common” with “easy to train.” While often true, this is not the case for gengar. Trainers who want to be eased into ghost husbandry are advised to start with another, calmer species. Still, gengar are one of the most powerful ghosts in Alola and they can form close bonds with their trainer under the right circumstances. This makes them a good pokémon for trainers confident in their ability to handle phantoms and intent on dominating the battlefield.

Physiology

All stages of the evolutionary line are dual ghost- and poison-types.

Gastly are primarily formed from purple-grey spectral fog. Their most common form is a sphere surrounded by a loose halo of gas. Large eyes and a mouth with fangs adorn the face. No part of their body is solid and gastly are perfectly capable of altering their apparent features. Unlike most spectral fog, gastly bodies are very toxic. Inhaling just a few ounces can kill a human. The fog burns and corrodes any living tissue that it touches. Gastly have relatively little control over their bodies and they can be disrupted by a stiff breeze (see Illness). They can move at speeds of up to fifteen miles an hour when composed in still air. Outside of these conditions they move at little more than a crawl.

The species does not need to be visible, or even tangible, on the physical plane. They can shift into another realm and move through it to bypass solid barriers at the cost of being temporarily unable to affect the world. It takes them several seconds to move between planes.

Haunter are far more condensed than gastly and typically form a large, homogenous body with only a small gaseous tail. Some haunter form two separate hands connected to their body by thin, nearly invisible strands of spectral fog. Others incorporate their hands into their body. Haunter typically have a gaping toothless mouth. Their tongue does not exist when not in use and is only formed as needed. Licks can inflict either the usual chemical burns of the spectral fog or different effects altogether such as paralysis, sleep, seizures, and even encasement in a thin layer of ice.

Gengar appear smaller than haunter but are actually far heavier. Most gengar have a large ovular torso with small, stubby limbs extending from it. There are usually spiky tufts on top as well. Most of the face is comprised of red eyes and a wide mouth with white teeth in it. These teeth are not actually solid, just illusions designed to intimidate their victims. In fact, no part of gengar is solid; they are just very dense orbs of gas. This density makes them very fast, capable of reaching speeds up to one hundred feet per second in pure darkness and thirty feet per second under natural moonlight. It also grants them a high resistance to wind. Curiously, it also seems to make them weak to light. Gengar move slower and appear less capable of using attacks under lighting more intense than the average streetlight. Under very bright light they fade out of the physical plane entirely, only to fade back in the same place when darkness returns.

Gengar are typically about five feet tall, but their height can vary considerably. The mass of a healthy, fully developed gengar is exactly 89.53 pounds. Captive specimens typically die around the same time of their trainer (see Illness). Wild specimens may never die at all outside of extraordinary circumstances (see Evolution).

Behavior

All stages of the line are animivorous. That is, they feed upon emotions in particular and mental health more generally. They have been documented feeding upon many intelligent species but they have a strong preference towards feeding on humans. For gastly and haunter these feedings usually take the form of repeated and escalating harassment, starting out with objects moved around and soft voices at night and escalating into potentially lethal pranks. Any fear they evoke is physically and psychologically draining. Particularly severe hauntings can render the victim comatose. At that point the pokémon will move on to a nearby victim. While gastly and haunter are capable of living out on the streets, both strongly prefer residing inside of buildings to shut out the wind.

Gengar are more aggressive hunters, albeit less committed ones. They prefer to roam city streets at night, making shadows move and sending chills through the air. When exposed to enough fear they can create elaborate illusions and gain insights into their victim’s memories and psyche. They seldom stick with one victim for long, and their hauntings are usually less lethal than their pre-evolutions with rare but very notable exceptions (see Breeding).

During the day all stages of the line typically fade out of the physical plane. Only dimension-disrupting attacks or very vulnerable prey will bring them out.

Husbandry

All stages must be handled differently as they have different behaviors and mindsets. In general, they are best held in dusk balls and are fine staying inside of them during the day. The pokémon will get upset and pull increasingly mean-spirited pranks if confined at night.

Gastly are often confused, violent, and obsessed with hunting. Trainers will either need to battle with them near-constantly or accept that some of the feeding will be at their own expense. There should be a powerful ghost- or dark-type present to keep them in line should they act up. Flying-types and pokémon that can generate strong shockwaves or gusts of wind can also do the trick. Even well-fed gastly will habitually pull pranks on their trainer.

Haunter are the calmest stage. If a trainer puts up with them for an extended period of time as a gastly the pokémon will often gain sympathy for their trainer and obey commands even without deterrents. Wild-caught haunter or those raised by another human tend to be more apathetic towards their trainer. Hunting is done only for food. They will usually leave their trainer alone so long as they are battled with enough to be well-fed. Haunter are also capable of feeding upon positive emotions and avoiding the need to battle altogether, but this can only be done with trainers they share a close bond with. This is complicated by haunter’s incredible jealousy: even if they are fond of their trainer, they will attempt to sabotage all of their close relationships with intelligent pokémon and other humans.

Gengar are the most intelligent and self-aware stage of the evolutionary line. This does not inherently make them easier or harder to train. If raised from a gastly and treated well throughout their more unruly formative years, gengar can be very protective of their trainer and feed almost entirely off of the positive emotions generated by the partnership. They are also capable of scanning memories to quickly learn the human language in full and then use illusions to speak. Gengar have human comparable intelligence and are generally capable of being treated as a close human friend.

If gengar evolves and does not yet have a close bond with their trainer, the situation is more complicated. Gengar inherently yearn for close relationships and purpose; being deprived of them makes them desperate. They may engage in unhealthy behaviors such as stalking, continuing harassment, and even murder in an attempt to gain their trainer’s affections. Deterrent pokémon will be necessary in this case, although violent punishments can sometimes cause gengar to escalate. It is far more difficult to overpower a gengar than a gastly. Patient demonstration of healthy relationship skills and understated punishment of misbehavior are the best way to earn a gengar’s trust.

The pokémon can’t be safely touched without an airtight inorganic suit. Trainers who intend to have a haunter or gengar long-term should invest in such a suit because all stages can be very affectionate. A chronic lack of physical affection will remind them of their condition and send them into rages. Gengar do not sleep in the same way that most pokémon do, but they go inactive during the day. They produce no physical waste.

Illness

Because they usually feed on negative emotions gastly are at low risk of contracting most ghost illnesses. Their body can be torn apart, but given enough time in their alternate dimension they will pull themselves together as if nothing happened in the first place.

Haunter and gengar often suffer from illnesses, especially in captivity. Aminivores that feed on positive emotions and relationships can be seriously affected by spectral diseases. These are usually triggered by strong negative memories or neuroses. Gengar are capable of digesting these memories easily enough, but too much negative energy can make the positive feelings around it toxic.

Ghost sicknesses are strange and best treated by a specialist in the field. Any prolonged change in physical structure or behavior that appears to distress the pokémon is an illness. These are typically not subtle changes and can include liquidification, time loops, an inability to control their own movements, prolonged periods of stillness, radical changes in behavior, sudden and apparently unprovoked aggression, and clear facial deformities. These symptoms typically will not go away on their own, and even cured illnesses will almost always resurface if the emotional damage in their partner is not fixed.

Gengar with a meaningful connection to a human partner will usually pass on when their trainer does. The species does not fear their own mortality and most channelers describe gengar as wishing to move on eventually but in no rush to do so.

Evolution

Ghosts are shrouded in superstition and myth. Even most of the Ghost Studies literature is testing old folklore in the closest thing possible to controlled experiments. Several prominent scholars are channelers. The chair of Kogane University’s ghost studies department is even a ghost-type pokémon herself.

The current consensus is that some, but not all, ghosts are formed when a human or pokémon dies. Whether the new ghost is the old being, some psychic echo of the original, or just a creature that comes out of dormancy after a death is very unclear. Some of the more philosophical researchers believe that there is no difference at all between the three so long as the new ghost believes itself to be the old person.

Gastly are formed from human deaths. Gengar typically believe themselves to be the deceased person in a new form. Most of the evolutionary process is about remembering and accepting who they are and what happened to them.

Newly formed gastly are emotionally chaotic and run entirely on impulse and spite. The rare flashes of memory they do get just make them angrier and more confused. Gastly are best treated as toddlers. They are still figuring out how their body works and they have very limited self-awareness and higher brain functions. While drawn to humans for food and perhaps some vague glimmer of recognition they are not humans themselves.

After a certain amount of feeding, gastly begin to grow heavier and gain better control over their form. They typically switch shape from a cloud of gas to the typical haunter’s form almost instantly, but they will take several more months to refine the details and grow steadily larger.

Haunter begin to remember things. At first these memories have almost no impact on their behavior outside of drawing them closer to familiar places and people. As they develop, haunter become progressively more distressed by the clash between their current parasitic existence and decidedly inhuman form and their steadily resurfacing human psyche. Haunter become desperate for affection and validation and will seek out humans for more than food.

This ends in one of two ways. If haunter have a stable emotional outlet and a human willing to treat them as a friend, they can become a loyal shadow and life partner and reach some measure of inner peace about their situation.

Alternatively, humans react to them the same way they always have: fear and disgust. After all, haunter still need to feed and their hauntings are decidedly unpleasant. Their possible victims have very good reason to shun haunter away. Even sympathetic people have to deal with haunter being possessive, violent, and unable to fully comprehend their emotions. Combined with their need to feed and toxic body, even the most patient people can leave the haunter or be killed (or both). Now fully convinced they are unlovable and overwhelmed by feelings they cannot control, haunter reach a breaking point and develop a deep loathing for all humans. Either scenario triggers evolution.

The new gengar will grow steadily heavier and more dexterous until they reach their final weight and shape. Gengar set out to either terrorize the world that let them die and kicked them while they were down or to protect the human who saved them such a fate.

Because they do not pass until they accept their situation, malevolent gengar tend to roam the world until someone finally manages to reach them. It is not impossible to redeem a gengar that has grown to hate humans, but doing so requires steadily negotiating with a powerful and hostile party. It is not recommended for anyone but experts in psychology and ghost pokémon.

Gengar are capable of mega evolution. In this stage the pokémon tends to revert to a similar body shape to a haunter while gaining a prominent third eye on their forehead. Mega gengar has some ability to drag their opponents partially into another plane and prevent withdrawal. Even moreso than most mega forms, gengar’s mega evolution very rapidly drains the spirit of their trainer. Total loss of emotion for several days after mega evolving is common. At least one trainer never recovered at all. While trapping is an extremely powerful tool in battle, few trainers are willing to risk permanent mental damage for a slight edge in battle.

Gigantamax gengar takes a form similar to guzzlord with a giant body composed almost entirely of an open mouth. These gengar have learned from the mega gengar across the channel how to pin opponents in place. While only possible in Galar, gengar have become a mainstay in the region’s league.

Battle

Gengar are glass cannons on the competitive circuits. They are reasonably powerful and very fast. More importantly, they have many disruptive tricks at their disposal and a high enough intelligence to master several of them. This forces opponents to think quickly on their feet as offensive attacks, debilitating status conditions, or even perish song or destiny bond are thrown at them. However, one good hit will bring all but the strongest of gengar down. They are slower under bright, meaning that most trainers will not use one during outdoor daytime matches.

Three of the Top 100 trainers use one on their main team. Almost all ghost specialists have one. They fit best on hyper offensive teams, but perish trapping and destiny bond allow them to act as revenge killers on stall teams.

Gengar are very good on the island challenge. While trainers will not have enough time to teach their pokémon every trick they can learn, just a few can force an opponent to guess well or face the consequences.

Defensively, all stages of the line benefit from being incorporeal. Most attacks that rely upon precision or power instead of elemental energy will pass harmlessly through incorporeal fog. Almost all contact attacks on gengar, even if technically super effective, are likely to leave the attacker in worse shape than the victim after chemical burns take their toll.

Powerful elemental projectiles of any kind can seriously hurt gengar, but at the amateur level it’s usually best to exploit a weakness. All stages of the line hate telepathic damage as it hits their already fragile and confused psyche. Mud or fine sand particulates can get stuck in their bodies and take a moment to filter out. Until cleared, debris inside of the fog substantially slows the pokémon down. This is not a common weakness for ghosts and appears to be related to the dense, toxic nature of gengar’s fog. Attacks that manipulate shadows, light, or spectral fog can make it much harder for gengar to remain tangible. Strong wind and shockwave attacks can also take out a gastly in a hit or two, although powerful lights affect them a little less.

Gengar are capable of fading out of the physical plane to avoid all damage. This is allowed in most professional leagues as it gives the opponent a chance to set up without any fear of retaliation. Most amateur leagues, including Alola’s, ban fading out as comparatively few amateur pokémon have setup moves.

Good partners for gengar can dim sunlight. They fit well onto rain and hail teams. Gastly struggle to keep up in any weather but harsh sunlight, which they are often very reluctant to battle in.

Acquisition

Gastly can be captured, adopted, or purchased with a Class IV license. Haunter can be obtained with a Class III license. Gengar require a Class V license to possess without the gengar’s consent. With consent they only require a Class III license.

Gengar, like most ghosts, are attracted to graveyards and other places that are tied to death. They can often be seen frequenting Hau’oli Graveyard, Memorial Hill, or the ruins of Tapu Village at night. Gastly and haunter will usually take shelter in residences close to their main territory. Gengar prefer to roam the nearby city streets when not visiting the graveyards at the core of their range. No evolutionary stage is visible during the day.

Breeding

Gengar do not breed. Some human deaths, for reasons currently unknown, produce a new gastly. Folklore and recent history suggest that gastly are most common following mass tragedies involving the air. Prominent examples include towns choked by volcanoes or smoke, tornadoes, hypothermia or heatstroke, the actions of flying-type legendaries, or the use of chemical weapons on humans.

Some haunter and gengar in the throes of deep loneliness and emotional pain come to believe that killing another human will create a new partner who understands their pain.

This is not the case.

Relatives

Figuring out how phantom pokémon relate to each other is difficult. There are several schools of thought on the matter, from morphological trees to spectral fog analysis. Gengar’s fog has a unique composition not seen in any other species. Some scholars group them in with mimikyu as light-averse ghosts who often believe themselves to be former humans. Both are believed to be created by the circumstances of a death. There is even anecdotal evidence of gengar and mimikyu closely associating in the wild.

There are important differences. Mimikyu’s spectral fog is harmless to touch, although their core is a potentially lethal cognitohazard. Mimikyu can also be formed by pokémon deaths, even if most believe themselves to be former humans. They also feed off of very different emotions.

Mismagius has a similar body shape and life cycle to gengar. They even feed in similar ways. However, mismagius rarely believe themselves to be former humans and rarely bother to speak directly to the humans they are bonded with.

Spiritomb have a similar evolutionary catalyst to gengar and are formed from former humans, but their method of creation is very different. The ritual behind spiritomb creation may have been based on gengar. There are still key differences: spiritomb fog is non-toxic and even evolved spiritomb cannot completely move into other planes.

The scientific name of gengar is disputed. Historically, true ghosts have been assigned a genus and species but nothing else beneath the kingdom level. Some scientists have proposed gengar’s scientific name should be Homo sapiens noxvenator to reflect their status as former humans. Other taxonomists disagree due to a lack of certainty on whether gengar truly are former humans or merely believe themselves to be. In any case, they cannot breed with humans. Or other gengar. Or anything. When dealing with ghosts the usual rules of taxonomy are seldom applicable.

For now there is no consensus on how to best amend gengar’s scientific name.

 

[windskull]

I’ve read a few more entries. So here are a few more thoughts. Starting with Toucanon, which is where I had most of my thoughts.

Huh, I think you may have mentioned real-world animals in a previous entry. But I guess this one in particular really cements the setting as an alternate Earth. The Gumshoos section also made it very obvious.

Toucannon grow up to 120 centimeters tall and can weigh up to twenty kilograms pounds

Typo? I’m guessing you meant for it to be measured in kilograms and accidentally forgot to remove the pounds.

Toucannon will only eat fruit, although some have displayed a fondness towards brightly colored cereals

Squints at you.

But really, I love that you make little jokes and references like this when the opportunity arises. It gives the entries just a little bit of humor and adds to the entertainment factor for me. If I’m not mistaken, I believe I remember you mentioning a big joke in the pelipper entry that I was highly amused by… but I’ll get to that when I reach it.

it may be cheaper to rent storage unit,

To rent a storage unit?

And as a quick note, I really liked the part where it talked about battling with pikipek and how they hit harder than you’d think. Especially since that was integrated into Broken Things (which I figure this is in general.)

Typo in the Gumshoos section:

Previous additions of this text

I think you meant editions.

I think my favorite thing about your dex is reading about the subspecies. I loved it in the Gumshoos, but the raticate one, in particular, was fun to read. And also horrifying. I never ever want to see an atomic raticate. Nope! I may actually be someone who thinks rats are cute, but that is too much rat. On that subject though, are they based on some pop-culture reference? I don’t go far outside the pokemon circle, so if it is, it’s lost on me.

Anyways, I’m once again blown away by the care and work put into this, and the amount of research it must take. I didn’t know what to expect going in, but I’ve really been enjoying reading this. I look forward to reading more entries and sharing my thoughts on them later!

 

[Persephone]

Drifblim (Drifloon)
Ultimaedunt piccard

Overview

Ghosts are often thought of as being tricksters at best and demonic at worst. Many ghost-types do come off like this, at least to humans unused to dealing with them. Despite being deeply tied to legends about ferrying off dead souls and living children, drifblim mostly avert the stereotype. They are actually fairly sweet and playful pokémon, albeit ones with some bizarre obsessions. The balloons are strongly recommended as a first step into the strange realm of phantom husbandry.

Physiology

Both stages are classified as dual ghost- and flying-types.

The bulk of drifloon’s body is a purple orb. The orb is hollow with the inside filled with a mix of spectral fog and normal gasses. The exterior is only about half an inch thick, but only very sharp blades and very powerful attacks can outright puncture a drifloon. The rest will simply cause drifloon to be pushed back. This is because the exterior layer is made of very condensed spectral fog that acts as both a solid and a gas at different times.

Drifloon have two small black eyes and a yellow “X” on their face. The eyes do appear to be functional; the X is not a mouth and serves no apparent purpose. A small mass of white fog tops the orb. The fog is known to change shape and billow in the wind. The bottom of the orb has a small purple crown on it. Extending from the crown are two very thin but deceptively strong arms with small yellow hands at the end of them.

Drifblim are substantially larger than their preevolution. The bottom third of their orb is also a much lighter shade of purple, with eight small petal-shaped markings at the edge of the light and dark areas. Drifblim’s eyes are slightly larger than drifloon’s and red in color. Their crown also turns red. The main difference between drifloon and drifblim is that the latter have four legs. These are equidistant from each other and look like long, thin ribbons. The top of the ribbons are the same light purple as the bottom of the orb, and the ends of the ribbons are yellow.

Drifblim gas is slightly flammable. Burns and very high temperatures can cause it to ignite in pale blue flames. Burning drifblim have access to far more power than usual. Punctured drifblim also leak gas, but this does not increase their power. Instead, leaking drifblim gain a substantial boost to their speed until they fully heal or deflate. Unconscious drifloon in the wild are taken to food sources by the rest of the party and usually recover.

Drifblim do not die of natural causes. They can reach diameters of four feet and weigh up to fifteen pounds.

Behavior

Drifblim spend almost all of their nights in the clouds, sometimes moving in a particular direction but most of the time just floating where the wind takes them. They descend to earth if they are above a human settlement at dawn.

Like most phantoms they often flock to sites closely tied to death. But drifblim actually have something else driving their choice of daytime haunts: they are fascinated with endings. Recent deaths are likely to attract drifblim. So are births, divorces, bankruptcies, coming-of-age ceremonies, drug relapses, and anything else that abruptly changes an existing status quo. One novelist has reported a dozen drifblim and nearly one hundred drifloon descending upon their yard as they sent their publisher the final draft of the last book in a popular young adult series. Drifblim have also been known to show up at watch parties for the series finale of long running television shows, provided that those parties occur during the day or just after sunset.

Both evolutionary stages, but drifloon in particular, are endlessly curious. If they have been in an area before they will spend all day looking for changes, however minor. Otherwise, they will explore whatever catches their attention. In 2007 a video went viral of a drifloon playing with a doorbell for over two hours before becoming fascinated with the camera recording her. They will often play with people and pokémon.

Most parents do their best to instill a fear of drifloon in their children. This is because drifloon sometimes lift a child into the sky with them after a few hours of play on the ground. There is proof that this happens about fifteen times a year across the world. However, recent studies complicate the idea of drifloon as malevolent child killers. To start with, most abducted children are eventually found with their mind and body intact. The overwhelming majority of these children admit that they wanted to run away from home but had no idea where to go. This suggests that the drifloon believe themselves to be doing their playmates a favor.

Drifblim have never been observed eating. It is believed that they are a peculiar sort of aminovore that feeds upon feelings of loss and closure in humans. In any case ghost researchers are almost universally convinced that drifblim do not damage the mental health of the people they feed on. If anything, their playful antics and bizarre appearance might bring their “victims” some happiness at a moment when it is desperately needed.

Wild drifblim live in parties of ten to fifty drifblim and three hundred to six hundred drifloon. They usually do not all go to the same places on the surface, instead spreading out as they descend. At night they reunite and slowly lift back into the clouds. When directly observed at night, either in person or via livestreams, the entire party will disappear in an instant. This behavior is very seldom replicated in captivity. Satellite images that are later viewed during the day do not cause drifblim to vanish; drifblim do not appear to do much of anything at all at night except drift. Why they go to such lengths to conceal themselves is a mystery.

Husbandry

Despite living in large parties in the wild, drifblim are quite content to live alone with a trainer and other partner pokémon. Drifblim are relatively affectionate towards their human and pokémon friends and enjoy physical contact. Larger drifblim really enjoy taking their trainer or teammates on long flights before descending in roughly the same place they ascended from.

The main problems when caring for drifloon are their curiosity and diet. Drifblim dislike all pokéballs, although they will tolerate luxury balls and premier balls. Unlike most ghost-types they do not appreciate dusk balls. During the day they want to explore and at night they want to fly. The only times they will happily accept their pokéball are when winds are too strong to make flights pleasant or when their trainer has some clearly defined reason for doing so, such as an eminent battle.

Drifblim’s rather unique diet makes them almost impossible to feed in captivity. Reading a good book to the end and basking in the feelings it brings is one decent way, but this is not practical for most people to do almost every day. Specimens that are allowed to roam will usually go off and satisfy their own hunger and curiosity before returning at dusk and dawn. Drifblim instinctively know where to find their trainer and will return, even if they are separated by entire oceans. Sometimes drifblim allowed to roam will still stay with their trainer for an entire day or night.

Unlike most ghosts the species has no aversion to light and can be battled or bonded with at all times of the day.

Illness

Drifblim that have not been allowed to feed upon endings for more than two to four days will begin to deflate and have sluggish movements. Very strong endings, particularly deaths or funerals, will usually be enough to revive them. They will remain distrustful of trainers who allowed them to deflate in the first place.

Most damage in battle will eventually go away on its own. Being stored in their pokéball and taken to an ending will make the recovery go faster. Overwhelmingly powerful dark- and ghost- attacks may be enough to kill a drifblim in one hit. Such attacks are rare outside of godlike pokémon and the aces of ranked trainers.

Drifblim sometimes fade away and pass on when their trainer does. Sometimes they do not. Drifblim that survive their trainer will either attach to a close relative or friend of the deceased or simply float back into the sky to find a new party to join.

Drifblim appear to be immune from the effects of old age and will only die if they voluntarily fade, are killed or starved, or, perhaps, reproduce.

Evolution

The exact trigger of drifloon evolution is not known. At some point, drifloon will steadily begin to grow in size and change in shape. The whole process takes about one week from start to finish. Captive drifloon typically evolve at a much younger age than their wild counterparts but there is no apparent means of making a drifloon evolve faster. Experiments where two drifloon of roughly the same age were taken in by the same trainer and treated the same have resulted in one drifloon starting to evolve two months after capture and the other evolving three years later. Three months in captivity is the median point of evolution but everything from two days to ten years has been recorded.

Battle

Drifblim are stuck between offensive ghosts such as gengar and mismagisus and defensive ghosts such as jellicent. The former are faster and stronger than drifblim; the latter has more staying power in a fight. Mimikyu and Alolan marowak even compete with drifblim for a spot on bulky offense teams. Instead, drifblim is left to a niche as a baton passer and bizarre sort of revenge killer.

As they take more damage from fire or stab wounds, drifblim gain more power and speed, respectively. These injuries also cause drifblim to leak, giving them far less staying power than they otherwise might have. Drifblim are well suited to boosting up with stockpile, substitute, or calm mind at the start of a match while they can float above the fray and use their slippery surface and general bulk to take hits. Status moves such as will-o-wisp can let them wear down opponents and buy more time to boost. Then if they start burning or leaking, they can start to unleash a barrage of powerful or fast shadow balls, hexes, or thunderbolts. As things wind down to the finish, drifblim can baton pass their earlier boosts or use destiny bond or explosion to take care of their current opponent. This does make drifblim a tad predictable. Smart opponents can use tricks such as toxic, perish song, or blunt force impacts to wear drifblim down without unleashing their late game wrath. Bulky ghost-resists such as blissey and snorlax also have little to fear from drifblim outside of baton passes. But, most of the common anti-flier tactics (electrical burns, ice shrapnel, sharp rocks) run a high risk of setting drifblim off. Teams with a drifblim answer will handle it easily enough; teams without one can find themselves losing a pokémon or two without much to be done.

On the island challenge drifblim and drifloon are best off running some combination of a boosting move, a status move, an offensive move, baton pass, and a finishing move. If there is time and money to teach more tricks, go for offensive moves. While drifblim are not the strongest ghost around they are perfectly serviceable and when played well can continue to win matches to the end of the challenge.

Acquisition

Drifloon can be captured, adopted, or purchased with a Class I license. Drifblim can be captured with a Class II license or be purchased or adopted with a Class I license.

Drifloon are most common in the wild around graveyards and funeral homes, but they can also be spotted with some frequency around restaurants and businesses that are about to close or museums that are about to have a temporary exhibit rotate out. Almost all drifloon will agree to go with a trainer after a quick proving battle. Some will gladly accompany a new human partner even without a formal battle. This makes them a somewhat popular starter pokémon, especially since many journeys almost immediately follow an ending of some sort.

Breeding

Drifblim clearly reproduce. If they did not the wild population would be almost entirely drifblim. Instead, wild drifloon considerably outnumber wild drifblim. Drifblim have never reproduced in captivity, been recorded doing so in the wild, or explained to a channeler how they breed. The most we can do is speculate.

Reproduction probably happens high in the atmosphere where humans have historically been unable to observe drifblim. Drifblim are exceedingly shy around cameras in the atmosphere; usually they will gently play with or observe weather balloons, but if one has a camera attached it will almost always be destroyed. Thankfully they vanish when a plane passes instead of destroying it.

Reproduction also probably results in the death of at least one drifblim. The total number and size of drifblim parties has not changed much since worldwide data collection became possible. If new drifloon are created and the total population is not growing, then drifblim must die at rates that starvation and voluntary passing cannot account for.

Relatives

Global drifblim populations vary little in phenotype. Their spectral fog compositions are also quite similar. Their closest relative is commonly believed to be jellicent. The two species have similar body shapes and skin toughness. They are also both preyed upon by dragapult in very similar ways. The problem with the comparison is that jellicent and drifblim’s spectral fog compositions are about as different as is possible between aminovorous true ghosts. Their feeding strategies are also radically different. Unfortunately, taxonomic analysis of ghosts is still an emerging field. For the time being all scientists can really do is guess and argue about their relationship

 

[Persephone]

Honchkrow (Murkrow)
Malavis pacifica cadaveregis

Overview

Honchkrow have their flaws as a pokémon. Murkrow are fond of engaging their trainer in psychological warfare. Honchkrow are less sadistic but less likely to obey commands. Still, their intelligence and folklore make them extremely popular among trainers with patience, cunning, and an inclination towards the macabre. During the peak of the goth subculture, they were one of the most common birds used on the island challenge.

Trends come and go, but Alola’s honchkrow remain. Trainers willing to engage in a battle of wills with their pokémon may find honchkrow to be a worthwhile addition to their team.

Physiology

Both stages are classified as dual dark- and flying-types.

Murkrow have dark blue or black feathers over most of their body. There is a small tuft of downy feathers and a short fan at the base of their tail. Murkrow’s talons and beak are pale yellow in color. Their eyes are red and glow in the dark. The species’ strangest feature is their ‘hat.’ The hat has a circular brim of feathers extending horizontally from the top of their head. These feathers are quite dense and are easily mistaken for a solid layer. Three large tufts protrude above the brim.

Honchkrow are substantially bulkier than the rather scrawny murkrow. Evolution changes their tail pattern to something more typical of a corvid with a long horizontal row of feathers flowing out behind them. The talons become black with sharp white claws at the tips. White crescent markings form beneath the eyes. The tufts sticking out of the hat condense into only one or two short peaks, while the brim of the hat becomes longer at the front and back and stays roughly the same length on the sides.

Males have a white “beard” of long, soft feathers covering up the lower head, neck, and most of the chest. The inside of their wings is coated in bright red feathers. Females usually have very dark purple feathers; males have dark blue ones. Both sexes’ feathers are iridescent.

Murkrow and honchkrow have a keen sense of smell for birds, as well as acute night vision. However, their hearing is limited to relatively high-pitched sounds. Even honchkrow have relatively shrill cries despite their appearance and size.

Male honchkrow can grow up to four in length, including the tailfeathers, and weigh up to forty pounds. Females are somewhat smaller, seldom reaching lengths of three feet. They can live up to thirty years in captivity or forty in the wild. The average murkrow lifespan is closer to five years in the wild. Those that survive to evolution will typically live for twenty to thirty years.

Behavior

The species tends to live in social groups with one mated pair of honchkrow and one to three dozen murkrow. Honchkrow are notoriously harsh bosses that punish failure through physical violence or ostracizing the offender and rallying other murkrow to bully them. However, the belief that honchkrow deliberately starve the murkrow like raticate starve rattata is false. While honchkrow prioritize their survival over the murkrow in extremely difficult times, the distribution of food in good times is usually rather equitable when adjusting for body mass.

Murkrow disperse at the start of the day. If one finds a kill it flies back to the central nest and alerts the honchkrow. The honchkrow then fly out from their nest and stake their claim on the kill, bullying away anything that tries to take it. Historically this worked very well as most large native predators are either insects, fighting-types, or birds. The former two can be scared away by two very large corvids arriving. The latter can be beaten back by swarms of murkrow confusing them and honchkrow making strategic hits. The introduction of pack-hunting canines and snorlax has complicated this strategy. Even gumshoos and raticate can make staking a claim far harder than it otherwise would be.

The newly introduced competition has led to honchkrow gradually shifting to more of a predatory role. Their favored prey are raticate. Murkrow will swarm a raticate’s nest and start carrying off food or beating up rattata. Eventually the raticate will become enraged and leave the nest. The murkrow take turns guiding the rat to the honchkrow, which descend from a high tree branch and kill or wound the raticate in a single hit. This “harass and lure” strategy works for most species that are small enough to be killed in one strike.

Honchkrow have long been revered as psychopomps. In Alolan mythology, murkrow guide the dead to the base of Mt. Lanakila where ninetales take over and bring the souls up to the gods for judgment. Honchkrow are often seen as psychopomps wherever they live, largely because they are ominous and intelligent scavengers that flock to dead carcasses. The birds also tend to share territory with ghosts out of coincidence: honchkrow and ghosts prefer abandoned human settlements and dry forests. Part of the species’ reputation of bringing souls to the afterlife is more literal. Murkrow have a habit of playing pranks on humans, including chasing or leading them off the trail and away from other group members in the middle of spirit-infested woods.

In terms of more benign pranks, murkrow are prone to stealing anything that interests them and can be carried away in their talons. The latter is not strictly a requirement as one murkrow was observed trying to drag away a small television set several times larger than herself. A honchkrow eventually appeared and dragged it off into the forest. Shiny objects in particular are not safe. One of honchkrow’s main activities in the wild is guarding and tinkering with the murder’s stash of objects. This stash is usually kept in plain view to attract meowth and persian, which are promptly killed by either murkrow or one of the honchkrow.

A typical resting site is a very large tree with many branches, at least one of which needs to be thick enough to support two honchkrow. Ideally there will be few branches near the base of the tree so that other predators have a hard time sneaking up on the birds as they rest at night. Honchkrow periodically change nests. This involves every murkrow in the murder flying in several loops about one thousand feet above the nest. Then the honchkrow take flight and all of the murkrow swoop down to join them in one large group. When the new nest is reached, the honchkrow rest as the murkrow again fly up and circle the nest. It is not known why they move nests or why the murkrow need to circle.

Husbandry

Murkrow are not an easy bird to raise. The only Alolan bird that might be smarter is xatu. And while xatu are mostly dull and benevolent, murkrow are neither. Murkrow are prone to pushing boundaries and playing pranks on their trainer. Breaking them in takes time and emotional energy that most trainers are simply unwilling to give.

Fortunately, murkrow are hierarchal. Unfortunately, murkrow only take orders from their parents. Unless a murkrow imprinted on their trainer at birth (see Breeding), they will not initially respect a human. Gaining their respect requires acting like a honchkrow. Many trainers assume that this just means bullying their pokémon. While setting expectations and boundaries and doling out social punishments is important, it is only half of the required behavior. Trainers must also subdue powerful enemies and routinely provide food. The latter is easy, but to build a connection murkrow must either only be fed when the trainer wins a battle or be allowed to eat multiple animals or pokémon the bird saw their trainer kill. Some level of physical affection is required, even when the murkrow is still prone to biting the trainer’s ear whenever it gets a chance.

Honchkrow are prone to treating trainers like their children. This is true even if the honchkrow imprinted on their trainer at birth. Wild honchkrow are not particularly kind to their children. After losses in battle, they will harass their trainer just as much as a newly caught murkrow does. However, honchkrow are willing to share any kills they make and will occasionally cuddle with their trainer at night.

Both stages are very intelligent and easily bored. They will devote most of their creative talents to provoking their trainer and teammates if not given anything else to do. Sometimes training can be turned into a game of sorts, especially if puzzles are created that require a particular use of a move or combination of moves to solve. These are not easy to dream up, but there are several example training exercises online that work well. Alternatively, small puzzles that work well for humans tend to work well for corvids. Some puzzles are more entertaining to tear apart than to solve. These still provide enrichment, but only for a moment.

Honchkrow cannot be housebroken. They are certainly smart enough to understand the concept of it, especially when raised with other birds. The species just refuses to only defecate in one area. Murkrow waste is rather solid, but still has enough liquid to make it difficult to clean up. On the trail this isn’t a problem, but it does become an issue when staying in a city or building for more than a few minutes.

The best diet for honchkrow is raw meat, bones and all. The birds will not eat the bones, but it will force them to solve a small puzzle while they eat. They even get new toys when they are done. If raw meat is not feasible, dried meat or primate biscuits can work for short periods. Honchkrow do not need to drink water outside of particularly hot and dry days.

Honchkrow will usually pick up a handful of human words. They are even capable of understanding the meaning of words and phrases. No fully fluent honchkrow has been observed but they can generally make their intent clear. Alola has several far nicer pokémon capable of communication and lifelong friendship, but some trainers adore their talking honchkrow companions.

Illness

Vaccination for avian cholera and the West Nile Virus is required within thirty days of capture.

The most common problems that captive honchkrow face are avian pox and parasites. Avian pox initially appears as wart-like growths on the beak or legs. If left untreated, the growths might turn into open, festering lesions that can cripple the bird. There is no cure, but if treated by a professional veterinarian or birdkeeper recovery with only minimal scarring is likely.

Parasites include ticks and fleas. These are generally uncomfortable and can carry illnesses. If they latch on near the eyes they can cause permanent blindness. Grooming other pokémon and removing their parasites in front of a honchkrow will teach it that their trainer can remove the insects that they cannot. The pokémon will ordinarily groom itself, but will approach their trainer and make a show of grooming themselves when they need help.

Unlike most birds, honchkrow bones are not hollow and are in fact very sturdy. If a bone does break it is unlikely to ever heal. Trainers should exercise caution in battle and immediately withdraw their pokémon and take it to a veterinarian if a bone does break. Murkrow bones are far less durable and far more likely to break, but they can recover when very young.

Evolution

Murkrow begin to evolve at around three years of age in the wild. The process takes another year. In captivity, especially when exposed to concentrated dark-type energy from a dusk stone, they can mature far faster. Evolution is marked by a period of rapid weight gain and bulking up. This is when wild new honchkrow leaves the nest. They do not immediately form their own murder, instead grouping into murders of sub-adults that roam between territories, scaring off other scavengers when possible and doing their own hunting when necessary. These sub-adult murders do have strict hierarchies with males at the top and females at the bottom. Every male and female knows their relation to every other member of their sex. While facially deferential to dominant honchkrow, the inferior bird will often do everything in their power to undermine their superior without getting caught.

Battle

Honchkrow in the wild finish their prey in one strike. They are not particularly adept fliers due to the weight of their bones and general bulk. The adults function mostly as a deterrent for mid-sized predators and a means of finishing off prey that murkrow cannot handle.

Unfortunately for honchkrow, there are several heavier birds that also rely on powerful impacts. Braviary and staraptor are two of their main competitors, although rarer choices such as haastile and harpyre are even stronger. The tricks that honchkrow can learn are not enough to compensate. Murkrow, while fast enough to effectively use disrupting moves, are too frail and weak to be considered a viable option.

On the island challenge things are quite different. Honchkrow do compete with braviary, but the latter is difficult to train as an adult and have a long maturation period. A single full body tackle from honchkrow plus a follow-up attack or two is strong enough to seriously hurt or knock out most opponents. The final few trials may be difficult, but honchkrow can still put a dent in almost anything. Brave bird or sky attack are ideal moves with sucker punch or dark pulse serving as a compliment. Heat wave, steel wing, or superpower provides useful coverage. Roost can keep honchkrow in a fight that cannot be won in a single hit.

Murkrow are fast tricksters. Even early on they are not very useful offensively, but their speed and intelligence let them fly circles around most opponents. Roost, a good offensive move or two, and a supporting disruptive move such as taunt, torment, or featherdance is all a murkrow really needs to annoy their foe and ultimately outlast their opponent. They work well on quickstall teams.

Acquisition

Murkrow can be captured, purchased, or adopted with a Class III license. Honchkrow cannot be legally captured, but can be adopted or purchased with a Class IV license.

Honchkrow live on every island in Alola, usually in dry forests. They are most common on the lower portion of Route 2 and the Hau’oli suburbs on Melemele, Route 4 on Akala, Route 10 on Ula’Ula, and the upper levels of Vast Poni Canyon on Poni Island. It is best to capture a murkrow while it is scouting for food in the early morning. Approaching the main nest for a capture is a bad idea because the honchkrow are likely to get involved. While they are ordinarily reluctant to approach humans, much less attack them, honchkrow will kill trainers that stir up trouble near their nest.

Breeding

Honchkrow courtship occurs inside of sub-adult murders. A male will approach a female and display for her. If she shows interest, she will follow the male as he goes out to hunt. They will share the carcass and then go off to form their own nest. The female takes the lead on building the first nest while the male gathers sticks and other materials for it. Subsequent nests have their materials gathered by the older murkrow and assembled by the female honchkrow, who also mentors the female murkrow on the art of nest building. The male takes a more active role in hunting during these times to compensate for several murkrow being occupied with constructing the nest.

Honchkrow lay three to six eggs with an incubation period of about one month. The male and female take turns guarding the eggs, which are durable enough for two fully grown honchkrow to sit on. Newly hatched murkrow are entirely dependent upon their mothers for regurgitated food. Murkrow that beg loudest tend to get fed more, regardless of whether they need the food as much as their quieter siblings. After leaving the nest murkrow are insatiably curious and investigate everything they see. They are escorted by a honchkrow everywhere they go outside the nest for the first three months. Older murkrow take over for another three before the young birds are accepted as full-fledged members of the murder with the same duties and supervision as their older siblings.

The species is difficult to breed in captivity largely because of the difficulty in finding a suitable partner. Female honchkrow typically accept less than 10% of their suitors. Surprisingly given their selectivity, females and males are willing to mate with other birds such as corviknight, toucannon, and mandibuzz. They can even have fertile offspring with the former. Honchkrow will also build a nest and insist on staying in one place. In captivity they are prone to stealing pillows, blankets, clothes, and other soft objects to line the nest with. Between egg laying and the chicks leaving the nest, honchkrow are prone to dive bomb anything that gets too close, including their trainer. Lethal injuries are rare. Broken bones are common. This is made worse because honchkrow usually nest near their trainer’s residence, making it dangerous to walk outside.

Relatives

Honchkrow range across Europe, Northern Africa, Australia, Oceania, and Asia. There are more than two dozen documented species and subspecies. The smallest are typically found on the Pacific Islands, although honchkrow in Alola are rather large due to competition from mandibuzz. Perhaps the most famous subspecies is the Siberian honchkrow, M. crintus, due to their very fluffy appearance and tendency to puff themselves up around humans, forming a black ball of feathers.

The largest subspecies is the near-flightless Indian honchkrow, M. gigas, that live in the foothills of the Himalayas. Male Indian honchkrow can reach six feet in length and are fearsome predators in their own right. They use their intelligence and keen hearing to track down nocturnal mammals while they sleep during the day. Indian honchkrow are large and powerful enough to batter their way into tree cavity nests and tear into burrows. Insects and other pokémon hiding higher up on trees are harassed by the murkrow until they fall down to the waiting honchkrow. Unfortunately, a medication used in miltank farming proved lethal to honchkrow in even very small doses. Dead miltank were often left out in the fields as they were not used for meat. While the cause of the “honchkrow plague” was eventually discovered and the medicine is banned, the damage was done and the Indian honchkrow is now critically endangered.

Unlike most other species, honchkrow also vary substantially in behaviors across space and time. Murkrow seem to inherit very few instinctual responses and pick up most of their behaviors through teaching and experimentation. Hunting, housing, bonding, and childrearing behaviors can be quite different between even closely related populations.

 

[Persephone]

This week’s entry of The Alola Pokedex was commissioned by @windskull

Downloading from The Alola Pokédex Online Appendix . . .​

Bidoof (Bibarel)

Overview

Gumshoos and raticate pose an obvious danger to their ecosystems by directly eating small animals and pokemon. Much of the DNR’s budget goes to controlling their populations. Bidoof have long been viewed as a lesser problem both in terms of raw numbers and environmental damage.

In order to facilitate a trade in bibarel pelts, testicles, castor sacs, and other body parts, a rancher introduced twelve bidoof to his property in 1981. Once the venture proved unprofitable he let the pokemon go. Those few founders have managed to establish a population of thousands on all islands. Unlike raticate and gumshoos, bibarel actively change the physical environment around them. They are prone to eating through entire forests and building relatively calm ponds in their place. In turn these ponds became excellent breeding grounds for magikarp and feebas. As such gyarados and milotic have hampered efforts to remove the rodents.

Following a diplomatic summit with the milotic of Brooklet Hill the DNR obtained permission to let citizens capture bidoof and bibarel in exchange for the protection of existing dams and an end to formal government removal programs. Trainers may now capture these cute, fearless normal-types for their own use.

Physiology

Bidoof are classified as pure normal-types. Bibarel are listed as dual normal- and water-types due to their much more aquatic lifestyle, adaptations, and elemental affinities.

Bidoof are small quadrupeds that typically stand low off the ground. Their fur is short but incredibly thick. The thickness combines with oils in the fur to make it nearly waterproof. Large incisors that continuously grow are the most notable feature on their faces. Unlike bibarel, bidoof do not have prominent tails and must swim primarily with their short, stubby limbs. As such they seldom swim at all unless a bibarel is guiding them along.

The main difference between bibarel and their pre-evolution is the latter’s broad, flat tails that propel them through the water at surprisingly high speeds. Bibarel have been recorded swimming underwater for over twenty minutes at a time and for distances of over two kilometers. Bibarel still have generally short fur but gain several prominent brown and cream colored tufts of fur on their head to make them look bigger than they are.

Both bidoof and bibarel have fairly unique microfloral ecosystems in their guts to help digest their extremely high-fiber diet of wood, leaves, and roots.

Bidoof have long been hunted both for their pelts and their testicles and castoreum, the latter found in both males and females. Castoreum has been used as medicine by several cultures in the northern hemisphere. Recently it has gained some popularity as a natural flavoring and as a component in some perfumes. Bidoof were once hunted to the brink of extinction for these products, with surviving populations in Sinnoh and Florida subsequently revitalizing global numbers and even establishing invasive populations in Alola and the Falkland Islands.

As descendants of Floridian bidoof, the bibarel in Alola seldom hibernate and keep smaller fat reserves than their substantially chubbier Sinnohan counterparts.

Bibarel can reach lengths of 1.7 meters (tail included) and weigh up to twenty kilograms. In the wild they can live up to eight years. Captive lifespans vary considerably.

Behavior

Bibarel famously engineer the landscape around them. They use their teeth to bite through trees or long grasses and then their mouth or hands to move the material into the water. Under the surface several large and straight logs are placed in the riverbed. From there more logs are added in and attached to the main posts with mud as needed. Other plant material can also be used to block up flow. Once the dam is formed, bibarel set about making a lodge. For the most part these consist of a central pile of layered logs and mud with leaves and other soft materials placed on top above the water’s surface. Then an outer shell of logs is assembled around it. Once the mud hardens on the shell (and freezes in cooler environments) the dam is practically impenetrable and can only be accessed from underwater entrances. The dam itself is split into one chamber for drying off after exiting the water and another for other activities.

Bidoof and bibarel are famously near-fearless despite being somewhat small to mid-size herbivores. This stems in part from their teeth which can severely injure all but the most durable of opponents. It also stems from the informal protection bidoof and bibarel receive from both pond-dwelling water-types and grazers who appreciate having forests cleared. Biboof’s diet also makes them mildly toxic to many carnivores and low in nutritional value. As such they have little to fear and are well aware of this. In practice only pack-hunting carnivores with a type advantage (manectric), very large birds (braviary), and young or starving dragons prey on the rodents.

Adolescents in both Alola and the Falklands have been documented swimming between islands several kilometers apart in search of new rivers to claim.

Bibarel live in colonies of two mated adults and roughly two litters of children. Older bidoof assist in maintenance and food collection duties as well as in the rearing of the younger litter. Around their second birthday bidoof leave their dams to find mates and either occupy an unused dam or build one of their own. In the event that both parents die the oldest siblings will stay with the youngest until all are two years of age. One of the older bidoof will stay in the dam and attempt to attract a mate while the rest scatter to build more ponds.

Husbandry

Bidoof initially seem reasonably easy to care for. Their diet in captivity consists mostly of root vegetables with fruit or other vegetation comprising another 20-35%. While they need something to gnaw on, this is not an uncommon need. Furthermore bidoof are very easily housebroken as their own homes have segments for different tasks and it would be considered rude to defecate or urinate inside of the lodge. Occasional play, grooming, and cuddle sessions satisfy their social needs and are usually enjoyable for the trainer as well.

What makes bidoof and bibarel difficult to care for is their compulsive drive to chew on everything. Fences and furniture will almost certainly wind up with bite marks. Even metal and plastic objects aren’t necessarily safe. Bidoof also don’t take reprimands well and are prone to either keep doing the same thing at the same rate or increasing either the frequency or severity of unwanted gnawing out of spite. Bibarel that learn how to operate faucets often flood their homes on purpose. Stationary bibarel trainers tend to keep their pets outside with a pool or pond, enough material to make a lodge, and an electrified metal fence surrounding the property. Traveling trainers should consult guidebooks to learn which tree species are endangered. Generally speaking there are no fines for the destruction of invasive species such as bamboo.

While bidoof have some tolerance for pokeballs they prefer to be outside for at least eight hours a day.

In Sinnoh bibarel are well known work pokemon capable of leveling trees and moving logs, ferrying people, and generally performing low dexterity manual labor. If bibarel’s building instincts can be properly channeled they will be quite willing to assist their trainer.

Illness

Bidoof were once thought to be the main source of giardias, a disease that causes diarrhea and lactose intolerance in humans. It is now understood that bidoof are uncommon carriers and pose little health risk to humans. The misconception still makes several regions reluctant to participate in bidoof reintroduction programs.

Evolution

Shortly after leaving home around their second birthday bidoof begin to evolve. The process is gradual and takes place over the course of several weeks, during which time bidoof begin to eat far more food than normal and do little else. Once the growth process is complete the new bibarel will swim away to find a mate.

Captivity replicates the experience of leaving family behind and can sometimes automatically trigger evolution. Evolving bidoof should be battled with sparingly and provided plenty of nutritious food.

Battle

Bibarel are not common on competitive battling circuits. They are relatively slow and neither powerful nor bulky enough to make them a viable choice over normal-types such as tauros and snorlax or water-types such as crawdaunt or swampert.

Still, on the island challenge bibarel can be fairly good in the early trials and remain viable through most of the islands. Bibarel are unusually good at stat boosting. The best way to use them is to set up with curse and use Rest and Sleep Talk as needed while firing off occasional offensive attacks. Unfortunately, curse bibarel is extremely slow and can struggle to land hits. If possible it should try to set up against a very bulky pokemon that can be outpaced even after boosting. Biting attacks are bibarel’s strongest and take advantage of their tree-cutting teeth.

Bidoof play very similarly to rattata. Bite attacks are favored and taking hits is strongly not recommended. While bidoof are a tad bulkier than rattata they are also notably slower. As with bibarel they function best as a stall-breaker. Don’t bother setting up; bidoof don’t have the bulk to pull off a slow sweep. Anything that needs a swords dance to bring down is too powerful to fight with a bidoof.

Acquisition

Bidoof can be found in many watersheds in Alola. Route 4 and the Brooklet Hill area in particular have an abundance of bidoof. The interior of Melemele and the northern portions of Ula’Ula also have several. Bidoof are best ambushed while they gather wood in the early morning. Set up camp around a bibarel pond and wait, ideally in a tree stand, for one to pass by. Then engage in a quick proving battle and capture.

Bonding with a bidoof is much, much easier if it is allowed to say goodbye to its family before heading off. Most will return to their trainer and depart after an hour or so. Some will not. If the bidoof does not return by the end of the day or a bibarel comes out to attack assume that the pokemon does not wish to follow. While it is not illegal to withdraw it anyway and complete the capture it will be difficult to secure the pokemon’s cooperation.

Bidoof can be obtained with a Class I license. Bibarel can be purchased or adopted with a Class II. Capture of wild bibarel is prohibited per the Brooklet Hill Interspecies Compact of 2019.

Breeding

Bibarel are generally monogamous. While cheating has been observed, most will mate with their partner exclusively. Widowed and widower bibarel have a brief mourning period and then seek out a new mate.

In the wild bibarel that wish to mate will follow each other around for a few weeks or months before agreeing to build a dam and lodge together. Until mating occurs either party can still leave if they wish. Afterwards abandonment is exceedingly rare.

Bibarel mate in late winter have a seven week pregnancy. Females give birth to two to three kits. Both parents and any older siblings still living in the lodge assist in raising the babies. Kits do not leave the lodge at all until they are about three months old. They do not leave the lodge unsupervised until the eight to nine month mark.

In captivity bibarel mating is complicated by the difficulty of determining an individual’s sex. Doing so requires x-rays or surgery as all gonads are on the inside of the body.

If a male and female bibarel are introduced and accept each other they may become physically affectionate and start building or expanding their lodge. Mated pairs tend to spend relatively little time with their trainer during pregnancy and the first few months of childrearing. In general mated bibarel pull back from their trainer, even if they were very affectionate in the past. So long as they live with other social pokemon and a caring trainer mating is not necessary for a bibarel’s mental stability. Trainers who wish to keep their cuddly companion’s current personality should refrain from breeding it.

In general unrelated bibarel that are not mates will act aggressively towards one another. Training unrelated bibarel is not recommended without large plots of land.

Subspecies

There are two proper subspecies of bidoof. The Eurasian bidoof used to inhabit a range stretching east to west from Iberia to Japan and north to south from Scandanavia to Mesopotamia. Overhunting and annoyance from farmers and city planners led to the Eurasian bidoof’s elimination from everywhere but Sinnoh, where they were long revered as helpful semidomesticated pokemon. In recent decades there have been movements to reintroduce the Eurasian bidoof to its old habitats due to their role as a keystone species.

Similar overhunting occurred in North America after the start of full-fledged European conquest. In the end bibarel were limited to Florida, then viewed as uninhabitable swampland. Being native to a warm penninsula, the Floridian bidoof has been slow to adapt to cold climates. The southern and southeastern United States now sport large populations that are slowly creeping north.

There are rumors of a Soviet breeding program to create stronger versions of easily bred pokemon. Some reports of dubious credibility suggest that a golden “perfect” bidoof may have been created with strength to rival legendaries and a disposition best described as omnicidal. While there is no hard proof of the subspecies’ existence, several abandoned laboratories have been discovered with large bidoof-like teeth marks on the walls.

 

[Persephone]

Crobat (Zubat, Golbat)
Dracul talamaur

Overview

Zubat have a reputation of being more of an annoyance than a potential boon to a traveling trainer. This is unfortunate as crobat are reasonably intelligent and affectionate companions that, unique diet aside, are rather low maintenance. Trainer who are squeamish around blood are generally advised to opt against training the species, as are trainers with several furry or carnivorous mammals as companions. Crobat are a natural fit on poison-type and flying-type specialist teams and do reasonably well in battle as a disruptor.

Physiology

All three stages are classified as dual poison- and flying-types.

Zubat are bats with dark-blue bodies and long, then lings. Instead of arms they have wings with a purple membrane. Zubat have small and rather weak eyes but are not entirely blind as many people believe. Their large fangs and ears balance this out.

Golbat are proportionally longer. While many people believe that their mouth makes up nearly 90% of their body, this is not the case. Golbat have a large black patch of fur on their chest with small bone growths resembling teeth growing out of their torso to scare prey and predators alike. Their actual mouth is relatively small and contains their real fangs. Golbat have much larger wings and much smaller outer ears than zubat.

Crobat look far more like zubat than golbat. The body is covered in a very thin layer of purple fur. They possess four wings, each with a unique muscular system that lets them extend or retract the wing membrane, only fully extending it when in flight. The wing structure makes crobat virtually silent fliers. One crobat was observed flying for nine consecutive days without rest by switching between the front and back set of wings. They have a similar brain adaptation to most marine mammals that allows one hemisphere of the brain to rest while the other ensures they stay aloft. This is necessary for multiday flights. Crobat have no external ears, but they do have internal ears. For reasons unknown, crobat’s mouth is white on the inside.

Outside of zubat, the evolutionary line has more powerful vision than the average human. This is useful for seeing in the dark. They also have an extraordinary sense of hearing. All evolutionary stages use echolocation to scout out the world around them. Similar clicks are used for communication. All three stages have long hooks at the end of their hind-legs; crobat also have claws on their front wings. The Alolan subspecies possess multiple safeguards for their ears that let them hear very faint sounds but also cover their ear canal before very powerful vibrations can damage their hearing. This is an adaptation for routinely sharing caves with noivern.

Crobat are hemophages. They exclusively feed on blood. An all-liquid diet is not good for their digestive track and they must limit their feedings or risk overloading their kidneys. Most zubat are not patient enough to drink too much blood and crobat know their limits; golbat often have problems with overfeeding in the wild. Additionally, the liquid diet means that crobat must eat at least once every two days. Bats that do not get enough to eat will receive regurgitated meals from other members of the colony.

This unique-among-mammals diet is facilitated by the bat’s specialized fangs. These are very thin and hollow on the inside. Unlike most fangs, these are used for both suction and injection. Crobat venom is an anticoagulant that makes blood flow more freely and prevents wounds from healing. Due to their frailty, their fangs often break. Crobat do not regrow fangs; upon injury, they must rely for the rest of their life on the generosity of other colony members. Defanged bats focus on protecting the colony’s roosting grounds and providing assistance with childrearing.

Crobat can live up to nine years in the wild or fourteen in captivity. They can reach wingspans of five feet and can weigh as much as ten pounds when hungry or sixteen pounds when very full.

Behavior

Zubat and golbat live in large colonies deep inside of caves. Any type of cave will do; in Alola colonies live in the dry caves of the Vast Poni Canyon system, along the banks of underground rivers in Seaward and Sandy Caves, in the frozen caverns of Mt. Lanakila, and in scalding hot tunnels beneath Akala Volcanoes National Park. Even large abandoned buildings will do. The largest colonies can contain upwards of 800 zubat and golbat at a time. The pokémon spend the day inside resting and engaging in social behaviors such as grooming. At night all but the youngest of zubat and one of the clutch’s parents will fly out to hunt.

Zubat and golbat prefer to feed off of large diurnal pokémon. The bats are quiet and gentle enough, and their fangs sharp enough, that most prey do not even wake up. Smaller creatures, like humans, do occasionally fall prey to zubat in other parts of the world. However, in Alola food is almost always abundant. Attack is only likely if a trainer enters into the colony itself and either stirs up trouble or gets too close to baby zubat. Golbat will occasionally attack and kill rattata in a single impact or wing attack. They will then bring the rattata back to the colony or drain it on the spot. Tauros, miltank, ampharos, and mudsdale are some of the most common targets of zubat and golbat. Other observed prey species include kangaskhan, gumshoos, braviary, drampa, stoutland, snorlax, blissey, wigglytuff, magmortar, bewear, lickilicky, and hariyama.

Crobat tend to live in bonded pairs usually, but not always, consisting of a male and female. They either sleep or relocate during the day and then go on to hunt at night. Abandoned toucannon nests are some of crobat’s favorite places to roost as they are large enough to fit two bats and still relatively difficult to access. Crobat will sometimes actively kill small pokémon to drain even in times of abundance.

Due to the many bloodborne illnesses crobat are carriers for they have virtually no natural predators. The only exception are metagross, vanilluxe, and ninetales. There are few, if any, wild metagross in Alola and vanilluxe are restricted to Mauna Lanakila and the area around its base. Camera traps have observed ninetales have been observed hunting zubat. Ninetales have superb immune systems and rarely get sick in captivity. This may be what allows them to safely eat zubat. Research on the species in the field is borderline impossible and captive specimens tend not to consent to laboratory experiments. For now this particular predator-prey relationship and the adaptations that support it remain underexplored.

The zubat line’s mortality rate is still rather high given the risk that feeding on much larger creatures carries.

Husbandry

The main problem with caring for captive crobat is their diet and its health consequences. Crobat and golbat must be provided with a dish full of blood. Perforable membranes are recommended so that the pokémon will exercise natural feeding behaviors. The bat will fly over, land, and drink through the membrane. Zubat can be fed from ice cube containers filled with blood. Specimens without fangs will need to be fed from dishes without a membrane. All stages can lap up blood with their tongue, although they prefer to use their fangs for psychological reasons. Tauros blood is rather easily obtained from butcher shops. A mix of blood and an anticoagulant (12 grams dextrose, 4 grams citric acid, 11 grams sodium citrate per gallon) should be used rather than raw blood. Crobat naturally apply an anticoagulant when absorbing blood through their fangs, but blood they drink can clot and cause health problems. The coagulant mixture can be homemade or purchased from some specialty pokémon stores. Some specialists recommend a mix of different bloods. Other experts recommend putting multivitamins into the mix. The benefits of either dietary option have never been empirically proven and both can be rather expensive.

Crobat must be fed once every two days, although daily feedings are recommended. Recommended feedings are five to six milliliters a day for a zubat, ten to twelve for a golbat, and fifteen to twenty for a crobat. Any more and there is a risk of overwhelming the kidneys. Lower end feedings should be applied to relatively sedentary pokémon and higher end portions should be used for frequent battlers or delivery pokémon. Water is not needed on days where blood is provided. It must be provided on days where blood is not given as crobat dehydrate very quickly.

Golbat and crobat are intelligent enough to be housebroken or learn to urinate outside. Zubat can be “trained” by putting a litter mat underneath their preferred roost. This will solve most problems. Zubat and golbat need roosts when out of their pokéball. While they can be kept in pokéballs for a few hours a day (or in dusk balls for two six-hour shifts in a twenty-four-hour period), all stages want to spend a lot of time out of their pokéball. They are social creatures and want to play, explore, or interact with their trainer or other pokémon. While technically nocturnal, crobat only sleep about five hours a day split into many short naps. If no roost is available they can sleep with one hemisphere at a time, although they prefer to have chances to fully sleep. Ideal crobat roosts provide a relatively sheltered area and a place to hang from. Shower rods work well enough, and small zubat can use coat hangers. Crobat are perfectly capable of staying in near-perpetual flight, but they also appreciate a place to roost from time to time.

Crobat rely on other bats to groom them in the wild so their trainer will need to take over this role. This is a good way to earn the pokémon’s trust. Music and other strange vibration patterns can serve as toys or bonding experiences.

Some trainers let themselves be food for their crobat. While this is a cheap way of obtaining blood, it messes with the bat’s bonding instincts. Furthermore, crobat are known to carry many bloodborne illnesses, including HIV, malaria, West Nile virus, and rabies. The risk of contagion and their innate hunting instincts make training a crobat on a team full of diurnal mammals somewhat inadvisable, although it can be done with firm boundaries and frequent blood tests on the crobat.

Illness

Crobat are immune to almost all bloodborne illnesses. They are one of the only mammals that are extremely resistant to rabies. The species’ unique immune system makes most vaccines ineffective on them. Battling trainers will need to give their pokémon periodic physicals to make sure they are not carriers of rabies or one of the other pathogens that make them unable to participate in League sanctioned battles.

The species suffers from one big drawback in the wild: they aren’t built to last. Zubat and golbat rarely recover from serious wing or fang damage, and both areas are very fragile. In the wild this is counterbalanced by the many, many able-bodied members of the colony stepping up to provide for the disabled. In captivity a broken wing isn’t a death sentence and can even be healed with time and prompt medical care. Crobat’s bones are also more durable than those of golbat or zubat and they are better adapted for killing small prey with powerful wing strikes. Broken fangs do not regrow but are not a serious health problem unless the site becomes infected. Defanging is even a standard operation for families who just want a zubat as a pet rather than a battling companion, although there may be psychological consequences.

The vast majority of crobat health problems either are a result or cause of dehydration or overhydration. Mid-range portions should be given every day until a veterinarian can be consulted.

Evolution

Zubat usually evolve into golbat around sixteen months of age. The process is one of gradual growth, with the formal demarcation line marked by all four faux-fangs breaking the skin. Golbat flash evolve into crobat. Severe injury appears to prevent evolution but minor wounds are instantly healed in the process. Only the best of hunters evolve. Fewer than one in fifteen wild golbat evolve, but nearly one-third of captive golbat do. The leading theory is that consistent feedings and occasional combat fool the body into thinking that the bat is a very successful hunter. Crobat evolution can take place anywhere between the golbat’s third and seventh birthday.

Battle

Crobat are too fragile and not powerful enough to have had much impact on the competitive battling scene. Even trainers who want to use a bat have the stronger kelawapi, swoobat, and noivern to pick from. In the very limited use they have seen, they served as fast disruptors firing off taunts, toxics, hypnoses, defogs, tailwinds, and supersonics before the opponent can react. Their frailty makes them an awkward fit on quickstall, though.

On the island challenge crobat can be rather effective due to the sheer difficulty of hitting it. Crobat can fly up to 130 miles per hour in shorts burst and they average about 80. Their moderately powerful aerokinesis can be used to slowly whittle away at an opponent’s health. Trainers willing to shell out money on special TMs and tutoring can teach coverage moves such as heat wave and dark pulse. Nasty plot can be used for boosting, but requires a crobat to stand still for longer than is advisable.

Draining moves can be used but put crobat’s delicate fangs at risk. They should only be used to finish off sleeping opponents with a powerful bug bite or giga drain. The same goes for contact moves for zubat and golbat. Crobat can handle these impacts against soft targets: their preevolutions cannot.

Zubat and golbat are also frailer than crobat and more suited for ambush attacks on sleeping opponents. They also lack crobat’s blistering speed. Golbat are still large and intimidating enough to bully smaller opponents with unrelenting offenses, but zubat must be played very carefully. Both benefit from early opponents often struggling with airborne foes. Anything that can hit them should be considered a major threat.

Acquisition

Zubat and golbat can be found inside of almost every cave in the commonwealth. However, wading into a colony and attempting to stir up trouble will lead to a fight. Golbat are not polite enough to charge their opponents one at a time, which makes fighting difficult and potentially dangerous. The best way to catch a zubat or golbat is to wait outside of a cave entrance at dusk. When the bats come out, try and isolate one and start a battle. As soon as they’ve exited the cave, only crobat looking after their children will bother to stay back and defend fellow colony members. Zubat can be purchased, captured, or adopted with a Class III license; golbat and crobat require a Class IV to purchase, capture, or adopt.

Crobat are far more difficult to find than their preevolutions. The best way to bait them is to leave a large mammal asleep in a clearing at night and wait to see if anything shows up. Alternatively, looking around forests with very large trees in hopes of finding a toucannon nest can work. Sometimes there will be something more aggressive than a crobat inside of these nests, though, and partners will back each other up in combat. All things considered, it is recommended that trainers look for a zubat or golbat instead.

Breeding

In the wild, a mated crobat pair return to the male’s colony once a year to mate. Pregnancy lasts for six weeks. The female will then give birth to a clutch of eight to twelve zubat. Both parents, along with other colony members, assist in raising the children. Only one crobat will leave the cave each night, the other staying back to defend the children. As mammals, crobat nurse their young. Babies don’t begin to get some regurgitated blood until they are four weeks old. They still nurse until their parents leave the colony four months after birth.

Captive breeding and even hand-raising zubat is possible. Newborn zubat require a cramped, dark place with adequate roosting space and a place to put food. For the first three weeks, hand-raised zubat will need to be fed with a syringe filled with milk. The bats will lap milk off the end of the syringe rather than suck on it. They instinctively understand to do this. After this bowls and ice cube containers can be used to facilitate the gradual introduction of blood. If a female crobat is watching after the babies, she can be trusted to nurse and regurgitate enough blood to allow for proper development. Otherwise, a mixture of blood and milk should be used until the babies are four months old, at which point they can be fed blood alone. A good list of appropriate blood-milk ratios at varying ages can be found online on the European Association of Poison-Type Trainers’ (EAPPT’s) website.

Relatives

Crobat occupy a wide geographic range because of their long-ranged flight. Their ability to traverse large distances has also minimized genetic drift, leading to relatively few species covering most of the globe.

The Pacific crobat found in Alola are by far the best fliers of the species. They are also versatile and capable of surviving in almost any environment they come across, from deserts to frozen mountains. They are most abundant in Alola and New Zealand, although they can be found on any Pacific Island with large mammals to feed upon.

The Asian crobat (D. mandurugo), also known as the iridescent crobat, have smaller bodies and wings than the Pacific crobat due to the shorter distances they must travel. Iridescent crobat are not, in fact, iridescent. They simply have developed an enhanced telepathic ability to disorient nearby foes, leading to distorted vision and feelings of awe. This creates an opening for the crobat to drink blood from even a waking foe. Golbat and crobat tend to return to the same victim night after night with their telepathic assault growing more and more potent every time. Some iridescent crobat will form deep bonds with their trainer and never feed off of them. Others will just see their trainer as the closest available target.

The red-footed crobat, (D. lilitu) is native to Central and Southwest Asia and most of the Sahara. The relative lack of large mammals in these areas led to the species developing more teeth and much larger claws on their feet than other species. They hunt more like owls than crobat, using their silent flight to pick up small mammals, lift them into the air, and drop them to their death before lapping up the blood and eating some of the flesh. Human infants are the right size for a red-footed crobat to prey upon. This has brough them into conflict with humans for millennia. At present they have been exterminated in Asia and persist only in small pockets of North Africa. Crobat tend to live in the desert, never landing except to eat due to the lack of roots. In traditional folklore it was often believed that the local god had exiled them from the earth for their sins. Zubat and golbat are more traditional hunters and prefer to live in forests and caves, feeding on the large mammals of the area. Historically zubat were born and grew up in Mesopotamia or Persia before spending their adulthood in the Araiabian peninsula or the Saharan desert. Their extirpation from the species’ traditional breeding grounds has placed them at risk of extinction, even if all of their current habitat were to be permanently protected.

European crobat (D. stokeri) are also known as mountain crobat. They are rarely seen at low elevations outside of Scandanavia, Russia, and the Crown Tundra. In the summer the species acts like most crobat do, draining large mammals for their blood while resting in caves and trees during the day. In the winter even the crobat move in to caves and almost never leave them. They feed on other hibernators who have gone in to the caves with them. Snorlax are their favorite prey.

Irongfang crobat (D. asanbosam) are native to the Sahel and Congo regions of Africa. These crobat are steel-types with metallic fangs and higher levels of iron than is usual in their bones, including metal-coated nails. These crobat are also frequent carriers of a disease similar to tetanus and can inflict it with a bite or scratch. These are the most durable of crobat, but also the weakest fliers. The crobat kill their prey by striking them at top speed with their full body weight before drinking the blood. Golbat and zubat prefer to infect their prey by swarming them and getting in as many scratches and bites as possible before returning to drink the prey’s blood when they finally succumb to the infection. Deforestation and better defense of livestock with pokéballs and imported pokémon has led to a decline in the species.

Brisson’s crobat (D. izulu) are native to the savannahs of Africa. They are one of the largest species of crobat due to the availability of many large mammal species. The zubat and golbat primarily act as stealth-based hunters that ambush sleeping hoofstock and feed on their blood before flitting away. The crobat, due to their size, are less capable of relying on stealth. Instead, they use electrokinesis to stun prey, drink their blood, and flee. This works much better on solitary species than social ones.

The withering (D. merci) and aloe (D. peuchen) crobat are native to North and South America, respectively. They are the closest relative of the Pacific crobat, but are smaller and have less developed wings. This makes them stealthier at the expense of power and flight range. The withering crobat is currently still recovering from an 18th and 19th Century panic over crobat-induced tuberculosis infections in Unova. There are still health populations in Anahuac and the Navajo lands but they are now rare in most of the United States.