《The Alola Pokedex》 Decidueye Dartrix (Rowlet, Decidueye) Sagittarius bombycilla alola Overview Rowlet is one of the three traditional starters in the Alola region, alongside litten and popplio. Of the three it is the easiest to take care of and the most sociable. They also have the least combat potential without fully evolving, and evolution carries a steeper cost than for torracat and brionne. Rowlet are the best choice for trainers who care more about socialization and exploration than the challenges of the island challenge. If they change their mind and decide to go into a career in battling, decidueye can carry them there. Rowlet¡¯s sociability is in large part due to the coevolution of the species and the Polynesians who scattered them across the Pacific Ocean. While they are not domesticated and wild colonies exist, they are easily adjusted to working with humans. Rowlet born in captivity seem to accept humans as large, featherless decidueye. Physiology Rowlet and dartrix are dual grass- and flying-types. Decidueye are officially grass- and ghost-types, although there is some controversy over whether or not they should retain the flying classification as well. This guidebook will not delve into the controversy over the so-called triple-typings. All stages of dartrix possess excellent hearing and night vision. Rowlet and dartrix can see perfectly well on cloudy nights with a new moon. Captive decidueye have been able to strike targets in perfect darkness in laboratories. Rowlet resemble a small, almost spherical owl with pale brown body feathers, a white ¡°mask¡± and a green crest on their chest. It is widely, and incorrectly, believed that this crest forms two intersecting ovals in the rough shape of deciduous leafs. While some Rowlet do have crests like this, the exact shape and shade is unique to each rowlet. The crests of related rowlets are usually similar, allowing them to serve as an identifier. Rowlet are born pure white and slowly develop their colors as photosynthetic symbiote colonies grow inside of their feathers. Dartrix are slightly wider than rowlet. They gain a green headcrest and the brown feathers on their body darken considerably. Mature dartrix have developed projectile ¡°blade feathers¡± that aren¡¯t actually feathers at all, but rather thin spines coated in alpha keratin. These replace their talons as their main form of defense. Decidueye¡¯s green crests grow to surround their entire head and an orange one forms where their crest originally was as a rowlet. Decidueye wings are dark brown. Their quills are much sharper and harder than those of dartrix, and a trained decidueye is capable of shooting them at speeds of up to one hundred and fifty feet per second at ranges of up to fifteen hundred feet. Adult dartrix in Alola are roughly two feet tall and weigh around five pounds. Dartrix can live up to thirty years in the wild and twenty-five in captivity. Decidueye grow to heights of five feet and weights of fifteen pounds. It is unclear whether or not decidueye ever die of old age in the presence of combat and stress. Behavior Wild rowlet are nocturnal, although captive rowlet can be quickly trained to be corpuscular or diurnal. They perch on top of the highest trees in their area and spread their wings to allow their symbiotic bacteria to photosynthesize. At night, they leave their perches and eat leaves. This is both for nutritional reasons and to clear up more space to roost in direct sunlight during the day. In spite of their representation in folklore as powerful hunters, all stages of the evolutionary line are primarily herbivorous. They prefer to eat berries and other sugar-dense plants. On occasion they will hunt insects or small mammals. Their reputation as warriors comes from the hunts of decidueye. When dartrix colonies face predators, the decidueye in the flock are known to set out at night and assassinate all members of the predator species within a radius of several miles. Some subspecies have also been documented killing predators who did not hunt dartrix so, in the future, those species will aggressively cull those that do prey on them. Captive rowlet are intensely social while awake and prefer to rest in direct sunlight or cuddle against warm-blooded animals or other rowlet for warmth. When allowed to do so they will frequently perch on top of their trainers. Dartrix, thankfully, grow out of this practice. They still enjoy engulfing their trainer in their wings. Decidueye¡¯s behavioral differences will be further detailed in the Evolution section. Husbandry It is best to acquire a member of the line while it is still in its first evolutionary stage. Rowlet prefer stasis balls than habitat balls, but do not like either. Rowlet should seldom be placed inside of a pok¨¦ball or separated from its trainer for more than twenty-four hours at a time. Separation for any length of time is stressful for very young rowlet and should be avoided whenever possible. The pok¨¦mon should be exposed to direct sunlight for at least six hours a day, five days a week. Most Pok¨¦mon Centers in Alola have rooms which can simulate natural sunlight. These rooms in the busiest Centers are typically filled with rowlet and dartrix, allowing for socialization and an exercise in remembering your rowlet¡¯s crest. During periods of particular stress rowlet prefer to be cradled by humans or dartrix or, at the very least, given a cramped space to hide in. The dartrix line, like most birds, tend to defecate whenever they get ready to fly. Thankfully, rowlet and dartrix much prefer short hops and walking on their talons to flight (see Battling). They are still quite difficult to house train and the only real consolation is that their waste is more solid, and thus easier to clean up, than most birds. There is a five hundred dollar fine for not cleaning up your bird¡¯s waste in a public area. All stages of the dartrix line should be fed a mix of berries. Each individual develops their own preferences. Some very well-trained dartrix can be trusted to point to want they want when taken to an orchard or farmer¡¯s market. Rowlet are more likely to jump in to a pile of fruit, rake their talons over it, and then eventually pick out a piece to eat. Adult dartrix can be held in pokeballs for considerable lengths of time, although most find this irritating. Using their pok¨¦ball frequently will undermine trust in their trainer. Dartrix without a photosynthesis-conducive pok¨¦ball should get thirty hours of direct or simulated sunlight a week. Decidueye need only three hours of sunlight per week, although they will become more active if exposed to more light. Decidueye also tend not to have strong feelings on being held in their pok¨¦balls. Illness The most common illness by far for all stages of the dartrix line is feather bleaching. During a bleaching episode a dartrix loses all color in their feathers and become pure-white across their entire body. Bleaching can be caused by prolonged exposure to cold temperatures, severe injury, inadequate exposure to sunlight, too little humidity, isolation, disease, starvation, overeating, or for no apparent reason at all. They will quickly heal if the stimulus is removed, they are given rest, and the symbiote is introduced via injections or proximity to other dartrix. If your dartrix begins to bleach, immediately consult a veterinarian. It should be noted that molting, the loss of feathers in certain parts of the body and slow regrowth of initially white feathers, is separate from bleaching. Unless feathers don¡¯t gain color for over a month in an adult or three months in a juvenile it is not necessary to consult a veterinarian. Evolution Rowlet naturally evolve into dartrix provided food, sunlight, companionship and time. The formal point where a rowlet becomes a dartrix is the growth of a full headcrest. This typically occurs when a rowlet is nine months old. It takes another five for a dartrix to fully mature and become ready for their next evolution. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. Wild decidueye are exceedingly rare. In times of great external stress such as pandemics, sudden habitat loss, natural disasters, or predation, the eldest dartrix in a colony will begin to rapidly gain size and start to develop projectile quills. This will continue to happen with more dartrix evolving one by one until the crisis is resolved. Decidueye only live for one to three years after the most recent crisis. Projectile quIlls can be surgically removed to render evolution impossible. Otherwise, a dartrix exposed to enough battles over the course of roughly one year (or a handful of particularly dire ones in rapid succession) will begin to evolve on its own. During evolution, dartrix should be offered greatly increased amounts of food and sunlight and given as much as it wants of both. Dartrix evolution is not recommended for all but the most serious of trainers. Decidueye cut off from frequent, high-level battles tend to rapidly decline in health and die within a year. This makes retirement effectively impossible for decidueye trainers. Decidueye also undergo a temperamental change arguably greater than their physical ones. Decidueye sleep less than two hours a day and spend the remainder of their time hyper-vigilant and seeking out battles. If no opponents are presented to them in formal engagement, they will pick their own fights. Decidueye otherwise lose almost all of the cuddly and expressive nature that dartrix are known for. While they will not decline physical affection, they will almost never initiate it. The bird will stand guard for their trainer when outside of their pok¨¦ball and do little else. Because of this many trainers who evolve their dartrix complain about a death of personality in their beloved pet and some will lose interest and abandon their decidueye. The dual shocks of combat withdrawal and losing the ¡°colony¡± they evolved to protect and will usually kill the decidueye within six months. Decidueye seldom accept new trainers once abandoned. Battle Rowlet and dartrix are relatively durable pok¨¦mon and both are far cleverer than they appear. They have naturally good aim for the handful of projectile attacks they have. Unfortunately, they are not so capable at flying as to be able to dodge projectile attacks. Most dartrix and all rowlet are unable to dodge melee moves from average-size pok¨¦mon. They also tend to loathe battling and must be bribed into each individual fight. As such, they are not the recommended starter for trainers interested in serious battling. Decidueye, as mentioned above, are addicted to combat and violence. They are much more adept fliers than dartrix, have near-silent movement, and can put their natural aim to much better use with their quills. Their only real counters are pok¨¦mon capable of taking a quill to any point of their body and continuing to fight. Projectile moves that manipulate temperatures to either extreme are damaging to their tissue and symbiotes and should be avoided. Very fast attacks from behind can also throw a decidueye into a panic. Decidueye tend not to surrender fights until they are physically incapable of continuing, so a trainer should be mindful of the above weaknesses and withdraw their decidueye if they appear to be visibly hurt. Acquisition Children between the ages of ten and twenty can obtain a rowlet from certified distributors free of charge with a Class I certification. Children who have cleared the grand trial on at least one island and did not receive a rowlet as a starter can purchase or adopt one. Dartrix in licensed shelters can be adopted with a Class II license or higher. Decidueye adoptions are handled on a case-by-case basis. Dartrix colonies are found in Poni National Park, Exeggutor Island, the interior forests of Melemele, and Alolan Rainforests National Preserve. It is illegal to collect any member of the line from the wild without explicit government approval. It is also entirely unnecessary given the strength of captive breeding programs. Breeding Dartrix mate in May. Unlike most owls, dartrix are highly social with conspecifics and are not particularly territorial. They tend to mate with the strongest opposite-sex individual that they know well and will mate with them. Individuals usually mate with the same partner every year. Interpersonal drama or the arrival of a new potential mate can disrupt the status quo. While dartrix can squabble over mates, most of the drama is limited to displays of feathers and hunting prowess. Violence usually only occurs when an existing mating dynamic is broken. An ousted partner may attack their former mate or their replacement. Alternatively, an interloper may attack an individual to prove their dominance and steal their mate. Decidueye do not reproduce. Captive breeding requires a Class IV license with an additional certification in dartrix breeding. The certification course has further information. Relatives As island-dwellers with limited flight, there are nearly two dozen subspecies of the island dartrix. As such, this section will not cover them all in detail. The small islands of the Pacific are littered with different dartrix subspecies. Most of them are quite similar to the Alolan dartrix, but smaller. Almost all are endangered. The Heahea conservatory has an exhibit showcasing several of these subspecies. Indonesian and Filipino dartrix species (Filipino, Sumatran, Javan, Bornean, Guinean) typically have wingspans twice those of their Alolan counterparts at all stages. They are also much more capable fliers, and even some rowlet are capable of sustained, powered flight for a kilometer or more. Most of these subspecies are omnivorous during the wet season. However, their quills are not nearly as developed as the other subspecies and they hunt primarily through a combination of their talons and their silent flight. The Queensland dartrix (S. b. meridiem) is the only dartrix species with naturally venomous quills. Queensland decidueye are less than a meter tall and their dartrix are correspondingly small. Their quills take several weeks to regenerate. These drawbacks have kept them from gaining popularity in the competitive battling scene. New Zealand previously had two species of dartrix. The North Island dartrix is now extinct and the South Island dartrix (S. pariccidalis) at risk of extirpation. South Island dartrix regularly evolve into decidueye, regardless of external stressors. They are also nearly as large as the Sumatran decidueye and have much thicker coats. Despite their wingspan, they are nearly flightless and only use their wings for getting into and out of trees and slowing falls. Their primary weapons are their quills, by far the largest of any species of decidueye. Photosynthesis aside, South Island decidueye are almost entirely carnivorous. During the summer they stay nearly stationary with their wings spread out in a field. In the long winter nights, they take up position on a low tree branch and wait to kill anything that comes close. South Island decidueye form mated pairs until their chicks evolve into dartrix, at which point the pairs split up and leave the dartrix on their own. While they have nearly been hunted to extinction in New Zealand, an invasive population in the Canadian boreal has become rather large. The latest estimates place the decidueye population in Alberta alone at over ten thousand. They have become a major safety risk for humans in the area as they will kill and eat any human who enters their territory in the winter. It is all but impossible to notice a decidueye before it notices you. Due to legalized hunting and capture of Canadian decidueye, they are quite common on the international battling scene. They are also the ninth most lethal pok¨¦mon worldwide and require a Class V license to possess in the United States. Island decidueye are descended from the continental decidueye (S. triaferit). They are most similar to the South Isle decidueye, leading to a theory that continental decidueye directly made it to Aotorea. Continental dartrix routinely evolve into decidueye. Unlike the South Isle decidueye, where only dartrix are fertile, continental decidueye routinely mate, lay eggs, and guard their offspring. Dartrix reproduction is uncommon if decidueye are present. Continental dartrix grow quickly, typically reaching full size and evolving within eight months of hatching. This is necessary to avoid dying in the winter from cold temperatures and a lack of light, especially in the northern portions of their range. Decidueye have small wings and can barely sustain powered flight. They prefer to climb trees with their talons and then glide with their wings. Continental deciduye have long feathered legs and relatively small talons, letting them run at speeds of up to thirty miles per hour. In the winter decidueye primarily hunted fish and marine mammals, using their powerful legs to break open holes in the ice and then using arrows or kicks to kill anything that came to the surface. They would supplement their diet by using stealth and ranged attacks to kill larger terrestrial prey. Decidueye are solitary and migratory, preferring to live alone in a very wide range. Continental decidueye were already uncommon in most of their former range by the time human civilization began to flourish. They had evolved to handle the cooler temperatures of the ice age. In warmer climates they were outcompeted by the earliest island decidueye, who in turn were pressured off the continent by noctowl and snakes. Hunting for their thick coats and sharp quills led to the demise of the last mainland populations by 1880. The last wild population persisted in Hisui until habitat fragmentation, deforestation, the introduction of noctowl, and DDT finished them off. The last confirmed wild sighting was in 1988. Unconfirmed sightings have continued, but their large size and vast ranges makes it unlikely they persist. Captive populations persist, although the lack of initial founders and inbreeding has led to interbreeding with South Isle decidueye. They are generally nervous creatures who need a lot of room to run and are aggressive towards conspecifics. Captive breeding facilities need to be very large as a result. There have been discussions on reintroduction programs after the ban of DDT, but all proposals have been rejected out of fear of their effect on already struggling marine mammal and fish populations. Hisuian settlers also reported decidueye attacking their livestock in the winter, although predation on humans was apparently rare. Cross-breeding with South Isle decidueye may have changed this. Modern continental decidueye seem more aggressive than historical records suggest. Incineroar Torracat (Litten, Incineroar) Pyropanthera gladius alola Overview The primary appeal of torracat as a starter rests in their typicality. Children who grew up in a household with a pet feline pok¨¦mon already have a headstart in caring for and understanding their first partner. They are also the friendliest of Alola¡¯s felines. Some of their behaviors may seem alien to those unused to dealing with cats, but their quirks are mostly harmless. Champion Selene¡¯s incineroar has inspired a great many trainers hoping to get into serious battling to pick a litten as their first pok¨¦mon. It should be noted here that incineroar evolution takes time, luck, and a willingness to go without the torracat for a while. Unevolved torracat are still loveable and capable of winning even moderately high-level battles if used well. Going without evolution is a perfectly reasonable choice for a trainer on an island quest. Physiology Litten and torracat are classified as pure fire-types. Incineroar¡¯s greatly increased telepathic resistance merits a secondary dark-typing. Litten have a rather typical feline bodyshape. Their fur is primarily black. The exceptions are red stripes on their legs and a red crest on their forehead. The exact hue and shape of the crest varies by age and individual. Litten possess an internal flame sac right below the junction of their neck and torso. All stages of the torracat line have thick, flame-resistant skin. The fur itself is surprisingly flammable. It is the fur they collect during grooming that serves as their primary flame source. Due to the time required for fur to regrow this does provide a limit to how much fire they are able to use in a given period, even with diet supplements. Torracat are physiologically similar. They are far larger than their juvenile counterpart, growing up to roughly two feet in height at the shoulder, but the growth is mostly proportional. Torracat gain red stripes on their back and tail, and their head crest becomes more prominent. They also gain pronounced red whiskers that let them sense thermal gradients. The most significant change is the growth of a bell-like structure protruding from the flame sack. The bell is not metallic, rather, it is made of bone and coated in natural oils. The bell helps regulate the release of flames, something litten tend to struggle with. The bell is also capable of emitting a variety of sounds that other torracat can pick up on up to two kilometers away. Contrary to popular belief, incineroar are primarily quadrupeds that sometimes rear up on two legs to reach higher, deliver more powerful blows with their forelegs or intimidate opponents. Their paws, claws and teeth are proportionally larger than torracat¡¯s, and their muscles are more powerful and prominent. The incineroar¡¯s headcrest has grown to encompass almost the entire head. Incineroar have replaced their reproductive system with additional flame sacs, allowing for more control and power. These replace the torracat¡¯s bell. Torracat can live up to twenty-five years in captivity and fifteen in the wild. Incineroar typically live about ten years after evolution, regardless of their age beforehand. Incineroar can reach heights of three feet at the shoulder and can weigh up to 300 pounds. Behavior Torracat, like most felines, understand human behaviors and desires through the lens of their own. Many people are vexed by their tendency to stay within the same room as their trainers but seldom initiate physical affection. They will frequently reject petting or grooming from even longtime trainers. Due to the use of fur as a fuel source it is extremely uncommon for a torracat to allow another torracat to groom them, with the exception of mothers with very young litten or an adult torracat to very sick individuals. As such the offer of petting is an insult to them. Allowing their trainer to groom them is a great honor. Captive torracat will frequently approach other mammals and offer to groom them to build up their fuel reserves. They will even do this with humans, although their preferred method of doing so is licking eyebrows with their rather coarse tongues. They can be trained not to do this through simple reinforcement with a spray bottle filled with water. Many trainers are reluctant to irritate their pets, but torracat are quick to pick up on humans¡¯ boundaries with regards to grooming and will usually stop after the first one or two reprimands. This only applies to humans they respect. Torracat will often weather water sprays just to irritate a human they don¡¯t like. This is a good first sign that either the pok¨¦mon needs replaced with a more compatible companion or serious effort needs to be put in to earning its respect. A torracat licking a human¡¯s eyebrows after several reprimands is an indication that the cat should be donated to the Department of Natural Resources¡¯ (DNR) breeding program before the insubordination escalates. Torracat seldom harm humans in the wild or captivity and very well-trained torracat can be trusted alone with infants and toddlers. Incineroar spend most of their time caring for their young in the wild. One incineroar in a pair will hunt or sleep while the other watches the litten. Once a pair¡¯s litten have evolved and left them, they will often appear to be lost and sleep far more than they previously did. They will sometimes seek to rectify this situation by adopting orphaned babies of other pok¨¦mon species. Sometimes they will even adopt babies they themselves orphaned. Husbandry At six months of age a litten can be used in battle or gifted to trainers. At this point litten have fully developed coats and flame sacks. The litten provided to trainers are almost all male as female litten are retained in the breeding program. Sometimes a female litten that is particularly curious or combative will be given to trainers alongside the males, or a male litten that is physically or temperamentally unsuitable to be given to children will be retained. Litten will generally provide their own exercise if allowed out of their pok¨¦ball for at least twenty hours a week for non-battling purposes. This exercise may be detrimental to the integrity of furniture and camping supplies, so it is advised to let them blow off steam in battle or more structured play with other team members or their trainer. Even when properly exercised torracat and litten are well-known to scratch furniture and walls to mark their territory. This makes them somewhat unsuitable to be indoor pets for retired trainers without either extensive training and a close bond or a professionally done cat-proofing. They do not mark their territory through urination and are easily trained in the use of litter boxes. All stages of the torracat line enjoy playing in the rain. Litten and torracat will even take submerging baths, although they will not do so if they are forced to take them. Torracat cannot be safely submerged for more than ten minutes at a time. Incineroar cannot be safely submerged for any length of time. Torracat and litten are omnivores. They will happily eat feline mixes sold in every Pok¨¦mon Center and pet shop in Alola, although they will require roughly 30% more food than recommended for a generic feline pok¨¦mon as they literally burn through their food. They will also happily eat most produce given to them. They prefer dried produce as it is more easily ignited. Torracat will not eat more dried fruit than they need. It is advised to give them an overabundance at meal times and then simply remove and repackage what was not eaten. Unlike most felines torracat crave additional fur to eat. This makes pok¨¦mon with high maintenance needs and thick fur such as furfrou, lopunny or cinccino ideal partners. Vulpix also qualify provided the torracat or litten is adopted first. If it is not possible to provide a mammalian partner fur supplements can be purchased in Pok¨¦mon Centers. These supplements are rather expensive for pok¨¦mon food. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. Incineroar are obligate carnivores and apex predators and will require very large amounts of calories and fur to sustain themselves. The exact details vary by incineroar, but it is best to assume they will need 20% of their body weight in meat and at least 5% in fur every week. Incineroar will continue to groom team members that allow them to do so, but most pok¨¦mon will be too nervous to allow it. Incineroar are fiercely protective of anything they see as their baby, which often applies to young trainers and small teammates. They will often growl or rear up on their hind legs if they perceive another human as threatening their trainer or if they see one of their teammates hurt in battle. It is recommended that incineroar be withdrawn during battles and kept away from stressful social situations. All stages of the evolutionary line require scratching posts to keep their claws in check. Otherwise they will seek out wood, be it forest logs or furniture, and take care of their needs. Wild torracat can live in mated pairs, litter groups, groups of multiple mated pairs, mixed groups or solitarily. They can adapt to almost all team dynamics in captivity. Incineroar prefer to live in small groups of three to five individuals. They can tolerate being in a full party. Smaller pok¨¦mon are strongly preferred to larger ones. Illness All stages of the evolutionary line are vulnerable to typical feline illness. Captive-born litten are given all necessary shots before they are given to trainers. A torracat exposed to particularly heavy rains or submersion for long periods of time will develop waterlogged hypothermia, the most common illness for all fire-types. A waterlogged torracat will become very inactive, refuse to eat, and obsessively groom its own fur to the point of ripping out entire patches of fur or tearing into the skin. They will not produce flames. Waterlogging is rather easily cured in torracat with the provision of oils under veterinary supervision. If a torracat becomes waterlogged and there is not a Pok¨¦mon Center readily available, withdraw it and keep it in its ball. Drop it off at a veterinarian or Pok¨¦mon Center as soon as possible. Parasites are particularly tricky to deal with in torracat as they will almost never allow a human to groom them. Fortunately, the few parasites that do prey on the species are usually near-harmless. Make sure your torracat has a full checkup by a veterinarian at least once a year. Any immersion of an incineroar¡¯s open flames in water should be assumed to be life-threatening. Evolution Litten naturally progress into torracat as they age. This process usually takes roughly one year. The formal demarcation between litten and torracat is the first vocalization with their bell. Torracat evolve after reproducing with another torracat. The male will begin to eat and hunt more while the female is pregnant and begin the process of evolving, which will be completed by the time the female gives birth. After delivering a litter the female will begin to evolve in turn. In captivity, all torracat breeding and evolutions are handled by DNR approved breeding facilities. Contact the DNR if interested in evolving a male torracat. Female torracat can be handed over for evolution, but they will only be returned to their trainer after their litten have been adopted out. Battle Incineroar have a solid presence in competitive battling. As large predators they are eager battlers that can intimidate and overpower many opponents. Their attacks hit hard enough to bring out most opponents in a few solid strikes and they can take a few hits in turn. The Alolan incineroar is the easiest subspecies to obtain and train, but the larger species are highly sought after. In the wild incineroar take down prey with powerful paw strikes. They will often rear up beforehand to put as much power into the attack as possible and bring their flames into play. They will grapple with their opponent for as long as necessary, steadily wearing them down with brute force, sharp claws, and burning flames. Incineroar have three weaknesses that hold them back. The first are rock types that can tank most of thier attacks and knock them out in time. The second are ranged water-types that can exploit open flames. Primarina, with its high degree of arena control, can almost always counter incineroar. Large dragons, especially airborne dragons, can take incineroar¡¯s fire attacks and overpower them in time. Incineroar is particularly popular in doubles formats where its protective instincts can work in its favor. Seeing a smaller teammate hurt can drive them to fight harder. Alternatively, incineroar are great at drawing attention to themselves when the situation calls for it. Wild litten and torracat primarily hunt with their claws and save their fire for self-defense, distractions, intimidation, and mating displays. They can be trained to use fire more regularly in captivity, although their diet will need to be adjusted to compensate. Torracat are capable of fighting at range with (relatively inaccurate) embers and streams of flame, or up close with their claws and teeth. As such, they should be trained in a variety of strategies and the one picked in battle should be determined by their opponent. In the wild, torracat hunt through the use of rough terrain and large packs communicating over long distances to set up traps. In captivity this strategy is often unable to be replicated, as only the most experienced of trainers will be able to understand their torracat¡¯s vocalizations in any detail and double battles are rare in Alola. It does mean that torracat are quite clever and can pick up on new moves and tactics quickly. This, combined with their reluctance to use fire, makes them less directly powerful than brionne or dartrix, but capable of using more complex maneuvers to compensate. Like incineroar, torracat are most easily countered by rock-types that can shrug off their claws and aren¡¯t seriously hurt by fire. Very accurate or powerful water- or ground-types can also force a torracat into surrender by targeting its bell. Litten are not particularly water averse and have no direct opening to their flame sacs, allowing them to take hits from those attacks more easily. Acquisition Children between the ages of ten and twenty can obtain a litten from certified distributors free of charge with a Class I certification. Children who have cleared the grand trial on at least one island and did not receive a litten as a starter can purchase or adopt one. Torracat in licensed shelters can be adopted with a Class II license or higher. Incineroar can be adopted by trainers aged 16 or under with a Class II license. Trainers above the age of 16 require a Class IV license, as they are slow to bond with adults. Wild torracat colonies exist within Poni Island National Park. It is forbidden to capture wild litten or torracat without the explicit approval of the National Park Service. Following the introduction of pyroar to Poni Island a fierce territorial dispute has emerged. The pyroar have all but entirely won the conflict through their greater size and social cohesion. Incineroar without a litter will frequently hunt and kill pyroar in an attempt to reduce the threat to torracat and incineroar. Wild incineroar will often attack adult humans on sight or younger humans that get too close to their litten. Trainers are advised not to enter Poni Island National Park without a pok¨¦mon capable of defeating a wild incineroar. Never approach a wild litten in the park, as at least one of its parents will always be close by. All feral torracat encountered outside of Poni Island National Park are the property of the Commonwealth of Alola and, if captured, must be dropped off at a pok¨¦mon center within thirty days. Bounties for returned torracat are no longer offered. Breeding Torracat breeding with other torracat is handled by the DNR. In captivity, torracat will mate with other felines and even mammalian fire types. They will also mate with subspecies of fire-types that are not themselves fire-types, such as Lanakilan vulpix. Mixed-species pairing will not trigger evolution. The resulting babies will only be fertile if produced with another member of the Pyropanthera genus. Torracat pregnancies typically last eight months. They should not be withdrawn into habitat pok¨¦balls once the pregnancy becomes visible, and neither the mother nor her litten should not be withdrawn into any pok¨¦ball until the babies are six months old. The average litter size is six litten, but two, four, or eight litten litters have also been observed. Litten typically abandon their parents at eighteen months of age in the wild. Litten of this age can be gifted to the DNR. Trainers will receive a $1200 tax break per litten handed over. Relatives The genus Pyropanthera contains multiple species of large cats, one of which has since been introduced to the archipelago. P. gladius alola is the smallest and tamest living subspecies of incineroar. Other subspecies can be found on the Indonesian islands and Sri Lanka. The largest incineroar subspecies, P. g. corbett, is critically endangered and only found in portions of Northern India. There is fossil evidence of the species stretching farther to the east and north on mainland Asia. The introduction of the social pyroar and deforestation on the continent has severely restricted the range of the remaining incineroar. Now they can only be found in dry forests too dense for pyroar. It isn¡¯t clear how an Asian feline that cannot swim long distances got to Alola. No other member of Pyropanthera is native to Alola, raising questions as to how and when incineroar arrived. They were present when the first humans came to the islands and the fossil record suggests they have lived in Alola for over 3,000 years. Primarina Primarina (Popplio, Brionne) Aria aria Overview Popplio is often described as the middle choice of Alola¡¯s traditional starters. Rowlet have somewhat bizarre care requirements as a photosynthetic bird. Litten are fairly similar to common household pets. Pinnipeds are not as strange as rowlet, but not nearly as familiar as litten. Popplio has its own strengths over the other starters. It can evolve without either permanent health consequences or pregnancy and parenthood. Primarina is also by far the most intelligent of the starter¡¯s final stages. This intelligence has the drawback of making primarina easily bored and in need of near-constant stimulation. Trainers who want a pok¨¦mon that functions more as an equal than a loyal pet or fierce guardian may be inclined to pick popplio. Queer trainers and musicians are also often drawn to the sex-changing siren of the seas. Physiology Popplio and brionne are classified as pure water types. Primarina is classified as a joint water- and fairy-type. Both rulings are undisputed. Popplio are dark blue almost everywhere on their body. Their shape is typically pinniped, with two large front flippers used for movement on land and two smaller back flippers used for movement in water. Their muzzle is colored white and ends in a pink orb. There is a pale blue frill around their neck. Popplio use this frill to help regulate their temperature. The orb on popplio''s nose is used to sense and produce vibrations to view the world in echolocation. It is believed that this is their primary sense. Popplio skin is quite thick and rough, aside from the frill. The skin gets thinner as they grow and evolve. Brionne are lighter in coloration and the tips of their flippers are white. They gain two more frills around their midsection. The most notable change is the development of two antennae on their head. These are used to produce vibrations and help with controlling the water around them. Primarina have quite a few major external and internal differences from popplio. Their body as a whole is thinner and sleeker relative to their size, and their frills (now located on their forehead, the start of their hind flippers, the start of their tail and the area around their front flippers) are proportionally smaller. Their tail is longer and bulkier than a brionne''s and dark blue in coloration. The skin on their tail is similar to a popplio¡¯s in thickness and color. The rest of their body proper is white. Primarina and older brionne gain a thin layer of blubber under their skin to insulate them on long pelagic journeys. The biggest difference between brionne and primarina is that the antennae are replaced with thousands of long, fine hairs. These are used to sense and modify vibrations, allowing for much more complex sounds to be created. All three stages can emit slime from glands across their body. Their slime and acoustic capabilities combine to allow for very well controlled hydrokinesis. More complex sounds allow for more complicated water attacks and more nimble movement when submerged. More slime in an area allows for more water to be manipulated. Primarina have some of the most advanced vocal chords of any pok¨¦mon and can produce sounds several octaves above and below the range of human hearing. Brionne can live up to fifteen years in the wild or thirty in captivity. Primarina can live up to sixty years in both the wild and captivity. Brionne typically grow to be three feet long and they weigh up to forty pounds. Primarina can reach lengths of six feet and weights of 130 pounds. Behavior Popplio are naturally curious and playful. They will attempt to mimic almost all sounds that they hear and will practice their attacks and singing ability constantly. In the wild they are prone to huddling together with other members of their evolutionary line. They will not do this with humans or any other species. Popplio sleep on land during the night and enjoy playing on beaches during the dusk and dawn. A small group of brionne or the choir''s primarina will supervise them during this time. During the day wild popplio typically play with each other and forage around the choir''s resting place. Brionne are perhaps even more curious about sounds, but they now possess the proper anatomy to replicate them. In the wild they will frequently beach near human settlements to listen to music and urban sounds. They also frequent bird rookeries to listen to bird calls. Captive specimens are fascinated by sports and dancing. Brionne sleep during the day by hooking themselves to sea grass or rocks on the seafloor. Wild primarina spend most of the day resting. At night they teach their songs to the choir''s brionne (see Evolution) or beach on land to learn new sounds or forcefully introduce theirs to anyone in range. They are also known to forage for pearls, sea stars or anything they consider to be beautiful. They subsequently adorn their hair with these items. Popplio hunt small birds and insects through ambush tactics. One of their favorite strategies is to sneak up on a flock of small seabirds, make a loud noise to startle them into flight and then attempt to pick off one with a well-aimed burst of water. Their diet is supplemented by shellfish, benthic fish, and and insects provided by the older members of their choir. Brionne typically hunt in groups. They will find large schools of small fish and swim around them in a group while emitting very loud cries. Individual brionne will break out of the circle and swim into the school, picking out as many fish as they please. Primarina hunt by stunning or killing fish. They can also use their hydrokinesis to propel themselves up to fifty feet per second for short distances. Primarina can also use one of their songs to kill almost all insects within one hundred feet. Insect kills are either done for sport or to feed their young. Husbandry The biggest challenge with caring for all stages of the brionne line is meeting their need for stimulation. In the wild popplio play with each other and the older members of their choir. This is hard to replicate in captivity as most humans do not have the patience to play with their popplio for several hours a day every day. Popplio will need at least four hours a day of enrichment. Brionne require at least three. This can be done by giving the pok¨¦mon a toy such as a ball or rattle or just by putting an MP3 player on. Brionne in particular are quite fond of children''s television featuring dancing, singing humans. Television and toys will inevitably prove necessary as even humans who want to play with their popplio will quickly discover that their pok¨¦mon has more energy and stamina than they do. It is recommended to spend as much of this time as possible playing with the pok¨¦mon yourself or with your team members. Since popplio and brionne''s play enhances their battling prowess, this time can be used to work on moves and strategies. Indeed, one of the biggest strengths of the line is that they never need to be cajoled or bribed into practicing. During the remainder of the day popplio and brionne are almost always fine with resting in stasis balls. Habitat balls are not recommended as being alone in a constant environment is boring. Food designed specifically for brionne is sold in every Pok¨¦mon Center in Alola. Trainers are encouraged to allow their pok¨¦mon to hunt and forage on their own at least once a month. The best partners for brionne are musically inclined pok¨¦mon. Toucannon, crobat, noibat, mismagisus, and oricorio all make good teammates for brionne and can save their trainer time and energy in enrichment. It is recommended that trainers who intend to evolve their brionne get some form of musical training as it will be a good bonding tool with the pok¨¦mon and a necessity for understanding how to command one in battle (see Battling). Wild primarina never have any relationships with an equal partner, platonic or otherwise. As such they tend to adopt a maternal attitude towards their trainers. They will frequently embrace their trainer or even fall asleep on them if allowed to. Primarina require less in the way of enrichment than their pre-evolutions, but they become quite protective of their trainer and will want to spend several hours a day in the same space as them. They also very much enjoy singing to and with their trainer. All stages of the line are amphibious and brionne and primarina are primarily aquatic in the wild. It is important to allow them to soak in seawater whenever possible. Brionne and primarina will need to sleep in the ocean at least once a week for optimal health. Almost all large, inland Pok¨¦mon Centers have saltwater pools that can be used as a substitute when necessary. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. Primarina are long-lived, intelligent and social. Many will begin to learn human languages, although their pronunciation is often jarring due to the different structure of their vocal chords. They don''t learn commands through reinforcement of behaviors and the building of trust so much as through actually reasoning through their trainer''s words. This has obvious advantages. It also means that sometimes your pok¨¦mon will tell you you''re making a bad decision in as many words. Primarina are frequently conversational in multiple pok¨¦mon languages and will usually be willing to translate the wishes of other team members. Of course, by the time a trainer has taught a primarina to do this they will likely have a good idea what their pok¨¦mon''s behaviors mean. A final word of caution: primarina frequently steal jewelry and other shiny objects from their trainer to adorn their hair. They will refuse to give these objects back and, if the objects are taken from them, they will scream loudly and incessantly until they are returned. Watch your valuables around primarina. Illness The most common illness affecting all stages of the evolutionary line are surface wounds and infections. Their frills (and, to a lesser extent, their skin) are thin, porous, and often coated in mucus. This means that attacks that would leave tiny scratches on most pok¨¦mon can become gaping wounds on them. Fortunately, they heal somewhat faster than most other pok¨¦mon when allowed to submerge in clean seawater. Make sure to watch how rough your pok¨¦mon are playing with your brionne and be willing to withdraw them from battle early in melee exchanges. Evolution Healthy popplio naturally progress to brionne over the course of roughly three years, although constant exposure to enrichments, clean water, battle, and food can accelerate the process. The development of the third frill is the formal demarcation point between popplio and brionne. All popplio and brionne are male. All primarina are female. Every choir has exactly one primarina. When there is no primarina, the dominant brionne begins to evolve and changes sex in the process. They then form a reverse harem with the brionne in the choir. A solitary brionne will never evolve. Evolution requires trainining multiple brionne, which may be advisable simply due to their social needs, or loaning your brionne to a primarina collective. In primarina collectives captive brionne on loan from other breeding programs or trainers, as well as injured wild brionne that could not be returned to the wild, are held inside a large enclosure. When a primarina evolves, they are removed. This does not stress the brionne as primarina frequently depart from their choirs in the wild and outside brionne frequently join them (see Breeding). Primarina songs are more inherited than improvised. In order to develop properly a primarina must spend time with either another primarina after evolving or a wild-raised primarina before evolving. The wild brionne inside of breeding collectives help teach their captive counterparts the songs they learned from wild primarina. Licensed primarina collectives are run by the Commonwealth of Alola through the Hau''oli Aquarium, Heahea Conservatory, and Malie Zoo. Privately owned collectives can be found in Brooklet Shire, Seafolk Village, Heahea City and West Beach City. Wild primarina are often willing to teach songs to their captive counterparts. See Acquisition for the locations where they are most commonly found in Alola. Battle Popplio¡¯s thick skin and watery projectiles helps them function as a tank of sorts. The weakness of their frills keeps them from living up to this potential and leaves them in an awkward place, too slow and weak to be sweepers and with too large a weakness to be walls. Their one strength is that their intelligence lets them learn tricks faster than most pok¨¦mon. Brionne, with their thinner skin but more powerful voices, are more akin to conventional glass canons. Primarina settle into a niche of their own. They are powerful arena shapers when well trained and played. While they still might get taken out by one good serrating hit or a few blunt force attacks, they use their control of the battlefield to prevent most grounded physical attackers from ever reaching them. Primarina use their slime and hydrokinesis to condense water from the air and fill durable slime bubbles with it. They will then either use these bubbles as projectiles, trapping moves, or a means of riding around the arena. The latter serves as both a way for them to move quickly on land and to coat the arena in a thin layer of slime that allows for more control of the water. They will then use the slime and water coating the battlefield to lock down their opponent''s movements, all the while bombarding them with sonic moves, moonblasts, hydro pumps and other powerful ranged attacks. If primarina have a drawback, it is that their trainers can almost never understand exactly how their song works. They have limitations that can sometimes seem pointless but are not easily fixed without overhauling the entire song, something that would take multiple lifetimes for them to do completely. Because primarina songs are mostly inherited, this allows opponents to come up with primarina counter-strategies that work against almost all members of the species. Birds durable enough to take a ranged hit or two and fast enough to outpace a moving primarina can be reliable counters. Toucannon often find it difficult to fly between their beak''s weight and rapidly condensing water in the air, but their bullet seeds and rock blasts are often able to knock out a primarina in one or two volleys. Vikavolt, hodad, and magnezone hard counter primarina. Despite this, primarina have always had a niche in competitive battling. So long as they aren''t too popular in a given metagame few trainers will have bothered to come up with a counter strategy. And it is rather difficult to stop a powerful, mobile, arena controller without having a plan in place at the start. This is especially true as some primarina have learned how to emit sounds that disrupt complex thoughts in humans without being readily detectable. Because primarina trainers are seldom much use themselves in the heat of battle, this almost always works to their advantage. The discovery of this ability has led to the ban of primarina from the Pan-African and European Union leagues. The primary leagues in China, Australia and Japan allow them provided that the exact frequency they use against humans is monitored during the battle. The Global Battling Federation and United States Competitive Pok¨¦mon Association currently allow primarina with no restrictions. Acquisition Children between the ages of ten and twenty can obtain a popplio as a starter free of charge with a Class I certification. Children who have cleared the grand trial on at least one island and did not receive a popplio as a starter can purchase or adopt one. Brionne or primarina in licensed shelters can be adopted with a Class II license or higher. Wild brionne are frequently found at Exeggutor Island, Kala''e Bay, Hano Beach, or the coastline of Poni Island National Park. It is illegal to capture a wild specimen at any stage of the evolutionary line without the approval of the Department of Natural Resources. However, these colonies will happily play with and teach songs to wild popplio or brionne. Wild primarina seldom interact with each other. However, if a captive and a wild primarina are allowed to bond for several days the wild one will often agree to teach her songs to the captive primarina. Breeding Primarina tend to mate once a year, usually in mid-September. They will select one to three brionne to mate with based on their genetic diversity, proficiency in learning songs, and the responsibilities they have taken over popplio rearing. The brionne chose to father the offspring hold no special role in parenting and do not appear to gain any status over other brionne. After a five month pregnancy, primarina give birth to roughly six offspring. These popplio are typically only fifteen to twenty centimeters long and are under constant watch by the primarina and brionne of the choir until they reach roughly six months of age, at which point they are roughly forty centimeters long. At this point popplio are given more leeway to play and explore, albeit with a brionne or primarina always keeping a watchful eye on them. Even so, many die from illness and predation. If conditions are not ideal to continue raising popplio, a primarina will take a few brionne and swim elsewhere to reproduce and set up a new choir. The dominant brionne that remains will evolve. Brionne frequently leave their choirs to join new ones. The impetus for this is unclear, but it serves the purpose of diversifying the gene pools of any given choir. Primarina collectives seldom actually result in offspring given the frequent removal of the choir¡¯s female. Relatives There are three major species of primarina. The primarina given out as a starter in the Alola region is the pelagic primarina. Reef primarina (A. toxicappilus) have brightly colored hair that flows beyond the end of their tail. Their hair contains nematocysts which emit a neurotoxin. They hunt by floating slowly through coral reefs and waiting for fish to die in their hair. The primarina then eats these fish. Due to differences in jaw structure, primarina can eat a fish or pok¨¦mon up to thirty percent of their body size. This has left them mostly unable to control sonics. Popplio and brionne in these regions have similar vocal chords and hunting strategies to their pelagic counterparts. The main difference in them is an immunity to most toxins and slightly more maneuverability in the water at the cost of being slightly slower on land. Reef primarina are entirely aquatic. They still breathe air by going to the surface and taking large gulps. They have virtually no presence in the international competitive battling scene. They are a popular attraction in aquariums worldwide due to their bright colors, large size and odd movement patterns. Mangrove primarina (A. radixincola) and brionne are roughly half the size of their reef and pelagic counterparts. They are mottled green and brown and tend to hunt insects, fish and small birds and mammals through the use of sonic attacks and traps. They rest in seagrasses off shore during the day and lie waiting in ambush between the roots of mangrove trees at night. They tend to have the fewest slime glands and smallest frills of the primarina species. Mangrove primarina are officially classified as water and ground types, as opposed to the water and fairy typing of pelagic primarina and the water and poison typing of reef primarina. Toucannon Toucannon (Pikipek, Trumbeak) Nukuloloa lydia Overview After years of studying the finches of the Galapagos and refining his theory of macroevolution, Charles Darwin took one look at an Alolan toucannon and decided his theory didn¡¯t apply to Pok¨¦mon. Princess Lydia Aholo, heir to the Alolan monarchy until its deposition, used the very same pok¨¦mon in her argument that macroevolution did apply to pok¨¦mon. What Darwin found most jarring about Alolan toucannon is the sheer size of their beak. Despite being hollow and lighter than it appears, the beak is still heavy enough that most of the bird¡¯s anatomy is dedicated to supporting it. And, unlike the beaks of other birds, it does not appear particularly well adapted to toucannon¡¯s food source. However, dissection of toucannon show that the structure of their beak is remarkably similar to arboreabeak, a species of bird pok¨¦mon from the Americas. It is unclear when or how a mostly flightless bird crossed thousands of miles of ocean, but the long period of isolation that followed led to the most unique species in its family. Princess Lydia¡¯s work on toucannon beaks and feather structure is well documented at an exhibit in the Royal Aviary in Castleton. The descendants of the princess¡¯ toucannon also live there. Toucannon is often overlooked among serious trainers in Alola in favor of larger or more agile birds such as decidueye, braviary, mandibuzz or talonflame. It still has its advantages. Perhaps its most serious advantage for trainers who don¡¯t expect to remain in competitive pok¨¦mon battling after the completion of their island challenge is that it starts out as a relatively powerful pok¨¦mon, is easy to care for at all stages of its evolutionary line and stays competitive up to the power levels seen at the end of the island challenge. Unlike decidueye, it can be evolved without requiring its trainer to actively battle indefinitely. Physiology All stages of the toucannon line are recognized as flying-types, even though toucannon is not capable of flying long distances. They all hold a placeholder normal-typing per Department of Agriculture standards on birds without compelling evidence for any secondary typing. There is some dispute as to whether Alolan toucannon should quality for a fire or even electric typing, but as their power source is strictly internal and only used to power other attacks the Department of Agriculture has declined to reconsider their ruling. Pikipek are counter-shaded birds with white feathers on their stomach and black feathers on their back. They have a red crest running from their bill to the back of their head. Their bill is narrow and conical with grey and black patches. Trumbeak lose the red stripe on their head in favor of a large tuft of black feathers. They gain a red ring of feathers around their neck. Their beaks begin to properly segment and gain external rings of bright colors. Toucannon only have white feathers on their chest. Their crest disappears entirely and they gain patches of yellow feathers on their cheeks. The red feathers on their body shift from their neck to the area right above their tail. Toucannon have thicker and longer talons than trumbeak. Their beaks are also far larger and bulkier, growing from narrow cones to something resembling a proper horn. Toucannon can grow up to four feet tall and can weigh up to thirty pounds. Their beaks alone can weigh up to eighteen pounds and reach thirty inches in length. Toucannon¡¯s beak is incredibly intricate. It is capable of storing seeds and pebbles for long periods of time and chemically altering wood. It also contains several chambers filled with steam. These allow for toucannon to spit out small objects at speeds of up to nine hundred feet per second. The resulting hit can stun, kill or badly injure most pok¨¦mon, depending upon their size and durability. Toucannon can accurately hit multiple targets with pinpoint accuracy up to thirty feet away. Due to the weight of their beak, toucannon are only capable of flight for short distances. Toucannon can live up to sixty years in the wild and fifty years in captivity. Behavior In the wild, pikipek are insectivore that supplement their diet with fruit. They are known to practice spitting or dropping seeds upon opponents. Their primary feeding tactic is to carve small holes into wood to find and remove insects. It is believed that they possess some sort of ability to determine the location of bugs from the sound the impact of their beak makes. All members of the evolutionary line have been known to burrow into trees for sport or to pass the time. Trumbeak are known to incessantly vocalize, even during the wee hours of the night when they should be sleeping. They are prone to repeating any sound they hear to the greatest extent their beak an manage. Trumbeak that live near brionne choirs are known to get into hours long singing contests with their amphibian neighbors. These vocalizations are facilitated by their increasingly complicated beak. Trumbeak primarily live on a diet of insects, but fruit can comprise up to forty percent of their diet. Toucannon flock to forests with the oldest of trees. They then dig intricate tunnels and caverns into the trees. They can even build sealed passageways and multiple rooms through their ability to turn wood shavings into a hard resin with their beak. Toucannon spend most of their day looking for fruit and most of their nights sleeping in their nest. When they find fruit that is too high to reach from the ground, they will attempt to shoot down the branch it is on. If this fails they will settle for snapping the tree through repeated bites. Toucannon are neither particularly curious nor playful in either the wild or captivity. Husbandry Toucannon are rather easy to care for at all stages of the evolutionary line. They don¡¯t seem to mind pok¨¦balls so long as they are properly fed. Bonding with them usually entails giving them adequate food for long enough that they will accept partnership with you. Having musical talent and being willing to sing to them, especially as trumbeak, also helps. Pikipek and trumbeak can be fed insect mix sold in all Pok¨¦mon Centers. Berries, live crickets and worms serve as good treats and rewards. Trumbeak will require fresh fruit to make up at least 30% of their diet. Toucannon will only eat fruit, although some have displayed a fondness towards brightly colored cereals. Fruit provided to them must be fresh as no stage of the evolutionary line drinks water. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. It is recommended that all stages of the evolutionary line be allowed to forage for at least some of their diet. The reasons for this are two-fold. The first is that it¡¯s a cost saving measure and cuts down on the amount of heavy food that needs to be carried around on trails. The second is that pikipek and trumbeak will obsessively peck at all wood they find. They can be trained to not peck some types of wood through negative reinforcement (loud noises for pikipek, squirt bottles for trumbeak). However, they will resume pecking that wood again unless given a suitable outlet. Trees in parks or forests can provide this to them. Toucannon will want a nest if they are held in the same area for more than three days. They will attempt to build one unless given an enclosed space big enough to hold at least two toucannon. Ideally the nest will have a trap door to block light but allow for entry. These nests can be purchased at most pok¨¦mon goods stores, but they are neither cheap nor easy to carry. Some Pok¨¦mon Centers will have toucannon boxes available for rent. If you are staying in one place for an extended period of time on a journey and cannot use a Pok¨¦mon Center¡¯s box, it may be cheaper to rent storage unit, line blankets on the floor and provide adequate food. The door should be left unlocked and the toucannon should be taught how to open and close it. They can be taught to use keys if necessary. Toucannon will not defecate inside of their nest. Toucannon can be quite clever. They just prefer not to use their higher thinking to solve problems. While toucannon don¡¯t defecate as much as dartrix, they still produce waste that will need to be cleaned up. Pikipek and trumbeak can be house trained, to a degree, through negative and positive reinforcement. Toucannon will defecate wherever they want, whenever they want. In nature this helps spread seeds around. This could be attributed to simple natural instinct, but they have a habit of looking their trainer dead in the eyes and huffing while they do it, and then maintaining eye contact until it is cleaned up. It is suspected that they do this to assert autonomy and/or dominance. Toucannon that have been held in captivity for up to a decade have successfully reintegrated into the wild. If for whatever reason you don¡¯t want to keep a toucannon at the end of your journey, they can be dropped off at any place their stage of the evolutionary line inhabits (see Acquisition). Illness Toucannon illnesses typically have symptoms of diarrhea, labored breathing, sudden loss of feathers or a sudden loss of interest in food. Should these symptoms arise, immediately withdraw the toucannon into its pok¨¦ball and take it to a veterinarian as soon as possible. Some diseases can be fatal within three days. While the frequency and severity of illness declines as a toucannon ages, they can still result in permanent injury or death if left untreated. Evolution Pikipek naturally mature into trumbeak over the course of two to three years. The formal demarcation line between pikipek and trumbeak is the disappearance of all red feathers on top of the head. Trumbeak flash evolve into toucannon after they have gained a certain amount of life experience through combat, problem solving, vocalization, and foraging. The exact triggers are not well understood. In the wild this often occurs around one year after the evolution into trumbeak. In captivity it can occur in as little as three months. Battle In the wild, adult Toucannon prefer to defend themselves by firing small rocks until the threat stops moving or goes away. In captivity, this is often a felony. All but the most experienced of trainers will struggle to keep a toucannon acquired from the wild in its final evolutionary state from simply killing any opponent it can. With proper training in restraint, toucannon can be one of the fiercest competitive pok¨¦mon available in Alola. Their niche is primarily in shutting down hyper-offensive teams that often lack a pok¨¦mon that can take the equivalent of ten low-caliber bullets a second. Toucannon are also capable of taking quite a few hits and using their beak to burn or batter anything that comes too close. No ranked trainer currently uses toucannon and they have little presence in competitive battling circuits. Their natural offenses, while phenomenal in amateur battling, are only above average for a ranged attacker used by professionals. They also have very limited options to dent the armor of steel-types. This leaves them unable to pierce many of premier walls. Even with tailwind support toucannon are not very agile. Outside of protect and substitute they have few ways to dodge attacks that come their way. Toucannon still have a small niche in shutting down some variants of hyper offense, but their strengths just aren¡¯t strong enough to give them a more prominent role. Pikipek¡¯s greatest strength in battle is their relatively high speed and maneuverability for a young and easily trained pok¨¦mon in Alola. Their pecks are far more powerful than they seem and pikipek should be trained to pull their punches in battles against powerful opponents before they are allowed to fight pok¨¦mon of their own strength. Even holding back, a pikipek can easily stay out of reach of melee attacks before dropping in to deliver a barrage of pecks fast and powerful enough to knock out most young pok¨¦mon in a few rounds. However, it takes a pikipek a moment to regain altitude and they will be vulnerable during this phase of the battle. Trumbeak are prone to showing off through taunts, mid-battle preening and overly elaborate aerial maneuvers. Trainers are encouraged to let them do this in all but the most serious of battles, as it has been shown to boost their mood. Trumbeak rely on a mix of diving peck attacks and aerial barrages of seeds. The aim and force of these shots is far less powerful than in an adult toucannon, and at this stage much effort should be focused on getting them to hold back. Acquisition Pikipek can be captured or purchased with a Class I license. They can be found by waiting in almost any public park or forest in Alola for five minutes. Trumbeak are rarer due to the sheer number of predators that pikipek have (vikavolt, rattata, yungoos, ariados, some canines, most felines, and a handful of other birds). They can still be found over almost all of Alola. They can be captured or purchased with either a Class II license or a Class I license and completion of at least one island¡¯s Grand Trial. Due to the relative rarity and longevity of wild toucannon, as well as their difficulty to tame, wild toucannon have a very limited season, strict annual quotes and require a Class III license to capture or purchase. No healthy specimen at any stage of the evolutionary line may be adopted. Licensed shelters will simply release toucannon to the wild that can be released to free up space for rarer pok¨¦mon, or those that don¡¯t fare well upon reintroduction. Adoption of injured toucannon is handled on a case-by-case basis. Breeding Toucannon mate for life. At the start of spring, a female toucannon enters her nest and lays ten to twenty eggs. The male seals her inside using a resin made in his beak. They drill a small hole in the barrier. The male returns to the nest every day and regurgitates food in for his mate and young. If the male fails to return for two days, the female will blast open the wall of the nest and abandon her young. Should the male continue to return, the female will stay inside of her nest for five months before emerging with her young. The parents stay with their pikipek for an additional two months before abandoning them. Relatives There are several species related to toucannon in the Americas. These relatives tend to have only slightly larger beaks than trumbeak, less vibrant colors and larger, more powerful wings. They resemble fearow more than toucannon. These species, usually known as arboreabeaks, have varied beaks and diets, but all of them share a basic morphology, typing and defense strategy. Arboreabeak can release projectile seeds, but they have nowhere near the accuracy and power of toucannon. As such, they rely mostly on their beaks for self-defense. They tend to be more prolific breeders and have shorter lifespans than toucannon. Most species of arboreabeak can produce viable offspring with toucannon. Gumshoos Gumshoos (Yungoos) Ratel ahati Overview Gumshoos has been one of the most useful pok¨¦mon in captivity for millennia. Hardy, fierce and loyal, they have been the scouts and sentinels of settlers and soldiers since at least the Old Kingdom of Egypt. Gumshoos grow quickly, are intelligent enough to easily train and are fierce enough to give most apex predators pause. Previous editions of this text have whole-heartedly recommended gumshoos to trainers going on their island challenge. This is no longer the case. Despite being confined to the edges of the United States and Europe, plains gumshoos have become the unofficial symbol of white supremacist organizations. This is due to the supposed resemblance between the gumshoos¡¯ crest and a certain politician¡¯s hair. Given the demographic composition and politics of Alola, trainers (especially white ones) using a gumshoos may experience social stigma and difficulty reintegrating after the completion of the island challenge. Physiology All stages of plains gumshoos are recognized as pure normal types. Despite ¡°memes¡± on some portions of the internet, they are not poison- or steel-types. Yungoos are long, slim quadrupeds with light brown fur on their sides. Yellow stripes run down the length of their back and belly. They have two rows of large, sharp teeth. Their stomach is also proportionally very large. Gumshoos change their appearance rather little as they grow. The most obvious change is the growth of a crest on top of their head and a small beard at the end of their chin. Their mouth and head are proportionally smaller than yungoos. The end of their brown fur before the start of their tail also begins to stick up in tufts. Most of what makes a gumshoos remarkable is beneath their fur. They have very thick skin and musculature around their throat, head and vital organs. Their bones are some of the most durable among mammalian pok¨¦mon and their claws, while small, are sharp enough to pierce the hide of most species. They have a sense of smell far greater than that of a human and their vision during the day has been observed as being at least five times sharper than that of the average person. However, gumshoos are effectively blind at night. Gumshoos are strictly diurnal and despite thousands of years of attempts, captive plains gumshoos have remained that way. Gumshoos can grow over two feet tall. Females rarely grow heavier than twenty pounds, but males can weigh twice as much. Gumshoos can live up to twenty years in captivity and ten in the wild. Behavior Prior to recent events, gumshoos were most famous for their stakeouts. A gumshoos can stand near motionless for up to twelve hours at a time. They frequently use their sense of smell to detect an area their prey frequent and then stand there until something crosses their path, at which point they abruptly break composure and charge. Captive gumshoos can be trained to merely sniff out and point at a prey animal, although they usually can¡¯t help but slowly creep up on their prey. It is a common misconception that this behavior is only for hunting. A male gumshoos with children or a pregnant mate will frequently stake out an area near their den. They use their mostly vestigial control over static electricity to puff up their fur when defending something, be it their trainer or family. Yungoos mostly hunt by roaming large areas in search of something to eat. They will frequently become fixated on killing the first moving thing that crosses their line of sight, even if it is much larger than they are. It is believed that this behavior is a form of play; a hungry yungoos will ignore anything they obviously cannot bring down. Yungoos are primarily scavengers who supplement their diet with fruit, although they will gladly hunt and kill anything small and slow enough for them to bring down. Gumshoos are almost exclusively carnivores. Their prey includes most animals and pok¨¦mon smaller than them and a few species that are larger. Outside of Alola gumshoos have been documented approaching recent kills and either scaring off the other predator or killing and eating both predator and prey at once. Gumshoos are tenacious fighters with a deceptively sturdy build and sharp claws and teeth. The only species in Alola that prey upon gumshoos are bored or desperate apex predators. In their original habitat the young of some large predator species have adopted coats similar to that of a yungoos in hopes of scaring off potential predators. Gumshoos hunt alone but rest and socialize with groups of six to ten gumshoos and their young. Past scholarship has suggested that these groups have an ¡°alpha male,¡± although recent research has suggested that this is false. Gumshoos squadrons are quite egalitarian and intra-group fights appear to be more for play than establishing dominance. Husbandry Yungoos and gumshoos will only voluntarily stay with and take orders from humans they view as at least an equal. Raising a yungoos from a very young age can establish this relationship. Having several pok¨¦mon with power at least equal to that of the gumshoos will usually satisfy this requirement. If a trainer begins to lose too frequently, however, gumshoos may become uncooperative. For some species a trainer fighting and defeating the pok¨¦mon in single combat without the aid of their pok¨¦mon is the best way to establish dominance. This is not the case for the gumshoos line. A yungoos will easily evade kicks and punches, give the human several nasty cuts for their trouble, and then run away. A gumshoos will view the situation as either a predation attempt or an opportunity for hunting. Yungoos will require at least ten percent of their body weight in food per day. They will eat nearly anything, but they prefer meat. Gumshoos will only eat meat and frequently leave to hunt on their own if they deem the food provided to them to be insufficiently fresh. A fully grown gumshoos requires at least one pound of meat a day. This was previously the largest drawback of raising a gumshoos. All stages of the evolutionary line will require occasional access to trees or a scratching post, although they can be trained quickly through spray bottles or loud sounds not to scratch furniture. Gumshoos can be trained to use litter boxes. As a word of caution, yungoos held in fixed environments prefer to seek shelter in tight, enclosed spaces or at the highest point available. The former preference means that they will often spend large amounts of time inside their litter box if allowed to do so. Bathing a yungoos to get rid of the stench is a task that requires patience and gloves designed for pok¨¦mon handling. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Gumshoos can be trained to tolerate pok¨¦ball use during the day, although they will lose respect for their trainer if they believe it is being used too often. The don¡¯t seem to notice if they are withdrawn between sundown and sunrise. A gumshoos with sufficient trust in their trainer will often approach them and begin to cuddle. At night they will prefer to sleep like this. The behavior is safe and natural. Never initiate physical affection with a gumshoos, however much they like you. Gumshoos will groom themselves. Yungoos will allow larger or more adult pok¨¦mon to groom them. If this cannot be arranged, a trainer equipped with handling gloves can brush and wash them once a week, or as needed. Illness The most common health problems gumshoos experience in captivity are related to their weight. If a yungoos appears to be putting on weight but not height or a gumshoos is putting on weight, the food provided to them should be cut back. If they appear to be getting unhealthily thin or they vocally demand food outside of their usual feeding time they should be provided with more food. Gumshoos should receive the rabies vaccines within two weeks of capture or two months of birth. Evolution Wild yungoos naturally mature over the course of two to three years, depending upon their diet and the amount of combat they receive. Captive yungoos have been observed reaching maturity roughly a year after birth. The formal demarcation line between yungoos and gumshoos is reaching one and a half feet in length for females or two feet for males. Battle Gumshoos held a niche in competitive battling since the days where humans fought along their pok¨¦mon with spears and shields. Gumshoos are neither fast nor powerful enough to keep up with the behemoths, tricksters or carnivores that make up the upper echelons of competitive battling, but they are tenacious and tough enough to wound almost all melee opponents before going down. This gives them a role as a disruptor that can ignore barriers or tricks for long enough to begin viciously tearing into anything trying to stat boost, set up barriers, or manipulate the field. Plains gumshoos fight primarily through melee scratches and bites. This leaves them vulnerable to agile snipers like jolteon, hard walls like some steel types, and fliers with ranged attacks such as toucannon and vikavolt. Much stronger melee attackers like machamp and hariyama can also take them out quickly before a gumshoos can do much damage. Gumshoos are still quite capable of trading blows with the likes of pyroar or flygon due to their natural durability and scrappiness. All but the fastest and strongest of fragile ranged pok¨¦mon will also fall to a mature and trained gumshoos, as they can weather attacks as they cross the field and then end the fight up close. Gumshoos should not be allowed to take particularly powerful blows as they will not surrender and can be hurt or killed in battle. Yungoos¡¯ and gumshoos¡¯ best strategy on the island challenge is simple and straightforward: attack. Gumshoos can benefit from being taught protect and coverage moves, but their instincts will carry them through most fights against opponents of similar size. Bulldoze can slow down opponents gumshoos can¡¯t usually outspeed and put a dent in the rock- and steel-types whose armor can be difficult to pierce. Crunch can target ghosts that try to slip through the pok¨¦mon¡¯s claws. Acquisition Yungoos can be captured or purchased with a Class I license. They are most commonly found at the edges of urban settlements, in open fields, or in sparse forests. Gumshoos can be found in many of the same places as yungoos in the wild, although they prefer to stay further away from humans than their juvenile counterparts. They can be captured, adopted or purchased with a Class II license. Yungoos and gumshoos were formerly common pets and pest catchers in Alola. This has changed somewhat abruptly, leaving many available for adoption from shelters throughout the commonwealth. Housebroken gumshoos or yungoos may be purchased relatively cheaply from breeders on Melemele, Akala and Ula¡¯Ula. Breeding Wild gumshoos mate within their squadron. One or two pairs will breed a year, although there is no particular season in which this usually occurs. Pregnancy lasts roughly ten weeks. Yungoos litters typically contain six to eight cubs. During the latter half of pregnancy, the females will seek shelter inside of a cubbing den. This can be a natural cave, an abandoned toucannon nest, or a small burrow they dig themselves. The mother will stay in the den with her cubs for roughly two months after birth. The other members of the squadron provide her with food during this time. Yungoos sometimes stay with their squadron after evolution and sometimes set off on their own to find another group. In captivity a female gumshoos will begin showing signs of bloating and sluggishness as her pregnancy progresses. Attempts to cut back her food to avoid overeating will be met with angry hisses and displays of aggression until more food is provided. After these symptoms manifest a secluded area with multiple chambers (one with a litter box, one without) should be provided. The female will not mind the trainer briefly sticking their arms in to change litter or provide food, but no attempt should be made to intrude into the nest without a readily apparent purpose. Yungoos should not be used in battle or taken away from their mother until at least four weeks after they live outside of the cubbing den full time. Relatives It is believed that all species of gumshoos are descended from the alpine gumshoos (R. aethiops). These gumshoos are native to the Ethiopian plateau. They closely resemble the plains gumshoos, but only grow up to eighteen inches meters in length. The brown portions of the plains gumshoos¡¯ coat are marbled grey and white, and the yellow stripes on their fur tend to stick up in random clumps or spikes. Alpine gumshoos are ambush predators that use powerful electric shocks to fell birds or terrestrial pok¨¦mon that wander into their line of sight. They are the only species that has powerful enough electric capabilities to warrant an electric typing. The plains gumshoos was the first to be tamed. They originally lived in the grasslands of Southern and Eastern Africa, with populations introduced to Egypt and Mesopotamia around 2500 BCE. Roughly one thousand years later the Phoenicians spread them around the Mediterranean. The Paldeans, for their part, introduced them to the Pampas, Mexico, and California during the Age of Discovery. They were introduced to Alola in 1922 to deal with an outbreak of rattata. The Indian gumshoos (R. victuserpens) were originally native to the the Indian subcontinent. They reach a maximum length of fifteen inches. They have scarlet side fur and very bright yellow stripes. Indian gumshoos seek out venomous snakes and poison-types to consume. Their bodies are capable of not only neutralizing but digesting most forms of venom and poison. Some of these compounds are retained inside of their bodies to make them highly toxic to eat. As such they have less durable builds than other species. They hunt their prey through a combination of ambush tactics and persistence hunting, where lines of gumshoos will slowly follow fleeing prey until it gives up out of exhaustion, at which point the gumshoos use their fangs and claws to finish it off. The boreal gumshoos (R. howlett) is the largest species, with males averaging four feet in length. Females tend to only grow up to three feet. This species has darker brown fur on its side, and light brown fur on its belly and back. They are known for the black marks on their face that resemble domino masks. Their apparent coloration may vary as boreal gumshoos frequently have lichens or moss growing on their fur. The lichens appear to be capable of plant-based attacks, toxic spore release and rapid regrowth. Boreal gumshoos generally hunt by following the scent trails of other predators, finding their kills and then either waiting for the predator to move on or scaring the predators off. They have longer claws than their plains counterparts which they use for defense, offense and climbing trees. They have relatively smaller teeth, on balance. They hibernate and reproduce during winter months, emerging in the spring with their cubs in tow. Raticate Raticate (Rattata) Rattus vulgaris ho¡¯ouka Overview Raticate are nothing if not versatile. Their mix of hardiness, intelligence, and fecundity has allowed them to find a niche in almost every corner of the world. Most species and subspecies adjust well to captivity and the Alolan raticate is no exception. Diet aside the species is relatively low maintenance. Even their selective taste in food can be useful when grocery shopping. Families that can afford the food bill may find raticate to be a good pet for teaching children about pok¨¦mon care. On the island challenge they may not be the strongest member of a team in the long run, but their relatively easy care can balance out more care-intensive team members. Physiology All stages of the Alolan raticate are classified as dual normal- and dark-types by the Department of Agriculture. The dark subtype is justified by their nocturnal behavior and resistance to telepathy. The latter was probably developed to help them prey on the psychic birds of Akala, the first island they were introduced to in the archipelago. Rattata are small quadrupeds. Their fur is counter-shaded with cream fur on the bottom and black fur on their back. They have prominent ears with tufts of black fur on top. Their incisors are very large and protrude from their mouth even when it is closed. They have a long prehensile tail that is used for balance while running or climbing. Healthy raticate are nearly as wide as they are long. Their tail loses its fur and their hindlegs become proportionally larger and stronger while their front legs become proportionally smaller. The fur on their belly darkens to a mottled brown color. They gain large, puffy cheeks with cream colored fur on them. Rattata are primarily quadrupeds that sometimes stand on two legs to scout out their surroundings. Raticate, when they move at all, tend to waddle on their hind legs. This keeps their teeth in play during fights and makes them appear larger than they really are. Raticate and rattata primarily defend themselves with their teeth, and a fully grown raticate can bite with up to 8,000 Newtons of force. Most of the average raticate¡¯s mass is composed of fat reserves. Their claws are neither particularly long or sharp. This leaves them few weapons aside from their teeth in a fight. Raticate navigate primarily through their keen sense of smell. Their vision is comparable to a human¡¯s during the day and far superior at night. Despite their large ears raticate are nearly deaf. The leading theory is that their atrophied hearing helps avoid attacks from the noivern and crobat they compete for nest space with. The ears are either vestigial or help with heat regulation. The alolan raticate¡¯s sense of taste is one of the strongest observed in nature. While technically omnivorous, they will only eat very fresh meat from a handful of species. In captivity they have shown a greater willingness to eat meat that is fresh, high quality and well prepared. They can subsist on vegetation alone provided that their protein needs are met. Raticate grow to a length of three feet excluding their tail or four feet including it. They can weigh up to eighty pounds but usually only weigh around fifty. Most wild rattata die before their second birthday without becoming fully grown. Raticate in captivity can live up to six years. The lifespan of wild raticate is unknown. Behavior Every night, rattata leave their nest to scour the earth for any food they can find. Their habit of gnawing through doors to pilfer pantries is well documented. As daybreak approaches the rattata all retreat back to their home. Fully grown raticate only leave their nest to defend their territory. It is believed that raticate live in groups of one dominant female and at least one male breeding partner. They live with dozens of their offspring and a few unrelated rattata. Raticate either dig their own tunnel network to live in or, when available, take to living in existing caves or burrows. Most of the food the rattata acquire is given to the raticate of the nest. It is believed that the raticate take more than they need in order to keep the rattata in a state of starvation. This limits the number of rattata that reach their adult state and can compete for sexual partners, territory, and food. Raticate nests have been known to go to war. These fights are apparently unplanned and simply occur when two rattata find the same piece of food at roughly the same time. The loser of their squabble will call reinforcements. As losses mount and increasing number of reinforcements are called, the raticate on both sides will leave their nests and join the fray. The fight ends when the dominant raticate in either nest is killed, one side¡¯s losses are great enough that their raticate calls a retreat, or the sun rises and gumshoos begin to wake up. In the latter case the fight will usually resume at the same place roughly ninety minutes after sundown. Defeated raticate will often abandon the rattata in their nest and swim to another island to start again. Their fat reserves make them quite buoyant and they use their tails to propel themselves through the water. Husbandry The Alolan raticate has become accustomed to eating large quantities of very high-quality food. Both stages of the evolutionary line require roughly 40% of their weight in food each week. They will become upset if they receive less than that and will frequently seek out food to eat on their own. If a raticate believes itself to be chronically deprived, it will either stop obeying orders or run away. Raticate will frequently reject food they deem to be insufficiently fresh or tasty. It is recommended that trainers bring well-trained raticate with them when shopping so it can select food that it will eat. This both saves on guesswork and ensures that their trainer will eat well themselves. However, this can make raticate expensive to care for. Raticate require objects, preferably metal or bone, to gnaw on. If they are not provided these objects, they will resort to chewing on furniture, load-bearing walls and kitchen appliances. Wild raticate use specialized chambers of their nest for urination and defecation. This makes them quite easy to housebreak. Raticate will ask to be groomed at least twice a week. They are essentially incapable of grooming themselves and quite insistent upon cleanliness. Rattata can even be trained to help tidy up their home. Both stages are very social and cuddly pok¨¦mon and will usually seek to be close to their trainer. They enjoy sleeping alongside their trainer, but their sleep patterns tend to prevent this from happening. Fully grown raticate seldom mind being used as a pillow during the day. Rattata, like most naturally hierarchal pok¨¦mon, acclimate rather quickly to taking orders from a human. Raticate are somewhat harder to tame, but they will usually come around to a human who feeds them well. Illness Raticate are carriers of several human diseases. They should be vaccinated within two weeks of capture or birth. They can infect and be infected by their trainer. The best solution to this is keeping both parties clean. Raticate¡¯s sensitive stomachs make them vulnerable to food poisoning. They will usually refuse food that would make them sick, but sometimes they make an error in judgment or, if desperate, will eat food they suspect is bad. Gumshoos were introduced to Alola to curtail the growing raticate population. Ultimately, they proved unsuccessful. This is largely because Alola¡¯s relative dearth of mid-size nocturnal predators allowed the raticate to become nocturnal and avoid gumshoos with relatively few consequences. The raticate population was ultimately checked by another invasive species, albeit one introduced unintentionally. The white mask fungus is a parasitic mold that spreads across a raticate¡¯s face. The mold prevents breathing, contaminates the food they eat, and usually blinds them. It is the leading cause of raticate death in captivity. The first sign of an infection is usually a raticate vigorously rubbing their face against an object without gnawing on it. Infections spotted very early on can be treated. If the infection is allowed to develop the raticate will need to be euthanized. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Evolution Rattata, provided they are sufficiently fed, will typically evolve into a raticate within a year of their birth. Very well fed rattata or those that battle frequently can evolve in less six months. The appearance of cream-colored fur surrounding their entire mouth is the formal demarcation line between rattata and raticate. Battle The Alolan raticate has no presence in the international or national professional battling circuits. Other species do, although they are usually a crutch for young trainers due to the relatively short time it takes to fully train one and raise it to maturity. The atomic raticate was well on its way to establishing itself as one of the premier threats on the international competitive scene. Then it was banned in every league. At present it is highly unlikely the restrictions upon it will ever be lifted. Rattata are fast but fragile. Their bite is one of the strongest attacks that new trainers are likely to have access to. The optimal strategies for a rattata take advantage of this through priority or speed-boosting moves to dodge attacks and close the distance. Rattata fight somewhat better against large opponents than small ones as they can weave around attacks and hit vulnerable areas. Rattata are surprisingly clever and capable of learning a number of dark-type tricks and attacks. Raticate do not like to fight. They are nowhere near as agile as their juvenile form. On balance they sport the bulk necessary to take a few hits before going down. The sheer power of a raticate bite is enough to end most fights in a few hits, but by that point the raticate will likely either be too injured to continue or otherwise give up. By the time a raticate reaches maturity it is best to retire it to the role of grocery shopping aid and refocus training time and resources on pok¨¦mon with a more combative disposition and a higher strength ceiling. Acquisition Rattata can be caught, adopted, or purchased with a Class I license. They can be found nearly anywhere in Alola at night, or in caves during the day. Raticate can be adopted or purchased with a Class I license or caught with a Class II license. They are usually only found safeguarding their nests underground alongside dozens of rattata that will defend them in battle. It is recommended that trainers wishing to own a raticate should simply capture and raise a rattata. Due to their fecundity the few trainers who wish to breed raticate will often end up with more offspring than they desire to keep. As such, rattata can be easily purchased or adopted in the major cities of Alola. Breeding A raticate exposed to another raticate (or a closely related species) of the opposite sex will attempt to breed with it. They have no particular breeding season and, in the wild, are believed to reproduce continuously. After a pregnancy of roughly eighty days a raticate will give birth to around fifteen offspring. Trainers are required to spay or neuter their raticate unless they possess a permit to breed them. Relatives Unlike dartrix, the various species of raticate do not fall into clear groupings. Only a handful of particularly common or interesting ones will be noted here. Trainers wishing to do further reading are advised to go to their local library and check out a copy of Raticate: A Story of Global Conquest by Dr. Ellen Faraday. Western raticate (R. vulgaris) have dark grey fur. Their tails are short and hairless. They are much leaner than the Alolan raticate descended from them. They have more developed legs and feet tipped in long claws. Western raticate do not dig burrows or seek shelter in caves. They live in social groups of one pair of raticate and their most recent litter. Western raticate seek shelter in tall grass, marshlands or tree branches when possible. Their range covers temperate Europe from Kalos to the Caucuses. After the outbreak of atomic raticate in Galar a very through extermination program for all raticate was undertaken. The island is now free of raticate. Paldea is similarly raticate-free due to the presence of gumshoos, maushold, and an abundance of mid-size and large felines. The eastern raticate (R. marshal) is the second most common species. They have a lighter coloration with cream chest fur and light brown fur on their back. They are primarily quadrupeds who sometimes rear up on their hind legs for intimidation. They are even more fecund than the Alolan raticate and can produce up to seventy offspring a year. The eastern raticate is primarily diurnal. Most of their diet is comprised of small animals and pok¨¦mon, although they have also been known to dig up the roots of plants and eat them. Eastern raticate are found in eastern China, northern India, Central Asia, and on the southern Japanese islands. Raticate have fared poorly in Africa due to the sheer number of mid-sized predators and felines that exist, including the plains gumshoos. The main species there is the six-eyed raticate (R. hexagonum). These raticate do not, in fact, have six eyes; they have two and, ironically, are nearly blind. The remaining eyes are their nostrils and two facial markings that serve an unknown purpose. They are one of the smaller raticate subspecies, but also one of the heaviest. This is because their bodies are coated in thin layers of metallic fur and their claws are composed of nearly pure iron. They dig elaborate tunnel networks underground. One of the few things that is well documented is that they seek out and eat metal deposits. This previously limited their range and numbers, but the growth of modern, metal-filled cities on the continent has removed these limiting factors. There have been dozens of events where swarms of thousands of six-eyed raticate ascended upon the business district of an African city and began to devour the buildings. Whether they eat something other than metal has yet to be established as they eat any cameras stuck in to their tunnels to observe them. No specimen has survived in captivity for more than three weeks. The Caribbean raticate (R. hydrophilus) is the only species known to spend most of its time in the water. They have long, broad tails roughly equal to half of their body length. Their paws are large and webbed and their body is slender with short, fine, counter-shaded fur. Caribbean raticate swim out to coral reefs or similarly abundant areas during the day and swim down to hunt slow moving or stationary pok¨¦mon underwater. They use their front paws to grab ahold of their prey and their powerful jaws to crunch down and kill it. They are even capable of shattering mollusk shells. At night they retreat to nearby islands to sleep on or near the shore. Faster invasive species such as sharpedo have begun to compete with them for food or hunt them directly, leading to a sharp decline in their numbers in the last fifteen years. The species is still in no danger of going extinct due to a strong captive breeding program. While the six-eyed raticate can damage cities and the western raticate is a well-known carrier of plagues, neither has terrified the public quite like the atomic raticate (R. musacomedentis vastator). Prior to 1971, the dominant raticate species in Papua New Guinea were arboreal herbivores that moved from tree to tree eating leaves and fruit. This species, the New Guinean raticate, only reached lengths of thirteen inches. In March 1971 the United States government began a series of oceanic nuclear bomb tests in the sea between Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. That August a field biologist in New Guinea recorded seeing a raticate over six feet in length. In October a biologist working on the opposite side of the country documented a ten-foot raticate. The atomic raticate became too large for the trees to support them and they moved to the ground. At some point they changed their diet to suit their new habitat. By the start of 1971 the remaining humans in the provinces of Enga, the Southern Highlands, the Western Highlands, and Hela had been evacuated. In 1974 there was an outbreak of crossbred atomic and western raticate in Motostoke. Approximately 35,000 people were killed over the course of three years. A 1982 outbreak in Toronto led to the destruction of the city¡¯s subway system and the deaths of approximately 11,000 people. Subsequent outbreaks across Canada killed another 5,000. There have been no sightings of the species outside of New Guinea since 2002. Atomic raticate are by far the most prodigious breeders of all subspecies, capable of producing up to 600 offspring a year which mature over the course of roughly eleven months if properly fed. They have been known to bide their time in the forests near urban areas until their numbers are great enough to begin the proper hunt. It is believed that they actively seek out humans to kill and eat. It is unknown if this is for sport or nutritional reasons. International law prohibits the study of live atomic raticate specimens and field research upon them is extremely difficult. The limited research conducted by professional battlers and biologists prior to the Motostoke and Toronto outbreaks suggested that the atomic raticate had a very powerful connection to elemental energy. This granted them effective dynakinesis, creating bursts of fire, radiation or electricity around their body. Their crossbred offspring exhibited exceptional elemental powers of the other species¡¯ typing. All variations of the atomic raticate used their power to dampen incoming attacks of almost every nature, making them nigh-invulnerable to everything but some toxins. In 1997 the United Nations Security Council designated the island of New Guinea as a nature preserve under U.N. administration and began to relocate the survivors. Australia was initially supposed to take the refugees, but the Australian government prevented the New Guineans from disembarking at the last minute. At present they are being held on the Solomon Islands in a state of legal limbo. Drone expeditions and satellite imagery have confirmed that the atomic raticate population remains strong on New Guinea. A 2010 expedition the island found very little else there except for plants, birds and canopy-dwelling pok¨¦mon. It is unclear exactly what the raticate are eating. If there is any silver lining it is that the atomic raticate are not adept swimmers. It is illegal under international law to possess a Caribbean raticate within 300 kilometers of New Guinea. Butterfree Butterfree (Caterpie, Metapod) Delicativis alisiris Overview There is a paradox at the heart of Alolan ecology. Virtually all pok¨¦mon on the island were introduced by humans, either by the original Polynesian settlers or the waves of colonizers and immigrants who came after them. Alola''s ecology is also remarkably balanced. With the partial exceptions of gumshoos and ratic, nateo single species has come to dominate the island. Even the dozen or so apex predators mostly keep their numbers and ranges small and specialized to minimize conflict and further diversify the ecosystem. Butterfree are as good a representation as any as to how this can be true. Butterfree were introduced to Alola by Japanese immigrants in the 1920s. They quickly carved out a niche and expanded in population¡­ to a point. A variety of factors prevented butterfree from ever experiencing the initial explosive growth rates of some invasive species. To start with, caterpie and butterfree are picky eaters whose preferred diet mostly constitutes introduced plants, which are themselves limited by other factors. While they later became quite fond of the so-called "meadow quartet," they found competition in those spaces from ribombee and oricorio, in addition to the migratory birds in Alola that already knew how to deal with butterfree. There has never been a serious attempt to exterminate the butterfree population. This is because they have come to fill an important ecological niche. Ribombee tend to go dormant in the wet season, allowing newly evolved butterfree to pick up the slack as the dominant pollinator. Butterfree are also widely regarded as the most beautiful of Alola''s insect pok¨¦mon. The blue butterfree in particular has become a source of pride. Due to their relative cuteness, low maintenance, battle niche and short life expectancy, butterfree are an excellent first bug-type for trainers. They are also quite gentle and surprisingly playful. This makes them a popular pet for acclimating children to pok¨¦mon. Physiology Caterpie and metapod are classified as pure bug-types. Butterfree is classified as a bug/flying type. There have been periodic attempt to reclassify it as either a bug/psychic or a psychic/flying type, but its powerful flight and control of wind currents as well as its distinctly insectoid anatomy have led to those proposals being rejected. Caterpie looks like a green worm with eight distinct segments of decreasing size from head to tail. The head has two large eye-like markings. These are not actually their eyes and are used solely for intimidation. The eyes are slightly below the markings. Caterpie have a pair of legs on each segment but their first and last. Their head has a large branched antennae. They do not appear to use this antennae for sensory purposes; it contains glands that allow them to emit a horrific stench. Metapod are shaped like green crescent moons with eyes. Once again, these are not real eyes. Metapod do not, strictly speaking, have eyes. They do have eye spots which allow them to sense ambient light levels. The shell of a metapod is extremely durable, capable of taking hits from even pikipek and other young birds. By contrast, their insides are mostly composed of a highly viscous liquid except immediately after and immediately before evolution (see Evolution). Metapod seldom move and never eat or defecate. The most metapod can do in their own defense is secrete a sticky silk-like substance. There have even been some attempts in the scientific community to reclassify metapod as an egg rather than a pok¨¦mon, with caterpie and butterfree being technically separate species. This theory has not gained the endorsement of any major scientific organization. Metapod are typically around two feet long and weigh about five pounds. Butterfree possess a body with two blue segments, blue feet and red feelers. Additionally, they possess a large pair of red compound eyes. Their wings are far larger than their main body and have a white coloration with various black lines marking them. Butterfree wings are remarkably water resistant and they are both strong and nimble fliers. This enables them to launch spores up to ten meters with reasonable accuracy, as well as fly relatively unencumbered in even the heaviest of rains. Butterfree grow to a length of three feet and a weight of six pounds. Other guidebooks have reported butterfree¡¯s weight as exceeding seventy pounds, which is obviously false. No insect of butterfree''s size could fly, much less float and glide, with that weight In captivity and the wild, butterfree can live up to fifteen months after evolving, but they typically only live for about ten (see Illness). Metapod may be immortal if not exposed to injury or water. Behavior All stages of the evolutionary line are almost exclusively herbivorous. They primarily seek out and eat plants with either an unpleasant taste or toxic properties. Caterpie and metapod store the spores, toxins and oils inside of themselves to create horrific smells and tastes to deter would-be predators. Butterfree are more active in seeking out specific spores, which they then store in chambers right beneath their wings. They can then emit powders with effects dependent upon their diet. Melemele butterfree typically specialize in paralytics, Akala butterfree in psychoactive powders, Ula''Ula butterfree in chemical burns and rashes, and Poni butterfree in sleep inducing spores and other depressants. In captivity their diet can be selected to alter or maximize their capabilities (see Husbandry). Even with their foul taste butterfree still have predators. Some birds such as fearow, noctowl and skarmory have olfactory glands weak enough to eat butterfree with only mild stomach irritation. Crobat can also shrug off some of their spore attacks and ambush butterfree at night when their vision is weaker and they tend to be tired or asleep. Snorlax and toucannon sometimes prey upon metapod. Arbok prey upon metapod and caterpie. Ariados have been known to snare and hunt caterpie and butterfree and, on the rare occasion that they leave their nest, they have been known to carry back any metapod they encounter to feed upon at a later time. Caterpie are diurnal foragers. They have a highly developed sense of smell and will walk for up to three hundred feet to find the optimal plant in range. This may not sound like a long distance, but for a small and slow-moving insect it definitely is. Once a caterpie finds their desired tree it will climb into it and eat leaves until it is forced out by a competitor or predator, the tree dies or stops producing leaves, or a better foraging opportunity presents itself. When a caterpie exits a tree they produce a silk line and slowly lower themselves to the ground. A captive caterpie that is provided leaves at regular time and in adequate supply will still seek to climb on objects around it such as walls, lamps or their trainer. Metapod have no behaviors worth noting. Butterfree are diurnal, but they are most active whenever it is raining to take advantage of weather that grounds other birds. They also serve as pollinators, seeking out nectar and other sweet substances and then moving from plant to plant. Most smoothie stores in their range tend to have at least one resident butterfree camped out nearby hoping to pilfer leftovers or steal from customers. When dormant they perch and sleep in the canopies of tall trees. They sleep with their wings fully extended at their sides to make them appear larger to any would-be attackers. Husbandry Caterpie primarily eat leaves, although some nutritional supplements can be mixed in. Battling trainers should conduct further research with a more specialized guide and alter their caterpie''s diet to include more foul-tasting leaves. All bug catching stores and some general pok¨¦mon supplies stores will keep these leaves in stock. Caterpie being raised as pets, especially for small children, should be fed a standard leaf mix available at all Pok¨¦mon Centers and supply stores. This prevents them from gaining a particularly foul scent. Metapod do not consume food. Butterfree diets are more difficult to replicate in captivity. Some mix of fruit, flowers, and nectar is advisable. Detailed specialist guides can outline combinations that have been shown to work well for butterfree aimed at battling. A simple assortment of fresh or live flowers, honey and nectar will usually do the trick. Sugar water and fruit juices make for good rewards. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. Caterpie cannot be housebroken. Butterfree can be, although it requires a fair bit of effort and will likely require a more experienced bug trainer to assist in the process. Caterpie waste is a dense soild; butterfree waste is a thin, almost colorless liquid. It is recommended that trainers bond with their caterpie before it evolves into metapod. This can be accomplished by supervising it while it forages in nature, holding leaves and making the caterpie crawl over you to get them or providing it a climbing perch where its leaves are regularly provided with the trainer standing or sitting nearby it. All of these activities get caterpie to associate their trainer with food. Butterfree will frequently perch on their trainers'' head or outstretched arm when allowed to do so. As a word of caution, they are surprisingly heavy. A gentle flick of the arm or head will usually be enough to convince them to leave. They are remarkably intelligent and enjoy toys such as balls, puzzles containing nectar, fans, surfaces with strange textures, fog machines, and strobe lights. It is good for butterfree''s enrichment to allow them to go outside on rainy days. Few of their predators fly in the rain, making it one of the few times they can safely remain unsupervised. Butterfree are smart enough to be taught to respond to even fairly complex verbal commands with time. Caterpie show no particular aversion to being held inside a pok¨¦ball. Metapod should be transferred inside of a pok¨¦ball but should otherwise be left alone and outside of their ball. Butterfree resent being held in all but the most comfortable pok¨¦balls during the day, although it is sometimes necessary to keep them from flying off. They show no particular aversion to their ball at night, and some butterfree seem to prefer it as a means of keeping them safe from real or imagined predators. Illness Unfortunately, time is something butterfree have in short supply. In their native range, caterpie typically hatch in early spring, evolve a few weeks later, evolve again two to six weeks after that, lay eggs in the fall and die off in the winter. Migration is largely impossible as they are outcompeted by faster and more aggressive butterfly and moth species to the south of them. In Alola there is no particular reason that they need to die off in the winter. However, butterfree macroevolution has done little to select against age-related diseases beyond eight months. As such, butterfree typically succumb to organ failure or cancer between nine and twelve months of age. Some butterfree have been documented as living a few months longer, but none have ever lived to see sixteen month. Some injuries affecting caterpie, metapod and butterfree can be cured. Veterinarians at Pok¨¦mon Centers will fix up the simple ones for free. Most serious injuries or those related to illness rather than battle wounds are not covered for the simple reason that they would give the butterfree another year of life at most. Some private sector veterinarians may be willing to cure serious butterfree illnesses. But butterfree trainers must consider if it is worth paying large amounts of money to keep their pok¨¦mon alive for another few months. Evolution A well-fed caterpie will grow rapidly over the course of roughly six weeks. They do not grow linearly; they periodically shed their skin and crawl out. Over the next twelve hours they grow in size and develop another exoskeleton. This process will be repeated roughly ten times before caterpie are able to evolve. In the wild caterpie climb up to an inaccessible or hidden spot in a tree, tie a thick silk line, and form a thick exoskeleton cocoon around themselves. In captivity caterpie should be provided a safe place to rest at least once a week to see if they will evolve. Once evolution occurs, the metapod should be left undisturbed in the same place for a week. They should never be battled with. If a metapod evolves inside of a Pok¨¦mon Center room, the trainer will be allowed to stay there for the full week. Metapod evolve under very harsh or persistent rain. In nature they can sometimes lie dormant for the entire dry season. If natural rain is unavailable one to three weeks after metapod evolves in captivity, it is best to seek out a sprinkler room used to care for amphibians and water-types. Some of the largest Pok¨¦mon Centers have them. Failing that, most fish or herpetology specializing stores will typically have such a room available for a fee. Inside of the metapod the caterpie¡¯s organs and flesh steadily dissolve into a thick green goo. As evolution progresses, the goo steadily reforms into a miniature butterfree. When the process is complete, the new butterfly will break out of the metapod shell and fly away. Butterfree grow from their initial size to their final size over the course of two to three weeks. Battle Caterpie are not natural battlers and actively avoid conflict whenever possible. In the wild their primary defense mechanism is to be so foul tasting and smelling that almost nothing wants to eat them. In captivity this makes them hard to coax into fights beyond forcing them onto a battlefield and hoping they reflexively defend themselves. Caterpie are typically too nervous or unintelligent to be properly trained. Their self defense mechanisms amount to (weak) bites, (weak) full body tackles, discharges from its scent glands, and silk tripwires it uses to bind or trap opponents. It should be noted that caterpie will simply run away from a sufficiently bound foe rather than taking the opportunity to damage them further. It is recommended that if caterpie must be used in battle at all they be used to tie up a particularly tricky opponent and then be withdrawn or forfeited to give another more combative ''mon an opening. Metapod should not be battled with. The slabs of their exoskeleton are incredibly durable and can take hits from pikipek and rattata. However, they are poorly built for handling impacts and will frequently burst and lose their inner liquid. These injuries are fatal. Many an aspiring youngster or bug catcher has dreamed of shocking the world stage with their butterfree, something they believe to be criminally underrated. Most trainer''s first abject humiliation comes from a butterfree. Flying projectile users are incredibly good counters for melee fighters. Butterfree have access to moderately powerful psychic attacks and delicate but powerful wings. Those traits in tandem allow them to strike with gusts of wind or carry spores to hit their target with surprising accuracy. From there it''s only a matter of time before they finish their helpless opponent off. More clever trainers will note that butterfree would be a perfect addition to rain teams because they are capable fliers, the rain weakens fire attacks, and the weather allows for more powerful hurricane attacks. Even if there isn¡¯t rain on the field, butterfree''s aim allows it to usually land hurricanes. Butterfree is not the strongest of pok¨¦mon. Or the fastest. Or the most durable. There''s a reason that their main defense in the wild is being inedible. A well-used butterfree might remain viable towards the end of an island challenge, but on the world stage it''s hopelessly outmatched as a rain flier by pok¨¦mon such as swanna and pelipper. Its role as a status spreader is better left to bulky grass-types. Acquisition Caterpie are most common in meadows, temperate forests and near large man-made gardens or orchards. All stages of the evolutionary line can be captured, trained, adopted or purchased with a Class I license. Many trainers are tempted to go straight for capturing butterfree as there are no higher license requirements for doing so. This is usually inadvisable. To start with, butterfree are free-spirited, intelligent, and hate confinement. By the time a trainer gets a butterfree to cooperate it will either be mostly obsolete in battle or on death''s door. Butterfree tend to reflexively trust trainers who cared for them and fed them as a caterpie and watched over them as a metapod. Metapod can, technically, be captured. This ensures that a butterfree is obtained while they''re still young and the capture process is much easier. However, the butterfree will not recognize their trainer and all the usual problems of establishing dominance will apply. Most shelters simply release butterfree. They don''t like being held indoors and tend to fare well upon reintroduction to the wild. Butterfree, especially those of alternate colorations, can usually be purchased from breeders in major cities or near flower meadows. However, they will often charge a price that may not be worth paying to have a low-power pok¨¦mon for a few months. Caterpie are frequently sold in pet stores, but there''s no particular reason to pay to buy one when they''re already quite common and easy to capture in the wild. Captive-born caterpie will be slightly more used to humans, but caterpie adjust to new circumstances quite quickly as it is. Breeding Butterfree find mates during the summer and fall months. After a courtship ritual involving elaborate flight patterns and one party providing the other with flowers or honey, they will consummate the relationship. Roughly three weeks later, the female will lay their eggs in leaves near the canopy of a tree, typically during or after rainstorms. They do not continue to watch these eggs after they are laid and show no particular loyalty to their offspring. In captivity butterfree are somewhat more maternal and have been known to roost over their nest during their day and seek out and provide food to their offspring once they hatch. The reason for this difference is unknown. Butterfree can be bred in captivity. Provide the butterfree a mid-sized real or artificial tree in an indoor environment. Make sure the environment is kept relatively moist. Have enough leaves in supply to feed the caterpie once they hatch. Butterfree are often bred for their color schemes; several Alolan breeders specialize in blue-winged butterfree. Relatives Butterfree technically have no subspecies. However, they do have alternate color schemes. Color morphs do not have any major physiological differences. The most common alternate color schemes are blue, yellow, pink, orange, and dark green butterfree. Botanical gardens, zoos, and the royal aviary frequently have summer exhibits displaying butterfree of many different colors. These butterfree enjoy no substantial benefits in combat, but they do cost more to obtain and are almost exclusively found in captivity. Ledian Ledian (Ledyba) Quatropunctata alabaster Overview There is a peculiar sort of modern arrogance that history can be divided into two phases: the era of primitive mysticism and the Age of Science. The latter began only a few centuries ago. Before it no significant advances were made beyond, perhaps, the very basics of mathematics. Sometimes in their rush to repudiate ¡®superstition,¡¯ scientists reject ancient wisdom that is largely correct. Ledian appears to be one of those cases. The ancient poets, from India to Kalos to the Andes, claimed that ledian fed upon starlight. In the late 1700s a man by the name of John Alabaster published a lengthy treatise on how this belief was the height of ancient foolishness. Cultures around the world had built and protected homes for ledbya near their fields because ledyba prey upon other bugs. The same farmers would also complain when ledian ate the fruit from their orchards. What place was there for starlight in their diet? It is true that ledyba hunt bugs and ledian are very fond of fruit. However, it has been recently discovered that the cells on a ledian¡¯s carapace generate energy in reaction to relatively dim starlight. It is unknown what the advantage of such a strange diet is. Bright light does not trigger this reaction. Extrapolating from close relatives is also difficult. While ledbya look almost exactly like a larger version of a baseline insect, their organ systems are closer to a klinklang than a butterfree, to the extent that their physiology is understood at all. Ledian are fascinating and loyal pets that can hold their own in even international competitions. Unfortunately, the ledian cycle limits the times in which ledian are available and even further limits the amount of time most trainers will have to bond with their partners. Physiology All stages of ledian are classified by the Department of Agriculture as dual bug- and flying-types. There is some contention as to whether fairy should replace either of the current typings. Ledyba are not directly related to terrestrial insects. Their build and habits are still similar to them and they manipulate bug elemental energy reasonably well. Ledyba struggle to fly, but ledian are very adept fliers and aerokinetics. Ledian have a close association with the night sky and have inscrutable biology like many fairies. All three typings are supported. For now the government has stuck with the traditional typing. Ledyba have two segments. The larger of the two contains its wings and six small legs. The back of its carapace is marked with five black stars. The exact size and pattern of the stars varies between individuals. The second segment contains the ledyba¡¯s head. Their eyes are complex and quite similar to those of cephalopods or vertebrates. They have two large black antennae on their head. These antennae are used for smelling the world. Ledyba have scent glands located right beneath their antennae. They use these glands to signal their emotions, location, and intent to conspecifics. Ledyba are counter-shaded with yellow abdomens and orange backs. Ledian are some of the largest flying insects, reaching heights of up to five feet in parts of the world that are both warm year-round and have excellent air quality. Alola is one of those places. Ledian have a proportionally large head segment and a proportionally small ¡®body¡¯ segment. The two are connected by a short but visible neck. Ledian have black dots over their scent glands. Curiously, ledian have conventional compound eyes rather than the more complex eyes of their juvenile form. Ledian legs become more specialized with two serving as feet used for balance mid-flight and four growing longer and developing hard, round tips that vaguely resemble boxing gloves. Ledian gain a darker red coloration upon their backs. Ledbya appear to subsist entirely upon starlight. Ledian sometimes eat very sweet fruit or berries during summers, long periods of continuous cloud cover, or times of abnormally bad air quality. Ledian have rarely been observed producing waste and never been documented producing solid waste. Their digestive system, like almost all of their other organs, appears to be entirely different from known organic pok¨¦mon. The inner workings of ledian are still largely a mystery. Some organs (their ¡®brain,¡¯ their scent glands, their three hearts) readily appear to have a purpose. Most of their organs do not. The amount of energy a ledian obtains from starlight appears to be based upon the number of stars visible, air quality, cloud cover, the phase of the moon, and the length of the night. There is preliminary evidence that ledian energy production might depend upon the alignment of planets, long-term fluctuations of the Earth¡¯s tilt and distance from the sun, and the presence of nearby comets. Ledian can reach lengths of five feet and weights of thirty pounds. They live for no more than three years. Behavior Ledyba are some of the most gregarious of all pok¨¦mon. They live in swarms with a minimum of several hundred members. Very large swarms can contain thousands of individuals. Ledian are less social, but still prefer to live in groups of six or more. In the wild ledyba are known for forming huge swarms and, when attacked, grouping together and throwing up reflective shields around the entire swarm. Particularly powerful or stealthy birds enjoy preying upon ledyba, which causes their numbers to steadily decline. Even with human training and protection the total number of ledian in Alola inevitably declines to roughly 1,000 at its low point. Ledyba have long been known to find and kill other non-pok¨¦mon insects in their home. Ledyba emit a steadily stream of insecticide from their scent glands and use their weak punches and wind attacks when their poison alone won¡¯t do the trick. The purpose of these hunts is unclear as they do not compete for food with these insects and they seldom attack ledyba except in self-defense. Ledyba usually spare pollinators so they are beloved by farmers. The species was deliberately introduced in 1851 to safeguard plantations. This introduction has led to a decline in local insect populations, but Alola¡¯s birds of prey have kept the ledian population in check. Ledian also make a habit of hunting bugs. There are records of ledian going after vikavolt in the first few cycles after their arrival in Alola, but they have since stopped hunting the beetles. Vikavolt, in turn, have stopped hunting ledian. Almost all other non-pollinating bug-types are fair game. Ledian punches are surprisingly powerful and can be unleashed at rates of up to 130 punches a second between all four arms. Ledian¡¯s preferred tactic is to ambush a bug while it rests and unleash fast, targeted punches to a particular area on their target¡¯s exoskeleton. The resulting force is not intended to break the exoskeleton. Rather, it is meant to put pressure on weak points elsewhere and cause the insect to burst open. Ledian hunt insects that do not compete for space and food. They do not eat the remains or lay eggs in them. Attempts to discern their reasoning through telepathy have proven unsuccessful, beyond traumatizing the human psychic. Past editions of this guidebook have referred to the trauma as simple arachnophobia. This no longer appears to be the case. The creatures telepaths see when they sync with ledian have nine long legs covered in spines that branch off into clusters of more spines, a core body that appears to be made up of a dodecahedron with giant, rapidly-moving eyes visible on each pane, translucent purple wings almost as large as the rest of the creature, and a constant scream one telepath described as ¡°¡­a baby crying on a plane, but its voice is a car crash, metal on metal... the volume is always changing¡­ as if pure, all-consuming hatred was condensed to a single word¡­¡± Telepathic scans have further confirmed that ledian minds are structured nothing like those of any other observed insect pok¨¦mon. These traits have made them minds a subject of intense curiosity among non-telepaths in the field of pok¨¦mon studies and also a subject that almost no telepath wants to touch. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. It is hypothesized that the so-called ¡°ledian spiders¡± may be relatives of metagross. Metagross seem fascinated by ledian. Ledian, in turn, are terrified of metagross. All stages of the evolutionary line rest in the day and fly at night in what appear to be elaborate dances and social rituals. It is unclear what the purpose of these are or what they mean, as ledian are just as likely to perform them with a member of their swarm they appear to dislike as they are to perform them their closest partner. Husbandry Because ledyba need no extra food than natural starlight and produce no waste, they would appear to be ideal pets. Several factors complicate this analysis. Ledyba become incredibly stressed when living in a swarm with fewer than twenty members. This is infeasible to replicate on most standard teams of six pok¨¦mon. Ledian are less gregarious, but still require either a full team of six pok¨¦mon or near-constant interaction with their trainer. They are intelligent and loyal creatures and enjoy play. Ledyba prefer to sleep in their pok¨¦balls. Ledian have no particular preference between being in a stasis ball or sleeping outside. Habitat balls can lead to boredom or panic attacks and are not recommended. Ledyba and ledian both drain their energy reserves while they are in their pok¨¦balls and will need to be let out each night. It is recommended that they have a guard pok¨¦mon, preferably an electric, rock, or ice-type, to ward off birds of prey. Ledian are almost constantly releasing powerful scents to signal their moods. Sometimes these scents can be quite pleasant. Sometimes they are not. It should be accepted that a ledian trainer will gradually gain a rather distinctive scent due to their pet¡¯s communications. Ledian are some of the easiest pok¨¦mon to tame due to the almost absurd lengths they will go to in pursuit of the fruits they enjoy. Providing challenges or games with fruit as a reward will convince a ledian to practice their moves, engage in battle, or pick up prosocial behaviors for a comparatively low cost. Ledian do not appear to gain weight when overfed, but it is best for a trainer¡¯s wallet if they don¡¯t overdo it. The more rewards a ledian gets, the less they will respond to the opportunity of obtaining food. As the ledian¡¯s life cycle ends they will attempt to leave their trainer. They should be allowed to go as every surviving ledian is important for restoring the population at the end of the cycle (see Breeding). It is extremely difficult to train a ledian alongside other bugs. Butterfree, ribombee, and vikavolt are the only exceptions in Alola. Very experienced bug specialists can sometimes pull it off, but it¡¯s a task best left to zookeepers and the world¡¯s top trainers and researchers. Illness Ledian very seldom get sick. When they do there is nothing a veterinarian can do for them given their odd physiology. Ill ledian should be comforted, exposed to as much starlight as possible, and left outside of their pok¨¦ball. Sometimes they will recover on their own. More than one ledian has come to view feigning illness as a trick they obtain fruit for performing. Trainers should resist the urge to overfeed ¡®sick¡¯ ledian. Evolution Ledyba grow steadily after birth through repeated molts until they reach a height of roughly two feet at seven months of age. At this point their size remains stagnant for one to three months until they begin metamorphosis. The soon-to-be-ledian will drop down to the floor of the swarm¡¯s nest and remain there, protected by other members of the swarm, for roughly two weeks. During this period they undergo repeated molting and rapid growth. Ledyba only evolve when they have a ready source of protection. When a ledyba is held without other ledyba, something that is legal but generally inadvisable, they will only evolve when provided a dark and sheltered area for at least one month. Battle Ledyba are cowards that actively avoid battle with anything bigger than an inch long. They are more likely than not to simply freeze up when exposed to an opponent. Ledian are naturally combative and can be disciplined to hold back from killing other bugs with the help of some wild pok¨¦mon and fruit. Ledian have access to highly targeted punches, aerokinetic attacks, and low-level telepathic attacks. They are perhaps best used as supporting pok¨¦mon that set up telekinetic barriers, annoy the opponent, or otherwise facilitate a teammate¡¯s sweep. If a trainer is willing to invest time and money on specialized training and TMs, ledian can learn a plethora of nasty tricks to capitalize upon their screens. Roost and drain punch compensate for their relative frailty. Tailwind, agility, substitute, swords dance and baton pass can help set up another teammate. Encore, infestation and u-turn can help establish momentum. Ledian are also intelligent enough to know multiple tricks simultaneously which can keep opponents guessing as to whether ledian will serve as a momentum-builder, a sweep enabler or an all-out attacker. This has given ledian a niche in competitive battling circuits despite their lack of bulk or power. For amateurs with less time, resources, and knowledge to put into training a ledian, it is best to go for a screen-augmented attacker route. Mixing one or more of the classic protective screens (reflect, light screen, safeguard) with moves such as comet punch, bug buzz and air slash together will let ledian continue to play a role through either the end of the island challenge or the end of the cycle, whichever comes first. Acquisition Ledyba require a Class III license to capture, adopt or purchase. Ledian only require a Class I license. The disparity is in place to prevent trainers without the time, resources, or skill to wrangle twenty or more ledyba from trying to do so. The abundance of ledian and their evolutionary stage largely depend on the time in the cycle. Consult a bug pok¨¦mon or agricultural supplies store to learn about current availability. At some points in the cycle the capture of ledian is strictly prohibited. Late in the cycle when ledian are present and no longer living in large swarms they can typically be found near orchards, gardens, plantations or some sparse temperate forests. Ledian are easily intrigued and bribed with fruit and hugs. They can be overpowered and captured, but it¡¯s usually best to get them to join your team voluntarily. Simply giving them food, attention and a community is enough to establish dominance over them. Breeding It is impossible to breed ledian in captivity. Ledian operate on well-known cycles based around total lunar eclipses, which occur about once every 2.5 years. Eggs are laid during the eclipse and hatch two to three weeks later. Ledyba eggs are about the size of a ping-pong ball and look and feel more like a crystal than a standard egg. The eggs are translucent and the growing ledyba is clearly visible. When the ledyba eggs hatch there are suddenly hundreds of thousands of tiny ledyba in Alola guarded by roughly 1000 ledian. Predators take advantage of this. Mortality is particularly high if the cycle begins when migratory birds are in Alola. By the time ledyba reach full size, there are typically only ten thousand remaining in the archipelago. Once all the ledyba have evolved they begin to split off into smaller swarms of ten to twenty individuals. Individuals and swarms are gradually coaxed into captivity or killed off by predators until only about 50 swarms remain in the wild, with another 25 in captivity on large plantations. The remainder are held by private trainers or zoos and botanical gardens. As the end of the cycle nears the captive ledian will begin to leave their trainers to return to the place of their birth. On the night of the total lunar eclipse the ledian will begin one final moonlight ritual, this one with a clear purpose. Details of this event are largely unknown as ledian react with hostility to humans approaching their mating grounds and have even been known to destroy drones sent in to observe. The next morning the ground of the mating areas are littered with eggs. Ledian will spend the next six months fiercely defending their offspring. Most will die in this process as predators flock to the swarms. The remaining ledian will begin to die off six months after the eclipse, unleashing powerful and incomprehensible psychic waves as they do so. Some captive ledian will choose to return to their trainers to die. Those that successfully return will embrace their human and initiate a psychic connection. Trainers report visions of vast fields of brightly colored stars and what appears to be a nebula in the middle-distance. The humans often report feelings of confusion and awe at mundane objects such as trees or forks in the following weeks, along with an overpowering sense of love for almost everyone and everything. Relatives Ledian can be found in most tropical and temperate areas of the world. Despite their large range they do not have any distinct subspecies. Their closest relative on Earth may be metagross, but this is largely speculative. Ariados Ariados (Spinarak) | ¨¡l¨¬du¨­s¨© (Xi¨¤nqi¨²) Licio major alola | Licio major domesticus Overview It is somewhat uncommon for two subspecies of the same pok¨¦mon to coexist in the same range. There are forces that encourage specialization, but the pok¨¦mon in an area usually continue to interbreed enough that the subspeciation process is slow. Ariados is the first pok¨¦mon discussed in this guide with two subspecies classified by the Department of Agriculture as having ¡°significant populations¡± in the Commonwealth of Alola. These are commonly referred to outside of Alola as the Yangtze ariados and the Alolan ariados. Within Alola, the latter are just called ¡°ariados¡± (spinarak as juveniles) and the former are referred to by their transliterated Chinese name, ¨¡l¨¬du¨­s¨© (xi¨¤nqi¨² as juveniles). These names will be used unless noted otherwise. The ancestors of ¨¡l¨¬du¨­s¨©, now extinct, were smaller, nimbler and more aggressive than the current pok¨¦mon. Even while the humans in their range despised the spiders, they had to respect the sheer durability of their silk, which was capable of withstanding slashes from bronze swords. Eventually, the Chinese domesticated the species. Anthropologists have yet to figure out exactly how. The folklore revolves around a woman who was cursed to become a spider for infidelity, married a male spider and served as a dutiful wife, and was then rewarded with humanity by the gods. However, she still loved her spider children and raised them as her own. This is perhaps the most plausible explanation for how relatively intelligent and asocial man-eating spiders were tamed by humans who had no reliable way of harming or containing them. No other culture managed to domesticate their local spider species, and several of them are less intimidating than the historical record suggests the proto-¨¡l¨¬du¨­s¨© were. For centuries, ¨¡l¨¬du¨­s¨© silk was known and coveted as far away as the banks of the Niger and Rubicon. Yet the spiders themselves never developed a long-term foothold outside of East Asia. Part of this was a deliberate policy decision by the Chinese empires not to undermine their silk monopoly. In several dynasties ¨¡l¨¬du¨­s¨© smuggling was punished by the execution of the trafficker and their entire family. The first attempt to raise ¨¡l¨¬du¨­s¨© on Alola occurred before first contact with Europeans and was apparently unsuccessful. Some of the descendants of those ¨¡l¨¬du¨­s¨© would later retreat to the dense jungles of Alola and become ariados. In the late 1800s a British entrepreneur decided to try again. Using some ¨¡l¨¬du¨­s¨© illegally smuggled from China, as well as some purchased from a desperate nobleman in Johto, he set up the first successful ¨¡l¨¬du¨­s¨© plantation outside of East Asia. Alola¡¯s climate meant that ¨¡l¨¬du¨­s¨© have plenty to eat and never have to hibernate. The only other spider pok¨¦mon in Alola are aquatic and relatively docile or, in the case of ariados, generally tolerant of others of their species. Vikavolt were used to keep birds away from the plantation. After only two decades, Elisha Gage owned no less than seven plantations across the islands and was well on his way to being the richest man in the archipelago. His political disputes with the king over taxation led to him overthrowing the monarchy. Four plantations remain today near Malie City and, ironically, Castleton on Ula¡¯Ula. Another two are located on smaller islands to the northwest of the Tapu Isles. Two are located around Melemele and one on Akala. Gage¡¯s company, now known as Gracidea Clothiers, is a multibillion-dollar corporation specializing in ¨¡l¨¬du¨­s¨© silk products and luxury clothing. They have since expanded into jewelry, private security, restaurants, bottled water, wine, and real estate. (Full disclosure: The Gage Foundation is the second largest donor to the Alola Pok¨¦mon League, the publishers of this guidebook.) Physiology All evolutionary stages of ariados are classified as dual poison- and bug-type pok¨¦mon by the Department of Agriculture. All evolutionary stages of ¨¡l¨¬du¨­s¨© are classified as pure bug-types. Spinarak are small arachnid pok¨¦mon with six legs and two body segments. Their legs are covered in uneven yellow and black stripes. The rest of their body is covered in a mottled green pattern. The stripes and discoloration break up lines of sight and make them harder to see. Most spinarak have features resembling two eyes and a mouth on the back of their body to ward off predators, although their mottled coloration sometimes obscures it. Spinarak produce and release silk from their larger rear segment. They do not release silk from their anus or genitals. Instead, it is released from a series of nearby glands which each specialize in a specific type of silk. Spinarak¡¯s smaller front segment contains the bulk of their central nervous system, although this also spreads into their hind segment and even their legs. The head segment also contains their mouth, venom sacs and eyes (unlike most spider pok¨¦mon, all subspecies and evolutionary stages of ariados only have one pair of eyes). Spinarak release venom from a stinger located just above their eyes. Spinarak venom is slow acting and primarily serves to weaken the target¡¯s immune system and interfere with their circadian rhythm. The damage it deals is meant to be long-term. Xi¨¤nqi¨² are slightly larger and bulkier than spinarak. Their legs are proportionally shorter and, instead of a mottled coloration, they are bright green. Unlike spinarak, they are somewhat poisonous throughout their entire body but can only emit rather weak venom from their stinger. Xi¨¤nqi¨² are not particularly well equipped for hunting prey and rely mostly upon feedings from either humans or their mother to survive. Ariados have long, spindly legs with pale yellow and grey stripes. Ariados¡¯ main body is covered in chaotic pale green and yellow patterns, often but not always with a black face marking on its back. Like most arachnids, ariados have eight legs. However, one pair is very small and located near their silk glands to manipulate and cut their silk. Spinarak and xi¨¤nqi¨² have only four legs, all in the traditional position. All subspecies of ariados gain two more legs on their back which they use to grab branches above them or other points on their web, as well as defend themselves better against birds and other aerial attackers. Ariados have more pronounced mandibles and stingers than their juvenile form and their purple eyes are well known in Alola for glowing in the dark. Their venom is almost identical to that of spinarak, although their larger size allows them to possess more of it. Male ariados frequently grow up to two feet long and seventy pounds, with females reaching lengths of thirty inches and weights of 90 pounds. ¨¡l¨¬du¨­s¨© are substantially larger than ariados. The females can reach lengths of up to four feet and weights of up to one hundred and sixty pounds. The smaller males only grow to three feet in length and weigh around 100 pounds. Their coloring is also notably brighter, consisting of yellow and pink stripes and patterns throughout their body with a very distinct black face marking on their back. Their mandibles and stinger are larger still than ariados¡¯ and colored pure white. These were both traits ancient farmers selected for aesthetic reasons. While their juvenile form is still rather poisonous, the adults have roughly the same quantity of poison spread throughout a much larger body. It is speculated that their ancestors were, in fact, poisonous enough no bird would eat them and venomous enough they could kill an adult human in less than a day. Farmers probably selected against both traits at some point, as the risk of getting killed by their livestock was more important than the risk of their livestock being killed by birds. Ariados silk is more difficult to work with and color than ¨¡l¨¬du¨­s¨© silk, but it is also far stickier. ¨¡l¨¬du¨­s¨© silk can be stronger than steel and lighter than almost all other cloths. Ariados silk is less durable and lightweight, but they produce more of it relative to their mass. The stickiness of the silk makes it better for snaring prey and worse for clothing humans. Ariados silk is also thinner than their domestic counterparts. This makes their webs more difficult to see. Ariados live up to two years in both the wild and captivity. Male ¨¡l¨¬du¨­s¨© live up to three years in captivity and females live up to five years. No substantial wild population of ¨¡l¨¬du¨­s¨© exists anywhere in the world. Behavior Wild spinarak old enough to have moved away from their mother¡¯s web tend to stick to the canopy. They do not make proper webs, instead relying on small networks of tripwires to snare small bugs (pok¨¦mon and otherwise), young birds and small mammals and reptiles (mostly non-pok¨¦mon). The spinarak will either drop more strands onto their prey from above or shoot webbing at them from a foot or two away. They will then either finish the prey off with their mandibles or, if it is too large to end in a single bite or too dangerous to get close to, they will stand motionless near their prey until it falls asleep, at which point they will either sting the prey or kill it. Ariados build elaborate webs spanning from the ground to the canopy. Their webs contain three distinct regions. The first is a dense ¡°house¡± compartment that the ariados sleeps in during the day to avoid predators that could pick them off their web. The second is a typical spiderweb in the canopy spanning from branch to branch. This is used to capture birds and small creatures who unwittingly crash into it. The ariados will typically approach them from behind and either finish them off immediately or sting them to slow and sedate their prey so it doesn¡¯t damage the web or alert other pok¨¦mon. The ariados will then eat the prey when it is hungry. The third portion of an ariados web is a series of thin tripwires spread out near the forest floor. These wires are attached to spools higher up in the web that can contain up to three thousand feet of thread apiece. A snagged creature will continue moving on none the wiser until it reaches its nest or resting spot. The ariados will then stalk the forest floor at night, following the thread until it reaches not only their sleeping prey but likely their entire family. If the prey are too large, powerful or numerous to take on in one sitting, the ariados will simply craft a web around the den and wait, occasionally landing stings or bites when it is safe to do so. Eventually the prey will die from infection or starvation, or at least fall into a deep enough sleep from the venom¡¯s effects that the ariados is comfortable killing them. Ariados can sometimes consume quantities greater than their body weight over the course of a week from these feasts. While ariados and ¨¡l¨¬du¨­s¨© can drink water, and often will in captivity, they are also quite capable of subsisting only off of their prey¡¯s bodily fluids. ¨¡l¨¬du¨­s¨© build elaborate structures more closely resembling a bird¡¯s nest than a spider¡¯s web. They prefer to find several nearby trees or bamboo poles and weave the structure between them, suspended entirely in midair. The exact form of the nest seems to be learned from the spider¡¯s mother and other nearby spiders rather than being an instinctual habit. ¨¡l¨¬du¨­s¨© abandon their webs about once every six months and find a nearby location suitable for creating a new one. If their web is destroyed or severely damaged, they will abandon their current site prematurely. This is when their silk is harvested. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¨¡l¨¬du¨­s¨© do not actively hunt, but they will eat anything that lands in their web. Recently abandoned ¨¡l¨¬du¨­s¨© in the wild have been observed scavenging nearby kills at night and retreating to their nest in the day. Something many people find strange about both subspecies is how friendly they are towards people. Both seldom attack, much less kill, humans. ¨¡l¨¬du¨­s¨© and captive-raised ariados will often seek out and approach humans who enter their territory to greet them and beg for food. Some wild born ariados that have never had a trainer have also been observed doing this. Captive-born spinarak will happily climb all over their trainer and other familiar humans. Xi¨¤nqi¨² are more cowardly and are frequently under their mother¡¯s watchful eye, but if they feel safe they sometimes will. Ariados have been known to attempt this but, given their large size, they usually fail and knock their trainer over. They then scurry away and hide out of either embarrassment or fear of retaliation. Husbandry All stages of the ariados line are carnivores, although they will eat plant-based treats. They can be fed pre-prepared food mixes such as dog, cat or insectivore food. Meat intended for human consumption, either cooked or raw, is also good. It is best to vary an ariados¡¯ diet over time. Food should be used as a reward for good behavior to help tame them, especially if the spider was captured as an ariados. Placing food around the environment and making the ariados hunt for it is also good for their mental well-being and prevents them from becoming entirely sedentary. In the wild ariados avoid defecating near their web as the scent alerts some prey species to the presence of spiders. Instead, the ariados leaves their web at night and walks up to two miles away (although usually no more than one, especially if they have young) to relieve themselves. If the ariados is a mother with young, she will bring the entire colony along either on her stomach, her back, or trailing behind her, depending upon the spinaraks¡¯ age. It is remarkably easy to train ariados to defecate outside in captivity. This is also a chance for exercise, especially if the walk goes on somewhat longer than is strictly necessary. Ariados are very fond of long night walks and can be taught to hold a leash on one of their back legs. Ariados will attempt to build webs almost anywhere they go. These can be difficult to clean up, even with expensive web dissolving fluids. It is best to keep ariados in their pok¨¦ball when staying in an indoor space you don¡¯t own, or an outdoor space where you aren¡¯t allowed to leave webs (check the rules or ask the owner everywhere you camp). Ariados don¡¯t mind their pok¨¦balls in the day; spinarak prefer them. Ariados also don¡¯t mind their pok¨¦balls at night so long as they are also allowed a walk and given food as bribery. ¨¡l¨¬du¨­s¨© and xi¨¤nqi¨² are generally calmer and lower maintenance. The exact diet they are fed in captivity is a trade secret, but it is known that they are omnivorous and that the plants in their diet are the key to the texture and quality of their silk. They seldom leave their webs but will defecate in a nearby receptacle. To learn more information, visit the ¨¡l¨¬du¨­s¨© Museum on Melemele Island near Plantation Point. Neither species hibernates in Alola due to the warm temperatures. If the ariados is taken out of the Commonwealth during the winter or late fall, they may attempt to do so. This is a perfectly natural behavior. Consult a more specialized guide on insect hibernation for more details. Illness Insect diseases, especially parasitic diseases, are notably difficult to cure as much of modern medicine revolves around killing insects and other simple creatures. Due to their relationship to ¨¡l¨¬du¨­s¨©, ariados diseases have some chance of being curable by at least one veterinarian in Alola¡¯s larger cities. The most common symptoms of disease are red patches appearing behind the ariados¡¯ stinger, the ariados obsessively scratching some portion of its body, anorexia, defects in their silk, an abrupt change in fecal color or consistency, or an abrupt change in temperament. If an ariados in Alola attempts to hibernate by retreating for a long period into a secluded, dark area that is not their own web, that could also be a sign of illness. Consult a veterinarian as soon as any of these symptoms are observed. Evolution Spinarak grow to their full size over the course of roughly eight months for males and ten for females. There are no particularly rapid growth spurts or other abrupt changes involved in the transition. The formal demarcation line between spinarak and ariados is when their back legs grow long enough to touch each other. ¨¡l¨¬du¨­s¨© grow to full size from xi¨¤nqi¨² in roughly six months. The formal demarcation line of evolution is the same as it is for spinarak and ariados. Battle ¨¡l¨¬du¨­s¨© are far more valuable as livestock than battlers and no one has ever seriously used one in a major competitive circuit. When they must defend themselves from battles, they use their hooked and somewhat pointed legs, especially the ones on their back, to defend themselves. They mostly avoid combat by staying inside of their tough, sticky webs. Spinarak and ariados suffer from being ambush predators. In the wild the success or failure of their hunts is usually determined before the prey even knows the predator is there. They are not particularly bulky and their mandible strength and venom are nothing special for a pok¨¦mon. Ariados have a very tiny niche in competitive battling as they cast the strongest webs and are able to project them up to a five feet away. If ariados were fast enough to dodge hits and weave around the battlefield to reduce their opponent¡¯s mobility, as galvantula can, they might be useful. The same would be true if they were bulky enough to move unimpeded regardless of what their opponent did to stop them. As neither is the case for ariados, their use on the circuits has been almost entirely confined to rising bug trainers who haven¡¯t had the time, money or experience to train something better suited for competitive battling. The headstone ariados has seen some usage in the few leagues where they are allowed. Their venom is one of the most painful and debilitating of any pok¨¦mon and they¡¯re decently fast, which makes them an excellent wallbreaker against stall teams with bulky but weak pok¨¦mon. However, their venom¡¯s potency has led to them being banned virtually everywhere. The notable exceptions are their native Johto and Kanto (they are traditional), Australia (everyone carries at least three venom counters per team), and some of the less established or regulated leagues (kills are an accepted part of the game). On the island challenge ariados can still be useful. They are best used as web layers that create traps around the battlefield until they can no longer safely continue. Ariados silk is quite flammable unless chemically treated after production, but it is very durable and sticky. This makes it difficult for opponents to remove without a fire-type and lighting the battlefield on fire often creates more trouble than it¡¯s worth. Of course, this will also slow down your own team members. They can be trained to navigate around the silk lines; your opponent¡¯s team will likely have no such training. Be mindful that this does not particularly hinder most birds or pok¨¦mon that would never land on the battlefield anyway. More than one bug trainer has made the mistake of laying down ariados webs just to find out that it makes it even easier for an opponent with a bird to sweep them. Acquisition Spinarak can be captured, adopted or purchased with a Class I license. They are most commonly found in the forests of Melemele around Route 1. They can also be found in Alolan Rainforests National Preserve on Akala Island and the areas around Malie City, including the Malie Gardens. Ariados require a Class II license to capture, adopt or purchase. They are found in the same locations as spinarak. Possession of a xi¨¤nqi¨² and ¨¡l¨¬du¨­s¨© requires a Class III license as well as a federal background check and security clearance. They are treated as resources vital to national security and their ownership is heavily guarded as such. Breeding Two ariados that cross paths in the early spring will engage in a courtship ritual consisting of a mock fight, displaying their webs to each other and the male presenting his prospective mate with food. Should his efforts be successful, the female will take him back to her nest and mate with him. She will later lay her eggs into a special cavity located just behind the legs on his back. As the spinarak are born they will emerge from their eggs slightly larger than a quarter in diameter. They will eat the lining of the cavity for nutrition and, eventually, the rest of their father¡¯s body. Once there is almost nothing left to consume, they will join their mother. Spinarak stay with their mother until they are roughly five months of age and a foot long. At this point they will leave their nest and wander the canopies until they evolve and begin forming a more permanent web. The female ariados will usually die of natural causes shortly after her offspring set off on their own. Captive breeding of ariados requires the death of the male. Attempts to strategically withdraw the male after the eggs have been fertilized angers both parties: the females become temporarily hostile towards humans and the males enter a suicidal depression. The female will usually eat her own eggs if not allowed to lay them inside of the male. Breeding is initiated in captivity by introducing a male ariados to a female with a well-established web. There will be a fight and, should they choose to mate, the rest of the process goes on much as it does in the wild. The female should be allowed to stay in the same place until her young are at least a month old. ¨¡l¨¬du¨­s¨© breeding is a trade and state secret revealed by Gracidea Clothiers or the Untied States government on a need-to-know basis. Relatives Aside from the Yangtze and Alolan ariados, four other variants have been documented. There are two subspecies of the Japanese ariados. The Johtonian ariados more closely resembles the Yangtze ariados than the Alolan one in size and coloration. They are both poisonous and venomous and function primarily as ambush predators that eat anything unfortunate enough to collide with their relatively thin and translucent web. They do not sleep or rest on their web and prefer to wait in the nearby canopy to maximize the chances something accidentally sticks themselves in their trap. The headstone ariados is a domestic breed created from the Johtonian ariados (itself created from feral Yangtze ariados). They have far more potent venom than any other subspecies but die shortly after stinging an opponent. The headstone ariados is the smallest of all subspecies, with females only growing up to eighteen inches. They were bred and maintained by secretive clans of assassins to quietly dispatch enemies in a reliable and reliably painful manner. The spinarak are both rather easy to train and quite small, making it easy for them to infiltrate even highly guarded structures and sting their prey before crawling a short distance to die in a hidden place. There is an antivenom for the headstone ariados but the clan that domesticated them refuses to give up the recipe, even under heavy international pressure following the death of the Kalosian Prime Minister to a headstone ariados sting on a visit to Saffron City. An antivenom has since been independently created by researchers in Australia. With their preferred weapon suddenly blunted, the remnants of the headstone clans as well as their modern successors, the Yakuza and Team Rocket have begun selling headstone ariados to collectors, researchers and foreign governments for a hefty price. The European ariados (L. minor) is a result of a 12th century king¡¯s attempt to breed ariados for their silk, as he could not obtain ¨¡l¨¬du¨­s¨©. The experiment failed, both due to the extreme difficulty of weaving with ariados silk and the presence of talonflame. The survivors ultimately retreated to caves, away from talonflame. They primarily trap and hunt bats and small rodents. The European ariados only grows up to twenty inches in length and their eyes have atrophied to near uselessness. They sense the world almost exclusively through the vibrations on their webs. The third recognized species (L. terra) is native to the forests of Northeastern Australia. They are the descendants of another early attempt to breed the Yangtze Ariados on Pacific Islands, after substantial crossbreeding with local insect and spider species. The Queensland ariados are classified as dual bug- and ground- types and build their webs on the forest floor alongside an elaborate system of hidden pits and trapdoors. Unlike the Johtonian, European, and Alolan ariados, they will happily eat any humans that fall into their traps. Their reluctance to go above the earth¡¯s surface makes them difficult prey for birds, but native and introduced fire types such as pyrotreemata and heatmor are quite happy to burn their nests and eat them as they flee. Lopunny Lopunny (Buneary) Lepus maximus familiaris Overview Lopunny is a domesticated descendant of European diggersby. It is believed that they were first domesticated in what is now Germany and were, at least originally, much bulkier and not nearly as cute. Generations of selective breeding produced several different breeds of rabbit pok¨¦mon. Lopunny is by far the lithest of the diggersby descendants. They were selectively bred, originally by serfs for the quality of their fur and utility in defending the home. Lopunny reliably shed and their fur is very warm when fashioned into a coat. In the old days few people bothered to work with the shed hair. They were instead killed and eaten during harsh winters to provide both meat and pelts. Pok¨¦mon rights movements during The Enlightenment often targeted this practice both due to the death of a pok¨¦mon involved and, if only subconsciously, its association with the lower classes. This resulted in the passing of bans or restrictions upon lopunny care by several European monarchs and nobles (as well as the Galarian parliament). The Kalosian Revolutionaries used that country¡¯s ban as one of their arguments against the monarchy. As the use of pelts taken from a live lopunny was banned, a handful of artisans began to experiment with making coats from shed fur. The result became a form of conspicuous consumption and a lopunny a symbol of wealth. The landed gentry of Europe largely scoffed at the coats as the vulgar business class showing off. Lopunny almost never grow their proper winter coat in Alola, but the association has still made them popular among a strange mix of businessmen, youth, and recent migrants from the mainland. As a result they can be easily obtained from pet shops and small feral herds descended from escaped or released pets. They are tame, pretty and surprisingly fierce in battle. Physiology Buneary and lopunny are both classified as pure normal-types. The challenges to this designation are mostly from a taxonomical school that argues domestic breeds should retain the typing of their wild counterparts. Mega lopunny is recognized as a dual normal- and fighting-type. This designation also has some opposition from purists who argue that mega evolutions cannot undergo a type change, but this school of thought has substantially diminished in influence over the years as mega evolution has been more widely studied. Buneary are bipeds with two layers of fur. One is cream colored and very fluffy. This coats their bottom half as well as the tips of their ears. The other layer is dark brown and covers the majority of their upper half. They have two dots of cream-colored fur over their eyes resembling eyebrows. Buneary ears can be half as long as their body. These ears do contain muscles, however they are nowhere as powerful as their equivalent stage in the diggersby line. For the most part they are used for emergency self-defense and balance. Their arms and legs do the heavy lifting. Because of the musculature of their ears, their hearing is not very powerful. Lopunny are slenderer than their juvenile form. The positioning of their fur layers is less even and predictable. Lopunny usually have cream fur beneath the knee, around their arms and across most of their ears. The eyebrow spots on buneary become large crests by the ears that can be up to eight inches long. Lopunny have proportionally longer legs, arms and ears with stronger muscles in all of them. However, due to centuries of selective breeding and the inbreeding that accompanies it, they have somewhat fragile bones. Lopunny heal faster than most mammalian pok¨¦mon but their relative frailty means that they seldom pick fights and prefer to pull their punches whenever it is safe to do so (see Mega Evolution). At various times in the year buneary and lopunny have different fur layer configurations. During the winter and in colder climates they have more of the cream fur. In the summer they shed almost all of the cream fur and grow an entirely brown coat. In Alola lopunny tend to keep their summer coat year round. They still shed once a year, typically in early spring, and have a very thin brown coat for roughly one week until the thicker brown parts come back. Lopunny grow up to 1.3 meters tall (with ears pointed straight down after the bend). They can weigh up to 30 pounds. Captive lopunny can live up to eight years; the life expectancy in feral populations is far lower. Behavior Lopunny are herbivores and feral colonies tend to live in lightly forested areas near meadows. They use the trees for cover at night and leave to graze in the meadow during the day. One or more lopunny will always be standing sentry while the others eat to keep an eye and ear out for birds. When birds do try to take a lopunny they often discover how hard the rabbit can hit when its life is on the line. The sentry duty appears to serve primarily to deter newly arrived birds and to appease the rabbits¡¯ nerves. Lopunny are very nervous creatures in the wild and have been observed moving in and out of panic attacks every few hours when in a group of fewer than five lopunny. In captivity they seldom have this problem and actually have a reputation for being one of the gentlest and calmest of the small normal-types. Having either a permanent home with a roof to retreat to or much larger creatures looking after them probably helps. Lopunny sleep huddled together, even on the warmest summer nights. At least one is always awake. They sleep in shifts to relieve the night sentry. In captivity lopunny allowed to sleep near their trainer or larger pok¨¦mon tend to sleep through the night. Like many other pok¨¦mon with fluffy white fur (ninetales, furfrou, cincinno), lopunny are somewhat obsessive with their grooming and can spend up to two hours a day maintaining their fur. They will allow trusted humans to groom them, although usually only in the form of petting or light brushing. A lopunny will almost never allow a torracat or incineroar to groom them. Lopunny can grow to heights of four feet when standing upright. They can weigh up to thirty pounds. Captive lopunny can live for up to twelve years. Wild lopunny rarely live to the age of four. Husbandry Lopunny are easy-going pets that mostly take care of themselves. They also enjoy being around their trainer for most of the day. This gives them a reputation as a very good pok¨¦mon for young children or inexperienced trainers. There are still a few care guidelines to keep in mind. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. As herbivores, lopunny require a mix of plants fed to them several times a day. The ideal diet for their health is a mix of oats and hay. These are most commonly sold in very large packs for farm pok¨¦mon but smaller lopunny-specific packs do exist in specialty pok¨¦mon supply stores or some larger Pok¨¦mon Centers. It is best to mix in some leafy green pok¨¦mon mixes. Lopunny adore clover and it can be a very effective treat or reward. While a lopunny is shedding they should be provided with a safe, enclosed space. They seem to be self-conscious during this period and hate being seen by their trainer or other pok¨¦mon, especially by mammals with strict grooming regimens. Lopunny very seldom bathe in water but may sometimes elect to do so. They should never be forced into this because, even if they have been bathed before, they may interpret it as a threat and lash out. An adult lopunny is strong enough to crack human bones if they aren¡¯t holding back. While it is less obvious than with a diggersby or raticate, lopunny still need to be provided with logs or other hard objects to gnaw on to keep their teeth in check. If their teeth are frequently visible when the lopunny is not eating, this should be taken as a sign that they need to gnaw. Lopunny should also periodically be given scratching posts for their nails. Otherwise they will scratch furniture. Lopunny are intelligent enough to understand several words and verbal commands. While not strictly hierarchal in the wild they are rather easy to tame so long as a trainer is providing a safe place, cuddles, and food. They can be trained to use a litter mat or box. Lopunny prefer to live inside full time but, provided they have a cage to retreat into, they can live in backyards. Very few lopunny tolerate pok¨¦balls. Never grab a lopunny too quickly or wake up a sleeping lopunny by touch. They may lash out in panic. Lopunny are sometimes nervous around new carnivores or birds. Never leave them alone with even a very tame pok¨¦mon in these categories until they have been given a few weeks to acclimate to each other. Lopunny sleep through most of the night and still take several hours of naps during the day. Buneary are more active but still somewhat lethargic. They prefer to sleep while cuddled against their trainer or a trusted, fluffy pok¨¦mon. If this is not possible, stuffed animals will sometimes work. Illness The most common problem for pet lopunny, aside from overgrown teeth, are hairballs. Lopunny are sometimes unable to vomit up hair they consume while grooming and it can mat in their stomach and block up their digestive system. Medication or even surgery are usually needed to deal with this. Battling lopunny often break their bones. They heal well enough that with a simple splint and either time inside of a healing machine or heal ball, or a long rest outside of one, the bone will usually be restored. It will still break again more easily in the future. Lopunny should be retired from battling after a few serious breaks and allowed to live out the rest of their life as either a backyard or house pet. If this is not possible they should be put up for adoption. Evolution Buneary naturally grow up into lopunny over the course of roughly fifteen months. The formal demarcation line between buneary and lopunny is the growth of cream fur around their forepaws. Mega lopunny are roughly the same height as normal lopunny and the few centimeters of growth observed can be attributed to changes in posture. Lopunny undergo relatively few physical changes at all when they evolve. The most notable change is the transformation of their ears from large, muscular pseudo-limbs into long whip-like instruments that are no longer either prehensile or useful for hearing. Lopunny lose their cream coat and gain a very thin brown- and black-patterned coat across their entire body. The difference in speed and strength observed comes from psychological changes. Mega lopunny are unable to either feel pain or care about injuries, including self-inflicted ones. This gives them the ability to exert far more force than even a truly desperate baseline lopunny would. Incredibly dangerous offensive opponents, they are also some of the most fragile pok¨¦mon commonly used in the international battling scene. Battle As mentioned above, mega lopunny are one of the best examples of the glass cannon archetype in competitive battling. They enjoy widespread use in the European, American, Australian and international circuits. In the United States they are one of the most useful permitted mega evolutions and, even if they¡¯re fragile, they breed and grow quickly enough to be considered replaceable. In battle they rely upon powerful kicks and strikes from their whip-like ears. They can outspeed some of the large dragons and beat all but the most powerful of physical walls into submission. However, one good hit is usually enough to take them out of the fight. Normal lopunny enjoy far less usage. Their ease of care gives them some use among relatively new trainers but their fragility and frankly unexceptional power and speed prevents them from gaining widespread usage. On the island challenge where very hard hitters are comparatively rare until the (optional) Elite Four and Champion battles, lopunny¡¯s fraility usually isn¡¯t a massive problem. The species is easy to raise before and after starting the challenge and have become a common non-traditional starter. They are powerful enough to reach the fourth island trials without many difficulties, although the last few steps might cause them some trouble. Lopunny fight primarily through simple kicks. As normal-types they are capable of learning a fair few elemental attacks through TMs and special training, but their energy reserves aren¡¯t deep enough for their projectile attacks to do much more than sting. Their fighting style is basic and easy to teach, but it¡¯s also quite effective against most opponents. Very durable physical walls and most birds counter lopunny. A handful of pok¨¦mon that hit fast and very hard can also take them out in one hit, but these are somewhat rare on the island challenge. Buneary fight in much the same way as lopunny but with less power.Their ears are proportionally stronger relative to their legs and arms which makes attacks utilizing them a decent option for early battles. Acquisition There are feral lopunny herds on Route 1 and in Poni Island National Park. Capture from both herds is permitted without restriction and requires a Class I license for buneary and a Class II license for lopunny. It is easier to just adopt them from the many shelters that have excess buneary and lopunny or buy them from breeders who specialize in the species. The licensing requirements for adoption and purchase are the same as those for capture. One caveat: many shelter lopunny are retired battlers. They can be useful for training other team members but they should not be used on the island challenge due to their fragile health. Breeding Lopunny mate during the late winter and females give birth to a litter of three to five buneary in the early spring. They will stick very closely to their parents for the next seven months and stay near them until or after their evolution. It is not particularly hard to breed lopunny in captivity. Put an unrelated male and a female together for long enough and they will mate. Don¡¯t try and separate parents from children for six months as this is a good way to wind up with an upset lopunny, which usually means at least one broken bone in either the trainer or the pok¨¦mon. Relatives There are a handful of different breeds of domesticated diggersby, as well as diggersby themselves. Most lopunny breeds vary primarily in the thickness and color of their hair, their body size or how slender or bulky they are. They possess few substantial dietary, typing or anatomical differences. Most are entirely used in agriculture for either fur or meat. Many breeders around Paniola Town raise lopunny as either their primary species or a secondary one. Reach out to one if you are interested in raising one of the rarer breeds. Malamar Malamar (Inkay) Praestigiae maximus verne Overview The ocean floor comprises roughly 70% of the Earth¡¯s surface. Humans have visited less than 1% of it in person and only surveyed 5% of it with unmanned research vessels. Most of what we know about life in the abyssal zone of the ocean comes from trawls which naturally select for slow and stationary creatures in and around the very bottom layer. We get a glimpse of what life is like far beneath the surface every single night. The largest migration on Earth (measured by both biomass and number of organisms) occurs not in the skies or on the plains, but in the sea. Sunlight is the source of most of the ocean¡¯s bioenergy, with the remainder coming from chemosynthesis around a small number of hydrothermal vents. Photosynthesis is only viable where there is light, and light is only present in a small portion of the ocean¡¯s volume. For the denizens of the sea, light can also mean death. The abundant phytoplankton lead to an equal if not larger number of zooplankton to feed on them, which are in turn fed upon by everything from minnows to ship-sized behemoths. And those creatures also have predators. The surface has almost all of the food, but it also has almost all of the predators. What is a small oceanic creature to do? The answer for many is to live in the ocean¡¯s suburbs, the zone just beneath the light, during the day. Every sunset those creatures rise to feed on the resting organisms or phytoplankton at the surface. And every sunrise they slink back down to the depths as the residents wake up. Malamar are a deep sea enigma that have never been captured or even seen alive in the depths and very seldom appear on the surface. The only proof of their existence comes from deep scars on surfacing wailord, bloated corpses washing up on beaches, and inkay raised and evolved in captivity. By contrast, inkay are plentiful enough on the surface to be a reliable draw for tourists across their range each night. Inkay are almost never seen during the day as they sleep down in the depths. Malamar are extremely difficult to raise. They are also powerful hypnotists capable of dishing out some of the hardest hits of any predator. Trainers looking for a husbandry challenge with high rewards can hardly do better than training an inkay. Physiology All evolutionary stages of the line are currently classified by the Department of Agriculture as dual psychic- and dark-types. The dark typing is heavily disputed. The top contenders for a secondary typing are water due to their habitat and use of water pulses for propulsion, bug due to their anatomy, and flying due to their ability to levitate above the surface and use of air for propulsion. Malamar are exceptionally difficult for psychics to interface with, much less read or control. Proponents of the dark typing hold this as evidence of it. Opponents hold that so long as triple typings are disallowed, pok¨¦mon that fit the criteria for three or more typings should be given the two they fit best. Inkay are very similar to surface cephalopod pok¨¦mon. Their body is composed of two core parts. The first is made up of a translucent hat-like mantle. Pink flesh is visible through the white mantle. The mantle also has four yellow dots spaced at equal intervals. The mantle itself contains an elaborate system of chambers for water, air, and other fluids and gasses that is used to raise inkay to the surface and lower them back down to the depths. The rest of their body is colored a dark blue. It terminates in six short tentacles that resemble a skirt when they are held close together. Two other tentacles reach slightly past these six. Inkay have two complex eyes on their face with a small pink feature between them. This, contrary to popular belief, is not an inkay¡¯s beak. They do not eat from it and instead use it to ward off predators who might attack the eyes. The inkay¡¯s real beak is hidden behind their tentacles. It is roughly half as long as the tentacles themselves. Near it are three valves they use for filtering water, releasing waste and propulsion. The tentacled portion of malamar is nearly identical to that of inkay, although it is somewhat larger and darker on the outside (the inner bits near the beak stay roughly the same shade). They also gain an additional two tentacles. Malamar¡¯s mantle grows far larger until it is roughly 50% longer than the bottom tentacles fully extended. The inner pink flesh becomes a dark, nearly black, shade of purple. Malamar gains two more lights, stacked in three rows of two. These lights are visible from any angle. Two ridges on the top of an inkay¡¯s mantle grow into functional legs. It is unclear what the purpose of these legs are in the deep; they are used to balance on land. Malamar¡¯s two arm tentacles grow to lengths exceeding the rest of their body combined and can be held down to form two more legs or arms when on land or extended towards their beak in the water to form powerful weapons for defense and offense. Their arms are tipped with axe-like blades sharp enough to seriously wound a wailord by either slashing blood vessels or puncturing their air bladders. Inkay and malamar use bioluminescence to create elaborate patterns. These are used for communication between members of the species, to calm down predators with hypnotic patterns, or to transfix prey long enough to be slashed open and eaten. These light patterns work on most pok¨¦mon and animals, including humans. Most of malamar¡¯s mantle is composed of tissue that forms their nervous system. They are highly intelligent creatures capable of figuring out complex puzzles in seconds. They also possess telekinetic capabilities. Whether or not they have pure telepathy or just use their light patterns for hypnosis is disputed. Malamar are sexually dimorphic and their maximum size varies widely between captive and wild specimens. All measurements given below are from the tip of the mantle to the end of their arms. Captive females grow up to six feet from the tip of their mantle to the end of their beak and captive males grow up to five feet long. Wild females can grow up to twenty feet long and males can grow up to eighteen feet. Captive malamar can live up to five years. Evidence suggests that wild malamar do not live much, if any, longer. Behavior It isn¡¯t terribly clear what wild inkay do during their daily rest. They usually deconstruct or detach external tracking devices. When injected with a tracking chip their behavior appears to be altered considerably for a few days. On the surface they tend to swim in troupes of roughly twenty inkay. They form a grid where the closest inkay is roughly thirty feet away from the next one. They move in close synchronization while flashing their lights to confuse and captivate predators and prey alike. Genetic testing suggests members of a troupe are all siblings. Inkay are capable of levitating over the water and surviving in moist air for up to twelve hours at a time. They are well known for the mid-air flips they perform while moving. It is disputed whether or not these are accidental, serve a clear biological purpose, or are a form of play. Inkay are intensely clever and often distracted by new and interesting environments or puzzles. This holds true for wild inkay who will sometimes put themselves in possible danger to investigate something of interest to them. They consider machines of interest and are often cut up by the propellers of boats. The boat tours that bring tourists close to inkay troupes often kill them. Inkay primarily hunt small fish (both pok¨¦mon and non-pok¨¦mon). Wishiwashi are a favorite of theirs in Alola and they are one of the few natural predators of wishiwashi. They can get away with picking on individuals without facing the wrath of the collective because their disorienting lights make schooling nearly impossible. No one knows exactly what depths malamar frequent or what their wild diet is. It is assumed from captive specimens that they eat large sea pok¨¦mon and non-pok¨¦mon fish, but this has never been confirmed in the wild. Attempts to release captive malamar to observe their behavior in the wild tend to go poorly. They tear off mechanical trackers quickly and malamar with inobtrusive trackers inside of them appear to die shortly after release. The leading theory is that malamar are somewhat social creatures in the wild who teach vital skills to other malamar. Without this upbringing newly released malamar struggle to survive. Captive malamar can stand on their main tentacles and the expanded carapace ridges. They are also capable of levitating a few inches off the ground. Like inkay they can survive in moist air for half a day. Their air sacs and carapace ridges appear to be proportionally larger and stronger than their wild counterparts. It might be physiologically impossible for a wild malamar to stand, float or survive on land. In any case they almost never come to the surface. Husbandry Inkay require a seafood diet. They aren¡¯t very picky at all on what they eat and are fine with crustaceans, fish, mussels and even the flesh of other cephalopods. There is some evidence that wild malamar engage in cannibalism; in captivity this has only occurred in very cramped aquariums or between very underfed malamar. Inkay prefer fresh seafood to pellets and mixes but will eat those in a pinch. Inkay should be kept in saltwater about as often as they are kept outside of it. Some habitat pok¨¦balls can meet this requirement. Consult a specialty pok¨¦ball or fish supplies store for more details. Inkay are incredibly intelligent creatures and will require either frequent access to toys or an equally intelligent playmate. They appear to be motivated by curiosity alone; the presence of food at the end of the puzzle does not affect their willingness to solve it. On the flip side, inkay in aquariums are incredibly gifted escape artists and their nimble tentacles and telekinesis allow them to frequently break out of supposedly unescapable cages. Inkay are capable of contorting their body to fit through any space bigger than their beak. In the Aquarium de Ambrette an inkay was filmed waiting for a security guard to pass by and then swimming through the filtration system into the adjacent fish tank, eating the fish inside and then moving back to her own tank when it was time for the next security sweep. They are capable of learning rules, but they tend to see rules as a constraint. They will try to break the rules without getting caught for the thrill of getting around the constraint. This makes inkay difficult to keep in line. The best solution is to present them with new and interesting environments or highly intelligent playmates. Brionne are very good for this purpose and can even help keep inkay hydrated. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. Inkay are not particularly affectionate. When they do run their tentacles over a trainer it is often in an attempt to steal something or to figure out their trainer¡¯s puzzling anatomy. Inkay are most active at night in and out of aquaria. In community tanks, especially those with large pok¨¦mon, inkay tend to seek shelter for the entire day and then come out at night. They can be housebroken, but housebreaking is a rule they will often seek to break. Their waste is a stream of dark liquid. Malamar are often best approached on a case-by-case basis. Inkay tend to have similar personalities to each other and relatively few individual quirks. Malamar are moody and wildly different from each other in temperament and behavior. They tend to hide during the day in public aquariums and then prey upon other tankmates at night. These hunts are motivated by curiosity and playfulness more than hunger. Malamar are fiercely territorial over their preferred corner of the tank and will seldom leave it except to hunt. Curiously, captive malamar seem to ignore each other entirely even if they were in the same troupe in the wild and raised together in captivity. Malamar are easily bored by humans and will often seek comeuppance against the people who control or restrict them. This usually takes the form of hypnosis. Inkay will almost never hypnotize a human unless they believe themselves to be at immediate risk. Malamar have no such reservations. When training a malamar it is very important to have frequent therapy sessions, ideally with a psychic, and to keep a diary several times a day on your emotional state and the subject of your thoughts. Malamar brainwashing tends to be accompanied by a general boost in mood, a detachment from other humans and pok¨¦mon, and a mild obsession with obtaining fish. Some malamar trainers become obsessed with battles and competition; others abruptly come to resent it. Malamar training is really best left to public aquaria, psi-sensitive trainers capable of recognizing telepathic assault, and trainers formidable enough to earn their malamar¡¯s respect. See Evolution for more details on what to do when your inkay approaches evolution. Illness The most common illness for inkay is dehydration. This happens when their water sac runs low. Dehydration can be reversed if the pok¨¦mon is quickly submerged in salt water and allowed to stay there until they float out on their own. The symptoms of dehydration include drastically lowered activity, general apathy, and a refusal to eat. A substantial increase or decrease in the frequency or volume of their waste discharges should also be noted. For any symptom without an obvious cause, dehydration should be assumed to be the root problem. Consult a veterinarian if the problem persists. Evolution Inkay tend to evolve around their third birthday, although the amount of battling they partake in can move this back or forward. It is suspected that the actual catalyst for their evolution is reaching a threshold of telepathic activity across their lifetime. Inkay tend to become lethargic and eat far more when they approach evolution. They will also all but stop releasing waste. This should be the point where trainers who do not want to deal with a malamar should release their inkay back into the ocean. Inkay in the wild evolve by swimming deep beneath the surface and never reemerging. In public aquariums they usually seek out either the deepest or most protected spot in the aquarium and stay absolutely still for days on end as they grow and change. The water pressure and available light both appear to affect the amount of time it takes to evolve and the size they grow to. Trainers who wish to evolve their inkay and then keep the malamar should work out an arrangement with a local aquarium or rehabilitation center to loan out a pressurized, dark, and secluded space. Inkay should be provided as much food as they will eat during the runup to evolution. Malamar will often be very clumsy during their first couple of weeks after evolving, especially on land, but they should never be laughed at. They tend to lash out when they believe their intelligence or agility is being insulted. Battle Malamar are most often used as an anti-metagame pick on competitive battling teams. Their popularity waxes and wanes depending on what sort of threats are popular at any given time. In metagames dominated by psychic types, malamar become relatively popular. These scenes tend to attract psychic trainers who have an easier time raising malamar. The cephalopods are also very good at countering other psychic-types. The same goes for metagames with large pools available. Malamar are some of the best pok¨¦mon for taking down large and slow aquatic pok¨¦mon such as wailord and miltoic. Malamar are most easily countered by bug types that can break their concentration with sonic attacks and retaliate with powerful slashes. Sharp cuts can tear through their skin and seriously injure them. Malamar and inkay are vulnerable to cuts but they can patch them up easily in saltwater given a few hours (or days for particularly severe wounds). Pok¨¦mon that can present puzzles or traps mid-fight can often confuse or distract them as they obsess over how to ¡®solve¡¯ the problem, something ordinarily best left to the trainer while the pok¨¦mon reacts to the immediate problems at hand. Malamar are a mix of arena control and tech fighters. They are superb at setting traps such as trick room. Malamar also have very sharp claws and can move quickly in short bursts by releasing air or water jets. They function like a mix between primarina¡¯s arena control and golisopod¡¯s hit and run styles, although they aren¡¯t quite as adept at either role. Still, they are one of the few trap setters that can keep up with and even knock out the glass cannons, nukes, or set-up sweepers that usually counter them. Only psychic bloodliners should attempt to use a malamar on the island challenge. Inkay fight rather differently than malamar. Without sharp claws they struggle to end the battle quickly. They must use light patterns to pacify the opponent and levitation to avoid them. Tricks such as protect and trick room can prolong this phase of the fight. Once the opponent is subdued, they can be hit with a barrage of ranged or melee attacks without much fear of retaliation. Be mindful that if opponents are allowed to switch out this can disrupt the inkay¡¯s hard work. Inkay are particularly useful against totems as the core of the battle is one very powerful pok¨¦mon that can stay on the field a long time. Provided that inkay can take a hit or two they are quite useful for draining the totem and setting them up for a harder hitter to take out. Acquisition Inkay require a Class III license to adopt, capture, or purchase. Troupes are found in Kala¡¯e Bay almost every night. They can sometimes be seen off of Route 1, Route 2 or Hau¡¯oli City. There are rare sightings of inkay around Tapu Beach and the eastern shoreline of Poni Island. They are somewhat rare in captivity, especially among trainers or suppliers who might be willing to part with them. It is easiest to simply capture an inkay. Capture of a malamar is illegal due to the difficulty of finding one, the possibility that they are endangered, the difficulty of taming one, and the simple fact that no captured malamar has survived for longer than a week in captivity. Possession of a malamar requires a Class V license for the general population and a Class IV license for psychic bloodliners who earn a PsiTest score of 130 or higher. Breeding Malamar have never been bred in captivity or been observed reproducing in the wild. Relatives There is some argument that wild malamar are not the same subspecies as captive malamar. The theory¡¯s popularity stems from the size differences between wild and captive malamar. The argument goes that there is a benthic inkay that never surfaces at all that evolves into deep sea malamar. The inkay that come to the surface are a different subspecies entirely and the malamar known in captivity are a subspecies that fares so poorly in the wild that they are almost never seen. The main argument against this idea is that there is no reason for inkay to undergo the costly process of evolution if they would almost certainly die immediately afterwards. There are also only very minimal genetic differences between captive and wild malamar. As such it is generally accepted that captive and wild malamar are the same subspecies. However, there still are three accepted subspecies. The malamar in Alola are Pacific malamar that generally prefer equatorial surface waters. They live all across the equatorial Pacific but are most abundant near islands and coasts due to the greater abundance of prey. The Mediterranean malamar (P. m. ambrette) lives throughout the Mediterranean and warm waters of the eastern Atlantic. Coastal sightings have declined considerably since the 1700s due to industrial whaling depleting malamar¡¯s prey. Mediterranean inkay have somewhat brighter colors than Pacific inkay and are 20% smaller on average. Southern malamar (P. v. krios) are the largest subspecies by far. One female that washed up on the coast of New Zealand¡¯s South Island measured fifty feet from the tip of her mantle to the end of her arms. They are more heavily armored than the other subspecies with thick, leathery skin covering their mantle. The Mediterranean and Pacific malamar have weaker and fewer suction cups than the average cephalopod. By contrast, the southern malamar has relatively long leg tentacles lined with powerful suction cups and sharp barbs. It is speculated that southern malamar use the threat of surface level wounds to deter opponents from going for their eyes while their long, brutally sharp arm tentacles go for the kill. Southern inkay are pure white across their entire body; southern malamar are pure black. Outside of their coloring, southern inkay also require very cold waters and can only surface for one or two minutes at a time. The subspecies also appears to be far less playful than Pacific inkay, which in turn are less curious than Mediterranean inkay. It is difficult to study the southern malamar and inkay. The farthest north they have ever been recorded was Tasmania. They are only common in the seas around Antarctica. Southern inkay are shy and tend to run away from approaching research vessels or humans. Southern malamar have only been held in captivity three times. The Vermillion Aquarium displayed one for nine days in 1971 after one of the inkay in their cold waters exhibit evolved. The new malamar quickly killed everything else in its tank, broke the glass while visitors watched, and proceeded to slash through or drown eighteen people before being withdrawn. SeaWorld evolved one in 2006; while there were no casualties, the new malamar refused to eat and died six weeks after evolution. Mwasaa binti Musa evolved one of her southern inkay in 2009. The malamar, Akil, listened to Musa¡¯s commands and even battled for her in a handful of competitive matches. However, in one match it tried to attack the opposing trainer after dispatching one of his pok¨¦mon. Akil broke the arena¡¯s shields and came within a fraction of a second of succeeding before Musa recalled him. His behavior rapidly deteriorated and he was eventually put down. Zoroark Zoroark (Zorua) Dolosusfur olympia Overview Every North American culture, from the Mississippians to the Dakota to the Aztecs, had a variation on the same myth. Sometimes a child would abruptly stop talking in the night. As they grew up they would slowly start talking again, albeit with less skill and frequency than they had before. Some would display magical abilities. Galar also had a variant of the changeling tale. The difference is, the stories from North America had a very real basis. All species of zoroark have the same outcome (illusions), but approach it in very different ways (telepathy, hydrokinesis, pyrokinesis, ectoplasm manipulation). This would ordinarily suggest an extreme case of convergent evolution, but all four living species are closely related. What makes the species of particular interest to scientists is their intelligence. Zoroark are not the most intelligent pok¨¦mon. Nor are they the only ones capable of communicating in human speech (primarina, chatot and even some slowking can). Zoroark are interesting because of their ease of blending into human society and their desire to do so. Human children are often one of the first illusions a zorua learns to cast, even in the wild, and adult zoroark have been observed creating and maintaining a human identity for years. Changeling stories have been documented in the modern era in zoroark¡¯s remaining habitats. They break into residences, steal children and leave behind a zorua of their own. More than one zoroark has told researchers and police officers that this is to give their child a better shot at learning human behaviors. It is unclear what exactly happens to the kidnapped human children. While it has long and widely been believed that the zoroark simply ate the babies, this may be untrue. Human children showing up on doorsteps or living alone (but healthily) in the wild are unusually common in zoroark habitats. The prevailing theory is that zoroark keep abducted children in their nest to teach human forms and behaviors to their other pups, or that they drop humans off elsewhere in an attempt to reduce the hostility towards their species. For understandable reasons, zoroark were both hunted and worshipped in pre-Columbian North America. Sometimes the same culture did both. European settlers were unnerved by the zoroark, especially after some infiltrated their expeditions and came back to Europe with them. Witch hunts in the early United States were ostensibly aimed at getting rid of supposed zoroarks. One minister spearheading a witch hunt that killed twenty young women was revealed to be a zoroark upon his death. Eventually European settlers nearly succeeded at driving zoroark extinct. Currently there are only two wild populations of zoroark in North America: one on the Olympic Peninsula and surrounding portions of British Columbia and Washington and the other near the California-Anahuac border. Two of the four globally common species, the Olympic and montane zoroark, are classified as having ¡°significant populations¡± in Alola by the Department of Agriculture. However, montane zorua are neither reliably available to travelers or extremely important to Alolan society so they are relegated to the relatives section of this entry. The rest will focus upon the Olympic zorua. Physiology Both zorua and zoroark are classified as pure dark types by the Department of Agriculture. This ruling is highly contested. Now is perhaps the best time to bring up the history of the dark typing. In the earliest attempts to group pok¨¦mon by typing, dark signified that the pok¨¦mon had a connection to Yveltal¡¯s magic. The ruling has been controversial in the modern era and in the rest of the world for understandable reasons. However, the dark type has not been abolished both due to tradition and genuine shared traits between most dark-types. They have the ablity to manipulate shadows, above average intelligence, a resistance to telepathy, and either some degree of malice towards humanity or shocking brutality. Zoroark fit all four categories. Among researchers that acknowledge the dark-typing, it is almost universally recognized that zoroark are primarily dark types. The dominant dispute revolves around whether or not they should also have a water, flying, psychic, fairy or normal typing. Zoroark are hydrokinetic to a very limited degree. They use this to manipulate the air, which could suggest a water or flying type. This trick has a cursory resemblance to low level telekinesis and they are highly intelligent, which could support a psychic typing. Fairy-types are ordinarily tricksters and were often viewed as ¡®holy¡¯ pok¨¦mon. Zoroark have an extensive mythology tied to them and can be very friendly, even familial, to humans. They are undeniably tricksters. Normal implies versatility and a mastery of several elements. The authors of this guidebook take no particular position on the typing of the Olympic zoroark or zorua. Zorua fur is primarily either grey or black, depending upon the individual. They have a typical quadrupedal vulpine build. The fur on their paws is red and they possess several red markings on their forehead. The skin of their eyelids is also red. Zorua have an unruly tuft of fur on top of their head that is red at the tips. Zoroark are primarily bipedal with long and slender limbs and relatively weak muscles. Their claws are much longer and sharper than that of zorua and are colored blood red. Their fur is rather short across their entire body, except on their upper chest. Zoroark are most easily identifiable by their mane. The mane of a fully grown zoroark is almost always bigger in volume than the rest of their body combined. It is bright red in color with black tufts and streaks throughout it. They generally keep an object, usually a pearl from a shellder or spoink, around the middle of their mane to keep their hair in some semblance of order. Their fur is coated in oils that they can control with their hydrokinesis so it doesn¡¯t encumber them as much as its bulk would suggest. Zoroark typically grow up to sixty-six inches and 120 pounds in size, with males being somewhat larger than females on average. Zoroark live up to 60 years in captivity. Their wild lifespan is not well studied. Behavior Olympic zoroark primarily cast their illusions through small-scale hydrokinesis. They use tiny water droplets to manipulate the air. This allows them to create and suppress sounds, bend light, and even move small objects and create tactile illusions. They can alter their secretions to create scent illusions. A particularly skilled zoroark can create an entire body out of faux-forcefields made of air and water, speak and look like a human, and even smell like one. While the bulk of the mane might seem like an obvious challenge for presenting as a human, zoroark can remove their bead and telekinetically weave the hairs around their body in a pinch. The only real way to disrupt a zoroark¡¯s illusions is to hit their body with enough force to break the surface tension of the projection and force them to spend time and energy to put it back together. A hard, unexpected punch is usually sufficient to do this. There are other methods to bypass illusions as well. Longtime or skilled zoroark trainers can frequently identify zoroark from tells that they have difficulty explaining. Ultraviolet, infrared scanners, and thermal scanners can usually bypass the illusion. As a note of caution, at least one zoroark has been able to beat all three of the above methods at different times (never simultaneously). Zorua tend to be far less skilled at illusions and have a variety of simple tells from an inability to mimic voices or suppress their own to pixelated glitching to forgetting to cover up their tail. They are almost never skilled enough to replicate the scent of another creature. Zoroark use illusions for a variety of purposes. In addition to infiltrating human society, they also use them to conceal their den and pups, imitate a harmless prey species to lure in a small predator, imitate a very large predator to scare away a mid-sized one, or for mating displays (see Breeding). Zorua generally use their illusions to either replicate very well-known species or confuse their opponent enough to cover a retreat. It is difficult to research wild zoroark as they do not like being followed and typically shroud themselves in illusions. It is believed that the Olympic zoroark lives in groups of one to five adults and their young. Members frequently join and leave the pack and they do not have a particularly tight-knit social structure. Juvenile-only packs with an occasional unrelated adult providing protection or supervision are also somewhat common, particularly in areas outside of the Olympic peninsula where there are simply very few adults that live exclusively in the wild. This is the dominant model of zorua packs on Melemele and Akala, although there are semi-permanent adults in the Poni Island pack(s). Zoroark and zorua are primarily ambush predators, although they will also go to the shores to hunt for shellfish meat and pearls. Slowpoke are a frequent target of theirs as the foxes don¡¯t mind getting wet, resist psychic attacks, can pick off the indigestible parts, and find that the tails taste quite good. The species is nocturnal in the wild, although zoroark imitating humans will usually adjust to diurnal life. Husbandry Zoroark present a unique challenge among all of the pok¨¦mon in Alola. Some species have comparable intelligence to humans, such as primarina, and others often insist that they are superior via actions or telepathy (ninetales, metagross, slowking, oranguru). Zoroark are unique in their desire to be human. They will frequently take on an appearance similar to their trainer¡¯s at first and slowly make adjustments. They resent pok¨¦balls and any sign of subjugation and will snap at their trainers, literally and metaphorically, if they get the impression that they are not viewed as equals. Their default human form will only be left for combat purposes or for illness or injury (see Illness). The species main goal when dealing with humans is not to obtain food or protection but to learn more about human appearances and behaviors. If they believe their trainer to be sufficiently kind, they will often elect to stay with them when they decide their education is complete. Otherwise, they will usually take their trainer¡¯s valuables and slink off into a crowd, never to be seen again. Zorua will sometimes tolerate portable dog beds. Zoroark will not and will demand a sleeping mat, cot, or something else equivalent to what their trainer has. Similarly, zorua will be willing to eat typical canine mixes or leftovers; zoroark will become spiteful if they don¡¯t have regular access to human food. Their digestive systems are similar enough to a human¡¯s that they can survive on a typical human diet with a little more protein. Zoroark can be reasoned with on finances to a degree but they will still demand a measure of equality in even the worst situations. Unlike most canines, zoroark love water. They can bathe themselves with hydrokinesis or their tongue but they prefer to have access to baths or showers. All but the wealthiest of trainers will need to set limits on shampoo and water early on. Zoroark require scratching posts from time to time. Only very young or spiteful zorua will scratch up furniture. Adults will simply slink off to a forest to slash some tree bark if they are not provided with a scratching post. Zorua will use a litter box; zoroark are quite capable of using toilets. The most important lessons for handling a zoroark are those you should have in kindergarten: be respectful, share your toys, and be willing to help others. Trainers who follow those rules often develop deep, even familial, relationships with their zoroark. This can help keep them sane and grounded on the trails of Alola and in the parts of life¡¯s journey that follow. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Illness Zoroark can contract rabies and should be vaccinated within two weeks of capture or six weeks of birth. Most zoroark illnesses and injuries affect their illusions in some way. Not all instances of a zoroark dropping their illusion are due to suffering. Sometimes zoroark drop their illusions for battle, for intimidation or for no clear reason at all. Zorua usually sleep with their illusion down and will often spend time in their default appearance around trainers they trust. However, if a zorua spends more than three days without casting an illusion or a zoroark goes for more than one, they may be sick or injured. Ask the pok¨¦mon to create a human illusion to talk, or at least to write if they are capable of it. If they can¡¯t or won¡¯t, take them to a veterinarian. If they will take a human form, ask them earnestly and repeatedly if anything is wrong. Even if they insist that everything is fine, it might still be for the best to take them to a veterinarian for a cursory check. Zoroark are very good at spotting lies so don¡¯t try to conceal the real purpose of the visit from them. Evolution Zorua reach their full size around sixteen years of age. However, they can appear to grow much faster in captivity. Zorua with a devoted trainer become more skilled with human illusions and usually decide to match their trainer¡¯s age. This in turn forces them to think in more mature thought patterns, which has been shown to promote actual rapid brain development followed by physical development. Premature evolution has not been shown to have an adverse effect on lifespan and should not be encouraged or discouraged. Zoroark¡¯s manes continue to grow in length and volume until their death. The formal demarcation line between zorua and zoroark is the selection of their first hair bead. Battle Zoroark are a niche pick in competitive battling for their mindgames. Even in leagues that announce each party¡¯s full team beforehand it can be difficult to know which pok¨¦mon is a zoroark. While this isn¡¯t terribly effective at the levels where one hit from almost any pok¨¦mon can knock out a zoroark¡¯s illusion, if not the zoroark itself, it is a useful tool in leagues that allow for counter-switching. A common tactic is initiating a switch against an opponent¡¯s fighting-weak pok¨¦mon while having your zoroark pose as a humanoid fighting type. This forces the opponent to gamble by either sending in a psychic type and risking a matchup against a zoroark or staying in and risking a beatdown from a fighting-type. A similar tactic applies to having your zoroark imitate a poison-type when fighting an opponent with at least one fairy, forcing them to decide whether or not to risk their fairy against what might be a real poison-type for the chance of annihilating a zoroark and gaining momentum. Island challenge trials don¡¯t force either side to declare their pok¨¦mon beforehand, just the number they are bringing to battle. This gives zoroark a few rounds of confusion and setup against an opponent before the kahuna figures out the trick. Elite Four battles require declaring in advance (and allow both sides to freely switch) which makes the best zoroark tactics the ones described above. However, it should be noted that most opponents in the island challenge use monotype teams. This reduces the utility of baiting out a pokemon because the opponent will either have no fairy or psychic types to bait out, or will have so many that other factors will carry the battle. Beyond illusions, zoroark have sharp claws and surprisingly potent shadow manipulation. They can also abuse illusion ¡°glitches¡± to disorient opponents for a split second. This allows them to either begin or disrupt a combo, get in for a melee hit or get out of range of a melee fighter. Their signature tactic is using shadows to trip up opponents as they move and force them to hit the ground with their own force. As zoroark are rather light on musculature and natural defenses, this is probably their best way of safely dealing damage. They can also be taught a number of elemental tricks and disruption tactics to maximize their efficacy. Acquisition There are zorua packs around Route 5 and Route 1. Captures from the former are currently prohibited. Captures from the latter are presently allowed with no quota as zorua are viewed as an invasive species and a public safety risk. Capture, adoption or purchase of a zorua requires a Class I license. Zorua are also found in pack(s) in Poni Island National Park. There is often a single pack, but there are enough zoroark that they sometimes split off into smaller groups. Capture of zorua and zoroark is presently allowed inside the park with the requisite trainer rank. Zoroark require a Class III license to purchase, adopt or capture. Breeding Zoroark are incredibly private about all stages of reproduction. What is known is that they have a very long courtship period of several years and that a pair will typically only have one litter of six to twelve pups. Zoroark pregnancies last seven months. Pregnant zoroark will often be hesitant to create illusions, presumably due to the energy illusion formation requires. Male zoroark will stay very close to their pregnant mates. Both parents stay very close to their pups until they reach their full size. If one parent dies before the pups are fully grown the surviving parent will seek out another zoroark to assist in childrearing. If both die in the same incident the remaining zorua will band together into a pack. Sometimes another zoroark will take over parental duties, or at least begin to drop by every so often to check on their welfare and provide instruction. All zorua packs in Alola were formed by orphaned litters. The packs continue to take in stray zorua. At least one former pack member checks in on them from time to time. Mated pairs usually split up when their children leave. Sometimes they will pursue a long-term homosexual partnership. Sometimes they will find an orphaned pack and assist in raising it or they will join a multi-zoroark group. Zoroark have also been observed finding a member of another species and entering into either a romantic or platonic partnership with them. Zoroark will lay out their own boundaries and desires for privacy during reproduction and childrearing to their trainer. Sometimes they will wish to leave their trainer to find a mate and raise children. They should be allowed to do so. If forbidden from leaving, they will leave anyway but steal or destroy several of their trainer¡¯s possessions on the way out. A zoroark that amicably parts from their trainer will often return when their pups are fully grown. Occasionally a zoroark will tolerate or even desire raising their pups in captivity. They will lay out their needs for this as well, although it typically amounts to a dark, safe, and permanent home. Zorua cubs should not engage in anything more than a playfight until they reach two full years of age. Relatives There are seven species of zoroark. The first is the Olympic zoroark discussed above. The second is the montane zoroark (D. meyer). While there has not been a stable colony of zoroark in the wild since at least the 1920s, they continue to thrive in captivity. Mormon theology teaches that Xerneas gave the montane zoroark to the church as a gift. The church proceeded to round up almost all of the zoroark in the Rocky Mountains and tame them. They currently run a breeding program for the montane zoroark that contains nearly all of the world¡¯s montane zoroark. These zoroark are used to protect their churches, leadership and missionaries. Cynics also attribute the public and private miracles of the church to zoroark illusions. Montane zoroark are powerful telepaths that create illusions by hacking the brain of their targets and altering their sensory processing. This makes their illusions the most powerful; it also means that they are sometimes unable to affect all nearby minds at once. The sheer versatility of their power and ability to completely block the senses of opponents makes them by far the most powerful zoroark species, as is seen whenever the church allows one of its members to use one in battle. The remaining montane zoroark are owned by the Smithsonian Institute. Every few years they will display montane zorua at the National Zoo; zoroark would never consent to this. It is believed that the Smithsonian¡¯s zoroark serve various roles as staff around the institute¡¯s properties. There are persistent rumors that other branches of the United States government may possess montane zoroarks, but this has never been proven. Montane zorua are very similar in appearance to the Olympic zorua, if a bit lighter in coloration and with bright purple eyes instead of pale blue. Desert zoroark (D. pellisfurem) used to range from Texas to Tenochtitlan and from the Gulf to the Pacific. At present they are confined to a patchwork of habitats in Anahuac and a handful of National Parks and reservations in the American Southwest. The Aztecs, Navajo and Hopi revered the desert zoroark and the lands under their control house most of the remaining desert zoroark population. Unfortunately, the post-war instability in Anahuac has put the zoroark population there at risk. While poaching is a crime punishable by death and state sponsored hunts have been discontinued, zoroark populations in Ananhuac have plummeted since 1981. Until 1903 the United States offered substantial bounties for zoroark and sent military expeditions to wipe the species out. The unwillingness of some Native American leaders to hand over the zoroark on their lands was the pretext for a number of wars. Desert zoroark create their illusions in a similar manner to Olympic zoroark, suggesting that they may be the most closely related of the subspecies. It would be impractical to use water in the air to create their illusions given their habitat. Instead, they create tiny heat waves to shape the air around them. While their tactile illusions are entirely unconvincing, they learn visual and auditory illusions much faster than their Olympic counterparts and don¡¯t need to spend much time redeveloping an illusory body after their old one is destroyed. They are classified as dual dark- and fire-types and can create more powerful heat waves in battle than the ones they use for illusions. The swamp zoroark (D. titanavus) is nearly extinct in the wild. They are the largest of the subspecies and tend to be dark green in color with light purple stripes across their body. Their manes are also the smallest proportionally and stop growing when they reach physical maturity. Unlike other zoroark species, they have webbed paws and spend most of their time in the water and, when they do go on land, they walk on all fours. Because of this and the factors below, it is believed that they are the ancestor of the other zoroark species. Swamp zoroark do not create particularly detailed illusions. Instead, they emit gasses that cause hallucinations and feelings of panic in their target. Long-term exposure results in blindness and even death. These gasses are used for hunting and defense. At present, there are believed to be fewer than 80 swamp zoroark and zorua in the wild. Most live in and around Everglades National Park, with the remainder split between the bayous of Louisiana and Congaree National Park in South Carolina. The remaining three zoroark species are believed to extinct in the wild. However, populations occasionally pop up around the world. This suggests that they have simply abandoned the forests and plains of North America and Siberia entirely to integrate into human society. The first of these species is the plains zoroark (D. deagramani). They have thick dark brown fur in the winter and a lighter coat of grey fur in the summer. Their mane resembles a cape extending from the bottom of their head and they didn¡¯t use beads. Plains zoroark are powerful telekinetics who create and craft forcefields into a body. They then warp the light and sound around their forcefields through an unknown method to complete the illusion. Plains zoroark have the most durable illusions of all zoroark and they can form them rather quickly. However, they are among the least intelligent of the species and take some time to learn the voices and social norms of other species. Forest zorua (D. fluidum) were the most common species at the time of European first contact. They ranged from Quebec and Ontario to the southern tip of the Appalachians and from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. Forest zorua are proper shapeshifters rather than illusionists and morph their form until they physically become their illusion. Like ditto, it is entirely unknown how this works. However, forest zorua suffer from one core weakness: they must concentrate hard to maintain their illusory form. Lapses in concentration, including sleep, will often cause their illusion to begin to break down. While some particularly clever zoroark can maintain their illusions for up to 72 hours, even through full nights of sleep, a heavy enough blow will cause them to almost instantly revert. As such, there is some speculation that forest zoroark do not shapeshift so much as use an attack akin to substitute. Unfortunately, captive forest zoroark tend to commit suicide or refuse to eat, much less cooperate with experimenters. It may never be known how, exactly, the forest zoroark¡¯s illusions work. The final species was the only one to have a native range outside of North America and are the most likely to be outright extinct. The Siberian zoroark (D. laventoni), also known as the spectral zoroark, were native to coastal Siberia and Hisui. They thrived in cold climates and may have even hibernated during the summer. Siberian zoroark were selectively incorporeal ghost-types that manipulated their form for their illusions. They were known to be the most territorial and solitary of the species and could be extremely vicious when defending their territory. It is believed that the species was already on the brink of extinction when Europeans first saw them. Siberian tribes had stories about shapeshifters and zoroark, but many of these were set in ancient times. The zoroark were no longer believed to be active threats. They was only one confirmed sighting in mainland Asia, a single photograph taken by a Soviet soldier in 1931. The Hisuian population was believed to be extinct by 1920. How such a distinct species evolved is likely to forever remain a mystery as the spirits did not leave behind physical remains to study. Furfrou Furfrou Canis noblesse Overview Furfrou has a reputation as perhaps the most regal and snobby of the world¡¯s canines, and certainly of the world¡¯s domestic canines. But the truth is that furfrou are, charitably, one the most energetic of the domestic canines. Less charitably, they are perhaps the least intelligent. So how did a high energy, low attention span dog that would rather be sloppily licking their trainer than sitting beside their throne become synonymous with poise and nobility? The answer lies in the extensive and messy history behind the breed. Furfrou, along with yamper, was one of only two canines to be domesticated in Western Europe. Furfrou was also one of the earliest domestic pok¨¦mon of any sort available in Europe. Between their long fur and potential for herding and protecting other livestock, they were quickly adopted by farmers across the continent. Foreign visitors during the early First Kalosian Empire viewed furfrou as synonymous with the European method of agriculture. There was a slight problem with furfrou, though: they are not the patient herders that stoutland and arcanine are. Instead, they easily get distracted by birds, flowers, people, wild Pok¨¦mon, or the sun and stop watching the herd or walk away altogether before coming back at night with their tail between their legs. Farmers initially tried rectifying this by adopting a larger court of furfrou to watch both each other and the livestock, but they only distracted each other. As soon as arcanine, boltund, and stoutland were imported in the late stages of the First Kalosian Empire, furfrou were only retained as livestock for their fur or as protectors of children. The widespread domestication of lopunny slowly led to their decline in even those roles. Enter Empress Apolline. Born a common farmer, she was conscripted into the Imperial Army during The Winter Legions¡¯ Mutiny. Her tactical brilliance and skill with taming pok¨¦mon led to her rising quickly up the ranks. After the death of the emperor at the Battle of Cylage placed one of the rebels next in the line of succession, the Lumiose Guard raised her to the throne. She carried the war within the year and her compassion and cunning during the post-war era lead to peace in Kalos for another century. She also had fond memories of her family¡¯s furfrou and brought several into the court in order to train senior military leaders and nobles in pok¨¦mon husbandry. The court, in turn, happily adopted furfrou as the Kalosian equivalent to the Galarian monarchy¡¯s yamper and played up the nobility and beauty of the breed as a form of propaganda. Over generations and dynasties, the furfrou stayed as a symbol of Kalos in general, and the monarchy in particular. The elaborate styling of furfrou¡¯s coats was perfected during this period. Previously furfrou shaving had been a mundane semiannual task to obtain fur and improve the furfrou¡¯s mobility; now it was (and mostly still is) a form of conspicuous consumption and class status. It can be expensive to obtain a purebred furfrou in Alola (or almost anywhere else), but mutts are somewhat common in the wild and shelters as most trainers and families view them as too high maintenance and the wealthy would prefer a purebred. These furfrou make excellent pets for anyone who wants a high energy dog or a chance to practice advanced grooming techniques. Physiology Furfrou are classified as normal types by the Department of Agriculture, as they lack the criteria for any other typing. Furfrou are rather typical, if lean, canine pok¨¦mon. Their only main distinctions are their long, shaggy white fur and their somewhat delicate facial structure. Most purebred furfrou have a very long and narrow snout compared to other canines. This is impractical and forces them to greatly slow down while eating. It is a product of selective breeding for purely aesthetic purposes. Furfrou¡¯s fur is not actually as thick as that of cincinno or lopunny. It is somewhat curly and grows very quickly. This leads to it fluffing out more than most other pok¨¦mon¡¯s fur. They can grow a full coat of fur up to 16 inches long in six months and the fur can extend away from their body, leading to them looking more like a mareep than a ninetales. Unusually for canines with long coats, they do not have summer and winter coats that they shed with the seasons change. Instead, furfrou fur reaches its terminal length and stays that long until it is groomed. Feral furfrou almost always have the maximum coat length. In their original range in Europe this was seldom a problem, but in Alola this can be a serious health concern as, like most canines, furfrou have no better means of heat release than simple panting. Purebred furfrou grow up to thirty-two inches in height at the withers and can weigh between twenty and thirty pounds, depending upon how long their fur is at the time. Mutts are usually somewhat larger. Purebreds live around seven years in captivity; mutts usually live between ten and fifteen. Neither typically survives long in the wild, especially in Alola. Behavior As mentioned above, furfrou are very energetic and playful. They are also quite social and, when stressed, will seek out the nearest furfrou, other canine, fluffy pok¨¦mon, or human and stick very close to them. They frequently rub against fences or trees for reasons that are not well understood. In colder climes or when recently shorn, furfrou are known to run for several hours a day and spend the rest of their time sleeping. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. Feral furfrou mostly prefer to scavenge or beg around human settlements rather than go hunting. This is partially because they have one of the weakest senses of smell of all canine pok¨¦mon and their vision isn¡¯t much better. Hunting in crowded urban areas by hearing alone is rather difficult for them and most aren¡¯t well trained in tracking or battling. When they must hunt, furfrou tend to be ambush predators staying motionless in one place until something they think they can kill crosses their path. Unfortunately for them, furfrou are both conspicuous and impatient. They frequently move around and blow their cover, jump at things that are not edible (or even living), play with their potential prey rather than eating it, or forget what they were doing and wander off. Husbandry Furfrou eat standard canine food mixes and are also capable of eating most common human foods. They are notorious beggers and their diet should be monitored. Thankfully they are also active enough that they seldom get particularly fat. Speaking of their activity, furfrou require several walks a day. It is best to do these around sunrise and sunset, with a shorter walk in the late morning and early afternoon (or both). Even furfrou without much fur can overheat in the late afternoon sun. Furfrou are incredibly social in captivity and will require either another dog to keep them company or lots of attention from their trainer. When awake they will demand scratches, walks, food or playtime. If these are denied they will attempt to cuddle their trainer with full body tackles, steal whatever is distracting their human or grab onto their trainer¡¯s leg and start licking it continuously, sometimes for up to an hour. Unless under strict veterinary observation, furfrou should have their fur trimmed once every three months. Most groomers are more than capable of giving them basic cuts. Advanced cut groomers are somewhat rare in Alola as eevee, stoutland, rockruff, growlithe and vulpix are more popular pets, but they can be found in Hau¡¯oli and Malie. There is some debate as to whether elaborate styles are uncomfortable for furfrou. It appears to vary depending upon the style and dog. Furfrou should be monitored closely after they receive a new styled trim to gauge their comfort with it. Illness Purebred furfrou suffer from a number of health problems. Snout injuries and cancers are the most common, but almost any illness or injury a dog can suffer is a risk for a purebred. They should receive veterinary checkups once every six months, ideally after grooming sessions. Mutts tend to have fewer health problems. One particular challenge for furfrou is that their habit of rubbing against anything and everything in their territory often leads to skin infections. These can be very difficult to spot given the coverage and bulk of their fur. Furfrou should be thoroughly petted often to check for skin wounds; the dog will not mind this. Like all canines, furfrou can carry rabies and should be vaccinated. This is usually done shortly after birth. Evolution Not applicable. Battle Furfrou¡¯s lack of size and elemental attacks, as well as their frankly middling speed, mean that they are almost never the dog of choice for competitive battlers. The one exception to this is in the Kalos league, where many trainers who have access to the private tutors, TMs, money to travel extensively, and training supplies that help them succeed also tend to have furfrou. This does not mean that furfrou are unusable on the island challenge, although they do suffer severe competiton from the many other dog breeds in Alola (arcanine, eevee, vulpix, lycanroc, manectric, stoutland, riolu, houndoom, granbull). They are fast enough and their fur coat durable enough that they can dominate many early challenges and still get a hit or two off in the later ones. Other pok¨¦mon will need to pick up the slack towards the end, but furfrou users are playing an even longer game. Furfrou are high maintenance but energetic and lovable pets that can live for years after the island challenge is over. In battle, it is best to keep things simple. While furfrou can learn several projectile attacks through TMs, they do not have the energy reserves to utilize them effectively. Instead, they should rely upon tackles and full-body melee attacks combined with a few basic tricks such as roar, protect and double team if the TMs can be afforded. They are countered by ghosts, steel, and rock types, powerful physical walls and most birds. Anything they can hit successfully (at least, when most opponents are using common juvenile pok¨¦mon) will likely take significant enough damage to make up for their long list of counters. Purebred furfrou should be withdrawn after taking serious hits or multiple weak ones to avoid significant injury. A good rule of thumb is that if a purebred¡¯s coat is in disarray, it¡¯s time to end the round. Acquisition Furfrou can be adopted, captured or purchased with a Class I license. A few feral furfrou can be found around Hau¡¯oli City, especially in the winter. It is far easier to simply adopt one from the shelters in the city. There are also furfrou breeders on Ula¡¯Ula and Melemele. Breeding Furfrou courtship, mating, pregnancy and child rearing are all quite typical for canines. This makes them a good starter pok¨¦mon for getting into the breeding of more difficult dogs such as ninetales, eevee and granbull. Furfrou have been known to mate with every other canine species on Alola save zoroark, although some crossbreedings are more difficult than others. Most furfrou hybrids are reproductively viable. Furfrou pregnancies last roughly two months and they have litters of four to six puppies. Relatives Furfrou¡¯s closest living relatives are boltund and stoutland. Boltund are stronger and faster but do not produce wool. Before court-sponsored breeding initiatives there was less difference between the two species. The rivalry between Kalos and Galar prevented either nation¡¯s most popular dog from ever becoming popular in the other. Both breeds share a wild ancestor with stoutland. Stoutland have longer fur than furfrou and are well adapted to sub-Arctic environments in Scandanavia and Russia. Their low heat tolerance meant that they were always limited to the northern and mountainous areas of Europe before air conditioning and the pokeball. Raichu Raichu (Pichu, Pikachu, Hodad) Luxsivarum ikanalu Overview Until the late Twentieth Century, pikachu were only common in central Japan and Alola with small invasive batteries elsewhere. They are not the most popular pok¨¦mon among Japan¡¯s trainers. Worldwide, relatively few casual trainers used them before the 1990s. They are virtually absent from the competitive battling scene beyond the occasional use of hodad as a bird counter. By all accounts, pikachu owes its popularity to one trainer who used a pikachu medically incapable of evolution (see Illness) and the subsequent anime and video games made about his improbable rise through the underground and officially sanctioned battling scenes of metropolitan Yamabuki. How the story and media caught on just as much, if not more so, outside of Japan than in it is a discussion for another book in another field. Pikachu¡¯s cuteness and perceived power led to its rise as a popular pet worldwide, even to the point of largely supplanting the popularity of related electric types such as emolga, dedenne, togedemaru, plusle, minun, and pachirisu. However, whatever the Satoshi-inspired anime and games say, most pikachu inevitably grow up. And many people find raichu to be not quite as cute as their adolescent stage. Furthermore, they seriously disrupt nearby electronics. Pichu have relatively little control over their electric sacs and can be dangerous to have around very young children, in addition to being a frequent literal and metaphorical pain for their trainer. This is not to say that the pikachu line are bad pets, exactly. They are cute, loyal, friendly and (pichu aside) almost entirely safe. But they do not work for every trainer and those prizing cuteness in their electric-types above all else might be better served by a togedemaru, emolga or dedenne, all of which have the advantage of not growing into a larger form. There are also misconceptions about the Alolan or Tapu raichu (referred to in this guide by their traditional name: hodad). Normal raichu are not absent from or even uncommon in Alola. Most pikachu here evolve into raichu. Hodad and raichu are both branching evolutions of pikachu like slowbro and slowking are to slowpoke. Indigenous Alolans did not and do not worship hodad; they worship Tapu Koko and believe that hodad are blessed by the land spirit. However, this veneration was only particularly common on Melemele; the residents of other islands had their own sacred emissaries. Physiology Plusle, pikachu and raichu are classified as pure electric-types by the Department of Agriculture. Hodad is classified as a dual electric- and psychic-type. There is some dispute as to whether they should have a third fairy-typing. As they fit the criteria for their two primary typings far better and third typings are presently disallowed, it is unlikely that hodad¡¯s official typing changes unless the basic rules of official typings change as well. Pichu, as well as pikachu and raichu, are predominately quadrupedal but can stand up on their hind legs if needed. Pichu are pale yellow in color, except for the fringes of their ears (black), their cheeks (pink), their tail (black), and a jagged band of fur around their neck (black). They are perhaps most easily distinguished from pikachu based on their size and the prominence of their feet. Pichu¡¯s electric sacs are not fully developed. This makes them prone to weak discharges when startled; they can be startled by their own involuntary discharges, leading to a feedback loop of release that leaves the pichu severely drained. Their electric sacs are also not developed enough to store large amounts of electricity, meaning that their strongest discharges still don¡¯t release as much power as the average raichu¡¯s thunder shock attacks. Pikachu are generally bulkier than pichu with less prominent limbs and a proportionally larger torso. The cheeks darken to a bright red color and their tail becomes longer, more jagged and coated in yellow fur. Their ears are also proportionally longer and only colored black at the very tips. Pikachu¡¯s electric sacs are nearly as large as those of a raichu, allowing them to hold about as much electricity. Their release processes are less sophisticated and they have less experience using them, leading to frequent situations where they discharge too much at once and either hurt themselves or run out of energy quickly in a battle. However, as Satoshi¡¯s pikachu demonstrated, their unregulated thunderbolts can be the strongest of any small electric-type. It has been said that raichu resemble pichu far more closely than pikachu. They are proportionally longer, their ears are fringed in darker brown fur, and their feet are quite prominent, especially when compared to the stubby legs of pikachu. Raichu are darker in color than their juvenile forms, except for a cream-colored belly. This makes them appear counter-shaded, which is unusual for a purely terrestrial organism. This has led to some speculation that the ancestors of raichu could either swim or fly. The circles on raichu¡¯s cheeks (which, contrary to popular belief, are not the exterior of their electricity pouches but rather just ornamental markings) are pale yellow in color. Perhaps the most interesting element of raichu¡¯s physiology is the existence of a long brown ¡°cord¡± between their tail proper and the rest of their body. Most trainers can¡¯t believe that a tail so thin can hold up the bulky lightning-bolt-shaped tip. This disbelief is supported by reality; raichu can¡¯t hold up their tail with muscles alone. Instead, they use sophisticated electromagnetic currents to move their tail around and channel their lightning bolts. This gives them much more accuracy, range, speed and physical power than pikachu, as they can use their electricity to supply kinetic energy to their own body. The electromagnetic currents are far more necessary in hodad. They have even larger tails with equally thin cords leading to them. Hodad often balance the rest of their body on top of their tail and fly through the air on them. This gives them the appearance of surfing. Beyond that, hodad are generally of a lighter color than raichu, with the brown fur on their paws replaced with white fur. The eyes literally bright blue (that is, their eyes emit light of their own and glow in the dark). The ears are also rounded and appear to contain a spiral pattern, although this is actually just a result of their magnetic field acting up on their fur. Hodads¡¯ ears are also light yellow in coloration. There is some dispute as to whether or not hodad utilize actual telekinesis or just manipulate themselves and other objects with electromagnetic fields. Hodad can be taught to use a variety of other mind-affecting attacks that give them the marking of a psychic-type. They are also quite adept at communicating with human psychics. Since telepathy and telekinesis usually go together in pok¨¦mon, it is speculated that they augment their natural electromagnetic abilities with telekinesis. Despite common misconceptions, no member of the pikachu evolutionary line feeds upon electricity. They are all vegetarians. They prefer berries but can also eat leaves, bark and stems. Pikachu and raichu prefer to cook their food and will often use their electricity to scorch plants before eating them. Hodad feed almost exclusively upon berries and use their levitation to rise up berry trees and then dart to the next grove. They do not scorch their food. The misconception that pikachu subsist on electricity has a clear origin: lightning often strikes near pikachu batteries. Almost every time there is a storm, the skies above the forests that pikachu and raichu inhabit will be almost constantly lit up. Raichu also flock to the areas around power plants and other crucial parts of the electric grid. All stages of the evolutionary line save hodad become tired when they have not been exposed to lightning or raw electricity in some time. After a long withdrawal period they will resume their normal activity levels, but they will not use electricity until they are recharged. Unlike most electric types, it does not appear as if they can generate their own power and must rely upon lightning strikes, leeching from the electric grid, or shocks from other pok¨¦mon, to maintain their defensive and offensive capabilities. Hodad generate their own electricity. They are still frequently struck by lightning and briefly become hyperactive after they are hit. It is unclear how their generation works as their internal anatomy is very similar to raichu and none of the differences appear to explain this ability. Raichu grow to around forty-four in height when standing upright, tail not included. They can weigh up to 30 pounds. Hodad grow to around two feet and can weigh up to 35 pounds. Raichu typically live for about seven years in both captivity and the wild. Hodad can live up to thirty years. Behavior Pichu are almost entirely dependent upon their evolved forms in the wild. They typically stay inside of their underground nests until they approach their first evolution, so it is difficult to observe their wild behaviors. In captivity and when they begin to leave their nest, pichu are incredibly curious pok¨¦mon prone to gleefully exploring their surroundings and being fascinated by individual objects, particularly human-made ones, for hours. Or until they accidentally shock it and become upset, triggering a feedback loop and often damaging the target of their affections. They are primarily nocturnal. Pikachu spend most of their time either sleeping or foraging. Batteries can contain up to thirty individuals (including pichu and raichu), but individuals mostly forage alone. They are skilled climbers and move from tree to tree without leaving the canopy for most of the day. Pikachu are also skilled burrowers who dig shallow tunnel networks that they sleep in during the night. It is not that pikachu aren¡¯t curious, rather, they simply devote very little time in a day to anything that isn¡¯t survival. When they encounter a new potential nest or food source they can spend up to an hour exploring it before either committing to taking the nest over, cooking the food, or wandering away. One of pikachu¡¯s most interesting behaviors is their tendencies to shock weakened pikachu to restore the depleted pok¨¦mon¡¯s electricity sacs. They will sometimes even do this to pikachu in other batteries they encounter on their foraging journeys. Raichu spend most of their day around the battery¡¯s nest guarding against potential predators. They are not strictly diurnal or nocturnal; the raichu in a colony tend to sleep in shifts so that at least one is awake at all times. When they feel a nest is unsafe or wish to introduce their pichu to the outside world, they have the ability to warp their magnetic field to stick pichu against their backs and render them nearly incapable of escape. Hodad do not live in the same battery as pikachu and pichu. Instead, they move between the territory of different batteries as they please. They tend to live in pairs. Rather than burrowing, they sleep in the canopy. Like pikachu, hodad are primarily diurnal, although it is also not uncommon to see them active at night, especially if there¡¯s a storm. They do not rear their own pichu and instead drop them off in a nearby battery. In exchange, they provide protection for all batteries in their range should they be seriously threatened. If they are unable to protect a battery, they will drop their carefree attitude in a heartbeat to avenge them. It was this attribute that gave them their semi-mythical status in Alolan folklore. Chiefs who built structures in the wrong territory or dared to hunt pikachu would often wind up killed by a thunderbolt on a clear day, as if struck down by Tapu Koko himself. This vigorous defense of pikachu territory is one of the reasons Route 1 zoning is entirely controlled by the Melemele kahuna. Stolen story; please report. Husbandry Pichu are nearly as demanding as an actual human infant or toddler. If the parent raichu are available, it is best to simply leave the baby¡¯s care largely in their parents¡¯ hands (see Breeding). Because many pichu in captivity are obtained from captive hodad, who refuse to care for their own offspring, many trainers will find themselves in the position of having to raise a pichu on their own. The first major challenge the trainer will face is that very young pichu require raichu milk to survive. This can be purchased at some specialty breeder supply stores in Alola¡¯s large cities. Travel should not be attempted with a very young pichu as a constant supply of milk is needed and even brief disruptions can lead to starvation. As they grow older pichu become more willing to eat mashed up fruit and, eventually, some crushed leaves. Pichu at this age should not be shocked because a pichu with electricity means shocks for their human caretakers in addition to frequent fires as they begin to explore their environment. Young pichu should be stored in a room either without electrical outlets or with well covered and insulated ones. Their room should contain no sharp or heavy objects and should contain enclosed and soft spaces for them to retreat to when scared. This will occur very often, as pichu are scared of nearly everything until they approach evolution. They should also be given toys such as exercise wheels and objects dangling from string. Like all stages of the pikachu line, they will require something to gnaw on as well, lest they begin to burrow out of the door or walls. To be safe, pichu should never be put into a pok¨¦ball until they reach three months of age, and then the ball should be only sparingly used. Pikachu require far less constant care. They are very social pok¨¦mon who tend to resent pok¨¦balls and anything else they see as separating them from their trainer. Pikachu love most machines; the machines tend not to love pikachu back. Keep them away from any electronics that haven¡¯t been specifically made to resist electric types. Pikachu will need somewhat frequent electric charges. Access to a simple electrical outlet can usually do the trick. Alternatively, pikachu chargers are available for sale at most Pok¨¦mon Centers in Alola. The machines¡¯ efficacy seems to vary depending upon the exact model and individual pikachu. Pikachu, raichu and hodad will all eat as much as they can. This will often prove to be more than their metabolisms can handle. Feed them a quantity roughly equal to one fifth of their body weight each day. They will beg for more food after battles, but they do not need food so much as a good charge. The pok¨¦mon will still exploit their human¡¯s ignorance about that if they can. Pichu should be fed whenever they cry. If they do not accept the food, move on to other potential problems (minor injury, dirty litter, broken toys). Pikachu enjoy frequent battles and exercise as well as enrichment in the form of new toys to experiment and play with or new locations to explore. If you do not want a pikachu to attempt to burrow in a home, provide them with some sort of enclosed area they can retreat to. Like all stages of the evolutionary line, they can be housebroken. Raichu are more sedentary than pikachu. Despite this they require more electricity and the same amount of food to maintain their fields. Some raichu are fine with pok¨¦balls; most are not. In general, they are less social than pikachu and more content to spend time alone or with another pok¨¦mon. Their electrical field makes them poor housepets as they have a habit of accidentally frying devices in their home. Traveling trainers with a raichu can find themselves burning through multiple phones a year. Hodad are even rougher on electronic devices due to the increased strength of their field. They are also more active and social than raichu and require time on their own to fly. Otherwise, they will get very energetic and start accidentally discharging electricity like a pichu. It is believed that flight is how they release excess energy, something that is constantly a problem for them as they generate their own supply. Hodad have a notorious sweet tooth and can be easily bribed and trained with their favorite type of berry. They prefer to sleep cuddled against either their trainer or a fluffy pok¨¦mon, preferably an electric type. Most fluffy pok¨¦mon hate getting their fur messed up by static electricity, so hodad trainers should just accept that they¡¯re going to wake up most mornings next to a drooling pok¨¦mon and with their hair sticking every which way. Short haircuts and cheap pajamas are recommended for hodad trainers. Illness Some pikachu have problems with their electricity sacks that make the process of evolution medically inadvisable. There is a surgical procedure that can prevent them from undergoing it. Pikachu so altered typically live for five years, which is only a little longer than they would have otherwise lasted. The main reason this surgery is actually performed in practice is to ensure that the pok¨¦mon stays as a cute and relatively powerful pikachu forever. As such there are an increasing number of veterinarians and surgeons who will not perform the procedure at all. Most health problems any member of the evolutionary line will have are related to their electric sacs. These problems are usually temporary and work themselves out again after a good charge or discharge. Consult a veterinarian if teh pok¨¦mon continues to have unusual difficulty with their electricity, such as accidental releases for pikachu, raichu or hodad, painful discharges or shying away from electronics or other electric-types. As they age some raichu and hodad experience senility and a partial loss of hearing. This is very common among related species and should be accepted. However, this often leads to raichu being unable to easily distinguish verbal commands. A raichu older than seven years should never be ordered to use thunder wave if the trainer isn¡¯t fine with them using thunderbolt instead. Evolution Pichu and pikachu evolve in brief periods of four to six days. The exact catalyst for evolution is unknown, but the leading theory is that it is tied to their total lifetime exposure to electricity. Usually this evolution occurs between four and six months of age for pichu and three to five years of age for pikachu. Exposure to thunder stones can almost immediately trigger an evolution in a pikachu. This amount of electricity can be dangerous or even fatal for a pichu and no effort should be made to force their evolution. Shortly before evolution, the pok¨¦mon becomes very hyperactive and begins to eat anything it possibly can. Then it goes sluggish for a few days of very rapid growth. They will prefer to retreat into their burrow for the duration of this process in the wild and some equivalent structure should be provided in captivity. Evolution might generate electricity; in any case, the pok¨¦mon will be incredibly charged immediately after completing the process and will be nearly as energetic as they were before evolution (if a lot clumsier as they adjust to their new body). Hodad evolution is different. Sometimes, particularly on Melemele, a thunderstone with a spiral pattern carved into one surface will appear. A pikachu exposed to these stones will immediately begin a flash evolution into hodad. These stones can also be broken up into pieces that can serve as impromptu z-crystal to allow for a massive, temporary increase in the power of a hodad¡¯s electromagnetic field. Battle Pikachu have a small niche in competitive battling given the sheer power they can unleash. Once. Maybe twice. If the attack is blocked, dodged or the pikachu is knocked out before they can execute it, they won¡¯t deal any damage at all in the fight. Given pikachu¡¯s size and relative frailty, they are not durable enough to take almost any hit from a pok¨¦mon on the competitive circuits at all. Hodad holds a more substantial role, if only barely so. Flying electric-types are understandably popular for their ability to not only strike birds with powerful weakness-targeting moves, but to keep up with them in their home turf. Unfortunately for hodad, vikavolt exists and is both faster and more powerful. Hodad holds some niche advantages, though, like better offensive and defensive movepools with attacks such as focus blast, encore, magic coat and reflect. Birds are also less likely to know bug buzz, shadow ball or dark pulse than they are to know heat wave. But even on their good days, hodad aren¡¯t capable of firing off thunderbolts half as powerful as a vikavolt¡¯s. And vikavolt have the added perk of not frying their trainer¡¯s cell phone. Raichu are neither fast nor powerful enough to earn a substantial role in competitive battling. Some recent trainers have used them early in their careers. They usually obtained one after being misled by video games or television and the trainer was then unwilling or unable to convince a veterinarian to render their pikachu incapable of evolution. This is not to say that either raichu or hodad is bad for casual battling or the island challenge. To start with, raichu and hodad are much easier to obtain, evolve and train than vikavolt. And their thunderbolts are more than capable of keeping pace with even the later totem pok¨¦mon and grand trials. It should be noted that raichu is not particularly bulky and hodad is even frailer. For the most part they should be used as ranged nukes that can hold their own up close if necessary but are better served getting in hits from a distance and keeping their opponent at bay. Moves such as double team and protect are a hodad or raichu¡¯s best friend. Pikachu are also frail, but they are quite capable of taking the average hits of the first two islands¡¯ trials. By the time the third island comes around, it may be time to evolve them. They battle much like their evolutions, although early on it might be practical to mix in physical moves such as iron tail, quick attack or slam as their opponents will also be relatively frail and the pikachu can¡¯t keep up thunder shocks for long without exhausting themselves. Pichu should be battled with sparingly and against weak opponents only, and even then they should only be battled with at all after they reach three months of age. It is best to leave them to nursery room fights against other very young pok¨¦mon. Acquisition All stages of the pikachu line are often found around Hau¡¯oli City and in Route 1. Raising a pichu born in captivity or abandoned by a requires a Class IV license. Raising a pichu with a male raichu requires only a Class II license, or a Class I license if you have a female raichu. (The disparity is due to the difficulty of obtaining milk without a female raichu.) Hodad will not raise a pichu and thus do not discount the license requirement. Pichu should never be captured inside of their nest as this is against commonwealth law. But a fine is the least of your worries if you disturb a pichu nest, as hodad tend to aggressively avenge those transgressions. Pichu out of a nest can be captured with a Class II license. Pichu over three months of age can also be adopted or purchased with a Class II license. Pikachu can be adopted, purchased or captured with a Class I license. However, pikachu can only be captured inside of Route 1 after defeating at least one of the Melemele trials. Even then, only one pikachu capture per trainer is allowed. The restrictions in Hau¡¯oli City itself are far laxer. Both pichu and raichu are commonly available from breeders. Raichu and hodad may not be captured from the wild in Alola. However, many trainers abandon them to shelters after they lose their first cell phone. This makes them rather easy to adopt. Both require a Class III license to adopt or purchase. Breeding Female raichu mate with a male in their battery about once a year. After a five-week pregnancy, they give birth to two pichu. Raichu carefully guard all pichu in their nest, regardless of parentage. They do not allow them to leave the nest at all until they reach about three months of age, and even then they are only allowed to leave when magnetically glued to a raichu¡¯s back. They are only allowed to explore on their own after another two to four weeks. Hodad pairs sometimes never mate. They also frequently form homosexual pairs that, regardless of whether they mate or not, cannot reproduce. Sometimes hodad pairs mate and reproduce up to three times a year. Hodad pregnancy is very similar to raichu pregnancy. After their young are born, the male hodad will glue them to his body and seek out a nearby battery to drop the pichu off at. Hodad don¡¯t seem to have any preference as to which battery they drop eggs off at. Some pairs will drop theirs off at the same one every time, and others will drop them off at a different one each time. There does not appear to be any clear driving factor behind their selection. Relatives There are two recognized species of pikachu, the Japanese and Alolan species. The Japanese pikachu, L. luxsilvarum, has a thicker coat and grows slightly larger. Their fur patterns are also a little bit darker. The main difference between the two is the Japanese pikachu¡¯s inability to evolve into hodad, even when exposed to the proper stone. While the Japanese pikachu was originally confined to central and northern Japan, the pet trade has since brought them to almost every corner of the world. Abandonments and escapes have led to feral populations near most major cities in temperate climates. Vikavolt Vikavolt (Grubbin, Charjabug) Ovisoccissio reginae Overview Most pok¨¦mon species in this guide were introduced to the islands by humans. Broadly speaking, they came in three waves: the initial Polynesian settlers, Japanese and Chinese expeditions between 800 C.E. and 1100 C.E., and European explorers and colonizers after 1750 C.E. However, a handful of species, mostly migratory birds and aquatic Pok¨¦mon, were living on Alola before humans first arrived on its shores. Some of those species are found nowhere else in the world. Grubbin is one example. And out of all of the truly Alolan pok¨¦mon, it is by far the most famous and feared outside of the islands. Flying pok¨¦mon hold a metagame defining and constraining role in competitive battling. Because of this, any team without a reliable bird counter or several bird checks is doomed to failure. And vikavolt might be the best bird counter there is. Vikavolt pack some of the strongest thunderbolts of any pok¨¦mon, they can keep up with most birds in both speed and agility in the air, and they are natural predators of birds in the wild. Some of the most prominent birds in the international metagame, such as skarmory and talonflame, live in Alola and vikavolt have learned how to defend themselves against and even hunt them. Vikavolt are the reason that the most powerful bug specialists feel the need to take a pilgrimage to Alola. They are also the reason that Alola draws some of the world¡¯s most prominent trainers to the Battle Tree Invitational Tournament year in and year out. Vikavolt may not be the single most metagame defining pok¨¦mon on the international scene right now but they are one of the fastest rising. And Alola is almost the only place to get one. This hasn¡¯t been entirely good for vikavolt. Their juvenile forms are easy pickings for scyther, volcarona, pinsir and heracross. While the latter isn¡¯t even a carnivore, they have no desire to compete with the highly aggressive vikavolt for territory and resources. Vikavolt are somewhat physically frail and other powerful bugs can sometimes lure them into a trap and take them out. Even before their meteoric rise on the competitive scene, grubbin were essentially extinct on Poni and declining on Akala due to competition from other bugs. Concerns about overharvesting for competitive battling led to the Commonwealth establishing small grubbin formations overseas to take pressure off of the Alolan populations. The largest formation, the one in Galar, was obtained after a donation of $350,000,000 to the Alolan League, Commonwealth Park Service, and the Wild Alola Foundation. The second-largest in Kitikami was gifted to Japan by the President of the United States in 2015. Thankfully, it is much easier to obtain a grubbin or charjabug as an island challenger than as a member of the general public. Please note that there are still restrictions in place on quickly trading or selling grubbin, and more than one trainer has run afoul of the law while trying to make a quick buck on the grubbin market. Physiology Grubbin are classified as pure bug types by the Department of Agriculture. Charjabug and vikavolt are classified as dual bug- and electric-types. There is some dispute as to whether or not grubbin should have an additional ground-typing, but as they are neither terrakinetic nor built to thrive in sandstorms or deserts, the current ruling is quite likely to stand. Grubbin are small bug-types with four distinct body segments. The latter three are light grey in color with occasional yellow spots. These segments contain most of grubbin¡¯s organs as well as their legs, two per each hind segment. The front segment is orange in color with a yellow ¡®visor¡¯ shielding their mouth and the base of their mandibles from aerial attack. While they appear to have large ringed eyes, these are simply ornamental. Grubbin are entirely blind, something they make up for with lateral lines that allow them to sense the electric signals in the living organisms around them. Their mandibles extend from the front of their head and usually contain yellow and orange stripes. The exact width and number of the stripes is unique to each grubbin. Right above their mouth grubbin have another orifice for the release and withdrawal of silk lines. While silk production isn¡¯t uncommon among young bugs, grubbin use it in an interesting way. They release the silk at high speed to snare potential predators, rivals or prey and slowly pull them towards the grubbin¡¯s powerful mandibles, where they can be killed or battered further. Charjabug look quite different from grubbin at a glance, leading early European explorers to determine that the charjabug and vikavolt on Melemele and Poni were a different species altogether than the grubbin on Ula¡¯Ula and Akala. To start with, charjabug are uncannily geometric. Their body is an almost perfect rectangular prism with only short, stubby legs and mandibles protruding from it. Most of their body is green, except for one side of their body which contains their face. The face is broken into a grid of nine perfect squares. The bottom two squares in the middle column are grey and contain jagged lines¡ªthe mouth. The remaining squares in the middle row are a reflective blue. The mandibles, tiny yellow pegs, stick out of the remaining green squares on the bottom. The blue tiles contain the charjabug¡¯s eyes behind them. At least, they do for older charjabug. Newly evolved charjabug haven¡¯t finished growing eyes yet and still rely heavily on their lateral lines for navigation. Charjabug are also known for being a sort of natural battery. Although, contrary to popular belief, the manmade battery was not inspired by charjabug. They slowly absorb energy throughout their life and can release it for either self-defense or to assist a vikavolt. The main reason that charjabug can live on the surface undisturbed is that killing one will set off a discharge of all the remaining electricity in their body. This will often take out their killer. Curiously, charjabug make accordion-like sounds when disturbed. Vikavolt are about as different from charjabug as charjabug are from grubbin. They resemble a large beetle. Unlike other beetle pok¨¦mon such as pinsir and heracross, vikavolt are not bipeds and are most comfortable in the air. The upper portion of vikavolt¡¯s shell is dark blue. A portion of this shell covers the head. The rest is retractable and covers the wings. The rest of vikavolt¡¯s shell is black. Unlike grubbin and charjabug, they have four long, spindly legs rather than six stubby ones. Vikavolt are most easily recognizable by their head and mandibles. Their head contains two bright yellow triangles that cover up their eyes. Right beneath their eyes they have an orange mouth which, like charjabug, opens horizontally rather than vertically. Their mandibles begin with horizontal green- and yellow-striped spikes facing away from their head. Then the mandibles extend up to two feet away from the mouth. The interior of the mandibles are typically green and contain a number of small spikes. The exterior is bright yellow. The mandibles are not used for grappling or eating prey. In fact, they must be swerved aside to let vikavolt get their mouth to their food. The mandibles are used for amplifying and releasing powerful thunderbolts. Vikavolt are capable of reaching flight speeds up to one hundred and fifty feet per second for very brief periods and pivoting a full 360 degrees in less than two seconds while moving at max speed. Their thunderbolts contain wattage and amperage approaching that of actual lightning and, at max charge, they can fire off up to a dozen before they absolutely need to rest. This is accomplished based on a few power saving or recharging tricks. First, vikavolt slightly charge themselves with every wingbeat, although this is not enough to recoup the energy loss of flight. They also reabsorb some of the ambient energy left in the air after firing off a bolt, which is the primary reason why wild vikavolt often wait up to a minute between attacks. However, vikavolt do not passively generate their own electricity like some pok¨¦mon can. They need to eat. Grubbin are primarily herbivorous, although they will also scavenge kills or take out small bugs or birds from time to time. Charjabug don¡¯t move or eat much, preferring to keep their metabolism low to minimize the time until evolution. When they do eat, they tend to eat the remains of vikavolt kills or slowly work through a tree, as trees are immobile and large enough to last several charjabug through evolution. Vikavolt are primarily carnivorous, although they have sometimes been observed seeking out flowers, fruit or nectar. Their preferred prey are birds. There is a common belief in Alola that vikavolt are venting the impotent rage towards birds they had as a grubbin. This is mostly unsupported by evidence. Grubbin have relatively few predators as they spend almost their entire life underground (see Behavior), and the predators they do have tend to be dedicated insectivores or burrowers. Trumbeak occasionally prey upon grubbin, as do skarmory and fearow. But vikavolt only prey upon trumbeak when there are no larger birds to eat and, while they do hunt skarmory and fearow, they prefer larger migratory pok¨¦mon such as braviary, tropius, and mandibuzz. All three species do not actively hunt grubbin and only kill vikavolt in self-defense. Given the prominence of both psy-sensitive trainers and vikavolt on the competitive battling scene, there have been multiple papers published on the psychic lives of vikavolt. Most, but not all, psychics have concluded that vikavolt see birds with the detached gaze of a predator rather than the rage of a warrior out for vengeance. After humans began to capture grubbin in large numbers, vikavolt have begun to attack adult humans in some portions of their range without provocation. This lends some credence to the idea that vikavolt hunt out of revenge. They do not eat killed humans and do not hunt children. Vikavolt grow up to five feet in length and can weigh up to thirty pounds. They live an average of nine years in the wild and twelve in captivity. Behavior Grubbin mostly live three to ten feet beneath the surface their entire life, or until they evolve. They move from root system to root system and leave tunnels behind them. Grubbin live mostly solitary lives. Their tunnels are not a home, just a relic of where they¡¯ve been. They almost never backtrack. When grubbin are unable to obtain enough food or water underground they will sometimes come to the surface to eat and drink. Once it finds stagnant water or a root system, the grubbin will disappear back underground. Charjabug, like metapod, have very little behavior to speak of. Sometimes they will move to avoid a slow-moving natural disaster such as rising waters or lava flows. Occasionally they will crawl over to and up a tree for shelter or food. Otherwise, they stay still and absorb the ambient electricity that caused them to evolve in the first place. Vikavolt behavior is more interesting. They stay in the air virtually all of the time, pausing only for a quick rest each night for three to five hours. This is usually done in brush or dense canopies. This is a difficult weakness to exploit because vikavolt are light sleepers and their color scheme is difficult to see at night. Perhaps the most interesting of vikavolt¡¯s behaviors is their relationship with charjabug. While they seldom interact with other vikavolt, they are prone to picking up a charjabug with their legs. The adolescent form appears to function as a battery, giving vikavolt the power to cast more thunderbolts and a shorter recharge time between attacks. However, the charjabug weighs them down and they sometimes leave them behind when chasing very fast prey or fleeing from predators. They almost always come back for their dropped charjabug. When their claimed charjabug evolves, the vikavolt keeps close watch over them and protects them from predators as they grow. If the vikavolt are of opposite sexes, they will form a lifelong mated pair. Otherwise, they will split when the younger vikavolt is fully grown and both will find a new charjabug. Mated pairs seldom use charjabug as batteries and discard them immediately after battle when they do use one. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Outside of hunting and resting, vikavolt tend to aimlessly fly around their territory. Proposed theories for these flights include warning off other vikavolt, searching for new bird nests, or just killing time. Husbandry The insect pok¨¦mon covered thus far in the guide are wonderful starting bugs. They aren¡¯t aggressive towards humans, they grow and die rather quickly, and they are each quite social. Vikavolt are almost none of these things. Trainers with no prior experience raising bug-types may find their grubbin, charjabug or vikavolt difficult to understand, and thus difficult to tame and care for. They are still far from the most difficult bugs in the Alola region and they give fair warning before attacking their trainer. The most common complaint from trainers is actually that they are quite boring. Grubbin primarily eat roots in the wild. This is easy enough to replicate in captivity by providing them with root vegetables. They should be fed three to five times a day. Grubbin will not eat if they are full or drink if they are not thirsty. Their vegetables should always be relatively fresh. If this is not feasible, other fruits and vegetables can be provided to them. Grubbin should be given a water cup at every meal. Charjabug, for the most part, do not eat. They should be ¡®fed¡¯ through frequent access to a thunder stone, generator or electronic devices. Once every two to three days they should be offered tree bark, sticks, grass, or leaves and a cup of water. If they eat the food, get them a lettuce-based plant mix to eat until they no longer show an interest in food. If they drink the water, they should be provided with a cup of water once or twice a day until they stop drinking. Vikavolt are almost entirely carnivorous. They aren¡¯t particularly picky on what they eat, but they usually prefer poultry. If their food is not cooked in advance they will zap it themselves. They should be fed frequently and in relatively large quantities. Like their juvenile forms, they will simply stop eating when they are full. Once the vikavolt has been in captivity and fully grown for a few weeks, their trainer should be able to work out how much and how frequently they need fed. Vikavolt require water far more consistently than their juvenile stages and should be provided cups of water more often than they are given food. Grubbin will want to burrow. This makes them happy, but also makes them difficult to keep track of or retrieve. Breeders and trainers raising grubbin in permanent homes might wish to invest in a concrete or metal bin or pool filled with sand or soil. Sticks or vegetables should be frequently mixed in for enrichment and the sand should be sifted through or replaced roughly once a week to remove droppings. A water bin should be placed on top of the sediment. In general, grubbin are entirely fine with their pok¨¦balls so long as they are regularly fed. Charjabug also do not mind their pok¨¦balls. Or much of anything. They should not be left in overly hot or dry environments for too long and should be left out of their pok¨¦ball for at least two hours a day. Of course, there¡¯s still a compelling reason to spend more time with grubbin and charjabug than is strictly required. And that reason has a predatory drive, wicked lightning bolts and flight faster than highway speed limits. Vikavolt are mostly apathetic towards humans they do not know. They will accept offerings of cooked food, but food alone will not make them warm up very quickly to a human. Usually, they¡¯ll just take an early chance to zip away if their trainer has done the bare minimum to care for them in the past. Spending frequent time around grubbin and charjabug, helping the former battle and providing enriching environments for them, keeping them in luxury or friend balls and generally making a show of being protective of them will all help earn a measure of trust. Vikavolt will usually stay around a familiar human until they finish growing. This period is absolutely critical for earning a vikavolt¡¯s full trust, and even friendship. Growing vikavolt should be protected from harm at all costs. They enjoy chasing toys such as paper airplanes, laser pointers or RC helicopters around to practice their lightning bolts and flight. Providing a pok¨¦mon that can teach a vikavolt new moves is also useful. Some young vikavolt have shown a fondness for batteries that they can hold in their mandibles like a charjabug. If all of these factors and others (food quality, environment, sleeping places, access to trainer) are met, a vikavolt will usually choose to stay with their trainer for life. Fully grown vikavolt require far less sustained attention. They should be allowed to explore during the day whenever possible and trained to recognize a whistle so they know where to come back to at night. So long as high-quality food is provided to them, they will seldom make a nuisance of themselves by hunting local wildlife. Vikavolt also require frequent battle or they will start acting up or terrorizing the local birds, even if they don¡¯t actually eat them. Vikavolt will demand either a place indoors or inside of a tent to sleep near their trainer at night. Outside of healing and (short) discipline, a vikavolt¡¯s pok¨¦ball should be used sparingly. Beyond proximity while they sleep, vikavolt will demonstrate few conventional displays of affection. They are not social pok¨¦mon in the wild and even mated pairs only nest and occasionally hunt together. Illness Sometimes vikavolt or grubbin get parasites. These are usually not curable, but also usually not life threatening. Infections can be prevented by making sure their food is as fresh as possible. Parasite infections are usually marked by somewhat abrupt shifts in their dietary habits, either towards eating far more food than usual or eating less. Sometimes this leads to vikavolt becoming sluggish and putting on weight. Consult a veterinarian if these symptoms are observed as they can be managed with changes in diet and training. Most other symptoms are a sign of hunger and can be easily solved by giving the pok¨¦mon food. Evolution Most grubbin, especially on Akala, do not evolve in the wild. Grubbin only evolve when they have been exposed to a persistent and powerful electromagnetic field. At that point they go to the surface, find some place hidden and secure, and slowly begin to grow and change into a charjabug. The process usually takes one to three days to complete. The main body of a charjabug is essentially a cocoon that the body of a vikavolt slowly forms within. Once enough energy has been absorbed, the nervous system¡¯s center switches from a network lining the shell¡¯s walls to a nerve cluster inside of the developing body. Then the vikavolt wakes up, breaks out of the charjabug and takes to the sky. At this point, the new vikavolt is usually less than eighteen inches long. They grow to their full size over the course of ten to twenty weeks, depending upon the availability of food. These new vikavolt primarily hunt insects at first before moving up to small mammals, small birds and, once they approach full size, larger birds. They spend almost all of their time seeking out new prey, with only an hour or two a night spent sleeping. In captivity, it is best to spend some time with a grubbin before trying to evolve them. This helps gain their trust once they evolve into vikavolt. The exact time needed depends upon your experience with insects, but for a novice trainer two months is recommended. At this point, the easiest way to quickly evolve grubbin and charjabug is acquiring either another electric-type such as pikachu or magnemite or obtaining a thunder stone. Thunder stones can be a little expensive, but vikavolt don¡¯t need to deplete the stone to evolve (they just absorb the energy it would be radiating anyway). Because of this, the stone can be resold after evolution is completed. Battle Despite all of the attention paid to them in recent years, vikavolt usage is still confined to one basic strategy with some slight variations: release a powerful thunderbolt, stall for a little while, release another thunderbolt, continue until defeated. This applies at both professional and amateur levels. Vikavolt have a few offensive options to compliment their electric attacks (bug buzz, hyper beam, hidden power, energy ball, signal beam, air slash) as well as a few options for stalling (dig, volt switch and u-turn, toxic, roost, protect, light screen, substitute). This does not mean vikavolt are weak: the one thing they do is very important and they do it extremely well. Some trainers have attempted to use them in a primarily defensive role using their powerful attacks, high speed and decent utility movepool to function as a cleaner and defensive flier on a quick stall team. They have some potential in this role, especially for quick-stall teams that need a dedicated bird killer, but it should be noted that vikavolt are not particularly durable and their recharge period leaves them vulnerable to counter-attacks. This makes them an awkward fit in stall teams of any flavor. In general, vikavolt function best in a mostly offensive role as a bird killer and ranged cannon on balance or offensive teams that need something to pave the way for a melee sweeper. Charjabug should be battled with sparingly, as using up their electricity supply delays their evolution. Like galvantula, charjabug silk conducts electricity. The default charjabug strategy is to bind opponents and then shock them until they faint or are withdrawn. Grubbin combat was briefly alluded to above. Their best tactic is to use their silk to set up a melee fight and then use their powerful mandibles to finish the battle quickly. Grubbin have very limited electrical reserves so, even if they can learn some electric attacks, it¡¯s better to use non-elemental styles in practice. Avoiding the use of electricity also hastens their evolution. Acquisition Grubbin are found in the wild within Blush Mountain Commonwealth Park and on Route 1. In these areas, they may only be captured by trainers on the island challenge who have either registered to participate in the challenge or completed a trial or grand trial within the last three months. There is a limit of one grubbin (or charjabug or vikavolt) per trainer between both sites. Trainers may only sell their grubbin, charjabug or vikavolt from these areas if they complete all four grand trials. Otherwise, they must be donated to the Alolan government or released. Grubbin are far less threatened on Akala and found throughout almost all of the island¡¯s forests and grasslands. There are substantially fewer restrictions on the capture and use of grubbin captured on Akala. On all islands, they require a Class I license to purchase, adopt or capture. Charjabug and vikavolt are almost exclusively found in the wild within the Blush Mountain Commonwealth Park on Ula¡¯Ula, although a few vikavolt can be found along the coastline of Melemele and charjabug can occasionally be found near Iki Town. Charjabug and vikavolt are subject to the same restrictions on sale and capture as grubbin. Charjabug require a Class I license to purchase, adopt or capture. Vikavolt require a Class III license to purchase and adopt or a Class IV license to capture. Grubbin are generally only found on the surface during particularly dry periods. Digging into the ground to remove one is illegal within the boundaries of both the Blush Mountain Commonwealth Park and Route 1. On Akala it is usually legal, although the owner of the property should be consulted first. Charjabug can be found on the ground or attached to trees on Blush Mountain. Vikavolt are generally found in the skies of the area. While it may seem like an obvious choice to capture a vikavolt rather than a charjabug, it is definitely not. Charjabug are far easier to find, capture and tame than vikavolt. In fact, it is recommended that only experienced bug specialists attempt to tame a wild vikavolt as they are very powerful, somewhat prone to violence and slow to trust humans. However, their capture is not currently prohibited. Breeding Female grubbin reproduce asexually in the early spring. They lay a batch of roughly one hundred eggs in their tunnel and promptly abandon them. The eggs hatch roughly two weeks later. Newly hatched grubbin are only about a tenth of an inch long when born. Their survival rates are very, very low as they are eaten by some common insects and animals and most burrowing pok¨¦mon. There are currently commonwealth-run programs to breed and raise grubbin in captivity and reintroduce them to the wild when they are large enough to have fewer predators. Mated pairs of vikavolt also reproduce in the early spring. Vikavolt do not have a proper courtship ritual as their mated pairs are determined upon one party¡¯s evolution, rather than when both are already grown vikavolt. Their mating, however, does have a set ritual. The vikavolt both climb up to roughly 3,000 feet above the ocean (the highest they ever fly), latch on to each other, and stop beating their wings. They break away from each other right before impact with the water¡¯s surface and, if necessary, climb back up to repeat the process. The male vikavolt digs a hole in the earth and the female lays two to three thousand eggs in it. Then the male covers the eggs and stirs up the air over the hole to blend the topsoil together and cover up the nest¡¯s existence. Then both parents leave. They never return to check on their young. Relatives There are no known subspecies of vikavolt. Vikavolt¡¯s closest living relatives are pinsir and heracross. Both were later introduced to Alola. Pinsir and heracross are far physically stronger than vikavolt but struggle to fly. They are limited to foraging or hunting on the ground. Vikavolt evolved to handle the birds that lived on the islands. It isn¡¯t currently known how vikavolt¡¯s ancestors arrived in Alola. The dominant theory is that pinsir and vikavolt share an ancestor that was capable of long-distance flight. There are crude cave drawings of what appears to be a pinsir with large wings in Indonesia. This creature, tentatively named the Pindul beetle, is the most likely candidate for the missing link between vikavolt and pinsir. Sudowoodo Credit to giygas on Spacebattles for the forest¡¯s curse idea. Sudowoodo (Bonsly) Arboraemula perri Overview Sudowoodo are very easy to care for. They are also more mobile and personable than most other mineral pok¨¦mon, making them a good first step into caring for more dangerous and less friendly species. Bonsly are quite powerful for their size and age and sudowoodo are able to keep pace with most of the competition. They are also one of the few pok¨¦mon whose ownership is more common in older populations than younger ones. Still, they have their fans among the younger generations. Physiology Both bonsly and sudowoodo are classified as pure rock types by the Department of Agriculture. Neither ruling is disputed. Most pok¨¦mon are physiologically similar to some non-pok¨¦mon form of life. So far this guide has discussed mammals, birds, insects, and cephalopods. Even some extraterrestrial lifeforms resemble these basic archetypes. Some pok¨¦mon, especially the ones strongly linked to humans or human society, don¡¯t resemble any known non-pok¨¦mon organism. Many of these are inanimate objects brought to life by some supernatural force. Others are truly manmade pok¨¦mon. A final group have completely unknown physiologies and origins. Sudowoodo is one such pok¨¦mon. While it superficially resembles a tree and is capable of something akin to photosynthesis, sudowoodo is emphatically not a plant. It is part of a group known as ¡®mineral pok¨¦mon.¡¯ Pok¨¦mon in this class tend to be chemosynthetic and inorganic, that is, they are not based on carbon like all non-pok¨¦mon life on Earth. Sudowoodo in particular is a silicon-based creature. It isn¡¯t presently known how mineral pok¨¦mon evolved, or even if they undergo macroevolution at all. The most widely accepted theory is based on physiologically similar automaton pok¨¦mon such as porygon-z and golurk: at some point, every mineral pok¨¦mon may have had a creator and they have simply been self-replicating ever since. Alternatively, they may have been formed from chemical reactions deep in the Earth akin to the ones that created muk on the surface. The latter theory has yet to gain traction for the simple reason that all known chemically formed Pok¨¦mon have liquid cores while almost all mineral pok¨¦mon have very dry interiors. Bonsly are dark brown in color across their body unless otherwise noted. They have two short legs supporting a roughly conical body. There is a rim roughly a quarter of the way up their body. Bonsly have three yellow spots forming a triangular face. The bottom two spots contain the bonsly¡¯s eyes. They have a mouth placed right below their eyes. The mouth is thin and horizontal. It also does not connect to their digestive or respiratory tracts and is entirely used for vocalization. The pok¨¦mon produces sounds by vibrating small crystals inside of their mouth that superficially resemble growing teeth. At the top of their body bonsly have three stems that branch off from each other. Each stem has a green sphere at the end. While these resemble leaves at first glance, they are actually hollow crystalline lattices. They do appear to serve some function akin to photosynthesis, using the heat of the sun to break up the compounds they use for the chemosynthetic reactions that actually power their body. Sudowoodo are taller and leaner than their juvenile form. The core of the body is a trunk-like rectangle that¡¯s surprisingly flexible for being similar to stone in composition. The bottom two-thirds of their trunk is littered in seemingly random patterns of yellow dots. At about the two-thirds mark two arms branch out on opposite sides of the trunk. These arms each have a trio of green orbs at the end. Above their arms, sudowoodo have two eyes and a mouth that are quite similar to those of bonsly. They have another stem that branches out into two orbless stems on top of their body. All forms of sudowoodo are chemosynthetic. They absorb minerals from the ground and break them down through a complex series of chemical reactions to produce energy and new material for their body. Sudowoodo and bonsly store long, coiled tendrils within their main body. These tendrils are covered in small crystals structures that allow them to sense and pull minerals out of the ground. They release their tendrils from a small hole on the bottom of their body. Sudowoodo tendrils can reach lengths of up to twenty feet long and they can deploy nearly a dozen at a time. The tendrils absorb any silica they can find in the soil, along with trace metals and some salts. The pok¨¦mon excretes water with unneeded chemicals. Sudowoodo hate water and only need very small quantities of it. Adults can drain it through their root cavity. Bonsly cannot and must release it through their eyes in the form of tears. Too much water can be fatal for all stages, although it tends to only kill bonsly in captivity. In Alola, the typical sudowoodo grow to be about four feet tall. They can weigh a little over seventy pounds. They can live for forty to sixty years in captivity and ten to thirty years in the wild. Behavior Both stages prefer to find a shaded grove of low trees and stand motionless. They deploy their roots and simply soak in sunlight and minerals until they are disturbed. Sudowoodo have almost no predators because their body is mostly rock. The few pok¨¦mon that do eat rocks tend to hunt the ones that won¡¯t run away from them. Because of this sudowoodo tend to only move to avoid rain. Sudowoodo breathe through pores on their skin. Those pores can let rain in. An adult can usually drain water faster than they take it in provided that they find some shelter like a cliff or a dense forest. Rain is quite often fatal for bonsly. Sudowoodo parents are constantly vigilant for rain and will usually move their babies to shelter if there are clouds outside. In Alola most sudowoodo stay very close to caves or abandoned buildings during the rainy season. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. On Akala and in the interior of Melemele sudowoodo often join trevenant forests. The trevenant can use Forest¡¯s Curse to temporarily make sudowoodo more resistant to rain and water-type attacks. In turn, sudowoodo deal with the insects, fire-types, and birds that might pick on the slow-moving trevenant. The introduction of sudowoodo to Alola led to a partial reversal of the post-annexation decline in trevenant numbers. Husbandry Sudowoodo are very simple to care for. They require only soil and sunshine. Both are usually quite easy to find. If a sudowoodo is raised entirely indoors or is confined to a small space of earth for a long period of time they will require supplements. Sun lamps can be purchased in virtually all Pok¨¦mon Centers. Traveling trainers stuck in prolonged rainstorms can usually talk the presiding nurse into letting their pok¨¦mon use the dartrix photosynthesis room. The owls usually enjoy having an interesting new perch; the sudowoodo tend to stay motionless. It is unknown if this is out of fear or instinct. Fertilizer designed specifically for sudowoodo and bonsly can be purchased at most specialty pok¨¦mon or botany supply stores. A sudowoodo raised permanently indoors should be given a circular pool at least two feet deep and six feet wide filled with fertilized soil. Sudowoodo raised outside should always have a place to retreat to in the event of a sudden rainstorm. Sudowoodo and bonsly are perfectly fine being stored in stasis or habitat pok¨¦balls so long as they are allowed to filter soil at least six hours a day and receive at least twenty hours of sunlight a week. Bonsly become very stressed if they are separated from their parent or trainer for more than an hour, especially if they are outside. Until it evolves the trainer should make every effort to stay nearby while the bonsly is outside of its pok¨¦ball. Bonsly are not good at filtering water out of the soil they consume, so a traveling trainer should generally carry around roughly three pounds of dry fertilized soil and a small pool in case a rainstorm permeates the soil. Illness If a bonsly cries for more than a few minutes a day try giving them a new pan of soil and spending more time with them for the next week. If they do not stop crying for more than ten minutes a day when given dry soil and socialization, consult a veterinarian. Trainers should also consult a veterinarian if a sudowoodo¡¯s behavior abruptly changes without a clear cause. It is difficult to cure most mineral pok¨¦mon diseases but seeking medical care in a timely fashion can often cure or help manage minor problems. Evolution Bonsly slowly grow in size. Once they have a rim about half an inch thick, they will flash evolve during severe rainstorms. The new sudowoodo will be better able to handle the weather than it could as a bonsly. In Alola these storms will naturally pop up in due time. Trainers desperate to accelerate evolution can try locking bonsly in a bathroom with thunder sound effects and a running shower. This will provoke evolution more often than not. Battle Sudowoodo currently have no presence in competitive battling. They are outclassed in their role as fast rock-types by several fossil pok¨¦mon. Even before fossil pok¨¦mon became common on the competitive scene they still only had a very small niche in some regional circuits. Sudowoodo are surprisingly agile and powerful combatants. Conversely, they are quite frail for a mineral pok¨¦mon. They function mainly as a melee fighter with enough bulk to take a hit or two. This puts them in the role of the typical fighting-type in battle. For their size and age bonsly are quite strong and durable. Their main use in battle is to trade powerful physical moves, mixed in with tears to throw opponents off guard if the tide turns against the bonsly. Both sudowoodo and bonsly are quite good for the first two islands, mediocre on the third and are somewhat outclassed by the fourth island¡¯s trials. However, a clever trainer commanding a sudowoodo with enough training can still make the pok¨¦mon pull its weight through the end. Acquisition Bonsly can be purchased, captured or adopted with a Class II license. As a note of caution, a wild bonsly will usually have a parent sudowoodo nearby ready to defend their young if you get to close. They can be adopted from several shelters on Melemele and Akala. The shelters in eastern Hau¡¯oli often have them on hand. Additionally, botany supply stores will often have bonsly for sale. Sudowoodo can be purchased, captured or adopted with a Class I license. They can be caught in most of the same places bonsly can be found. They are less common in shelters and very few stores sell adult sudowoodo. Because they are considerably less difficult to care for than bonsly, trainers on an island challenge are advised to simply seek out and capture a wild sudowoodo. The sudowoodo¡¯s ease of care makes them popular among older trainers who want companionship and purpose but are unable to keep up with an active pok¨¦mon. The reason there are wild sudowoodo in Alola is the multitude of children who released their deceased parent¡¯s sudowoodo rather than continuing to care for it. At present their population is quite small on Melemele and mostly focused around a cluster retirement homes on Route 1. Their population has grown larger and more rapidly on Akala. They can now be found in most of Northwest and Southern Akala. The Department of Natural Resources has not prioritized the removal of sudowoodo. They barely impact the environment don¡¯t prey on local species. They actually provide an ecological benefit by stirring up and enriching the soil and protecting endangered trevenant . There have even been talks about deliberately introducing them to Ula¡¯Ula to help protect the forests on the northern half of the island. Breeding During the late rainy season sudowoodo may seek each other out. Sudowoodo do not have distinct sexes until they mate. Then, seemingly at random, one will begin to adopt male anatomy and the other will adopt female reproductive organs. This transformation usually takes two to three weeks. When the process is complete, the sudowoodo mate. The female lays four to six eggs about the size of a golf ball a week later. The male will bury the eggs and the parents will guard them in shifts until they hatch roughly three weeks later. Parents will stay with their children until they evolve. Then all members of the family will go their separate ways. Relatives While sudowoodo living in ranges with different soil composition sometimes have different compositions, they are not classified as distinct species as these traits are not hereditary. A bonsly descended from two parents in Kalos will develop a near-identical composition to Alolan sudowoodo if raised in Alola. Like many of the mineral pok¨¦mon in the archipelago, Alolan sudowoodo are tougher but slower than their continental counterparts. Blissey Blissey (Happiny, Chansey) Aglaea aglaea Overview There is credible evidence that blissey was the first pok¨¦mon to be tamed. Archaeologists have found stone tablets with drawings of blissey in a human camp, and even wearing human clothes, that dated back to 18,000 B.C.E. They were one of the only domesticated pok¨¦mon exclusively found in Australia prior to the creation of the mass produced pok¨¦ball. As difficult as it is to believe now, blissey were not introduced outside of Australia until 1842 C.E. Even the wayfarers could not bring them from island to island without stressing the pok¨¦mon to the point of death. The pok¨¦ball and large sailing ships rectified the problem. At present there are wild populations on every continent except Antarctica. Blissey is the quintessential healing pok¨¦mon of the modern world. Their egg is one of the most potent psychoactive drugs currently known and it is not physically addictive. It also contains every enzyme and growth factor needed for healing in humans. In pok¨¦mon it rapidly accelerates the regeneration abilities of almost all organic species and some inorganic ones. Most Alolan Pok¨¦mon Centers have now added blissey or chansey to their staff, either in addition to more traditional options such as comfey and alomomola or as the sole pok¨¦mon on hand. They can also be found in the wild on all four islands, although finding or capturing one can be a difficult prospect. In addition to their use as healers, blissey are the premier special walls in competitive battling. Their combination of power and utility has led to extensive capture (legal and illegal) in their native and introduced ranges, making the remaining wild blissey very skittish around humans. Physiology All stages of the evolutionary line are classified as pure normal-types. There has been a substantial push in recent years to reclassify them as dual normal- and fairy-types. However, they have no extraterrestrial ties, weakness to iron, or propensity for pulling pranks. The Department of Agriculture is currently reviewing its ruling to consider the evidence for a fairy-typing. Happiny are divided into two distinct segments. The lower half of happiny is covered in a hard, dark pink shell. Only their short, stubby legs protrude from the bottom. The shell has a somewhat loose flap of white skin on top of it which happiny often form into a pouch. The upper half of happiny¡¯s body is covered in short light pink fur. They have two arms, which are even shorter and stubbier than their legs. The face is proportionately large and consists of a mouth and a pair of eyes. They have two darker cheek spots on their face. Towards the top of the head they have three short, hard lumps. These are primarily used for sensory purposes. They have a dark pink ¡®bead¡¯ on the very top of their head with a messy, curly ponytail extending from it. Chansey are shaped like an oval, or an egg. They have two pink feet which are substantially longer than those of a happiny. They also have a tail that can extend for up to a foot behind their body. Chansey¡¯s face resembles that of a happiny but it barely grows as the happiny evolves, making it proportionally smaller. They lose the knobs on their forehead but gain two sets of tufts on the sides of their head where their ears would be. The most notable feature of a chansey is the pouch by their arms. This is often used for holding eggs, but they can put unruly happiny or other small pokemon inside in a pinch. Blissey¡¯s primary differences from chansey are on the lowest half of their body. This portion becomes coated in fluffy white fur. Four tufts grow out of the white fur and one apiece develops on the arms. Blissey lose the tufts on their head that they had as chansey and gain large fluffs of long, curly, pink fur in their place. Blissey have a rather large amount of fat inside of their bodies. However, they also have a surprising amount of muscle. This allows chansey and blissey to run faster than they appear capable of moving, and happiny are able to lift far heavier objects than most other pok¨¦mon of their size. No stage of the evolutionary line has ears or a nose. They breathe through their mouth and sense vibrations in the air through their pink fur, allowing them to sense movements around them and process sounds. Blissey have the ability to sense the emotions of those around them and then seek out the source of particularly negative emotions with high accuracy. They do not appear to have any ability to sense pheromones. It is suspected that they may be empathic. Their obsession with easing the physical and mental pain of those around them may simply be a defense mechanism to avoid those unpleasant feelings entering into their own minds. However, blissey (especially those raised by trainers since birth) can be taught to participate in battles and even inflict direct pain on their opponents. Blissey also have no particular aptitude for casting or resisting mental attacks. Human psychics have reported that the line are a little easier to work with than most human-shape pok¨¦mon, but not to a degree that suggests inherent psychic powers. Blissey usually grow to around five feet in height and weigh between 220 and 250 pounds. They might be immortal aside from stress, prolonged starvation, or particularly severe injuries (see Illness). Behavior The evolutionary line is best known for their caring nature. Wild chansey and blissey often watch over sick or wounded pok¨¦mon, predators and prey alike. It is suspected that blissey are the reason that Australian predators evolved to be so deadly: if prey wasn¡¯t killed immediately, that prey wasn¡¯t going to be killed. Chansey primarily cure pok¨¦mon by giving them their egg. Even wild blissey appear to have some skill in other forms of healing. This appears to be a learned behavior passed down through generations; a chansey raised in isolation will learn no healing techniques outside of giving their egg. Wild chansey tend to flee from all but the sickest and most depressed of humans. Even humans they feel compelled to heal will be approached with the utmost caution and ran from and the first sign of danger. They will almost always put their own freedom and welfare above the health of other creatures. Happiny are not known to lay eggs, but they find and carry around objects that superficially resembles an egg and will fit inside of their pouch. Occasionally they will gift their ¡®egg¡¯ to a very trusted friend or someone they think needs healed; it is believed that happiny do not understand that their ¡®eggs¡¯ do not have any healing properties. The other quirk of happiny that is not present in their adult stages is that they appear to have a low opinion of their appearance. Mirrors anger them and they will attempt to use combs, sticks or anything they can grip to straighten their hair. They are usually unable to succeed. Since they cannot directly touch or see their hair they will eventually forget about the problem. All stages of the line are highly social pok¨¦mon, but they greatly prefer interacting with members of other species. Unrelated individuals will only stay together when one is hurt. Most adults will only associate with their young daughters. When a happiny evolves, mother and daughter will part and then seldom interact in the future. Blissey and chansey tend to keep large ranges that other members of their species do not enter. While they do not fight over territory, the one whose territory is being intruded upon will usually run to the trespasser and puff her fur up. She will stand still, looking at the trespasser until they leave. On the rare occasion that the intruder ignores her she will continue to follow her unwelcome guest until they leave her territory. When a happiny evolves, a new chansey or blissey is introduced, or a member of their species is captured or dies, all blissey and chansey in the area will assemble, work out new territory boundaries, and immediately go back to their homes. It is unknown how blissey can sense other members of the species entering their territory or know when a meeting is called. Captive chansey working together in a hospital setting usually need to have individual wings they are responsible for. Working in close physical proximity with conspecifics upsets them. Blissey will usually bond with one group of a single species. They tend to pick the species most closely related to them. If there are no egg-laying mammals, a placental mammal or a large bird or reptile will be befriended instead. Blissey will help protect the eggs and raise the young of the ward they have attached themselves to. In exchange they will sometimes ask for an egg (see Breeding). Blissey spend a few hours a day foraging on their own if they are not attached to a ward of herbivores. Otherwise they rely on the ward to bring them food. Blissey¡¯s short limbs make it difficult to pluck berries from trees, and their shape makes it impossible to bend down to eat grass. They can go without food or water for up to ninety days, although they will stop producing eggs if they have not eaten in over ten. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. Husbandry Chansey and blissey are the rare pok¨¦mon that do more to care for their trainer than their trainer will need to do for them. However, they are not a good team member for a trainer who does not wish to have much interaction with their pok¨¦mon. Blissey hate pok¨¦balls and prefer to be with their trainer or the other pok¨¦mon on the team almost constantly. Fortunately for stationary trainers (and unfortunately for travelers), they sleep around fourteen hours a day. Growing happiny, chansey and blissey will need about 10% of their body weight in food a week. Fully grown blissey will need to eat 3-5% of their body weight. Blissey that battle at the highest levels will require 6-8% of their body weight in food. They prefer berries, but they will happily eat most plant material and even honey. Blissey should be handfed due to their very limited use of their limbs. If a blissey is taught a telekinetic move such as psychic they will need much less assistance. Blissey get all the water they need from their diet. Any blissey or chansey will adopt an abandoned happiny. If you find yourself caring for an orphaned happiny you should begin seeking out one of the older stages as well. Otherwise, the happiny will tag along with their trainer constantly and grow stressed if they are separated for a long period of time (including by pok¨¦balls). Never take the egg (or surrogate egg) of any stage of the evolutionary line. If the pok¨¦mon wishes for you or someone else to have an egg they will give it freely. Stealing their egg causes a great deal of stress, which in turn reduces the frequency of egg laying. Blissey and chansey eggs are incredibly tasty and good for healing tissue, boosting the immune system and reducing pain. This makes the species especially popular among trainers with chronic illnesses. Blissey eggs are also powerful antidepressants with a side effect of greatly increasing the consumer¡¯s desire for social interaction. There are presently no other known side effects aside from minor weight gain. Blissey trainers are well known for being calm, happy and helpful. The government still closely regulates the trade of blissey eggs. To be safe trainers should never own more than one blissey without a specific license to do so. If a blissey gives you an egg you should not redistribute it. This irritates the blissey and is often illegal. Illness It is very difficult to kill a blissey. Their body has thick layers of fat around all major organs. Blissey fur also dampens elemental energy. This means that only very, very powerful blunt force attacks and particularly deep and powerful cutting moves can knock a blissey out. Only unrestrained physical attacks from some of the most powerful pok¨¦mon in the world can actually kill a blissey. Even then they will almost always fully recover from attacks such as rhydon tail swings, rampardos head smashes, aegislash cuts, and machamp punches. To be safe they should never be left in a fight for more than one of those blows (and smart trainers will put considerable effort into avoiding them altogether). If a blissey is knocked out in battle they should be immediately withdrawn into a pok¨¦ball (ideally a heal ball) and taken to a Pok¨¦mon Center as soon as possible. Blissey and chansey are quite good at tending to the wounds of their own species. Less than a handful of blissey have ever died when given proper medical care. Most leagues allow trainers to immediately send a pok¨¦mon to a nurse after it is knocked out. This option should be taken whenever available. Well-fed blissey, chansey and happiny have never been observed catching an illness or having one of their wounds become infected. Adult blissey do not appear to age. Prolonged starvation can kill a blissey and dramatically reduces their ability to heal themselves and others. They become very vulnerable to injury or infection around three months after being withdrawn from food. The juvenile forms, especially happiny, are somewhat less durable. Chansey can be outright killed by the sorts of attacks mentioned above, and even average high-power physical moves can take them out if left untreated. Happiny are almost always fine fighting baby, juvenile or adolescent pok¨¦mon. They can even safely take hits from some adult pok¨¦mon provided they are not trained for competitive play or exceptionally strong. The main reason that blissey and chansey die in captivity is stress. A stressed blissey will experience many of the same symptoms as a starving one. They should be given near-constant social interaction, as much sleep as they want, and frequent access to wide-open green spaces. Confinement indoors or on a small ship is stressful. Some blissey have greater tolerances for battle than others. This should be taken into account when deciding whether or not to use them in a match. Evolution Happiny evolve into chansey around their second birthday. The transition is gradual and the formal demarcation is the creation of their first natural egg. In the wild evolution is also marked by the new chansey leaving her mother. Blissey evolution is also gradual and the exact demarcation line between chansey and blissey is in dispute. The shedding of the last ear tuft, the development of white fur across their entire lower half, and the disappearance of their tail have all been proposed. All three events tend to take place around the same time in any case. Chansey evolve into blissey when they have been free from stress for a long period of time. Very close social bonds, particularly with their trainer, can lead to evolution even with low level stressors such as occasional battles. Battle Blissey is the premier special tank in international battling. There are very few elemental attacks that they even seem to feel. Even if they are damaged, they can heal themselves in a variety of ways (wish, rest, eating part of their own egg). They can learn a variety of utility attacks such as heal bell, reflect, light screen and stealth rock. Blissey don¡¯t have particularly strong elemental attacks, although they can learn a wide variety. Their elemental well is simply too small to be of much use in high tier battles. Blissey do best stalling out opponents who have been inflicted with burns, curses, or poisoning. In a pinch they can also use counter to deal with physical blows. Blissey can be overpowered by many physical attackers, particularly fighting-types. Taunt can also seriously limit blissey¡¯s utility. Blissey are also a massive drain on momentum for both the user and the opponent. Those three drawbacks limit their use to defensive or balanced teams. On the island challenge blissey are still powerful enough to deal with most opponents offensively, especially if they have a way to exploit a weakness. It¡¯s still usually for the best to use them to wall a particularly difficult opponent that can neither switch out or harm blissey, such as elementally inclined totem pok¨¦mon. Chansey play a similar role, although they are faster and somewhat less powerful and bulky. Blissey don¡¯t really need speed for what they do, so chansey are a somewhat niche pick in competitive battling. Chansey are still quite capable of walling almost all elemental attackers on the island challenge, and they¡¯re even capable of dodging or outrunning some projectiles or melee attacks. Happiny have surprisingly strong tackles. However, they lack a way to reliably heal themselves and they aren¡¯t particularly durable. They can be used to counter weak special attackers that can¡¯t outrun them. Alternatively, a well-trained happiny can learn a utility move or two to help out the team while an opponent struggles to take them out of the fight. Acquisition All stages of the evolutionary line can be found throughout all four Tapu Islands. Because they are technically invasive, they can be captured in all protected areas without additional restrictions. Federal law prohibits a private individual from owning two chansey or blissey at once. This is probably for the best, as outside of a happiny and a parental figure they do not get along when held on the same team. Happiny can be captured, adopted or purchased with a Class II license. If the trainer also owns a chansey or blissey, only a Class I license is required. Chansey and Blissey can be captured, adopted or purchased with a Class I license. The main problem with acquiring a member of the line is finding a wild specimen. They are quick to flee from trainers and their fur gives them a pretty good impression of their surroundings. Chansey and blissey are also rather light sleepers. Even if a trainer does find and corner one, her ward will usually come to her aid to avoid losing their resident healer. In practice, only three types of trainers encounter a wild specimen: the patient ones, the injured ones, and the very depressed ones. In any case sudden movements should be avoided around a wild blissey. It is best to try and bond with the creature rather than capturing it outright as chansey and blissey caught by force tend to be very difficult to tame. Capturing a wild happiny is also a tricky prospect as they will almost always be protected, either by their mother or by their ward. They are quick to flee, but a moderately fit trainer moving at a light jog can outspeed them. If it becomes clear that a captured chansey or blissey is caring for a happiny, that pok¨¦mon should also be captured. As mentioned above, all stages of the evolutionary line prefer to be held in heal balls. Luxury, love and quick balls are also acceptable, although they will never like staying in the ball for long periods of time. Breeding Contrary to popular belief, blissey are not parthenogenic. There are also no male blissey and there is no equivalent species they mate with. Chansey and blissey eggs are impossible to fertilize and are only used for healing purposes. When a blissey wants to reproduce (and only blissey have the ability to do this) they will approach a female in their adopted clan and request an egg. If the female agrees, the blissey will put the egg inside of her pouch. Through a poorly understood process she will begin to convert the egg into a fertilized blissey egg. The amount of time it takes for the egg to be converted and hatch depends on how closely related the species is to blissey. Bird and reptile eggs can take years to convert. Eggs from kangaskhan, blissey¡¯s closest living relative, can hatch in less than two months. Blissey breed very rarely in the wild. They only do so when particularly content or when the local chansey population has declined. In captivity blissey must be very happy and kept with another female member of an egg-laying species. Even under the best of conditions it is unlikely that a blissey chooses to reproduce. Given their very long life expectancies, aversion to their own species, and lack of natural predators, there are sound reasons for the species¡¯ reluctance to have children. Relatives Blissey are monotremes. Their pouch makes them an interesting link between monotremes and marsupials in Australia. Their bizarre reproductive scheme makes it probable that they were the true ancestor of the marsupials. It is far more likely that they are a living fossil from an era when the first marsupials were evolving. They may have even evolved alongside and in response to the true missing link species. Snorlax Snorlax (Munchlax) Ursacrassus occidentum minor Overview Most invasive species in Alola eventually settle into a niche and the ecosystem rebalances, albeit in a way less favorable to the native species. But the Melemele ecosystem has yet to adjust to snorlax. Alolan snorlax are the smallest in the world and they can still eat up to 550 pounds a day. Their sheer size and appetite have put them towards the top of the local food web since they can bully away every other predator species on Melemele sans salamence. In 1987, the Hau¡¯oli Zoo acquired a snorlax named Danielle and she became something of a celebrity in the Commonwealth. Petitions surged to allow the importation of munchlax through the less restrictive Category B3 Importation process. An initial review from the United States Department of Agriculture concluded that the Alolan islands simply were not big enough to be able to support a wild snorlax, making the threat of a resident population establishing itself quite minimal. It would later become evident that the government overlooked two major factors. Alola has the highest plant growth per acre in the world, allowing it to support a far larger food web than would otherwise be possible. The sheer number of large carnivores on the islands attests to this. Second, snorlax that are limited by food will simply reach maturity without reaching their maximum possible size. The disparity in licensing required to possess the friendly and easy to care for munchlax and the monstrous snorlax has led to many young snorlax being released, particularly in the Hau¡¯oli area. Most of these releases have not resulted in a stable wild population, especially since the DNR has classified snorlax as their ¡°Number One Species of Interest.¡± But even the initiative to remove wild snorlax has left a large number of the bears in government hands with no clear place to send them. At present, the Melemele Kahuna and the DNR have negotiated an agreement to allow wild snorlax to live freely within Route 1 to see how much damage they will actually do to the environment. The results so far have been discouraging, but the experiment has not been ended due to the difficulty of capturing and rehoming every wild snorlax. In the interim the importation of additional munchlax has been banned in almost all circumstances. Several of Alola¡¯s top trainers have also added a snorlax to their team to take one out of the wild or the government¡¯s hands. One outcome of all of this is that one of the most powerful pok¨¦mon in the world can be freely adopted, purchased or captured without seasons or quotas. However, trainers should be advised that snorlax require a Class V license to possess and their owner must be prepared to purchase over one ton of food a week. Physiology Both stages of the evolutionary line are classified as pure normal types. Neither ruling is contested. Munchlax have a short, sparse coat of blue fur. The fur on the lower half of their head, back paws and part of their chest is usually cream-colored. Munchlax have five short claws on their forepaws and three long and sharp ones on their back paws. Their ears are quite long. Munchlax have rather sharp hearing, although they have a rather limited sense of smell. The relative strength of their hearing and smell slowly shift as they age; elderly snorlax are effectively deaf but can smell blood from miles away. Munchlax have two stomachs, each containing very powerful acid. They seldom chew their food and instead rely on their stomachs to digest it. The vast majority of a snorlax¡¯s bulk is in their large torso. Their limbs are relatively small and stubby, although they still end in sharp claws for traction, gripping food, and self-defense. While most of this mass is fat, snorlax are also quite muscular due to the need to support and move their own weight. Similarly, they have a very durable skeletal structure. The fur on their back is mostly blue, while the fur on their front and limbs is cream-colored. Wild Alolan snorlax are smaller than their counterparts in mainland Eurasia, growing up to six feet in height and 800 pounds in mass. Captive-raised snorlax can reach heights of up to seven feet and masses of up to 1200 pounds. Both wild and captive snorlax tend to live for twenty-five to thirty years. Behavior Most bear pok¨¦mon are physical titans that chase and kill their prey through any obstacle. Pangoro is an example in Alola. Snorlax can only move up to four miles per hour in short bursts. The average wild snorlax will only run once or twice in its life. Instead snorlax are the ultimate scavengers. When another predator takes down prey, snorlax will wake up and steadily move towards the kill. There are very few predators, in Alola or otherwise, that can take down a snorlax. Most don¡¯t even try to defend the carcass. When the original predator has run away snorlax scarfs down the remains and immediately goes back to sleep. If there is no food to be had for over a week, snorlax will stir and begin to topple trees and eat fruit until it is satiated or something falls from the tree and dies on impact. Munchlax occupy an ecological role somewhere between a scavenger and a decomposer. They use their acute sense of smell to find food, ideally somewhat rotten food that faster or stronger scavengers wouldn¡¯t bother with, and then they walk tirelessly towards their meal. They gulp it down as quickly as possible and stand motionless until their meal is digested. Once their food has passed through the first stomach, they seek out another meal. Larger munchlax begin to behave more like snorlax, sometimes trying to bully smaller pok¨¦mon away from fresh kills. Snorlax are neither social nor territorial. If there is not enough food in an area for two snorlax, one will eventually just move someplace else. In both the wild and captivity a sleeping snorlax will seldom object to small creatures (such as human children) playing on them while they slumber. This may be because they don¡¯t find such small and agile prey worth the effort to kill. Outside of Alola snorlax often hibernate in the winter when most other predators are asleep and fresh kills are less plentiful. Sometimes they retreat into caves or mountain ranges. Other times a snorlax will simply fall asleep in a forest or field and wake up a few months later. In the archipelago where predator hibernation is uncommon snorlax typically remain (relatively) active throughout the year. Husbandry Munchlax and snorlax are almost always very tolerant of pok¨¦balls. Munchlax used to be popular pok¨¦mon because they are quite easy to care for and some munchlax, particularly those raised by humans form a very early age, can be quite social. Unless a trainer goes out of their way to engage with one, they will simply stand still, half-asleep, between feedings. They produce rather little waste but should still be provided a tray or small pool near their preferred standing spot to catch what they do emit. In the wild munchlax will often eat as much as they can and then stuff the rest under their fur for later. Unfortunately, their sense of smell and memory are quite weak, meaning that they often forget they put the food their in the first place. If a captive munchlax attempts to put food into their fur they should be allowed to do so. It is extremely unwise to get between a munchlax or snorlax and their food. The munchlax¡¯s fur should be combed and any food removed should be either thrown out or put in storage for later. Munchlax should be bathed frequently to keep them clean. They do not mind water. If they are not fed somewhat regularly munchlax will begin to throw tantrums. The main challenge with caring for both munchlax and snorlax is the difficulty in feeding them. Both stages require, at minimum, 1.5 times their body weight in food every week, but they will happily eat up to 2.5 times their body weight. Munchlax will eat virtually anything. Snorlax prefer relatively fresh meat, which means that very few trainers can afford to care for one. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. There is a perception that snorlax are rather docile creatures. This is patently false, particularly for wild-caught snorlax. There is a case to be made that snorlax are the second most dangerous bear species on the planet. To start with, snorlax are strong enough to break spines with a half-hearted swing of their arms. A nearby adult human may be deemed large enough and close enough to kill and eat. They do not readily form bonds with humans as they are solitary in the wild. Their trust must be gained over months of associating their trainer with free and easy food. Only then can proper training of any sort begin. Snorlax should be withdrawn when their paddock is being cleaned. This will allow their trainer to safely clean up any waste. Their enclosure should be well fortified, ideally with two sets of thick metal or concrete walls with a moat in between them. This prevents snorlax from walking off in pursuit of food when they get hungry or smell something in the area. Despite appearances and reputations, snorlax do need and even want some measure of exercise. They should be forced to walk at least ten yards to access new food. Some snorlax are inquisitive or even playful. Most are not. If a snorlax regularly spends time awake when there is no food present they should be provided with toys or changes in their environment on a somewhat regular basis. They enjoy rubber balls that are large enough for them to maneuver and thick enough that they will not be immediately pierced. Perhaps due to parental instincts or not bothering with small, living prey, snorlax are much more tolerant of children than adults and even wild snorlax will seldom kill a human child. There is some debate as to whether or not it is best to bond a wild-caught snorlax to a child before introducing them to their adult trainer. It is far more effective at acclimating the pok¨¦mon, but this method has led to at least four fatal errors. Illness Much like blissey, snorlax have highly effective digestive and immune systems that render poisons and infections all but irrelevant. They also have thick layers of fat and muscle around their organs. Snorlax heal well even by pok¨¦mon standards, although they will need larger, less frequent meals while they heal. Munchlax are also resistant to infection and poison, but they can be injured by particularly strong attacks. It is recommended that munchlax trainers use normal precautions in matches (see Battle.) Evolution Munchlax grow fairly gradually and steadily into snorlax and there are few major anatomical differences between the two. As they age munchlax begin taking more interest in progressively fresher kills and have deeper resting periods. They generally cross the formal demarcation line between munchlax and snorlax (a weight of 450 pounds) around their fifth birthday. Snorlax grow progressively larger as they age. They will stop growing at the point where they can no longer consume enough to put on weight. Trainers wishing to evolve their munchlax more quickly should feed them the maximum amount they will eat. Battles are counter-productive in encouraging growth as they lead to the pok¨¦mon expending energy. Battle In the 1970s snorlax was the single most dominant pok¨¦mon on the competitive battling scene. The 1950s and 1960s brought advancements in transportation and pok¨¦mon care that allowed more trainers to use durable pok¨¦mon such as corviknight, steelix, milotic, avalugg and blissey. Hard stall, also known as slow stall, became the most common playstyle at the top levels of the battling world. Snorlax both fit on these teams and had the ability to shred through them. Two events made the rise of snorlax possible. In 1963 Dr. Judith Black published a comprehensive guide to snorlax care. The guide¡¯s techniques made it possible for individuals without large, well-fortified estates to raise snorlax. In 1969 the first mass-produced ultra ball was put onto the market, giving far more trainers a tool to contain or capture a snorlax with. Snorlax is not quite as bulky as blissey but is still covered in thick layers of fat that make it difficult for all but the most physically powerful of pok¨¦mon to harm. They are also very strong and have a surprisingly deep and versatile energy well. Snorlax are also effectively immune to all but the strongest of poisons. The result is a pok¨¦mon too tough for the average defensive pok¨¦mon to hurt and strong enough to wear down walls. Snorlax¡¯s main disadvantage, low speed, is essentially irrelevant against the slow walls on hard stall teams. The moves curse and rest allow snorlax to slowly become more bulky and powerful and heal off any weak blows that they take from stall teams. Quick stall fares little better against snorlax, as their versatile ranged attacks means that it can take out most fast-but-fragile pok¨¦mon in time and most common quick stall pok¨¦mon can¡¯t hurt it back. These days any serious trainer attempting a stall team in a league where snorlax is allowed keeps at least one counter on hand. The best answers to snorlax are very powerful fighting-types, most notably machamp. Otherwise most very tough and very strong physically attackers can take down a snorlax without taking too much damage. In Alola large dragons, fighting-types, tyranitar, metagross, and gyarados are the only pok¨¦mon that can reliably take on a snorlax and win. A trainer using a snorlax on the island challenge can break through almost everything without serious difficulty. But the high license requirement and enormous logistical difficulties make it inadvisable for a young traveling trainer to own one. Munchlax are somewhat more difficult to battle with. They are fairly durable, especially for their age and size, and they are also deceptively strong. But most adult pok¨¦mon are too durable or too strong for munchlax to take down. Their energy well is also substantially smaller than an adult snorlax¡¯s, and they will not have the experience needed to use the variety of elemental techniques that a snorlax can. By the end of the second island munchlax will almost certainly be at a severe disadvantage against almost all opponents. Acquisition Munchlax can be bought, purchased or captured with a Class II license. They are most frequently found along the outskirts of Hau¡¯oli City, especially in Route 1. Snorlax require a Class V license to possess or acquire. A wild population exists on Route 1, but it is far easier to adopt one from the Alolan government. Contact the Hau¡¯oli office of the DNR for more information. Breeding Snorlax mate in spring. If a female and male snorlax share the same range the female may approach the male. There is no formal courtship ritual, but sometimes the male does decline the chance to mate. This is usually expressed by the male lying down and falling asleep or not bothering to stand up to acknowledge the female. Snorlax pregnancy lasts roughly seven months. In the late fall a pregnant female will begin eating with more frequency and even attacking any animal or pok¨¦mon that gets too close to them. It is difficult to tell a pregnant snorlax apart from a normal one (or a female apart from a male, for that matter) so extra caution is advised when traveling through snorlax territory in the fall. Trainers breeding snorlax should avoid any contact whatsoever after the first four months of pregnancy. Snorlax typically hibernate for a few months after giving birth. The mother seldom wakes up for the duration of the winter while her babies are nursing. Do not approach a snorlax with cubs under any circumstances. In captivity a pregnant snorlax should be given a cool, enclosed space to use as a cubbing den. After emerging from hibernation, the mother will protect her cubs and share food with them for roughly two months. Then she will stop paying attention to her children and even scare them off if they try to take food from her. Relatives The Alolan snorlax is the smallest (and most recently formed) subspecies. They descend from the much larger European snorlax, U. occidentum. European snorlax are native to the foothills, temperate forests and grasslands of Europe. This subspecies is endangered throughout most of their range and has been extirpated from Eastern Europe. Most of the remaining bears live in the Wild Area of Galar, the Royal Lands in Kalos, Pyrenees Transnational Park, and a handful of private reserves in Western Europe. The European snorlax is closely related to the somewhat smaller eastern snorlax, native to eastern China, Korea and Japan. The eastern snorlax, U. orientum has a slightly thinner coat and hibernates more regularly than the European snorlax. They are capable of running somewhat faster than the European snorlax and they often kill their own prey. Eastern snorlax have the deepest and most versatile energy well of any variant. Unfortunately, they are also the most endangered due to their encroachments into the ever-growing human settlements in their range. The Himalayan snorlax, U. orientum johnstonii, has a very thick coat and hibernates for up to eight months a year. Their claws and paws are larger than the lowland subspecies and their lungs are substantially more powerful. Himalayan snorlax are prone to using their bulk, strength, and energy well to trigger small earthquakes, causing avalanches nearby. They will then dig through the amassed snow to find prey. This behavior earned them fear and veneration; although they are not endangered, they are protected by strict conservation laws. There are only three known Himalayan snorlax in captivity, all within Nepal and Bhutan. The Siberian snorlax, U. permapruinae, probably has the highest population of any species, although it is difficult to research them. They are the largest of any snorlax species. Siberian snorlax spend almost their entire life burrowing through the permafrost, moving between a central chamber they live and sleep in and side tunnels they dig through in the hopes of finding buried carcasses. Siberian snorlax simply eat chunks of ice when they get thirsty. They are seldom seen on the surface and relatively little is known about them. The bears fare poorly in captivity due to the difficulty in replicating their natural habitat and diet. Slowpoke Slowpoke (Slowbro | Slowking) Dormitabis arkos Overview Slowpoke are an extremely primitive amphibian. Fossil evidence of large turbann shells date back to the early Carboniferous, suggesting that slowpoke or their close relatives have been alive for hundreds of millions of years. As out of time as they are, Alola¡¯s population is equally out of place. The North Atlantic slowpoke is believed to have been declining long before humanity¡¯s meteoric rise. The combination of hunting for their tails and to eliminate slowking and the end of the little ice age caused their already teetering population to collapse into extinction. At the same time as sailors in the North Atlantic saw the last of the cold-weather slowpoke die off at the edge of the Arctic, a new population was discovered in the middle of the tropical Pacific. Scientists are still uncertain how a population of Arctic animals ended up in Alola. They do not migrate long distances. Few lapras are willing to carry a passenger non-stop from the top of the world to the equatorial regions. On Alola they are limited to the glacier-fed rivers flowing from Lanakila and a few subterranean caves on Melemele kept artificially cool by ice-types. The native Alolans claim that the slowpoke were already on the island when they arrived. A slowking features prominently in their myths as a cruel figure who taught the Alolans medicine but was nonetheless locked away to the edges of the islands for their experiments. Slowbro are somewhat dim but very lovable pok¨¦mon that can hold their own through the end of the island challenge. Slowking are unpleasant to deal with and actively dangerous to all but the most experienced of trainers. Trainers are encouraged to obtain a slowbro only after it evolves to avoid the risk of an unfortunate evolution path. Physiology Slowpoke are classified as pure psychic types. Slowbro and slowking are classified as dual psychic- and poison-types. Slowpoke are not yet particularly toxic and rarely employ poison moves. They also rarely employ psychic moves beyond borderline accidental releases of power. There are those who advocate for normal or water to be their primary type, or at least a secondary type. This remains a minority view as slowpoke and both of their evolutions are telekinetic. Slowpoke are pink salamanders with a gold-colored forehead and tail tip. They are notable for their unusual tolerance for cool, saline water. While submerged in brackish water slowpoke will constantly shed salt through their anus and tears. They rarely submerge fully in seawater, preferring to simply dip their tail in. If they must they can swim in ocean water for up to a half hour before dehydrating. In brackish water they can survive for hours at a time. Near the Arctic slowpoke will sometimes hibernate in winter. Unusually for amphibians, slowpoke have a layer of subdermal fat that helps keep them warm. They also greatly enjoy basking. Beyond their environmental adaptations, slowpoke¡¯s galarica-heavy diet makes them mildly toxic. It also lets them emit a sweet neurotoxin from the tip of their tail that draws prey in and seriously disorients them when they get close. Slowpoke have an extremely primitive nervous system. They are guided almost exclusively by instinct and rarely seem to understand what is happening around them. On occasion a slowpoke will have a moment of awareness and critically examine their surroundings before going back to their usual behavioral patterns. This still makes them considerably more intelligent than the other living slowpoke species. When injured, slowpoke have shown a remarkable ability to regenerate body parts. With time and food they can fully heal almost any wound except shredding and decapitation. Even on the time scale of a single battle slowpoke can still begin to knit their injuries back together while resting in a habitat or heal ball. Slowbro are far larger than slowpoke. They can also stand and walk bipedally, even if they usually prefer to swim. Slowbro have predominately pink skin with a gold or yellow belly and purple bands on their limbs and head. Three of their limbs are tipped in two sharp claws that can help them grip each other, the environment, or enemies. By far their most formidable weapon, though, rests on the second forearm. In slowbro turbann are modified into a cannon for launching poisons. The turbann contains pressurized air compartments to launch poison and multiple storage spaces for different blends. Their most common blend is a neurotoxin whose fumes daze enemies, allowing slowpoke to escape or finish them off at leisure. Their next most common projectile is a corrosive that steadily eats through metal and bone armor to get to the flesh beneath. The other poisons, if any, depend on diet, region, and experience level. Slowking almost always stand bipedally. The turbann has latched onto their head and subsumed their nervous system. Only the slowpoke¡¯s mouth is still visible from the original head. The turbann darkens in color and begins to develop external eyes to compensate for the loss of their host¡¯s vision. A green pearl develops above the eyes. Slowking have a set of frill-like gills on their neck right beneath the turbann. These are kept cloaked in moisture when out of the water. Most of their upper body is purple. Slowking blood is extremely toxic and they are capable of emitting vapors that inflict seemingly random effects. They love to experiment with different plants, elemental inputs, and odd ingredients to make new potions they store in seashells or pilfered glass containers. Slowking do not seem to instinctively know what a potion does. Slowking rarely swim but are capable of dong so as needed. Unlike slowpoke and slowbro, slowking are incredibly intelligent creatures that are not to be underestimated. They are more than capable of learning to understand and telepathically speak human languages and manipulate others into doing their bidding. Slowpoke grow up to three feet long and can weigh up to thirty pounds. They are functionally immortal if they do not evolve. Slowbro grow to be about six feet tall and weigh over 130 pounds. Slowking are usually about a foot taller due to the turbann and weigh about as much as slowbro. Behavior All three stages have very different behaviors. Slowpoke live in slumbers of ten to two hundred, depending on the availability of food. Despite living in large groups, slowpoke only seem to interact with each other when two or more are having a flash of inspiration at the same time. They spend most of their time fishing in cold streams by lowering their tail into the water and waiting for something to bite it or at least swim close enough to be disoriented. The slowpoke will then fling it onto land or go into the water to finish their prey off. Sometimes slowpoke will fall asleep with their tail in the water and only wake up when it is bitten. Usually slowpoke will choose to sleep in shallow water, often huddled against other slowpoke to preserve heat. In addition to fish, slowpoke will also eat galarica reeds. Galarica is a mildly toxic plant that thrives in the same cold waters that slowpoke favor. It imbues slowpoke with poison and, in return, is protected by slowbro from any herbivores that would entirely uproot it. Slowpoke will also sometimes spread seeds by defecating at the far edge of their territory. Neither slowpoke nor slowbro are terribly mobile, so this is often only about one hundred yards from the plant¡¯s location. It is still the only reliable way to spread seeds upriver. Slowbro are more active and territorial. They use their telepathy to locate benthic organisms and dig them out of the substrate to eat. In a pinch they can also poison the water to kill off small fish around them. Slowbro can also use their cannon to kill and eat birds, but they will only do this for very large prey or in times of extreme scarcity. Using venom requires burning calories to replace it. When they are not hunting, slowbro watch over a slowpoke slumber. They rarely interact with them, finding even their own limited intelligence to be far above that of the juveniles. If something tries to eat the slowpoke they will deal with the wrath of a slowbro. Most large slumbers have two or more slowbro. In smaller ones in areas with less abundant food it is common for one slowbro to decide the river isn¡¯t big enough for the two of them and challenge the other to a duel. Outside the Arctic circle, duels occur when the sun reaches its zenith. One will toss a rock to the side. The moment it hits the water, both will raise their arm and fire. The first to launch an accurate shot wins the duel and keeps the territory. The other must find a new home. They are generally tolerant of humans passing through so long as they do not bother the slowpoke. In more consistently cold climates, the slowpoke and slowbro will usually hibernate during the winter. If their water body does not entirely freeze or dry up they will rest at the bottom of the river. Otherwise they will dig into the snow and reemerge with the galarica. This is rare in Alola as both the Lanakila lowlands and the Seaward Cave are consistently both cold and full of running water year-round. Slowking are known for their cunning and cruelty in equal measure. They tend to wander far more than slowpoke and slowbro, if only because they are kicked out of their old home. Slowking are boundlessly curious about magic, poisons, and the dead. They will often attempt to learn basic spells or other more arcane attacks. It¡¯s common to hear the low chanting of a slowking when in their territory. Older slowking can come to master advanced ghost-type techniques and learn to cast status conditions in odd ways. Many slowking can be found in the areas that ghost-types congregate in. They are fascinated by ghosts and will attempt to learn their secrets. The ghost-types tolerate them because slowking will help defend their home from outsiders and they generally do not feed on the same things. Slowking eat a mixture of galarica, seaweed, leafy greens, and animal meat. Slowking see hunting as a form of enrichment and will often hunt in inefficient (and spectacularly cruel) ways for the thrill of it. Other pok¨¦mon tolerate slowking for their potions. Slowking experiment with different combinations of toxins, enchantments, and natural ingredients to form new potions. They are more than happy to give healing potions to volunteers. These work well about ninety percent of the time, although there are often curious side effects like an inability to see a certain color or increased sleepwalking. The remainder of the time the potions do not work as intended and can either fail to do anything or inflict far more suffering than the original injury. Slowking claim not to intend for these outcomes but do not seem to be particularly upset about them. Scientists have sometimes attempted to learn magic from slowking in an attempt to recover knowledge that has been lost or closely safeguarded for centuries or millennia. Most give up rather quickly. Slowking are happy to have an apprentice and do make efforts to teach them, but the researcher inevitably becomes a target of experimentation. Most decide that the knowledge is not worth the price. Aside from mating, slowking avoid conspecifics. Sometimes they will meet briefly and compare notes. Even cordial meetings usually break down when one purposefully or accidentally insults the other and a fight breaks out. Slowking rarely hibernate, preferring to wander a bit further south or retreat into a cave with a stockpile of preserved foods. Most learn basic preservation techniques shortly after evolution and keep stockpiles of food hidden in the snow in case of future emergencies. Husbandry Slowpoke and slowbro¡¯s diets should consist of a mix of seafood, galarica, and other greens. Seafood should make up about half of their diet. Slowpoke prefer fish while slowbro are happy with worms and crustaceans. Land-based meats make a good treat for slowbro. Galarica should make up another thirty percent. If the pok¨¦mon shows signs of hunger after their usual meal, more greens should be provided. Captive specimens can be quite greedy and are prone to obesity if given too much seafood. Cool, fresh water for bathing and drinking should be available at all times. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. Slowking are intelligent and capable of telepathic communication. A trainer can give advice on their diet but for the sake of peaceful coexistence it is usually best to let a slowking plan and prepare their own meals. Shopping should be done by the trainer to avoid terrorizing service workers. Slowking are generally cordial with strangers, especially strangers who they stand to gain something from, but most people are still unnerved by them. This is generally good practice. Slowking are usually only cruel to those close to them or enemies on the battlefield, but they are mercurial and prone to atrocities when bored. Enrichment for slowpoke and slowbro is very basic. They appreciate pools, occasionally having something to hunt, and a basic toy or two for slowbro. Slowbro also get along well with almost all other species with the exception of a few benthic species that are seen as prey and a few of the most aggressive or territorial pok¨¦mon. Slowbro are generally peacekeepers on teams that dislike conflicts and may resolve them by using paralytic venom or strong depressants to induce sleep on both parties until they agree to behave. Slowking mostly keep to themselves. They enjoy the company of ghost-types and any fairy that will tolerate them. Poison- or grass-types with interesting venoms or other compounds can also be of interest. Slowking will usually expect trainers to occasionally test their spells or potions. If consent is repeatedly withheld for even relatively basic experiments they will either leave, ignore boundaries entirely, or both. Trainers should negotiate limits with their slowking early and be prepared to provide test subjects on a regular basis if they do not want to be experimented on themselves. Negotiations will inevitably involve compromise. Trainers who are entirely unwilling to compromise on their bodily autonomy should not raise a slowking. While slowking do occasionally kill a teammate, intentionally or accidentally, they are far more likely to be killed by an aggressive pok¨¦mon that grows tired of them. Sometimes being put in their place non-lethally makes them tone back their worst tendencies until they are almost pleasant companions. It usually just makes them plot revenge. Slowking can be incredibly patient when it comes to dealing with enemies. Illness It is far more likely that slowking inflict illness on others than fall ill themselves. All three stages can recover from almost any flesh wound with enough time, food, and moisture. Limbs, tails, and even most of the torso can be healed. Only damage to the brain and heart can truly kill them. Slowpoke can even survive decapitation, although they will eventually succumb to starvation without IV drips or other alternative feeding methods. The most common ailment in the line is hyperthermia. Arctic slowpoke evolved at high latitudes where near-freezing water is common and months at a time are spent in near-constant darkness. An extended period of time basking in the Alolan sun can cause serious metabolic disruption and lethargy that lives them unable or unwilling to eat or defend themselves. Air-conditioned buildings are cool enough for them. Dry, warm, sunny days should be avoided. If hyperthermia symptoms are observed the pok¨¦mon should immediately be withdrawn into their pok¨¦ball and be taken to a Pok¨¦mon Center to begin recovery. Evolution It is a common misconception that slowpoke are bitten by shellder and evolve. This is not the case. Slowpoke evolve when bitten by turbann, an orthocone that has long lived alongside slowpoke at the edge of the world¡¯s oceans. While slowpoke may have varied across time and space, turbann fossils from hundreds of millions of years ago are nearly identical to their modern counterparts. When a slowpoke is sufficiently cognitively developed they will swim into deeper, saltier water and emit a chemical signal to drawn in turbann. One will eventually appear and the two will swim closer to shore. Then the turbann will bite the slowpoke on the arm or the head. If the slowpoke is bitten on the head, their nervous systems will fuse and the turbann will take control. If the arm is bitten, the two will retain separate central nervous systems with some interlinkage. The slowpoke has most of the control. In either case, the slowpoke will begin to eat far more and grow rapidly over a period of weeks as they approach their final size. The turbann will also expand and change into its final role as a venom storage and deployment weapon or a large piece of head armor. Trainers are strongly encouraged to obtain a slowpoke that has already evolved rather than risk evolution into slowking. There is no reliable way to guarantee which evolution occurs. Battle Slowbro do not have the most devastating venom in the world. They do not even have the most varied arsenal or the most reliable way to deliver it. Their accuracy and versatility, combined with their healing rate and lack of critical weaknesses, still makes them a reasonably popular pok¨¦mon in the circuits where they are native. Slowbro can reliably deliver paralytics, depressants, or hallucinogens straight to an opponent¡¯s eyes from a range of fifty feet. Only very fast pok¨¦mon or illusionists can reliably avoid this. Slowbro can also learn a good variety of offensive moves and even some useful defensive ones like slack off. Their telepathic abilities are also useful against pok¨¦mon weak to them, although slowbro are not exceptionally powerful telepaths. They struggle against fast opponents and those whose physiologies make them highly venom resistant or too well armored to hit in a weak point. Against most organic pok¨¦mon they are a perfectly reliable but not particularly exceptional pok¨¦mon. Slowking are neither reliably nor unexceptional. Their strange poisons, mystical connections, and amorality can make them brutal opponents on the battlefield. They are also far stronger telepaths than slowpoke and slowing down opponents with illusions and sudden, irrational bursts of emotion. This gives them time to deliver poisons or cast a spell. Unfortunately, slowking¡¯s potions and sorcery are not always reliable and slowking are reluctant to only use old, proven attacks. They will always innovate, sometimes to devastating success and sometimes in ways that backfire on them. On balance slowking are versatile, powerful pok¨¦mon that can scare even hardened combatants before wearing them down with poison and curses. Sometimes they will go even further and dominate matchups they have no right to with techniques the opponent could not plan for. Sometimes they will fail spectacularly and accomplish nothing on the battlefield. Trainers usually only use one in matches where they are the underdog and need to gamble for a victory. When playing against slowking it is best to use mineral or phantom pok¨¦mon and try to take them out quickly. Dark-types can ignore telepathy and hit for super effective damage, but organic dark types can still be vulnerable if the slowking manages to hit them with a gaseous poison or a liquid that only needs skin contact to take hold. If this is not an option, hit the slowking hard and fast and hope for good luck. It is not recommended to use slowking on the island challenge for reasons that have nothing to do with their strength. Slowking are clever and can sometimes take out a totem themselves if they get lucky. Even if they don¡¯t they can still unnerve or weaken them for other teammates to take down. Their typing does leave them at a disadvantage in the later grand trials, though. Slowbro are good at reliably poisoning a totem at the start of a battle. That might be all they can accomplish as they are quickly overwhelmed by multiple foes working in concert due to the sheer amount they have to process and their difficulty making quick decisions. Poison- and psychic-typing, while bad against the later grand trials, is still useful in the last two traditional trials. With clever maneuvering they can also come in late in a fight to finish off a totem once their allies are knocked out. Slowpoke are best not battled with. They can defend themselves in a pinch but any kind of strategizing is next to impossible. Acquisition Slowpoke, slowbro, and slowking can be found at the base of Lanakila, especially along runoff streams, and around a few subterranean rivers on Melemele and along Kala¡¯e Bay. Slowpoke and slowbro can usually be found at the water¡¯s edge. Slowking prefer isolated caves or abandoned buildings. They are especially drawn to the ruins of the Tapu Village and their abundant ghost-types. One claimed an abandoned pharmacy in the aftermath of the village¡¯s destruction and was only removed two years later with the aid of Tapu Bulu. The area was promptly sealed off. What was found inside remains classified. Slowpoke can be adopted, purchased, or captured with a Class I license. There are slowpoke breeders in the island, including public aquaria, but it is generally not recommended to acquire a slowpoke if evolution is a possibility. Many people adopt slowpoke as a low-maintenance pet with no intention of evolving them. Slowbro can be found interspersed along the rivers, ponds, and deltas inhabited by slowpoke. Wild individuals will usually accept the results of a proving battle and travel with someone who demonstrated that they can conduct themselves honorably and have things to teach them. Alternatively, they can be adopted or purchased from a number of aquaria and slowbro specialists. This is recommended to ensure the proper evolution. Slowbro require a Class II license to possess. Slowking can be found in secluded areas around slowpoke habitat. They are most commonly seen out and about at night. Catching their attention is best done with an injured pok¨¦mon, a ghost-type partner, or simply by standing outside and chanting gibberish on the night of a full moon. Slowking may negotiate temporary capture in order to have access to more information and test subjects at the expense of some limitations on behavior. They will often chafe at these requirements. Unlike fairies, which will almost always follow bargained-for agreements to the letter but may violate the spirit of them, slowking can and will break negotiated pacts without warning if they no longer find them suitable. They require a Class IV license to possess. Breeding Slowbro produce more turbann. Slowking produce more slowpoke. Slowbro reproduce based on the sex of their turbann rather than their own anatomy. Two will meet, test each other¡¯s power and accuracy, and potentially mate. The mating act involves pressing their turbann together and exchanging gametes through the tips. The slowbro with the female turbann will swim deeper than is normal for the species and deposit eggs on the seafloor. They will then return to shore and continue on with their life. Slowking reproduce based on the sex of the slowpoke rather than the turbann. They mate infrequently, usually only when slowpoke populations become low. The slowking will meet and compare intelligence, potions, and magic. If one is obviously superior, they will refuse to mate with the other. Only an evenly matched pair will mate. Slowking give live birth to six to eight slowpoke after twenty weeks. The slowpoke weigh about ten ounces upon birth. A slowbro will supervise the offspring until they reach an acceptable size. Slowking take no part in child rearing. Captive breeding of either slowbro or slowking is possible but rare. Breeding slowking requires having two trainers with similarly-powered slowking interested in reproduction or purposefully interacting with a wild specimen. Some captive slowking are eager to breed. Most are not. Even those that are usually just want more test subjects. When Alola¡¯s slowking found out that their species were probably extinct in their home range they temporarily increased reproduction to provide more slowpoke for reintroduction efforts. If two or more slowbro with opposite turbann-sexes are on the same team or held in the same area they may mate. This will produce turbann, who are difficult to raise in captivity and common in the wild. Few trainers bother to intentionally breed slowbro and usually just let them deposit their eggs in the ocean when the time comes. Due to the significant differences in breeding methods between D. arkos and the other slowbro species, crossbreeding is impossible. Some taxonomists put the species in its own genus due to the significant differences between the species and the possibility that all remaining northern slowpoke have an extraterrestrial origin. Relatives Northern slowpoke probably went extinct between 1760 and 1810. Sailors from the days of the Vikings onwards had intentionally killed slowpoke and slowbro to reduce the numbers of slowking. With the increase in long-distance voyages and the exploration of the remaining North Atlantic islands, the species gradually ceased appearing. The last confirmed sighting of a slowking was in 1795, although less credible reports continued for another fifty years. Slowpoke, like many pok¨¦mon around Mt. Lanakila, are suspected to have traveled through ultra space from an alternate earth. Scientists continue to debate what sort of world would have Galarian slowpoke and an abundance of ice-types living in the tropics. Temperate slowpoke (D. loricatorum and D. frigorepaludas) are split into three populations. D. frigorepaludas lives along the eastern coast of North America from Nova Scotia to Delaware. D. loricatorum lives in the Pacific from Japan through the Aleutians down to California. The third is an introduced population of D. frigorepaludas inhabiting portions of coastal Paldea and Kaloa. Both species are remarkably similar to each other and were long classified as a single species. Temperate slowpoke are dual water- and psychic-types. They are barely sapient and operate almost entirely on instinct and habit. Any change in their environment can cause serious damage to the population as slowpoke continue trying to fish in polluted or frozen rivers. They are almost entirely carnivorous, rarely supplementing their diet of fish with cattails or other nearby vegetation. Temperate slowbro have a turbann latched to their tail rather than their arm. They are incapable of launching poisons and have less accuracy in their ranged attacks. On balance, their regeneration is superior to that of northern slowbro and D. loricatorum are capable of mega evolution. The lack of poison and lower intelligence reduces their caloric needs, allowing them to stay motionless for months only to abruptly move when food comes near. Temperate slowking are highly intelligent and curious creatures, but they are also generally benevolent. They are obsessed with learning everything from literature to philosophy to mathematics. Interest in the occult is rare. They seem to be deeply uncomfortable with their northern counterparts and some even assisted in their extermination. Temperate slowking have a fused nervous system, but the slowpoke is generally understood to be in control. Temperate slowbro have their turbann detach entirely when they reproduce, returning to their base form if the slowpoke survives the experience. This is one of the only known cases of an evolution being reversed. Pelipper Pelipper (Wingull) Overview A handful of species have established nearly global ranges. For the most part these are small and hardy pok¨¦mon. 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon. 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 pok¨¦balls 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 pok¨¦ball 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 pok¨¦ball. They do not tend to play with other pok¨¦mon 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). A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦ball 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 pok¨¦ball 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. Alakazam Alakazam (Abra, Kadabra) Medicus magicae Overview Pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon. As with everything in nature that clean binary gets messier the more it¡¯s examined. Some pok¨¦mon are so similar to baseline plants or animals that only genetic testing has marked them as pok¨¦mon. 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 pok¨¦mon. 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 Pok¨¦mon 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. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. 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 pok¨¦balls. 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon to pok¨¦mon; 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 pok¨¦mon on the competitive pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon are used more. No pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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. Persian 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon. 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 pok¨¦mon. 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 pok¨¦ball at night if the environment is safe for them to explore; containing them for too many nights in a row will lead to the pok¨¦mon becoming very irritated when released. Most successful meowth trainers have at least one other social nocturnal pok¨¦mon on their team. This pok¨¦mon can keep the meowth company at night and generally keep the cat away from their trainer. A powerful nocturnal pok¨¦mon 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). The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. 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 pok¨¦mon 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 Pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon¡¯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 ¨C ambush from above ¨C 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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. Magnezone 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 pok¨¦mon. 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 Pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦dex 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 Pok¨¦mon 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. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. 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 pok¨¦ball. If a trainer really wants to interact with their pok¨¦mon, 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 pok¨¦mon¡¯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 pok¨¦balls. 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 pok¨¦ball 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon. 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 pok¨¦mon 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. Muk 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 pok¨¦mon, 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 Pok¨¦mon, 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 pok¨¦mon. 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 Pok¨¦mon Centers, hardware stores, or pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. 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 pok¨¦mon 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 Pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon. 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon. 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 pok¨¦mon for the early island challenge as almost all weak pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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. Mr. Mime 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-¡ªthey 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 pok¨¦dex models will begin with this note. The rest of the entry will refer to the adult form of the species as mr. mime. Introduction Pok¨¦mon are usually grouped into three superkingdoms: the organics, the machines, and the phantoms. Organic pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon. 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon as well to prevent this from happening. Bringing other humans in to watch the mr. mime or having multiple family members give the pok¨¦mon roughly equal amounts of attention is also advised. So long as these warnings are followed, mr. mime are excellent partner pok¨¦mon. 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. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. 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 pok¨¦balls should be used very sparingly, ideally only when the pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon whenever possible and never stray more than a few yards away. Battling Mr. mime are seen on almost every professional battlefield¡ªon 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 pok¨¦mon put on a show at the start of most professional matches, although this part is usually omitted from telecasts. This gives the pok¨¦mon a boost in power and confidence that allows them to form shields around the battlefield. These barriers keep attacks, field effects, and pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon in major tournaments. Every baton pass team, and a fair few bulky and hyper offense teams, have a mr. mime at their core. The pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon. 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon a pok¨¦ball and watching a full performance with suitably vigorous applause at the end will usually gain the pok¨¦mon¡¯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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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. Arbok 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 pok¨¦mon. 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 Pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon. It is also illegal to keep the pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon. 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 pok¨¦mon unfortunate or reckless enough to approach the den. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. 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 pok¨¦balls 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 pok¨¦ball. 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon supply stores and almost all reptile specialty stores will sell frozen or freshly killed food. Trainers who are not comfortable feeding a dead pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon to ordinary animals and should be fed a dead pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon¡¯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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon. In theory. The venom is nearly useless against mineral and phantom pok¨¦mon, and some organics with bizarre biology don¡¯t experience any effects at all. Pok¨¦mon with very simple or extremely complex nervous systems can also resist the psychoactive effects, allowing some elemental attacks to be launched even as the pok¨¦mon remains paralyzed. Many of the smaller pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 Pok¨¦mon or physically overpowering any pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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. Dudunsparce 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon. 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. Pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦ball, dunsparce will attempt to burrow into the ground and escape. They will do this even if held in love, luxury, or friend balls. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. 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 pok¨¦mon will struggle and they are deceptively strong; many trainers break a rib at this step), get onto a ride pok¨¦mon, 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦ball 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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. Pok¨¦mon that will lie next to dudunsparce without moving for extended periods of time are excellent teammates. So are musically inclined pok¨¦mon. 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon used to the scent of dunsparce. At this point, trainers have three options for attempting the capture: The first strategy is entirely luck-based, the latter two require specialized teams. Between the trapper and a pok¨¦mon to ease the bonding process, many trainers need two rare and powerful pok¨¦mon 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. Arcanine Arcanine (Growlithe) Canignus deorum deorum Introduction Arcanine was one of the first pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦ball 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon, 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 pok¨¦balls 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 pok¨¦mon, pok¨¦mon that do not sleep, or for pok¨¦mon that this is obviously impractical for. Growlithe are fluffy and warm but not hot, making them excellent sleeping companions. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. 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 pok¨¦balls 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 pok¨¦mon. This gives them several options in battle. They can be zoners that use their speed and powerful fire attacks to keep other pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon, 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 pok¨¦mon. 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 pok¨¦mon 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 other 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 pok¨¦mon, 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 pok¨¦mon 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 Faiy¨¡supitto 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. Hypno 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 pok¨¦mon. 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 pok¨¦mon, 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 pok¨¦ball 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon. 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 pok¨¦mon that are not psychic- or dark-types. Pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦balls 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. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. 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, pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 Pok¨¦mon Association bans sleep moves if at least one pok¨¦mon on the opposing team has already been put to sleep. However, a pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon. 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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. Pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon out. If a drowzee approaches, try to capture it. If a hypno does, it is best to tell your pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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. Hariyama Hariyama (Makuhita) Gravisbellator sumo solisamans Overview Hariyama were not the first pok¨¦mon to be tamed on Alola. They aren¡¯t even native to the islands. But their importation marked the start of training as a sport, pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. Hariyama are more concerned with showing off their strength than improving it. Unlike makuhita, hariyama are willing to go into pok¨¦balls 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon and allow a teammate to sweep. It is also inadvisable to try and set up a sweep with a pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon. 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 pok¨¦mon 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. Smeargle 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 Ih¨¡ 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 pok¨¦mon. 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon. Smeargle territories, especially territory edges and the central hub, tend to be home to unusually high amounts of wild pok¨¦mon. 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 pok¨¦mon will take advantage of the opportunity to trade items with other pok¨¦mon and human onlookers as well as to evaluate potential friends, trainers, rivals, and mates. Husbandry Smeargle are reasonably intelligent pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦ball, 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. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. 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 pok¨¦mon¡¯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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon. 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 pok¨¦mon. No ranked trainer currently uses a smeargle. Even in their one good role some pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon. Smeargle fare worse on the island challenge than in competitive circuits. The average trainer will be able to teach their pok¨¦mon twelve moves during the full course of the challenge. Other common utility pok¨¦mon 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 Pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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. Crabominable 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¡ªa tall, frozen mountain in the middle of tropical lowland¡ªprovides 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. 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 pok¨¦mon, 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon have continued to make field studies difficult even after the construction of the Alolan Pok¨¦mon League Headquarters. Husbandry Crabrawler spend almost all of their day buried or searching for food. This makes them very tolerant of pok¨¦balls. 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 pok¨¦mon 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. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. 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 pok¨¦ball 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon. 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 pok¨¦ball. The Pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon. 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 pok¨¦mon. 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon. 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. Venusaur Venusaur (Bulbasaur, Ivysaur) Ranafloris valeri Overview Bulbasaur have long been a popular starter pok¨¦mon in their native South and Southeast Asian range as well as China, Korea, and Japan. In recent years they have even become popular alternative starters in portions of Europe and South America. The species possesses most of the traits of a desirable starter. They are hardy, quick to grow, fearless, strong, and social. The average beginner can handle raising a bulbasaur and it will keep up with the rising power levels of opponents along their journey. Bulbasaur were first introduced to Alola to control the insects eating sugar cane and pinap berry crops on Alolan plantations. They had the opposite problem that came with gumshoos: bulbasaur are primarily nocturnal ambush predators, while the pest insects were diurnal. The two rarely crossed paths in practice. Most of the plantation bulbasaur were eventually released. The DNR and private hunters have culled most of the population, but a few specimens were preserved on Route 2 so that new trainers can catch bulbasaur. Whether bulbasaur are obtained as an alternative starter or an early capture, trainers can hardly do wrong with them. They make an excellent introduction to grass-types, amphibians, and training as a whole. Physiology All three stages and the mega evolution are classified as dual grass- and poison-types. This ruling is not disputed. Bulbasaur are frogs. Their skin is a deep jade color with occasional darker or lighter markings on the skin to help them blend in better with natural environments. Bulbasaur have large heads with big, red eyes. Despite appearances, bulbasaur do not have teeth. Instead they have odontoid projections. These projections, like teeth, are hard and sharp. They serve many of the same purposes. Bulbasaur¡¯s bite is unpleasant to experience, even if it is unlikely to deal permanent damage to anything larger than themselves. Two horns extend from the top of bulbasaur¡¯s head. These are not ears ¡ª their actual ears are circular tympanum that usually appear as dark circles behind the eyes. By far the most notable part of bulbasaur¡¯s anatomy is the plant growing from their back. In bulbasaur it has not yet begun to bloom and takes the form of a broad bulb growing from the back. It contains many seeds and powders that can be scattered in a pinch. The bulb is also photosynthetic and can provide energy to the frog through the roots¡¯ connection to the frog¡¯s blood vessels and stomach. However, most bulbasaur eat more calories than they need and support the bulb with their excess energy instead of the other way around. As they grow older this relationship steadily reverses. The bulb also conceals two prehensile vines that can be used to strike at range or to pick up objects out of the pok¨¦mon¡¯s reach. Ivysaur¡¯s skin typically changes from a shade of dark green to a shade of blue or blue-green. This helps them better blend into shadows at night. Ivysaur¡¯s plant has bloomed into a red or pink flower, although some rare specimens have a white or yellow flower. Four fern leaves extend from the flower. Ivysaur¡¯s prehensile vines have grown in length and strength and are usually capable of supporting the pok¨¦mon¡¯s weight when it descends from a cliff face or branch. The blooming flower can generate more versatile pollens than a bulbasaur¡¯s bud can. Because of the flower¡¯s weight, Ivysaur can no longer stand on their hind legs unsupported. Venusaur¡®s flower has grown from the simple bud-like petals of an ivysaur to multiple petals extending horizontally from a woody core. The fern leaves have grown broader and longer. The five petals of the fern and five petals of the flower are arranged in such a way that the ferns extend between the gaps in the flower, giving them unobstructed access to the sun during the height of the day. Venusaur¡¯s skin has settled into a blue-green color for most specimens. Despite their bulk, venusaur are still capable of leaping their entire body length in one bound due to their powerful hind legs. This catches many opponents off guard. The line¡¯s flowers emit a pleasant scent that has calming properties in humans and most animals. People who spend time around venusaur tend to have their most extreme emotional responses dampened. Venusaur oil is used in several antidepressants. Their pleasant scent can also draw potential prey closer, just into range to be attacked. The calming influence of their flower will also dull their prey¡¯s reflexes or deter some predators from attacking. Venusaur can grow to be seven feet long when measured from snout to vent. They can weigh upwards of two thousand pounds. Wild specimens typically live for fifteen years. Captive venusaur routinely live for twenty-five. Behavior Like most grass-types, the venusaur line are relatively sedentary. They are ambush hunters by night and photosynthesizers by day. While they occasionally will move to a better sunbathing or hunting spot or for socialization purposes, the average venusaur is motionless for twenty hours a day. Bulbasaur use their hind legs to dig a small hole for them to sit in. They spend most of their time in their hole with only the horns, nostrils, and bud sticking out of the ground. This allows them to breathe and photosynthesize while staying hidden. Anything of a similar or smaller size will be hunted if it enters lunging distance. Bulbasaur prefer to end prey with a single bite. Prolonged fights may require the usage of pollen or their vines. They will then swallow it, sometimes using their front legs to get the meal fully inside their mouth. Bulbasaur often misjudge the size of their prey and find themselves unable to kill it or even fit it into their mouth. Unfortunately, bulbasaur lack the ability to cut it into smaller pieces. If they cannot eat something they kill they will take it to the nearest venusaur as an offering. Captive specimens have a similar practice and will routinely present their trainer with kills too big for them to eat. They will appreciate it if their trainer cuts the meal into a more manageable size. Bulbasaur are fearless and will lunge straight for attackers rather than running away. This is usually confusing enough to would-be predators that they abort the attempt and seek out more easily intimidated prey. Those that try to approach from behind will get a nasty kick from bulbasaur¡¯s powerful, clawed hind legs for their trouble. Ivysaur and venusaur only dig holes when the air is dry and the soil is moist. If both are dry they will seek out swamps or shallow ponds. Neither are strong swimmers, but they can breathe through their skin and walk along the bottom. Venusaur hate submerging their flower and will only walk in shallow water as a result. Ivysaur can close up their flower to protect the spores, letting them traverse deeper waters. Some ivysaur have even been documented hunting fish while lurking on muddy river bottoms. Venusaur are primarily photosynthesizers. They spend their days moving around in search of the best angle for sunlight. If there is no clearing that provides enough light they will make it themselves. Venusaur¡¯s vines are powerful enough to cut through smaller trees. The force behind their lunges can bring down some larger trees as well. Venusaur are not territorial and will happily share a clearing with other members of the vineyard. During prolonged periods of cloudy or rainy weather venusaur can amplify their flower¡¯s scent, drawing in pok¨¦mon while the venusaur hides in bushes, a hole, or shallow water. Then the venusaur will lunge and eat their prey. In sunnier weather venusaur will almost never eat other pok¨¦mon, no matter how close they get. Some larger herbivores such as tropius will use venusaur vineyards as a daycare of sorts for their children, leaving offspring too large for ivysaur to eat in a clearing with venusaur. The larger grass-types dislike predators that could threaten their own offspring and will sometimes eat them out of parental concern. So long as the weather has not been stormy there is little risk to mid-size pok¨¦mon around venusaur. The frogs are also quite nurturing and instinctively try to meet the needs of young pok¨¦mon nearby. However, if food has been scarce they will occasionally kill their charges, cut them up, and feed them to starving bulbasaur and ivysaur. Husbandry The venusaur line are relatively easy pok¨¦mon to care for, especially considering their size. Venusaur are mostly photosynthesizers and can support themselves so long as they are given at least six hours of direct sun a day. They are fast enough to keep up with a slow hiking pace and are generally content to walk alongside their trainer in sunny weather. During the wet season they will need meat in their diet. Bulbasaur are greedy eaters and will eat as much as they are given. They should be given one mouthful of food every three to five days for optimal growth. Sunlight exposure should be maximized whenever possible. Lean diets are preferred. Many trainers use artificial poultry or small insect carcasses. The line are also very fond of fish. Bulbasaur prefer live prey but can be conditioned to accept dead food. Ideally their food should be dusted in vitamin supplements for amphibians. Ivysaur are somewhere between the two extremes. They should be given one mouthful a week and regular access to sunlight. At the height of the summer they can be fed once every two weeks. During the wet season they must be fed every three to five days like a bulbasaur. All stages should regularly be offered either a water dish or freshwater to wade in. They can drink water with their mouth or absorb moisture through their skin. During the wet season they may not need to drink at all as long as they are kept outside for at least ten hours a day. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Venusaur are reasonably intelligent and can make good use of enrichment objects. Their favorite are rubber carnivore play balls that are just too big to swallow. They will do their best to wrestle with the ball or fit it in their mouth. Any toy small enough to fit in their mouth should be safe to swallow as they will attempt to eat it. All stages enjoy spending time socializing with their trainer and teammates. Venusaur are loyal and nurturing pok¨¦mon that will not eat their trainer or known teammates. Captive-born specimens will never attempt to bite humans, although wild-born specimens may need training beginning as a bulbasaur. Their hunger is one of the reasons that it is not recommended to capture a wild-born ivysaur or venusaur. Once a venusaur realizes that another pok¨¦mon is a teammate they will generally become protective of them. They tend to dislike fire-type predators and very large birds of prey. All other pok¨¦mon are fine. Even the pok¨¦mon they instinctively distrust can slowly come to be trusted. Bulbasaur will dig. They must have something to submerge themselves in, be it dirt, sand, or blankets. They are rarely comfortable when fully exposed. Ivysaur dig less frequently. Hiding places such as bushes, inflatable pools, or large boxes are still appreciated. Venusaur are fine being mostly exposed, especially during the day. Hiding places such as groves of small tree, partially drained pools, trailers, and extremely large boxes are still appreciated at night. When a venusaur spends more time hiding than usual it can be a sign that they are hungry. The Alolan climate is ideal for venusaur. As long as they are kept outside they should be fine. Only in the driest and coldest areas in the Commonwealth will they have trouble. Keep them in their pok¨¦ball as much as possible on Mauna Lanakila and in the Haina Valley. During the dry season water troughs and shallow pools should be provided in the dry season. All three stages can be housebroken with a good deal of patience and steady reinforcement. Pans with minimal litter are preferred to avoid drying out the pok¨¦mon¡¯s skin. Illness In cold, dry weather the line can enter brumation. The pok¨¦mon will grow a thick, dry outer skin, partially bury themselves, and stay motionless to conserve energy. When the weather becomes warm and moist again they will shed and eat the outer skin and resume their previous lifestyle. Many trainers mistakenly believe their pok¨¦mon to be dead when it is merely in brumation. If the skin appears to be thicker and of a different texture and shade than normal, try moving the Pokemon to a more suitable environment. Consult a veterinarian if brumation does not end within twelve hours of the move. Osteoporosis and other metallic bone diseases can occur in bulbasaur that do not get enough calcium in their diet. As they grow older their weak bones can collapse under the pok¨¦mon¡¯s own body weight. Be sure to give older bulbasaur food with bones in it as often as possible. Very young bulbasaur should have the insects fed to them dusted in a calcium supplement. Red leg syndrome manifests as a series of red sores on the hind legs and abdomen. These are the result of a bacterial infection from sitting in unclean soil or water. So long as water sources are kept clean and a distinct litter area is used it is relatively easy to avoid. If it does manifest, immediately clean the pok¨¦mon¡¯s environment and consult a veterinarian. Evolution Bulbasaur and ivysaur evolution are ritualized in the wild, complete with elaborate ceremonies initiating the newly evolved pok¨¦mon into their own rank. Whole age groups are recognized at once, making the cutoff in the wild less about development and more about age. Nine and eighteen months are the evolution thresholds into ivysaur and venusaur, respectively. Scientists tend to classify the evolutionary cutoffs as being the development of fern leaves and an exposed woody stem. This is easier to track when birth dates are unknown, and is usually more relevant to their care and battling capabilities than age alone. Venusaur can undergo mega evolution. The resulting transformation makes them slightly stockier and gives them thicker skin. The flower on their back grows taller and gains another layer of fern leaves. A second pink blossom sprouts from the forehead. Mega venusaur is stronger and more durable than normal venusaur at the cost of speed. Mega evolution leaves the pok¨¦mon drained and in need of a large meal but otherwise has no adverse effects. In Galar venusaur can take a gigantamax form. The flower grows disproportionately large. Gigantamax venusaur can blanket arenas in sleep-inducing spores. Their vines become powerful enough to topple buildings at the cost of precision. The only good way to counter gigantamax venusaur is to have a pok¨¦mon immune to the spores and able to duck between strikes until the gigantamaxing ends. Battle Even outside of Galar, venusaur are quite popular in the competitive circuits. They do not excel at any one thing: there are far more durable walls, stronger wallbreakers and setup sweepers, and better sleep abusers. But they are bulkier than most offensive pok¨¦mon, stronger than defensive ones, and have a variety of power and seed tricks to disrupt and drain opponents. It can be hard for opponents to reliably plan around all of venusaur¡¯s potential game plans and they can adjust on the fly. Venusaur rarely carry high level games, but they¡¯re almost never useless in a battle. Venusaur¡¯s strength varies with the seasons. They are at their strongest in the summer in temperate climates or the dry season in tropical ones. The use of artificial sunlight can keep them near peak condition in the winter as well, but some venusaur dislike it and prefer low quality natural light to even the best artificial alternatives. On sun teams venusaur gain a surge in physical strength that lets them move decently quickly, better set up with growth, and fire near instantaneous solar beams. This makes them a staple of the archetype. Boosted sunlight does leave them even more vulnerable to fire attacks that can damage their plant and skin alike. Even outside of enhanced sunlight venusaur can muscle through some walls with a combination of growth and solar beams. Speedsters can be disrupted by sleep powder, stun spore, and strikes from their vines that can break the bones of frailer opponents. Some offensive pok¨¦mon can be walled by leech seed, synthesis, and poison powder. Venusaur¡¯s gameplay outside of sun teams is usually reactive to the opponent¡¯s strategy. The best way to deal with venusaur is telepathic assault from a distance. Teleporters like alakazam are at an advantage as they can dodge spore clouds and solar beams, both of which are usually telegraphed to some extent. Outside of psychics, inorganic steel-types don¡¯t care about venusaur¡¯s spore attacks and can withstand solar beams and vine whips for a time. However, in enhanced sunlight steel-types must be wary of weather ball. Fire-types are the best counter for venusaur in sunlight and still a solid one outside of it. Some trainers teach their venusaur earthquake, but most fire-types can win the damage race. Airborne fire-types like charizard and volcarona have little to fear from venusaur. Absent a dedicated counter, it is important to remember that venusaur have no overwhelming strengths of their own. They can still be worn down and taken out by strong opponents playing well. It will just be somewhat difficult due to their size and power. Try to minimize the impact of spores by avoiding clouds of them and not getting pinned by vines, setting up an opportunity for a sleep powder or solar beams to hit dead on. Venusaur attacks are usually somewhat telegraphed. Keep a distance when possible and avoid attacks until an opening presents itself. Ivysaur can use a mix of powders and their vines to deal with opponents at mid-range. Anything that gets too close can overwhelm them and anything too far can be very difficult to hit. Try to keep opponents between five and ten feet away at all times. Bulbasaur lack many of the special skills that make their evolutions so versatile. They are still bulky and reasonably strong for their size, letting them deal with opponents up close. Techniques like leech seed will require teaching the bulbasaur some measure of patience, which is sometimes only possible after they have learned the limits of attacking everything mouth-first. They are still young Pok¨¦mon and will need to be coached in a way that keeps this in mind. So long as their successes are rewarded and their setbacks handled with compassion and a helping hand, they will grow to be loyal partners for life. Acquisition Bulbasaur can be found in the wild on Route 2. They are most active at night but easiest to spot during the day. On balance it is usually best to look for them around dawn and dusk. Proving battles can help convince a bulbasaur to go with a trainer but are not always necessary. They are semi-domesticated and will often eagerly go with a human to get stronger. Venusaur do not necessarily need to give approval, but the vineyard¡¯s leader should still be approached and made aware. This will improve the bulbasaur¡¯s mental health and reduce the chances of an attack by an angry venusaur. Ivysaur and venusaur are usually not appropriate for bonding with trainers. To ensure the continued availability of bulbasaur their capture is ordinarily prohibited. Some shelters keep all three stages, although the bulbasaur are usually quickly adopted. Venusaur, like most large predators, usually have their adoptions handled by the League. Ivysaur are the only stage routinely available for adoption. Breeders also regularly sell bulbasaur of a suitable age for starting a journey, as well as the occasional ivysaur. Bulbasaur can be obtained with a Class I license. Ivysaur require a Class II license to adopt or purchase. Venusaur require a Class IV license to adopt or purchase. Breeding Venusaur do not mate for life. Still, mating tends to occur between socially bonded individuals of similar temperament, social status, and power. For the most part the same pairs breed year after year and remain close outside the breeding season. But if a better mate presents themselves they will move on. Venusaur are ovivaporous. Fertilization occurs internally during late July or early August. After approximately ten weeks the female will give birth to approximately twenty-five bulbasaur. Newborns are only six inches long and still have a short tail. The seed of their plant is deposited into the back shortly after birth. Very young bulbasaur primarily hunt larger non-pok¨¦mon insects. The mother carefully watches over her children until they are two months old, at which point they are granted more independence. Her offspring sleep huddled against her during the day until they are six months old. In captivity this is when they can be separated from their mother and given to trainers. Captive breeding requires keeping two venusaur on hand through the dry season. The male can be kept around after mating or removed. The female will tolerate his presence but he will not actively assist in childrearing. Venusaur can be standoffish with anything else that gets too close to her offspring, even including her trainer. Sometimes the mother will be aggressive towards older bulbasaur and ivysaur. Cannibalism is not unheard of in the species, although it is rare for all but the smallest of bulbasaur to be eaten. Venusaur have never been documented practicing cannibalism at all. It¡¯s best to give a mother her space for the first three months, at which time she can be reintroduced to her trainer and non-venusaur teammates. Cross breeding has been attempted but has rarely been successful due to the strain of the seed on a hybrid. The only successful pairing has been with whyeye, a grass-type frog native to the rainforests around the Caribbean. Relatives The semi-domesticated venusaur (R. valeri) have no recognized subspecies. Wild venusaur (R. ranafloris) are native to Indonesia, the Philippines, most of Southeast Asia, portions of China, and the eastern edge of India. They are smaller and much more aggressive than semi-domesticated venusaur. They are also more aquatic and have wider webbed feet at the cost of lunging strength. Wild venusaur are mostly solitary and are extremely territorial outside of mating season. Even without the size of their semi-domesticated counterparts, wild venusaur are a major threat to humans living in their habitat. How they were brought into captivity in large enough numbers to selectively breed remains a mystery. Gengar Gengar (Gastly, Haunter) Noxvenator cinimalus Overview Throughout history ghost pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon herself. The current consensus is that some, but not all, ghosts are formed when a human or pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon. Gengar are capable of mega evolution. In this stage the pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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. Drifblim 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 pok¨¦mon, 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 pok¨¦mon. 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 pok¨¦mon. Drifblim are relatively affectionate towards their human and pok¨¦mon 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. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. The main problems when caring for drifloon are their curiosity and diet. Drifblim dislike all pok¨¦balls, 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 pok¨¦ball 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 pok¨¦ball 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon, 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 Honchkrow Honchkrow (Murkrow) Malavis pacifica cadaveregis Overview Honchkrow have their flaws as a pok¨¦mon. 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon. 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 pok¨¦mon 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. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon and removing their parasites in front of a honchkrow will teach it that their trainer can remove the insects that they cannot. The pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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. Applin Applin (Flapple, Appletun) Divinimalum acutitesta Overview Myths of a source of knowledge and/or immortality guarded by flapple and appletun date back to at least 2500 BCE. In the earlier versions, gardens, mountains, or other domains of an ancient, powerful god were featured. Later on the garden morphed into a library. Several cultures made the myths into reality by building grand libraries and rearing applin in the courtyards. The most famous of these libraries were in Alexandria and Babylon, although others were built in Persepolis, Jerusalem, Rome, Nineveh, and Athens. In the medieval and modern eras few people seriously believed that an applin-guarded divine oracle or long-lost library was to be found. Still the lore around flapple and appletun as guardians of knowledge and health, respectively, ensured that they would remain common fixtures in universities and monasteries. Upon being introduced to South and Central America, applin had to search for a new host fruit due to the initial lack of apples. They ultimately found one in the pinap berry. The descendants of the first applin introduced to the new world ultimately became the tropical flapple and appletun. While they were long banned from Alola due to their potential impact on the pinap plantations, the declining importance of the crop has led to a relaxation of the ban in recent years. Today a handful of defunct plantations have been turned into tourist attractions revolving around pinap-clad dragons. Neither flapple nor appletun are particularly difficult to care for. While they are far from the most powerful of dragons, both are quite capable of keeping up through the end of the Island Challenge. Physiology All stages of the evolutionary line are classified as dual grass- and dragon-types. Applin¡¯s grass typing is often disputed as their berries are merely homes and disguises, not a part of their body. Still, applin can release chemicals that manipulate the berry. Some scholars contend that appletun or flapple should have, respectively, a poison or psychic typing due to their venom and telekinesis. There are good cases to be made for these typings. Dragon-types are often capable of wielding many different types of elemental attacks, so there is a standing policy to keep the designated dragon typing when more than two typings are plausible. Grass remains the best secondary typing for flapple as they are physically fused with a plant. Appletun¡¯s venom and poisons are plant derived. Juvenile applin are small green lizards with short legs and a large pseudo head. Applin¡¯s actual head is located below two large green stalks with eye spots. The eye spots are only capable of detecting light and movement; their actual mouth and eyes are located just below it. When predators strike for the head they are far more likely to hit the pseudo head than the actual one. Even by pok¨¦mon standards applin heal non-lethal wounds very quickly. Complete destruction of the tail or pseudo head can be healed within ten days. Applin primarily live inside of their host pinap berry. Very large berries are created by appletun and flapple (see Breeding) for applin to live in. Shortly after birth applin will dig into a berry. Special chemicals secreted by applin prevent the fruit from rotting. Applin will fully consume up to five berries, steadily growing each time. Flapple fuse with their final berry and use the chemically hardened peel as armor and a disguise. The pseudo-head stalks remain but are now primarily yellow with a small black dot in the center. This can make the stalks look like a seed. As with applin these stalks contain eye spots and are useful for detecting wind currents, but are not the true eyes. Those are small and located near the stalk¡¯s base. A set of crown-like horns juts from flapple¡¯s head. The tips can secrete mild bromelain-based venom that can cause chemical burns to organic material. Flapple¡¯s feet each have hairs that allow them to grip onto trees and other substances. Each arm and leg is also attached to a broad but thin slice of the original fruit¡¯s husk. The lizards use these segments to glide from tree to tree. The segments are also good for exploiting one of flapple¡¯s signature abilities: vertical telekinesis, or gravity control. Several pok¨¦mon have a unique sort of telekinesis that has the effect of increasing, decreasing, or even reversing gravity in a certain area. Whether this ability actually warps a fundamental law of the universe or merely exerts telekinetic pressure to mimic the effect is presently a subject of fierce debate. In any case the combination of lowered gravity effects and high vertical air resistance can let flapple glide for up to 700 feet. Appletun are substantially bulkier and less agile than their counterpart and base form. Their heads are covered in a hard yellow dome that protects their brains, eyes, and ears. Only the strongest pok¨¦mon can pierce the dome outright, although some smarter pok¨¦mon realize that the bottom of appletun¡¯s head is much less durable. The main section of appletun¡¯s body is dominated by its massive swollen back. Much of the back is actually hardened armor. In stable environments some is usually left hollow. In areas with more variable conditions appletun will usually keep the otherwise empty spaces full of reserves of sugar and water. Predators that can pierce or circumvent appletun¡¯s armor must deal with their secondary line of defense: venom and poison. Both are bromelain based and extremely concentrated. Unless prepared in a specific way, appletun flesh can be lethally toxic to humans and most organic pok¨¦mon. Bromelain is a digestive enzyme that, combined with other chemicals in the acid, causes flesh to start breaking down on contact. Appletun can also spit this acid as venom and cause chemical burns or even decomposition. Appletun are perhaps better known for a second substance they produce. Around the crown on top of their back appletun sometimes secrete sap. This sap is very sweet and, when diluted, is a common ingredient in high-end candies and baked goods. In higher concentrations it can also serve as a disinfectant. This, combined with appletun¡¯s long lifespan, probably contributed to their mythical status as guardians of immortality. Flapple typically grow up to five feet long and can weigh up to thirty pounds. Appletun grow up to five feet long and can weigh up to three hundred pounds when full. Flapple typically live eight to eleven years. It is difficult to gauge appletun¡¯s lifespan because by the time one dies of natural causes the records of their birth have almost always been lost. Behavior Applin do very little. When one berry is almost exhausted, they will briefly leave their old home behind and find another. In the meantime, they digest the inside of the berry and produce chemicals to harden the outside, signal their presence to conspecifics, and prevent rot. Flapple are arboreal year-round in the tropics. They rest in the high branches of trees at night and jump between them in the day to find food, escape prey, or play with other pok¨¦mon. Flapple are insectivores and use their keen sense of hearing to detect insect colonies inside of trees. The horn is then used to penetrate the bark before flapple lap up small bugs with their long tongue. Small bug-type pok¨¦mon can also fall prey, either by being physically overpowered or through a clever strategy. Flapple will often leap above potential prey while carrying a rock or hard seed or fruit. Their gravity manipulation powers are then used to launch the object beneath them and strike small or poorly armored animals or pok¨¦mon. The flapple will then descend to the ground, use their acids to start partially dissolving the meal, and then use their tongue and teeth to lap up the liquified parts and chew the remaining solid bits. Once in a while a curious flapple will descend closer to the ground to observe humans or other species. Sometimes they play games with other flapple, pok¨¦mon, animals, or people. This curiosity and the ingenuity of their hunting method likely earned them their reputation for cleverness and knowledge. Appletun live exclusively on the forest floor. Most of their time is spent grazing on grasses and shrubs. Despite being grass-types merged with a plant, appletun struggle to produce their own chlorophyll and prefer to steal chlorophyll or sucrose from other plants. When they are not seeking out food or water, appletun are typically sunning themselves or sleeping. At night appletun burrow a few inches into the ground to protect their underside from attack. In temperate climes appletun almost entirely submerge themselves in dirt during the winter. Once in a great while an appletun will engage with something curious in their environment. While they live in large social groups (especially when compared to the mostly solitary flapple), appletun almost never interact with nearby conspecifics. Husbandry Applin are best left undisturbed in a warm, moist area. They do not typically interact with their surroundings and are best left alone in the presence of another berry to move into as needed. Many trainers who own an applin leave them at a breeder until evolution as applin react poorly to pok¨¦balls. The pok¨¦mon itself is not merged with the berry and every time it is withdrawn it is taken out of its food source and home. Flapple and appletun do not form any especially strong bonds with trainers who watched over them as an applin. Flapple are very energetic pok¨¦mon with reasonable intelligence and high curiosity. This can make them resource and time intensive to care for. Still, they are highly unlikely to harm their trainer or cause extensive property damage. This qualifies them as one of the easier dragon-types to care for. Stationary trainers should design at least one room to be flapple friendly. This space should have several hiding or climbing places off the ground at different heights. At least one fifteen-foot gliding alley should be established. A heat lamp will be needed. Natural or very good artificial sunlight exposure is necessary for regenerating their plant-based body parts. Ideally several toys will be provided and rotated out once the pok¨¦mon gets bored with them. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. Traveling trainers or those without resources to build a dedicated flapple enclosure can still keep the species so long as sufficient play opportunities are presented. Visits to forested parks, especially ones the flapple has not been to before, are good for entertainment. The bunk beds in most Pok¨¦mon Center rooms can also keep a flapple occupied for a while. Games involving vertical and horizontal space such as games of catch or frisbee in a forested area or near buildings can also work. Some flapple enjoy climbing on their trainers. They should be allowed to do this for bonding and enrichment. Flapple are not easily housebroken but can be gradually taught to use a litter box or pan. A large pan placed on the floor of a flapple enclosure is usually the best way to do this: the pok¨¦mon can come to see it as a game to hit the pan while gliding above it. The early housebreaking process is often quite messy and a large tarp should be laid down over the pan. Litter boxes placed at elevation and designed to mimic a tree hollow are sometimes used. In any case it is easiest if another lizard teaches the flapple where to go. Most commercial insect mixes are good for flapple, with whole bug-types provided as an occasional treat. They are greedy and will overeat if allowed to do so. Daily intake should be limited to 5% to 10% of body weight, depending upon how often injuries must be healed. Flapple are strongly averse to pok¨¦ball confinement. Appletun are comparatively subdued. Enrichment can be limited to shell stroking and the occasional introduction of balls or other simple toys. Please note that sticky or sharp areas of the shell should not be petted. The underside of appletun¡¯s head and neck are very good stroking spots for trusting appletun. Heat lamps and/or sun balls are highly recommended, although appletun are usually quite comfortable living outside in Alola. Fencing should extend beneath the ground as appletun enjoy digging and will sometimes accidentally escape from their home. Be aware that appletun will often attempt to dig burrows outside. Trainers concerned with pitfalls in their yard should fill any burrows with stone after they are discovered. Most of appletun¡¯s day in the wild is spent searching for food. Even in captivity appletun should be given a few hours a day to eat leafy greens or forage under the sun. At night pok¨¦ball use is perfectly acceptable, although some appletun prefer to cuddle with their trainers. Trainers wishing to do so should be advised that appletun will often try to burrow into the mattress at night. The pok¨¦mon are also prone to urinating or defecating whenever they want as walking all the way to a litter box and back can seem like an unnecessary hassle for a slow-moving species. Appletun trainers will also need to consider where the pok¨¦mon shall live upon its trainer¡¯s death. This alone can make them more of a hassle to care for than the energetic but short-lived flapple. Illness Most flapple illnesses result in daytime lethargy or a loss of appetite. If these symptoms manifest the environment should first be assessed. Has the flapple been unusually cold recently? Trips to the mountains or even excessive air conditioning can cause respiratory infections or other illnesses. Rectal tract blockage or pain from a recent injury can also result in a loss of appetite or apparent illness. If cool weather can be ruled out the flapple should be taken to a veterinarian at the first opportunity. Most appletun problems stem from either respiratory infections or prolapsed organs. Respiratory infections often have visible symptoms such as discharges from the eye, nose, or mouth. Routine anorexia or lethargy can also be symptoms. Unfortunately, appletun respiratory infections can be difficult to treat and may not heal for several months even if caught early. In the worst cases they can be fatal. Organ prolapse occurs when there is too much of a buildup of the species¡¯ non-water-soluble uric acid. The hard mass of urea will accidentally press tissue or even entire organs out of the cloaca. These organs can wither or even rot outside of the body. Do not attempt to reinsert these tissues. Go to a veterinarian at the first possible opportunity. Keep the appletun in its pok¨¦ball as much as possible, even if they must be withdrawn for several days. In an emergency appletun can go for some time without eating. Given applin¡¯s general lack of visible behaviors it is extremely difficult to notice their illnesses. Even attempting to observe symptoms can cause undue stress. As such most applin illnesses become fatal before they are noticed at all. Evolution Once applin are sufficiently grown they enter their final berry. Rather than consuming it they begin to physically merge with the fruit. Over the course of several weeks the fusion will be completed before the new flapple or appletun emerge. New flapple appear when the husk begins cracking into distinct segments. The flapple will uncurl and rush off, the reptilian body now exposed. Appletun take longer to evolve. Their head and legs slowly begin to poke out through the newly hardened fruit. Even after they begin to move it can take months before the tail is fully developed and the shell reaches its final appearance. Flapple grow for about eighteen months after evolution. It takes newly evolved appletun over three decades to reach their final size. Battle Applin should not be battled with. They find the experience jarring and are unlikely to do much of anything in their own defense. Flapple are relatively fast attackers. When offensively pressured by an opponent they cannot avoid they will curl up so that their armor forms a complete berry-shaped shield. Unfortunately, flapple¡¯s greatest advantage, gliding, is very limited in most arenas. Even between gravity control and dragon dance flapple can struggle to maneuver in the air. Clever tactics and a lucky set up can allow for sweeping amateur teams but at the professional level flapple struggles to find a niche against larger, fully flighted dragons. Appletun is a solid grass-type wall. Their shell is remarkably resistant to even heat damage and very short cold shocks can be shrugged off. While opponents struggle to break through their shell, appletun can spew acidic spit to wear the opponent down or use recovery moves to repair minor damage. Despite their bulk, appletun suffer three major weaknesses. First, appletun spit can only go so far. All other offensive attacks are a little lacking. This makes appletun struggle in matchups against ranged attackers. Second, appletun are near helpless if something manages to knock them on their side. Third, appletun acid only works on organic pok¨¦mon. Ghosts and steel-types can present potentially insurmountable challenges to appletun. Still, against organic melee attackers appletun is a very solid wall that has seen some use on competitive circuits. Acquisition Wild applin, flapple, and appletun populations have yet to properly establish themselves. Currently the only members of the species in Alola are owned by game parks, universities and other schools, former plantations, and private trainers. Every institution has its own rules for capture. The Royal Trainer¡¯s School allows students to capture a single applin for their own use. Game preserves often allow capture opportunities for a price. Plantations will usually sell them outright or offer them as prizes for paid competitions. For the average person routine adoption or purchase is the easiest way to get a member of the line. Applin and Appletun require a Class I license to adopt or purchase. Flapple require a Class III license to possess. Breeding The evolutions of applin reproduce in two ways. The first is the creation of suitable berries. Appletun and flapple can chemically alter pinap berries with their saliva, causing them to grow far larger but more toxic. Appletun-nourished berries usually cause an applin who fuses with it to become an appletun. Flapple-nourished berries always produce more flapple. Flapple¡¯s higher nourishment and reproduction rate ensures that where flapple are well-suited there will be a comparative abundance of them. A small population of the more durable appletun will always remain to potentially restart the species in the area if the flapple population dies off due to short term stress. Flapple mate after elaborate gliding displays. The father immediately leaves. About six weeks later the mother will set down near pinap berries, dig a burrow, and deposit roughly a dozen eggs into the burrow before covering it back up. The new applin will emerge and seek out nourished berries to dig into. Appletun mating is comparatively casual. The male will mount the female and insert his phallus into her cloaca. In roughly fifteen months three dozen eggs will be laid and buried. The male and female will take turns guarding the eggs until they hatch after another three months. Flapple and appletun produced applin are nearly identical and can evolve into either, even if there is a much higher probability of evolution into their parent¡¯s form. Relatives The temperate, Eurasian, or original applin (D. newtoni) are native to a stretch of land between Central Asia and Western Europe. The one notable exception is Kalos. During the Kalosian revolution flapple was placed on the state seal and were deliberately introduced to ¡°People¡¯s Orchards¡± around the region. When the counter-revolution came and the Enlightenment-loving revolutionary government was removed from power, the Archbishop of the Church of Life ordered the gathering of every apple, flapple, and appletun in the region to Lumiose. They were all held in one central pen and lit on fire in front of thousands of onlookers. The Church has stridently lobbied against any attempts to allow applin into the country again. In mainland Europe radical leftists still embrace applin as a symbol of their movement. Temperate applin bond to apples over pinap berries. As a result they are slightly smaller and produce a cyanide-based acid instead of bromelain. They also only have a single spike on their crown. Temperate flapple dig underground and enter brumation in the winters. The appletun bury almost their entire body before hibernating. Temperate appletun are surprisingly cold resistant and can tolerate having the upper portions of their shell exposed through a Northern European or Central Asian winter. Pinap applin, occasionally abbreviated as pinapplin, live in most of the tropical rainforests of the New World. They have also been introduced to India and Indonesia. Neither are so dominant in their new homes to present a serious ecological problem. The locals have even become fond of them as appletun¡¯s sap is the cheapest available anesthetic in rural Indonesia and Malaysia. Their sap is also a beloved ingredient source in their original and introduced ranges. There is a third species of applin (D. ladon) known as the Kitikama applin, the Japanese applin, or the sweet applin. The fruit preferred by these applin has a peculiar mutagenic property. The applin inside the fruit also have a tendency to split via asexual reproduction. The tail is severed inside of the fruit. The applin will then regrow a tail while the tail generates a head, organs, and the rest of a body. Dipplin, the first evolution of the Kitikama applin, is made up of two wyrms inside of a single fruit. The fruit is an enlarged version of a standard applin¡¯s fruit but is extremely sweet and often coated in a sticky sap. Dipplin are borderline immobile and rely on the fruit drawing in prey who can be attacked as they try to take a bite. The sap can also trap insects to be picked off at the wyrm¡¯s leisure. When dipplin are routinely threatened by or hunt equal foes, they may evolve further into hydrapple. Hydrapple have seven syrpents inside of one very large fruit, roughly three feet tall. One syrpent, the original head, is theoretically in charge. They are often ignored. In concert the syrpents are extraordinarily powerful, but in practice their lack of cooperation leads them to be too middling for most professional dragon tamers to bother with. In the wild hydrapple can use their syrpents as prehensile limbs to move up and down trees by hauling themselves up or steadily lowering down. They are primarily arboreal and haul themselves higher in the tree when digesting food before heading closer to ground to lure in prey. Hydrapple are volatile and tend to be defensive of their orchards. Their fruit is incredibly sweet but its symbiosis with a dragon means few horticulturalists have bothered to raise the species outside of its small native range. Crobat 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon. 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦mon and higher end portions should be used for frequent battlers or delivery pok¨¦mon. 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 pok¨¦ball. While they can be kept in pok¨¦balls 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 pok¨¦ball. They are social creatures and want to play, explore, or interact with their trainer or other pok¨¦mon. 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 pok¨¦mon¡¯s trust. Music and other strange vibration patterns can serve as toys or bonding experiences.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. 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 pok¨¦mon 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 pok¨¦balls and imported pok¨¦mon 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. Noivern Noivern (Noibat) Anticaeli oceanum lu¡¯u Overview Dragons have always loomed large in the human imagination. They are on average the strongest pok¨¦mon type. Most are large enough to prey upon humans. Some were powerful enough to fight the armies of ancient empires and win. Even in an age where most species have been trained, dragons are still among the hardest pok¨¦mon to handle. Noivern is as good a start to dragon-type training as any. They aren¡¯t particularly aggressive towards humans, are easily conditioned to obey commands, are rather affectionate, and they are big enough to win battles without being so big that logistics become troublesome. Even then, they are still large and powerful carnivores with long lifespans and high intellects. Trainers should think twice before putting any dragon on their team, noivern included. Physiology Noivern are classified as dual flying- and dragon-types. The dragon typing is disputed as noivern probably evolved apart from the ¡°true dragons¡± descended from serpents. They are actually descendants of the pterosaurs such as aerodactyl. Scientists are unsure when and how the dragon-type evolved, or if it may have independently evolved several times. Noivern are reptilian and are very competent at wielding draconic energy. There is fierce debate over whether pok¨¦mon other than true dragons should be allowed the dragon typing and, if so, whether ancient, extraterrestrial, or inorganic pok¨¦mon such as tyrantrum, guzzlord, and zygarde should be an exception. If noivern¡¯s dragon typing is ever revoked, water, psychic, or normal are the most likely replacements. Noibat have dark grey scales with thick tufts of black pycnofibers around their midsection. These hair-like fibers help keep them warm in relatively cool caves. Noibat also warm themselves in caves through huddling with zubat (see Behavior) and their very high metabolisms. Like most dragons, both noivern stages are warm blooded. The extinct and revived pterosaurs were and are also warm blooded. Because their large membranes lose a great deal of body heat, noivern must bask in sunlight to keep up high internal temperatures. Noibat have long, thin legs tipped with four white claws. Their two wings have light blue membranes. Another set of claws are located in the middle of their wings. Their wings are supported by three long fingers. Other fingers form small claws on each wing. Noibat have large faces, but the size is exaggerated by the very thick pycnofibers on their head and their proportionally large eyes with yellow pycnofiber markings that make them appear even larger. Their nose is coated in purple scales. The line¡¯s most notable features are their giant ears. These ears can be moved independently and each are about the size of the rest of the head. Concentric circles line the interior and bright blue scales cover the back. Massive vibrations can be created from these ears. Contrary to popular belief, wild noivern are not very loud at all. Their wingbeats are virtually silent and almost all of a wild noivern¡¯s vocalizations are above or below the range of human hearing. Instead, humans are likely to feel very intense but silent vibrations. Captive noivern tend to learn the range their trainer can hear in. This makes them very, very loud. Noivern vibrations can shatter glass for half a mile around them or kill small animals within a few feet. Alternatively, the frequency of these waves can be adjusted to disrupt thoughts or transfer crude psychic messages. Their hearing is among the most sensitive of any pok¨¦mon and noivern can use echolocation to see the world for miles around them. Noivern have good but unexceptional senses of sight and smell. Noivern are generally lankier than their pre-evolutions. Their main body is long and largely devoid of pycnofibers. Alolan noivern continue with the dark gray and black color scheme of their preevolution, although wild noivern that have interbred with other subspecies can have green stripes or even bright red pycnofibers. Noivern retain grey scales on their face, aside from green inner ears and a purple crest over their eyes. Compared to noibat, noivern have rather long legs complete with knees and webbed feet big enough to walk on for short distances. Their tail has grown to be long and sturdy. It contains a thagomizer at the end for spearing anything that gets behind them. Noivern can grow up to eight feet in length and weigh up to fifty-five pounds. In the wild, noivern usually live for about twelve years. In captivity they have been recorded living for upwards of six decades. Behavior Noibat typically share caves with zubat. The adult noivern provide protection to the golbat colonies and the golbat and crobat in turn provide socialization and basic care for the noibat. Noivern themselves rarely sleep in caves and prefer to rest on nearby beaches or rocky cliffs. Noibat primarily hunt non-pok¨¦mon insects. Powerful vibrations are used to stun or kill the bugs around them. The pterosaur then cleans up, finds another swarm of insects, and then kills and eats them. They prefer not leave the cave to hunt. As they grow older, they venture outside and start searching for berry groves. Adult noivern, even those not related to the noibat, may take the younger pok¨¦mon on flights over the ocean. Noivern primarily hunt fish. Wishiwashi and luvdisc are some of their favorites. The hunting strategy they use is rather similar to that noibat use on insects. Noivern fly low above the surface of the water and use echolocation to scout for schools of fish. When they find one, they fold their wings and dive into the center of the school before letting out a massive vibration that kills or stuns all the fish around them. Their powerful lungs and tail let the noivern swim back to shore after eating one-third of their body weight. Noivern are vulnerable to predation from gyarados and sharpedo while returning to shore. Once it reaches dry land, the noivern hauls itself onto the beach and spreads its wings. This serves the dual purposes of drying off the membrane and warming the pok¨¦mon. When they are not hunting or sunning themselves noivern graze on land or in the sea. The species is fond of eating algae off of rocks and corals in relatively shallow waters. They also seek out orchards and use echolocation to identify the best berries to eat. Noivern are not particularly social, but they do tend to spend the night in bands of six to eight, if only for mutual protection from even larger predators. Noivern rarely mind humans approaching them while they are sunning. They sometimes even pose for pictures. They have been known to approach humans and rummage through their things with or without the owner¡¯s consent. Close contact with noivern is discouraged and feeding them is illegal. Once a noivern has tasted human food they tend to spend more of their time begging on the streets of coastal cities than hunting or foraging in the adjacent waters. Husbandry Noibat can be fed most insect mixes and supplemental water. The core of noivern¡¯s diet should be made up of fish with algae and seaweed occasionally added. Noivern should almost always be able to access a water dish due to their difficulties regulating their internal salinity (see Illness). Fresh fruit is an excellent motivator and reward but not a necessary component of their diet. Some noibat and noivern are very accepting of pok¨¦balls. Others will almost never enter them voluntarily. Be mindful of your pok¨¦mon¡¯s preferences. Noibat need a perch to hang from at night if they do not tolerate pok¨¦balls. Noivern prefer to sleep near their trainer. Content noivern purr in long, drawn out rumbles. When upset they rely on short but intense ultrasonic vibrations or high-pitched screeches. Tears are not a sign of sadness; they are simply a way of ridding the body of excess salt after dives in the ocean. Young noibat can only really be ¡°housebroken¡± by putting a tray under their preferred perch. As they get older, they are rather easily trained. Noivern will need daily opportunities to fly and at least weekly opportunities to swim. They are capable of swimming in either salt or fresh water, although they seem to prefer fresh water in captivity. Noibat do not require much space to fly in. While they are not as intelligent as many other dragons, noivern still need frequent stimulation in the form of grooming sessions, exploration of new places, games, or exposure to new music or other vibrations. As a note on the last point, noivern prefer their music to be played very, very loudly and are prone to humming their favorite tunes at deafening volumes. Some enterprising trainers have ¡®fed¡¯ their noivern live concerts and used them, occasionally alongside a zoroark, to replicate the experience of a live show. In any case, living with one requires either having no neighbors, paying them off, or accepting that fines for disturbance of the peace will be a recurring expense to budget for.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Most noivern tend to have distant relationships to their trainers, seeking food, attention, and occasional cuddles while maintaining a high degree of independence. Others are far more social and have been nicknamed ¡°lap dragons.¡± All noivern have distinct personalities their trainer will need to account for. Illness In the wild oil spill-related illnesses have killed up to two-thirds of the population of other marine noivern subspecies. These illnesses most commonly kill by making it nearly impossible to fly on oil-coated wings or through poisoning when consuming tainted fish or algae. The blackspot disease that led to the collapse in global mountain noivern populations (see Relatives) has been documented in marine noivern, but it is rare and the marine species seem to have a higher resistance to it than the terrestrial ones. Noivern¡¯s very large wing area and the thinness of the membrane makes them very vulnerable to water loss while in the sea. They developed the ability to shed incredibly salty tears to rid themselves of salt and help maintain homeostasis. Tear duct injuries can be fatal. If a noivern stops crying or starts needing much more water than normal without a proportional increase in time spent in saltwater, keep the pok¨¦mon in their pok¨¦ball as much as possible and keep them away from salt water. Then consult a veterinarian at the earliest opportunity. Most problems can be fixed with relatively minor surgery if acted upon quickly enough. Respiratory problems are common in marine noivern. Breathy hisses often indicate pneumonia. Lots of panting or vigorous wing flapping on the ground can be signs of hypo or hyperthermia. In the wild noivern can retreat into caves or the water if they become too hot, or sun themselves if hypothermia starts to set in. Captivity often deprives noivern of these options. While they are technically warm-blooded, noivern¡¯s homeostatic systems are rather weak compared to most mammals and require some behavioral compensation. Their body temperature is about 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Evolution Noibat evolve into noivern around their third birthday. Evolution is rather distinct from growth, which occurs gradually and happens for years before and after evolution. In the wild evolution is marked by the near-total cessation of insect hunting and the start of fish hunting. In captivity it is better measured by the shift from a nocturnal sleep schedule to a diurnal one. If a diurnal sleep schedule was enforced on the noibat before evolution, an uptick in daytime energy is the best signal that evolution has occurred. Battle The European bluewing noivern is the main species used in competitive battling. The remaining mountain noivern also see some use. Marine noivern are only used by trainers who cannot get their hands on one of the larger and louder species. All species of noivern are moderately bulky, especially with the aid of roost or moonlight, and they are fast enough to avoid many hits. They are also devastatingly powerful; the bluewing noivern can pulverize granite boulders from a distance of fifteen feet. While the marine noivern is nowhere near as powerful, they are equally fast and far nimbler. Bluewing or mountain noivern are used by several high-profile dragon specialists and a handful of quickstall users. Their main drawback compared to other large dragons is a lack of versatility in offensive options and lack of any especially powerful set-up moves. However, noivern are one of the easiest dragons to train and they are fast and powerful enough to single-handedly defeat teams that are unprepared for them. Marine noivern are not quite so fearsome. Still, their boombursts are powerful enough to defeat many opponents in a single hit and their draco meteor and hurricane attacks are also very difficult to tank. As somewhat large dragons they can also shrug off weaker attacks. In the air noivern are fast enough to outpace most opponents and wait for a good opportunity to strike. Unfortunately, noivern are very vulnerable to slashing attacks powerful enough to tear their wing membranes as well as spread ice- and fairy-type attacks. Noivern also have somewhat shallow offensive movepools and, while their utility movepools are rather good, they are not quite bulky enough to successfully serve in a supporting role. Noibat are best used as quick harassers that wear down their opponents through supersonic while firing off the occasional weak ranged attack. Powerful but undirected ultrasonic attacks can be used but have the downside of hurting both trainers as much as the opposing pok¨¦mon. Acquisition Noibat can usually be found around the entrances of large cave systems at night. They are easily scared and may retreat back into the cave where their nimble flight and echolocation will make them very difficult to keep up with. Their capture is currently prohibited on Akala and Ula¡¯Ula to allow for population maintenance and growth. On Melemele they are most abundant in Verdant Cavern and on Poni they are most often seen around the entrance of Resolution Cave. Noivern are usually found in warm, shallow waters, on rocky shores, and along cliffs. It is illegal to disturb a noivern while it suns itself, even for the purposes of capture. Fruit groves that noivern are known to frequent are the best places to find and battle one. As with noivern, capture is currently prohibited on Akala and Ula¡¯Ula. Noibat may be purchased, captured, or adopted with a Class II license. Noivern may be purchased, captured, or adopted with a Class III license. For both evolutionary stages, fruit and exposure to music are the best ways to gain the respect of the newly captured dragon. Breeding Male noivern claim territory in the resting spots of their bands. During the breeding season (September to October), males will release very powerful mating calls and perform elaborate dances to attract the attention of females. If one is interested, they will mate and stay close together for the next four to eight weeks. Then the female will go to a golbat colony and enter negotiations. She will offer some measure of protection in exchange for raising and protecting her young. Noivern give birth to their young rather than laying eggs. Newborn noibat are only four to six inches long. Three to four are born in a single litter. The mother will stay to watch over her young for a few weeks and then head back to her band¡¯s sleeping area. Noivern breeding is extremely difficult in captivity and essentially requires large plots of rural land. Thankfully noivern mating cries are almost entirely ultrasonic. The vibrations are still among the most powerful noivern ever produce and can be felt for up to a mile away. Every city in Alola has an ordinance against keeping male noivern within city limits and out of their pok¨¦ball for more than one hour at a time or three hours a day during the months of September and October. Baby noibat are rather self-sufficient. Unlike zubat, they do not require milk. The babies should still be provided with an enclosed dark space with several good perches and many small insects for their first few weeks of life. Crickets are preferred as they cannot climb up to bother the noibat if they are not immediately eaten and their songs provide entertainment to the baby dragons. Relatives There are three living noivern species. The smallest are marine noivern, of which the Alolan noivern is a subspecies. These subspecies are distributed across the tropical and subtropical Pacific. While their anatomy and behaviors are similar, their color schemes vary from pitch black in Alola to bright red in the Caroline Islands to green stripes in the Galapagos Islands to patches of blue skin in the Solomons. Mixed-breed marine noivern can have combinations of their parents¡¯ color schemes or even new patterns altogether. This has made them rather popular in captivity, although most zoos are starting to avoid mixing subspecies to better facilitate release to the wild. The bluewing noivern (A. regina) spend their summers on the plains of Western Europe and travel to the Sahel in winter. They are giants with wingspans of up to forty feet and lengths of up to twenty feet. While far from the heaviest dragon by mass they are still one of the largest by size. They have the largest wingspan of any living pok¨¦mon. Unfortunately, the bluewing noivern¡¯s size makes them dependent upon the availability of large grazing ungulates, their preferred prey. The decline in wild populations in Europe was a substantial blow to them. The replacement of the old grasslands with pastures stocked with well-defended gogoat led to the bluewing noivern becoming critically endangered. Only the installation of strict conservation laws and large preserves such as the Galarian wild area has kept the species alive. These efforts have been bolstered by captive breeding on large ranches in the United States and Australia. The mountain noivern (A. monsvespertillio) used to live in the Alps, Atlas Mountains, Caucuses, southern Urals, portions of the Hindu-kush, and a handful of mountains in Japan. They are smaller than the bluewing noivern and primarily hunt small mammals. Some rarely leave their caves at all and simply find prey inside of the caverns. Unfortunately, in the early 2000s most mountain noivern subspecies began displaying blackspot disease. The illness causes vomiting, high fevers, rapid cognitive decline, the formation of black sores, diarrhea, and ultimately death. There was originally no vaccine or even a proven method of managing the symptoms, especially the cognitive impairments. While this would have been bad enough for mountain noivern populations, the disease was communicable with humans. Amid mass hysteria and a public health crisis, several military forces and private hunters went into the mountains to kill as many noivern as they could. In the end a vaccine was developed and the disease was found to originate from rattata who carried the disease with no symptoms. A handful of mountain noivern remain in the Hindu-kush and a reintroduction attempt is being made in the Alps. There are approximately 300 in captivity worldwide. The Caspain noivern (A. rex) had wingspans of up to forty-five feet. They are believed to have preyed upon large desert species, similar to the behaviors exhibited by bluewing noivern in their seasonal migrations over the Sahara. Traditionally their extinction was believed to have occurred around 150,000 BCE, along with their main prey, bactrigyn and armorawessum. A cave painting with what appears to be a noivern was recently discovered in the Gobi Desert, far away from any living noivern species¡¯ range. The painting was dated to 15,000 BCE. Scientists and anthropologists are still divided over whether the painting is evidence of Caspian noivern, a vagrant bluewing or mountain noivern, or a highly nomadic culture in the area. Dugtrio Dugtrio (Diglett) Tricapita agricola molaris Overview Alolan dugtrio are not the best battlers. Traditionally they were associated far more closely with peace and agriculture than war. However, they are scientifically fascinating creatures with enough power to make it through most of the island challenge. While ¡°cuddly¡± is not a word often used to describe dugtrio, they are loyal and relatively easy to please. They are also a fair bit more expressive than most of the inorganic steel types and easier to obtain than most of Alola¡¯s ground-types. Physiology Diglett and dugtrio are classified as ground- and steel-types. The ground typing is due to their terrakinesis and subterranean habitats. The steel typing is due to the metallic core of their whiskers and slightly metallic nature of their subdermal armor. There is increasing consensus that the armor is more stone than metal and their secondary typing should be changed to either rock or water. Still, dugtrio are competent at wielding metallic elemental energy. Diglett rarely put anything more than their head above the surface. As such, most people know diglett as a dark brown creature with a long straight neck, a thin mouth, wide eyes, and a large pink nose. A small tuft of golden whiskers adorn the top of their head. Below the surface, diglett are a fair bit longer and have two sets of legs with waterproof brown fur, webbed feet, and sharp claws. Above the surface, dugtrio resemble a group of three diglett huddled together. The one major difference is that their hair is much, much longer. In the wild it is usually unkempt and somewhat dirty, with differences in texture and length varying between heads. In captivity it has often been kept very clean and styled along the lines of human hair. While it is perfectly fine to gently clean dugtrio¡¯s hair, cutting or styling it is no longer recommended as it makes the pok¨¦mon uncomfortable and may cause actual pain. At minimum it interferes with the pok¨¦mon¡¯s ability to sense the world around it, navigate, hunt, and battle. Beneath the surface, dugtrio are rather different than diglett. While diglett are relatively slender, dugtrio are very stocky and bulky. All three necks are able to rotate 340 degrees independently of each other. Each head seems to possess a degree of independence, but outside of occasional food squabbles they are remarkably in synch with each other. The subdermal armor of Alolan dugtrio is the strongest of any subspecies. Contrary to popular belief, this is not because the dugtrio need to dig through volcanic soil. All dugtrio subspecies are capable of digging very deep into the earth and withstanding relatively high heats and pressures. However, the crust under Alola is mostly composed of basalt. Most continental crust is made of the far less dense granite. The Alolan dugtrio takes these dense minerals and trace metals into a thin layer of armor under their skin. The Alolan dugtrio also has some of the lowest physical strength of all subspecies as they seldom need to dig very fast and mostly stick to the loose soils around wetlands, coasts, and the Haina Valley. What makes the Alolan dugtrio extraordinary are their lengthy whiskers. In addition to being aesthetically interesting, the whiskers are extremely sensitive and can detect an average car from up to six miles away, footsteps from up to a half a mile away, and virtually every vibration within fifty yards of them. Each whisker is coated in nerve endings and taste buds that allow them to decide if something is edible and then ignore it or move to eat it in less than one fiftieth of a second. Stranger still, dugtrio can smell underwater by rapidly blowing bubbles and inhaling them. Dugtrio can grow to be six feet long and weigh up to two hundred pounds. Their lifespan is poorly understood due to their subterranean habitat. Behavior Dugtrio typically live in three locations: very loose sandy soils, subterranean rivers, and shallow ponds on the surface. In deep subterranean waters, dugtrio hunt by digging beneath the lake and letting their hair rise up and sense the world around them. If they find food, the dugtrio springs into action and kills it before quickly retreating below the surface, using a strange secretion and terrakinesis to seal up their hole before it can become flooded. If they do not find food, they will seal the hole behind them and rapidly swim towards vibrations in the water until they find food. Then they will rise to the surface, catch their breath, and prepare to dive back down and back into their hole. In shallow surface waters dugtrio do not need to dive up into the water to find prey. Instead they move along the bottom, raking up the substrate to drive out invertebrates. If they sense a fish or small dewpider on the surface they will burst out of the water and try to kill it in one go. This is when dugtrio are most often seen on the surface. The dugtrio that live in shallow sands typically either use their vibration sensing abilities to hunt for other substrate dwellers or stay beneath the surface and wait for something small to walk over them. then they will rush out and attempt to kill their prey in a single hit. While continental dugtrio have often been observed using antlion traps to capture prey, the Alolan dugtrio has never been seen doing so and prefers to rely on blunt force impacts. When they are not hunting, dugtrio typically relax in the elaborate tunnel system they dig beneath their territory. For sand dwelling dugtrio these burrows can be deep below the surface where the sand ends and the clay and bedrock begin. Coastal dugtrio often dig their burrows a little inland to avoid having their tunnel networks flooded. Taro grows best in very wet soils or patties, which naturally draws dugtrio to taro farms. There they serve the dual purposes of tilling the soil in and around the taro and killing the insects that would have devastated the crops. Dugtrio¡¯s agricultural importance, and not their hair, was why they were regarded as minor fertility gods throughout the archipelago. Outside of evolution and maybe mating (see the relevant sections), dugtrio are relatively solitary. They do not allow other diglett or dugtrio to use their tunnels unless they are merely passing through to a different hunting ground not currently occupied by either pok¨¦mon. Husbandry The biggest problem in caring for dugtrio is their reluctance to be entirely exposed on the surface. While they do not suffer the near-instant sunburns that other subspecies do, they still get extremely uneasy when they cannot retreat into the earth. Dugtrio will often try to dig through pavement or floors to get most of their body underground. They are strong and fast enough to make a good start before being withdrawn. Thankfully, dugtrio are incredibly tolerant of pok¨¦balls and can spend up to twenty-three and a half hours a day in one so long as they are well fed. This probably stems from their natural tendency to relax in cramped dark spaces when not hunting. In captivity dugtrio should be fed a mix of fish, crustaceans, insects, and occasional kibble or red meat. Small quantities of iron, obsidian, and basalt should be mixed in with their food. Dugtrio can eat up to one-third of their body weight each day. They will need to be provided with a water dish every few hours. Ideally dugtrio will have frequent access to shallow ponds or pools. Many trainers make taro patties as a source of income and a home for their pok¨¦mon. So long as they are well fed and their other needs are met, dugtrio will often stay nearby their trainer. When newly captured they may make frequent escape attempts and require constant vigilance and many withdrawals. Even the most loyal of dugtrio will rarely initiate physical affection. They generally tolerate touch when initiated by familiar humans or pok¨¦mon but will otherwise bolt away from the potential attack. Outside of grooming sessions, which are not necessary, their whiskers should never be touched.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. Because of their tendency to dig when stressed or startled, dugtrio do not make good housepets. Illness While dugtrio have lived alongside humans for millennia, they have only been held in captivity for the last three decades. The initial forays into dugtrio captivity led to many deaths from stress, starvation, infection, cuts, blunt impacts, or thirst. As such the more natural health problems that plague dugtrio have only just begun to be understood. Rabies has been documented in the Alolan dugtrio and vaccination is required. Tapeworms and fleas are more common problems. Unfortunately, veterinarians have not yet worked out proper insecticide doses for dugtrio and medication is not advised. Coastal and subterranean dugtrio have higher mercury concentrations in their whiskers and blood than dugtrio in the Haina Valley, but the metal doesn¡¯t appear to have any ill effects. Evolution Dugtrio evolution is poorly understood. While captive dugtrio have evolved, it has been rare and poorly documented. It appears that at least one digglet burrows several miles into the earth. They will sometimes reemerge at the same spot several weeks later and seek out their human caretaker. It is presently unclear whether three diglett merge in evolution or if one diglett grows multiple heads. Because evolution is not possible to replicate on the surface, requires three separate diglett, and often leads to abandonment, trainers who want a dugtrio are recommended to catch the evolved pok¨¦mon in the wild. Battle The Alolan dugtrio has only been used by two unranked professional trainers, both within the last five years. Both trainers have their pok¨¦mon take advantage of loose soil and the cover of a sandstorm to make fast strikes with their sharp whiskers or undermine the opponent¡¯s footing through seismic attacks. The Saharan dugtrio has been used extensively in competitive battling, including by three ranked trainers. Indoor stadiums inhibit the pok¨¦mon¡¯s movements and often outright ban dugtrio, but most high-end general-purpose stadiums are either outdoors or have a deep pool of loose dirt under the battlefields. Six of the seven Continental Conference tournaments use arenas with deep soil cover. This is a relatively recent change as the finals of the Uluru Conference took place on Uluru itself until 2013. The Southern Conference takes place on an ice sheet with chalk markings delineating the field. Because it is held in the Antarctic winter only ice-types, fire-types, and other extremely cold-resistant pok¨¦mon are used. The antlion traps used by the Sahara dugtrio block pok¨¦ball withdrawal on anything stuck inside of them. This makes dugtrio very effective slayers of steel, rock, and electric types whose opponents cannot switch out regardless of a conference¡¯s rules. On balance, dugtrio are rather weak and incredibly fragile. One moderately powerful hit to the head will shatter the pok¨¦mon¡¯s armor and force surrender. On the island challenge dugtrio and diglett work best in very loose soils with sandstorm support. They struggle to do much on concrete or pavement and often immediately panic over being unallowed to dig. Under more ideal conditions, dugtrio are rather fast and can duck into the earth to avoid most attacks. Slightly precognitive pok¨¦mon can hit them when they surface and seismic moves can collapse dugtrio¡¯s tunnels and cause substantial damage. Newer trainers are unlikely to have either option available or the raw power to collapse tunnels by striking the ground indiscriminately. Dugtrio is somewhat less useful later in the challenge when opponents are bulky enough to take some attacks, fast enough to strike dugtrio when they surface, and powerful enough to win in one or two good hits. Acquisition Diglett require a Class I license (and $50,000 of mandatory insurance coverage) to capture, adopt, or purchase; dugtrio require a Class II license (and $250,000 in mandatory insurance coverage). While dugtrio are most easily found in taro farms, the owners are unlikely to let trainers capture their very helpful resident moles. The best places to catch them are in sandy soils and in wet caves. An exception to this rule are the terrace streams of Route 5 where dugtrio often hunt in the shallow ponds in front of waterfalls. Beaches and the sandier portions of Haina valley are prime dugtrio habitat. Unfortunately, dugtrio seldom even peak above the surface for long. The best way to find and capture a dugtrio is with bait. While it may not be ethical to subject one of your pok¨¦mon to a (potentially lethal) sneak attack, follow around small pok¨¦mon and animals for long enough and you might see a diglett or dugtrio strike. The window of opportunity is very short unless a sleep-inflictor or dedicated trapper is available. It¡¯s usually better to just throw a pok¨¦ball and skip the battle. Dugtrio also live in the subterranean rivers, lakes, and coves of the islands. Sandy Cave, the lower levels of Verdant Cavern, Diglett¡¯s Tunnel, and parts of the Altar Cavern-Poni Crystal Mines-Terminus Cave complex are all prime habitat for diglett and dugtrio. It is important to stay near motionless beside a stream or pond away from the most traveled paths. Ideally no lights should be used and a pok¨¦mon capable of navigating in total darkness should be on hand to initiate a battle when a mole shows up. Dugtrio completely surface when an upward dive is unsuccessful providing as good a chance as any to start a fight. The pok¨¦mon will usually be surprised enough at a large threat appearing deep in their tunnels that a few free hits can be put in. Sudden blinding light from a flashlight or headlamp can also stun the pok¨¦mon for long enough for a pok¨¦ball or two to be thrown. Breeding Like evolution, this is poorly understood. It is not even known how to determine the sex of a dugtrio. Or how courtship works. Or whether dugtrio mate for life. Or how frequently dugtrio breed or what the size of their litters are. They have never been bred in captivity and this seems unlikely to change in the foreseeable future. Relatives Dugtrio¡¯s closest relative is excadrill, which is most closely related to the extinct Western Hemisphere subspecies. Broadly speaking, dugtrio can be grouped into five groups of living subspecies found throughout the Old World and Pacific islands. While there is extensive fossil evidence of dugtrio populations in the Americas, it is believed that excadrill led to the extinction of these subspecies. Cave dugtrio (T. a. caecus) are most common in Japan, China, and Southeast Asia. These dugtrio are blind and have very thin skin and light subdermal armor, making them incredibly prone to sunburns and ill-suited for life on the surface. They tend to hunt in subterranean caves. Unlike the Alolan dugtrio, cave dugtrio subspecies are usually reluctant to enter the water for even very brief periods of time. Cave dugtrio sometimes hunt with precise strikes from below but are just as likely to hunt by collapsing the ground or an entire cavern onto their prey. There is evidence that cave dugtrio can live for over 100 years and can go half a decade between hunts. Farm dugtrio (T. a. agricola) typically live in the fertile grasslands of Europe. They face competition from the burrowing rattata in Africa and have been unable to establish a foothold in the savannah. Farm dugtrio do not hunt in ponds or have much affinity for water. Instead, they carefully move around the root systems of grasses and other plants and eat the insects that try to feed on the roots. While they are slightly less sensitive to sunlight than cave dugtrio, they still almost never put their head above the surface. Because they both till farmland and eat parasites they were and are revered by farmers. Sand dugtrio include the Sahara, Kalahari, Kalosian, and Gobi subspecies. While there are slight differences between the three, most notably in the properties of their traps, they follow the same general approach to hunting. All of these populations save the Kalosian (T. a. arenator) are social. They use antlion traps to abruptly collapse the earth beneath their prey. When they hunt individually, dugtrio can snare and kill small desert species such as katsmere and sandshrew. In packs dugtrio can take down entire herds of domestic camerupt and the humans who ride them. Desert-dwelling peoples have traditionally viewed them as gods of vengeance and have often hunted other species to leave on the ground as offerings to the dugtrio. This pact has led to greatly reduced mortality rates among the nomads. In fact, dugtrio often defend caravans from predatory pok¨¦mon and invading humans that do not pay proper tribute. Mantle dugtrio (T. a. abyssi) probably do not live in the actual mantle. But they do live deep in the Earth, well below the seafloor. Very little is known about them. Their existence is only known through seismic tracking of small earthquakes, the existence of the Alolan dugtrio an ocean away from the other subspecies, and a single half-melted corpse found after the eruption of Mt. Saint Helens. This dugtrio specimen was nicknamed Helen by the discoverer and the media. The Alola dugtrio is in a subspecies class of its own due to its behavioral similarities to desert, farm, and cave dugtrio. While the other subspecies are distinct from one another even when they share a range, Alolan dugtrio in all three habitats are very closely related. Dugtrio that hunt on the beaches have been known to move to caves or rice patties. Genetic testing on Helen confirmed that mantle dugtrio are the Alolan dugtrio¡¯s closest relatives. Fearow Fearow (Spearow) Anhinga magnarostra pacifica Overview Fearow are often overlooked by trainers. While it is true that they lack the raw power of toucannon or braviary, the intelligence of honchkrow or xatu, or the durability of mandibuzz or skarmory, fearow have a niche. Most of the strongest birds in this guide are difficult to obtain or raise. Fearow are common, tame, and reasonably powerful and intelligent. Quite simply, they are a good enough choice that will pull their weight until the fourth island while causing minimal problems. Physiology Both evolutionary stages are considered dual normal- and flying-type pok¨¦mon. Spearow are small birds with long featherless legs. The stomach feathers are white. The feathers on their head and back are primarily dark brown with red stripe patterns. The beaks are somewhat longer than the average bird their size. Spearow are most famous for the loud whistles they use to communicate with each other. Fearow have longer legs and wings. The coloration of their wing and back feathers changes to a pattern of white stripes on black feathers. Fearow¡¯s most notable features are their long flexible neck and their sharp beak. These are both employed in hunting fish: the neck lets fearow breathe while standing in deep water and the beak can be used to grab small fish or spear larger ones. The birds have excellent eyesight and hearing to locate their prey. Fearow cannot fly with wet feathers and need to stand still in the sunlight with wings spread out in a semicircle as they dry. Anything that approaches a sunning fearow will be given a warning whistle before receiving a series of powerful stabbing attacks. Despite being primarily aquatic, fearow do not have waterproof feathers or webbed feet. They are wholly unable to swim and must rely on wading to move through the water. What they lack in swimming ability they more than compensate for in flight. Fearow¡¯s long broad wings are excellent at catching thermals and fearow can dramatically lower their metabolism when they glide. This lets them migrate up to five hundred miles without having to touch the ground or feed. Fearow can live up to ten years in the wild or twenty in captivity. They often reach wingspans of eight feet and can weigh up to twenty pounds. Behavior Spearow primarily live in brush and tall prairies. Farmers with dry soils love spearow because they hunt the insects that plague their crops. Spearow are rather social and form flocks of five to fifteen birds. Both stages are diurnal, although fearow often take midday naps and have brief periods of activity at night. When spearow are not hunting they prefer to take refuge in trees. Fearow are piscivorous. Unlike the other piscivorous birds in Alola, fearow prefer to hunt in shallow estuarine waters and inland streams. Their main competitor in this role, bewear, are deterred by the prospect of an elementally charged peck. Fearow spend almost all of their time sunning, sleeping or fishing. They live in mated pairs rather than large flocks. While one hunts, the other watches for vikavolt and predators. Both fearow fly into a large tree to sleep at night. Husbandry Spearow are relatively easy birds to care for. The bulk of their diet should be made up of insect mixes. Plain popped or unpopped popcorn serves as an effective treat. Dishes of water should be provided once or twice a day. Spearow are diurnal, social birds. They prefer to be out of their pok¨¦ball and near their trainer for as much of the day as possible. The first major drawback to this is that spearow, like most birds, have a tendency to defecate when they take off. This means that it is difficult to housebreak them. More importantly for some trainers, spearow tend to stay perched on their trainer until something catches their attention and they fly after it, defecating on their trainer as they do so. The second drawback to having a spearow out of its pok¨¦ball is that they are territorial birds that will sometimes attack other pok¨¦mon that get too close. Fearow are less of a hassle in public, but the larger amounts of food they require make them more difficult to care for. Fish should be the core of their diet with periodic additions of tarantulas or other large insects. Coconuts make good training tools and treats as the birds love to stab into them and drink. Some trainers play games with their fearow by throwing a coconut and watching the bird try to strike through it in midair. Dips in water are also good for calming fearow. Natural waters can even provide them with free food. While spearow are tolerant of pok¨¦balls at night, fearow are not and prefer to roost near their trainer. Unfortunately, they are also difficult to housebreak and produce a rather large amount of waste. Stationary trainers are advised not to have carpet installed in their bedrooms. Spearow require shows of dominance to bond with at first, followed by a slew of battles or games to keep the pok¨¦mon entertained. Fearow are best bonded with through displays of kindness and affection. Other birds are useful for enticing either stage to stay and take orders. This makes the line common on bird specialist¡¯s teams. Both stages are quite capable of cleaning themselves and will not require baths. IllnessA case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Like many bird species, fearow can be carriers of avian influenza. The disease generally causes no harm to fearow but may kill other birds. Bird-to-human transmission has been documented but is extremely rare if basic sanitary measures are observed. Trainers should thoroughly wash their hands after handling fearow waste. It is difficult to diagnose fearow because of the lack of symptoms. If another bird in the party comes down with avian influenza a more thorough test on the fearow can be conducted. Avian botulism has been a recurring problem among fearow in Alola. A series of outbreaks between 2004 and 2009 strongly contributed to the Alolan swanna¡¯s numbers plummeting to twelve captive birds, all off the islands. Fearow fared little better, but populations began to recover due to the lack of competition from swanna and the decreased concentration of waterfowl making it more difficult for the pandemic to spread. Trainers should be very mindful of the symptoms of avian botulism such as partial paralysis in the wing and labored breathing. The bird stands a decent chance of survival if the disease is caught early. Mercury, pesticide, and insecticide concentrations are problems for all piscivorous birds, fearow included. These symptoms can be best avoided by limiting the pok¨¦mon¡¯s ability to feed in the wild, or at least to feed near agricultural or industrial sites. High concentrations of toxic chemicals tend to cause problems in reproduction such as sterility and thin eggshells. They seldom have visible consequences outside of breeding. Evolution Spearow gradually transition to fearow. A relatively rapid increase in size occurs between eighteen and thirty months of age. This is the evolution period. The formal demarcation is the replacement of the old coloration of the wing feathers with the black and white pattern of a fearow. Battle Fearow sees little use on the competitive scene as professional trainers have the time, experience, and money to invest in stronger birds or flighted dragons. Spearow are reasonably powerful for their size and are brutal scrappers. They seldom need (or take) orders once they get into the thick of things. This means that they win or lose almost purely by their natural strength rather than the skill of their trainer. Fearow can be played a little more tactically. The first and most important choice is whether they should take off or stay on the ground. Unlike honchkrow or braviary, fearow do not rely on full body tackles powered by gravity. Instead they primarily attack through beak strikes. In the air fearow are faster and better able to dodge attacks. However, they must get close to attack which leads to a lot of signaling. Wing damage while flying can potentially result in a crash landing or a one-hit knockout. Grounded fearow are slower but often able to use their long neck and beak to zone opposing melee fighters. They can also strike very quickly and are difficult to block. A good rule of thumb is that flight is better against ranged attackers and a grounded stance is better against melee-oriented opponents. While fearow will struggle on the fourth island they are otherwise quite capable pok¨¦mon. Even spearow can hold their own for the first few trials. Acquisition Fearow can be found along ponds, rivers, and wetlands in the interior of all four islands, as well as in a few cold-water estuaries such as Kala¡¯e Bay. They are most easily seen in the day. Unlike noivern, sunning fearow are fair game. Trainers pursuing fearow should be advised that the bird probably has a mate that will hound the human who took its partner. For these reasons only spearow are recommended for capture. It is still legal to capture fearow, although it is usually best to capture both mated pok¨¦mon or to watch a fearow over the course of several days to make sure that it does not yet have a mate. In addition, spearow can be purchased at some agricultural specialty stores. Spearow can be purchased, adopted, or captured with a Class I license. Fearow can be purchased, adopted, or captured with a Class II license. Breeding Fearow choose mates the first spring after they reach full size. Once bonded, pairs stay together for life. Widows and widowers do not pick new mates. The male begins building a nest in the early autumn by bringing sticks into the tree and building a skeleton. The female eventually adds in the fine details. Only two or three eggs are laid at a time but mated couples breed every year and survival rates for chicks are rather high. One bird will always be incubating the eggs and the nest is big enough for both parents to stand in. Fearow and spearow make sure to defecate outside of their nest, but they seldom bother to go very far. As such fearow nests often have white rims. Around their first birthday spearow are taken to a farm or prairie by their parents. The fearow will go back to the marsh and the spearow are left to find others and fend for themselves. Fearow can be bred in captivity. However, doing so requires staying stationary for several months at a time and accepting that one partner will always be on the nest. Fearow can breed with pelipper and toucannon, although they rarely do so in the wild. If there is another bird on the team of the opposite sex fearow may still bond with it and even mate. No reproductively viable offspring will result. Mated fearow are less attached to their trainer than fearow that are single or in a non-reproductive pairing. Relatives Pacific spearow are found across most of the Pacific. Their ability to glide for long distances has let them populate all but the most remote islands. They do not need fresh water if there are coconuts available within flying distance. This lets fearow populate even fairly small islands without a water table. Despite being closely related to waterfowl and shorebirds, the Eurasian fearow (A. m. agris) seldom goes near the water. Upon evolution, fearow keep much the same color scheme as their juvenile stage. The Eurasian fearow must compete with pidgeot. This causes the fearow to stay near the fields where they lived as spearow. They use their sensitive hearing to listen for bugs and their beak to stab through trees or earth to snap them up. Because they share their range, fearow continue to watch out after their offspring until and even after evolution. The Florida fearow (A. aureum) was driven to the brink of extinction by a combination of DDT, an oil spill, and mercury poisoning in the 1960s. They are golden in color and slightly larger than the Pacific fearow. This species has an unusual habit of building an elevated nest on top of a bibarel dam. This protects them from purely terrestrial or aquatic predators. Conservation efforts and the banning of DDT has led to a partial rebound across their range. They are migratory birds that spend their summers as far north as Unova before overwintering in Florida. Braviary Braviary (Rufflet) Magnalis bellicus Overview Coastal braviary are the second-heaviest raptor in the world. They are renowned throughout their range as either war gods themselves or the servants of one. Several of the greatest heroes and warriors of ages past were said to ride a braviary into battle. In the medieval era they were revered for their ability to crush plate metal. The modern era has not been quite so kind to braviary. The birds often defend their coastal homes to the death. In the past this served them quite well as no one picked a fight with them. Now that humans have the tools to eventually win and the desire to build large coastal cities many braviary have been killed in battle and pushed out of much of their former range. The decline in their prey, large marine pok¨¦mon, has also hit them hard. DDT was the final blow that almost drove them and most other raptors to extinction. While conservation programs in Europe, Russia, Canada, and the United States have led to a rebound in their numbers, braviary have yet to rise back to their former glory. Trainers on the island challenge should be advised that for all of braviary¡¯s power they are still not recommended. Braviary themselves are very reluctant to respect a trainer. Anyone who can command one in battle is almost certainly already strong enough that they don¡¯t need one. While rufflet are faster to warm to humans and braviary are often willing to part with a chick, they mature so slowly that they will quickly become outclassed, only becoming useful again towards the end of the island challenge. Physiology Both braviary and rufflet are classified as dual normal- and flying-types. Neither ruling is disputed. Rufflet have small and underdeveloped wings. Outside of newly hatched birds, which have white down feathers, rufflet have grey, black, or blue feathers on their legs, wings, fan, and the lower portion of their body. Their head and back are coated in thick white feathers. Rufflet also have a red crest. All feathers but their down are waterproof. Braviary are massive and powerful birds. They have long feathered legs and large talons. Braviary¡¯s wings are extremely powerful and supported by massive muscles obscured by feathers. Between their strong grip and wing beats they have been known to lift objects up to twenty times their own weight. the bottom of braviary¡¯s body is made up of the same dark blue feathers as rufflet. The white feathers are limited to their neck and the back of their head. A blue and red crest rises above their keen eyes and sharp beak. Braviary¡¯s back feathers are dark red or brown. The tail is tipped in rings of yellow and blue feathers. Scar tissue does not grow feathers. This makes it visually obvious how many scars a braviary has accumulated. Braviary can reach wingspans of eleven feet and weights of fifty-five pounds. They can live for up to ninety years. Behavior Braviary companies have rather strict hierarchies with one bird in charge and the rest generally subordinate. The exact structure can be fluid across time as subordinate birds challenge the ones above them to battle. Successful challengers can claim the spot of the challenged. The challenged bird is not always obligated to accept the challenge. A long record of past leadership combined with prior successes in hunting and defending the company can give a braviary enough social standing to reject challenges from birds with lesser records. A braviary that declines a challenge without the clout to do so will be marked with dishonor and mocked by even subordinate birds until they accept the challenge and perform one great feat to restore their honor. Braviary hunt large marine creatures in the seas around Alola. Sharpedo are their primary prey. Mantine and dewgong are also regularly on the menu. Juvenile alomomola, gyarados, and wailmer also fall prey from time to time. The raptor glides above the coastal seas keeping an eye out for prey. When a potential victim is spotted, the braviary glides higher on thermals and then begins a dive towards the water. The impact force will usually kill the prey. At this point the braviary will use its powerful wing muscles to pull itself and its prey out of the water and bring it to the company rookery. The hunter will eat first. Then the rufflet will feed. Finally, the other adults will eat in order of decreasing rank. Sick birds will sometimes, but not always, be allowed to go before other healthy adults. This allowance appears to depend on the severity of the illness or injury and the rest of the company¡¯s opinion of the bird. If any food remains it is donated to nearby mandibuzz prides. Companies typically live near coastal cliffs where it is relatively easy to catch thermals and prey need not be dragged too far inland. There are typically ten to twelve adults in a company alongside three to five rufflet. Combat defines the life of a braviary. Newly hatched rufflet immediately challenge the head of the company to a play battle in order to establish themselves. Members constantly jostle for rank. Wars are started with nearby braviary companies and other birds for territory and honor. When a braviary grows old and begins to decline physically, it seeks out a dragon and engages in one final battle as witnesses from the company watch on. The bones of their fallen comrade are collected and buried in a communal service. Other companies may attend the burial of a very well-respected bird. There are two non-prey species that braviary have well-established relationships with. Vikavolt seldom bother braviary as there are far easier targets. However, it is common for a braviary seeking to improve their status to seek out and kill a vikavolt as a sign of their power. Mandibuzz prides often live near braviary companies and the two frequently interact to exchange food, bones, and information. It was formerly believed that mandibuzz were the females of braviary, which in turn were held to be an all-male species. This is not correct. Mandibuzz are an all-female species but they do not mate with braviary or any male pok¨¦mon. Braviary females exist but are nearly identical in appearance to males unless they happen to have a scar in one particular area. The females are also, on average, ten-percent larger than males. The idea that they are all-male stems from human conceptions of masculinity and the extreme shyness of mating birds (see Breeding). Regardless, braviary are exceptionally protective of mandibuzz. Husbandry The mandibuzz-braviary relationship is relevant to husbandry. Braviary bond far faster with humans who present themselves in a stereotypically feminine way. The trainer¡¯s sex is mostly irrelevant. Only appearance (long hair, jewelry, makeup) matters. Wearing black clothing is also a good way to gain a braviary¡¯s begrudging trust. Ivory or bone jewelry can also help. Gaining a braviary¡¯s trust, even with mandibuzz imitation, is very difficult. Unlike most species, braviary do not associate the power and accomplishments of a trainer¡¯s pok¨¦mon with the power of the trainer themself. Physically challenging a braviary is not recommended and mere attempt does little to gain respect. While it is legal to capture and possible to bond with an adult, only trainers with very high powered pok¨¦mon, a stereotypically feminine appearance, and lots of experience with bird keeping are likely to succeed. Even they will face issues of near-constant challenges to their authority. The easiest way to obtain a loyal braviary is to train a young rufflet. While easier than a braviary, raising one is still no easy task. The rufflet will expect to battle constantly. They will further expect to have play fights with their trainer. Access to TMs and a clever strategic mind are the best ways to win over a rufflet. Despite their fearsome reputation, rufflet enjoy being groomed by their trainer or other trusted pok¨¦mon. Braviary with a very healthy respect for their trainer will also seek physical closeness. Almost all rufflet and braviary despise pok¨¦balls as symbols of subjugation. While they will tolerate them for special occasions (such as battles and sickness), pok¨¦balls will ordinarily be rejected out of hand, even at night while they sleep. Braviary require a lot of flight time and exercise challenges such as lifting heavy objects. Rufflet are not skilled fliers but will still want exercise outside of their sparring. Strength tests like breaking a board with a peck tend to work. Many rufflet enjoy the challenge of trying to sit on a durable but lightweight ball. Both rufflet and braviary are exclusively carnivorous and will only eat raw or lightly cooked meat and seafood. They prefer seafood they catch themselves. Check the laws related to the hunting of large marine species as it is outright illegal to catch several of them and there are strict quotas on almost all others. Young rufflet eat meat just like their older brethren and will reject insect mixes. If a rufflet or braviary is on the team then feeding order will matter. If a pok¨¦mon was instrumental in a recent battle they can go first. Then pok¨¦mon should be fed in a set order that reflects power, seniority, or the braviary¡¯s opinion on them. Curiously, braviary will get upset if they are fed before pok¨¦mon they see as higher ranked than they are. Do note that this ritualistic feeding order can anger other species. Rufflet are a little more relaxed about feeding order and will generally expect to be fed alongside other pok¨¦mon. They may still defer to allies that have recently won great victories.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Rufflet can be housebroken rather easily. Braviary will quickly learn what they are supposed to do but will often refuse to do it until sufficient respect is earned. Reinforcement, positive or negative, will be ineffective in training braviary. They will do what they feel obligated to. Nothing less and nothing more. Illness Many of braviary¡¯s illnesses stem from one of their greatest assets: their very quick healing. Braviary rapidly regenerate from cuts and form a layer of scar tissue over the wound. This prevents the wound from becoming infected. If the wound was already infected bacteria and fungi can grow beneath the surface and cause serious problems. Bumble foot is the most common of these illnesses. It is marked by a hard bump on the braviary¡¯s talons over a healed wound. These infections can lead to death and should be treated as soon as possible. Frequently check recent injuries for discoloration, tenderness, or swelling. Avian pox is relatively common in braviary. This is marked by warts growing near the eyes and beak. While seldom outright lethal, prolonged illness without treatment can cause blindness or respiratory problems. Braviary can suffer from a number of other health diseases. Head-bowing, sudden changes in the color and volume of crops, wheezing, and general lethargy are common symptoms. Almost all avian diseases require professional care and cannot be treated by amateurs. Evolution Rufflet growth is very gradual. In both the wild and captivity, it takes five to six years for a rufflet to evolve. Most rufflet given to trainers by braviary are around five years old. Increased combat does nothing to accelerate evolution. While nothing special needs to be done to trigger growth beyond adequate feeding, sleep, and exercise, even these things will not lead to a quick evolution. Unless a trainer captures a braviary or obtains a rufflet well before setting out on the challenge, they are unlikely to own one until the very end of their journey. Braviary flash evolve, instantly quintupling the pok¨¦mon¡¯s size. The remaining growth slowly occurs over the next four to five years. Battle Braviary harm their opponents primarily through blunt force strikes. A fifty-pound bird dive bombing their opponent from thirty feet can hit with enough force to knock out many frailer opponents. The rest can be scooped up in braviary¡¯s talons, flown into the air, and dropped. Upon impact they will take another hit from braviary. This combo is extremely effective against relatively lightweight opponents that lack full-body elemental attacks such as flare blitz or discharge. Even on the ground braviary benefit from powerful muscles and beaks. Many opponents can be overpowered and even outrun by a grounded braviary. A common tactic on the competitive battling circuits is to have braviary use bulk up or hone claws while circling an opponent that cannot hit them. By the time a proper bird check comes in braviary can take often them out in a single strike and finish the rest of the match on the ground. On the island challenge braviary need few moves to succeed. Brave bird and super power form the core of an effective set. While roost and a boosting move are nice, they are not necessary to clear the challenge. Rufflet is a fair bit tricker to use. Early on they have an advantage over other birds by being relatively strong and eager to train. Eventually those birds will start growing and even evolve while rufflet barely experience any physical changes at all. They also are not adept fliers. Rufflet must fight on the ground and rely on relatively strong pecks and their absolute refusal to back down. While this attitude is helpful at first it will only get them hurt later on. For these reasons and others, rufflet are really only recommended for trainers who will have no trouble completing the bulk of the island challenge with five pok¨¦mon. Acquisition Braviary live on all four of the tapu islands and some of the smaller ones. They are presently illegal to capture on Ula¡¯Ula and Akala to allow the populations to build back up. On Akala they primarily live on Mauna Wela and the mountains near the southern coast. On Ula¡¯Ula they live on the abundance of coastal mountains and cliffsides, particularly around Mauna Hokulani, Route 12, and Route 17. While there are braviary companies at low altitudes on Mauna Lanakila, none live near the peak. Braviary on Melemele typically live in a stretch of coastline running along Route 3 down to Ten Carat Hill. Companies can be found along almost the entire coast of Poni Island. Rufflet and braviary capture is best done by slowly approaching a company¡¯s nesting area with one pok¨¦mon out. When the braviary take notice, bow your head and wait for a braviary to screech. Make eye contact with that bird as it approaches and prepare for a one-on-one battle. Afterwards the company will deliberate. Sometimes they will entrust a rufflet into the trainer¡¯s care. On rare occasions one of the braviary will decide to go with the trainer. Braviary and rufflet can be captured with a Class III license. Rufflet can also be adopted or purchased with a Class III license; braviary require a Class IV. Breeding Braviary have never reproduced in captivity. They have also been never captured mating on film. The exact mechanics of copulation are thus unknown. Around the mating season in early July braviary will get very defensive towards outsiders, including drones and camera traps that had been tolerated for months. Eggs are typically laid in mid-February. They hatch around the first week of July which contributes to the unease braviary have around outsiders at that time. All braviary, male or female, help raise all rufflet. Good parenting is a way to increase social status. The rufflet are both strictly disciplined and doted on. They are given far more attention than most young birds. Sometimes a braviary will leave to another company that defeats their own in battle. Otherwise rufflet of both sexes stay in the company they were born in for life. A handful of rufflet eggs have been taken from the wild and hatched in captivity. None responded well to humans. While they do imprint to a degree, they remain distrustful of bipeds until around their third birthday. Other birds or sock puppet braviary are now used as surrogate parents. Relatives There are four braviary species. The one in Alola, the coastal braviary, is the most migratory. They prefer to live in coastal areas with ready access to very large prey. Coastal braviary can be found along the coastlines of the Americas, as well as in a few places they have migrated or been introduced to and that have enough prey and space to live in. These areas include West Africa, some of the largest Pacific Islands, and, recently, parts of Europe. Before coastal braviary moved into portions of Europe they were inhabited by the northern braviary (M. steller). The species range originally spanned from Galar to the boreal forests of Canada. They preferred cool and cold habitats, including portions of the Arctic Circle. Northern braviary have telepathic screams that can stun and disorient rivals and kill small and feeble-minded prey. Their preferred hunting strategy is to fly tight circles just above a lake¡¯s surface, killing as many normal fish and weak pok¨¦mon as possible before scooping them up and bringing them back to the nest. Companies will often cooperate to snatch as many of the fish as possible. In winter the birds will use their strength and talons to break the ice over lakes so they can hunt. Northern braviary have thick white plumage and glowing pink eyes. Some ESP-sensitive humans report seeing constantly fluctuating arcs of energy around the face. Northern braviary had their numbers decimated by DDT. Climate change has also made much of their former territory more amenable to other raptors. Northern braviary are even longer lived and slower to mature than their coastal cousins, making the recovery process difficult. In the past they have also been deliberately hunted by the Russian and Canadian governments. Some indigenous tribes have bonded with the braviary and earned enough trusts to use them as war mounts. During wars with the native peoples the colonial governments would sometimes poison fish to kill off the braviary and reduce the martial abilities of the native population. Coastal braviary are too prideful to allow themselves to be rode by all but the most powerful of humans, so the Canadian, Russian, and Scandinavian governments have intentionally released coastal braviary into the lands formerly occupied by the northern species. The wetland braviary (M. columbia) live in the interior of the United States and Canada. They are much smaller than the coastal braviary and hunt in rivers and lakes instead of the sea. This greatly limits the size of their prey. Despite their lack of size, the wetland braviary are every bit as militant as their larger cousins. Widespread conservation efforts by the United States and subordinate tribal nations has led to the population nearly rebounding to its pre-DDT levels. This entry began by noting the coastal braviary is the second largest in the world. The largest is the titanic braviary (M. titanus) of Aotearoa. These massive birds can reach wingspans of twenty feet. Their companies have been documented hunting wailord and gyarados, although they prefer hunting dodrio. The species is usually solitary, although companies will form for the greatest of hunts. They nest on the ground for they fear nothing in their native range and there are few trees capable of supporting them. There were also no rodents likely to eat their eggs or antagonize the rufflet. The introduction of rattata, the usage of DDT, and the decline in dodrio populations for similar reasons has left the species on the brink of extinction. Only four wild specimens remain today, alongside twenty-two captive ones. Captive breeding has been mostly unsuccessful: captive birds refuse to mate and females often become distressed by artificial insemination, even resorting to cannibalism of their offspring. The species will hang on for a few decades due to their long lifespan, but their future beyond the current generation looks increasingly grim. Braviary¡¯s occasional wanderlust and the overlapping ranges does lead to some cross-breeding between the three most common species. Some will join another species¡¯ company, especially when well outside their native range. Integration is usually fraught. Northern braviary are reluctant to accept the other species given their lack of any psionic ability. Coastal braviary see their counterparts as physically weak and see their preference for smaller prey as cowardice. Coastal braviary in the American interior usually eat far more than their share while not being well adapted to the common river species, causing strain in any company they join. Particularly strong individuals can still achieve relatively high rank in a company, but acceptance is rarely universal. Mandibuzz Mandibuzz (Vullaby) Suli¡¯asegi boreal Overview Mandibuzz are widely known as a female-only species that take great pains to adorn themselves but never seem to attract a male to mate with. This is mostly propaganda. In the 1940s the United States introduced mandibuzz to Alola to bond with the existing braviary. The juxtaposition of brave warrior birds protecting stereotypically feminine ¡°civilians¡± was used to motivate troops stationed in the region by reminding them of home. Even at the time scientists knew this was false. Mandibuzz are hermaphrodites that lay and fertilize eggs. Their adornments are used to attract mates, but also satisfy their own vanity. The mates they attract are other female mandibuzz. Mandibuzz are relatively intelligent and social birds. Many trainers are surprised to learn that in captivity they are actually very clean eaters and reliable groomers with the added bonus of being easily housebroken for a bird. While their bone decorations can be a little expensive, they need to be replaced infrequently enough that mandibuzz are not substantially costlier to care for than the average large bird. It should be noted here that, like gumshoos, mandibuzz ownership carries political subtext. Specifically the vultures are very popular among LGBT trainers. A female trainer with a mandibuzz will probably be read as lesbian more often than not. Mandibuzz were used for decades as a small sign of self-expression and a means of identifying other lesbian trainers. This has only become common knowledge in the last few years as many mandibuzz trainers have publicly revealed their sexual orientation. The intersex community also uses mandibuzz as a symbol. This has caused some public conflict between activists over which group has a better claim to the species. Physiology Both stages are classified as dual dark- and flying-types. Vullaby are small and plump birds. Most of their plumage is brown, black, or grey. Hatchlings have pure white down feathers. Aside from a small tuft on top of their head, vullaby have no feathers on their head or neck. Their wings are very small and vullaby are functionally flightless. A fluffy collar of soft feathers rings their neck. In addition to being flightless, vullaby are ungainly on land and must awkwardly waddle around. Mandibuzz have long wings. The feathers at the tips of the wings are lighter than those towards the base. The collar has grown into a mess of long and fluffy feathers that extends onto the chest. Mandibuzz also gain a skirt of similar feathers to keep them and their chicks warm. Upon evolution a mandibuzz¡¯s tail grows in length. Young mandibuzz retain a hair tuft; older birds have entirely bald necks and heads. Mandibuzz have powerful wing muscles to compensate for their own weight. Mandibuzz reach a maximum wingspan of six feet. Unadorned mandibuzz typically weigh about eighteen pounds but bone ornaments can raise this by another two to three pounds. Mandibuzz can live up to fifty years in captivity or thirty in the wild. Behavior Mandibuzz are exclusively scavengers. In fact their beaks are so weak that they struggle to break skin. This leads to symbiotic relationships between mandibuzz prides and other large birds. In Alola, Galar, and parts of North America this relationship is formed with braviary companies, but in other parts of their range the prides attach to birds such as harpyre, rherhea, or South Island decidueye. Mandibuzz play a key role in the lives of Alola¡¯s rufflet. While braviary are off hunting some of the mandibuzz pride will stay back and keep an eye on the rufflet and vullaby. Others will fly over the land and use their keen sense of smell to find recently dead pok¨¦mon. Mandibuzz carry an older rufflet with them when they look for food. When a carcass is found the rufflet is dropped off on a tree branch. The mandibuzz will then carry the carcass up into the tree where the rufflet will cut it open. Both birds will share in the kill and the mandibuzz will pick out any bones she wants for herself or her vullaby. The pair will then return to the pride¡¯s nesting grounds. The adornment of vullaby is primarily for defensive purposes. The young birds are periodically given skulls or other bones to guard themselves with. The bones are held in place with the thick, sticky spit of their mothers. Dense bone plating guards all the most vulnerable areas of a vullaby. Mandibuzz adorn themselves with bones partially for defense. Some bones are carefully hidden under their feathers to safeguard organs. Others are visible. These bones are believed to be used for similar purposes to jewelry in humans. They are partially used for attracting mates, partially as a sign of their ability to successfully provide for their pride, and partially for simple self-expression. When members of two prides meet they often trade ideas for adornment. Trendsetting mandibuzz can have their fashion innovations spread across their entire archipelago in a matter of weeks. Mandibuzz occasionally kill cubone. They only do this when food is abundant and there is leisure time. A mated pair or an unmated female and one of her mothers will perch in cubone habitat. When a cubone is alone, one mandibuzz will swoop down in front of it and begin to act aggressively. The goal is to take the cubone¡¯s club, but sufficient distraction will also work. When the cubone is open the other mandibuzz will fly in from behind, grab the cubone, and fly it into the air. After catching a thermal and rising as high as possible, the cubone will be dropped. If it survives the impact the process will be repeated as much as necessary. Cubone clubs are considered to be extremely valuable for ornamentation. Their skulls, intact or cracked, are good for protection. Prides tend to consist of five to eight mated pairs, a handful of unmated young adults, and their children. Young adults occasionally move between prides. While children are attached to their parents, childcare and almost all other tasks are communal. Sick birds will be supported by other pride members. Husbandry Mandibuzz are relatively self-sufficient. They are easily housebroken and keep themselves clean. Mandibuzz and older vullaby will happily eat almost all forms of meat. Unlike most carnivorous birds, they will eat kibble on occasion. Raw or cooked meat is strongly preferred, though. In most areas it is legal to let mandibuzz scavenge on their own as they do not actively kill their prey. They will need to be accompanied by another pok¨¦mon capable of slicing skin open when prey is found. Some mandibuzz have learned how to use knives. This allows them to scavenge unsupervised. Be aware that mandibuzz often see knives as very valuable bones and refuse to give them back under any circumstances.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Mandibuzz will often get their bones from their prey. Gifted bones will make them exceptionally happy. Cubone clubs and skulls are viewed as the highest quality bones of them all. A handful of specialty stores sell bones for mandibuzz. Vullaby will need proper skulls and feather-safe glue to secure them in place. If there is no mandibuzz around to do it, the trainer should either take lessons on bone crafting or have their armor custom made by a professional. Both options can be rather expensive. Both mandibuzz and vullaby are very affectionate. While resting they prefer to cuddle with their trainer. They will often groom long-haired trainers whether or not it is wanted. Sometimes mandibuzz will present their trainer with interesting bones or rocks as gifts. Wearing these will make the pok¨¦mon very happy. Many trainers are surprised to learn that mandibuzz only communicate in growls and whistles. They do not have the ability to chirp or make other common bird sounds. Vullaby will tolerate pok¨¦balls for up to twelve hours a day. Pok¨¦ball tolerance varies by mandibuzz but most prefer to spend their days scavenging or socializing and their nights near their trainer or teammates. The relative safety and comfort of pok¨¦balls allow for neither. Mandibuzz are very caring Pok¨¦mon. They will look out for young teammates, children, and even their trainer. Several guides list mandibuzz as one of the best pok¨¦mon for households with young children as the birds will happily guard and play with infants, toddlers, and preteens. Teenagers hold less interest to mandibuzz, although teens going through goth, emo, or punk phases still manage to pique the bird¡¯s attention due to the similarities between the fashion and their own plumage. Wearing dark clothing and many accessories is a good way to gain a mandibuzz or vullaby¡¯s trust. Illness Between their powerful guts and obsessive grooming, mandibuzz almost never get sick. That does not mean that humans and other birds cannot get sick from them. Mandibuzz that scavenge naturally or eat raw meat tend to have a variety of illness-causing bacteria on their faces and in their droppings. Their waste should be handled with care and kept away from other birds. Cuddling and direct contact should only be done after a mandibuzz has had its face washed with warm water. Soap can irritate their skin and should be avoided. Evolution Vullaby grow in a series of growth spurts. Each can increase their weight by two to ten percent. These are very normal in vullaby and do not necessarily signal the approach of evolution. After large growth spurts mandibuzz (and trainers) must find the vullaby a new set of protective bone plating to wear. Around their fifth birthday vullaby begin to properly evolve. They will reject new sets of armor and gain thicker plumage over their entire body. Over the course of four to six months vullaby¡¯s neck will grow much, much longer and their wings become stronger. In the wild evolution grants a mandibuzz almost all rights and privileges of a member of the pride. A few move to a different pride at this time to preserve genetic diversity. Once courtship is completed and a mate is selected (see Breeding), mandibuzz lose their head tuft and become full adults. Battle Mandibuzz are bulky birds. Unfortunately for them, skarmory and corviknight are bulkier and have more offensive power through sharp beaks and wings. Mandibuzz have barely any power at all and are only really able to injure foes through toxic and foul play. On the competitive circuits most offensive pok¨¦mon will wear them down before succumbing to poison damage. In addition to the metallic birds, dragons, mantine, and gliscor all perform the same role with either better bulk or more offensive power to compensate. On the island challenge mandibuzz are less restricted. For the first few islands they will have enough power to hurt their foes and at the end of the challenge they will still be bulky enough to use a combination of roost, protect, substitute, and toxic poisoning to stall out many opponents. Offensive moves such as dark pulse or heat wave can help wear down opponents. Pok¨¦mon that take no damage from most poisons can cause mandibuzz serious trouble. Vullaby are quite capable of pulling off a similar strategy. What they lack in mobility is made up for by greater protection. Due to the need to move their body and a heavy external shell, when the shell is removed or chipped away they can move somewhat quickly and strike with more power than would be expected from a young bird. Nasty plot can help make vullaby either powerful bulky special attackers or relative glass cannons. Unfortunately, by the later islands vullaby will be too weak to do much damage to opponents even after a boost. Acquisition Mandibuzz prides are typically found near braviary companies along the coasts of Alola. Conversely to braviary, mandibuzz are fiercely protective of their offspring but often willing to accompany trainers themselves. Wild vullaby can only be obtained by humans who have been well accepted by a pride through frequent visits and occasional gifts of meat and bones. Mandibuzz have some understanding of human culture and will occasionally gift a chick to the child of a human they are very close to as they embark on their journey. For the most part mated mandibuzz are content to remain where they are. Unmated mandibuzz can sometimes be impressed by gifts of bones and displays of power and friendship with other birds, especially birds of prey such as braviary, noctowl, and talonflame. Trainers with interesting clothing or accessories also get more attention than those with boring style choices. Mandibuzz also have a fascination with transgender trainers (especially those who very recently started hormone replacement therapy), intersex trainers, and female presenting trainers in a relationship with another female-presenting person. Vullaby eggs can be purchased from some breeders and specialty stores, but they are often rather expensive. Both stages may be acquired with a Class III license. Breeding Mandibuzz courtship takes place over the course of months or years as a prospective pair spend increasingly more time around each other and give several gifts. Mutual grooming is common. When the relationship is consummated both birds lose their head crests. Mandibuzz are ground nesting birds in most of their range but tend to build slightly elevated nests in Alola to deal with rattata. Their nests can be up to ten feet across and are at minimum big enough to hold several chicks and both adults. The nests are often decorated with bones and interesting looking and smelling artifacts and branches. A pair usually mates whenever all chicks have evolved. There is no set breeding season. In some pairs one partner will always lay the eggs and the others will always fertilize them. Others switch off over time. In captivity mandibuzz generally form their strongest bond with their trainer. This often entirely precludes proper pairing and mating unless both birds view their trainer as a parent rather than a mate. Because of this complication and the difficulty of obtaining wild vullaby, mandibuzz breeding is best left to professionals. Relatives Mandibuzz are found across almost all of North and South America and have been introduced to Europe Both Europe and Alola have had the boreal mandibuzz introduced. This is the northernmost occurring species. There are several closely related species with a similar appearance and ecological role, although they bond with other birds of prey. The most visually distinct subspecies is the Amazonian mandibuzz (S. tropical). These birds have white feathers over almost all of their body. The exception is a black fringe at the edge of their wings. They are best known for their colorful necks and faces. Blue, purple, red, yellow, green, and orange are found in some pattern on almost all Amazonian mandibuzz. Rather than bones, these birds primarily attract mates through their natural coloration. Due to their relationship with harpyre Amazonian mandibuzz have fire resistant feathers and a remarkable tolerance for smoke inhalation. Their blood is full of toxic chemicals from the smoke and makes them even more dangerous to eat than most species. The species is currently the only one assigned a poison- and flying-typing. Delibird Delibird Saturnalia julius Overview Delibird are known as compassionate healers, guides, and messengers. A variety of arctic peoples use tame delibird to communicate between tribes separated by inhospitable tundras or frozen seas. Their playful demeanor and colorful appearance led to them being adopted as messengers of The Northern Saint by the Church of Life. Although the Church has phased out delibird¡¯s use as sacred messengers following recent discoveries, the birds remain a worldwide symbol of winter, gift giving, and holiday celebrations. The species¡¯ gregarious nature and lackluster combat ability make them a poor choice for trainers on the island challenge. Physiology Delibird are classified as dual ice- and flying-type pok¨¦mon. A thick coat of short red feathers covers most of delibird¡¯s body. A ¡°beard¡± of fluffy white feathers extends below delibird¡¯s face. Two crests of very long white feathers extend above the eyes like eyebrows. Delibird¡¯s beak is covered in white and red stripes. While not as big as toucannon, the beak of an adult is big enough to store at least two wishiwashi. The size and shape of the Alolan delibird¡¯s beak is not seen in other species and is believed to come from interbreeding with toucannon. Delibird have yellow webbed feet. While their wings are proportionally small, delibird can control their descent and maintain altitude to a degree. Flight is primarily used to get down from their nest to the water or to make a particularly powerful jump when scaling cliffs. Alternatively, delibird can get airborne for mid-distance low-altitude flights with a running start. Delibird are primarily aquatic and can dive up to three hundred feet. Delibird are the only known bird with a prehensile tail. This is used to wrap up berries, fish, and interesting objects while exploring or returning to the nest. The tail of Alolan delibird is smaller than their arctic counterparts, but is still large enough to wrap up a wishiwashi or a few berries. Adults grow to about three feet in height and typically weigh seven pounds. They have a life expectancy of six years in the wild or ten in captivity. Behavior Delibird are gregarious and live in carols of fifteen to fifty birds. However, they hunt alone. Most of delibird¡¯s diet is made up of fish and invertebrates, including small water- and bug-type pok¨¦mon. They hunt by either flying just above the surface until they see prey or by diving and chasing prey underwater. Hunting takes up most of a delibird¡¯s waking hours. The remainder is spent socializing with other birds and exploring their surroundings. Even by bird standards delibird are curious. They are prone to making and playing games with other delibird and even other species, going onto land to try new berries, and using seashells and stones as toys. Their curiosity and gregarious nature leads them to approach humans and pok¨¦mon and exchange gifts or attempt to play. When pok¨¦mon are starving, delibird will occasionally share some of their catch with them. Sometimes they will even feed prey species. This habit combined with the relatively low nutritional value of delibird leads to the birds having almost no regular predators. In more desolate and remote environments delibird¡¯s toys take on a more sinister note. The birds often scavenge the corpses of dead explorers for new trinkets to play with. Relatives of perished loved ones often go out into the area to at least trade some of the deceased¡¯s possessions for shinier toys. Pairs and unpaired subadults sometimes move between carols on separate islands. Delibird can determine their location using Earth¡¯s magnetic field and use this information to return to places they have been before. Husbandry Delibird captivity is best handled by well-resourced stationary individuals able to raise at least ten delibird at once. When held alone or in very small groups delibird grow stressed and begin to develop health problems. Climate control is also important to delibird and makes it very difficult to care for them while on the trails of Alola. Glacier balls help mitigate the problem, but delibird dislike pok¨¦balls and will not tolerate even cooling balls for more than an hour or two a day. Delibird should be kept in quarters that are sixty degrees or cooler. Access to cold pools in room temperature areas can also satisfy the bird. If a trainer wants to raise a single delibird than it is recommended to keep other birds on the team. At least three hours a day should be spent either directly playing with the delibird or being present while other birds play with the pok¨¦mon. Enrichment objects should be purchased frequently enough that the pok¨¦mon never grows bored with all of their toys at once. The pok¨¦mon will almost always want to sleep in their trainer¡¯s bed. Mirrors make for good enrichment items that also have a calming effect on delibird held as individuals. Ditto are the best teammates for alleviating social stress. About 80% of delibird¡¯s diet should be made up of fish. Most fish are eaten whole, but individual birds may prefer certain species cut down to smaller sizes. The remaining 20% should be made up of insect mixes, shrimp, and crabs. Zooplankton mixes, while somewhat expensive, also work. Many large delibird breeding facilities keep zooplankton and crabs living in the diving pond for enrichment purposes. Berries make for good treats but should not be a routine part of the bird¡¯s diet. Delibird should be offered a little bit more than they will eat. Only birds with a history of starvation will regularly overeat. Drinking water is unnecessary but occasionally used for either proper drinks or as a toy. Climbing structures and water at least seven feet deep should be provided whenever possible. Most large pok¨¦mon centers have bunk beds and pools which can satisfy both needs. Delibird should be exposed to salt water at least once every two weeks to keep their salt glands functional. If this is not possible small amounts of salt should be added to their drinking water or baths. Delibird can be housebroken, although the process usually takes several weeks. It is easier if another housebroken bird is already on the team. Toucannon tend to be bad influences on delibird and make housebreaking nearly impossible.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. Captive delibird held in large carols are often used as messengers to deliver small packages and letters between cities and islands. In the winter they are often taken to malls. Their bright colors, curiosity, and docility make them popular with children. Illness Delibird are frequent carriers of avian influenza. While the disease is relatively benign in delibird it can spread and do serious damage to other teammates. Vaccination is strongly encouraged. Bumblefoot is a more common problem than avian influenza in stationary carols. The disease manifests as sores on the bottom of delibird¡¯s feet. The disease is caused by surfaces rougher or smoother than those found in nature. The best remedy for bumblefoot is preventive management: slightly rough surfaces should replace very rough and very smooth ones. This better replicates their natural cliff homes. Angel wing is the most common health problem among fledging delibird. Sometimes feathers come in before the wing has fully developed. The weight of the feathers can cause permanent damage to the delibird¡¯s wing. Fledglings should be routinely inspected and slings should be provided as necessary. Delibird generally do everything in their power to mask their injuries and keep acting as if nothing is wrong. By the time any symptoms are visible to the trainer the problem is already serious and should be treated by a professional as soon as possible. When a delibird living in a stationary carol develops a contagious disease or is about to be introduced to a carol or reintroduced after exposure to other birds, they must be quarantined. The quarantine process is unpleasant for delibird as they must be alone for some time. Taking multiple delibird on trips can at least allow them to be quarantined together. Otherwise mirrors or exposure to live or recorded delibird sounds can help calm the isolated bird. Toys, climbing structures, and a pool deep enough to swim in should be in the quarantine room. Evolution Juvenile delibird have nearly identical morphology to adults. Battle Delibird shows aggression by puffing up their feathers and making noise. If neither side backs dow,n delibird employ bites, pecks, or weak ice attacks. Many baseline animals can beat delibird in a fight. As such only delibird deliberately trained to battle have any skill at all. Outside of scripted holiday specials no professional trainer has ever been seen using a delibird. Delibird have some use on the island challenge as arena controllers with spikes and icy wind. By the time the second island ends delibird will start to become less useful. Trainers raising a delibird should do so in spite of its power and not because of it. Acquisition Delibird can be found in in the cool waters around Mt. Lanakila and Kala¡¯e Bay. Capture is currently restricted to Melemele due to recent declines in the Ula¡¯Ula population. Captureis prohibited more than three hundred feet from land. Birds that do not wish to be caught will sometimes make a dash to the ocean when a trainer confronts them. Delibird can be captured or purchased with a Class IV license. The birds can be purchased from established carols on Melemele, Akala, and Ula¡¯Ula. Adoption opportunities are rare as injured or abandoned delibird tend to be donated to privately owned carols. Breeding While once popular with the Church of Life, delibird have been quietly abandoned as an official symbol after research found that roughly half of delibird are accidentally gay. The only way to determine the sex of a delibird is through DNA testing or minor surgery. Apparently delibird also cannot reliably determine the sex of other birds. Delibird mate for life. Couples find a small tunnel in a cave or in a cliff face and set up their nest there. In anticipation of the summer breeding season all delibird undergo a full molt and are temporarily flightless and featherless. It is illegal to capture or otherwise disturb them during this time. Delibird¡¯s summer plumage is more vibrant than their winter coloration, which is somewhat ironic given their cultural associations. The linkage of delibird and winter is because Europeans outside of Scandanavia only saw delibird when they migrated south to avoid the bitter cold of the arctic. Fertile couples lay a single egg every season. Infertile couples stay together even after realizing their mistake but tend to help fertile couples in guarding their eggs and gathering food. The eggs are viciously guarded from all interlopers. This season is when delibird are most aggressive to outsiders. Capture is legal but discouraged in early May. Trainers should only enter Seaward Cave and the coastal caves of Lanakila during these weeks if they are prepared to be swarmed by angry birds. Eggs take forty days to hatch and forty days to fledge. Babies are typically abandoned by their parents thirty to sixty days after hatching. Captive delibird breeding requires the provision of at least 1, and ideally 1.5, nest boxes per pairs. If at all possible, an even number of delibird should be owned. Unpaired birds tend to become very aggressive up to the point of sabotaging other nests and destroying eggs. Incubation of eggs and hand raising of chicks is possible and the resulting pok¨¦mon tend to acclimate well to private carols, but not the wild. Delibird reared by their parents do adjust well to the wild and these chicks play a major role in restoring the Ula¡¯ula population. Relatives Delibird species can be sorted into four species. The Alolan delibird is the only tropical species. It is not presently understood when and how delibird arrived on the islands. They were already present when Japanese settlers arrived and, according to Alolan folklore, they were present when the wayfarers arrived as well. Temperate delibird species do not migrate far enough to reach Alola and polar delibird would die from overheating well before reaching the mid-Pacific. To help cope with their warm environment delibird have relatively large wings and tails. They spend more time swimming than the non-polar subspecies as the waters they inhabit are typically cooler than the air. Temperate delibird (Saturnalia sacerdotes) live year-round in the mid-latitudes of the North Atlantic. Carols are typically based out of an area infused with ice-energy or directly cooled by other pok¨¦mon. Members swim away from the base during the day to catch food and then return by sundown. Some temperate subspecies have barely functional salt glands due to swimming almost exclusively in glacial meltwater or underground rivers. There are two subspecies of polar delibird (Saturnalia verumquod), one in the Pacific and one in the Atlantic. The Atlantic population tends to spend the summer in Iceland, Greenland, and other northern islands. They migrate as far south as Africa during the winter. Both polar delibird subspecies spend almost all of their lives alone at sea, only returning to land and their mates for a few months every summer. The Pacific delibird are less migratory with summer breeding occurring in Kamatchka and Alaska and winter migration bringing birds to Japan and Oregon. Some interbreeding with temperate subspecies has been reported. The Himalayan delibird (Saturnalia paganus) is perhaps the strangest species, in no small part because they live hundreds of miles inland and are barely able to swim. They are the largest species and have the most developed wings. Himalyan delibird take shelter on the steep cliffs of crevasses. While they do sometimes break into frozen or temporarily thawed lakes to fish, these delibird primarily eat small non-pok¨¦mon mammals, eggs, and plants. The pok¨¦mon are considered sacred wardens of the mountains and capture or export is strictly prohibited. The few captive specimens were injured or otherwise unable to survive in the wild. They are held in the Kathmandu Zoo on loan from the Nepalese government.