The Alola Pokedex

Torracat (Litten, Incineroar)
Panthera gladius


Overview

The primary appeal of torracat as a starter rests in their typicality. Children who grew up in a household with a pet feline, pokémon or otherwise, or even a species of fox Pokémon, 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 pokémon. 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. They are primarily colored black. The exceptions are red stripes on their legs and a red crest on their forehead. The exact hue and the shape of the crest vary 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 0.75 meters 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 one meter at the shoulder and 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 human 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 pokémon 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 pokémon 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 pokéball 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 Pokémon Center and pet shop in Alola, although they will require roughly 30% more food than recommended for a generic feline pokémon 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 pokémon 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 Pokémon Centers. These supplements are rather expensive for pokémon food.

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 pokémon 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 pokémon 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 Pokémon Center readily available, withdraw it and keep it in its ball. Drop it off at a veterinarian or Pokémon 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

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.

They 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.

Incineroar in the wild hunt with powerful flame blasts, bites and paw strikes. This makes them far more direct battlers than torracat in captivity. However, like most carnivores, they sometimes have trouble holding back. Incineroar seldom bother to defend themselves if they weren’t trained in defensive maneuvers as a litten. Instead they prefer to rush their opponents, rear up to bring their flame belt into play, and start scorching and slashing until one pokémon or the other is knocked out.

Incineroar has experienced a spike in popularity following Selene’s rise to the championship. They were previously limited to Alolan trainers and some cat experts, but recently a lot of competitive trainers have tried to acquire one. Incineroar is particularly popular in doubles matches, where harm to their partner causes the cat to grow angrier and more protective.

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 pokémon 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 pokémon 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 Panthera genus. Torracat pregnancies typically last eight months. They should not be withdrawn into habitat pokéballs once the pregnancy becomes visible, and neither the mother nor her litten should not be withdrawn into any pokéball until the babies are six months old.

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 Panthera contains multiple species of large cats, one of which has since been introduced to the archipelago. Panthera gladius has no living subspecies. No other member of Panthera is native to Alola, raising questions as to how and when incineroar arrived. They were present when the first humans came to the islands. The fossil record suggests they have lived in Alola for over 3,000 years.

Toucannon (Pikipek, Trumbeak)

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 Pokémon. Lydia Aholo, heir to the Alolan monarchy until the overthrow of the government, used the very same pokémon in her argument that macroevolution did apply to pokémon.

What Darwin found most jarring about Alolan toucannon is the sheer size of their beak. Despite being hollow and lighter than it appears, 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 toucannon from the Americas. It is unclear when or how a mostly flightless bird crossed thousands of kilometers of ocean, but it happened and the long period of isolation that followed led to the most unique of the toucannon subspecies.

Princess Lydia’s work on toucannon beaks and feather structure is well documented at an exhibit in the Royal Aviary in Castleton. The descendents 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. However, it has its advantages. Perhaps its most serious advantage for trainers who don’t expect to remain in competitive pokémon battling after the completion of their island challenge is that it starts out as a relatively powerful pokémon, 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 or not 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 without a clear elemental theme, 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 do 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. Trumbeak grow up to 120 centimeters tall and can weigh up to thirty pounds. Their beaks alone can weigh up to eight kilograms and reach seventy centimeters 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 three hundred meters per second. The resulting hit can stun, kill or badly injure most pokémon, depending upon their size and durability. Toucannon can accurately hit multiple targets with pinpoint accuracy up to ten meters 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 pokéballs 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 Pokémon 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. They get their moisture from their food.

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 pokémon goods stores, but they are neither cheap nor easy to carry. Some Pokémon 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 Pokémon 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 pokéball 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 toucannon over the course of three to four years. The formal demarcation line between pikipek and trumbeak is the disappearance of all red feathers on top of the head. The demarcation between trumbeak and toucannon is the appearance of yellow feathers on the cheeks.

Battle

Pikipek’s greatest strength in battle is their relatively high speed and maneuverability for a young and easily trained pokémon 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 pokémon 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 pokémon 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.

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 pokémon available in Alola. Their niche is primarily in shutting down hyper-offensive teams that often lack a pokémon 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.

The pokémon that can shrug off toucannon’s attacks usually counter it. In these situations, high-level trainers typically rely on toucannon to support their team through defog, tailwind and u-turn.

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 IV license to capture. They require only a Class II license to purchase a trained toucannon.

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 pokémon, 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 her 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.

Subspecies

There are several subspecies of toucannon in the Americas. However, the toucannon there tend to have only slightly larger beaks than trumbeak, less vibrant colors and larger, more powerful wings. They resemble fearow, their closest genetic relative, more than toucannon. American toucannon are also usually referred to as arboreabeaks. These subspecies 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 subspecies of arboreabeak can produce viable offspring with toucannon. However, all of these subspecies have at least a 20% chance of producing offspring that are not reproductively viable. There is a debate as to whether or not arboreabeak and toucannon should be classified as different species altogether.

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. They are a good species for introducing children to pokémon care for families that can afford their food costs. 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 at this time is that their atrophied hearing helps avoid attacks from 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 in the wild, 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 two feet excluding their tail or three feet including it. They can weigh up to seventy 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

Rattata leave their nest to scour the earth for any food they can find at night. 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 they 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.

Uncovered raticate nests, along with circumstantial evidence, suggests that 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 foodd.

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 30% 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 their raticate (provided it is well trained) 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 makes raticate expensive to care for considering their lack of rarity or power.

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 house train.

Raticate will ask to be groomed at least twice a week. They are essentially incapable of grooming themselves and quite insistent on cleanliness. Rattata can even be trained to help tidy up their home. Both stages are very social and cuddly pokémon 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 pokémon, 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, preventing breathing, contaminating the food they eat, and usually blinding 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. Otherwise the raticate will need to be euthanized.

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 subspecies 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 first stage. 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 seek to 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 pokémon 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 variants 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 have dark grey fur. Their tails are short and hairless. They are much more slender 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 the Iberian peninsula 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.

The eastern raticate 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 prodigious 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 pokémon, 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 that exist, including the plains gumshoos. The main subspecies there is the six-eyed raticate. 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 or not 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.

Polar raticate, native to Scandanavia, northern Siberia, Alaska, northern Canada and Greenland, are the largest and most aggressive of the naturally occurring raticate species . They have thick white fur coats and their hind legs are large and webbed. Their tail is broad and coated in the same waterproof fur as the rest of their body. They hibernate in the summer. They emerge in the winter to hunt. Their prey: other hibernators. They use their keen sense of smell to find the dens of other pokémon or animals. Then they assemble a hunting party of three to six raticate, burrow in and use their superior numbers and sharp teeth to overwhelm and kill their sluggish prey. Then the pack will disassemble and move on to finding their next target. Polar raticate are currently endangered across their entire range due to hunting, climate change (especially potent in the post-Sootopolis atmosphere), and capture. Prior to the Arctic Wildlife Protection Pact, polar raticate were somewhat common on ice specialist’s teams.

The Caribbean raticate 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 pokémon 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 Gulf clamperl 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 entirely 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. Prior to 1971, the dominant raticate subspecies in Papua New Guinea were arboreal herbivores that moved from tree to tree eating leaves and fruit. This subspecies, 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 provinces of Enga, the Southern Highlands, the Western Highlands and Hela had experienced casualty rates of over 80%.

In 1974 there was an outbreak of crossbred atomic and western raticate in Motostoke. Approximately 85,000 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 subspecies’ 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 a new Australian government installed at the last minute prevented the New Guineans from disembarking. 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. The expeditions have found very little else there except for plants, birds and canopy-dwelling pokémon. 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.

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 starlight. It is unknown what the advantage of such a strange diet is. The leading theory, that they need only dim light, has been disproved routinely in experiments with artificially dimmed sunlight. 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 cycle” (see Breeding) 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. The department is currently in the process of reconsidering its prior ruling in favor of a bug- and fairy-typing because of the species’ strong connection to starlight.

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. Unusually for insects, 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 never been observed producing waste. Their digestive system, like almost all of their other organs, appears to be entirely different from known organic pokémon. 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 Pokémon. They live in swarms of several hundred members. 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 1000 at its low point.

Ledyba have long been known to find and kill other non-pokémon 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. Because they usually spare pollinators, ledyba are beloved by farmers. The species was deliberately introduced in 1851 to safeguard sugar plantations. This introduction has led to a decline in local insect populations, but the popularity of Alola as a rookery for large birds of prey has kept the ledian population in check.

Ledian also make a habit of hunting bugs. Unlike their juvenile form they hunt pokémon insects. They spare pollinators such as ribombee and butterfree. There are records of ledian going after vikavolt in the first few cycles after their arrival in Alola, but they have since stopped hunting vikavolt and vikavolt, in turn, have stopped hunting them. Almost all other bug-types are fair game. Ledian punches are surprisingly powerful and can be unleashed at rates of up to 130 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 it. 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 pokémon. These traits have made them minds a subject of intense curiosity among non-telepaths in the field of pokémon studies and also a subject that almost no telepath wants to touch.

It is hypothesized that the so-called “ledian spiders” may be relatives of metagross. Metagross seem fascinated by ledian. In turn, ledian are terrified of metagross. It is strongly recommended that trainers not keep both species on the same team.

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 in the swarm.

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 are uncomfortable living in swarms with fewer than twenty members. This is infeasible to replicate on most standard teams of six pokémon. Ledian are less gregarious, but still require either a full team of six pokémon or near-constant interaction with their trainer. They are intelligent and loyal creatures and enjoy play.

Ledyba prefer to sleep in their pokéballs. 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 pokéballs and will need to be let out each night. It is recommended that they have a guard pokémon, 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 pokémon 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 pick up 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, vespiquen, 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 absolutely 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 pokéball. 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 roughly 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, ledyba 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 a few centimeters 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 pokémon and fruit. Ledian have access to highly targeted punches, even if they aren’t particularly strong, aerokinetic attacks, and low-level telepathic attacks. However, ledian are perhaps best used as supporting pokémon that set up telekinetic barriers, annoy the opponent or set up a 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, even with screens. 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 is 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. Mix the classic protective screens (reflect, light screen, safeguard) with moves such as comet punch, bug buzz and air slash together and you’ll have a pokémon that can 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 skills 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 pokémon 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

N/A

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 pokémon. 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. Pokémon rights movements during The Enlightenment often targeted this practice both due to the death of a pokémon 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 pokémon 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 pokémon tend to sleep through the night.

Like many other pokémon 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 pokémon for young children or inexperienced trainers. There are still a few care guidelines to keep in mind.

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 pokémon but smaller lopunny-specific packs do exist in specialty pokémon supply stores or some larger Pokémon Centers. It is best to mix in some leafy green pokémon 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 pokémon, 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 pokéballs.

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 pokémon 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 pokémon. 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 pokémon 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 pokémon 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 pokémon.

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 (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 roughly 5% of it with unmanned research vessels. What we know of its life comes entirely from these tiny glimpses of areas that are usually selected because they are geologically interesting. 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.

But 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. But light can 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. And at 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 (as will be noted below, these captive-raised malamar are not particularly useful for research purposes).

By contrast, inkay are plentiful enough on the surface to be a reliable draw for tourists across their range. During the night, that is. 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, pokémon that fit the criteria for three or more typings should be given the two they fit best.

Inkay are very similar to surface cephalopod pokémon such as octillery and tentacruel in physiology. 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 amidst 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 1.5 times as long as 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 on the surface. 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 pokémon 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 (or if there’s a meaningful difference at all) 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 2 meters and captive males grow up to roughly 1.7 meters. Wild females can grow up to seven meters and males can grow up to six meters. 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 chafe at and can 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 ten meters 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, intentional with a clear biological purpose, or just part of their naturally curious nature.

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 several as a side effect.

Inkay primarily hunt small fish (both pokémon and non-pokémon). 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 pokémon and non-pokémon 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, almost never return to their trainers, 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 crustacean meat (crustaceans with the shells still attached double as a toy), 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 pokéballs can meet this requirement. Consult a specialty pokéball 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 as 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 a 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.

Inkay are not particularly cuddly. 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 pokémon, inkay tend to seek shelter for the entire day and then come out at night.

They can be housebroken but this 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 telepath, 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 Pokémon, and a mild obsession with obtaining fish. Some malamar trainers become obsessed with battles and competition; others abruptly come to resent them. Malamar training is really best left to public aquaria, psy-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 pokémon 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 other than those with obvious causes, dehydration should be assumed.

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 psychic-types. The same goes for metagames with large pools available. Malamar are some of the best pokémon for taking down large and slow aquatic pokémon 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). Pokémon 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 pokémon 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 good in 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 psychics 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. When 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 pokémon 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 Fini 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 psychics 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.

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 lives throughout the Mediterranean and warm waters of the eastern Atlantic. Coastal sightings have declined considerably since the 1700s. The leading theory is that industrial whaling and fishing operations depleted malamar’s prey. Mediterranean inkay have somewhat brighter colors than Pacific inkay and are 20% smaller on average.

Southern malamar are the largest subspecies by far. One female that washed up on the coast of New Zealand’s South Island measured fifteen meters 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 less playful than Pacific inkay, which in turn are far 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 it did not kill an one, 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 pokémon. Akil broke the 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.

Furfrou

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?

As usual, there’s an extensive and messy history behind the breed.

Furfrou, along with yamper, was one of only two canines to be domesticated in Europe. (Fenniken was domesticated in the Sahara around 1500 C.E. and would not become popular in Europe until the 1700s.) Furfrou was also one of the earliest domestic pokémon 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 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 Pokémon, 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 were imported to Europe in the late stages of the 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 pokémon led to her rising quickly up the ranks and, 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 pokémon husbandry. The court, in turn, happily adopted furfrou as the Kalosian equivalent to the Galarian monarchs’ 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 frufrou’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. However, 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 pokémon. 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. However, it is somewhat curly and grows very quickly. This leads to it fluffing out more than most other pokémon’s fur. They can grow a full coat of fur up to 40 centimeters long in six months and the fur can extend a ways 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 thus almost always have the maximum coat length. In their original range in Northern 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 0.8 meters in height at the withers and can weigh between 25 and 40 kilograms, 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 10 and 15. 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 pokémon 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.

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 pokémon 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 in captivity.

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. However, 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 near-constant proximity. 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 (curiously) 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 far 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 and 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 so it won’t be a problem for anyone but breeders.

Evolution

Juvenile furfrou look like smaller versions of adult furfrou, albeit they are often a little less fluffy. Furfrou typically reach maturity and their adult size around one year of age.

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, zoroark, houndoom, granbull). However, 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 pokémon 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 found or 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 pokémon) 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 pokémon for getting into the breeding of more difficult dogs such as ninetales, zoroark, eevee and granbull. Furfrou have been known to mate with every other canine species on Alola, 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.

Subspecies

None known.

Grubbin (Charjabug, Vikavolt)

Overview

Most pokémon species in this book 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 (particularly migratory birds and aquatic pokémon) 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 pokémon, it is by far the most famous and feared outside of the islands.

It has been mentioned several times before in this book that flying pokémon 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 pokémon, 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 pokémon on the international scene right now, but, their relatively recent rise to prominence and their small native range means that if a trainer wants one, there’s really only one place to get them.

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. And while vikavolt are almost uniquely built to take on the migratory birds that flock to Alolan shores each year, they 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 a small grubbin formation in Galar to take pressure off of the Alolan populations. Alola was given $350,000,000 to establish this relatively small formation.

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 the largest and 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. The mandibles 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 Ula’Ula and Poni were a different species altogether than the grubbin on Melemele 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 face 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—the 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, at an unpredictable time after their death, set off an explosion 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 pokémon 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 0.6 meters away from the mouth. The interior of the mandibles are typically green and contain a number of small spikes. The exterior is bright yellow. These are not used for grappling or eating prey (they actually must be swerved aside to let vikavolt get their mouth to their food). Instead, they are used for amplifying and releasing powerful thunderbolts.

Vikavolt are capable of reaching flight speeds up to fifty meters 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 pokémon 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 in the wild and in captivity 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 birds 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.

However, 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.

Grubbin grow up to 0.4 meters in length (including the mandible) and 5 kilograms in mass. Vikavolt grow up to 1.7 meters (including the mandible) in length and 10 kilograms in mass. Grubbin can live for four years in the wild and eight in captivity. Vikavolt live an average of nine years in the wild and twelve in captivity.

Behavior

Grubbin mostly live one to three meters 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 one in brush or dense canopies. Because vikavolt are light sleepers and their primarily black and blue color scheme is difficult to see at night, this is a difficult weakness to exploit.

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.

Outside of hunting and resting, vikavolt tend to aimlessly fly around their territory. The exact purpose of this is unclear. Proposed theories for these flights include warning off other vikavolt, searching for new bird nests, or just killing time.

Husbandry

The three insect pokémon covered thus far in the guide (butterfree, ledian and ariados) 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. However, they are also not 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 frequently 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 pokéballs so long as they are regularly fed.

Charjabug also do not mind their pokéballs. 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 pokéball 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 (not raw food initially), 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 pokémon 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 legs 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 pokéball should be used sparingly.

Beyond proximity while they sleep, vikavolt will demonstrate few conventional displays of affection. They are not social pokémon 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 usually 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 towards 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 pokémon food.

Evolution

Most grubbin, especially on Akala and Melemele, 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 0.4 meters 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).

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. They 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 three millimeters long when born. Their survival rates are very, very low as they are eaten by some common insects and animals and most burrowing pokémon. 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 a kilometer 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.

Subspecies

None known.

Blissey (Happiny, Chansey)

Aglaea aglaea

Overview

There is credible evidence that blissey was the first pokémon 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 pokémon exclusively found in Australia prior to the creation of the mass produced pokéball.

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 pokémon to the point of death. The pokéball and large sailing ships rectified the problem. At present there are wild populations on every continent except Antarctica.

Blissey is the quintessential healing pokémon 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 pokémon it rapidly accelerates the regeneration abilities of almost all mammalian species, most non-mammalian organic species, and some mineral or otherwise non-organic pokémon.

Most Alolan Pokémon 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 pokémon 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 international 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 only meet two of the common traits of fairies (healing powers, reliance on charming or emotional manipulation, propensity for playing pranks, extraterrestrial origin, ties to the moon, weakness to iron). Most other fairies meet at least three of the above factors. 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 thirty centimeters 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 pokémon 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. As 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 humanshape pokémon, but not to a degree that suggests inherent psychic powers.

Blissey grow up to heights of five feet and masses of up to 220 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 pokémon, 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 pokémon 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 pokémon, but they greatly prefer interacting with members of other species. Sometimes two blissey or chansey will live together, especially when one is hurt. Most 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.

Husbandry

Chansey and blissey are the rare pokémon 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 pokémon. Blissey hate pokéballs and prefer to be with their trainer or the other pokémon on the team almost constantly. Fortunately for stationary trainers (and unfortunately for travelers), they sleep around fifteen 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 pokéballs).

Never take the egg (or surrogate egg) of any stage of the evolutionary line. If the pokémon 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 pokémon 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 dynamic 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 pokéball (ideally a heal ball) and taken to a Pokémon 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 pokémon 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 pokémon. They can even safely take hits from some adult pokémon 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’s main means of doing damage is through a surprisingly potent toxic, which steadily wears down most opponents. They can also use counter to deal with melee attackers.

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 pokémon.

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 either a chansey or a blissey 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 pokémon 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

None known.