#slowbro is number one for me

[ohthehypocrisy]

Breloom for Pokemon Unite!

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Prev: Cradily - Hatterene - Tropius - Cacturne - Ditto - Weavile - Ogerpon - Coalossal - Gogoat - Galarian Slowbro - Luxray 

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Generation 3 had some top tier Pokemon designs, with Breloom being one of the shining examples of this. Now sure, it doesn’t make much sense for a grumpy little mushroom to turn into a kickboxing kangaroo, but Breloom is such a charming little character that you can’t help but adore it. In fact, we all love Breloom for these quirky oddities, and it highlights the joy of pokemon designs, that they can be funny and endearing without having to make too much sense.

But will this be enough for Breloom to bounce into Pokemon Unite? Let’s punch it in.

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Breloom impresses with an extremely high Attack stat, more than doubling what its previous form, Shroomish, was packing. Unfortunately, Breloom’s other stats pale in comparison, mustering up a meager 80 Defenses and declining everywhere else. It lacks the range or the bulk to take hits and it isn’t very speedy either, and yet it is described in the PokeDex as having fighting skills comparable to pro boxers. Now, talk about a glass jaw, but you don’t remind humans of a professional pugilist if you can’t dodge a simple hook or straight. That gives me the impression that Breloom, in spite of its poor speed, is exceptional at dodging attacks and taking advantage of openings to deliver bone breaking uppercuts . For this reason, I designate Breloom the role of a...

Speedster

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Basic Attack - Melee/Attack

Becomes a boosted attack after two hits, during which the pokemon deals rapid fire strikes to the enemy. The basic attack button can be mashed during the boosted attack to increase the number of hits.

The boosted attack has Breloom unleash a flurry of punches in the direction of the target. This flurry lasts for 1 second. During this time, an additional attack is dealt for each button press you mash. The more you mash, the more additional damage you can deal.

Shroomish has less range with this attack, but the same effect can be produced. Shroomish attacks by spinning and hitting with its fungus flaps.

The pokemon can move while unleashing this attack, but it will not change direction. Other enemies can be caught by this attack.

Starting things off, we’ve got a veritable fury of fungus power for a basic attack. As a boosted attack, Breloom and Shroomish have the ability to launch a flurry of multiple hits, capable of damaging an enemy, or enemies, multiple times really quickly. And I mean, really quickly, as you can choose to mash the basic attack button during this rush to inflict more damage. 

This is a really useful effect for your Ability, but before we move on, we just need to clarify some things. You only have 1 second to mash as much as you can, which sounds meager, but you would underestimate how exhausting this would be on your thumb, or fingers, I don’t judge. It’s rare for a game mechanic to put stress on your physical body, so don’t wear yourself out just to get the MVP. Do the bare minimum, and let your moves do the heavy hitting for you.

Speaking of which, let’s talk about why you’ll want to deal as many hits as you can in the first place.

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Ability: Poison Heal

The pokemon spreads poisonous spores to the enemies it deals damage to. When that enemy is KO’d, the poisonous spores are absorbed, healing the user relative to the amount of spores left behind.

The Poison Heal spores accumulate onto the enemy for each attack they receive. Each attack adds a random amount of spores, between 1.0% to 2.5% for each hit.

The degree of infection is calculated as a percentage and maxes out to 100%. The amount of spores accumulated is not shown to the player or enemy, but a pokemon infected with any amount of spores will have a cloud of dust around them. 

When an enemy infected with Poison Heal spores is KO’d, the pokemon restores HP equal to the percentage of infection.

The Poison Heal spores disappear when the pokemon is KO’d or after 10 seconds without receiving damage from the Poison Heal user.

Healing abilities on squishy Attackers and Speedsters may seem counterintuitive, but believe me, on any other archetype, this would be broken. I mean, look at Trevenant and Goodra and tell me that they don’t heal themselves too much.

Breloom has the ability to infect enemies with Poison Heal spores through damage dealt through its attacks and moves. These spores then end up powering up the effectiveness of your moves, making it easier to KO them. In essence, you’re wearing down the enemy to make them vulnerable to a KO, but as a Speedster, you need to deal that damage very quickly, which is why the basic attack functions the way it does.

If you do score that KO, then congrats! Not only do you do what is to be expected of a Speedster, but you’ll restore HP equal to the percentage of infection the enemy is afflicted with. For a frail Speedster like yourself, it may not be much, and sometimes it isn’t, but it changes the dynamic of your matchups against other pokemon. For example, you won’t expect to heal much from KO’ing an Attacker, because you’ll need less moves to KO them. Against Defenders and bulky All-Rounders, however, they have the ability to tank your attacks and fight back, so the reward for overcoming that challenge should reflect the effort you put in.

Most Speedsters are prone to becoming easy to KO when they’ve exhausted their moves, but Breloom is a little different in that regard. You’ll see.

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At the start of the game, Breloom will start out as Shroomish. You can choose between Headbutt and Stun Spore as your first move. By Level 3, you’ll have learned both.

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Move 1: Headbutt (Dash)

The user charges headfirst into the enemy, dealing damage and Stunning them briefly. The more Poison Heal spores the enemy is infected with, the more damage this move deals. 7s cooldown.

Headbutt Stuns enemies for 0.5 seconds.

The damage dealt by Headbutt increases equal to the percentage of Poison Heal infection on the affected enemy or enemies.

Headbutt is a decent attack to start a fight with and to make your point in the middle of a scuffle. While it does Stun enemies, it can deal extra damage the more Poison Heal spores the enemy is afflicted with. 

Now granted, the options available to you in the early game are very limited. It can be difficult to spread Poison Heal spores with just your basic attack and this move. That’s why, if you want to stand a chance in a real fight, you should come equipped with Headbutt and the other move you can learn.

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Move 2: Stun Spore (Area)

The pokemon scatters spores all around itself, Stunning all enemies in range. For a little while afterwards, the user can spread Poison Heal spores much more easily. 8s cooldown.

Stun Spore blasts dust and pollen all around the user quickly, Stunning enemies for 0.5 seconds on hit.

For 5.5 seconds afterwards, the amount of Poison Heal spores you can infect enemies with increases from 1.0%-2.5% to 3.5%-4.25%.

Without access to Stun Spore, you spread a measly amount of Poison Heal spores with your moves and attacks. Stun Spore not only paralyzes nearby enemies, it drastically increases the production of Poison Heal spores in your body, dropping way more spores than normal. Now granted, you and your enemy don’t actually know how bad the infection is, as the game won’t show you the percentage of spores an enemy is afflicted with. But that’s fine, as all you need to know is that you’re producing triple or even quadruple the amount of Poison Heal spores through your attacks.

This ensures that not only will Headbutt deal increased damage, you’ll heal more HP through Poison Heal if you manage to KO an infected enemy. Of course, you need to actually hit the enemy by getting up close to them, so be sure you plan to finish that fight.

When the time to evolve comes, you’ll graduate from reckless head hits to disciplined flying fists.

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At Level 5, Shroomish will evolve into Breloom. At the same time, Headbutt becomes either Mach Punch or Counter.

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Move 1a: Mach Punch (Melee)

The user stretches its arms out to deal a swift strike to far away enemies. This move deals more damage the more Poison Heal spores the enemy is afflicted with, and has a chance of Stunning enemies, becoming much more likely to Stun the more Poison Heal spores the target is afflicted with. 2.5s cooldown.

At Level 11, Mach Punch becomes Mach Punch+.

Damage dealt is increased.

Mach Punch deals more damage to opposing pokemon equal to the degree of infection of Poison Heal spores they are afflicted with. The base damage of Mach Punch+ increases by 75%.

The chance to Stun enemies on hit is equal to the Poison Heal spore degree of infection.

The PokeDex has mentioned numerous times that Breloom are equipped with surprisingly stretchy arms that allow them to deal surprise punches from afar, yet they don’t have a unique Move to highlight that. Nowadays, they’d give Breloom some sort of special Grass Type move that punches enemies with its fists covered in spores or something. Guess that’s what happens when you get introduced a game before Gen 4, when they started handing out signature moves like candy.

Well, we can give its stretchy arms some special attention here. In a demonstration of its pugilistic perfection, Breloom uses Mach Punch to strike enemies from afar, hitting farther than Headbutt but without sacrificing its footing. It keeps the same effect too, dealing more damage the more Poison Heal spores the enemy is infected with.

Mach Punch has some notably unique boons, though. On top of its lightning fast cooldown of 2.5 seconds, the move has an additional chance to Stun enemies depending on how much Poison Heal spores the enemy is infected with. At the start of the fight, the odds are basically 0%, but leading with a boosted basic attack covered with Stun Spore increases these odds dramatically. It’s still only a typical chance between 20% to 40% and it requires that you aim the move, but it’s still a solid choice for dealing with opponents near and far. That said, you don’t want to take this move for granted, as lingering in footsies with the enemy invites bad luck and opposing backup to show up and ruin your day. Remember, you’re a Speedster, don’t stay in one place for too long.

If you’d prefer to engage the enemy evasively, the other option is equally efficient.

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Move 1b: Counter (Melee/Sure Hit)

The pokemon sidesteps in the designated direction, evading damage and attacks. If this move is used to successfully evade damage from an opposing pokemon’s Move, the user counters with a swift strike, resetting the cooldown of this move. The user also restores some HP relative to the amount of Poison Heal spores the attacker is afflicted with. 6s cooldown.

At Level 11, Counter becomes Counter+.

Damage dealt is increased.

Counter can only be used to dash in the pokemon’s left or right direction. During this dash, the pokemon is invincible and cannot receive damage or effects, similar to Cinderace’s Feint.

If Counter is used at the same time an opposing Move would be received, the pokemon retaliates with a stretching punch that doesn’t miss, only failing to deal damage if the enemy is too far away. This will also reset the cooldown of Counter. 

Counter will only work against Moves, not basic attacks or Unite Moves.

Counter will also restore your HP relative to the Poison Heal spore infection the attacker has, plus 5%. Even if the attacker has no infection active, Counter will still heal you by 5%.

If multiple attacks are dodged, Breloom will target the enemy with the most Poison Heal spores.

Counter+ increases the damage dealt by 75%.

Float like a Butterfree, sting like a Beedrill, that is the motto of bruiser boxers like Breloom. It basically means to stay light on your feet in order to retaliate against any slow attack with a quick and deadly punch. While most users of Counter are trained to take hits and return the damage, Breloom can't afford to stomach any blow, so it opts to bob and weave before delivering a sneaky straight.

With a quick jump to the left or right, Breloom will dodge all attacks and damage heading its way. If you time it just right that you evade damage with this move, Counter will have Breloom return fire with a quick crack of its stretchy arms, dealing damage and restoring some HP depending on the amount of Poison Heal spores the target is infected with. This won't be as effective at the beginning of a fight, but if it gets drawn out by opposing Defenders or Supporters, you can expect gradual returns on your investment in the fight.

While the cooldown may be higher than Mach Punch, Counter prefers to reward players for their evasive maneuvers when they hit it just right. A successful dodge resets the cooldown of Counter, allowing you to use it again and again if you need to. Just keep in mind that Counter will only work against opposing moves, so you'll only get the hit off properly two or three times, depending on which opponent you're fighting. Plus, it might be a little more difficult to pull off against multiple enemies, but you shouldn't be putting yourself in that situation as a Speedster in the first place.

There is a range limit to Counter, if it isn't apparent that Breloom's arms can't stretch very far. It's still a solid choice against ranged attackers with predictable moves, but be careful not to get taken by surprise. The healing effect is a decent compromise when it comes to engaging an enemy for an extended amount of time, but your primary focus as a Speedster should be to secure KO's when you can.

To that end, you must improve your ability to spread spores much more easily.

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At Level 8, Stun Spore becomes either Spore or Seed Bomb.

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Move 2a: Spore (Buff)

The user scatters a cloud of sleep inducing spores all around itself. The user can spread Poison Heal spores much more easily while Spore is in effect. When an enemy is afflicted with a specific amount of Poison Heal spores, the enemy will fall Asleep. Opposing pokemon deal reduced damage to the user relative to the amount of Poison Heal spores they are afflicted with. 11.5s cooldown.

At Level 13, Spore becomes Spore+.

Opposing Pokemon fall Asleep for much longer.

Spore creates a cloud of dust around Breloom and its attacks, but this is only a visual effect to confirm the Move is active. Spore lasts for 7 seconds.

Spore increases the amount of Poison Heal spores you can infect an enemy with, increasing from 1.0%-2.5% to 4.0%-5.75%.

When an enemy receives 30% infection from your Poison Heal spores while Spore is active, the enemy will fall Asleep for 1.25 seconds, waking up after receiving damage from allies or Wild Pokemon. Spore+ extends this status effect to 2 seconds.

Spore cannot cause an enemy to fall Asleep again until the Move is used again after coming off of cooldown.

While Spore is active, opposing pokemon deal reduced damage equal to the infection of Poison Heal spores they are afflicted with.

A classic threat that gets thrown around is something to the effect of 'I'll knock your lights out!' or 'I'll knock you into next week!'. This means to knock someone out cold, or put them to sleep forcefully, but it seems like Breloom is able to do this quite literally, using Spore to sneakily lull the opponent into a quick slumber.

Spore has Breloom increase the production of Poison Heal spores, drastically increasing the infection rate of opposing pokemon. With Spore active during a normal boosted basic attack, the infection jumps to somewhere between 24% to 33%. That's a lot of spores, especially for what you get in return when you KO this infected enemy.

But more importantly, while Spore is active, if you hit the enemy with enough Poison Heal spores, you'll send the enemy to sleep, leaving them helpless for a short while and allowing you free reign with your next attack. It could be Mach Punch or a boosted basic attack, or even a Unite Move, but we'll get to that soon enough. For the opening Spore grants you, you can then either tack on more damage and spores or go for the KO to cash out quickly on your Poison Heal spores, however it happens.

Spore also provides a bit of a defensive buffer while it is active. Depending on how many Poison Heal spores the enemy is infected with, it'll dumb down their offensive power when it's used against you. Even though you're a Speedster, you can become quite tanky with enough Poison Heal spores spread onto the opponent. It will actually take a bit of work to get to that point, as the spores need to accumulate first, but it does drastically improve your matchup against Defenders and Supporters that like to drag out fights.

It might still be hard to deal with ranged attackers that like to keep their distance and use their moves to dodge your attacks. In that case, maybe you'd prefer the reliability granted by Seed Bomb instead.

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Move 2b: Seed Bomb (Ranged)

The user flings a seed from its tail, unleashing an explosion of spores in the designated area. The amount of Poison Heal spores this move can afflict is drastically increased. Opposing pokemon will be Stunned on hit and can be Stunned for longer if this attack increases the Poison Heal spore infection past a certain threshold. Up to 3 uses can be held in reserve. 7s cooldown

At Level 13, Seed Bomb becomes Seed Bomb+.

The area of effect is increased.

Seed Bomb accelerates Poison Heal spore infection by an extra 12.5%-20.0% when they damage an enemy.

Seed Bomb will also Stun enemies for 0.75 seconds on hit. If this move increases the Poison Heal spore infection up to or beyond 50%, the affected enemy or enemies will be Stunned for 1.25 seconds.

Seed Bomb+ expands the size of the explosion by an extra 25%.

When Spore is used, it ramps up the infection process of Poison Heal, turning all of your attacks into asthma inducing clouds of powder. It's a powerful effect, but it doesn't deal any damage and relies on constant attacks to bring Poison Heal to its full potential.

When Seed Bomb is used, however, you launch a condensed ball of Poison Heal spores in the designated area, Stunning enemies on hit and afflicting them with a random amount of spores. The amount of Poison Heal spores Seed Bomb infects enemies with is a random amount between 12.5% to 20.0%, which is a wide margin but much more than what you can normally infect through your basic attacks.

It doesn't quite compare to Spore, but Seed Bomb has the ability to Stun enemies that are further away, and can even inflict a longer Stun if the attack infects the enemy and goes over a certain percentage of infection, 50% to be exact. Because Seed Bomb can be used through multiple uses, it requires a bit of luck but it is possible to land this extended Stun after launching 3 bombs. Though, for a move with multiple uses, the cooldown is a bit on the high side due to how persistent Poison Heal is, because an enemy hit with all 3 Seed Bombs is guaranteed to receive extended Stun when the move comes back online.

In practice, Seed Bomb is the best way for Breloom to handle ranged attackers, even if you are good at landing hits with either Mach Punch or Counter. You lack the ability to Dash with your moves, so any way to quash long distance fighting is to your benefit. All for the better, as all of your damage comes from accumulating Poison Heal spores through your attacks. As such, accelerating Poison Heal infection is the best way to fight, whether it be speeding up the process with Spore or through direct hits with Seed Bomb.

Because of how integral Poison Heal is to Breloom, you might assume that its Unite Move may be made better by the ability. And you'd be correct.

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Unite Move: T.K.O. (Dash)

The user dances rhythmically while preparing to deliver a straight, evading damage. Afterwards, the user rushes forward with a powerful punch, dealing great damage and Stunning enemies on hit. The more Poison Heal spores the enemy is afflicted with, the longer the duration of Stun. If T.K.O. KO’s an opposing pokemon, their Respawn Timer is lengthened.

Breloom starts dancing like a boxer and playfully ‘weaves’ its head while preparing to attack. This dance lasts for 3 seconds and Breloom is completely Invincible while dancing.

All enemies hit by this move will be afflicted with 25% Poison Heal spore infection.

T.K.O. Stuns enemies for 1 second, adding more time relative to the degree of Poison Heal spore infection the enemy was afflicted with. For example, 50% infection equates to 1.5 seconds of Stun, 100% infection equates to 2 seconds of Stun.

A bell will ring three times when the attack lands successfully. This is just audio flair.

If T.K.O. KO’s an enemy, an extra 10 seconds is added to their Respawn Timer.

When it comes down to the wire, when your head starts spinning and your fists start feeling sore, you know it's time to make a break for that one final hit. You've been in the ring for less than 10 minutes, but it feels like days. With all your strength and focus, you start to shift your legs rhythmically and with such elegance, you're practically gliding. Step, step, sidestep, weave, and there, an opening! With all the remaining power in your body, you focus all of it into one big breath and exhale, you dive in and deliver a mighty punch. Contact! You hit your opponent so hard, they go down and stay there, down for the count. This is Breloom's T.K.O., otherwise known as the 'Truffle King's Onslaught', and not whatever else you were thinking.

Now, I don't mean to be dramatic, but Breloom's Unite Move, T.K.O., harnesses the power of that desperation and turns it into a skill that it can summon for its Unite Move. With a deadly straight, Breloom hits the enemy so hard they'll be seeing stars for a while, or 1 second at the minimum.

T.K.O. has Breloom perform a funny looking dance, but it is actually a boxer's flighty steps that make them move more fluidly, able to evade even fast hooks and rushes. Because Breloom fights on par with professional pugilists, it harnesses this fleet-footed guile and becomes completely Invincible to all effects while dancing. It's only for 3 seconds, but during this time, Breloom cannot be harmed or hit by any attack. It's definitely a useful effect to evade Sure Hit effects like Azumarill's Unite Move Belly Bash or Zeraora's Unite Move Plasma Gale.

When Breloom is done dancing, it goes in for the haymaker, a powerful straight that deals major damage and Stuns enemies briefly. Now, I mentioned that Poison Heal enhances the effects of this move, and that would be through extending the Stun hindrance this move deals. Any degree of infection will add a little bit extra Stun to this move when it hits, but it is relative to the percentage of infection. Something like 30% infection translates to 1.3 seconds of Stun, which isn't much. You'll be wanting to land this attack against enemies knee deep in Poison Heal spores, as 100% infection turns the Stun into 2 seconds.

For what it's worth, T.K.O. does deliver the most amount of Poison Heal spores you can infect enemies with a single hit, so this move is very good at starting a fight just as much as it is at finishing them. Perhaps you'd prefer to open with this Unite Move, then follow up with Mach Punch for fast, strong damage or Spore for easier sleep inducing attacks. Just be careful when flying into fights with this move, as Breloom respects the ring's boundaries as a boxer, and will not use this move to travel through walls, a dilemma Talonflame experiences difficulties with its own Unite Move.

Too bad that there aren't any referees in Pokemon Unite. And by that I mean, too bad for the opposing team...

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Achievement

KO enemies afflicted with 60% Poison Heal spore infection 5 times in one battle.

Your moves are stronger the more Poison Heal spores you infect the enemy with, so naturally the Achievement reflects this. However, because you cannot see the degree of infection on opposing pokemon, deciding whether to go for the KO or to keep adding spores can become problematic to teaching players how to play Breloom.

That said, what players will end up not doing is engaging weaker bodied enemies for this achievement. By that I mean, because this achievement requires a high degree of infection, Breloom players seeking to achieve this will avoid extended fights with Attackers and Speedsters. Since such an engagement will result in a quick KO one way or the other, Breloom players will learn how to shorten these fights, to their benefit for the most part. This already conditions them to play Speedsters properly, to root out easy targets so that the ally team can better handle team fights.

To actually gain points for this achievement, Breloom players will have to learn to use all of their moves to their full effects. Opening fights with Spore or Seed Bomb, landing hits with Mach Punch or Counter, directing their boosted basic attack optimally, and using their Unite Move, T.K.O., at the perfect time, these all must be executed perfectly to achieve 60% infection or higher. It's not just to tack on damage, but to reward dedicated fighting by healing the pokemon afterwards, allowing them to engage another opponent right away.

This Achievement teaches Breloom players not only how to fight, but how to fight well. Each fight can be won, as long as it's one-on-one. Fighting hordes will result in disaster, so your moves must be used to disengage. These are the qualities of playing a Speedster very well, not just playing Breloom.

Wear your belt with pride, little slugger.

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Holowear

You know, it's a good thing Holowear is just articles made of light, because I can't imagine a Breloom wearing any of these clothes willingly for long. It'll probably tear them off in frustration from being restricted in movement.

Speaking of, the first one is Traveler Style Holowear, giving Breloom a big hat, sunglasses, a backpack, and a little camera hanging around its neck. Outback Style Holowear gives Breloom a sharp looking outdoorsy hat, a necklace made of fangs, and some leather pants to protect it from the elements. Musician Style Holowear gives it some musical note hair clips, a necklace adorned with music notes, and a banjo strapped to its side. Party Style Holowear, gives Breloom a big glittery party hat, some streamers flying off of its frills, a party tooter in one hand, and some balloons tied to its tail. Lastly, Champion Style Holowear gives Breloom some patches on its body, a sweat towel draped over its neck, boxer shorts, and multiple champion belts hanging off of its tail, to really drive home how expertly honed its skills in boxing have become.

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Strategy

All Speedsters are built to deal a lot of damage very quickly, but they do this at the cost of bulk, it's a quirk of the archetype. In order to be effective in dealing damage, Speedsters need to dive in and out of fights, especially when things get crowded, but some are perfectly capable of handling hordes. By analyzing the situation, they wait for the right moment to unleash all of their attacks on one or multiple enemies.

Breloom does this in the reverse order, due to how its ability Poison Heal works. It is just as capable of dealing high amount of damage, but only after it has infected the opposing team with enough Poison Heal spores to power up the damage it can deal with its moves and their bonus effects. It can still functionally dive in and out thanks to the guile its moves grant, so in that regard, Breloom is a unique kind of Speedster.

Firstly, it's basic attack is a deliberate design, allowing the player to deal as many hits as they physically can, not only increasing the damage, but worsening the infection of Poison Heal on the enemy. It relies heavily on position and timing, as the size of the boosted basic attack can easily damage multiple enemies.

But even with the boosted basic attack, it can be a little challenging to spread spores quickly, especially against resilient enemies like Defenders and All-Rounders. To this end, Spore and Seed Bomb are made the way they are to facilitate quicker infection. They won't stop you from getting destroyed in a 3v1, but Speedsters shouldn't be putting themselves in danger like that in the first place.

Breloom is supposed to fight like an Out-Boxer, keeping out of the enemy's range in order to attack and counter when an opening presents itself. Mach Punch and Counter are built to help Breloom maintain its footing against opposing pokemon by goading them into attacking so that it can then retaliate with one of these moves. With enough distance, Breloom can simply exhaust the enemy, going in for the KO when their moves are on cooldown, limiting their options to counterattack.

If done right, Breloom will have infected the enemy with enough Poison Heal spores that it can then forgo defense and safety in order to secure the KO. For this reason, Breloom handles Defenders, Supporters, and bulky All-Rounders much better than other Speedsters. It actually has a bit of trouble dealing with Attackers and Speedsters, as the trade hits between itself and the enemy are not in its favor. While it is vulnerable to losing chunks of its HP to big hits like Cinderace's Pyro Ball or Decidueye's Spirit Shackle, it will not see a lot of Poison Heal spores restoring its HP due to how weak the infection ends up, as these pokemon can go down in three or four hits, which isn't enough for Poison Heal to get a foothold of any kind.

For this reason, you must pick and choose your fights carefully and consider all options when engaging the enemy. If the opposing team favors staying close together when engaging objectives, Seed Bomb is the preferred move, with Mach Punch as a solid follow-up. Against more heavyset opponents, Spore is perfectly optimal to build up Poison Heal much more effectively, with the move's Sleep hindrance being very effective at safely engaging these opponents. Predictable attacks like Delphox's Fire Spin or Gardevoir's Future Sight can easily be countered with Counter, otherwise Mach Punch is the best choice to keep your distance and to fight from afar.

In dire times, your Unite Move, T.K.O., is a solid move to escape from a tight spot or to get the lead in the team fight, since it also delivers the most Poison Heal spores in a single hit. While it would be preferable to hit multiple enemies at once, sometimes it may be better used to shut down dangerous enemies capable of dealing high damage very quickly like opposing Speedsters, especially since Breloom matches up poorly against them. The 3 seconds it takes for the attack to come out may be predictable and easy to counteract, but the Invincibility gained is invaluable in repositioning Breloom to a more favorable arena, preferably away from spread attacks like Venusaur's Solar Beam or Charizard's Fire Blast.

The fight never ends, little slugger.

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And that's Breloom for Pokemon Unite! One of the many favorites from Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire, I think it'd be really cool if we had a boxer like fighter in Pokemon Unite. I know, I know, why rob Hitmonchan of that honor? Well, it's not like they can't both be in the game. Besides, it might have to have a gimmick as a duo license with Hitmonlee, but for now, I would love to see Breloom enter the ring.

Anyway, that'll be it from me. See ya next week!

#Pokemon Unite #Breloom #Shroomish

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Pokemon Yellow "Free to Play" Run Part 2

Time to finish it. I was going to grind some levels, but I lost patience almost immediately. What's the worst that could happen?!

... Uh oh.

Okay. Cheese time. Operation: Deplete Thunder PP!

... Or the Jolteon could just use Thunderwave once, and then miss Thunder 3 times in a row and die to Hydro Pump. That works too! I'll take it!

This is why you NEVER rely on acc 70 moves. Always take Thunderbolt over Thunder (unless in Drizzle team). Expected value = probability * outcome, so Thunderbolt has value of 95 (acc 100 * power 95), 90 nowadays. While Thunder has 84 (acc 70 * power 120), 77 nowadays. So you can expect Thunderbolt to deal more damage on average than Thunder!

Okay. Now that I beat that scrub totally fairly and without relying on luck, I need to start using glitches to take on my next opponents. Give me 400 Rare Candies!

... This guy isn't necessary, but... for fun. Note, this thing's Pokedex number is 80. And when I slap on a Rare Candy...

It becomes TM55 or Q, as seen here, with Pokedex number 121.

Because of that, the game thinks I caught Slowbro, Dex number 80, even though I never did.

And same for Starmie, number 121.

Now, what can I do with Q? ... Well, if you remember my Exploration Run...

I can create little abominations like this. Behold, a Pikachu shaped Squirtle!

See? It's even the same color as Squirtle. But it is indeed Pikachu, so... let's give it its name back.

The renowned Name Rater has given the Pikachu the name Pikachu. Marvelous.

Hey, it's happy that it got its name back! Aww.

Get the f*ck out of here. I don't need this thing. Let this li'l abomination run free in the wild! A Pikachu shaped Squirtle? It won't fit in with Pikachus or Squirtles!

Okay. My Jolteon has reached Special stat 226, so I can use it with a wild Ditto for the Ditto trick. But I also need to lower the Atk stat with Growl, which for glitch-spawned Pokemon would lower their level (default level 7, +/- 1 for each level Atk was raised or lowered, max 13 min 1), but for glitch-spawned trainers, it would change their team sets. So if I did it right, and assuming the Ditto that copied my Jolteon doesn't annihilate my critically-weak-to-Jolteon team...

Here we go again. Here's my revenge for giving me a damn Pikachu!

So unlike last time, when this guy had a level 69 Charizard, he has a Venusaur. I believe these are RGB teams, which depend on what starter you picked. Well, assuming the idea wasn't scrapped before the game released.

See? Told you Jolteon annihilates all three Kanto starters in Generation I.

That's right, you damn shmuck.

... Now, for the final boss. Need Special 246, and... spam Rare Candies on all my stuff to level 100 after the Ditto trick. And once all the preparations are complete, an old lady is going to crawl out of the ground and...

... Here we go!

Level 205! Ha, I can take you-

Okay, Charizard was one-shotted by a Tri Attack. Uh oh.

But Jolteon to the rescue. ... Dodrio outruns Jolteon but fortunately, the AI is dumb and it used Agility before swapping back and forth with a Seel, and they both died to multiple Thunderbolts.

... The li'l abomination is back for vengeance! It wants blood!

But it sucks way too much ass! Get the f*ck out of here!

... I am losing Pokemon too. Growlithe's Takedown killed itself and Jolteon, and the opposing Seadra one-shotted Hitmonlee, that worthless f*ck. And one-shotted Aerodactyl, which has proven to be very useless in Generation I. Omastar barely killed Seadra, and got downed by the glitch Pokemon.

We're both down to our last Pokemon here. I have one Revive that I'm going to use on Jolteon.

But I didn't need it! Lapras has enough bulk to withstand the glitch moves. GG!

Indeed. But now the final boss is down. It was uncomfortably close. ... I miss Mew.

... And next time I do a no-glitch Yellow version run, I am absolutely going to throw the first two fights so I don't face Jolteon again.

#pokemon yellow

[devi-nyx-elsword-theorist]

Hear me out, this is a far stretched idea. what if we get Johto remakes, but we get the unreleased Spaceworld demo Pokemon to fill the Johto dex.

Make the Johto Pokemon, MORE available in Johto instead of locking them to National Dex.

Increase the wild Pokemon level's in Kanto because mind you, those level gaps were abysmal.

The idea is how many Pokemon in the Johto dex from Johto is available.

So we can maybe have a few pokemon that evolved or had recently gotten a new typing in Gen 2 still be available in Gen 2, the Baby Pokemon who were available in Gen 2 as well So we'd get

Scyther, Onix, Magnemite,, Bellsprout (because of the Tower) Pikachu, Clefairy, Jigglypuff, Zubat, Golbat, Poliwag, Poliwhirl, Slowpoke, Slowbro, Eevee, Hitmonlee, Hitmonchan, Magmar, Electabuzz, Jynx, Oddish, Chansey, Porygon, Horsea, Seadra, I'll still leave in Magikarp for the Red Gyarados. and Dragonite (Because Lance and Claire has that line tho one uses Dragonairs but you get the picture.) and the fossils, I'll leave in Gengar line.

So the Dex is around 154 (Celebi is still a Johto mon) and still has some Kanto mon's. but if we split them we'd also get 47 Kanto Pokemon!

now to make sure this Johto dex is still a Johto Dex, is 107 Johto Pokemon now let's rank up that number.

We need the scrapped solo pokemon that was attached to Slowbro, make it a Water/Steel type.

the unreleased "branch" evolution of Weepinbell. it still a Grass/Poison

the Seal with a fireball. I like to see it being a mirror of Seel.

we need Kotora and Raitora they're cute electric types.

Norowara and Kyonpan these two would be fun for Morty being a Ghost type gym leader as he doesn't really use ANY Johto pokemon the first time not even a Misdreavus! also, GIVE HIM A MISDREAVUS!

Urufuman and Waaurufu, they're actually cute looking Yeti? I see a yeti in it, and it's an Ice type, so Pryce would definitely have these.

I also would like to add the unreleased 2 Starters making them become freely available but but! there's a better idea, if you visit Celebi's shrine there should be a Kimono wearing NPC who often visits the Ilex Forest Shrine and they simply challenge you with both of these Pokemon, and then they exclaim that after the battle they give you a choice of the 2 pokemon saying that " They're old Pokemon I've recently found, and I assure you would want to show them the world outside of my home, I'll give you a choice. The Fire Bear (Honooguma) or The Mystery Water Pokemon (Kurusu). " but there will be a reward where if you're a champion and you come back to the shrine, you will find a Pokeball, of the other Pokemon that you didn't choose but the NPC is gone, we won't know where they went.

These can be bred for multiples but this is to show us not only a little nod to the demo, but they're returning.

And if we go this route if we have a Chikorita line, and we visit the shrine with it, we get an event where Chikorita finds a mysterious Pokeball that has a Hanamogura. (the demo version before it was changed to be Bayleef) but it get's a second evolution since it will have around 415 BST, I know it's a little too high, but let me explain the evolution will have 552 BST.

Okay without counting the Kanto Pokedex that's still involved is 124 (even though Weepinbell branched evolution is a maybe but if we dont count it, its 123.)

the Pokedex now has 171 Pokemon in Johto when we add back the Kanto Pokemon.

Unless I miscounted so maybe around 170-174.

Edit!!!

there was more Pokemon that were cut I may of skipped over, so back at 124 Johto Pokedex.

So we have a ghost pokemon with a Hitaikakushi this one could represent well enough in Johto

A ball looking rabbit? could be interesting,

Gargoyle

the Drill looking Squid,

A literal Squirrel Ninja

the flaming Tanuki

there's a odd looking skeleton Pokemon so I guess we can have it as an "exclusively" rare fossil Johto Pokemon.

a Pokemon that is apparently a Flying Fish but with bird wings and legs.

the Scarecrow pokemon, I would like to say it scares off or taunts Murkrows.

a plant pokemon that's a ball? then it says here to evolve to Ball Sprout, with branched evolutions?

so 136 Johto Pokemon, add that, now we have 183 of a completed Dex, not counting Kanto if we didn't unlock Kanto, with Kanto unlocked

#pokemon #pokemon johto remakes #pokemon johto #pokemon demo #pokemon johto demo #pokemon theory #pokemon gsc #pokemon gold silver and crystal #pokemon gold #pokemon silver #pokemon crystal #pokemon heartgold #pokemon soulsilver #pokemon heargold and soulsilver

[the-endless-storm]

1. What’s your favorite Pokémon?

5. Which games are your least favorite?

13. Which evil team is your favorite? (And why is it Team Aqua?)

14. Which evil team leader is your favorite? (And why is it Archie?)

15. What is your favorite legendary/mythical Pokémon?

20. What is your favorite starter?

21. What is your least favorite starter?

25. Which Pokémon deserves a mega in your opinion?

32. What is your favorite Pokémon to use competitively?

35. What is your favorite Pokémon movie?

38. What is your favorite non-mainline game?

1. Porygon is and always will be my number one.

5. Probably Sun/Moon simply for replay value. As in, I don’t want to replay it more than once because I don’t want Hau to reteach me how to walk up a path for the first 40 hours.

13. It's Team Magma. I love those hoodies.

14. Maxie. He's a nerd.

15. Deoxys. It's so weird.

20. Turtwig is my baby

21. Charmander. Go away Charizard, stop being in every fucking game.

25. Jynx! Jynx has had the short end of the straw, almost all the late 150 pokemon had some kind of third evolution or mega, and Jynx is just there, tits out for nothing.

32. Slowbro. Please keep in mind I haven’t battled competitively since the first gen.

35. Destiny Deoxys, obviously

38. You know, I’ve looked through a list and I genuinely haven’t played any non mainstream games except for one, Pokemon Cafe. So I guess that one. (Not enough Porygon in spin off games)

Thank you for the asks handsome, I knew I could count on you to ask some 😘

#pokemon #asks #ursbearhug

[emareep]

Custom Kanto Dex Collection

Page #9 ~ #073 - 081

Hello bloglooker. Today I bring you 9 fine pokemons, numbered sequentially for easier browsing. Todays lineup features such hits as:

The girls (tentracruels) are fighting, Hidden and not so hidden boulder creatures, small and big horse about to run into each other, some pink guys, and a metal orb. And hidden within them is...

#1 Card of the Page

Slowbro ~ HeartGold SoulSilver 52/123 ~ Sumiyoshi Kizuki

Sumiyoshi Kizuki is another one of those artists I love for their simplicity in both design and palette. She uses around 10 colors, but the layout, and the crayon-like lining style used, help fill out the scene. I'd like to start a collection for her art one day.

Slowbro is thoroughly vibing in this image. Just entranced by the water. Also, I never noticed this before. This card lists Slowbro as "Hermit Crab Pokemon". This is very strange to me, I never considered the connection. I thought he was more a lizard in a situation. If you could remove the shell thing, would it just be a large slowpoke? There are many things to consider in the world of Pokemon.

BEST QUALITY:

The bro is so enchanted by the water that they have not realized they should be sinking.

About This Series of Posts:

This collection started when I wanted to have a set of the original 151 Pokemon. However, getting the cards with their first appearances would cost a lot of money. I decided to make a set of the original 151, made out of my favorites of the cheaper options available (though I did allow myself to splurge a few times on ones I really wanted).

Each post features photos of one page of the collection, an impulsively chosen favorite card of the page, a detail on that card, and general writing on the contents of the photos.

search "emareep kanto dex collection" for more.

#emareep #emareep kanto dex collection #kanto region #pokemon card art #pokemon trading card game #gen 1 pokemon #Slowbro #sumiyoshi kizuki #heartgold soulsilver

[firedragon1321]

I'm Surviving My College Class by Making a Madame Bovary Pokemon AU

Amongst other things.

For people who have never taken a college literature class, Madame Bovary is a novel about a woman who marries the stupidest doctor in all the land, has two different affairs, never finds fulfillment, buys a bunch of shit to make herself feel richer, drags her family into debt, and then commits suicide to escape it. Her husband never figures out even half of it until the last chapter.

I'm going under the assumption that- in this AU- most people only have enough money to care for one Pokemon. Exception being the Bovary family- as Emma's Pokemon came with her into the marriage- and a character I believe could afford to feed two.

Emma Bovary- F Eevee -> Leafeon. She popped up on the farm fairly recently, eating whatever she could find. Emma hoped she would become a Sylveon or Espeon- perhaps an Umbreon under the full moon. None of these things happen because she moves to Yonville (that's the town's actual canonical name). It is known for its agriculture, so Eevee- influenced by this environment- evolves into a Leafeon. She becomes yet another symbol of the life Emma hates, and she eventually disowns the Pokemon. Brokenhearted, Leafeon's leaves slowly turn orange. Unlike her mistress, she survives (because I am not that evil) but is a broken-hearted- if rare- autumn variant. However...

Bethe Bovary- F Leafeon (autumn variant). This is the same one mentioned above, who returns and protects her mistress's daughter. Bethe is a baby in the actual book, but in this AU, I wanted to go a little further in time to her childhood. She appreciates Leafeon more than her mother did. While her leaves never heal, her heart does.

Charles Bovary- M Slowpoke -> Slowbro. All you need to know about this man is he is an insufferable dumbass, who can't even tell his wife is cheating on him and leaking all their money. He heard while in medical school that Slowpoke is good for treating illness with its psychic powers (source- the rumor mill, made of other students). Because he's too much of an idiot to figure out trade evolutions, he couldn't evolve Slowpoke into a Slowking. Slowbro is cheerful and helpful, but kinda dumb, and definitely useless in medical situations.

Lheureux- M Alolan Meowth. The only winner in the story, a task he succeeds at by putting the Bovarys in serious debt. A Meowth was the only Pokemon that made any sense. He mostly sulks around, playing with whatever coins his Trainer happens to drop. I chose Alolan Meowth because you're telling me this man wouldn't have a Dark-type? Speaking of...

Rodolphe: F Liepard and M Murkrow. This guy's just an asshole. He's affair number two, and leads Emma along until he realizes that she's a human with flaws. Liepard is his main Pokemon- a former show mon who looks pretty and fierce, but doesn't battle well. Murkrow is used for delivering letters and packages.

Homais: M Loudred. These two literally have the same personality. Loudred agrees with everything Homais says. Even if you can't understand him, he makes sure everyone in Yonville can hear his approval. Kinda like Slowbro, but Slowbro is benign while this guy can break windows.

Leon: M Vulpix -> Ninetales. Affair number 1. He was hard to pick a Pokemon for. But I was thinking of Fire-types (because of a certain Galarian champion) and selected for Vulpix. This man believes he's a romantic, but is actually rather self-absorbed. He still manages to treat Vulpix well. There's a point where he nopes off to another town, where he comes across a Fire Stone. By the time he comes back into the story, Vulpix has evolved. He is furiously protective of his Trainer.

Hippolyte: M Bonsly -> Sudowoodo. Not a major character, but I LOVE therapy Pokemon. In the actual book, Hippolyte is subject to a surgery to cure club foot, despite being able to walk fine. It goes wonky and he loses his leg. It is shortly after this that he encounters Bonsly. With love and care, it becomes Sudowoodo. Sudowoodo serves as a makeshift cane, helping his Trainer get around.

Beggar: M Gastly. Also not a major character, but I wanted to give him a Ghost-type to sing creepy songs with.

#tw suicide #canonical character death #tw animal abuse #typical for pokemon canon #tw albiesm #for the hippolyte situation #tw amputation #trigger warnings are for the original book #except for animal abuse which is pokemon based #fix it #a little #i'm sure i missed people i used sparknotes for this #and memories from a past read #i now need autumn variant leafeon to be real

[studioweus]

Yoo! What is your favorite Pokemon?👀

gAHHH you know... it took me a while to narrow it down to three - which would be kyogre (very generic sapphire cover model LOL), lapras,

AND MAH BOI SLOWBRO 

how about you!!

#slowbro is number one for me #I DON'T KNOW WHY JUST #LOOK AT THEIR GOOFY FACE #I LOVE IT SO MUCH #SHELLDER AT ITS TAIL BUT IS UNBOTHERED #LOVE THAT FOR THEM #replies #anonymous #also i really like dratini #i wasted my life away after i went back to viridian forest #just to spend hours and hours trying to catch a damn dratini

[mister-lady]

Ok so, I didn't realize how hard I was going out on this, guess I like ranting about things fkgndjfkf. But I do a fair amount of paragraphs and for the sake of understanding whats happening and not realizing plain text is boring, I put colors and italics and bolded stuff so it's pretty and easier to read, you can thank me later Jmvjfkdkr /j.

Just for clarification, the colors and bolded and all the such don't have meanings, they're just there for (hopefully) easier reading. Enjoy djgkdkf

So in pokemon sword and shield you get a free galarian slowpoke, and to shorten this a bit, theres a normal original version of pokemon, and some have different versions depending on the region like an alolan or galarian version(mostly in the newer games) and I got a galarian version of slowpoke becuase that give you one for free and you cant find normal slowpokes in sword and sheild and so I was looking up for to evolve one becusse since it's not a normal slowpoke, you have to get these weird special twigs and talk to this NPC that turns it into an item that you give to your galarian slowpoke and slowpoke is one of those special pokemon that have two different forms it can evolve into so it's an either or situation and you can get a slowbro or slowking and I was gonna go for a slowbro cause I like the stats better (even though the stats dont matter unless your doing online competitive battles) even though I'm more biased towards getting slowking and here's the part where I get upset:

Number one. Number uno. Fricken number eins. First of all, I assumed that since slowpoke is a galarian version in this game, it would look a little different when i evolved it, and right i was to assume!!! And they ruined my babies?? (Yes I'm really pulling out pictures for this. I have to.)

This is normal slowpoke. Absolutely adorable and pure and I want one.

This is a galarian slowpoke. Now this isn't too bad, it's cute and got some yellow on it, that's fine, right?

This is slowbro. I'm not sure what's with the thing on its tail but its stil cute and deserves some headpats. Probably be wary of its tail tho

Now this is where I start getting a little bugged. This is galarian slowbro??? I mean it's not bad but the thingy is supposed to be on its tail!!!! I guess it could be good at punching things? And don't get me started on the purple, it just looks...wrong to me, especially the purple on its head.

This is slowking, and as stated, is in absolute king(not actually, just imo). Lovely. Amazing. I want it.

Now this is slowking. As the name states, it's an absoulte king (not actually, just imo). Lovely. Amazing. I want one

Huh?? What is this???? This is galarian slowking and i- I mean I'm speachless but not in the good way- like the thing on his head has weird eyes??? I mean all the shells got eyes but this one stares straight into your soul. And it looks like a zombie!! Maybe it's just me but no.

REASON NUMBER TWO. YOU LITERALLY HAVE TO PAY MONEY AND GET THE DLC JUST TO EVOLVE THE SLOWPOKE INTO EITHER FORM. Wow. I love you nintendo but your so money thirsty one the switch and its gross. Like you want people to buy a new joycon cause one got drift when you can literally stick a Q-tip with rubbing alcohol on it and swish it around the joycon and jiggle the joycon stick a bit and it's fixed for a while. It only gets drift cause it gets dirty you whores.

#now yall can have your own thooughts but these are judt mine #did i start to feel selfconcious ranting about something so silly? maybe #did i follow through caus i put wayyyy too much effort into this than needed? also maybe #caps tw #man why cant i go om tangents about my f/os like this fkgkdmskgk i get too flustered smh 😔 #tho i wil admit it feels much better to get that out #idk maybe yall like the way the galarians one look but personally i dont #i lov my slowpokes but whY

[askkrenko]

Krenko's Guide to Pokemon: Slowpoke Line

Posted as early as could be expected.

DESIGN:

Slowpoke is some sort of hippo lizard sloth thing, and honestly I'm not entirely sure what it is, but I do know that it's cute, goofy, and unique. There's a great deal of simplicity to Slowpoke, but it all works out in its favor, making it just seem like some sort of normal animal that exists in an environment.

The Galarian form has some yellow bits which, honestly, I do not care about. I don't have a probelm with the design of Galarian Slowpoke, I just think that it's not different enough from regular Slowpoke for me to care.

Slowbro takes the basic Slowpoke and puts it upright by balancing it with the huge shell on its tail. It adds an interesting visual component similar to a hermit crab, but I'll admit, I don't really get it. I don't dislike it or anything, but I don't understand how having an angry shell on its tail makes Slowbro smarter and more powerful.

Galarian Slowbro, on the other hand, takes that shell and uses it to shoot some sort of toxic whatever, and frankly I love that idea. You've added a megabuster-like-weapon to a slowpoke and you've got something that's clearly displaying new attack forms. Weirdly, it relies on the assumption taht the shell is high in poison, which means a Shellder, a non-poison Pokemon, transformed into something high in Poison. The fact that Turban never became its own Pokemon really seems like we're missing a lot of explanation on this.

And then there's Mega Slowbro which I can't even take seriously enough to talk about look at this stupid thing I love it so much it's the dumbest design ever and I can't stop grinning.

Slowking, the alternate evolution, involves the shell biting Slowpoke's head instead of its tail, turning into a hat. This directly injects the poisons that Shellder DOESN'T HAVE into Slowpoke's brain, making it much smarter somehow. Seriously, we need to see Turban as a Water/Poison type so we can get our understanding of how Slowpoke works better.

Galarian Slowking is a similar design, but the Evolved Shellder is lower and covers its face, because on this Pokemon, the Shellder is in charge. Gone is your Slowpoke entirely. Like with Parasect or Hydreigon, you have effectively killed your Pokemon by evolving it. I hope you're proud of yourself, you monster.

Visually, I don’t like how the purple goes. It looks too much like the top half is in shadow rather than the top half being a different color. I’d much rather the purple appear in more of a pattern, or spots, like on Galarian Slowbro.

EVOLUTIONS:

Uuuuuuugh.

Slowpoke evolves into Slowpoke at 37, or Slowking when traded with a King's Rock, but Galarian Slowpoke uses a Galarica Cuff or a Galarica Wreath to evolve, which are basically the same thing, and none of these evolutions address the question of where the Shellder comes from and how it evolves into Turban. This is possibly the messiest evolutionary line in all of Pokemon.

And then there's a Mega Slowbro, which is cool, but only one of the four potential Slowpoke evolutions gets a Mega Form, and that's just weird, right? It's like if there was a Mega Jolteon and no other Mega Eevees, or if there was a Mega Hitmonlee but not a Mega Hitmonchan or Mega Hitmontop.

Art by JoshuaDunlop

TYPING:

Slowpoke, Slowbro, and Slowking are all Water/Psychic, as is Mega Slowbro.  Galarian Slowpoke is pure psychic, with both Galarian evolutions being Psychic/Poison.

Water/Psychic is a decent defensive type, with five weaknesses and six resistances. Offensively, the pair only works Super-Effective against five types, but with no shared resistances, Slowbro and Slowking don't need to worry about additional attacks for coverage.

Psychic/Poison has just three weaknesses, but also only four resistances, which is a reasonable tradeoff.  Offensively, it's much weaker, only super-effective against four types, and with no attacks that work well against Steel type opponents.

Art by Twarda8

STATS:

Stats of the four Slowpoke evolution are all somewhat similar. All have a respectable 95 HP and an expectedly awful 30 speed. Most have 100 special attack, with Galarian Slowking's a bit better at 110.  Their physical attacks vary wildly, but only Galarian Slowbro's, at 100, is high enough to warrant using Physical Attacks with. The rest are strictly special attackers. The tradeoff comes in that Galarian Slowbro also has the worst defenses, with its defenses being 95 and 70 instead of the 110 and 80 (physical lean for Slowpoke, special for Slowking) that the other three have.

Mega Slowbro is of course just better. Though its special defense is still only 80, its physical defense is a whopping 180, and its special attack jumps to 130, making it something that can both take hits and dish them out.

Art by Carbonated-James

ABILITIES:

Every Slowpoke evolution has Own Tempo, which prevents Confusion and Intimidate, and it's frankly the wrong answer for all of them. Confusion's just not that huge an issue.

The Water-Type evolutions can also get Oblivious, which prevents infatuation, taunting, and intimidate, which is... still not really important.

Galarian Slowbro gets a unique ability option called QUick Draw, which gives Slowbro a chance to go first even when it has slower speed, which is most of the time. This is decent, but a 30% chance means it's unreliable. Long term it'll come up often enough, but not enough to ensure it matters when you need it to.

Galarian Slowking has a unique ability called Curious Medicine, which resets stat  changes of ally Pokemon when it enters the battlefield. This only matters in 2v2s, and even then is a niche feature, because switching out a pokemon resets its stat changes anyway.

But then they all get Regenerator.

Regenerator heals the pokemon by 1/3 its max HP when you switch it out. This means switching isn't a waste of a turn, and Slowpoke's evolutions all have decent enough HP that 1/3 is a reasonable number. It's a hidden ability, but the simple fact is that Regenerator is the best choice for all Slowpokes.

Mega Slowbro has Shell Armor, making it immune to critical hits. This is fine. It's not the most impressive, but it's the only option.

Yadon Bay by Tymkiev

MOVES:

Water-type Slowbro and Slowking are Scald Tanks. Their role is very simple: They use Scald to do damage and burn the target, then they use Slack Off to heal up. Leftovers help. Everything else is secondary. Their only real differences are that one's better against physical attacks and the other's better against special attacks... and Slowbro can Mega Evolve.

Everything else is secondary. Nasty Plot or Calm Mind can be used to increase damage. Psychic, Psyshock, or Future Sight can be used as a second attack for coverage, as can off-type attacks like Shadow Ball, Flamethrower, and Ice Beam. Thunder Wave can reduce damage from special attackers. With Regenerator, Slowbro and Slowking users will often want to make use of Teleport, as it lets you switch after taking a hit rather than before. Assuming the hit doesn't drop your Slowpokemon, they'll immediately heal some of it while your other pokemon arrives without eating an attack.

Galarian Slowbro's signature attack, Shell Side Arm, uses Physical or Special attack depending on the opponent's defenses, suggesting that it should focus on being good at both physical and special attacks. This can prove advantageous against many pokemon and inhibits the ability to tank against it. Unfortunately, while Galarian Slowbro has access to Calm Mind, Curse, Nasty Plot, and Belly Drum, it doesn't get any way to increase both Physical and Special attack at the same time, and investing in both physical and special attack for stats means taking away from other places. Losing the heightened defenses of the Slowbro in favor of being able to use both physical and special attacks just isn't a great deal.

Galarian Slowbro is still competent enough that it can be built as a special attacker with Sludge Bomb, Psychic, decent coverage moves, Nasty Plot or Calm Mind, and reasonable bulk, but it's just going to be generally weaker about it than Galarian Slowking, which goes the other way and trades off the Physical Attack it wasn't using for more Special Attack.

Galarian Slowking's signature attack, Eerie Spell, is a bit weaker than Psychic, but also does PP damage. It's possible this winds up being tactically useful, especailly if building Galarian Slowking with Slack Off for longer combats, but I expect Galarian Slowking's best psychic attack option to be Psychic, Psyshock, or the slow-but-powerful Future Sight. For a Poison attack, Sludge Bomb is the obvious answer.

Despite not being water type Galarian Slowking can still use Scaled to try and poison its targets, both doing damage while it Slacks Off and reducing their physical attack. Similarly, Thunder Wave is still an option.  Really, you can just build Galarian Slowking as you would a Kantonian Slowbro or Slowking, with the note that you're also able to use Sludge Bomb.

The Slowpoke Family by Zerochan923600

OVERALL:

Slowbro and Slowking are basically the same Pokemon, and it's actually kind of weird that they're not. The only relevant difference is which is higher of physical or special defense, and while I suppose that IS relevant, it's odd that we have four Pokemon here that all basically play the same... Except Galarian Slowbro which just got the short end of the stick.

Overall I like Slowbro and both Slowkings, but Galarian Slowbro really feels like it needs a bit more oomf to compete with all of them. A higher physical attack would be great, or if Shell Side Arm always used Slowbro's Special but could attack Physical or Special defense, or even just getting "Work Up" or something that increased both Physical and Special at once would be good, but the simple fact is, Galarian Slowbro's offense increase doesn't really matter in the face of Galarian Slowking. And why the hell can’t Galarian Slowbro learn Toxic? Its pokedex entry absolutely says it can.

Also, at this point I'm confident in saying Eevee's going to be more than one article.

#Krenko's Pokemon Guide #Slowpoke #Slowbro #Slowking

[funhaversclub]

HELLO HELLO! long time no see :)

I was going to post about all the new information we got from the Pokemon Sword and Shield expansion video but that's already been done. Instead I've decided to post about something much more dear to my heart. The teaser of the Galarian Slowbro and Slowking! BUT Not only that! This post evolved into basically an appreciation of my favorite Pokemon family. I know some of you may not think Shellder and Cloyster belong in this family but technically Slowpoke couldn’t grow without them. On that note let's get into it.

GALARIAN SLOWKING!

The first Pokemon addressed above is the Galarian Slowking... or Slowqueen?... Based on the information we were shown I think what happens to this iteration of Slowking is the Shellder crown, instead of just sitting on Slowpoke's head, swallows the head almost completely. You can see this in what looks like the Shellder Shell's eye in the left side of the scribbled out head. In doing this the Shellder becomes the pilot in this symbiotic relationship. Not only that but the Poison of Shellder seeps through Slowpoke's body even more than in the original Slowking making this version a Poison/Psychic type! I designed the shell to resemble Cloyster's spikes more than the original look. Another neat aspect could be seeing the powerful Poison/Physic energy flowing through causing a smoky aura to leak out through cracks in the crown as pictured below. As for how it evolves I'm not really sure. Maybe instead of a King's Rock it could be the Queen's Ore that you find in the Crown Tundra!

Some people seem to think Slowking could be a ghost or dark type this time around. With the Shellder possibly breaking, maybe the spirit inhabits or possesses Slowking? I like the idea of the crown breaking so I sketched this up!

GALARIAN SLOWBRO!

Secondly we have the Galarian Slowbro. The first thing to mention about the information we've been given is that this iteration of Slowbro has no Shellder on it's tail! This is odd because originally it was said that in order for Slowbro to even stand it needed the counterweight of the Shellder to lift it. I figured that meant this time around Slowbro is stronger on it's own. Hence the flex pose I gave it :) In the bottom left of the leaked imagery above we even see what looks like Slowpoke possibly learning to stand by itself? We also see a sketch of the Slowpoke fishing so where does the Shellder go? In that leak image, top left, it looks like the tail is possibly flinging the Shellder up. This, combined with the Pokemon website talking about Galarian Slowpoke's body changing through seeds it eats might mean that the Shellder doesn't hold on the same way? Maybe the tail has become bitter and Shellder no longer likes the taste? So Possibly when Shellder is "reeled" in it releases itself BUT lands on the Slowpoke's head instead of staying on the tail. This theory comes from another small glimpse we get in the teaser. A small image of Slowbro's purple head. We don't see Slowbro's ears so I took it upon myself to unwind them. Along with that, I took the purple forehead as more of the Shellder shell than just color. We do also see an image of the trainer Avery with what looks like a royal looking Slowbro complete with a tiny hat/shell and a frilly garment BUUUUT I kind of feel like this is an artsy picture of a Slowpoke dressed up. I could be wrong though so I added the features in the image below. Anyways, with the Shellder on it's head instead of tail, it doesn't change shape the same way. With no delicious tail to munch on the Shellder finds no reason to "evolve" itself. The Shellder's poison begins to seep through Slowbro but not in the same way as Slowking. It pushes poison through Slowbro's body giving him strength to stand as well as making it's hands and tail a purple color. I think this version of Slowbro would also be Psychic/Poison. Who knows how it will evolve. Possibly fishing the same way Slowbro’s lore has always been but as for in game it could be an item or it could be leveling up. We will have to find out in the Isle of Armor.

I don’t really think the frilled chested Slowbro is going to be part of the evolution but some people seem to think it could because of a new Galarian Shellder. I’ll admit when I first saw the image I thought maybe it could be something but the fabric around the neck made me think it was just clothes of some sort. That plus are they really going to also add a Shellder regional variant on top of the three new Slows? BUT for the sake of artistic fun I thought what if a Galarian Shellder had parts that looked like a neck tie? and I’m pretty sure a frilled clam shell is a thing…  So I whipped up the pearl cheeked, smooched lipped Galarian Shellder you see below! I realize that this type of shell is basically what Clampearl is based on and it very well could just be that that helps the evolution. Really, it could be a number of older gen sea dwellers that could contribute. Only time will tell.  

There’s a theory floating around that’s pretty interesting. The same way that I made Galar Slowbro have a Shellder helmet because we can’t see the top of it’s head in the teaser, people are saying because we can’t see it’s left hand maybe something happens to it? One of those somethings could be that Slowpoke fishes out a Shellder with it’s hand instead of it’s tail. This could result in some sort of powerful shell fist? or a rocket arm shell? who knows? When I was drawing this it reminded me of a arm cannon so I added the same “smoke/aura” I used on my Galarian Slowking (or Queen?) 

I’m REALLY hoping on top of all the cool new Slow-ness we also get Gigantamax forms of both these majestic beasts! Maybe something like a Slowpoke surrounded by a giant Shellder coral reef? Maybe because the Corsola of Galar are dying it could look like dying angry coral reef? Here’s a sketch up of the idea I had.

...Well that's about all I have to say about our new Galar Slow family. Seeing as how this has become a Slow Family appreciation post I'll continue with the odd looking Shellders.

Johto Shellder & Johto Cloysters!

Using very old concept art for variations on the Shellder shells attached to Slowbro's tail, I came up with the art for this Shellder trio. Not to mention in the Beta for Pokemon Gold and Silver it was revealed that this Shellder was going to be a stand alone Pokemon! Because of that Beta I'll be referring to them as Johto Shellder and Johto Cloysters.

It's said that when Shellder attaches to Slowpoke not only does it's shape change to become more defensive but also to get as much flavor out of the tail as possible. I thought a neat way to acquire this Johto Shellder would be to "evolve" a Slowbro at a high level holding an item and an open slot in your party I was thinking you could give Slowbro some sort of berry that fills up a Pokemon for a very long time with a single bite. Leveling up a Slowbro holding this berry causes an abundance of nutrients to flow to the Johto Shellder. Being full, it lets go of the tail but retains its form. This leaves the trainer with a Slowpoke in the empty slot and a brand new Johto Shellder in it's place! From Here I figured you could evolve the Johto Shellder in two ways. A higher defense stat would result in the small but thick Johto Cloyster and with a higher attack stat it would evolve into the soft but super spiky Johto Cloyster! woo! I Haven't really decided the typing of these Pokemon yet. 

The Johto Shellders I drew originally came from an older project I was working on. If you want to check out "Capsule Monsters 0 & 1" you can follow this link:

https://funhaversclub.tumblr.com/post/49391556862/just-like-before-with-every-picture-ive-added

Finally we have this Slowpoke with it’s little white belly exposed. This was a sprite used in the Japanese version of Pokemon Gold and Silver before being changed when it was released everywhere else. I thought this could be seen as a rarer type of Slowpoke that is VERY hard to find BUT has much higher stats. Kind of like a unique shiny. That OR it could be the Slowpoke that you get after evolving a Johto Shellder. 

Speaking of Shiny. This entire family of Slows and Shells have some unique shiny forms. We have yet to see Galarian evos Shinys but maybe I'll update this post with an interpretations of what I think they could look like later? for now here are all the shiny versions we currently have!

Since the Galarian Slowpoke has been implemented into Pokemon Sword and Shield we know what the Shiny Galarian Slowpoke looks like. Based on that, I’ve “Shiny-fied” my predictions of the Galarian Slowbro and Slowking.

I can’t wait to see what these guys actually turn out to look like! :)

I've taken some artistic liberties above but for a complete fan fic Slowbro evolution check out this idea on what other shells Slowbro could acquire:

https://funhaversclub.tumblr.com/post/115033630741/a-new-pokemon-fan-trend-going-around-its-drawing

Welp thank you for coming to my Slow Family ted talk. I'll leave you with a picture of a Slowpoke I found down by the beach near my house :) What a cutie.

#Pokemon Shield #Pokemon Sword #Pokemon #Slowbro #Slowpoke #Galar Slowbro #Galar Slowking #Slowking #Galar Slowpoke #Cary Frank #Shellder #Cloyster #Galar Region #Fun Havers Club #the Fun Havers Club #the Isle of Armor #the Crown Tundra

[missusk]

Pecha Berries

A Pokemon Shield Nuzlocke Story.

Chapter 1 - Mediocrity

Mediocrity was the one thing she was ever really good at.

Dolly gazed out her living room window, slumping her head on her fist. Her fingers drummed on the sill as she watched the trees sway back and forth, the spring wind wisping through strands of her hair. She picked at the skin surrounding her nails - an unfortunate habit, sure, but it was something to do.

She was never very popular, never very funny, and pretty average when it came to marks in school. Her ex-boyfriend said she was a solid 5/10, so she had that going for her. Not interesting enough to be pretty, not interesting enough to be ugly.

A few Sqwovets bumbled across the branches of the Slumbering Weald, a fat one cracking the branch and tumbling into a shrub below. She winced on his behalf. He seemed fine though, as he quickly scuttled back up her fencing.

Well, she has been known as being 'a pleasure to have in class', but that's about it.

Average on all accounts; the princess of plain, the queen of common, the czar of standard. If anything, It didn't matter if she was the best at something no one cared about.

“Hey Dolly, wanna come play?” the Sqwovet asked, flicking his tail back and forth. “Me an’ the boys are having a dung war later.”

Dolly resisted the urge to grimace.

“Thanks Jeremy, but uh, no thanks,”

"Why? You’re not doing anything,” the Sqwovet huffed, setting his hands on his hips.

She shrugged and he scrambled back toward the trees, calling back into the bushes.

"She’s not coming! I told you humans don’t play with their own dung!” 

“What a step back on the evolutionary ladder,” another voice grumbled as the shrubs rustled. 

Perhaps there was one interesting aspect about her - she could talk to Pokémon, not by her own choice, however. These daily requests for dung wars was exhibit A of why talking to Pokémon wasn’t as dreamy as everyone assumed it was. Exhibit B was Blipbug mating season. She shuddered at the thought and slumped over to the couch, flopping onto the flowery decorative pillows her mum picked out when they first moved to Postwick. 

It's not that she didn't enjoy doing things, it's just that she was completely average at them. Sometimes by her own account, sometimes not. A lot of people lived by a dramatic, inspiring mantra. Hers manifested in that half-assing anything was better than no-assing it, and easier than whole-assing something.

Her mum’s Munchlax snored in the corner, letting out quiet murmurs as he slept.

“Rawst berries…snrk …Sitrus berries…. snrrrt ….pork loin… hurk…” 

Dolly rolled her eyes as she flung a leg up on the back of the couch, pulled out her new Rotom phone, and started scrolling. Living in the world of Pokémon had perks, but sometimes pictures on social media weren’t one of them. Lady posing with a Slowbro here, Sudowoodo there, a picture of a sandstorm…even social media was average today. Her eyes began to droop until she saw a flash of gold and red.

"Ah! The exhibition match!" Dolly exclaimed, sitting up on her couch.

Now that was someone who was good at something. One of those blokes that was good at everything, probably. Champion Leon was tall, dark, and handsome, charismatic to a fault, and the most powerful person in Galar, next to Chairman Rose of course. They said he was bad with directions, but it’s not like that was a character flaw. The passion that he oozed through every pore was palpable, even through a screen. It was magnetic, pervasive, and it almost made her feel like she could feel that passion again one day, too.

Almost.

As she watched Leon's team decimate yet another Trainer, her mind began to drift. Charizard used Air Slash, which is effective against Fighting-types. Rubbish mistake sending a Machamp against his famous Charizard, what was this Trainer thinking? Has she ever even seen Leon battle before? Rubbish.

Even though Dolly allowed herself to believe she was absolutely average at everything, a small thought pricked the back of her mind as she evaluated the battle.

She was good at one thing, once. Pokémon battles.

But that thought didn't last very long.

"Hello, hello!"

The pseudo-politeness of that verbal knocking was Seismic Tossed into the dirt as a boy barged into the living room, along with a cotton sphere and dirt from a pair of shoes and two pairs of hooves.

"Oh, that your flash new phone, Dolls? Were you watching Lee’s exhibition match on it?"

She glanced up to see her purple-haired best friend grinning at her, with his trusty Wooloo partner grinning right along with him. A quick glance to the left revealed her mum grimacing at the now dirt-speckled carpet.

“Hi Hop,” she said. “And hi Wooloo,”

“Hi,” Wooloo replied sheepishly, hiding half of his face behind his Trainer.

"I've got all my brother's matches recorded anyway,” Hop continued, ignoring her greeting. “Don't you want to meet the legendary Champion in person?"

“That’s today?!”

Hop beamed and folded his arms over his chest as Dolly scrambled off her couch.

“You bet, it’s been on the calendar for months! That’s why I came here to get you! Lee’s coming into town today, so come on, get off your duff and let’s get moving!” 

“Yeah!” Hop’s Wooloo bleated as he raised his head in mock-triumph as his Trainer did.

Dolly trailed after her best mate who was already heading out the door.

“Going to Wedgehurst with Hop, bye mum!”

“Now wait a minute, Miss Dolores, you get your hat, remember the weather,” she scolded from the kitchen.

“And grab a bag, too, Lee’s probably going to have presents for us!” Hop sing-songed on his way out the door.

Dolly hopped to her room, slung her mum’s old leather bag over her shoulders, figured she’d be fine without her gran’s ugly old hat, and sprinted back to the front room. After a kiss on the cheek from her mum, she sprinted out the door.

“Now no going into the forest with the two of you!” her mum called from behind them.

“We know!” they replied simultaneously.

They trotted down the steps of her house and to the dirt path and a laugh exploded out of Hop’s mouth.

“Look at that bag, it’s about to pull you over! If Lee brings a Snorlax you’ll be all set!”

"Shut it, it’s the only one I’ve got," Dolly said, shoving at him with said bag. "If you’d like to buy me a new one at the boutique I’d be happy to trade it out,”

“No thanks, mate, I’m saving my money for potions and Poké Balls for when Lee endorses me for the Gym Challenge,” Hop whistled as a Wooloo came rolling by.

Their eyes followed it as it rolled into the fence near Dolly’s house.

“What’s a Wooloo doing here?” Dolly asked as it butted its head against the fence post.

“I see what you’re up to,” Hop grinned, marching up to it. He pulled at the Wooloo’s flank and backed it up. “Don’t go using Tackle on the fencing!"

“Don't go past that fence, little Wooloo, there’s some scary Pokémon in there,” Dolly agreed as Hop patted its head.

The Wooloo looked at her blankly. Odd for it to not respond... She had dozens of conversations with the Wooloo around here, but perhaps she had never spoken to this one specifically. Although her Curse was overall pretty terrible, talking with Pokémon was one perk - the only perk, really.

Hop brushed his hands off and grinned as the Wooloo scuttled off.

“Well now that that’s taken care of, let’s set off! You’ve still never met my big bro, right? You can’t miss out on your chance to meet the undefeated Champion!”

“It’s true,” Dolly grinned, hiking her bag up on her shoulders. “Someone so famous from such a nowhere town, and your brother, no less.”

“Yeah, well Postwick will be the hometown of two of Galar’s Champions once I get through with the Gym Challenge,” Hop grinned, pumping a fist in the air. “Speaking of nowhere towns, there’s Wedgehurst! Race you there!”

Hop took off at a sprint, kicking up dust as he ran towards the Wedgehurst train station. Dolly snickered and took off right behind him.

The plaza was filled with spectators and villagers, which wasn’t too challenging, to be honest, as their little villages weren’t exactly a thriving metropolis. They reached the back of the crowd, peering around bodies and through the arms of folks gathered to see their beloved Champion. The crowd erupted with cheers, and Hop and Dolly saw a flash of fire and a twirl of gold.

“Hello, hello, Wedgehurst!” they heard from through the crowd. “Your Champion Leon is back!”

Hop was grinning ear to ear as they pushed their way through the arms and legs of the spectators, Leon addressing the people of Wedgehurst. Once they finally made it to the front, Hop stumbled forward, beaming at his older brother. Dolly followed behind him, curiosity burning in her to see the undefeated Galar Champion in person. She had seen so many matches on the telly and scrolling through her phone, and she had imagined countless times what it would be like to meet someone so charismatic and passionate. Well, not countless. She didn’t daydream about the Champion that often. 

Anyway.

He stood tall, a dark red and gold cape slung over his shoulders. She could immediately see the resemblance between the two brothers as they stood grinning at each other, each with a megawatt smile, golden eyes, and indigo hair. He seemed even more dynamic in person as he ran to give his younger brother a hug. He ruffled Hop's hair as they stepped back.

“So, my number-one fan in all the world has come out of his way to pick me up! Look at you, Hop! I reckon you’ve grown…” he said as he scratched at his chin, then snapped his fingers. “Exactly an inch and a quarter since the last time I saw you!”

“Bingo! That’s the sort of sharp eye that’s kept you undefeated for so long, eh, Lee?”

Hop was vibrating with excitement. Suddenly, Leon turned her way, taking in her appearance as well. A grin appeared on his face.

“And these bright eyes over here,” he started, making his way toward Dolly. 

Automatically Dolly stood a bit straighter, her mind racing for something clever or interesting to say that could possibly surprise or enrapture Galar’s famous Champion. He approached her, still smiling his million-dollar smile. Dolly felt like she was about to turn to a puddle.

“You must be Dolly - am I right? I’ve heard loads about you from my little brother,” he grinned, looking between her and Hop.

Now was her chance to make a good first impression.

“Yes.”

Nailed it.

“Now that we’re all acquainted,” Hop grinned. “Bet I can beat you both back home!”

And with that, he took off sprinting to Postwick again. Dolly watched in horror as her safety net sprinted off, kicking up dust at the two of them. She was banking on Hop and Leon chatting all the way home as she walked beside them, basking in the glory of the Champion. What on earth did she have to say to the most famous person in the country? ‘Yes’? Because that went over great the first time. Leon let out a laugh as he watched his brother.

“Always got to be the best, that Hop. You know,” he said as he turned to Dolly. “With a proper rival of his own, I’m sure he could push himself to become something truly special.”

“Yes.”

He was surely captivated now.

Dolly stood beside him, waiting for Leon to finish addressing the crowd again. She pondered for a moment that sure, who wouldn’t want a good rival? An accountability partner with a dose of healthy competition was often a recipe for growth. She wasn’t sure where Hop would find that in their little town, though, but perhaps if he started out on the Gym Challenge like he always said he would, then maybe he’d find a suitable sparring partner. 

“Do you train Pokémon too, Dolly?” Leon asked as they started towards Postwick. Hop had already made it to the edge of Route 1, hopping back and forth as they made their way to him. 

“Ye- I mean uh, n-no,” she stammered, fiddling with her hands. “I did, once, but uh, not anymore.”

She certainly didn’t anticipate talking about this today, with the Champion, no less.

“Well, I hope you change your mind soon.”

“Come on, you Slowpokes!” Hop called, tapping his foot. “I could have made it to Kanto and back by now!”

A devious grin inched onto Leon’s face.

“Pardon me, Dolly, but I need to show my little brother that Galar’s Champion is truly the best. Not if I make it there first!” he yelled to Hop with a laugh, breaking into a sprint. Dolly watched as the two brothers ran beside each other, pushing and laughing as they raced back to their childhood home. 

She was nearly out of breath by the time she caught up, the two of them laughing and chatting in their front yard. She tried with every fiber of her being to breathe like a normal human and not the Weezing she felt like. Maybe if she willed it hard enough the sweat would disappear from her brow and the undefeated and surprisingly attractive Champion wouldn’t notice how completely out of shape she was.

“Finally, took you long enough,” Hop grinned, running to meet her at his front fence and pulling her arm. “Come on, Lee, you promised us a present! You brought Dolls and me some Pokémon, didn’t you?”

“Consider this the greatest present from the greatest Champion,” Leon grinned, waving his hands before him. “Come on out, you three!”

He turned to the makeshift pitch in their yard and tossed out three Poké Balls. In a flash, three Pokémon appeared, all running to explore the new space around them. In a burst of chaos they had managed to ignite one of the hedges, knock over the mailbox, and fall headfirst into the pond by slipping on a puddle of tears. After a grimace and some quick repairs, Leon called them to line up, which they dutifully obeyed. Hop pushed Dolly’s shoulder forward. 

“Go on Dolls, you pick first. I’ve already got Wooloo, after all.”

“P-pick?” she asked, eyes wide at the Pokémon before her.

She hadn’t had a Pokémon in years, not ever since her last partner. Even when Hop had tried to persuade her to catch a Wooloo to befriend his, she always made up some excuse to avoid the trip. He tried relentlessly for a while, but after years of attempting he eventually gave up. She glanced at Leon. But then again, the undefeated Champion of Galar had brought Pokémon all the way back for Hop, and for her, even though they had never met. She couldn’t turn down a gift from Galar’s Champion, right? She may be lazy, but she wasn’t rude.

Dolly looked to the options before her, trying her best to swallow her fear. The Sobble was looking at the ground, the Grookey was looking at the surroundings, and the Scorbunny was looking straight into her eyes.

Could she really do this? As she looked at each one, the reminder of her Curse flashed through her head like a gunshot. It could happen by one overpowered Solar Beam, a Blast Burn, a Hydro Pump. Sheer Cold, Fissure, Guillotine...she shook the thoughts out of her head. How could she have the audacity to choose who may meet an early end? The dried sweat on her forehead was chilling.

“Hey lady, are you going to pick one of us or not?” the Scorbunny yawned, scratching at his nose. He turned to the other two. “When do you think Mr. Leon will let us get some grub?”

“Soon, I expect,” Dolly replied, kneeling down. “We’re to have a barbeque later tonight.”

All three of them jerked their heads to her.

They stared wide-eyed as the Grookey and inched his way toward the Scorbunny. Cupping his hand on the wrong side of his mouth, he whispered.

“Did...did she just understand what you said?”

“Shit if I know!” the Scorbunny shouted, spurring more tears from Sobble. “But I do know she said barbeque!”

The Grookey slapped his forehead before shoving the shoulder of the Scorbunny.

“Try asking her something.”

“What color am I?” the Scorbunny asked, squinting his eyes.

“That depends,” Dolly responded, “Most of you is white, but you’ve got bits of red, orange, yellow…”

“A human can understand me!” he yelped, falling onto the grass.

Grookey and Sobble’s mouths dropped open Dolly could feel Leon’s gaze on her as Hop jumped up and down.

“See, Lee? I wasn’t pulling your leg when I told you she could talk to Pokémon! Brilliant, right?”

“Yeah, I’ve been able to since I was a kid,” she laughed nervously, scratching her neck. Was it wicked? Sure. Was it worth it? No.

“Hey lady! What am I thinking?” the Scorbunny interrupted, squeezing his eyes shut and scrunching his face. After a moment the Grookey thwacked him on the back of the head.

“She said she can talk to Pokémon, not read your mind.”

“Oh yeah.”

“So,” she said as she looked at each Pokémon again. “I’ll let you guys pick. Which one of you would like to be my partner?” 

Perhaps it wouldn’t be all on her if something were to happen again, right? She was torn from her thoughts when the Scorbunny immediately jumped up.

“Oh pick me! I want a Trainer who can speak Pokémon!”

The corner of her mouth twitched up, and she nodded her head.

“Well, that takes care of that,” she whispered, more to herself than anyone.

“Yes!” he yelled, bounding around her.

She laughed and held out her knuckles for a fist bump. He bounded around her again, then seeing her first, he prepared for a jump. Fist out, he jumped, overshot it, and punched Dolly square in the face and it only took a second before she was on the ground with a Scorbunny on her stomach.

“How’s that for first impressions,” the Grookey said, slapping his forehead again. 

First she saw stars, then the blue of the sky, then the wide grin of her new Scorbunny.

“Heh, sorry,”

“You’ve got quite the arm,” Dolly mumbled, rubbing her jaw and sitting up. The Scorbunny fell to her lap, still looking up at her.

“High attack,” she continued, opening and closing her jaw. “Pretty adamant...we’ll have to watch your special attack in the future. Do you have a name?”

The Scorbunny scratched his chin again.

“Hmm...Scorbunny.”

“Okay, well now is your chance to change it," Dolly said, letting out a laugh. "What would you like me to call you?”

“Something ace! Like...like...” he started, hopping off her lap. He paced back and forth, then looked around. “Like Mr. Leon!”

“Okay well I’m not going to call you Mr. Leon, just because you think he’s cool,” she added with a smirk and a glance to Leon. Though he was, indeed, very cool. “How about Jackson? I had an old rabbit stuffy named Jackson,”

“Awh, yeah that’s even better!” Jackson yelled, hopping up and down.

“Jackson it is then," she smiled.

“Right, then” Hop interrupted, helping Dolly up and stepping over to the remaining Pokémon. “I’ll go with Grookey. You and Wooloo will have to get well-acquainted, since we’ll all work together so I can be the next Champion!”

He held his arm out to Grookey, who cheered and raced up Hop’s arm until he was sitting on his shoulder. Leon grinned and walked up to them, nodding as Grookey cheered from Hop’s shoulder.

“I bet you will be, Hop. That’s why I brought along these Pokémon for the both of you, so the two of you can battle and train and grow stronger together to try to reach me!”

Dolly’s eyebrows furrowed. Reach him? Why? She supposed he didn’t often hand out rare Pokémon to strangers, so perhaps she shouldn’t be so surprised he’d want more Trainers out in Galar. Maybe she should just hand Jackson back off before she got too attached and all this got more misconstrued. 

“Oh, thanks Mr. Leon but-”

“Just call me Leon,” he grinned to her.

“Oh, right, uh, Leon, thanks and all but I’m not-”

“Alright!” Hop and Leon’s mum called as she made her way out of the house carrying a rack full of ingredients. “Enough with all this Trainer nonsense for one night! Dinner’s about ready, so bring your Pokémon and wash up!”

Dolly’s sentence died in her throat as the two brothers sprinted into the house, pushing and laughing again as their Pokémon trailed behind them. Her mum walked up to her and hugged her arm around Dolly’s shoulders.

“You’ve got a new Pokémon, haven’t you, love?”

Dolly looked down to Jackson, who was gazing between the two of them expectantly.

“I guess so,”' she said with a faint smile. “I certainly didn’t expect today to be filled with so many surprises,”

“Well, I’m glad. I know I’m always nagging on you to get up and do something, and this seems like the perfect avenue for it. I think it will be good for you,” she added, gazing at Dolly with an understanding only her mum could muster.

Dolly nodded weakly and let out a sigh. Even her mum now, too?

“You gonna eat or what,” Hop asked as he walked up to the two, barbeque sauce smeared on his cheek. “Mum says you better get some before Lee eats it all.”

Dolly’s mum clapped and ran back into the house, stating that she forgot to add her secret spice blend to the vegetables. Hop looked to Dolly and swallowed the rest of his kabob. 

“I told you Lee was the coolest,” he grinned, sauce still smeared on his cheek. “I asked him to bring you a Pokémon too, hope you don’t mind. I figured you just didn’t like the ones around here, and that’s why you’d never catch one. Now we can battle together! It’ll be ace, you and me, getting endorsed and doing the Gym Challenge together!” Hop enthused, bobbing his kabobs up and down with enthusiasm. Grookey on his shoulder kept swiping at the meat on top, to no avail as Hop kept bouncing them up and down.

Dolly looked at her best mate, gung-ho and enthusiastic for her in a way she could never be for herself. She probably wouldn't be very good at it, but maybe if she could support Hop in his journey and muddle through a handful of Gyms before dropping out. She nodded. Yeah, that was a good plan. Catch no more than six Pokémon, beat the first Gym, release her team all back into the wild, then drop out and move back to Postwick and watch her friend become the new Champion and achieve his dream. Less risk, that way, to herself and her new Pokémon. She wouldn’t get too close, just in case.

Looking down to her new Scorbunny, to the hope and trust she could already see in his eyes, something in her heart tugged. Maybe keeping one would be fine.

The rest of the night came and went with everyone having full stomachs and full hearts. Dolly spent a sleepless night with her new Scorbunny, him asking her thousands of questions, and her finding an odd amount of joy in answering them. She had to admit, he was pretty funny, and as the sun rose they had ended up talking and learning about each other almost all night. They both liked spicy curry, they both knew how to juggle, and they both had an embarrassing fascination with Leon. The sun hit Dolly’s face, and she awoke to see Jackson snuggled beside her head on her pillow. She reached to pet him, a bit of love already built up between the two of them. Yeah, maybe keeping just one would be fine.

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Author’s Note (A/N): View story summary and full chapter index HERE!

Chapter Index:

Current: Chapter 1 - Mediocrity

Next: Chapter 2 - A Mysterious Encounter

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[ohthehypocrisy]

Castform for Pokemon Unite!

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The weather is a force of nature as fickle as it is powerful. Humans have conquered many aspects of nature, but the forces that guide this world are not one of them. As such, the best we can do is predict its next move with our most advanced computers and data collecting experiments.

But who could've predicted Castform coming to Pokemon Unite? Not me, that's for sure. But if it did, I believe it would look something like this...

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Did you know that Castform was made in a lab by human researchers? Yes, just like its fellow contemporaries, it owes its existence to people trying to control forces beyond their understanding. But while pokemon like Mewtwo and Genesect were blessed with power and abilities far exceeding the norm, Castform was blessed with...uniformity. Yeah, these numbers feel more like a curse, as Castform lacks any meaningful impact with these stats and has to rely on abusing the weather to get the most damage.

But, it is a bona fide weather machine, which we've already established is extremely powerful. For that reason, I designate Castform with the role of an...

Attacker

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Basic Attack - Ranged/Sp. Attack

Becomes a boosted attack after two hits, dealing more damage. The boosted attack changes effect depending on the pokemon’s form. In Sunny Form, an explosive fire ball is launched, damaging all nearby enemies. In Rainy Form, a stream of water is launched, pushing enemies away. In Snowy Form, multiple ice shards are launched and the pokemon’s movement speed increases momentarily.

The projectile properties of each boosted basic attack changes depending on which form Castform is in. Sunny Form has the boosted basic attack explode, Rainy Form has the boosted basic attack fire a stream of water similar to Blastoise, and Snowy Form launches 4 shards of ice that can be intercepted by other pokemon and increases Castform's Movement Speed by 50% while the projectiles are flying.

In Normal Form, the boosted basic attack has no special properties other than dealing extra damage.

Now, just like Mewtwo and Aegislash, Castform comes with a form changing gimmick, which is its entire deal. The details of actually changing forms aren't mentioned here, but we'll worry about that later.

For now, you need to understand what's within your power when you're in a particular form. When in Normal form, the basic attack...does nothing special. I mean, it's stronger when boosted, but most basic attacks are. The real power comes from when Castform is in one of its three weather forms.

In Sunny Form, the boosted basic attack explodes when it hits an enemy, making it effective at handling groups of enemies. In Rainy Form, the range is a little limited, but it Shoves enemies away on hit, like Squirtle's Water Gun. It's a good effect to have for such a frail Attacker. The Snowy Form behaves like a weaker version of Glaceon's Icicle Spear, though not as strong or annoying. It just fires multiple ice shards that can be intercepted by the enemy, and because you're made of ice in this form, you can skate around at increased speed while launching these ice shots.

This is all well and good, but how does form changing work? Is it a permanent effect or what? Let's read the weather report now.

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Ability: Forecast

At the start of battle, and after returning to base, the pokemon will be in its Normal Form. The pokemon changes form after using certain moves. In Sunny Form, the pokemon’s moves deal more damage the longer the form is retained. In Rainy Form, the pokemon’s movement speed is increased slowly. In Snowy Form, the pokemon gains a shield that slowly grows.

Castform starts each round in Normal Form, as well as after respawning and after manually recalling to base. The boosting effect of Forecast is reset each time this happens.

Castform can change into Sunny Form, Rainy Form, or Snowy Form by interacting with its moves Sunny Day, Rain Dance, Hail, Weather Ball, Heat Wave, Hydro Pump, and Blizzard. This form change is similar to evolution where Castform becomes invincible during the transformation.

In Sunny Form, Castform's Moves deals 2% extra damage each second, maxing out to 50% after 25 seconds.

In Rainy Form, Castform's Movement Speed increases by 2% each second, maxing out to 50% after 25 seconds.

In Snowy Form, Castform generates 1% shield every second, maxing out to 25% shield after 25 seconds. If damaged, the shield will refill on its own.

According to the Forecast ability, the day will start out normal, but as time goes on, there will be equal chance of sun, rain, and hail soon after. Huh? What kind of data is this? Is someone messing with the air currents or something?

Why yes, it'd be none other than Castform, most likely. Through using its moves, Castform will change into one of its 3 forms, Sunny Form, Rainy Form, and Snowy Form. The exact details of how still aren't apparent to us, but let's take shelter for now and read the report, as it's very prudent to study up on meteorology for this pokemon.

Castform's ability, Forecast, is not only responsible for changing its form, but also for slowly powering up the little cloud bean. While it is possible to change forms repeatedly, Forecast grants you a special bonus if you manage to stick it out in one of the fickle weather forms.

In Sunny Form, Forecast slowly increases the damage your moves deal, 2% a second, maxing out to 50% after 25 seconds. This is Castform's most powerful form, as it is a ranged attacker with plenty of wide reaching moves that cover the whole area, like a hot summer day.

Forecast has your Movement Speed slowly increase at the same rate while in Rainy Form, which has something to do with everything becoming slippery during a long shower. It may not be as strong as Sunny Form, but a ranged attacker that slowly becomes faster is not to be underestimated.

You get a slowly increasing shield in Snowy Form through Forecast, since it reflects how a gentle snowfall can become dangerous by slowly covering everything in ice, including the pokemon itself. It maxes out to 25%, but the upside is that it will always refill even if it gets damaged a little. But even 25% shield won't turn a frail Attacker into a tank, so you still gotta play it cool, especially if your form has just changed.

Enough of these weather predictions. It's time to get out there and enjoy the day, come wind, rain, or shine!

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At the start of the game, Castform will be in its Normal Form and will always revert to this form after respawning or manually retreating to base. You can choose between Ember/Water Gun/Powder Snow and Sunny Day/Rain Dance/Hail as your first moves. By Level 3, you'll have learned both.

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Move 1: Ember/Water Gun/Powder Snow (Ranged)

Ember - Throws burning cinders in a wide arc. The cinders stick to opposing pokemon and explode when the user damages them with a basic attack in Sunny Form. Water Gun - Launches a stream of water directly forward. Doused enemies are more susceptible to the Shove effect of the user's basic attack in Rainy Form. Powder Snow - Freezes the designated area with snow, reducing the Movement Speed of opposing pokemon.

When the user changes forms, Ember, Water Gun, and Powder Snow will switch as well to reflect the user's form. The user's basic attack becomes boosted afterwards. 8s cooldown.

When learned, Ember is the first move Castform will know if it learns this move while in Normal Form. Otherwise, it will reflect the current form. Afterwards, the move will only change when Castform changes form as well.

Ember deals damage to all enemies in a fan shape in front of Castform. The embers stick to opposing pokemon afterwards for 3 seconds and explode when Castform damages them with its boosted basic attack while in Sunny Form, dealing 30% extra damage.

Similarly, Water Gun douses enemies for 3 seconds and increases the distance they are Shoved by Castform's boosted basic attack while it's in Rainy Form.

Powder Snow reduces the Movement Speed of opposing pokemon caught in the attack by 30% for 3 seconds.

Because of Castform's mastery over adapting to the weather, it isn't able to use just one form of an attack. No, as soon as the match starts, it is at the mercy of the whimsical waves of the weather.

Ember, Water Gun, and Powder Snow are all moves Castform can use in one slot, but it will only use one of these moves at a time, depending on Castform's current form. If it changes into its Sunny Form, Ember will be switched in. In Rainy Form, it'll be Water Gun, and in Snowy Form, it'll be Powder Snow. These moves all behave a little differently, but not differently enough that it's hard to keep track of their effects.

These changes are automatic, so there's no need to manage anything other than your form changing. It's how you use these moves when they're available to you, that's what matters.

Ember burns all enemies in a fan shape directly in front of you, and sticks cinders on the enemy that explode when Sunny Form Castform uses its boosted basic attack on them. Oh, that's really useful, as using Ember, or Water Gun or Powder Snow for that matter, automatically boosts your basic attack when the moves are used. The cinders don't stick for long though, so this effect is only useful to you if you use this move while in Sunny Form.

Water Gun has a similar bonus where it douses enemies, which causes them to be Shoved further away when hit by Rainy Form's boosted basic attack. Likewise, the dousing effect doesn't stay for long, so you'll only see this boon when Castform is soaked with rain water.

Powder Snow doesn't do anything extra aside from slowing enemies down a little. But when you combine this with the momentary speed boost gained from Snowy Form's boosted basic attack, you'll feel like an ice skater slash gunslinger, outspeeding opposing pokemon.

If for whatever reason you are changed back into your Normal Form, the last move you know will stick. These moves are still powerful, but not as useful to you without your form changed. Let's learn how to change forms now with your other move.

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Move 2: Sunny Day/Rain Dance/Hail (Area)

Sunny Day - Casts a burning light at the designated area, dealing a little damage to enemies over time. Enemies within the light will receive more damage from Ember, Flamethrower, or Solar Beam. Rain Dance - Summons a shower of rain at the designated area, dealing a little damage to enemies over time. Enemies within the rain will receive more damage from Water Gun, Water Pulse, or Thunder. Hail - Brings down hail stones at the designated area, dealing moderate damage to enemies over time. Enemies caught in the hail storm will receive more damage from Powder Snow, Ice Beam, or Hurricane.

This move randomly shuffles each time it is used. If the user enters the area of effect, it will change to its respective form. 8.5s cooldown.

When learned, and each time one of these moves are used, the move will randomly become either Sunny Day, Rain Dance, or Hail. There is a 33% chance that the move won't change as a result of this random shuffling.

Sunny Day deals damage over time to all enemies within the area of effect and also increases the damage of Ember, Flamethrower, and Solar Beam by 30% when damaging enemies within the area of effect. The damage over time effect scales with Castform's Sp. Attack. If Castform enters this area of effect, it will change into its Sunny Form.

Rain Dance deals damage over time to all enemies within the area of effect. It will also increase the damage enemies receive from Water Gun, Water Pulse, and Thunder while within the area of effect. The damage over time effect scales with Castform's Sp. Attack. If Castform enters this area of effect, it will change into its Rainy Form.

Hail deals more damage over time to enemies within the area of effect compared to Sunny Day and Rain Dance and it also scales with Castform's Sp. Attack. The damage enemies receive from Powder Snow, Hurricane, and Blizzard are also increased while they're within the area of effect. Castform will change into its Snowy Form when entering the area of effect.

All 3 moves linger for 4 seconds.

Having been born in the elements, Castform can manipulate the weather as easily as it can breathe. But even so, the power to dictate the mood of the day is not something it likes to hold power over, so it instead randomizes which weather forecast gets read when it uses a weather changing move.

Yep, it has the ability to use either Sunny Day, Rain Dance, or Hail, but it prefers to use these moves randomly, to maintain the whimsical nature of the weather itself. That's all well and good, but it makes it a bit difficult to control, no?

That's the point. You can't really 'control' the weather as much as you can plan around a sick day. It just has to happen naturally.

Even so, these are powerful moves to start the game off with. Each one has the same effect of dealing damage over time within a specific area of effect, but Castform will react to each one depending on the weather type. It'll turn into Sunny Form within Sunny Day, Rainy Form within Rain Dance, and Snowy Form within Hail. Since these moves come out at random, the form you can change into will be chosen at random just as well.

Just like a rainy day or some snowfall, you have to plan around which weather pops up, especially since each one grants some extra power to your moves when they're used. We've already explained what Ember, Water Gun, and Powder Snow do, but they become even more damaging if they hit an enemy within the respective weather effect.

These weather moves cover a wide area too, which is how Castform gets its Attacker power going. Although, Ember, Water Gun, and Powder Snow are a little on the weak side, so you'll need to deal a lot of damage in order to get enough EXP to improve these moves of yours.

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At Level 5, Ember/Water Gun/Powder Snow will become either Flamethrower/Water Pulse/Ice Beam or Solar Beam/Thunder/Hurricane.

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Move 1a: Flamethrower/Water Pulse/Ice Beam (Ranged)

Flamethrower - A blazing stream of fire is launched directly forward. Opposing pokemon receive more damage the longer this move is used. The rate of damage of Flamethrower is increased when the user is in Sunny Form. Water Pulse - Multiple rings of water energy are cast forward in the designated direction. Each ring has an increasing chance to Stun opposing pokemon. The water rings are bigger when the user is in Rainy Form. Ice Beam - A freezing ray of ice is launched directly forward, reducing the movement speed of enemies caught in the attack. The movement speed reduction increases the longer this move deals damage. If the user is in Snowy Form, opposing pokemon will be Frozen briefly when this movement speed reduction is maxed out.

The move changes between Flamethrower, Water Pulse, and Ice Beam when the user changes forms appropriately. The user's basic attack becomes boosted afterwards. 8.5s cooldown.

At Level 9, Flamethrower/Water Pulse/Ice Beam becomes Flamethrower+/Water Pulse+/Ice Beam+.

Reduced cooldown.

The move will change between Flamethrower, Water Pulse, and Ice Beam when Castform shifts into any of its respective forms with the exception of Normal Form. When learned, the move becomes Flamethrower if Castform is in Normal Form.

When used, Castform will hold the direction it is aiming at while using these moves and can continue to move while attacking. All variations of this move last for 2.5 seconds.

Flamethrower deals increasing damage to enemies it hits consistently, increasing as much as 100% when the attack is maintained. In Sunny Form, the rate of damage increases, reaching max damage sooner and boosting the overall damage output.

Water Pulse launches one ring of water every 0.5 seconds, totaling 5 water rings in one attack. Each water ring has a 20% chance to Stun. In Rainy Form, the rings double in size. Each projectile travels forward independently of one another.

Ice Beam reduces opposing pokemon's Movement Speed by 10% each second when the damage is maintained. It maxes out to 30% after 1.5 seconds, and will Freeze enemies in place if this happens while Castform is in its Snowy Form. The range of Ice Beam is very long.

The cooldown of these moves is reduced to 7 seconds when the moves are upgraded at Level 9.

While Ember, Water Gun, and Powder Snow were simple and easy enough to explain, the evolution of these moves means that they'd have to upgrade to the stronger variants in Flamethrower, Water Pulse, and Ice Beam naturally. Now, I don't regret making this post or the work I'm putting into it, but stuff like this makes it a bit hard to keep the post well maintained and interesting enough to read through, and it's just like that typing it out too. Hopefully you get the gist of this move as it's explained.

Now, Flamethrower, Water Pulse, and Ice Beam are functionally identical to each other in the style of attack, but each one varies slightly in order to be useful in all kinds of situations. It's also meant to reflect how each attack benefits each form Castform can take. To that end, keep in mind the boons of Forecast's form change ability and how it slowly increases Castform's abilities as the battle goes on.

Flamethrower is a beam like projectile that spews hot flames directly forward. This attack deals damage constantly in the chosen direction, and slowly builds up damage while doing so. The rate of damage is higher if you're in Sunny Form, so try not to stay in Normal Form for too long.

Water Pulse fires water rings directly forward, each one with a slight chance of Stunning the enemy on hit. Focusing your attack in one direction gives you good odds at Stunning an enemy once or twice, but you can move about in such a way that you can form an advancing wall of water rings traveling in the designated direction. In Rainy Form, these rings are bigger, making them harder to avoid.

Ice Beam behaves similarly to Flamethrower, except it has much better reach but lacks the gradual damage boosting effect. What it does, however, is that it weakens the opposing pokemon's Movement Speed the longer it damages an enemy, capping out to a generous 30% after 1.5 seconds. If you are in Snowy Form, this Movement Speed debuff turns into a Freeze status effect instead, hindering enemies and stopping them in their tracks.

All of these moves are powerful, but even moreso when combined with the boons of Forecast and your weather move, Sunny Day, Rain Dance, or Hail. By covering a wide area, you can really ruin the opposing team's day by spreading your attacks everywhere. The only thing you have to keep in mind is how each weather event is random, so you make do with what you get.

Like I said, you don't plan for the weather, you take advantage of it.

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Move 1b: Solar Beam/Thunder/Hurricane (Area)

Solar Beam- A burning beam of sunlight is fired from the sky, targeting the designated area. The beam can be directed, slowly losing power over time. If the beam crosses over Sunny Day, Weather Ball Fire, or Heat Wave, the beam regains its power. Thunder - Lightning bolts will occasionally strike at the designated area. The lightning bolts can be directed, losing frequency as they go. If the lightning bolts aim at Rain Dance, Weather Ball Water, or Hydro Pump, a lightning bolt will be guaranteed to strike with an increased explosion range, and the frequency of bolts is reset. Hurricane - A flurry of ice wind is summoned at the designated area. The winds can be directed, losing size and speed as they move about. If the snow storm blows over Hail, Weather Ball Ice, or Blizzard, the winds will increase to beyond their maximum size and their speed is reset.

The move changes between Solar Beam, Thunder, and Hurricane when the user changes forms appropriately. 8.5s cooldown.

At Level 9, Solar Beam/Thunder/Hurricane becomes Solar Beam+/Thunder+/Hurricane.

Increases the area of effect and travel speed of these attacks.

Solar Beam, Thunder, and Hurricane will switch with each other when Castform changes to a respective form, with the exception of Normal Form. If Castform is in Normal Form when it learns this move, the initial move will be Solar Beam.

All three moves must be controlled with the right stick, though the travel speed of these attacks is slower than the average movement speed rate. When the moves are upgraded, the travel speed of these attacks match normal Movement Speed and the area of effect increases by 25%.

When used, Castform can move normally, but must also direct the move with the other control stick. If Castform is KO'd, the move ends.

Each move lasts for 5 seconds and the move will go on cooldown when the effects end.

Solar Beam loses 15% of its power with each second after it is cast, falling by as much as 60% before ending. This power resets when the beam is directed into the area of effect of Sunny Day, Weather Ball Fire, or Heat Wave.

Thunder deals damage over time very quickly in a designated area, though the rate of damage decreases over time. This rate of damage resets when the attack is directed into the area of effect of Rain Dance, Weather Ball Water, or Hydro Pump.

The size and travel speed of Hurricane decrease as the move is used. The size and travel speed of Hurricane is reset when the attack is directed into the area of effect of Hail, Weather Ball Ice, or Blizzard.

Now, while Castform can't fully control the weather, it can take advantage of certain factors to summon these attacks. It's like, you can't stop it from being so windy, but you can at least fly a kite better.

Just like with Ember, Water Gun, and Powder Snow, Castform will summon different attacks depending on its form, and each one is powerful in their own right. They do run off of weather power, though, so it's better to use these moves when the appropriate weather attack is in effect.

Solar Beam has Castform condense the sun's rays into a powerful beam and brings it down, like a giant magnifying glass. The sun doesn't sit still for long, so Solar Beam quickly starts losing power. If Sunny Day or Heat Wave is nearby the attack, you can direct Solar Beam into these area of effects to rekindle the power of Solar Beam.

All of these moves behave like this in the same way with their respective weather phenomena. Oh, Weather Ball also affects these moves too, but it's not entirely reliable. You'll see.

Thunder controls a very angry storm cloud to bring down a hail of lightning bolts as if they were rain drops. It's shocking, but it loses intensity as the attack goes on. Refuel the cloud's rage by directing it into Rain Dance or Hydro Pump, or Weather Ball Water.

Now, I'm cheating a bit by pairing Hurricane with the Ice type phenomena, but since the only other move related to ice and snow is Aurora Veil, a move Castform cannot learn yet, I had to make do. As an attack though, it summons whirling wind blades of ice in a large area, much bigger than Solar Beam or Thunder. The size and speed weaken as the move goes on, so bring it back up to speed by moving it into Hail or Blizzard.

Now, while you're directing these attacks, Castform has the ability to move about as well. It's great for a squishy Attacker to be able to move so fluidly, because if it gets attacked and interrupted, it'll lose control of these moves, though that's the least of your worries. These attacks do have a range limit, though that doesn't matter as much since Castform can push or pull away from the fight while using these attacks.

What's up with Weather Ball, though? Well, remember when I said that Castform enjoys the random nature of weather? ...yeah.

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At Level 7, Sunny Day/Rain Dance/Hail will become either Weather Ball or Heat Wave/Hydro Pump/Blizzard.

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Move 2a: Weather Ball (Area)

A condensed ball of cloud energy is gathered and falls down slowly at the designated area. When it touches the ground, it will erupt into a flurry of either Fire, Water, or Ice energy. Weather Ball Fire damages enemies and leaves them Burned for a short while. Weather Ball Water damages and Shoves enemies away from the center of the attack. Weather Ball Ice damages and Freezes enemies in place for a brief moment. If Castform is within this area of effect, it will change into the corresponding form with Forecast activated at half power. 10.5s cooldown.

At Level 11, Weather Ball becomes Weather Ball+

Increases the range of the eruption radius.

When Weather Ball is used, it appears in the sky above the designated area and takes 2 seconds to land onto the ground. When it touches down, it will explode into either Weather Ball Fire, Weather Ball Water, or Weather Ball Ice. This effect lingers for 3 seconds before disappearing.

If Castform enters this area of effect, it will change into its respective Form and will have Forecast start at half power, depending on the form. To recap, Sunny Form activated by Weather Ball will start out with 25% extra Move damage, Rainy Form will start out with 25% Movement Speed, and Snowy Form will start with 12.5% shield. Forecast is unaffected if the form doesn't change.

Weather Ball Fire Burns opposing pokemon caught in the blast for 5 seconds. It will also Burn enemies entering the area of effect.

Weather Ball Water Shoves enemies away from the center of impact and will continue to Shove enemies away until the move ends.

Weather Ball Ice will Freeze enemies in place for 2 seconds and deal damage over time to enemies within the area of effect.

Weather Ball+ expands this range of effect by 25%.

The randomness of Weather Ball is like a box of chocolates, but instead of chocolate, it's the concentrated fury of mother nature packed into a tiny little ball. It even falls with the restrained intensity of a gentle breeze foretelling a powerful storm, touching down with the rage of a thousand pressurized clouds.

Weather Ball as an attack is kind of annoying to deal with, especially if you're the one playing as Castform. It takes two seconds to reach the ground, which is way too slow for any ambushes or sneaky kill steals. But although it does deal damage, you won't know what the weather type will be like until it explodes. You can take the gamble and sit within the area of effect, taking whatever element pops up, or you can wait and see if it explodes into the desired weather element you need for the battle.

To compensate for this randomness, Weather Ball powers up your Forecast ability by half. Normally, you'd have to wait out the whole 25 seconds for Forecast to fully power up your weather form, but since Weather Ball is very useful in a fight, it rewards your gambling spirit by giving you the Forecast Ability at half power, regardless of what type you turn into.

The attack itself is pretty strong, since it covers such a wide area. Maybe it'll be obvious when and where it's gonna land, but its wide reach makes that a nonfactor, especially during fights near or at Objectives like Regieleki or Rayquaza. Also, the enemy won't know what kind of element it'll be either, but it's not something they'll want be caught in, giving you, a squishy Attacker, some breathing room.

Weather Ball Fire threatens to singe all caught enemies and leave them Burned. Weather Ball Water will splash water waves everywhere, forcing caught enemies out and away from the attack. Weather Ball Ice, however, will Freeze enemies on the spot if they get caught. None of these are effects the enemy team will want to deal with, not without hindrance protection at least.

The move does have a lengthy cooldown of 10.5 seconds, so that's something to consider. Although, it takes 2 seconds for the attack to drop and Weather Ball lingers for 3 seconds when it explodes, making the cooldown feel more like 5 seconds in total afterwards. The short time frame of the attack makes it seem like it'll be hard to combo Flamethrower or Solar Beam, but the 2 second delay actually makes it easy to coordinate the combination yourself. You know, if you're lucky enough to land the right element.

If you'd prefer the gentle randomness of the weather, you have three other options to choose from. All one move, of course.

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Move 2b: Heat Wave/Hydro Pump/Blizzard (Area)

Heat Wave - Superheats the air in the designated area, greatly damaging enemies without shields over time. Increases the damage enemies receive from Flamethrower or Solar Beam while within the area of effect. Hydro Pump - Shoots a huge volume of water in the designated direction, causing an eruption of water and rain to fall where the attack lands. The rainfall damages enemies over time and deals increased damage to shields. Also increases the damage enemies receive from Water Pulse or Thunder while within the area of effect. Blizzard - Summons a whirlwind of snow and ice at the designated area, dealing piercing damage to enemies within. Enemies will eventually Freeze while within the area of effect. Also increases the damage enemies receive from Ice Beam or Hurricane while within the area of effect.

When Heat Wave, Hydro Pump, or Blizzard is learned, and every time the move is used, it will randomly change into one of the three attacks afterwards. When the user enters the area of effect, it will change into its respective form. 9s cooldown.

At Level 11, Heat Wave/Hydro Pump/Blizzard becomes Heat Wave+/Hydro Pump+/Blizzard+.

Expands the area of effect.

When Heat Wave, Hydro Pump, and Blizzard is learned, and each time the move is used, the moves will switch randomly. There is a 33% chance the move won't change as a result of this random shuffling.

All three moves linger in effect for 4.5 seconds before ending. Castform will change into its respective form when entering the area of effect.

Heat Wave deals damage over time to enemies within, dealing 30% more damage to enemies without shields. Flamethrower and Solar Beam deal 35% more damage to enemies caught within the area of effect.

Hydro Pump deals damage over time to enemies within, dealing 30% more damage to enemies WITH shields. Water Pulse and Thunder deal 35% more damage to enemies caught within the area of effect.

Blizzard deals damage over time to enemies within and will eventually Freeze them for 2 seconds if they stay within the area of effect for 2 seconds. Ice Beam and Hurricane deal 35% more damage to enemies caught within the area of effect.

The area of effect of these moves increases by 25% when upgraded.

Similar in effect to Sunny Day, Rain Dance, and Hail, the moves Heat Wave, Hydro Pump, and Blizzard all affect a single area, dealing damage over time to all enemies within. These moves will also boost the power of your respective combo attack when hitting an enemy within, so make sure you line up that Ice Beam or Thunder just right.

These moves have a slight bonus effect as well. Heat Wave deals extra damage to enemies caught without shields, since a blistering summer day is rough to handle without any shade or protection. Hydro Pump, on the other hand, will slowly erode away any shields the opposing pokemon have, as the rain will wash everything away. Blizzard doesn't care about shields at all, as it deals piercing damage to enemies caught within. It'll also eventually Freeze these enemies, which reflects how powerful cold weather can be, bringing all of life to a standstill.

Just like Sunny Day and the other two weather moves, these attacks will shuffle around when used. It's just like Weather Ball in this regard, although you'll know what element you're throwing out before you use the attack. You'll also change forms when you interact with these moves, so you can shift elements if you so choose. Changing forms causes you to lose out on the accumulated boosts from Forecast, though, so think carefully about committing to the change of element.

A good day can be ruined by bad weather. A great day prevails in spite of it.

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Unite Move: Withering Weather (Buff)

The user creates catastrophic weather around it, the effect changing depending on which form the user has taken. If the user is in its Normal Form, it will change into a random form. Upon activation, Forecast will be activated at max power and the user's moves have their cooldown reset. While active, Withering Weather will lock in the local weather phenomena, preventing moves like Weather Ball from changing away from the user's Form type. Nearby opposing pokemon will have their Sp. Defense slowly reduced and the user will be immune to hindrances while Withering Weather is active.

Withering Weather will create a distortion of weather around the user, depending on which form Castform is in. If Castform is in its Normal form, it will randomly change into Sunny Form, Rainy Form, or Snowy Form and summon the appropriate weather phenomena.

This Unite Move casts bright sunlight with mirage waves, foggy black mist, or floating ice crystals in a wide area around the user, depending on what form Castform is in. This visual effect shows the full radius of Castform's influence while Withering Weather is active.

Withering Weather fully powers up Forecast when used, with the exception of Snowy Form as the shield you get starts out at 25% and will refill at a normal rate during the Unite Move.

Withering Weather will also prevent your moves from switching away to a different type. It means that Weather Ball will always be a Fire Type if you are in Sunny Form, or Heat Wave will not switch with Hydro Pump or Blizzard after the move is used.

All opposing pokemon have their Sp. Defense slowly reduced by 5% for each second their linger within Withering Weather's area of effect, maxing out to 50%. This debuff resets if they leave the Unite Move's area of effect. The Unite Move lasts for 15 seconds.

The final trick of Castform's weather forecast tomfoolery is no laughing matter. Bad weather is responsible for all sorts of terrible things in our world, from floods to ruined suburbs and global warming and ice age levels of snowfall. Thankfully, Castform harnesses only a fraction of this almighty force of nature, but the fraction used is devastatingly powerful.

First off, depending on what form Castform is in, Withering Weather will replicate it and reflect it into the air as a powerful weather phenomena. Sunny Form summons blazing sunlight, Rainy Form creates black fog and humid air, and Snowy Form casts ice crystals and permafrost all around itself. If Castform happens to be in Normal Form, a random weather form is chosen, but whatever one you get will serve you well regardless.

Withering Weather causes the changes in the air to lock in and become permanent, at least for the duration of the Unite Move. It locks in the weather forecast, causing Castform's Moves and Ability to react. The Forecast ability will trigger and fully boosts the respective stat all the way to max. This means that Sunny Form will have maxed out 50% extra damage using your moves, Rainy Form will max out to 50% Movement Speed, and Snowy Form will start out with a full 25% shield. In the case of the latter, the shield will continue to refill at a normal rate when it gets destroyed, so don't linger for too long around burst damage aimed against you.

The other effect of Withering Weather is that it causes Weather Ball, Heat Wave, Hydro Pump, and Blizzard to lock in to the local weather report. This means that, in Sunny Form, Weather Ball will always be a Fire Type move and Heat Wave will never change to Hydro Pump or Blizzard when used. This happens to Rainy Form and Snowy Form as well, solidifying your moveset for the next 15 seconds.

Lastly, Withering Weather puts a strain on the environment and opposing pokemon as well, as it causes them to slowly lose Sp. Defense they longer they stay within your range of influence. Withering Weather reaches very far, to account for the wide range of your moves like Hurricane or Ice Beam. While it does make it obvious to the opposing team that you're nearby, it does mean that a solid defense ploy from your teammates will increase your staying power and impact on the battlefield.

While you can choose which form to use pop Withering Weather with, actually managing your forms for the battle will be the hard part, but more on that later, in the Strategy section. For now, understand that Castform's Unite Move serves to illustrate how major the effect weather has on our world, no matter how small it is.

I mean, really small. Castform is only 1 foot tall, or 0.3 meters. Isn't there a saying, something about butterflies?

-

Achievements

Earn a KO Streak of 4 or more while Forecast is at half power or more.

The main job of pokemon in the Attacker role is to deal as much damage as possible to the opposing team. Most of the time, this results in a clean 2 or 3 KO Streak as recognition, but for the most part, the less opponents there are on the field, the better.

For Castform, it is very, very good at spreading damage all around due to the nature of its weather powered moves. With attacks like Weather Ball dealing damage in such a wide radius, Castform has one of the more straightforward achievement requirements of Attacker Pokemon so far.

Remember what its base stats look like, though. Not only is it terribly frail, it's also a bit weak on the offensive front. As it's been stated before, Castform relies on the weather to get the most out of its far reaching moves. Its Forecast ability helps it build up power the longer it's active, but it relies on you not getting KO'd too early to be effective.

This is where the Achievement comes into play as a learning tool. The 4 KO Streak is a tall order, even for some Attackers, but you need to get that 4th KO while Forecast has been running for at least 12.5 seconds. That's quite a bit of time to wait for Forecast to power up, but it is when Castform is at its strongest, feasibly of course.

If you want to get this achievement, you'll have to learn how to be patient. You'll also have to learn how to not get KO'd. You'll also need to learn how to aim your attacks to spread the most damage. You know, just regular Attacker things.

When the rain comes down, bring the thunder!

-

Holowear

While Castform isn't the only pokemon that can change forms in Pokemon Unite, it does impact its gameplay the most. So much so that, unfortunately, most fabulous Holowear will only be visible to Castform while it's in its Normal Form. Unless we downgraded the style to just hats, I'm afraid we've got limited options in playing dress-up with the little weather bean.

Let's try our best anyway. Starting things off, Magical Style Holowear gives Castform a big swirly witch's hat, with cloud pins and lightning stickers decorating it. With Leafy Style Holowear, Castform gets a large leaf that it uses like a parasol, along with a hat made of foliage. Farmer Style Holowear gives it a big straw hat and a sprig of wheat hanging out of its mouth. But for a bit of class, Fashionable Style Holowear gives Castform a big top hat with a brooch tacked onto the side. Lastly, for some extra rare pizzazz, Prepared Style Holowear gives it a warm snow hat, along with some sunglasses and a plastic umbrella that it uses to cover itself, just in case any weather event comes to try and ruin its day.

-

Strategy

With the power of the weather at your disposal, using Castform optimally is a simple as picking which terrible weather event you want to rain over your enemies. It sounds easy enough, especially with such wide reaching moves like Heat Wave and Water Pulse. But given the frailty of Castform, there's a trick to maintaining a presence on the battlefield.

For the most part, it boils down to understanding how each weather effect benefits Castform. Sunny Form, Rainy Form, and Snowy Form slowly power up the pokemon the longer it stays in that form, so you may think it'd be optimal to retain one weather phenomena for the whole game, right?

Well, not quite. I mean, you could, but the point of being able to use 3 different forms is to be adaptable. Think of each time you are KO'd, you are losing a stock. If it happens while you're in a form like Rainy Form, then you would think you'd have better luck in either Sunny Form or Snowy Form. That's usually correct, as the flow of battle can change by the minute, as each Form not only boosts a different stat, but uses a different move, which can improve your odds in fighting the opposing team.

Sunny Form has your moves get stronger the longer the form is retained, which results in either Flamethrower or Solar Beam starting out with increased damage. These moves have the least range, though, and that's by deliberate design. They shred the HP of tanks that lack mobility like Slowbro or Lapras, but they have difficulty reaching more agile characters like Zeraora or Cinderace, even though these attacks hit hard.

Speaking of slipperiness, Rainy Form slowly increases your movement speed as the form is retained, making you harder to catch while you're using Water Pulse or Thunder. Since Water Pulse is very likely to Stun on hit, it makes for a great attack for approaching or retreating. Thunder less so, but you can circle the fight with greater ease while raining lightning bolts everywhere.

Now, you are a frail Attacker, so you'd think the shield grown in Snowy Form wouldn't be that useful, and you'd be right. But it makes Ice Beam and Hurricane much safer to use. It makes it more realistic to slow down enemies with Ice Beam and eventually freeze them in place, as long as you utilize proper spacing. While Hurricane doesn't grant any debuffs, it still hits really hard, even while it's shrinking and losing speed. With a big enough shield, you can get a head start on punching holes in the opposing team's fortifications.

It all depends on what the weather feels like. The random nature of the weather attack in Move 2 makes it difficult to benefit from in the middle of the fight. But the effects are powerful and worth using, even if it means an impromptu shift in the weather patterns for you and the Forecast Ability. At least Weather Ball gives your Forecast Ability a head start, but Heat Wave, Hydro Pump, and Blizzard have a longer lasting and more powerful impact on the opposing team.

As long as you are able to take things in stride, a little bad weather won't get in the way of a feel good day.

-

And this has been Castform for Pokemon Unite! My favorite thing about making these posts is turning bad pokemon into solid playable characters for the game, since each pokemon has plenty of personality to contribute. And that doesn't always mean they should be a Supporter either, like my Luvdisc or Delibird moveset. No, with a bit of imagination, even a little cloud bean like Castform can become a torrential weather nuke if played right, and that's what I'd like to see if it ever came to Aeos Island.

Now, we do have a major fan favorite coming next week. Make sure you stay tuned for that release. Until then, see ya!

#Pokemon Unite #Castform

[gelatinocomics]

Rating each generation of pokemon based on the number of marine invertebrates

I’m not much of a critic. It’s too hard to decide which generation of pokemon is best, because they’re all equally good. However, I am passionate about marine invertebrates, so that gives me a good, solid metric to work with. Let’s take a look through each generation and count up how much love they give to all our favorite goopy boys and crusty girls.

Note: I’m including any pokemon whose real-life inspiration is clearly a kind of aquatic invertebrate, not just ones that live in the ocean. Invertebrates of course can’t be any animal with a backbone, so fish, frogs, and lizards are out. Let’s get to it.

Kanto

Tentacool

Tentacruel

(Slowpoke)

(Slowbro)

Krabby

Kingler

Staryu

Starmie

Omanyte

Omastar

Kabuto

Kabutops

Total: 10 (12) Percent of this generation: 6.6% (7.9%)

We’re off to a very strong start. I knew kanto wouldn’t let us down with all its love for oddball animals. There are jellyfish, crabs, echinoderms, and molluscs galore. Slowpoke and slowbro are harder to place, because while they certainly look like some kind of terrestrial animal, they have a mythological origin related to a certain kind of sea snail. Special shout-out to our lovely fossil pokemon, which gave us a great start to a long tradition.

Johto

(Slowking)

Corsola

Octillery

Total: 2 (3) Percent: 2% (3%)

I’ll give these guys credit for being a small generation and essentially joined at the hip to Kanto, so Johto residents get plenty of love from the old invertebrates from last gen. Also extra credit to corsola for being one of my all time favorites, and for being very rare and important representation for coral (lots of little animals!).

Hoenn

Corphish

Crawdaunt

Lileep

Cradily

Anorith

Armaldo

Clamperl

Total: 7 Percent: 5.2%

The third generation is my favorite, so I’m glad to see it performing well here. The fossil pokemon are carrying on the honorable tradition of ancient marine invertebrates, who called earth their home for most of its history (sorry dinosaurs, you’ll get your due next generation). However, the fossil pokemon are also carrying most of the weight here, as Hoenn doesn’t offer much besides them. Could do a little better. At least another one of my faves is here (lileep!).

Sinnoh

Shellos

Gastrodon

Phione

Manaphy

Total: 4 Percent: 3.7%

What Sinnoh lacks in numbers, it makes up for in quality. Shellos and Gastrodon are the sea slug rep we never knew we needed, and they come in many fashionable flavors. We also get a legendary and an ambiguously-legendary kind of sea slug, the noble sea angel, getting the status they deserve. 2006 was truly the year of the slug.

Unova

(Dwebble)

(Crustle)

Frillish

Jellicent

Total: 2 (4) Percent: 1.3% (2.6%)

This is abysmal. I’m sorry Unova, you brought such a huge number of great pokemon to the scene, but where is the love for our spineless ocean friends? I included dwebble and crustle out of pity, since real life hermit crabs venture near the ocean at the very least.

Kalos

Inkay

Malamar

Binacle

Barbaracle

Clauncher

Clawitzer

Total: 6 Percent: 8.3%

In a shocking turn of events, Kalos sweeps away the competition, even beating Kanto percentage-wise. It’s a small group, but they come from a small generation, and they show their pride. Finally, the oft-overlooked barnacles get to join in the fun.

Alola

Crabrawler

Crabominable

Mareanie

Toxapex

Dewpider

Araquanid

Wimpod

Golisopod

Pyukumuku

Dhelmise

Nihilego

Total: 11 Percent: 12.5%

It’s no surprise that the region inspired by biodiverse Hawai’i shows lots of love to a wide variety of ocean dwellers. There’s a lot to talk about here, so let’s get started: Crabrawler has an uncanny resemblance to the coconut crab, which is typically found more on land than in water, but I’ll let it slide, especially since its evolution draws inspiration from a totally aquatic crab. Dhelmise is an odd case to judge, since it’s not an animal in any capacity. Its living portion is made of seaweed, and we don’t typically talk about algae having a backbone or not. However, since it clearly doesn’t, I’ll let it join the party. For these purposes I’m considering Nihilego some kind of bizarre jellyfish.

Galar

Clobbopus

Grapploct

Corsola (Galar)

Cursola

Pincurchin

Total: 5 Percent: 6.2%

I find it necessary to point out that not a single one of these marine invertebrate pokemon is water-type, which I think is very cool and fresh of them. I’m including corsola’s new form here because it’s a very nice and educational take on an old classic. Cursola just makes things even better with its spooky charms.

Conclusion

I think it’s safe to say that marine invertebrates have not been neglected in the world of pokemon. We’ve had a wide range of odd animals represented, but there’s always room for more. As for the generations, I think it’s clear that Kanto and Alola are the big winners here, but every generation gave us valuable contributions to the family. Even my favorite group, the echinoderms (starfish, sea cucumbers, urchins, etc.) have a decent number of representatives, perhaps enough for a full team. What kind of marine invertebrate would you like to see more of in the future?

#pokemon #marine biology #articles

[anotherpokemonheadcanonblog]

My granddaughter asked you how to take care of a houndoom, well i need some help, my buddy carl asked me to watch his 2 pokemon ( a slowpoke and stunky) and i said okay, well now it has been 5 weeks i got no word from him, so how do you take care of them (and i tried to give them to a shelter but my wife got attached) thanks for the help

Your buddy just abandoned them? Have you been able to get in contact with him. If you do plan on taking the pokemon in you need to know if they still registered under his trainer card. If you are going to keep them you and your wife should meet with someone to put them on one of your trainer cards without an official trade. It will cost a small fee but if you broke their pokeballs than tried to catch them there is no guarantee they would stay in the ball and they could run away so I’d say it’s best to just go and pay the fee. Never seen a fee over 500 pokédollars. 

Anyway, let’s move on to care! Slowpoke is going to be the easiest of the two to care for but you should always check on it’s well being. Slowpokes a very slow to feel pain so if your slowpoke is hurt it might not show signs for a few days or at all in its behavior but it could have hurt itself when you weren’t looking. Also if you don’t want slowpoke to evolve I’d suggest not letting it fish where Shellder can be caught. Slowpokes enjoy dipping their tails in the water to fish but if a Shellder bites slowpokes tail than you’ll have a Slowbro on your hands. Also if something does bite of a Slowpokes tail don’t worry they can’t feel any pain in their tail and it will grow back in a few days unless the stub gets infected then you’ll have to take slowpoke to the pokemon center and you’ll be given an ointment to help the tail grow back and deal with the infection. Also since Slowpokes are common targets of being poached because of their delicious tails if you guys want to cook and slowpoke tail you need to get a license. It’s not too hard to get one your Slowpoke just has to be registered to your trainer card and the slowpoke is examined, also you can’t have a criminal record. That’s all I’ve got to say for Slowpoke’s they are pretty chill Pokemon to live with after all. 

Now for Stunky. The number one thing for living with a Stunky is to build a relationship of trust with it. Make Stunky feel like it is in a safe environment so it’s less likely to unleash its noxious fluid on you. The fluid isn’t super toxic, worst case scenario the stench will give you a bad headache, the main issue is that the small is really nasty and can still be smelt for 24 hours. If Stunky releases the fluid inside the house DO NOT USE SWEET SCENT! I’ve seen people do this before but this just combines two really strong scents and can be so overwhelming your eyes water. The best thing to do is to open all the doors and windows in the house than use tailwind. The scent will mostly be carried out of the house. You might still faintly smell the fluid on things like your couch or bed but it won’t be as bad as before and goes away in 24 hours. Also washing clothing or sheets doesn’t do much to help the stench it’s probably just best to leave the clothes you were wearing and any blankets that have the stench outside for the 24 hours. 

Sorry this response was probably super late I hope this helped!

-Mod Carbink

#pokemon headcanons #slowpoke #stunky #aaaa I'm so glad you left another creative ask! this was fun to write

[pkmn-downtheline]

Just Numbers

“Wartortle. Poliwrath. Golisopod. Basculin. Slowbro…” Skye’s Rotom Dex listed off the names of each of the Pokemon before him, floating above their heads. He turned to Skye with a grin. “It’s a water Pokemon-palooza!”

“You bet!” Skye proclaimed, puffing out her chest. “These guys are gonna be my special strategy!” All of the Pokemon cheered in agreement.

Lizzie closed the book she had been skimming, raising a brow. “Special strategy? For what?”

Skye spun on her heel to face her, beaming. “For my battle against Mom, of course!”

It had been almost a year since Skye had begun challenging Kanto’s Champion League. In that time she had managed to beat three out of the four Elite: Sabrina, Koga, and Leaf. Her own mother, Misty, was the final challenge she had left before she could face off against the Champion--and she had specifically saved battling her for last.

Now the match was a little over a week away, and Skye had requested that Lizzie join her at Professor Oak’s ranch for some training. However, Lizzie deadpanned upon realizing the implications of Skye’s selected team. “You’re kidding, right?” 

Skye shook her head. “Nope!” She grinned, looking at Wartortle and the others. “We’re gonna go all-out with some tidal wave-packed action!” She punched her fist forward, and Wartortle did the same. “There’s no better way to battle my mom than with water-type Pokemon, after all!”

“Only using water-type Pokemon against a water-type Pokemon Master?” Rotom asked, a question mark popping up on his screen. “Calculating… Calculating…” 

The question mark morphed into a buffering circle. After a moment, an exclamation point took its place. Rotom gasped in horror. “But that brings your chances of winning down to less than 15%!” He hovered around Skye’s head in a panicked frenzy. “It could go as high as 40% if you used Manectric, Chesnaught, or Tangela instead!”

Skye narrowed her eyes, offended. “Only 40%?”

“My calculations are never wrong!” Rotom stated, proudly placing his hands to his sides. “Keep in mind, this is an Elite 4 member you’re going against!”

Skye huffed. “Well, whatever.” She waved Rotom off, flashing her other Pokemon a smile. “Calculations are just numbers. And numbers don’t matter in a Pokemon battle!”

“You say that…” Lizzie started, her eyes scanning all of the Pokemon in front of her. “But have you actually counted how many Pokemon you’re using?”

A question mark appeared on Rotom’s screen once more, and he hovered over the heads of each of Skye’s Pokemon. “One… Two… Three… Four… Five…” He paused, and then let out another horrified gasp. “Lizzie’s right! You only have five water-type Pokemon! Official battles against the Elite 4 require a full team of six!”

Skye perked up. “Ah, right. About that.”

“Hey! Skye!”

The sound of Gary Oak’s voice cut through their conversation. Both Skye and Lizzie looked at the laboratory to see the Professor walking toward them. He had a less than impressed look on his face.

“Oh, Professor!” Skye blinked as he approached. “What’s up?”

Gary stopped when he reached them, sliding his hands into his pockets. “There’s a package for you at the front door,” he explained, annoyed.

Skye lit up. “It’s here!”

Lizzie gave Skye a quizzical look. “You ordered something?”

“Yes, she did,” Gary answered for her, his voice dripping with irritation. “Now can you stop having things delivered to my lab? Have them sent to your own place.”

“Sorry, Professor,” Skye said with an apologetic grin. “But it’s a lot easier to have you sign off on mail for me since you never leave the house anyway.” Gary gawked, and Skye offered him a wave as she began sprinting to the laboratory. “Thanks!”

“Skye’s right, Professor,” Rotom agreed, a check mark popping up on his screen. “According to my calculations, Skye is only home 10% of the time… But your stay at home rate is 95.6%!”

Gary flinched. “Wh… What’s that supposed to mean!?”

Rotom snickered, zooming past the Professor in pursuit of his trainer. Lizzie laughed nervously, following after them. “Sorry, Professor…”

By the time Lizzie made it into the lab, Skye was already well at work ripping apart the large cardboard box at the front door. Rotom zipped around curiously, attempting to get a look at what was inside.

Lizzie peeked over Skye’s shoulder. “So… what is it?”

Stepping to the side, Skye spread out her arms to present her special delivery. “Ta-dah!”

Lizzie paused upon seeing the large, bright device sitting atop the mess of torn cardboard. “Is that… a washing machine?”

“That’s right!”

Lizzie sighed, pressing a palm against her forehead. “How many times do I need to tell you to stop wasting your money on things you don’t need?”

Skye flinched, then rubbed the back of her head. “This time is different, I swear!” Spinning on her heel, she faced Rotom with a confident grin. “So, Rotom, how do you feel about doing some training?”

Lizzie furrowed her brows, looking between Skye, Rotom, and the newly acquired washing machine. That was when she blinked, lightly clapping in realization. “Oh. I get it!”

Several question marks popped up on Rotom’s screen as he processed what Skye was trying to say. “Wait a sec…” he mused, getting a closer look at the washing machine. Realization hit him, and he appeared as if he may short-circuit. “A Roto-Wash?!”

Skye grinned. “That’s right!” she proclaimed, pointing a finger at him. “You’re my sixth water-type Pokemon, Rotom!”

“What!?”

Lizzie watched on as Skye and Rotom began to banter back and forth with each other. She frowned. “But, Skye…” Lizzie started, crossing her arms. “It’s been a long time since Rotom was last in a Pokemon battle. Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

Truthfully, Lizzie couldn’t even remember the last time she had a battle against the Plasma Pokemon. Once Skye had begun her travels in the Alola region years prior, Rotom had ditched the battle scene in favor of the Pokedex’s plethora of knowledge. Though, a part of her believed Rotom just liked having the ability to talk.

“Lizzie’s right again!” Rotom confirmed, frantically waving his arms. “With the state I’m in, my chances of winning a battle against a Pokemon Master are as low as… Calculating… Calculating….” Rotom’s buffering symbol appeared, and once it changed into an exclamation point, Rotom practically screamed, “0.2%!”

Skye shook her head. “I said it before and I’ll say it again: Numbers are just numbers. They mean nothing in a Pokemon battle,” she said, holding up a finger. “Whether your numbers agree or not, I know you’re a really powerful Pokemon. I’ve seen you score more goals in the past than I can count!”

“But the past is the past!” Rotom reasoned. It then hung its head, a frowning emoji appearing on its screen. “I probably don’t even remember how to have a Pokemon battle…”

“That’s nonsense!” Skye argued. “Forgetting how to battle would be like forgetting how to ride a bike!” 

Rotom continued to mope, hovering lower to the ground. “But…”

Skye frowned, letting out a breath. “I know it’s been a while, Rotom…” she started, crouching down to be on his level, “but you’re still a part of Team Skye! And Team Skye needs all hands on deck if we wanna beat my mom.”

Rotom glanced up at her, and Skye smiled, continuing with, “You’re way stronger than you think, and I know that with a little polishing you’ll be unbeatable!” Pixelated teardrops began to take shape on Rotom’s screen.

Skye gave him a gentle pat on the head. “We need your strength, Rotom--because according to my calculations, you’ll raise our chances of winning to 100%! No… 200%!” Smiling wider, she held out a hand to him. “So, whaddya say?”

Rotom stared up at Skye for a long moment, the pixelated teardrops continuing to fall. Suddenly, the screen began to glitch, and electric shocks were emitted from the Pokedex. Skye yelped and recoiled, falling back onto her rear.

Lizzie inhaled sharply. “Are you okay!?”

The Plasma Pokemon emerged, and the empty Pokedex shell fell to the ground. Rotom began to dash sporadically about the room--knocking out some of the laboratory’s lights in the process.

Lizzie helped Skye to her feet, raising her brows in shock as she watched Rotom zip across the lab. “I-is it trying to run away?”

Brushing herself off, Skye grinned, focusing her gaze on Rotom. “No.”

Rotom charged straight toward Skye and Lizzie, and the two quickly stepped apart as Rotom bolted between them with lightning speed. Shocks were emitted as it collided with the Roto-Wash behind them.

The laboratory’s lights flickered back on, and both Skye and Lizzie focused their attention onto the now shaking Roto-Wash. After a moment, a blue aura began to glow around the appliance and its eyes opened.

The now Wash Rotom jumped into the air, raising its nozzle proudly. “Roto!”

Lizzie’s eyes widened. “It did it!”

Skye’s face lit up, and she laughed, “All right!” she cheered, balling her hand into a fist. “I knew you had it in you!” 

Rotom grinned, hovering around his trainer. “Roto ro!”

Lizzie smiled, approaching Rotom and giving it a gentle stroke on its head. “I guess that means Rotom wants to give the Champion League a shot, after all.”

“Of course it does!” Skye said, placing her hands on her hips. “Rotom has the Team Skye fighting spirit in it!” 

“Roto!” 

Skye looked to Rotom confidently. “Now how about we focus on that training, huh?” she inquired, giving Rotom a slap on the back. “You’ll have Hydro Pump mastered in no time!” 

Rotom recoiled, beginning to sweat profusely. “R-Roto!?”

Skye snickered. Running to the laboratory’s exit, she cheered, “Anchors aweigh!”

Rotom frantically chased after its trainer. “Roooo!!”

Lizzie watched as the two sprinted toward Skye’s other water-type Pokemon back out on the ranch. Letting out a sigh, she smiled.

Before she got the chance to follow after, Gary Oak’s voice came from behind her, “She really is something, huh?”

Lizzie paused, turning around to see the Professor standing in the doorway. She raised a brow, smiling. “No doubt about that.”

Gary huffed, letting out a light laugh. But the amused look was quickly replaced by a heavy stare. “Now can you please tell her to stop having things delivered to my house?” His eyes were shooting daggers through Lizzie, and she felt herself begin to sweat anxiously. “I’ll have you know, I live a very busy life.”

---------------

End.

#pkmn fankids #mod's writing #skye #lizzie #skye's rotom #gary #idk why i even wrote this tbh lol #I've been watching a lot of SuMo and I like Rotom #so maybe that's why hahaha

[toadandtails]

Ask meme!

After drawing Mereanie as a half human, it inspired me to do more! Send me a number /Pokémon and I’ll draw a little picture of the Pokémon as a half human! You can choose Alolan or Normal. Or even a custom Galar form. Anything you want. I’m sorry for misspells

1. Charmander

2. Bulbasaur

3. Squirtle

4. (their evolutions see above)

5. Pichu

6. Pikachu

7. Raichu

8. Eevee

9. Flareon

10. Vaporeon

11. Jolteon

12. Glaceon

13. Leafeon

14. Umbreon

15. Espeon

16. Sylveon

17. Custom Eeveelution

18. Togademaru

19. Meowth

20. Persian

21. Vulpix (Alolan or Normal)

22. Ninetales (Same thing) 

23. Scorbunny

24. Sobble

25. Grookey

26. Coffing

27. Ekans

28. Arbok

29. Bellsprout

30. Weepinbell

31. Steenee

32. Marowak

33. Cubone

34. Mimikyu

35. Silvally

36. Rotom

37. Popplio

38. Brionne

39. Rowlet

40. Tsareena

41. Bewear

42. Oricorio

43. Turtonator

44. Slowpoke

45. Slowbro

46. Solgaleo

47. Poipole

48. Minoir 

49. Cluffa

50. Clefairy

51. Clefable

52. Jigglypuff

53. Wigglytuff

54. Cosmog

55. Snorlax

56. Ditto

57. Caterpie

58. Metapod

59. Butterfree

60. Weedle

61. Kakuna

62. Beedrill

63. Mereanie (again cuz I love her too much)

64. Litten

65. Torracat

66. Incinaroar 

67. Voltorb

68. Sandshrew

69. Sandslash

70. Miltank

71. Tauros

72. Tapu Kokeko

73. Tapu Lele

74. Tapu Bulu

75. Tapu Fini

76. Psyduck

77. Golduck 

78. Goldeen

79. Dewpider

80. Rockruff

81. Lycanrock (either form) 

82. Dratini

83. Dragonaire

84. Magikarp

85. Grubbin

86. Pickipeck

87. Rattata

88. Raticate

89. Pidgey (and evolutions)

90. Dedenne 

91. Diglet

92. Dugtrio

93. Duduo

94. Chansey

I’ll have to answer them tomorrow! Those were just examples. You can send me any Pokémon! Please so fanmade ones unless they are Eeveelutions, Alola forms, or Galar forms. And if you’d like a reference image. 

Send away! 

#pokemon #im not tagging them all #pokemon asks #ask me #ask meme