Pokémon/Characters/Generation V Families

A list of Pokémon who debuted in Pokémon Black and White. At 156 new Pokémon, none of which are related to previous ones, this generation has introduced the most Pokémon of them all. Due to no old Pokémon being present in the story of Black and White, many Pokémon present in all the other games--such as Zubat, Geodude, Tentacool, or Machop--got Expies for this one. In addition, many of the Pokemon here evolve at later levels than most Pokemon from other regions, but as a tradeoff, many of them have comparatively stronger stats, but shallower movepools. Some even are able to stand with the powerhouses of previous Generations in the Metagame - in fact, the influx of relatively powerful new Pokemon forced Smogon to make an entirely new tier. As for Legendary Pokémon, these games introduce the now-standard version mascot trio and obligatory regional trio, but eschews the sort of miscellaneous non-event Legendaries seen in the fourth generation in favor of a third trio--a pair of version-exclusive roamers and their leader -- and is the second consecutive generation to include four event Legendaries.

For other generations, go here.

Victini
An odd rabbit critter, number 000 on the Unova Pokédex. Victini is said to be the incarnation of victory itself, with in-game legends claiming that if you have a Victini in your party, you are guaranteed a victory in some way. With balanced stats to go around, it may or may not hold this status when put to practice. It is event-only.


 * Cartoon Creature: It looks like a very stylized rabbit and is apparantly based on a traditional method of cutting apple slices in a way that makes them look like rabbits.
 * Furry Ear Dissonance: Justified due to its V-for-victory motif.
 * Cute Little Fangs
 * Disc One Nuke: The 'little legend' of this generation, but could be caught at a relatively low level -- even before obtaining the third badge (whose Leader prefers Bug-types, giving Victini's Fire-type a distinct advantage).
 * Fireballs: Its signature move Searing Shot, which is notably the first Fire move to be one of these.
 * Gilded Cage: You find Victini in a nice, cozy bedroom in the basement of an island lighthouse. It's suggested that the family who bought the land built the room as a place for Victini to hide in so it would be safe from those who would exploit its powers. But after the player catches it, everyone agrees that it's safer in your hands.
 * Informed Ability: The Pokédex entry claims anyone with a Victini in their party will win any battle, no exceptions. For obvious reasons, this isn't always the case in-game.
 * Jack of All Stats: At this point of time, you can already make a full team of Mew expies, and all of them are equally rounded.
 * Lightning Bruiser: Equally rounded, equally massive.
 * Letter Motif: Victini, V sign motif, with the signature move V-create.
 * Stealth Pun: And introduced in Generation V. V-create was even called V-generate in the Japanese version.
 * My Hero Zero: #000 in the Unova Pokédex. Missingno. jokes popped up almost immediately in the fandom.
 * No Biological Sex
 * Nuclear Weapons Taboo: It is described as guaranteeing victory and having limitless energy, strongly implying that its powers are based around nuclear fission.
 * Playing With Fire
 * Psychic Powers
 * Purposefully Overpowered: Restricted usage in the Battle Subway, official tournaments, and random Wifi.
 * Secret Character: Encountering Victini in-game requires receiving a special item (which, fortunately, was freely available during the games' initial release). If you missed out on the item, you can only trade a Victini in from another player's game.
 * Signature Move: Searing Shot. V-create as well, but only on Victini downloaded in the movie tie-in (and now Rayquaza knows the move through similar means, too).
 * V Sign: This is Victini's entire motif.

Snivy, Servine, and Serperior (Tsutarja, Janovy, and Jalorda)


This little fellow's quite the Smug Snake, isn't it? As it evolves, its limbs become less prominent and it starts looking more like the snake it was meant to resemble. While it has very lackluster offensive stats, it has very high defenses and speed, and its hidden ability even lets it boost its offensive stats using a powerful attack to become something of a Lightning Bruiser. You most likely heard about Snivy under the name "Smugleaf"; shortly after its reveal to Japanese fans, it became an instant hit on the internet (internationally) because of its seemingly arrogant expression and resemblance to Excalibur. Mudkip better watch out.


 * Ascended Meme: The name "Snivy" was actually used as a more logical alternative to its meme name before the official US name was announced. And then Snivy became its Canon Name.
 * Blue Blood: Its design motif is European royalty; there's even a fleur-de-lis on Snivy's tail. Serperior's even called the "Royal Pokémon".
 * Death Glare: Serperior. It can even stop its opponents' movements with one.
 * Green Thumb
 * Honor Before Reason: Similar to Charizard, Serperior's White Dex entry states that it would only choose to fight against formidable opponents.
 * Master of None: Gets "Balanced" stats, where all except speed are lower than a few unevolved Pokémon; this is not helped by the Poor Predictable Rock it gets due to its movepool.
 * However, its high defense combined with its high speed can give it the chance to use stat raising moves to remedy this. It also learns Coil by level up, which not raises its low attack stat but boosts its already great defense and gives it an accuracy boost to boot.
 * Overshadowed By Awesome: He's not bad as a staller (able to learn both Leech Seed and Substitute), but Whimsicott is better.
 * Planimal
 * Poor Predictable Rock: Starters normally have extremely diverse movepools, which makes the fact that this line's movepool is not quite noticeable. However, once its Dream World ability is released...
 * Signature Move: Apart from the standard package for Grass starters (Grass Pledge and Frenzy Plant), the line is strongly associated with Leaf Tornado.
 * Smug Snake: Literally.
 * Stone Ninja: The Hoppip line did this first.
 * Lightning Bruiser: Becomes this when using the powerful Leaf Storm with its Hidden Ability, Contrary, which makes stat changes have the opposite effect. That means Leaf Storm will make its Special Attack double each turn instead of halving, making an already powerful move more so every turn. So significant is this ability that it turns Serperior from bottom-tier garbage into a top-tier tank that becomes stronger each time it attacks (pretty much). However, there is no way to get a Snivy with this ability without hacking, as the Entree Forest does not have data for Snivy in Pokémon Black and White Versions. It can also learn attack boosting moves like Growth and Swords Dance. Not quite as effective, but it certainly helps. It also learns Coil by level up, increasing its attack while making its defense even higher.
 * Whip It Good: Servine's preferred method of combat, though you'll probably make it do something else.

Tepig, Pignite and Emboar (Pokabu, Chaoboo, and Enbuoh)


An orange fire-breathing pig that gets bigger, heavier, bulkier, and more Badass with each evolution. While its defenses and speed aren't the greatest, it has the highest offensive stats of any starter line yet. Emboar's hidden ability "Reckless" takes this Up to Eleven and powers up its many recoil moves (although, at the same time, it takes more damage from them). Although its being the third Fire/Fighting starter line in a row may seem redundant, this can be justified somewhat by the fact that, like Infernape, it's based on a Journey to The West character.

"Tepig: Teeeeeeepig~ ...oink."
 * Ascended Meme: The name "Pignite" went to Tepig's evolution, but not to Tepig itself. Most people were dead-on predicting Emboar's name, though.
 * Badass Beard: Emboar.
 * Bare-Fisted Monk: Tepig becomes a biped when it evolves to brawl better with its opponents.
 * In My Language That Sounds Like: Tepig's French name is "Gruikui", which is a bit too similar to Blastoise's Pokémon Vietnamese Crystal name ("Guiki").
 * Lucky Translation: Surprisingly, "Enbuoh" is unrelated to "Emboar", despite sounding similar and possessing a similar etymology.
 * Making a Splash: Emboar is the only Pokémon consistently of the Fire-type who can learn a Water-type move (Scald). (Typhlosion can learn Hydro Cannon, but only through Action Replay or another glitch. Emboar learns Scald naturally.)
 * Messy Pig: Gradually turns into Full Boar Action.
 * Mighty Glacier: Having a lot of health. Its defense, on the other hand... (Oh, yeah, and it makes Blaziken look like Speedy Gonzales in comparison, even before Speed Boost.)
 * However, one of the earliest moves it learns (before it even evolves into Pignite) is Flame Charge, which ups its speed every time it's used. On top of being a fairly good attack thanks to STAB, this can prove handy in turning it into a Lightning Bruiser.
 * Overshadowed By Awesome: Emboar is basically an inferior Blaziken; the only things that set it apart are a higher HP stat (which isn't much use anyway due to its lower defenses) and the ability to learn unusually-typed moves such as Scald.
 * Pig Man: Emboar.
 * Playing With Fire
 * Rule of Three: The Third Fire/Fighting-type.
 * Signature Move: Heat Crash. Also, as a Fire starter, Fire Pledge and Blast Burn.
 * Stealth Pun: A pig who is a Fighting-type? Something tells me not to wrestle with it.
 * Stout Strength
 * Verbal Tic: In the English dub at least, Tepig makes normal pig noises too.


 * Wrestler in All of Us

Oshawott, Dewott, and Samurott (Mijumaru, Futachimaru, and Daikenki)


Oshawott may be silly-looking, but don't be fooled, because it can use the "scalchop" on its chest as a blade. As it evolves, it becomes less silly-looking and more fierce-looking (though Dewott is definitely a Badass Adorable); by the time it becomes a Samurott, it's become a full-on Samurai sea lion, complete with dual swords (they're sheathed in its front legs). An all-around well-rounded starter choice, both for in-game purposes and for casual battling.


 * An Ice Samurai Pokémon: Like the other Water starters, it can learn Ice attacks -- namely, Ice Beam and Blizzard.
 * Badass: Samurott.
 * Badass Adorable/Cute Bruiser: Dewott.
 * Badass Mustache: Samurott.
 * Cool Helmet: Samurott.
 * Cute Little Fangs: Oshawott.
 * Death Glare: A simple glare from one of them quiets everybody.
 * Dual-Wielding: Samurott, though its sprite animation unfortunately doesn't show this; however, it can be seen on some pieces of artwork, the 3DS's Pokédex app and other merchandise.
 * Hidden Weapons
 * Improvised Armor: Samurott. Their Dream World Ability is Shell Armor, as well.
 * Making a Splash
 * Mighty Glacier: Not as slow as Emboar, Swampert, Empoleon, and Torterra though.
 * Lightning Bruiser: When Samurott uses Aqua Jet, watch out.
 * Playful Otter
 * Ridiculously Cute Critter: Oshawott, even according to Word of God.
 * Samurai: But sadly not a Water/Fighting-type.
 * Signature Move: Apart from Water Pledge and Hydro Cannon, they have a strong association with Razor Shell.
 * Weak but Skilled: Despite having the lowest stat total of all Water starters, Samurott learns moves of a wide variety of types, including Bug attacks (Fury Cutter, Megahorn, and X-Scissor) to counteract specially-defended Grass opponents.

Patrat and Watchog (Minezumi and Miruhogu)
Common across the Unova region, Patrat form groups and rotate their lookout duties. They often hold seeds in their cheek pouches, and can use them to attack when endangered. The patterns on Watchog's body can light up in order to alert other members of the species to danger.


 * Com Mons
 * Gameplay and Story Segregation: Despite Watchog being described in the Dex as defending itself by spitting the seeds in its cheek pouches, it can't learn Bullet Seed.
 * Glowing Eyes of Doom: Watchog, although it's not limited to the eyes.
 * Gradual Grinder:To many's annoyance they are good at this
 * Non-Elemental
 * No Sell: Like other Normal-types, Ghost-types do nothing against it.
 * Overshadowed By Awesome: Like most other early-game Com Mons, Watchog is overshadowed by the much stronger Pokémon available later.
 * Red Eyes Take Warning
 * Standard Status Effects: They can learn Hypnosis and a lot of other ones. They cause many players frustration early in the game.
 * Useless Useful Spell: It learns several moves that, while relatively useless in battle, are great for catching Pokémon.

Lillipup, Herdier, and Stoutland (Yoruteri, Haderia, and Murando)
Another common species, the Lillipup family are known to be courageous in battle but intelligent enough to flee when overpowered and outperformed. They are also known for their loyalty to the group. Their thick fur protects them from attacks and harsh environments, and their facial hair doubles as a form of sensory radar.


 * Badass Mustache: Grows one as it evolves.
 * Can't Catch Up: Due to its poor stats and even poorer moveset, most Lillipups and Herdiers will get knocked out while you're trying to train them, but if manage to level up your little puppy to Level 32...
 * Magikarp Power: It becomes a big dog that can learn Fire/Thunder/Ice Fang and Giga Impact.
 * Com Mons: One of the few species that can actually be useful throughout the whole game, if you train it properly.
 * Precious Puppies
 * Heroic Dog
 * Item Caddy: Lillipup is one of the few pre-National Dex or Dream World Pokemon in White and Black that can learn Pick Up. It loses this when it evolves.
 * Jack of All Stats
 * Lightning Bruiser: One of its abilities is Sand Rush, which will double its otherwise okay base speed of 80 in a sandstorm (plus giving it an immunity to sandstorm damage).
 * Non-Elemental
 * Fire, Ice, Lightning: Stoutland can, however, learn Fire Fang, Ice Fang, and Thunder Fang.
 * No Sell: Against Ghost-type attacks.
 * Stoutland Strength: Besides A Worldwide Punomenon, Stoutland is rather stout in size and it does have a nice base attack of 100. And it can learn Strength, too.

Purrloin and Liepard (Choroneko and Reparudasu)
Rather tricky Pokémon, Purrloin are known to steal human belongings and put on a cute facade when confronted. When threatened, however, they strike back with their sharp claws. After evolving, they prefer stealthy hunting.


 * Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Purrloin puts on a cute act to get people's guards down and steal from them.
 * Cats Are Mean
 * Casting a Shadow
 * Combat Pragmatist
 * Com Mons
 * Cuteness Equals Forgiveness: People can't help but forgive them.
 * Dark Is Evil: It is a Dark/Evil-Type and is associated with stealing.
 * Cute Kitten
 * Fragile Speedster
 * Gameplay and Story Segregation: In spite of its description, it does not naturally learn the item-stealing moves "Thief" or "Covet" (though it does learn the effect-stealing move "Snatch"); "Thief" can only be taught by TM.
 * No Sell: Both are impervious to Psychic attacks.
 * Panthera Awesome: Liepard

Pansage and Simisage, Pansear and Simisear, and Panpour and Simipour (Yanappu and Yanakkie, Baoppu and Baokkie, Hiyappu and Hiyakkie)
A trio of monkey Pokémon with elemental affinities. The tufts on the Pan's heads can be used to revitalize others, roast berries, and store water, respectively, and they use these abilities intelligently in the wild. Their personalities greatly differ after evolution, and their attacks become much more potent.


 * Ambiguously Gay: Look at Simisear's pose and tell me you don't think of this.
 * Combat Pragmatist: They learn quite a bit of Dark-Type moves via Level up.
 * Crutch Character: The one weak to your starter is given to the player for free to help beat the first gym (which uses the member of the trio strong against your starter). After this, however, they must deal with their low stats and a long wait to get good moves, which you won't get if you evolve them for better stats early. Non-starter water (Tympole), fire (Darumaka), and grass (Petilil) Pokémon are easy to obtain and much easier to use.
 * Dude Looks Like a Lady: Simipour's relatively feminine appearance masks a gender ratio of seven males to one female. This makes it reminiscent of a New Age Retro Hippie.
 * Elemental Powers
 * Green Thumb: Pansage and Simisage.
 * Making a Splash: Panpour and Simipour.
 * Playing With Fire: Pansear and Simisear.
 * Everything's Better With Monkeys
 * Eyes Always Shut: Panpour and Simipour.
 * Monkey Morality Pose
 * Signature Move: Respectively, Panpour (and, by extension, Simipour) and Pansage/Simisage are the only ones who learn Scald and Grass Knot naturally.
 * Stealth Pun: Based on the saying "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" (the order is reversed for them, though).
 * Theme Naming: For the base forms' suffixes, we have "sage" (a type of herb), "sear" (cooking meat with flames), and "pour" (as in to pour a glass of water).
 * Turns Red: in the Dream World, they can each have the starters' signature abilities Overgrow, Torrent, and Blaze.
 * Underground Monkey
 * Divergent Character Evolution: Literally, after evolving.
 * Visual Pun: respectively, Pansage and Simisage, and Panpour and Simipour the leaf and sea monkeys.

Munna and Musharna
Odd Psychic-type Pokémon that consume the dreams of humans and Pokémon alike. Munna and Musharna can produce a "Dream Mist" after eating; looking into the mist shows the contents of the consumed dream. This ability makes them rather valuable Pokémon in terms of research and study.


 * Awesome but Impractical: Like most Pokémon that evolve with a stone too early, Musharna will lose its ability to even learn any new moves, which makes its improved stats less useful.
 * Dream Stealer
 * Flower Motifs: Munna
 * Lunacy: You need a Moon Stone to evolve Munna.
 * Master of Illusion: An individual one is, as shown in an in game event.
 * Mighty Glacier
 * Mushroom Samba: The smoke coming from Musharna's head sends anyone who comes in contact with it into a magical dream world -- not unlike a certain green plant that can be smoked to get similar effects.
 * Mythology Gag: In Gen I, there was a girl that wanted a pink Pokémon with flower(s) on it. Now she can get it in the form of Munna!
 * In Gen III, a scientist in Hoenn was working on a machine to see Pokémon dreams.
 * Psychic Powers
 * Youkai: Like Drowzee and Hypno, they're based off the baku.

Pidove, Tranquill, and Unfezant (Mamepato, Hatoboh, and Kenhorou)
Fulfilling the role of the regional bird, Pidove are somewhat unintelligent Pokémon that gather in social groups, while Tranquill live in deep forests. Male and female Unfezant differ greatly; the males have a large, flamboyant "mask", while the duller females are known to have much greater flying abilities.


 * Big Badass Bird of Prey: Yeah, they managed to combine that with a pigeon and a pheasant.
 * Black Mage: It learns mostly special attacks in its level up movepool.
 * Blow You Away
 * Com Mons
 * Flight
 * Gameplay and Story Segregation: According to the Pokédex, the females have better flying abilities than the males. However, both still have the same base stats.
 * Glass Cannon: Because Staraptor was so popular, we guess.
 * Healing Factor: One of the few Generation V birds to learn "Roost" by leveling up.
 * Muscles Are Meaningful: They have big pecs.
 * No Sell: Against Ghost and Ground attacks.
 * Overshadowed By Awesome: It learns almost no physical Flying attacks by leveling up (barring the two turn Sky Attack), Staraptor is stronger, faster, and has a Fighting type move, Swellow can use Guts to use Facade better, several other Flying types have much better stats and movepools, and not to mention the Special attacks it learns are almost useless on it due to its dismal Special Attack. Its only advantages over other Normal/Flying types are the fact that it learns Roost by level up and it can use Super Luck to make critical hits more frequent.
 * Shown Their Work: Of male birds usually being more colorful than female birds.

Blitzle and Zebstrika (Shimama and Zeburaika)
During thunderstorms, herds of Blitzle and Zebstrika gather to collect the electrical charges from lightning bolts. Both can light up their manes and body patterns to communicate, and Zebstrika are known for their violent tempers and explosive outbursts of energy. Their high pitched cries will let you know when they're coming.


 * Com Mons
 * Cool Zebra
 * Fragile Speedster
 * Glass Cannon: Zebstrika has good attack and speed, but absolutely cannot take a hit.
 * No Sell: Against Electric attacks, due to both of their abilities.
 * Or Grass attacks, if it has the Dream World ability, Sap Sipper.
 * Playing With Fire: for some reason, they can learn Flame Charge, an attack normally exclusive to Fire-types (and Genesect).
 * Shock and Awe

Roggenrola, Boldore, and Gigalith (Dangoro, Gantoru, and Gigaiatsu)
A family of Rock-type Pokémon whose bodies are compressed by underground pressure, making them harder than iron. Roggenrola hold cores of energy in their bodies, which leak out and form orange crystals upon evolution. This energy gives them potent fighting ability, and Gigalith can even absorb sunlight into the crystals to fire intense solarbeams.


 * Action Bomb: Naturally learns Explosion. Thankfully, this takes a while, so you're unlikely to see wild specimens use it.
 * Com Mons
 * Disc One Nuke: Roggenrola, an extremely easy-to-get pokemon, evolves into Boldore at level 25 and evolves ino Gigalith by trade, meaning you can get a Gigalith earlier than you can fully evolve any of your starters. Gigalith, mind you, has absurdly high defense - and even higher attack.
 * Dishing Out Dirt
 * Eyeless Face: Roggenrola; that dent at its center is actually its ear.
 * In a sense, Boldore as well - only once it evolves into Gigalith does it gain facial features (including eyes inside the ears).
 * Last Chance Hit Point: Their Sturdy ability lets them survive an otherwise lethal hit if they were at full health. This makes it excellent for catching them, but also makes them annoying random encounters (It doesn't help that wild Boldore can have Selfdestruct).
 * Mighty Glacier: Gigalith has very high attack and defense, but is as slow as a rock.
 * Name's the Same: Dangoro is also the name of a mid-boss in The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess.
 * The Power of the Sun: Gigalith's dex entry says that it stores solar energy in its crystals, and can use it to attack.
 * In a somewhat surprising aversion to Gameplay and Story Segregation, it actually can learn SolarBeam, though its weak Special Attack means it's generally not a recommended move.
 * Punny Name: Rock'n'roll(er), anyone?
 * Silicon Based Pokémon: And with quite an alien feel while we are at it.

Woobat and Swoobat (Koromori and Kokoromori)
These rather cute-looking Pokémon live in caves and attach themselves to walls using their nostrils' suction, leaving heart-shaped stamps when they wake. They can also release ultrasonic waves from their nostrils; Swoobat's are powerful enough to damage boulders and are used in courtship.


 * Blinding Bangs: Woobat.
 * Blow You Away
 * Com Mons
 * Flight
 * Fragile Speedster
 * Heart Symbol: As their snouts indicate and their Japanese names ("Kokoromori" is a portmanteau of "kokoro", heart, and "komori", bat) confirm, it's their motif.
 * No Sell: Its Unaware ability allows it to ignore the opponent's stat increases. It's also immune to Ground attacks.
 * Oculothorax: Woobat looks like an example, but isn't. However, its nose is sometimes mistaken for being its eye.
 * Overshadowed By Awesome: Sigilyph has higher stats (except for Speed, but Sigilyph still has a rather whopping 97) and the only niche Swoobat may have had (Stored Power + Calm Mind) is easier and better done with Sigilyph thanks to its ability Magic Guard, which gives it access to the Flame Orb + Psycho Shift combo.
 * The Power of Friendship: Woobat evolves at full happiness.
 * Psychic Powers
 * Ridiculously Cute Critter: Woobat is based on a real life example of this.
 * Signature Move: Heart Stamp.
 * Status Buff: Its Dream World ability, Simple, which doubles any stat changes, allowing it to utilize Calm Mind well.

Drilbur and Excadrill (Mogurew and Doryuzu)
Underground-dwelling creatures that dig extensive networks of tunnels. Drilbur quickly makes holes by pressing its claws together and turning. Excadrill has the ability to form rounded drills with their bodies by holding their claws over their heads, allowing them to drill through iron plating and subway tunnels.


 * Badass: Excadrill.
 * Dishing Out Dirt
 * Drill Mole
 * Extra Ore Dinary: Excadrill
 * Fan Nickname: Simole the Digger, due to a certain cult anime.
 * Glass Cannon: Out of Sandstorm. It has a lot of HP and a TON of resistances, but its defenses are bad for a Steel-Type and it's not quite fast enough to cover that.
 * Irony: Excadrill's Pokédex entries.
 * Black: It can help in tunnel construction.
 * White: Their activity can be destructive to subway tunnels.
 * Lightning Bruiser: In Sandstorm (with Sand Rush). You've been warned.
 * Metal Slime: They have a chance of appearing in dust clouds inside caves that usually yield Gems.
 * Name's the Same: Before Pokémon Black and White came out, somebody else had already come up with a fan-made Pokémon named Excadrill.
 * Excadrill also shares the name of a drill manufacturing company whose machines are used in mining.
 * No Sell: Electric-type attacks are useless against both. However, Excadrill is immune to Poison attacks and not Drilbur.
 * Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Excadrill actually beats both Mismagius and Honchkrow in this regard, as it apparently stands at a whopping two feet and four inches tall. Yeah, would you believe this thing that can Earthquake and Rock Slide your entire team dead is barely any taller than a Scraggy?
 * Signature Move: Drill Run, though like a couple other signature moves, there's a small number of others who can learn it.
 * This Is a Drill
 * Tunnel King: Excadrill's Pokédex entries show that it is one.

Audino (Tabunne)
Extremely rare in the wild (or at least meant to be; shaking grass isn't too hard to make appear), Audino are natural-born medics with the ability to use their stethoscope-ears to hear the heartbeats of others and assess their health. This extreme hearing ability is also used to detect its surroundings. They seem to be thought of fondly by Unova's locals.


 * The Dev Team Thinks of Everything: Here's how rustling works in a nutshell: each time you take a step near any patch of grass, it can spawn on screen. Therefore your best way of hunting Audino is run in straight lines until it spawns and hope you don't have to walk in the grass too long to get to the rustling patch, since wild Pokémon encounter means you have to repeat the whole process again from scratch. Now you got your eighth badge, so you need to grind up a team of 6 from 40 to mid-50...so here's a nice long patch of grass on Route 10 where every patch takes one step at most to get to.
 * Healing Factor: Can have the ability Regeneration.
 * Healing Shiv: It learns Heal Pulse, which heals a target other than the user. Nice when a high-leveled one uses it on you!
 * The Medic
 * Metal Slime: It's rare, and gives out a lot of experience points when defeated. Thankfully, at least it doesn't run off.
 * Commonplace Rare: It is by far the most common Pokémon to appear in rustling grass (and the only one in some early routes.)
 * Non-Elemental
 * No Sell: Against Ghost-type attacks.
 * Pinata Enemy: Pretty much their main purpose is to give you lots of experience points.
 * White Mage: Its move pool is so heavily focused on support moves for Double and Triple battles (Heal Pulse, Helping Hand, After You, etc.) that its effectiveness in single combat is hobbled quite a bit.
 * Who's On First?: Its Japanese name, Tabunne, translates to "maybe".
 * Woolseyism: And its English name sounds like "I dunno".
 * And, while we're at it: Its German name "Ohrdoch" sounds like "Oh, doch!" (literally "Oh, yes!"), and its French name "Nanmeouie" sounds like "Non mais oui" (No but yes). Its Chinese name sounds like Tabunne, except with "doll" at the end.

Timburr, Gurdurr, and Conkeldurr (Dokkora, Dotekkotsu, and Roobushin)
Humanoid Pokémon that strengthen themselves by carrying heavy objects, which double as weapons in battle. As they evolve, their muscles get stronger to the point that they can freely swing their weapons in battle.


 * Bare-Fisted Monk: While best known for the weapon(s) carried around, the entire line is still quite capable of punching opponents into submission quite effectively.
 * Carry a Big Stick: ...and then an iron beam, and then two concrete pillars.
 * Cool Old Guy: Conkeldurr, as hinted by the "elder" pun in its name and its White Dex entry (it uses its concrete pillars as walking canes).
 * Badass Grandpa
 * Dishing Out Dirt: Despite not being Rock-types, they can learn Rock-type moves via level up (most notably Rock Slide and Stone Edge).
 * Dogfaces: Most pronounced in Timburr, but the entire line does give that impression.
 * Dual-Wielding: Once again, Conkeldurr.
 * Genius Bruiser: Conkeldurr is thought to have invented concrete two thousand years ago.
 * Gonk: Like Slaking, the line may have been deliberately designed as ugly.
 * Timburr's okay, though.
 * Improbable Weapon User: Sadly, it does not learn Wood Hammer, possibly because it's a Grass-type move.
 * Lady Looks Like a Dude: While not as creepy as with Machoke and Machamp, Conkeldurr can be female 1/4 of the time, despite its overall manly appearance and visible goatee.
 * Mighty Glacier: Its commonly-used Mach Punch allows it to bypass its low Speed. Also, Focus Punch has negative priority for anyone, but Conkeldurr has the strongest Focus Punch in the game.
 * Monster Clown: They resemble the musclemen seen at carnival sideshows and at the circus.
 * Our Ogres Are Hungrier: Conkeldurr.
 * Punny Name: Timber, Girder.
 * Top Heavy Guy: Timburr, Gurdurr and Conkeldurr have huge, strong, muscular arms and torso, but tiny legs!
 * Heeeeyyyy, maybe THAT'S why they're so slow...

Tympole, Palpitoad, and Seismitoad (Otamaro, Gamagaru, and Gamageroge)
Tadpole/frog Pokémon that produce vibrations from special growths on their bodies. While Tympole usually uses vibrations for communication, Palpitoad and Seismitoad use them for more offensive purposes like shockwaves, boulder-smashing punches, or even earthquakes, which can be made more powerful in groups.


 * Dishing Out Dirt
 * For Massive Damage: Palpitoad and Seismitoad take 4x damage from Grass-type attacks. It's their only weakness, though.
 * Frogs and Toads
 * Gonk: To some people.
 * In My Language That Sounds Like: Seismitoad is called "Crapustule" in French (from crapaud, which is French for "toad"), which caused GTS trading problems similar to Cofagrigus. The sad thing is, non-English-savvy French people wouldn't understand why its French name was so offensive.
 * Jack of All Stats
 * Making a Splash
 * Make Me Wanna Shout
 * No Sell: Palpitoad and Seismitoad can fend off Electric attacks.
 * Poisonous Pokémon: Seismitoad can have the Poison Touch ability, which gives it a chance to poison with its contact moves.

Throh and Sawk (Nageki and Dageki)
A duo of martial artists that practice Judo and Karate, respectively. They train themselves in forests and mountains. By tightening their belts, Throh and Sawk boost their strength. Known to be aggressive towards trespassers who disturb their training or pose a large perceived threat.


 * Bare-Fisted Monk: As martial artists, they mainly rely on hand-to-hand attacks.
 * Fat and Skinny
 * Last Chance Hit Point: They may have the Sturdy ability, which lets them survive an otherwise lethal hit if they were at full health.
 * Martial Arts Uniform
 * Metal Slime: Depending on your version, one of them can only be found in shaking grass like Audino. Except that they're even rarer there...
 * Mighty Glacier: Throh; high HP, decent attack and defense (both base and special), lousy speed.
 * One-Gender Race: Always male.
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni
 * Signature Move: Throh's Storm Throw.

Sewaddle, Swadloon, and Leavanny (Kurumiru, Kurumayu, and Hahakomori)
These bug Pokémon make their homes deep in forests and use silk to cleverly stitch together leaves to make clothing for themselves. These leaves also double as a food source for them as well. It has been observed that temperate forests tend to be healthier when these Pokémon inhabit them as they also eat the fallen leaves that would otherwise choke out the underbrush. One needs to raise Swadloon's happiness in order to evolve it into a Leavanny.


 * Big Creepy Crawlies: Leavanny is 20 centimeters taller than Beedrill (about 4 feet tall).
 * Blade Below the Shoulder: Leavanny.
 * Cute Little Fangs: Sewaddle.
 * The Fashionista: Leavanny.
 * For Massive Damage: They take 4x damage from both Fire and Flying attacks.
 * Glass Cannon: While it's fairly strong and fast (especially with the ability Chlorophyll) and far from being another forgettable bug-type, due to its typing, it has almost just as many weaknesses as it has resistances. This isn't helped by its defensive stats.
 * Grumpy Bear: In the middle of two cheerful mons, there's Perpetual Frowner Swadloon. You need to make it happy in order to evolve it.
 * Hikikomori: Swadloon is based on this. Leavanny's Japanese name, Hahakomori, is even a pun on the word. In order to evolve into Leavanny, Swadloon has to be really happy.
 * Hahakomori also doubles as a pormanteau of "haha" (meaning mother), and "komori" (meaning babysitting).
 * Improvised Clothes
 * The Power of the Sun: It can have the ability Chlorophyll.
 * Team Mom: Leavanny exhibits very motherly behavior and will make clothes for any small Pokémon, but cares especially for its Sewaddle.

Venipede, Whirlipede, and Scolipede (Fushide, Hoiiga, and Pendura)
Highly aggressive bug and poison Pokémon, they are basically the Weedle family on steroids. They are effective hunters that use poison to subdue their prey and for defense against bird Pokémon that may want to eat them. At over 8 feet tall and over 400 lbs, it is a bug Pokémon of gigantic proportions and not to underestimate.


 * Beware My Stinger Tail: It can potentially get you from both ends.
 * Big Creepy Crawlies: Scolipede is so big, it actually knocked Yanmega (a six-foot dragonfly) out of its title for largest bug in the Pokemon world by being an enormous 9-foot centipede.
 * Creepy Centipedes
 * Dishing Out Dirt: It learns several Rock and Ground-Type moves.
 * Everything's Better With Spinning: Whirlipede.
 * Fatter Than a Speeding Bullet: Despite being rather bulky-looking and weighing 422lbs, Scolipede is fast with a base speed of 112.
 * Lightning Bruiser: It also has pretty decent Attack and Defense.
 * Poisonous Pokémon
 * Signature Move: Steamroller (which can also be learned by Golem).

Cottonee and Whimsicott (Monmen and Elfuun)
Vaguely sheep-like creatures that use the wind to float about, they stop floating if they get waterlogged and need to be dried out before they can fly again. They are extremely quick for grass Pokémon and gain priority if they use a non-attacking move. They are exclusive to the in Black version.


 * Blow You Away: Whimsicott learns a few Flying-type moves naturally.
 * Eyes of Gold: Shiny Whimsicott have these.
 * Fantastic Fruits and Vegetables: Besides the cotton fruit, Whimsicott also draws some origin off the mythical plant known as the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary, a plant with sheep for its fruit (hence it being a Grass-type sheep).
 * Fragile Speedster: But its defenses are slightly better than other speedsters. Slightly being the keyword here.
 * And it can learn Cotton Guard, which raises its defense 3 levels.
 * Green Thumb
 * Ridiculously Cute Critter: Whimsicott. D'aww... And Cottonee, too, but it only has eyes.
 * There Was a Door: Even if there wasn't, Whimsicott gets inside houses through any crack.
 * Trickster Archetype: As shown by its ability Prankster (which increases the priority of all non-attacking moves by one stage).

Petilil and Lilligant (Churine and Doredia)
Petilil is a cute little plant creature with a tulip bulb for a head. They appear to prefer places with rich soil and clean water so wherever Petilil choose to live is a good place to grow crops. With the help of a Sun Stone it evolves into Lilligant, a gorgeous Pokémon which knows a number of dancing moves. It resembles Bellossom in a way. They are exclusive to the White version.


 * Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: At first sight, Lilligant appears to be a frail, filler, and ridiculous Pokémon. But train her well and put your rival to sleep, use Quiver Dance as much as you can, and, if the cute dame survives, she becomes a beastly sweeper able to pulverize even advantageous foes using Petal Dance combined with the Own Tempo ability (unless the enemy has the Sap Sipper ability, a 4x resistance to grass, or an insane Special Defense like Blissey). Lilligant can even heal herself using Giga Drain.
 * Disc One Nuke: In Black, you can obtain one with high IVs (all 21 out of 31, except the Special Attack, which is maxed) and a good nature (Modest, boosting Special Attack further) early on via an in-game trade. Then, when you get the Sun Stone to evolve in it Nimbasa City, it will soon learn Quiver Dance via level up, an insanely powerful boosting move. But we recommend letting it learn Giga Drain first.
 * Flower in Her Hair
 * Green Thumb
 * Lightning Bruiser: In sunny weather, if it has the Chlorophyll ability.
 * Magic Dance: Lilligant has a lot of moves that involve dancing. She can perform the confusion-inducing Teeter Dance, the stat-improving Quiver Dance and Swords Dance, the extremely powerful Petal Dance, and Entrainment.
 * One-Gender Race: Always female.
 * Petal Power
 * Cherry Blossoms: If Lilligant possesses the Own Tempo ability, she can use the powerful Petal Dance attack without any ill effects.
 * Plant Person
 * Poor Predictable Rock: Outside of Hidden Power, Dream Eater, and a handful of common Normal moves, it doesn't get any attacks to complement its Grass STAB.
 * Ridiculously Cute Critter: Petilil, which looks somewhat like a cute little girl in a dress...
 * Southern Belle: Lilligant seems to be based off one, what with the fancy "dress" and "hat". It's also always female.
 * Squishy Wizard: Has poor defensive stats, but great Special Attack.

Basculin (Basurao)
Inhabiting the lakes, rivers and streams of Unova are not Magikarp, but this Pokémon. It distinctly comes in two forms: a Red-striped form and a Blue-striped form. Both are Basculin and the differences appear to be cosmetic. This doesn't stop them from feuding with one another. But there are instances of one kind being found in the other kind's school.


 * Com Mons: Pretty much the only thing you will find when surfing on early non-sea routes, and there are several routes where it's common while fishing, too.
 * Hard Head: An in-game trade gets you a unique Basculin with the Rock Head ability.
 * Fragile Speedster
 * Making a Splash
 * Overshadowed By Awesome: Its low stats led to many players dismissing it for other Water-type Pokémon. It doesn't help that, before the full roster was announced, it was widely assumed to be Unova's answer to Magikarp.
 * Piranha Problem: Seabass can be really aggressive animals.
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: The two subspecies look like it but both behave the same way.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: Red and blue, violent in nature, especially hostile to each others' groups -- It's the Crips and Bloods in Pokémon form!

Sandile, Krokorok, and Krookodile (Meguroco, Waruvile, and Waruvial)
Ravenous desert-dwelling crocodilian Pokémon. This line is based on the gavial, but have a little inspiration from thieves and bandits -- hence the mask-like eyes. Their eyes are equipped to handle both the light reflected off desert sand and low light situations. Even though gavials eat insects, these guys are weak to Bug-type attacks.


 * Being Watched: According to the White Dex Entry, "It can expand the focus of its eyes, enabling it to see objects in the far distance as if it were using binoculars".
 * Casting a Shadow
 * Combat Pragmatist
 * Cool Triangle Shades: Which is actually just what their eyes look like.
 * In the Anime, one can be seen wearing sunglasses. Details here.
 * Both the Anime and White Pokédex entries describe those as having a function similar to that of actual sunglasses.
 * Dishing Out Dirt
 * Everything's Better With Dinosaurs: Krokorok and Krookodile resemble Spinosaurids (more specifically Suchomimus)
 * Gangsters Are Cool: Krookodile definitely looks like one of those shady people wearing Cool Shades. Alternatively, the Cool Shades can also be interpreted as a burglar's mask.
 * Their line is also used by the gangsters on Route 9. The Roughnecks even wear a jacket with a Krookodile head on it!
 * Kill Streak: Can have the ability Moxie.
 * Lightning Bruiser
 * Never Smile At a Crocodile
 * No Sell: Against Electric- and Psychic-type attacks.
 * Sand Is Water desert crocodiles, though the latter form don't treat it like water as much
 * Super Persistent Predator: According to the Black Dex Entry: "They never allow prey to escape. Their jaws are so powerful, they can crush the body of an automobile."
 * Xtreme Kool Letterz

Darumaka and Darmanitan (Darumakka and Hihidaruma)
Darumaka is a small, red, Fire-aligned creature resembling a Dharma doll. Even its poop is hot enough to be used to keep warm on cold nights. Darmanitan looks more like a baboon, and has all the manic energy you'd expect from one. But when Darmanitan is in trouble, it goes into "Zen Mode"; its body goes stock still and becomes rock solid, while its latent Psychic Powers activate.


 * Awesome but Impractical: Zen Mode Darmanitan 1) means you don't get the powerful Sheer Force ability Normal Mode Darmanitan normally has, 2) only activates at half HP, losing it if it gets healed, 3) is built to utilize a different attack stat from the base form, making the move-set and stat-spread a pain to work out, 4) is defensive with some of the worst defensive type combos in the game, and 5) its outright wonderful defensive stats get wasted due to only appearing at half HP.
 * However, it receives its niche in Rotation Battles, where Trick Room can easily be used and switched, and where it can use Belly Drum to raise its Attack high, use Overheat to decimate foes, and then, when its Special Attack is lowered too much, can use its now incredibly high Attack stat to attack.
 * Bare Fisted Monkey: Despite not being a Fighting-type, Darmanitan learns powerful fighting-type moves such as Superpower and Hammer Arm.
 * Big Ol Unusual Eyebrows: And they're burning to boot!
 * Everything's Better With Monkeys: Darmanitan's Japanese name shows that it is a baboon ("hihi").
 * Fiery Redhead: Except in Zen Mode.
 * Glass Cannon/Mighty Glacier: Depending on its mode.
 * Playing With Fire
 * Psychic Powers: Only in Zen Mode, although a normal Darmanitan can still use Psychic, just not as effectively.
 * Really Seven Hundred Years Old: There are a half-dozen Zen Mode Darumaka sleeping outside the entrance to the Relic Castle. According to Professor Juniper, it's very likely that they've been there for centuries. And you can catch all of them.
 * Ridiculously Cute Critter: Darumaka.
 * Slasher Smile: Darmanitan spots a serious one, to the point it looks like a relative of the Millenium Earl.
 * Turns Blue: Some Darmanitan do this if they have a particular ability.
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: And the different forms act in battle according to their colors.
 * Standard Status Effects: Averted; the line's "Sheer Force" ability trades any chance a move has to cause one for a 30% attack power boost. Remember that every single Fire-type attack has a chance to burn...
 * Unique Enemy: Well, Darmanitans and Darumakas are actually fairly common, but post-game, you can get Ragecandybars with which you can wake up one of the Zen Mode Darumaka outside Relic Castle. Seeing as the Dream World doesn't have any areas with Darmanitan yet, this is the only opportunity to get a Zen Mode Darumaka at current time.

Maractus (Marakacchi)
This rabbit-eared cactus is found in the desert resort. It's well adapted to desert life by absorbing any moisture it can, even from Pokémon attacks if it has to. It also drives away bird Pokémon that may try to eat its seeds by shaking its body, which sounds much like maracas.


 * All Deserts Have Cacti: Justified in this case. Since Unova is an American-based setting, it would be logical to have a cactus Pokemon, since deserts in the U.S. have cacti.
 * Cat Smile
 * Dance Battler
 * Green Thumb
 * Mighty Glacier
 * No Sell: Against Water attacks if it has Water Absorb (or its Dream World ability, Storm Drain).
 * Spike Shooter: You'll probably only keep it until a direct attack is available

Dwebble and Crustle (Ishizumai and Iwaparesu)
This Pokémon bears a passing resemblance to Paras and Parasect, but instead of a mushroom, it carries a rock, which it has carved for itself and now lives inside. This rocky shell proves a to be a great form of defense, but it isn't exactly maneuverable. Luckily, it has access to the move Shell Smash, which can fix that drawback.


 * Big Creepy Crawlies
 * Dishing Out Dirt
 * Giant Enemy Crab
 * Improvised Armour: A rock shell and a layer of sediment respectively.
 * Last Chance Hit Point: One of their abilities is Sturdy, which lets them survive an otherwise lethal hit if they were at full health.
 * Mighty Glacier
 * Glass Ninja: Crustle used Shell Smash!
 * Sand Is Water: Desert hermit crabs.
 * Trap Master: Learns Stealth Rock naturally, and can learn Spikes via breeding.

Scraggy and Scrafty (Zuruggu and Zuruzukin)
Extremely territorial lizards with a penchant for beating up passer-bys and trespassers. These gangsters are really tough opponents thanks to their unique Dark/Fighting typing, a great movepool, great defenses and great abilities. Scrafty can play very well as either a bulky defensive character or as an all-offense sweeper.


 * Badass
 * Bare-Fisted Monk
 * Casting a Shadow
 * Chew Bubblegum: Scrafty has a very strange battle animation that looks like it's chewing gum. Maybe it's because it kicks ass?
 * Eighties Hair: Scrafty's mohawk-like crest.
 * Gameplay and Story Segregation: Despite the Pokédex entries stating that it gangs up against opponents and is able to spit acid, Scrafty does not learn Beat Up, Acid, Gastro Acid, or Acid Spray.
 * Gangsters Are Cool: Scraggy is also used by the gangsters on Route 9.
 * Glasgow Grin: Scraggy's mouth looks like that, but disappears upon evolution.
 * In the Hood: Scrafty is based on urban gang members of the 1990s to now (the bottom molted skin resembles sagging pants, and the skin on its neck is a hoodie) with a 1980s punk element (the mohawk). Scraggy is the same, but with only the pants.
 * Kamehame Hadouken: Although it's not very useful due to their low special attack, they can learn Focus Blast by TM.
 * Kill Streak: The ability Moxie, which can increase their strength to frightening levels.
 * Lightning Bruiser: Scrafty starts off as a Mighty Glacier, but with a proper Dragon Dance setup, it can become this.
 * Magic Pants: The molted skin they wear is fairly elastic. They pull it up to use as a shield.
 * Mighty Glacier: Scrafty has incredible defense and some good attack. He's inherently slow, though.
 * Glacier Waif
 * No Sell: Psychic types are useless against them.
 * Use Your Head: Headbutt and Head Smash are commonly associated with the family. Scraggy is very prone to headbutting anyone who makes eye contact with it (as shown in the animé).

Sigilyph (Shinboraa)
This bizzare Pokémon raises a number of questions. They appear to be artificial, but it is able to breed with other bird Pokémon. They fly around the desert in the same set of areas and appear be guarding something, but what exactly? They are very enigmatic.


 * Blow You Away
 * Flight
 * Squishy, Glass Ninja: It's fast and has great Special Attack, but its defenses are rather lacking. But it has Cosmic Power to make up for that, and it also has Stored Power to abuse both the boosts from Cosmic Power and its high Special Attack.
 * Mayincatec
 * Gravity Master: Naturally learns the move Gravity.
 * Guardian Entity: It's said that they used to guard an ancient city in the desert, which explains why they're only found in the Desert Resort.
 * No Sell: One of their abilities, Magic Guard, makes them immune to all indirect damage. It's also naturally immune to ground moves.
 * Our Monsters Are Weird: Before reading the "What Do You Mean, It Wasn't Made On Drugs?" entry, how many of you knew what the heck this was supposed to be?
 * Psychic Powers
 * Third Eye
 * What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made On Drugs: It's based off of Nazca Lines's Hummingbird.

Yamask and Cofagrigus (Desumasu and Desukaan)
Yamask is said to be the spirit of a human being that was transformed into a Ghost-type Pokémon. The mask it carries is what its face looked like. Despite its origins, it evolves into Cofagrigus, a sarcophagus monster with four arms and a hellish grin. Cofagrigus lay wait in tombs, and when a grave robber tries to disturb the peace... well, they learn a valuable lesson about respecting the dead.


 * Bling Bling Bang: According to Cofagrigus' entry, that coffin is made of pure gold.
 * Cool Mask
 * Floating Mask: Yamask
 * I'm a Humanitarian or I Taste Delicious: The Black Pokédex states that Cofagrigus's favorite food is gold; the White Pokédex states that its body is made of pure gold. Who's to say that it hasn't tried to eat its own kind...or itself?
 * The gold it eats is most likely used to make/reinforce its body. That doesn't mean they won't try to eat each other, though...
 * Mask Power: Yamask
 * Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Cofagrigus
 * Mummy: Its ability (see The Virus)
 * No Sell: Like their ghost brethren, they're immune to Normal and Fighting attacks.
 * Our Ghosts Are Different: Yamask is said to be the soul of a human being. And that mask? That was the face of how that person looked when he (or she) was alive. Cofagrigus, on the other hand, is a possessed coffin made of solid gold that may or may not cannibalize other Cofagriguses or itself for their/its gold body, loves to trick grave robbers, and turns people into zombies with its Mummy ability.
 * Red Eyes Take Warning: Cofagrigus
 * Scunthorpe Problem: Cofagrigus has been known to set off a good amount of censor filters on Internet forums. For a long time, it wasn't allowed to be traded on the GTS unless it had a nickname.
 * Slasher Smile: Cofagrigus, though that may be part of the coffin itself.
 * Soul Power
 * Stone Wall: Cofagrigus has 145 Defense, the highest of any Pokémon introduced in Generation V. It does have good Special Defense and decent Special Attack, but is extremely slow, making it a Gradual Grinder.
 * The Virus: Its Mummy ability makes any Pokémon who make physical contact with it have their ability change into Mummy.
 * Was Once a Man: Yamask.

Tirtouga and Carracosta (Purutooga and Abagoura)
A fossil Pokémon based on an extant creature. Tirtouga and Carracosta are chelonian Pokémon of the sea turtle variety. Their rock-hard shells grant them a high defense, but they're rather slow.


 * Dishing Out Dirt
 * For Massive Damage: Can't stand Grass-type attacks.
 * Fossil Revival
 * Gratuitous Spanish/Bilingual Bonus: Their names are derived from two Spanish words, namely "tortuga", and "costa".
 * Last Chance Hit Point: They can have the Sturdy ability, which allows them to survive a lethal hit from full health.
 * Making a Splash
 * Mighty Glacier
 * They do learn Aqua Jet, which allows them to attack first and overcome their otherwise slow speed.
 * They also learn Shell Smash, which doubles their speed and attack.
 * Prehistoric Monster: Specifically, Archelon.
 * Turtle Power

Archen and Archeops (Archen and Archeosu)
The fossil Pokémon they claim to be the ancestor of all bird Pokémon, Archen and Archeops have colorful plumage, but they also have mouths full of teeth, claws on their wings, and long tails. Unlike the tanky Carracosta, Archeops is a glass cannon in the truest sense. It possesses amazing stats, but an ability that keeps it from being too overpowered.


 * Awesome but Impractical: Due to its Defeatist ability, its amazing Attack is wasted when its HP drops below half, making it less than viable for the metagame.
 * Awesome Yet Practical: In-game, when the player is freely able to use healing items, Defeatist becomes a minor setback at most. Cue the sweeping...
 * Or against Shauntal or Ghetsis, who both lead with Cofagrigus (Ability change to mummy upon physical contact), or in a double battle, with a Pokémon that knows Worry Seed or Simple Beam.
 * Blessed With Suck: Is fast, and has good Attack and Special Attack... both of which are put to waste once its health drops below half.
 * Blow You Away
 * Cowardly Lion: Archeops is very strong and fast, and it has a base stat total of 567 (which is also its Pokédex number). However, it starts to give up hope once its health gets below half, cutting its Attack and Special Attack by half.
 * Dishing Out Dirt
 * Doomed Defeatist: Literally in the metagame -- with no reliable way to heal, it's pretty much doomed once its Defeatist ability kicks in. (And even if it could heal itself, its poor defenses would prevent it from keeping its HP above 50% against a reasonably aggressive opponent.)
 * Everything's Better With Dinosaurs
 * Feathered Fiend
 * Flight
 * Fossil Revival
 * Gameplay and Story Segregation: Archen's Pokédex entry states that it was unable to fly and moved about by hopping from branches. In-game, Archen is part Flying-type (although it cannot learn Fly).
 * Glass Cannon: Acrobatics combined with Flying Gem packs a powerful punch.
 * Fragile Speedster And winds up becoming a shattered glass cannon at half HP. Their speed is good, however.
 * No Sell: Unaffected by Ground-type attacks.
 * Prehistoric Monster: Based on Archeopteryx.
 * Raptor Attack

Trubbish and Garbodor (Yabakuron and Dasutodasu)
Unova appears to have a problem with waste disposal. This problem appears to be so bad that the garbage itself came to life. Trubbish and Garbodor have bodies that consists of trash that's barely held together by a thin and easily damaged garbage bag skin. Luckily, this problem is solved by consuming more garbage. So it's possible that Unova's garbage problem will solve itself with these Pokémon.


 * Action Bomb: That's right, both Pokémon can learn/be taught Explosion or Self-Destruct.
 * Animate Inanimate Object: Type 3.
 * Arm Cannon: Garbodor, Type A.
 * The Right Hand of Doom
 * Irony: Despite being a garbage-bag Pokémon, it can learn Recycle.
 * Meaningful Name: Garbodor's Japanese name "Dasutodasu" can literally translate to "to spew garbage". Meanwhile, "Garbodor" is a portmanteau of "garbage" and "odor" and Trubbish is a portmanteau of "trash" and its (usually British) synonym "rubbish."
 * Stealth Pun: Can also be Gratuitous English.
 * Mighty Glacier
 * Mundane Utility: Janitors tend to use them to pull in garbage.
 * Poisonous Pokémon: Both were created from garbage and industrial waste. Trubbish's poisonous gases will leave its victims unconscious for a week, while Garbodor's will just out-and-out kill you.
 * Refuge in Audacity: To add to the already bizarre world of animal/object/people mash-ups that make up Pokémon, we now have exploding garbage bags, one of which is a...
 * Ridiculously Cute Critter: Garbage bags aren't cute at all (particularly those that are living and whose evolved form looks like a mound of trash spewing from a burst bag), but Trubbish somehow pulls it off.
 * Walking Wasteland: Subverted with Garbodor. Despite looking like it should leave behind waste and filth (like Grimer and Muk from Generation I), Garbodor actually has a low-grade psychic energy that attracts garbage to itself (which, as mentioned before, is why janitors use them to clean up messes).

Zorua and Zoroark
Another family of fox/kitsune based Pokémon, Zorua and its evolution Zoroark were the first Generation V Pokémon to be revealed (having starred in the 13th movie). They have the interesting ability "Illusion", which makes them appear to be another Pokémon in their trainer's party (trust us, it actually works quite effectively, at least until the "Cloyster" you're battling uses Night Daze). As you may have guessed, Zoroark's design follows many of the same cues as the popular Lucario -- Nintendo and Game Freak seem keen on marketing these guys, to the point that Zoroark can be considered the "face" of the 5th generation games. Although meant to be event-exclusive Pokémon, the Pokémon required to unlock them (the Crown Beasts and Celebi) are not difficult to obtain, and the ability to breed more of them means that you can find a few available on the GTS (especially since you can easily find an image of a Zorua for your Pokédex, and you actually fight a Zoroark during one Boss Battle).


 * Awesome but Impractical: The Illusion ability can only really fool careless players; adding to that, team preview lets your opponent know that you have a Zorua or Zoroark on your team, which makes them much less likely to fool.
 * Or it might disguise itself as something with which it shares a type weakness. Cue horrible death.
 * On the other hand, it can make the opponent start second guessing which moves to use, and if it turns into a type that's weak against psychic, the opponent might be in for a rude awakening when they try to use a psychic move on it. In practice however many players play it safe and go for other weaknesses or just use attacks they know will connect. It doesn't help Zoroark much that it doesn't have much bulk, and a STAB boosted attack usually can faint it.
 * Casting a Shadow: Unlike most Dark-types, these two have actual shadow powers. Their illusory abilities also count.
 * Combat Pragmatist: ...but they can still fight dirty, anyway.
 * Cunning Like a Fox
 * Dark Is Not Evil: Unless he belongs to N, though.
 * Early Bird Cameo: First appeared in the 13th movie.
 * Fantastic Foxes: Both capitalize on the illusory aspect of the kitsune.
 * Fragile Speedster: Zoroark especially has one of the highest speeds in the game, but middling defense.
 * Glass Cannon: They have very high attack and special attack; on the flipside, their defense and special defense, while not even near the worst, are still pretty low.
 * I Know You Know I Know: Since Zoroark can only disguise itself as one of its teammates, your opponent will know you've got that species waiting in the wings once the Illusion is dispelled. If it's something that can switch into certain attacks easily, your opponent will second-guess using such attacks in anticipation of your switch, you'll second-guess switching into such attacks in anticipation of them deciding not to use such attacks, and so on and so forth.
 * Mama Bear: In the 13th Pokémon movie.
 * Master of Illusion: Their trait, the aptly named Illusion, makes them appear like the last Pokémon in your party, down to the nickname and Poké Ball. Master of Illusions is even the English name for the movie featuring them.
 * No Sell: Immune to Psychic attacks.
 * Power-Up Letdown: The main problem with Zoroark and its Illusion was that they had the misfortune of being introduced in the same generation as multiplayer battles implementing a preview screen showing off both players' mons, completely ruining the element of surprise on which the Illusion ability relies.
 * The opponent only knows Zoroark is there, but the order of Pokemon can be changed before a fight, which lets Zoroark switch disguises. Further, in online modes where not all Pokemon are used, Zoroark doesn't even have to be among the battlers.
 * Secret Character: The only way to obtain one without trading from another game is to import special exclusive Pokémon from Generation IV, which triggers an in-game encounter with either a Zorua or Zoroark. Of course, if you missed that, you could always get one off the GTS.
 * Shape Shifter
 * Signature Move: Night Daze. Yes, they gave a signature move to the Pokémon whose shtick is disguising itself as other Pokémon. Of course, the jig is up as soon as it gets hit, anyway, so you might as well abuse its higher power than Dark Pulse and 40% chance of lowering accuracy.
 * The Trickster
 * True Companions: When there is a pack of Zorua and Zoroark, they will never abandon each other no matter what.

Minccino and Cinccino (Chillarmy and Chillaccino)
Adorable chinchilla Pokémon that have soft gray (or puce if they're shiny) fur. They are neat freaks that like things to be spotless, so they often clean things with their tails. Cinccino also possess long white fur that resembles a feather boa.


 * Fragile Speedster
 * Making a Splash: They can learn Aqua Tail.
 * Non-Elemental
 * No Pronunciation Guide: Many were unsure of how to pronounce Minccino when it was first revealed. It's pronounced Mihn-CHEE-noh, by the way.
 * No Sell: Against Ghost-type attacks.
 * Pretty in Mink: Cinccino. Subverted (and justified) in that it's its own fur.
 * Ridiculously Cute Critter: Both of them. Which justifies their Cute Charm ability.
 * Signature Move: Tail Slap, basically a stronger version of the multi-hit Fury Attack or Fury Swipes. STAB and Technician make it have around 50 base power per hit, up to five hits.
 * Spam Attack: Cinccino also learns Rock Blast and Bullet Seed, other multi-hit attacks. Its dream world ability, Skill Link, allows those moves to always hit five times, rather than the randomly chosen 2-5 hits that is normal for the species.
 * Super OCD: Minccino's obsession with cleaning dirty stuff.

Gothita, Gothorita, and Gothitelle (Gothimu, Gochimiru, and Gochiruzeru)
A family of Psychic Pokémon that have a gothic lolita motif. They appear to possess a number of different, unsettling psychic abilities and seem to to be inspired by both the Abra family and the Ralts family. They are exclusive to the Black version.


 * Adult Fear: Just like Drowzee and Hypno (minus the obvious child molestation jokes), Gothorita steals people and Pokémon during the night with hypnotic powers. Its Dream World ability is Shadow Tag, which prevents foes from fleeing. But unlike Drowzee, it doesn't have the excuse of needing some nice tasty dreams to eat...
 * Dropped a Bridget On Him: Not as often as Gardevoir, but the bridge is definitely heavier.
 * Elegant Gothic Lolita: It's based on this trend.
 * Hair Decorations
 * Foil: Black version counterpart to the Solosis line.
 * Girlish Pigtails
 * Mighty Glacier
 * Psychic Powers
 * Psycho Strings: Gothitelle's cry sounds suspiciously similar to the infamous musical cue from the shower murder scene from Hitchcock's 1960 classic Psycho. Pleasant dreams.
 * Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Let's see: Dress? Check. Makeup? Check. Hair ribbons? Check. Will the one you catch actually be a female? Not always.

Solosis, Duosion, and Reuniclus (Uniran, Daburan, and Lanculus)
Psychic Pokémon that resemble giant amoeba. Their inner bodies are suspended in a green fluid and encapsulated in a thin membrane, which protects them from the elements and allows them to thrive in nearly any sort of environment. It possess a high special attack and HP stat, but terrible speed, which makes them excellent trick room users. It is exclusive to the White version.


 * Foil: Gothita's line.
 * Healing Factor: They can learn Recover.
 * Mega Microbes: Well, cells/developing embryos.
 * Mighty Glacier
 * Our Homunculi Are Different
 * No Sell: One ability, Magic Guard, makes them immune to all indirect damage. Their other ability makes them immune to weather damage.
 * Useless Useful Spell: Given that Magic Guard protects them from weather damage as well as all other indirect damage, Overcoat is completely useless by comparison.
 * Psychic Powers
 * Ridiculously Cute Critter
 * Split Personality Merge: During its time as Duosion, it has two brains that can disagree with each other. When they become Reuniclus, however, they merge together into one personality again.
 * Meaningful Name: Reunite + Nucleus.

Ducklett and Swanna (Koaruhie and Swanna)
Making their homes near lakes, rivers and seas, these waterfowl are a common sight along the many bridges of the Unova region, where trainers gather for the feathers they occasionally drop even if they are not interested in catching one. While Ducklett is a bit gawky, it becomes much more graceful when it evolves into Swanna, but like other Water/Flying dual types, electricity will ruin its day.


 * Blow You Away
 * For Massive Damage: Extremely vulnerable to Electric attacks.
 * Flight
 * Fragile Speedster
 * Healing Factor: Learns both Roost and Aqua Ring via level-up.
 * Making a Splash
 * No Sell: Immune to Ground attacks.
 * Swans a Swimming

Vanillite, Vanillish, and Vanilluxe (Vanipeti, Baniricchi, and Baibanira)
A family of pure ice types that hang around Cold Storage and bear a striking resemblance to ice cream desserts. Don't let their appearance deceive you; they aren't milk-based and they do have high stats, although their typing and movepool holds them back. They were designed by a British guy employed by Game Freak.


 * Action Bomb: Like Trubbish and Garbodor, the entire line can learn Explosion (though, unlike Trubbish and Garbodor, they learn Explosion through TMs).
 * Extra Ore Dinary: Though not a Steel-type, it learns a lot of Steel attacks such as Flash Cannon, Mirror Shot, and Autotomize.
 * An Ice Cream Cone
 * Jack of All Stats
 * Lethal Joke Character: As stated above, don't let the fact that they're ice cream cones fool you. All three of them are tied with Lapras for the highest base stat total of non-legendary Ice-types.
 * Refuge in Audacity: Read its Lethal Joke Character description again.
 * Multiple Head Case: Vanilluxe.
 * Ridiculously Cute Critter: The whole friggin' line, but special mention goes to Vanillite.

Deerling and Sawsbuck (Shikijika and Mebukijika)
Unlike the regions of games past, Unova experiences seasons, each one lasting a month in-game. This Pokémon changes its appearance depending on which season it is currently. As a Deerling, its scent changes and its coat changes color. As a Sawsbuck, its antlers grow and shed leaves much like a deciduous tree. Its signature move is Horn Leech, which works like Giga Drain except it works off its physical attack.


 * Bambification: Deerling plays it straight; Sawsbuck, on the other hand, looks more or less like a deer would in real life.
 * Fragile Speedster
 * Fun With Acronyms: Sawsbuck. (Summer/Autumn/Winter/Spring)
 * Green Thumb
 * Kryptonite Is Everywhere: The Normal/Grass pairing, while unique, will not do you any favors if you choose to use a Deerling or a Sawsbuck against a Pokémon that's either a Fire, Fighting, Poison, Flying, Bug, or Ice-type (or any combination of those six; i.e., the Fire/Fighting Blaziken or the Poison/Flying Zubat). In fairness, its numerous weaknesses isn't because of its dual-typing, but because Grass has always sucked as a defensive type (only one of the abovementioned weaknesses come from its Normal half, and that's the Fighting type). At the very least, its Normal half gives it an immunity to Ghost types/moves.
 * They can remedy this by using the Camouflage move, which changes their typing (usually for the better, but it's a crapshoot).
 * Non-Elemental
 * No Sell: Immune to Ghost-type attacks (and Grass-type attacks, if it has the Sap Sipper ability).
 * Planimal
 * Pretty in Mink: Winter Forme Sawsbuck looks like it's wearing a fur coat with white trim.
 * Seasonal Baggage: Changes looks depending on the season. They don't actually change until you load the game with them in your party.
 * Signature Move: Horn Leech.
 * Stealth Pun: A fawn with a flower, influenced by the season? Hey, it's Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather.

Emolga (Emonga)
It seems like every region has its own kind of electrical rodent. Emolga is Unova's. Unlike its relatives, it is able to glide using a thin membrane called a patagium. This membrane is electrically charged. It isn't encountered that often, so consider yourself lucky if you do find one (or unlucky if you were training a Water-, Flying-, or Grass type).


 * Blow You Away
 * Everythings Nuttier With Squirrels: It's an electric flying squirrel.
 * The Last of These Is Not Like the Others: The only one to be part Flying-type.
 * Flight
 * Fragile Speedster
 * Metal Slime: Like Audino, Emolga is only found in shaking grass... Except that the chances of finding Emolga there is lower.
 * No Sell: Immune to Ground-type attacks.
 * Overshadowed By Awesome: Emolga is almost, sort of, maybe, a bit, close to decent. But seriously, it's next to amazing Electric types like Zebstrika, Galvantula, and  Eelektross, for crying out loud.
 * Scunthorpe Problem: Emolga's name was changed from its Japanese name Emonga, presumably because "mong" is a derogatory term (from the UK) for someone afflicted with Down's Syndrome.
 * Shock and Awe
 * Signature Move: Only Pokémon to learn Volt Switch naturally.

Karrablast and Escavalier (Kaburumo and Chevarugo)
Karrablast is a strange beetle Pokémon that is only capable of evolving with another Pokémon. It seeks out this Pokémon and presumably uses its horn like a can-opener. It then steals the unlucky Pokémon's "can" and uses it as armor. Similar to Scizor, it becomes a dual Bug/Steel type; its attack and defenses are cranked up, but its speed suffers because of the armor.


 * Big Creepy Crawlies
 * Cool Helmet: Escavalier
 * Dual-Wielding: Escavalier
 * Extra Ore Dinary: Escavalier
 * For Massive Damage: Escavalier, as a Bug/Steel dual type, gets burned easily. That is its only weakness, though.
 * Gameplay and Story Segregation: Escavalier "flies around at high speed". Of 20. That means things like Snorlax or Slowbro are going 1.5 times faster that it...
 * Jousting Lance
 * Knight in Shining Armor: Ironic, given that armor was stolen...
 * Mighty Glacier: Great attack and defenses, but 20 speed makes Escavalier one of the slowest Pokémon ever. As a result, it's one of the fastest Pokémon ever in Trick Room.
 * No Sell: Escavalier are impervious to Poison attacks.

Foongus and Amoonguss (Tamagetake and Morobareru)
When you're traveling through the grassy fields or brush under the woods in the Unova region and spot what seems to be a Pokéball, beware! It might actually be this Pokémon. However, instead of exploding like Voltorb and Electrode might, this Pokémon might spray spores that may cause paralysis, poison or sleep.


 * Boring but Practical: Compared to the other options for grass types in the Unova Dex, they're not the first choice offhand. However their move pool is much greater than the others, who mostly have one or two options available. In addition they also get Spore, which lets them reliably put people to sleep.
 * Chest Monster: Did that Item Ball just bounce? Ah, shi--
 * Fungus Humongous: Subverted: they're not that big, if Dex measurements are to be believed.
 * Green Thumb
 * Healing Factor: Has Regenerator as its Dream World ability.
 * Mighty Glacier
 * Paper-Thin Disguise: Amoongus's Pokédex entry says it tries to use its appearance to lure in prey. Most Pokémon aren't fooled, though.
 * Poisonous Pokémon
 * Punny Name

Frillish and Jellicent (Pururiru and Burungel)
Floating in Unova's seas are these intriguing Pokémon. They spend their lives floating in the water waiting for prey to amble into their vicinity (Jellicent is said to be the reason why a lot of ships and their crews have gone missing). They may also take a more active approach and drag their prey downward into their underwater caves several miles below the surface. Unusually, male and female individuals are shaped and colored very differently from each other. The reason for this is unclear. It is a very good choice for a water Pokémon.


 * Badass Mustache: Male Jellicent sport one, which makes it look like Julius Pringles.
 * Heal Thyself: Frillish and Jellicent are two of the three Ghost-types that can learn Recover, the only other one being Sableye.
 * It Only Works Once: One of its abilities, "Cursed Body", does this to an opponent -- if the opponent uses an attack on Frillish/Jellicent, there is a chance that said attack gets disabled for a few turns.
 * Making a Splash
 * No Sell: Against Normal and Fighting attacks, and Water if it has Water Absorb ability.
 * Our Ghosts Are Different: Jellyfish ghosts that look innocent, but are really the cause of many a sunken and missing sea vessel.
 * Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Literally
 * Power-Up Letdown: Its Dream World ability is Damp, which prevents Self-Destruct and Explosion from being used. Since Jellicent is a Ghost type, it's already immune to both of those attacks.
 * Royals Who Actually Do Something: Both genders of Frillish and Jellicent have a crown on their heads and are based off royalty. And they aren't half bad in battle.
 * Stone Wall: Has good bulk and a move to help it recover damage (and Cursed Body to potentially seal the enemy's super-effective move out of repetition territory). Especially when paired up with Ferrothorn, as both can cover up each other's weakness.
 * Technicolor Eyes: Inverted depending on gender (male have blue sclerae and red pupils; females have red sclerae and blue pupils).
 * Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: The male has a mustache and angular features, while the female has lipstick, eyelashes, and frills.
 * Soul Power
 * Your Soul Is Mine: Their favourite food is life energy. Which they get from the crew of ships who cross their territory and end up missing...

Alomomola (Mamanbou)
Alomomola are sunfish Pokémon with a very caring personality. If it spots a drowning person or Pokémon, they readily embrace it using their top and bottom fins and bring it to shore. Boasting the fifth highest HP rating of all Pokémon, Alomomola is a Pokémon of great bulk. Despite looking very similar, it is unrelated to Luvdisc.


 * Cardiovascular Love
 * Commonplace Rare: For awhile, it will be the only rare encounter on sea routes
 * Fun With Palindromes
 * Healing Shiv: It learns Heal Pulse, which heals a target other than the user.
 * Making a Splash
 * The Medic
 * Stone Wall
 * Team Mom: There's a reason why it's called Alomomola.
 * Urban Legend of Zelda: Due to its heart-shaped body and similar-looking appearance, it was once thought by fans that it was going to be an evolution of Luvdisc.

Joltik and Galvantula (Bachuru and Dentula)
Joltik is a bug and electric type that is endemic to a cave known as the Chargestone Cave, where the magnetized rocks float and give off electricity, although some have been known to go into cities and feed from electric sockets. It is a tiny Pokémon and it makes use of it by clinging to larger Pokémon and feeding off their static electricity. It evolves into the unsettling Galvantula, a fast Pokémon that uses electrically-charged webbing to ensnare unlucky prey.


 * All Webbed Up: They learn Spider Web and Electroweb, the first prevents the enemy from fleeing and the second does damage while simultaneously lowering the enemy's speed.
 * Big Creepy Crawlies: Averted with Joltik, which is actually the size of a real tarantula and the smallest Pokémon so far, although it is massive when compared to a real-life tick, the animal it's based on (10cm compared to 3-5mm). Played straight with the dog-sized Galvantula.
 * Extra Eyes: Both of them have multiple eyes, similar to real life spiders. It also justifies their Compoundeyes ability.
 * Four Legged Spiders
 * Giant Spider: In terms of proportion, Galvantula is huge compared to a regular tarantula.
 * Glass Cannon: They have high Speed and respectable Special Attack, STAB with several already strong Bug and Electric attacks, and Compoundeyes raises their accuracy so the extremely powerful but only 70% accurate Thunder raises up to 90%. The problem is that their defenses are horrible, and their Bug typing means that anything with a Fire or Flying attack will make short work of them.
 * Ridiculously Cute Critter: Joltik. Being based on a jumping spider apparently does that.
 * Shock and Awe
 * Signature Move: Electroweb, although it can be bred into the Spinarak line.
 * Why Did It Have To Be Spiders?: This is how their Unnerve ability (makes opponent too nervous to eat berries) presumably works. Joltik, though, just seems too cute to be unnerving...
 * Cuteness Proximity: Maybe they're too distracted by the fuzzy yellow plushie spider to think about eating?

Ferroseed and Ferrothorn (Tesshiido and Nattorei)
Another Pokémon that is native to Chargestone Cave. These Pokémon eek out a living by leeching minerals from the surrounding rock walls. It is covered in thick metal armor that is reinforced with iron spikes. It is very defense-oriented, sporting only two weaknesses, one which isn't very effective against it anyway. The other, fire, burns it to a crisp, though.


 * Action Bomb: Naturally learns Explosion.
 * Bilingual Bonus: Their names are derived from the Italian word "ferro", which means "iron".
 * Ceiling Cling
 * Epic Flail: Ferrothorn sports them. May be a reference to Conkers, seeing that they may be based off Horse-chestnuts.
 * Extra Ore Dinary
 * Everything's Better With Spinning: Ferroseed spins in its animation. Both of them also learn Gyro Ball naturally, which does a lot of damage due to their very slow speed.
 * Ferroseed cannot learn Rapid Spin since that move is about shaking things off, but presumably wouldn't work here because of the thorns.
 * For Massive Damage: Same as Forretress and Escavalier, fire-type attacks will take it down before it throws out the first attack.
 * Fundamentally Funny Fruit: Ferroseed and Ferrothorn are likely to be based off either durians or horse-chestnuts, spiny fruits with hard shells. Especially the latter, what with Ferrothorn being a "Thorn Pod".
 * Green Thumb
 * Irony: The Grass/Steel-type in itself -- Plants are organic and metal armour isn't.
 * Land Mine: Ferrothorn sort of resembles one. Ferroseed may resemble a Sea Mine.
 * Meaningful Name: Their English names reference the fact that they're both plants (seed/thorn) and made of metal ("Ferro" meaning "iron"). They're also able to breed with both the "plant" and "mineral" groups.
 * No Sell: Against Poison attacks.
 * Spikes of Doom: Hell, its ability is called Iron Barbs.
 * Spike Balls of Doom: Ferrothorn pretty much fits all the descriptions on the page -- it hangs from ceilings, is alive, spins via Gyro Ball, and its tentacles act as chains.
 * Stone Wall: Great typing, good defenses, and a great ability that makes physical attackers think twice before striking it. However, 20 speed makes it one of the slowest Pokémon ever. Makes a good partner with Jellicent, as they resist each other's weaknesses.
 * Mighty Glacier: Its attack is passable at 94, and it commonly uses attacks with high base power like Power Whip and Gyro Ball (which hits very hard on most opponents, since Ferrothorn is so slow).
 * Whip It Good: Ferrothorn, who learns Power Whip using its vines.

Klink, Klang, and Klinklang (Giaru, Gigiaru, and Gigigiaru)
Yes, it is a Pokémon made entirely out of gears (just like Magnemite from Generation I was made entirely of magnets). Another odd Pokémon only found in Chargestone Cave, this Pokémon has actually only been documented for about 100 years or so. Where they came from is a mystery. Its spinning generates its lifeforce, and as it evolves, it gains more interlocking gears and more power. It has good stats, but a very poor movepool.


 * Bread Eggs Breaded Eggs
 * Clockwork Creature
 * Everything's Better With Spinning
 * Extra Ore Dinary
 * Shock and Awe: Also learns some Electric moves by level despite being pure Steel.
 * Mighty Glacier
 * Lightning Bruiser: Klinklang's speed stat is 90.
 * Multiple Head Case
 * No Biological Sex
 * No Sell: Against Poison attacks.
 * Signature Move: Gear Grind and Shift Gear.
 * Wingding Eyes: One of its eyes is X-shaped.
 * Xtreme Kool Letterz

Tynamo, Eelektrik, and Eelektross (Shibishirasu, Shibibiru, and Shibirudon)
If you are lucky enough, you might encounter this rare creature that's unique to the Chargestone Cave system. Tynamo resembles a fish fry no longer than a finger. One by itself doesn't have a lot of power. But if you are patient enough with its training, it'll evolve into a much larger and more intimidating eel Pokémon that can do far more damage. The best part is that its ability eliminates its typing's only weakness. A Thunderstone evolves it further, and it gains arms with rasping suckers on them -- a terrifying sight to behold.


 * Floating Seafood Special
 * Irony: Despite being based off a fish, the entire line is pure Electric-type and does not learn any offensive water moves.
 * Magikarp Power: Tynamo has weak stats and learns no more moves that the 4 it starts with. Eelektrik is an all-around usable Pokémon, but Eelektross is a good Pokémon with no weaknesses, a good offensive type, and good attacking stats.
 * Metal Slime: Your chances of finding a Tynamo in the wild? 2% on the first floor in Chargestone Cave, and a whopping 8% in the basement floor.
 * Mighty Glacier: Although Eelektross has good offensive stats, the same can't be said for its speed of 50.
 * No Sell: Against Ground attacks. Which negates any weaknesses it would have.
 * Power Glows: Eelektrik and Eelektross's sprites show the yellow spots along their bodies light up.
 * Power Floats: Its ability Levitate makes it have no weaknesses, aside from Gravity/Mold Breaker.
 * Psycho Electric Lamprey
 * Shock and Awe
 * Xtreme Kool Letterz

Elgyem and Beheeyem (Riguree and Oobemu)
These big-headed Pokémon were discovered in the desert five decades ago, but they've since moved elsewhere. They seem to have a knack for winding up in areas filled with Pokémon who have type advantages over them, and as such aren't terribly common, most being cramped up near the top of a tower by route seven.


 * Badass Longcoat: Beheeyem looks like it's wearing one, though that could be how its body is shaped.
 * Easy Amnesia/Laser-Guided Amnesia: They apparently have the ability to rewrite and erase memories, according to their Pokédex entries.
 * Forehead of Doom: Elgyem.
 * Fun With Acronyms and Late to The Punchline: Elgyem is actually LGM (Little Green Man) spelled phonetically, and Beheeyem is the same for BEM (Bug-Eyed Monster [or Man]).
 * Humanoid Aliens
 * The Greys: Subverted. Even though they look like the kind of aliens that would be gray, Elgyem is green and Beeheyem is a sandy-peach color.
 * Little Green Pokémon: Played straight with Elgyem, who stands at only 1'7" and is green.
 * Mighty Glacier
 * My Brain Is Big
 * Nice Hat
 * Paper-Thin Disguise: Beheeyem looks like it's trying to pass off as a person.
 * Psychic Powers: Both have the ability to wipe memories and cause headaches using psychic powers (at least according to the Pokédex).
 * Ridiculously Cute Critter: Elgyem
 * Roswell That Ends Well: They could be the aliens said to have crash landed at Roswell, New Mexico in the late 1940s.
 * Telepathic Spacemen
 * Theme Naming: See Fun With Acronyms above.

Litwick, Lampent, and Chandelure (Hitomoshi, Ranpuraa, and Shandera)
A feared species of Pokémon that resemble light sources. Their method of hunting changes as they evolve but their preferred prey remains consistent. In battle they have both hard hitting special attacks and a few gradual grinding tactics. They aren't particularly hard to run from, though, which might explain their dream world ability.


 * Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Litwick pretends to be a helpful guide with its light, but it's actually leeching the life force of anything that follows it.
 * Feed It With Fire: Can have the Flash Fire ability, which nullifies any fire attack used against it to increases the power of its own fire type attacks.
 * Ghost Lights: Is based on hitodama.
 * Our Ghosts Are Chandeliers Of Doom: Chandelure.
 * Mighty Glacier: Chandelure has extremely high Sp. Atk and fairly good defenses, but merely okay speed.
 * Glass Cannon: Chandelure has deadly Sp. Atk (Shown above) and OK speed. However, it's shoddily built with defenses of 90 each and hp 60.
 * Name's the Same: With a dash of Irony. Lampent was the name of a fakemon, made before the reveal of fifth-generation Pokémon, specifically mentioned not to parody the strange ideas for Pokémon in that generation. Its name ended up being used for the lamp Pokémon.
 * No Sell: Against Normal and Fighting attacks. Fire attacks as well, if it has Flash Fire.
 * Peek-a-Bangs: Litwick, with candlewax.
 * Playing With Fire
 * Ridiculously Cute Critter: Litwick was drawn to be cute, despite that it's a manipulative, soul-stealing candle ghost.
 * Soul Power
 * Squishy Wizard: Chandelure is shoddily built with a low 60 HP. However, it knocked Alakazam and Porygon-Z out of their shared place for the highest Special Attack of a non-legendary with a whopping 145 Special Attack.
 * Made worse when you realize it can learn Calm Mind, raising said wondrous stat even more.
 * Supernatural Is Purple
 * Technicolor Fire
 * Wreathed in Flames: One of its abilities, Flame Body, may burn an opponent using a physical contact move on it.
 * Your Soul Is Mine: Litwick's ghostly flames are fueled by the souls of people and Pokemon who were tricked into following it.
 * You Will Not Evade Me: Their Dream World ability, Shadow Tag, does this. Suddenly Ferrothorn, Scizor, Forretress, Escavalier, Durant, Genesect, and Wormadam aren't feeling so tough now.

Axew, Fraxure, and Haxorus (Kibago, Onondo, and Ononokusu)
They are slow to make friends and territorial disputes between them can be exceedingly violent. You can tell when you are in one's territory by the gashes in the surroundings made by their tusks, which they excessively sharpen while heading towards evolution. However, if you do befriend one, you've managed to make a very powerful and dependable ally indeed.

"Pokédex: They are kind but can be relentless when defending territory. They challenge foes with tusks that can cut steel."
 * An Axe to Grind: Haxorus has two axe-blades for teeth. See Theme Naming below as well.
 * Badass: It has axe-tusks and the highest attack stat this side of Ubers.
 * Dinosaurs Are Dragons
 * Gentle Giant: Haxorus's Black entry seems to suggest this.


 * Beware the Nice Ones:
 * Lightning Bruiser: Its Attack stat of 147 is only 3 points lower than Groudon, Rayquaza, and Zekrom, and it's faster than all 3.
 * Glass Cannon: Behaves this way sometimes - its Special Defense isn't that great, and its speed, while pretty high, is just slow enough to let all sorts of other Pokémon outspeed and destroy it.
 * Name's the Same: And yet again, prior to the release of Black And White, one artist devised a fanmade Pokémon that also bears the name Haxorus -- and its entire head is an axe.
 * Our Dragons Are Different: And they might also be dinosaurs.
 * Signature Move: Unfortunately, Gible gets it too
 * Theme Naming: All of them have the word "ax" in their names.

Cubchoo and Beartic (Kumasyun and Tsunbeaa)
The second Pokémon to be based on bears, Chuchoo doesn't seem well suited for neither the cold areas it is found nor the ice type attacks it naturally learns, if its perpetually running nose is anything to go by. Beartic doesn't seem to have that problem. Unlike North America's Bears, these guys hide in caves during the warm months and come out during winter.


 * An Ice Pokémon
 * Badass Beard: Beartic has a beard made of ice.
 * Everything's Worse With Bears
 * Mighty Glacier
 * Beartic becomes a Lightning Bruiser if it's raining, however.
 * Shown Their Work: They are able to learn several water moves, including Dive. Makes sense, knowing that the scientific name of polar bears is Ursus maritimus.
 * Signature Move: Is strongly associated with icicle crash
 * Snot Bubble: Cubchoo have a frozen one dripping from their noses.

Cryogonal (Furiijio)
They have a hard time sustaining themselves at ground level and are thus a rare sight in the wild. Sometimes one is seen hunting in the mountains, but they are usually restricted to the skies.


 * An Ice Pokémon
 * For Massive Damage: Not 4x damage, but any physical attack will bring it down in no time. If it's a Fire-type attack, all the better...
 * Healing Factor: It can learn Recover.
 * Metal Slime: 1% chance of finding one, unless it's winter, where it skyrockets to... a whopping 5%.
 * No Biological Sex
 * No Sell: Against Ground attacks, due to Levitate.
 * Stone Wall: Only in terms of Special defense (a high 135). Its physical defense of 30 is about as much as you'd expect from a giant snowflake.

Shelmet and Accelgor (Chobomaki and Agirudaa)
Bug Pokémon based on gastropods. Shelmet usually hides near wetlands, annoying anyone who would harass it with stalling tactics. Shelmet is mostly outclassed by its neighbors but its evolution, Accelgor, is a whole different story however...


 * Big Creepy Crawlies: Large snails/slugs.
 * Cool Helmet: Shelmet.
 * Fragile Speedster: Accelgor.
 * Ninja: Accelgor.
 * Scarf of Asskicking
 * Stone Wall: Shelmet.
 * Took a Level In Badass: Shelmet is a snail, whose shell is stolen by a Karrablast to evolve. What does it do? Instead of just dying of dehydration, IT BECOMES A NINJA.

Stunfisk (Maggyo)
Travelers passing through Icirrus City had best watch their step, as these Pokémon are likely hiding in the trails they walk through, waiting for an excuse to strike. Known to find humor in the injuries of others and for their tendency to shield their weaknesses with camouflage, these fish annually retreat to deep water when the grounds freeze over during winter. In short, the best Pokémon of all time.


 * Butt Monkey: Made even more hilarious when he's at the end of the Can You Name All The Pokémon? Japanese ending song for the Pokemon Best Wishes series.
 * Dishing Out Dirt
 * Gonk
 * Irony: It's a fish that lives in water, yet it takes super-effective damage from water attacks.
 * It Amused Me: A lot of their behavior can be explained by this motivation.
 * Lethal Joke Character: Yes, it looks silly. If it's trained right, it can catch unsuspecting trainers off-guard thanks to high defense and HP stats.
 * Making a Splash: Not a Water-type, despite being a fish, but can learn several water moves.
 * No Sell: Against Electric attacks.
 * Psycho Electric Flatfish
 * Shock and Awe
 * Stone Wall: Has high HP and Defense stats, but very low speed.
 * Troll: Japanese fans seem to love using him to piss off and annoy people online.

Mienfoo and Mienshao (Kojofu and Kojondo)
Elusive mustelid martial artists whose fur seems to resemble a monk's clothing. They can't take much punishment, but they can sure dish it out, and work well supporting those they fight side by side with.


 * All Minks Know Kung Fu
 * As Long As It Sounds Foreign
 * Bare-Fisted Monk: With plenty of martial arts techniques.
 * Wicked Weasel: Subverted. They're only weasels (or weasel-like animals) in design only. However, they're not Dark-types (like Sneasel from Generation II); they're Fighting.
 * Mienshao also share a striking number of similarities with Lucario.
 * Glass Ninja: Its fast and can do quite a lot of damage with Hi Jump Kick, but its defenses are lacking somewhat.
 * Healing Factor: Can have Regenerator as an ability, which allows it to recover up to a third of its health when switched out. Combined with U-Turn (attacks and switches out the user, which it naturally learns), it is a very useful ability.
 * Ki Attacks: Notably learns the move Aura Sphere. It's the only Fighting-type to learn it besides Lucario.
 * Whip It Good: Mienshao is based partly on the concept of whip fighting, and even uses the long fur on its arms as whips. It can't learn Power Whip though, possibly because its a Grass-type move.
 * The Worf Effect: Despite being a fairly powerful Pokémon in-game, Mienshao have all lost miserably in their anime appearances.

Druddigon (Crimgan)
A red faced creature whose rock hard hide is reminiscent of a gargoyle's. It is not as fierce as its appearance would suggest, and it is often left immobile by the dark and the cold. Despite this, it is still usually dangerous to touch one, and it can make up for its lack of speed with a glare that halts foes in their tracks.


 * Mighty Glacier: In stark contrast to most dragons.
 * Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: It's a dragon with elements of a gargoyle, can learn Glare (otherwise exclusive to snakes), and can have the ability Rough Skin (otherwise exclusive to sharks).
 * Our Dragons Are Different
 * Overshadowed By Awesome: Unfortunately, it's considered to be pathetically weak compared to most other dragons, statwise and moveset-wise.
 * Spikes of Doom
 * Wings Do Nothing: According to the Pokédex, it uses them to take in sunlight for warmth but they do you no favors in game play.

Golett and Golurk (Gobitto and Goruggo)
Hominid-shaped Pokémon that are made out of clay and brought to life by an unknown method. They're best known for their strong attacks, especially their punching moves. They are also capable of performing some other feats, such as flying. The seal on their chest keeps their power controllable and shrinks upon evolution.


 * American Robot: Technically so; it's designed by a British man, in an America-based setting, and is also similar to a robot (it was said in the Pokédex that Golurk was a golem built by an ancient civilization to protect their villages).
 * Dishing Out Dirt
 * Humongous Mecha
 * Instant Awesome Just Add Mecha
 * Flying Brick: One of the very few Pokémon that can learn Fly despite not being of the Flying-type or having the Levitate ability. Also literally, as it is made of clay.
 * Golem: Not to be confused with the Gen I Pokémon named Golem.
 * Living Statue
 * Megaton Punch: It learns DynamicPunch. Coupled with its Dream World ability No Guard (which makes ALL attacks hit) and the 100% chance of confusion...
 * Its other ability, Iron Fist, combines with its great attack score to turn all its punches, even the normally wimpy Shadow Punch, into one of these.
 * Magitek: An empowered claw figure that looks and acts like a robot.
 * Mighty Glacier
 * Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Especially the zombie robot part. It's a Humongous Mecha Golem possessed by a ghost... and it can fly and transform into a cannon too!
 * No Biological Sex
 * No Sell: Against Normal, Fighting, and Electric attacks.
 * Older Than They Think: An in-universe example. Porygon was lauded in some of its Pokédex entries as the first artificial Pokémon; turns out Golurk and Golett had it beat by a few thousand or so years.
 * Our Ghosts Are Different: Even though it's a Ghost-type, it's actually a clay golem/robot possessed by a ghost.
 * It's also one of the less malicious Ghost-types. Rather than killing people and Pokémon, it actually protects them from harm.
 * Soul Power: Both are powered by a ghost-like force within the body.

Pawniard and Bisharp (Komatana and Kirikizan)
These strangely humanoid beasts have sharp, metallic blades jutting out of their bodies (hence their Steel typing), which they would just love to use on opponents and prey (hence their Dark typing). They typically live in hunting packs led by Bisharps, who do little work but get the last say in just about everything.


 * Asskicking Equals Authority: "It battles to become the boss, but it will be driven out of the group if it loses."
 * Blade Below the Shoulder: And pretty much everywhere on their bodies.
 * Chess Motifs: What the localization gave them. Pawniards are gregarious and gang up on the enemy (similar to pawns in chess), while Bisharp (the bishop) deals the finishing blow.
 * Combat Pragmatist: Ganging up on an opponent isn't really fair practice...
 * Dark Is Edgy: Literally.
 * Extra Ore Dinary
 * Evil Counterpart: Look at a picture of them together, and tell me Bisharp doesn't look like an evil version of Gallade.
 * Finishing Move: Bisharp reserves the right to dish one out after the Pawniard in its command have sufficiently weakened the prey.
 * For Massive Damage: Fighting-type attacks.
 * Glass Cannon: Bisharp's Sucker Punch can One Hit KO Latios and Latias, but if a Fighting-type looks at it too hard, it's in trouble.
 * Mighty Glacier: If no fighting types are opposing it, its defense stat of 100 helps it.
 * Humanoid Abomination: At first glance, Bisharp looks like a cartoonish soldier. Then you notice that it has hooves rather than feet, and that those blades on its torso are a part of its body.
 * No Sell: Against Poison and Psychic attacks.

Bouffalant (Baffuron)
A Bison Pokémon with an unusually large afro and huge horns. It can't exactly move as fast as its cousin Tauros, but it can sure take hits and deal out severe damage. Its afro cushions the damage from slamming its head into anything (like, say, a speeding train it's trying to run off the tracks). It also loves its veggies, so sending a Grass Pokémon after it isn't a good idea.


 * Fan Nickname: Buffafron, Buffafro, Afrodeo, and Afrobull were early conjectures of the localized name on 4chan.
 * Fantastic Racism: An episode of the anime features a herd of Bouffalant that attack anything that doesn't sport an afro.
 * Funny Afro
 * Afro Asskicker: Its charges have enough destructive force to run a train off its tracks.
 * A Load of Bull: even though Bouffalant is based on the American bison (commonly called a "buffalo"), with some elements of an African water buffalo (the horns), and it's not male-only like Tauros from Generation I.
 * Mighty Glacier
 * Non-Elemental
 * No Sell: Against Ghost-type attacks. If its got the Sap Sipper ability, Grass-types won't affect it, either.
 * Signature Move: Head Charge (known as Afro Break in the Japanese version).

Rufflet and Braviary (Washibon and Warugle)
An eagle Pokémon that's caught fairly late in the game (for those playing Pokémon White) and takes a very long time to evolve, but once it does, it's a powerful Pokémon. This majestic Pokémon is strong enough to carry a car while soaring through the air. It can also do the same for Pokémon in the form of the attack Sky Drop.


 * Asskicking Equals Authority: The more scars a Braviary has, the more it's respected among its clan.
 * Badass Adorable: Rufflet. It's small, cute, fluffy... and its attack power is pretty damn good for an unevolved Pokémon.
 * Big Badass Bird of Prey: Both of them qualify, but Braviary especially. It's so strong, it can lift a car off the ground.
 * Blood Knight: Rufflet challenge just about anything they see to a fight, no matter how tough it is.
 * Braids Beads and Buckskins: Their head feathers are styled after the archetypical Native American headdress.
 * Eagle Land: It's red, white, and blue and it's an eagle, to match the U.S.A. style world of the video games. What more needs to be said?
 * Also, its Japanese name sounds like Washington (as in George Washington, America's first president, or Washington, D.C., the nation's capital, or even Washington state [home of such cities as Seattle, Olympia, and Walla Walla]).
 * And it's plumage resembles American Indian headdresses.
 * Flight
 * Lightning Bruiser
 * No Sell: Against Ghost and Ground attacks.
 * One-Gender Race: Always male.
 * Proud Warrior Race Mon
 * Spear Counterpart: Of Mandibuzz.

Vullaby and Mandibuzz (Baruchai and Barujiina)
Vulture Pokémon that have a habit of dressing in the bones of presumably their meals. These Pokémon are only found in Pokémon Black. They are fairly bulky, and their makeshift bone armor helps with that.


 * Bad With the Bone
 * Big Badass Bird of Prey
 * Casting a Shadow: Can learn Dark Pulse via level up.
 * Combat Pragmatist
 * Distaff Counterpart: Of Rufflet and Braviary.
 * Also, given its typing, Evil Counterparts as well.
 * Flight
 * Missing Secret: Yes, you can trade them over to Pokémon White, but if you don't have anyone to trade with or access to the GTS, their Pokédex spots will never be filled, because they're unobtainable AND no trainers use them. They remain the only example of an entire line of Pokémon missing entirely from one of their generation's primary games.
 * No Sell: Psychic and Ground attacks are useless against it.
 * One-Gender Race: Always female.
 * Stealth Pun and Getting Crap Past the Radar - Mandibuzz's Japanese name is roughly Romanized to Vulgina
 * Unfortunate Names: "Vulgina" is actually a portmanteau of "vulture" and "regina" ("Regina" being not only a girl's name, but the Latin word for "queen"), but try telling that to the viewers whose minds seem to have a permanent residence in the gutter.
 * Refuge in Audacity: Vullaby using a human skull as a diaper is, at first glance, downright disgusting and disrespectful to the dead, then it transcends into being innovative and kinda cute.
 * Savage Piercings: Mandibuzz.
 * Skeletons in The Coat Closet: Used as bows, skirts, and even diapers.
 * Stone Wall: Mandibuzz has 110 hp, Defense and Special Defense of 105 and 95, and immunity to harmful weather, but its attack stats are pretty low.
 * Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Mandibuzz in particular has a whole array of these, all made of bones.

Heatmor and Durant (Kuitaran and Aianto)
An anteater and an ant in a predator-prey relationship. Heatmor's Fire typing so happens to be the Bug/Steel Durant's only weakness, but it's a massive weakness. As such, Heatmor has little problems cooking Durant's insides and eating them for lunch. Heatmor can be found outside of where Durants gather and presumably stop them from spreading across the region. Durant is far from defenseless against the anteater, though; they attack Heatmor in mass numbers.


 * Big Creepy Crawlies: Durant is massive compared to a regular ant (30cm vs 1cm), but all the same, you wouldn't want either one of them near your picnic lunch.
 * Blessed With Suck: What's Durant's bonus Dream World ability? Slaking's ability: Truant.
 * Not Completely Useless: However, with the Entrainment move, Durant can make its target have the same ability.
 * Extra Ore Dinary: Durant.
 * Feed It With Fire: Heatmor may have the Flash Fire ability, which allows it to nullify a fire-type move against it to increase the power of its fire moves.
 * For Massive Damage:As a Steel/Bug type, Durant's only weakness is 4x damage from fire (courtesy of Heatmor), especially if it's a Special Attack due to its low Special Defense.
 * Which is why these two (who aren't in the same family) are even grouped together. Heatmor is an anteater, and happens to be a Fire-type, which makes him extremely effective against Durant, the ant.
 * All of Heatmor's Fire-type attacks are Special-based. It can't even get Flame Charge via TM.


 * Glass Ninja: Durant has 109 Attack, 112 Defense, and 109 Speed (which makes it one of the fastest Steel-types). Of course, it is balanced out by its low HP, Special Attack (which it does not need), and Special Defense.
 * Name's the Same: When you catch a Durant, don't expect to be able to play basketball with it.
 * It probably wouldn't make a very good bodyguard to Princess Yggdra, either.
 * Irony/Gameplay and Story Segregation: Despite being the prey, a wild Durant could possibly take a wild Heatmor in a one-on-one fight eight or nine times out of ten with a super effective Dig, thanks to its good attack and speed and the latter's poor defense. Add the fact that wild Durant tend to attack in groups...
 * No Sell: Durant against Poison attacks. Heatmor against Fire attacks, but only if it has Flash Fire. If it doesn't, then Ground and Water types are your best friends in beating it in battle.
 * Overshadowed By Awesome: Heatmor. It has good special attack, but its Speed and Defenses are lacking, and there are stronger Fire-types that can be obtained earlier, like Darmanitan, Chandelure, and Victini.
 * Playing With Fire: Heatmor.
 * Smoke Out: Heatmor can have the same ability as Torkoal, White Smoke.
 * Strong Ants: Durant.
 * Too Dumb to Live: Durant has a strange (read: suicidal) case of Goal Oriented Evolution. It had always been the prey of Heatmor, even before it was the Steel/Bug Pokemon we know now. Apparently to get over this cover, the species evolved (via, slow, Darwinian, generation-wide regular evolution, not Evolutionary Levels) steel armor for protection. Needless to say, that idea didn't go as well as it should.
 * As in, instead of suffering death by being set on fire and burning to death, they now get cooked to death inside their own exoskeleton, making their deaths even more painful.
 * Turns Red: Durant's Swarm ability.
 * Zerg Rush: Durant's standard attack strategy.

Deino, Zweilous, and Hydreigon (Monozu, Jiheddo, and Sazandora)
The pseudo-legendary for Gen V, this line of multi-headed dragons is possibly best known for being the signature Pokémon of one of the nastiest villains in the series. While Deino is a simple one-headed baby dragon with a Beatle haircut, Zweilous' two heads hate each other and constantly compete for food. Hydreigon only has one brain despite having three heads (two serving as hands), but it is by far the most savage member of the line and among the most vicious Pokémon of all, attacking anything that moves and devouring anything in sight. Unlike the others of its kind, it focuses on Special Attacking power rather than physical. It also evolves at a much higher level, making it unlikely that you'll have a fully evolved Hydreigon before you beat the Elite Four.


 * Always Chaotic Evil: Zweilous's and Hydreigon's species titles aren't Hostile Pokémon and Brutal Pokémon, respectively, for nothing.
 * Dark Is Not Evil: Carlita's Hydreigon, in contrast to.
 * Dark Is Evil:
 * Badass: Hydreigon, as one of the most ferocious and intimidating Mons in the series.
 * Confusion Fu: Can learn a move of every type except Grass. Hidden Power can cover the no-grass problem.
 * Big Eater: Every member of this line; Zweilous in particular has a very large appetite (see Extreme Omnivore below)
 * Black Eyes of Crazy: Hydreigon.
 * Blinding Bangs: Exaggerated with Deino and Zweilous; they actually have no eyes and cannot see, and must rely on their sense of smell.
 * Casting a Shadow: It can learn Dark Pulse, and therefore is able to have actual dark powers.
 * Although you have to breed it onto a Deino via Ekans/Arbok/Seviper/Gyarados, and even then you have to teach the snake the Dark Pulse TM back in Gen 4, and then transfer it over to Gen 5. Considering Dark Pulse is one of the few special-based Dark attacks, you'd think the process of getting it onto the Deino line would be less convoluted.
 * Combat Pragmatist: Well, biting the enemy (hopefully not eating it) isn't a very fair combat maneuver...
 * Expy / Shout Out: Hydreigon is based off of King Ghidorah.
 * Extreme Omnivore: They are able to eat virtually anything, and they will.
 * Eyeless Face: Deino and Zweilous. Justified in that they have no eyes.
 * Lightning Bruiser: A mostly Special Attacking one, in comparison to most dragons.
 * Magikarp Power: Deino and Zweilous have the ability Hustle, which boosts attack and lowers accuracy, resulting in frequent misses (they do not learn any guaranteed-hit moves either). Once Zweilous evolves into Hydreigon, though...
 * This is actually the best case of this trope in this series, as when you get your Deino into a Zweilous at level 50, you still have to wait 14 more levels of having to rely on Aerial Ace for any reliable damage. You don't get Hydreigon until Level 64.
 * Multiple Head Case: Starts at one, then two, and finally three.
 * Subverted in Hydreigon's case; the heads on its arms don't have brains, so the center head presumably controls them. Played straight with Zweilous, though; its Pokédex entry even mentions its heads arguing.
 * No Sell: All three are immune to Psychic attacks. Hydreigon is also immune to Ground-type attacks.
 * No Pronunciation Guide: As mentioned below, their names have German words. "zwei", for example, should be pronounced "tsvai", so phonetically at least their names are DIE-no, TSVAI-lus, and Hi-DREI-gon
 * Punny Name: Hydreigon sounds a lot like "Hydra" and "Dragon".
 * Numerical Theme Naming/Bilingual Bonus: Ein, zwei, and drei are German for one, two, and three.
 * Call Back: Not the first time that English Pokémon names have used foreign words for one, two, and three.
 * Obviously Evil: Red Eyes Take Warning? Check. Mighty Roar? Check. Dark-type? Check. Check!
 * Omnicidal Maniac: Hydreigon's modus operandi is to attack anything that moves.
 * Orochi: Said to be based on one, although it looks more like a Hydra.
 * Our Dragons Are Different
 * Power Floats: Hydreigon has the Levitate ability (presumably because it hovers).
 * Shown Their Work: Hydreigon's arms have brainless heads of their own? That's basically just the logical extension of how octopus tentacles work in real life.
 * Single-Minded Twins: Averted for Deino and Zweilous; played straight (to the point of exaggeration) for Hydreigon.
 * Split Personality Merge/Split Personality Takeover: Zweilous's heads are noted to not get along at all. It's never confirmed if Hydreigon's brain is a merger of both of theirs, like Reuniclus, if it grew a new brain and the others lost their brains and became its arms, or if one mind finally overcame the other.
 * Unstoppable Rage: Can also learn Outrage, although Draco Meteor is a much better choice for a Dragon-type move in this case.
 * What Could Have Been: Originally, Deino, Zweilous, and Hydreigon were going to be cyborg dragons that had tank-like abilities and attacks.
 * Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds
 * Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds

Larvesta and Volcarona (Meraruba and Ulgamotsu)
Moth Pokémon believed believed to have a connection with the sun. Larvesta is said to have been born from the sun, while Volcarona is able to harness the sun's power, even being able to act as a replacement. Like the Deino line, Larvesta takes a long time to evolve into Volcarona, but when it does, it becomes a powerful special attacker to be reckoned with.


 * Difficult but Awesome: Volcarona's 4x weakness to Rock (and vulnerability to all other entry hazards) means if you want to use it, you absolutely must have a way of keeping entry hazards off the field. However, Volcarona is so powerful that it is oftentimes worth it.
 * Blow You Away: Volcarona's penultimate level up move is Hurricane, and it's one of the two non-Flying-types that can learn the move.
 * Big Creepy Crawlies: Volcarona is 5'3" feet; its size in comparison still doesn't stop it from being able to replace the Sun.
 * For Massive Damage: Rock-type attacks are very effective against it.
 * Irony: Volcarona is one of the only two Bug-types that can learn Fly, with the other being Genesect. Amusingly, neither Pokémon is part Flying-type (and there are a great many Bug/Flying Pokémon).
 * Magikarp Power: Larvesta has so-so stats except for attack (which should not be trained, as Volcarona relies on Special Attack), and it evolves at the really high level of 59. Once it does, though, you better watch out!
 * Even after evolving, Volcarona only learns its Signature Move, Fiery Dance (which also happens to be one of its 3 best options for a Fire-type move) at level 100.
 * Olympus Mons: Fairly close. One flap of its wings is enough to set vast swathes of land ablaze, and it's capable of serving as a substitute for the sun. Its location in a special chamber within the ruins further cements this.
 * Our Angels Are Different: Volcarona has some elements of a seraph, a six-winged angel who must keep its face covered or else it will incinerate all who make eye contact with it. Due to its status as an Olympus Mon, despite not being legendary, this isn't likely a coincidence.
 * Playing With Fire
 * The Power of the Sun: Volcarona's called the "Sun Pokémon", and the Pokédex says it has the power to replace the sun when the skies are darkened by volcanic ash. This probably explains why it has a chamber with an image of its likeness on the wall dedicated to it, despite not even being a legendary Pokémon.
 * Volcarona is also similar to Mothra in that both specialize in energy projecting abilities, Volcarona having a really high Special Attack and energy projection being Mothra's speciality.
 * Mothra is the last member of the fan-defined "Kaiju group", along with Tyranitar, Haxorus, and Hydreigon, all of which greatly resemble a monster from Godzilla movies.
 * Signature Move: Fiery Dance.
 * Squishy Wizard: Volcarona has low physical defense, but 135 special attack, powerful Special Fire and Bug moves, and Quiver Dance make it powerful.
 * Turns Red: Swarm ability.
 * Unique Enemy: You get a Larvesta egg in the game (it being this game's Togepi analogue), and can catch one (and only one) Volcarona in a certain area.
 * Wreathed in Flames: Despite not actually being enveloped in fire, they do get Flame Body which may burn physical contact attackers. In addition, the flavor text on Fiery Dance is that Volcarona cloaks itself in flames before flapping its wings to burn its enemy.

Cobalion, Terrakion, and Virizion
A trio resembling bovids in boots that is known for excelling at both long range and close quarters combat. They roamed before humans and Pokemon lived together and their exploits have become legendary. The trio has settled down since modern times and now live in isolation. One man wishes to bring them out of hiding.


 * Armor-Piercing Attack: A partial example in their Signature Move, Sacred Sword. Sacred Sword ignores any defense boosts that the opponent has, although it cannot penetrate Reflect.
 * Badass: All three members, owing to their inspiration.
 * Colourful Theme Naming: They're all named after colors that are somewhat close to their actual coloration: cobalt blue, terracotta, and viridian.
 * Elemental Powers
 * Dishing Out Dirt: Terrakion.
 * Extra Ore Dinary: Cobalion.
 * Green Thumb: Virizion.
 * Humans Are Bastards: Their thoughts on people until the main character befriends them.
 * Lightning Bruiser: All three members of the trio, but especially Terrakion.
 * Stone Wall: Cobalion and Virizion, on the physical and special sides, respectively. They're still quite fast and can sweep pretty well.
 * Glass Cannon: While it has good defense stats and HP Terrakion's large amount of weaknesses to common attacking types make it take more damage than you would expect.
 * Master Swordsman: All three of them can be considered this due to their inspiration and legendary status. Virizion in particular is described to be very skilled, possibly more so than Cobalion and Terrakion.
 * Natural Weapon: Presumably, since they aren't exactly lugging physical swords around. The attack description of Sacred Sword states that they use their horns to perform the attack.
 * Never Bring a Knife To A Fist Fight: If a Pokémon hits any of them with an already less-effective Dark-type move, their Justified ability raises their attack power.
 * Combos: In a double or triple battle, one can take advantage of this by having a Weavile (or anybody faster with Beat Up, including Whimsicott) use Beat Up on Terrakion to power up its attack six times, then have Terrakion Rock Slide all the enemies to death.
 * No Biological Sex: Though all of them are based on male characters, although Virizion has a female voice in the anime.
 * No Sell: Cobalion, against Poison attacks.
 * Power Trio
 * Signature Move: Sacred Sword.
 * Shout Out: The three of them are inspired by The Three Musketeers: specifically, Cobalion is based off Athos (the leader of the three, later The Lancer to d'Artagnan), Terrakion is based off Porthos (the somewhat hedonistic Big Guy) and Virizion is based off Aramis (The Smart Guy who also has touches of The Casanova).

Tornadus, Thundurus, and Landorus (Tornelos, Voltolos, and Landlos)
Twin terrors that race across the land, uprooting and drenching anything which is unfortunate enough to be in their path. For collectors, this means Pokémon that are rarely encountered may be displaced by their winds, but to farmers and everyone else, they are simply a nuisance. Thankfully, the twins have a retainer. If you know how to contact him, he will calm them down.


 * Badass Mustache
 * Color-Coded Elements: although Thundurus's main pallette seems a little off, unlike the other two.
 * Elemental Powers
 * Blow You Away: They all have this, but Tornadus holds the honor of being the first pure Flying-type ever (Not counting Sky Plate Arceus, Kecleon if he gets hit with a Flying-type attack, or the Porygon family when using Conversion or Conversion 2) and is the only one of the three to learn Flying-type moves by leveling up.
 * Dishing Out Dirt: Landorus.
 * Shock and Awe: Thundurus.
 * Fascinating Eyebrow: Landorus expresses this in both formes' Sugimori drawings.
 * Flight
 * For Massive Damage: Landorus, weak to ice attacks.
 * Genie in A Bottle: Though they aren't actually based on genies, they have a striking resemblance to the common image of one.
 * Get Back Here Boss
 * Green Thumb: Both the Black and White Pokédex entries confirm this for Landorus.
 * Jerkass Gods: Tornadus and Thundurus fly around wrecking everything for no real reason beyond "for shits and giggles". Landorus, thankfully, is far nicer.
 * The Last of These Is Not Like the Others: Based on the Japanese gods of wind (Fuujin), lightning (Raijin), and... fertility (Inari). Also, Landorus, unlike the first two, is benevolent, has different base stats, and a different ability.
 * Hilarious in Hindsight: The actual mythological Inari is a woman.
 * But then again, Inari's gender is debatable.
 * No Sell: Against Ground attacks. Landorus is also immune to Electric attacks.
 * Spikes of Doom: Thundurus's tail spikes shoot bolts!
 * Trickster God: Tornadus and Thundurus fly all around the Unova region, causing stormy weather and ruining crops. Their ability, Prankster, also reflects this.
 * Trickster Twins: Tornadus and Thundurus also have identical base stats.
 * Tyop On the Cover: When encountering Tornadus in a cutscene, Thundurus's cry is played instead of Tornadus's. The same is true when encountering Thundurus; Tornadus's cry is heard instead.
 * Olympus Mons
 * One-Gender Race: Always male.
 * The Unexpected: Their new formes. Every other Pokémon who gained a new forme in a later game had place-holder data which indicated it. The Kami Trio's new formes came completely out of left field.
 * Underground Monkey: In a first for any group of Pokémon, their differences aren't as notable and are derided for mostly being recolors, other than their tails, hairstyle, and number of horns.
 * Justified for Tornadus and Thundurus, as Fuujin and Raijin are often portrayed as looking near identical aside from color.
 * Divergent Character Evolution: Their new formes in Black 2 and White 2, which appear to be based off of the Vermilion Bird, Azure Dragon and White Tiger of the four sacred animals in chinese mythology.
 * Big Badass Birds of Prey: Tornadus gets to turn into one of these thanks to a new BW2 forme.
 * Our Dragons Are Different: Thundurus gains a new dragon-based alternate forme in BW2.
 * Panthera Awesome: Landorus's BW2 alternate forme is a tiger.
 * What Could Have Been: Tornadus was originally supposed to be red.

Reshiram, Zekrom, and Kyurem
Unova's main legendary trio, they were the first Generation V Pokémon revealed to North American audiences (excluding Kyurem). They finally bring the common fantasy theme of "clashing elemental dragons" to the Pokémon universe, though in a somewhat unique way -- bar Kyurem, the dragons don't have characteristics that make their elements immediately obvious (instead resembling embodiments of light and darkness, which is true to a certain extent), and generate their elemental energy inside oddly-shaped tails. Each of them represents a different aspect of the yin-yang mythos and philosophical concept and controls a different element: Reshiram (the white birdlike one) represents yang and truth and spews fire out of its tail, while Zekrom (the black metallic one) represents yin and ideals and infuses its body with electricity. Kyurem (the gray one) represents wuji, or void, and may be the strangest of the trio; in its regular forme, it's a frail-looking dragon that can freeze its opponents with ice (but freezes its own body as a side-effect),


 * Badass: All three members of the trio, though Kyurem not so much in its regular forme.
 * Took a Level In Badass: Kyurem seems to have finally done this, judging by its new forms (Black Kyurem and White Kyurem) in Pokémon Black 2 and White 2.
 * Dark Is Not Evil/Light Is Not Good: Like most Pokémon, neither Reshiram nor Zekrom seems to have any especially "virtuous" or "evil" intentions, despite their contrasting appearances. The various forms of canon show both dragons filling both heroic and villainous roles, although as antagonists . Kyurem seems to be the least benevolent of the trio (based on its backstory and the 15th movie's plot), although not many details have been revealed so far.
 * White and Gray Morality: According to their backstory, Reshiram stands for truth while Zekrom stands for ideals. Make of that what you will...
 * The Dragon: The 14th movie, where instead of serving, the opposite dragon serves Damon.
 * Dragons Up the Yin Yang: Er, too literal?
 * Dummied Out: The God Stone, along with two Ice attacks, Freeze Shock and Ice Burn, presumably reserved for Kyurem in Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, are in the original Pokémon Black and White, possibly to avoid compatibility issues.
 * Everything's Better With Dinosaurs: Zekrom and Kyurem have characteristics of theropod dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus Rex. Though not immediately obvious, Reshiram's body structure is similar to a giant pterodactyl (right down to the "wing-fingers").
 * Fire, Ice, Lightning
 * An Ice Pokémon: Kyurem.
 * Playing With Fire: Reshiram
 * Shock and Awe: Zekrom
 * Foil: Reshiram and Zekrom to each other; Zekrom's black technological looks and neon blue lightning to Reshiram's white birdlike looks with natural flames. Kyurem turns out to be a foil to both, representing a void.
 * Fusion Dance: Kyurem's Black and White formes certainly look this way.
 * Hybrid Monster: Kyurem's alternate formes -- Black Kyurem (Kyurem & Zekrom) and White Kyurem (Kyurem & Reshiram).
 * Instant Awesome Just Add Dragons
 * Instant Awesome Just Add Mecha: Zekrom
 * Irony: Although Reshiram is supposed to be ladylike and Zekrom is supposed to be manly, it's the exact opposite with yin and yang; yang is masculine and yin is feminine. Meanwhile, the anime just ran with it and made them both masculine.
 * Fridge Brilliance: Notice how in the yin-yang symbol that there's always a little dot of the opposite color? It goes with the belief that nothing is ever completely yin or yang; there's always a little bit of the opposite.
 * The Last of These Is Not Like the Others: Kyurem has characteristics that make its Ice typing fairly obvious, doesn't have some sort of power generator for a tail, lacks a powerful signature move, is much more frail and lightly built than its counterparts, and is designed overall to be fairly weak in comparison to similar legendaries. Also, its cry just sounds like static compared to everything else.
 * Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 reveal that Kyurem is able to take on characteristics of the other dragons and make itself whole again.
 * Lightning Bruiser: Though fairly slow compared to other Olympus Mons, like the past three generations of box legendaries.
 * Mighty Glacier: Reshiram and Zekrom have speed as their lowest Stat; Reshiram is specially oriented, and Zekrom is physically oriented. Kyurem is only slightly faster.
 * Glacier Waif: Reshiram, which, for some reason, is slower than the more heavily-built Palkia, Slaking, and Regigigas.
 * Glass Cannon: Kyurem; its poor defensive typing, along with most standard Pokémon becoming more powerful, actually prevents it from being too overpowered for standard battling, while not making it suck as much as, say, Regigigas.
 * Large Ham: All three of them, in the anime. They speak telepathically with extremely deep, melodramatic voices.
 * Larynx Dissonance: Although Reshiram was given a "ladylike" design according to Word of God, it (like Zekrom and Kyurem) speaks with a very manly voice in the 14th movie.
 * Literal Split Personality: Reshiram and Zekrom, according to the mythology.
 * Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: A giant fire-tailed-angel-dragon and a giant lightning-tailed-mecha-dragon!
 * No Biological Sex: Though Word of God says Reshiram is supposed to be feminine while Zekrom is masculine to contrast each other (and all three have male voices in the anime). No word on what gender Kyurem is supposed to resemble, if any.
 * Oddly enough, though, Reshiram has a very feminine sounding roar in the game and movie. YMMV though.
 * Obviously Evil: Subverted for Zekrom. Same goes for the Reshiram version of the 14th movie, where it.
 * Olympus Mons
 * Opposites Attract: There is a lot of ship art between Reshiram and Zekrom. Has since been dubbed Colorless-Shipping by the fanfiction writers.
 * Canon example: their normally not-very-effective-against-each-other Signature Moves, Fusion Flare and Fusion Bolt, double in power if one is used after the other.
 * Movie Example: Ash's chosen dragon could've easily let Damon's dragon die after it fell into the corrupted Dragon Force. What does it do instead? Save its life by carrying it out of the Dragon Force. This could just fit in with the Yin/Yang concept.
 * Our Dragons Are Different: One seems to be a furnace-tailed bird and the other appears to be a generator-tailed mecha.
 * Kyurem, meanwhile, looks just incomplete.
 * Our Zombies Are Different: Kyurem due to being a frozen zombie dragon.
 * Overshadowed By Awesome: Kyurem is not a bad Pokémon at all, but most other Dragon-types are more reliable. May be averted with it's new formes.
 * Physical God: All three, though Kyurem has certainly fallen in power somewhat. It can rise again. Somehow...
 * Power Trio: The Trio was also called the Energy Dragons, Reshiram and Zekrom represent Fire (heat) and Electricity, both of which are the main types of energy known to man. Kyurem, represents the lack of energy, explaining its Ice typing. Being an energy-less empty husk also explains its looks: Compared to other legendary Pokemon, it looks really weak, skinny, wrinkled, and old.
 * Psychic Powers: Reshiram knows Extrasensory upon encounter. Although Zekrom knows the Psychic-type Zen Headbutt, the move does not imply Psychic Powers as much as Reshiram's equivalent move does.
 * The moves this trio can be taught by machine include the typical fare for Psychic Pokémon.
 * Purposefully Overpowered: But with some limits in terms of moveset. Which is bad news for Kyurem, who was made to be not so overpowered. Restricted usage in the Battle Subway, official tournaments, and random Wifi, and yes, Kyurem still qualifies for this.
 * Rated M for Manly: Game Freak seems determined to show that Zekrom is the manliest Pokémon ever, from its very deep Guttural Growler voice in the movie to its being Oda Nobunaga's main Pokémon partner in the Nobunagas Ambition crossover, Pokémon Conquest.
 * Red and Black And Evil All Over: Zekrom is a black dragon pokemon with red eyes
 * Signature Move: Fusion Flare and Blue Flare for Reshiram, Fusion Bolt and Bolt Strike for Zekrom, and Glaciate (as well as very likely Freeze Shock and Ice Burn) for Kyurem. Notably though, the "Fusion" moves are also held by the movie download Victini.
 * Single Specimen Species: If the myths are to be believed.
 * Stealth Pun: There sure is a lot of fuss in the plot made about Zekrom/Reshiram choosing you and N.
 * Sword of Plot Advancement: You are FORCED to capture them; defeating them won't even give you experience.
 * There is, however, a way to do Sequence Breaking. If you have a full party and your 24 boxes are full as well, the game will allow you to proceed without catching them, saving the chance for later. Good luck catching over 720 Pokémon before your first Elite Four run, though.
 * To Serve Man: An old legend in Lacunosa Town describes Kyurem dragging people away and eating them, but its unknown if its true or not. At the very least, whatever it was doing back then was enough to scare the townsfolk into surrounding Lacunosa Town with a rock wall and enacting a curfew.
 * When All You Have Is a Hammer: Compared to the other legends they are Expies of, and with Dragons in general, the movepools of these Pokémon are barren and lack many options in the way of coverage. However, with their high-powered Dragon-type and signature moves, they won't need that, as Reshiram hits every Pokémon in the game for at least neutral damage, and Zekrom comes close . Kyurem, however, gets the shaft due to its signature move being a bit underpowered, not having access to strong attacks on par with the others' Lv 100 signatures, and no way to reliably hit Steel-types.
 * Wolverine Publicity: Zekrom. For some reason, it was featured prominently in the first two episodes of the Best Wishes anime, was revealed long before Reshiram for the 14th movie, and is the most prominent Pokémon in both the Pokémon Re Burst manga and Pokémon Conquest.
 * Which is weird, since Reshiram proved to be much more popular than Zekrom in Japan in the 15th anniversary poll.
 * Both Reshiram and Zekrom are getting promo after promo after promo in the TCG; it looks like Kyurem might be coming along for the ride too.
 * Yin Yang Clash: Duh.

Keldeo
This Pokémon is the charge of the Musketeer trio. Much like them, it is a dual Fighting type with a typing that is borrowed from nature, in Keldeo's case, Water. Long ago when it was only a foal, a fire broke out over the Moor of Icirrus and it lost its home. It was then taken in and taught how to take care of itself by the Musketeer trio. After it had grown, it left for parts unknown, but if it and the rest of the Musketeers reunite, it is able to learn a brand new move.


 * Conveniently an Orphan
 * Cute Bruiser
 * Fourth Musketeer
 * Lightning Bruiser: The Special-oriented counterpart to Terrakion.
 * Making a Splash: Based on the kelpie, a mythological horse from Celtic folklore said to haunt the rivers and lochs of Scotland and Ireland by walking on water and loves to lure children in, drown them, then eat them alive -- barring their liver and heart.
 * Natural Weapon: Presumably, Keldeo has some sort of natural blade-like appendage to use for its Signature Moves (The horn on its head, perhaps?).
 * No Biological Sex: Despite being a Shout Out to a male character.
 * Purposefully Overpowered: Restricted usage in the Battle Subway, official tournaments, and random Wifi. (It's not even overpowered, but since Keldeo is an unrevealed event Pokémon, and all of these things can involve other people seeing your Keldeo, it's probably to prevent an Early Bird Cameo brought on by hackers.)
 * Shout Out: To d'Artagnan from The Three Musketeers, the youngest and newest member of the group.
 * Signature Move: Sacred Sword, as expected from the Fourth Musketeer, as well as Secret Sword (but that one has to be taught to it by the three other Musketeer Pokémon).
 * Walk On Water

Meloetta
The third event Pokémon of Gen V, Meloetta is a dual normal type that can either be part psychic or part fighting. Its story is that long ago, it sang and danced to bring joy to the hearts of people and Pokémon alike. When sorrow descended onto the world, it lost its melody along with its red shoes. When taken to a certain guitarist in a certain café in Castelia City, he'll teach the lost song to Meloetta and it will be able to access its other forme.


 * Awesome But Slightly Impractical: Its Pirouette Forme is only accessible if Meloetta knows Relic Song and uses it in battle.
 * Beehive Hairdo: In Pirouette Forme.
 * Brown Note
 * Dance Battler: Mainly in Pirouette Forme.
 * Demoted to Extra: Meloetta will be making its debut in just a short special rather than a full movie unlike all of the other event legendaries, and its announcement was quickly forgotten thanks to the unveiling of Black 2 and White 2 and Kyurem's new forms.
 * Ascended Extra: Though in Best Wishes 2,.
 * Hair Decorations
 * The Muse
 * Musical Assassin: Mainly in Aria Forme.
 * No Biological Sex: However, it's one of the most feminine Pokémon ever, and its name even features "etta", which is a suffix found in a lot of female names.
 * Non-Elemental
 * No Sell: Immune to Ghost-type attacks.
 * Purposefully Overpowered: Restricted usage in the Battle Subway, official tournaments, and random Wifi, for the same reason as Keldeo.
 * Psychic Powers: In Aria Forme.
 * Rapunzel Hair: Longer than its own body.
 * You Gotta Have Green Hair: Aria Forme.
 * Signature Move: Relic Song, but only by Move Tutor.

Genesect
The last Pokémon in both the Unova and the National Pokédex (for now, at least), Genesect was Team Plasma's attempt at creating the strongest Pokémon ever. 300 million years ago during the Paleozoic Era, it was feared as the ultimate hunter, leading to Team Plasma choosing it to be enhanced. After being resurrected from a fossil, its (presumably) Rock type was changed to Steel, Download was added as an Ability, and its signature attack, Techno Blast (along with the Drives that change the elemental type of Techno Blast) were created. At some point N had research halted and the P2 Laboratory closed, claiming that Pokémon are perfect beings and science damages their natural beauty. One lone scientist remained; however, and continued development by himself out of the belief that Genesect is necessary for Team Plasma's goals.


 * Adaptive Ability: Its Ability, Download, automatically raises one of Genesect's offensive stats depending on which one of the enemy's defenses is weaker.
 * Awesome but Impractical: Techno Blast, which is elaborated on further down.
 * Backpack Cannon
 * Big Creepy Crawlies: The very first Bug-type Legendary (save for Insect-Plate Arceus).
 * Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Modified by Team Plasma, and hinted to be even more vicious than it was 300 million years ago.
 * N actually forbade the project from being officially completed for this very reason; the scientist responsible for this freak of nature just went and disregarded those orders.
 * Cyborg
 * Extra Ore Dinary: As a result of Team Plasma's modifications, as all fossil Pokémon but Genesect are Rock types.
 * Flight/Stealth Pun: It doesn't have any wings, but is one of only two Bug-types that can learn Fly. Have you looked at its jetpack?
 * For Massive Damage: Like Scizor, Forretress, Wormadam, Escavalier, and Durant before it, it doesn't take too well to fire attacks.
 * Irony: Despite this fact, Genesect can learn Flame Charge, a move where it envelops itself in fire and charges at its opponent.
 * Fossil Revival
 * Genesect Killed The Dinosaurs: According to the internet. Not stated in the game. Its Black 'Dex entry does date it to around just before the Permian Extinction, though it may have been a casualty instead of the cause.
 * Or both.
 * Infinity+1 Sword: The only Legendary Bug type Pokemon (so far).
 * Instant Awesome Just Add Mecha
 * Jet Pack: Apparently, it can fly this way.
 * Living Relic
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Genesect sounds like Genocide.
 * Though if you hear about this thing in the first place, you better get out of there.
 * Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: A prehistoric cyborg insect with a jetpack and a Backpack Cannon that shoots Frickin' Laser Beams!
 * No Biological Sex: Despite this, Genesect has an abdomen, even though, on an insect, an abdomen is where the reproductive organs are stored, though that's probably just metal armor replicating the appearance of the Pokémon.
 * No Sell: Immune to Poison-type attacks.
 * Prehistoric Monster: In fact, it's the one and only legendary Pokémon who's a fossil Pokémon like Aerodactyl, Rampardos, Cradily, etc. Oddly enough, it can't learn Ancientpower, despite possibly being hundreds of times older than some Pokémon who can.
 * Purple Is Powerful
 * Purposefully Overpowered: Restricted usage in the Battle Subway, official tournaments, and random Wifi, for the same reason as Keldeo and Meloetta.
 * Red Eyes Take Warning
 * Secret Character: Just like Keldeo and Meloetta.
 * Shown Their Work: Prehistoric Genesect emerged at the end of the Carboniferous period, the age when Big Creepy Crawlies were dominant. Add to that that not long after, 95% of all known life just died...
 * Signature Move: Techno Blast.
 * Power-Up Letdown: Three of the four possible types Techno Blast can change into by having Genesect hold a Drive -- which exist entirely for this one purpose -- are outclassed in power, secondary effect, and PP by other moves it can already easily access, and without taking up its held item; it doesn't even get STAB. And since they don't boost typed attacks like Plates do, Hidden Power can make up for the fourth one.
 * Not Completely Useless: Douse Drive Techno Blast is the only way to deal super effective damage to Fire types Genesect has - aside from getting Hidden Power Rock, Water, or Ground, and as Genesect can't be bred, you can't get the ones you need in-game.
 * Single Specimen Species: The prehistoric version probably wasn't, but there's very likely not going to be any more of the enhanced kind.
 * Weaponized Animal
 * We Can Rebuild Him