Bulbasaur

Bulbasaur is born with a seed already planted on its back. It isn't decoration or an object it picks up later: it's been part of it since day one and grows as the Pokémon grows, feeding on the nutrients stored by the bulb itself. That's where the habit repeated in nearly every Pokédex entry comes from — sleeping in the sun, lying down without a hurry, because the bulb needs light just as much as it needs food.

That split explains the rest. At 6.9 kg and 70 centimeters, it's small enough to carry in your arms, and it can go for days without eating by drawing on the reserves in its back. Its official category, Seed Pokémon, describes a living creature that carries its own pantry.

It's Grass- and Poison-type, the combination its entire line keeps through Venusaur, and number 001 in the National Pokédex: the first on the list and one of Kanto's three starters.

With 318 base stat points spread almost evenly, Bulbasaur doesn't win exchanges the fast way. Its best numbers are a pair of 65s in Special Attack and Special Defense, while its 45 Speed leaves it among the slower options in a level 5 format.

What changes everything is Chlorophyll, its Hidden Ability: in sun, its Speed doubles, and that 45 is enough to outspeed almost the entire Little Cup. The plan is well known and still works — Growth to raise both attacking stats at once under the sun, Solar Beam with no charge turn, Giga Drain for recovery, and Sleep Powder as insurance against anything that survives the first hit. Eviolite is what holds the set together: its mediocre defenses become respectable and give it time to set up Growth.

Against Bellsprout, the other sun sweeper in the tier, Bulbasaur trades power for durability and usually comes in as the second wave. Without sun, the problem is that its two types overlap: Grass and Poison hit almost the same targets, while all four weaknesses — Fire, Ice, Flying, and Psychic — are spread throughout the format.

Bulbasaur belongs to the Monster and Grass Egg Groups, which lets it breed with half the Pokédex of starters and a good part of the Grass-types. Its gender ratio is 7 to 1 in favor of males: only 12.5% are female, so breeding your own line starts with finding the female, or with a Ditto.

The egg gives it four moves it can't learn any other way: Petal Dance, Ingrain, Curse, and Toxic. The 20 egg cycles take about 5300 steps, among the shortest of all the starters.

It evolves into Ivysaur at level 16 and into Venusaur at 32, with no items or unusual conditions. It grows at a Medium Slow rate, so it reaches the early levels late and then catches up.

In the wild, its habitat is grassland, although it doesn't appear on routes in the Kanto games: it's given to you at Professor Oak's lab. Its 45 catch rate is the one used by hard-to-catch Pokémon.