Butterfree

The forest, and within it the part where flowers are in bloom. Everything people say about it revolves around pollen: it can locate it in minute quantities, extract it and carry it back to the nest from flowers blooming ten kilometers away. Nectar is what keeps it going.

The base animal is a butterfly, with all the wings that implies, although there is one difference compared with real ones: its wings have a waterproof layer over them, so it can fly when it rains too. A real butterfly with wet wings can't take off. It measures 1.1 meters and weighs 32 kilograms, figures that put it well beyond insect size and closer to that of a large dog with wings.

Seen up close, its red eyes aren't two eyes: they're made up of countless tiny eyes. That's where the name of its main Ability comes from.

When attacked, it beats its wings hard and scatters the poisonous scales covering them. It does the same for others — if a bird Pokémon is stalking a Caterpie, the scales fly out to drive it away. It completes a three-stage line that starts with that caterpillar, passes through Metapod at level 7 and ends here at 10, one of the fastest to complete in the entire Pokédex.

Its 395-point stat spread makes it clear which half of the sheet matters: 90 Special Attack, 80 Special Defense and 70 Speed on one side; 60 HP, 50 Defense and 45 Attack on the other. That 45 is dead weight, because its physical movepool runs out at Tackle and Bug Bite.

What gives it something resembling a plan is Quiver Dance, learned at level 44, which raises Special Attack, Special Defense and Speed all at once. With two dances under its belt, the 90 and 70 stop being filler numbers. The problem is surviving long enough to dance, and that's where its Abilities come in. Compound Eyes raises accuracy, making Sleep Powder — level 12 — much more reliable than it usually is. Tinted Lens, its hidden Ability, powers up moves that aren't very effective and stops any opponent that resists Bug and Flying from ignoring it completely. Its attacks include Bug Buzz at level 32 with 90 power and Air Slash at 24 with 75; Psychic and Energy Ball come via TM.

What holds it back is its own typing. Bug and Flying is one of the worst defensive combinations in existence: a four-times weakness to Rock, plus Fire, Ice and Electric. With 60 HP and 50 Defense, any hit that connects kills it, while Stealth Rock takes half its health simply for entering the field. A Taunt before the first dance leaves it with nothing to do.

In a normal playthrough, the picture changes: it appears in the early forests, evolves before many Trainers have reached the first Gym, and with Confusion at level 8 and Sleep Powder at 12, it handles a good part of the first region on its own.

It has a single Egg Group, Bug, which lets it breed with the rest of the insects and not much else. The gender ratio is exactly even, with 50% females, so there's no need to fight over getting the mother. Males and females are easy to tell apart: the scales on the lower wings are black on females and white on males.

Its 15 Egg Cycles work out at about 4080 steps, on the shorter side. The Egg Move list is empty: there's nothing to inherit from the father here; everything it knows is learned by leveling up or through TM, including Poison Powder, Stun Spore and Sleep Powder, which it gets all at once at level 12.

The evolution has no unusual conditions. Metapod evolves upon reaching level 10, with no items, friendship or time of day involved. It evolves earlier than almost any other Pokémon in the game.

Its habitat is the forest, and its catch rate of 45 corresponds to a Pokémon that's difficult to catch — you have to wear it down or put it to sleep first, which is ironic for something that hands out Sleep Powder. In the wild, it may be holding Silver Powder. It grows at a medium rate and yields 2 Special Attack EVs and 1 Special Defense EV.