Delibird

A feathered Santa Claus. The red and white of its outfit are spread across its whole body, and the sack it carries on its back is actually its own tail, coiled up on itself into a bag. It keeps food inside.

Pokédex entries have repeated the same gesture since the second generation: it shares what it carries with mountaineers who get lost, and it does so equally with humans and Pokémon, so it spends the day looking for more provisions to hand out again. One says that a famous climber reached the highest peak in the world because one of these Pokémon shared its food with him. Another adds the uncomfortable detail that it is an omnivore, and what it pulls out of the sack might be a Bug-type Pokémon.

It is 0.9 metres tall and weighs 16 kilograms. Its official category is the Delivery Pokémon, and its habitat is the mountains, although Alolan specimens adapted to the region’s heat without any trouble. It does not evolve into anything or come from anything: the entire evolutionary chain is just it, with 330 base stat points spread across an Ice- and Flying-type body.

Everything that keeps it standing in battle is set at 45: 45 HP, 45 Defense and 45 Special Defense. Above those are 75 Speed — the only respectable stat —, 65 Special Attack and 55 Attack, for a total of 330 that ranks among the lowest of any species that does not evolve.

The types do not help either. Ice and Flying give it a four-times weakness to Rock and a double weakness to Fire, Electric and Steel; in return, it completely ignores Ground and takes half damage from Grass and Bug. With those defenses, the four-times weakness to Rock means any decent Rock Slide knocks it out before it gets to move.

Hustle, the ability most associated with it, raises its Attack at the cost of the accuracy of its physical moves, and its signature move, Present, already misses one time out of ten on its own. The other two, Vital Spirit and Insomnia, only prevent sleep, which is not nothing against an opponent with Sleep Powder or Spore.

What it can contribute is support. It learns Spikes by TM and Rapid Spin as an egg move, a combination very few Pokémon get, and in Double Battles Tailwind speeds up its whole side for a few turns. Destiny Bond covers its retreat. In a normal playthrough, with Drill Peck at level 25 and Blizzard by TM, it does the job as long as the team has nothing better of the Ice type, and stops doing the job as soon as it does.

It belongs to the Water 1 and Field Egg Groups, two of the most populous, and its gender ratio is 50%, so any compatible partner will do without having to spend hours hunting for a specific female. The 20 incubation cycles work out at roughly 5355 steps.

Of its egg moves, the ones that change anything are Freeze-Dry, which hits Water types where they do not expect it, Aurora Veil, which cuts physical and special damage while snow is active, and Rapid Spin, which clears hazards from your side of the field. Ice Shard provides priority. Splash and Fake Out round out the list without adding anything.

There is no evolution condition to explain: it does not evolve and it is not anyone’s evolution. What you catch is what you keep.

Its habitat is the mountains, and its catch rate, 45, is that of an elusive Pokémon — the same figure as the starters, with the difference that nobody gives you a second try here. Wild specimens may be holding Never-Melt Ice. It grows at the Fast rate, so it levels up sooner than almost any other teammate, and defeating it gives 1 Speed effort point.