Eiscue

A penguin with its head in a block

The design combines a penguin with an ice cube used as a mask. The idea also calls to mind the great auk, a flightless seabird that lived along the coasts of the North Atlantic and disappeared after centuries of persecution. The detail about using its hair as a fishing lure fits that image of a seabird that spends a great deal of time in the water. The cube-shaped head also introduces a visual connection with billiard chalk, which is cube-shaped and used on a cue.

The English name combines Eis, “ice” in German, with ice cube. The Japanese name コオリッポ, Korippo, combines kōri, “ice”, with rippō, “cube”. The Noice form also plays on the English expression “no ice”: when the ice breaks, its face is revealed.

Two faces and one species

Eiscue debuted in Generation VIII and returned in Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet. In the Galar games, Ice Face was restored by hail. In Generation IX, hail was replaced by snow, and the ability began restoring the ice in that weather. Snowscape lets it create that condition by itself, although spending a turn doing so leaves its Noice Face form exposed.

The most direct comparison is Mimikyu, another species whose ability absorbs the first hit and whose appearance changes when that protection disappears. The difference lies in the type of attack: Eiscue needs to be hit by a physical move, while special attacks get through its defence from the outset. Compared with Delibird, it shares the seabird inspiration and the Ice typing, but gives up the Flying combination to focus its entire concept on the ice-covered head.

The turn that decides the game

In battle, Ice Face needs to come in before the opponent reveals its move. The goal is not to trade blows for several turns, but to use the absorbed physical attack to set up Substitute or Belly Drum. If the opponent switches to a special attacker, the protection stops mattering and the plan falls apart. If it stays in with a physical attacker, Eiscue gets a concrete opportunity to set up.

A practical sequence is to switch in on a physical move that is not Fire-, Fighting-, Rock- or Steel-type, use Substitute and then look for an opportunity to use Belly Drum when the opponent cannot break through the remaining protection. Icicle Crash provides physical Ice-type damage; Surf and Ice Beam let it attack on the special side, although its 65 Special Attack means this is not its main role. Snowscape can restore the ice after it has changed to Noice Face, but it does not fix its defensive problems against special attacks.

A species designed around ice

Eiscue’s appeal is concentrated in a single ability and two very clear visual changes. The form covered by the block has 110 Defense and 50 Speed; when the ice disappears, its body takes on a lighter, more aggressive stance. That transformation explains why its stats do not form a conventional profile: the first form wants to gain a turn, while the second wants to make use of it.

Outside competitive battle, the design works better in a regular playthrough that lets you pick your matchups. Its Water moves, such as Surf and Hydro Pump, cover some of the targets that resist Ice, while Amnesia helps prepare it to switch into weaker special attacks. Catching it requires patience with a catch rate of 60, and the lack of an evolution means that the specimen you obtain retains every stage of its concept from the start: intact ice, broken ice and regenerated ice.