Golbat

It goes hunting and ends up hunted. One of the Pokédex entries puts it bluntly: sometimes it sucks so much blood that it can no longer fly, falls to the ground and ends up as prey for other Pokémon. The nocturnal predator defeats itself by eating.

The rest of the design follows the same direction. It is 1.6 metres tall — the height of an adult person — and weighs 55 kilos, and much of that wingspan is mouth. Four fangs, two in each jaw, hollow inside like a straw. Another entry clarifies that they are more fragile than they look, so the tool it relies on to eat can break during the attempt.

Its routine is described in detail across several games. It is more active in the darkness of night, flutters around looking for fresh blood and does not distinguish between Pokémon and people; one entry narrows the schedule even further and limits it to moonless nights. When it bites, it does not let go.

It occupies the middle rung of a three-stage line. It comes from Zubat at level 22 and continues into Crobat, although that second half did not exist until 1999. Official category: Bat Pokémon.

455 base stat points without a single figure that stands out. Its highest stat is 90 Speed, followed by 80 Attack; its defences sit at 70 physical and 75 special over 75 HP, while Special Attack drops to 65. It gives 2 Speed Effort Points when defeated.

There is an internal inconsistency worth spotting before building anything: its Flying-type moves in Pokémon Legends: Arceus are special — Gust, Air Cutter at level 18 and Air Slash at 34, with 75 power — while its physical Attack is fifteen points higher. The moves that make use of that 80 are Cross Poison, at level 25, and Leech Life, at 43, which also restores health.

The Poison and Flying typing defends well: immunity to Ground and resistances to Fighting, Bug, Grass, Poison and Fairy. On the offensive side it covers little, because Poison only hits Grass and Fairy for super-effective damage. Its four weaknesses are Rock, Electric, Ice and Psychic.

With Eviolite, however, it stops being a lost cause. Smogon analyses it in NU as a defensive wall, with Roost for recovery, Brave Bird as a strong attack and Taunt to shut down other walls, describing it as one of the format’s best answers to Fighting-, Grass- and Bug-types. What ruins it is Stealth Rock, which chips away at its HP every time it enters the field because of its Rock weakness.

Of its two Abilities, Inner Focus prevents flinching and Infiltrator — its hidden Ability — ignores the opponent’s Reflect and Light Screen.

It belongs to a single Egg Group, Flying, which considerably reduces the possible combinations compared with species in two groups. The gender split is exact, 50 % female, so breeding does not depend on finding the rarer sex. Its 15 Egg cycles amount to around 4080 steps, an average figure.

The incoming evolution is a level and nothing else: Zubat becomes Golbat at level 22. The outgoing one is another matter. To reach Crobat, you have to level up with friendship at 160 or higher, and since the species’ base friendship is 70, that jump requires walks, candies or the relevant item. It is one of the longer friendship evolutions from the first generation, because level 22 arrives early and the counter then stalls.

It lives in caves, and its catch rate is 90: neither the 45 of the starters nor the 255 of a first-route Pokémon. With a standard Poké Ball and a bit of damage dealt, it goes down without much trouble, although its 90 Speed means it lasts only a few turns before fleeing in games that allow it. Medium growth rate and 159 base experience points when defeated.