Golem

It closes out in Generation I the line opened by Geodude, getting there by the route that, in 1996, required two consoles to talk to each other: trading. The result is a spherical body of green rock resting on four short limbs, more turtle than anything else despite the game classifying it as humanoid-shaped.

The Pokédex entries all insist on the same thing: it rolls. It goes down slopes leaving a furrow from the summit to the foot, and when a major earthquake occurs, several of them descend the mountain en masse. People living at the foot have dug trenches to guide those descents and keep them from ending up inside their homes. That detail defines it better than any adjective: it isn't a predator, it's a landslide with legs.

Its shell can withstand a dynamite blast without flinching, although it doesn't tolerate moisture or rain well. It sheds its shell once a year, and the discarded material is used as fertiliser on many farms, one of the few times the Pokédex describes a species in terms of its agricultural usefulness.

It stands 1.4 metres tall and weighs 300 kilos. The official category, Megaton Pokémon, undersells it rather than overselling it.

The spread is 80 HP, 120 Attack, 130 Defense, 55 Special Attack, 65 Special Defense and 45 Speed, for 495 in total. All the weight is on the physical side, and that physical side arrives late: with 45 Speed, it moves last against almost anything that isn't another rock.

Rock Head is the Ability that gives it something of its own, cancelling the damage from its recoil moves and letting Double-Edge (level 50, 120 power) and Take Down hit without sending a bill. Sturdy, the other option, guarantees that it will survive one hit from full HP, which is enough to set Stealth Rock (level 30) and leave with Explosion (level 44, 250 power). Sand Veil, its Hidden Ability, only does anything in a sandstorm and depends on luck.

On the offensive, Rock and Ground is one of the cleanest coverage combinations around: Stone Edge (level 54) and Earthquake (level 40), both with 100 power, cover almost everything that doesn't resist them between the two of them. Defensively, that same typing adds a quadruple weakness to Water and Grass, plus Fighting, Ice, Steel and Ground. With 65 Special Defense, any special attack of those first two types knocks it out before it gets a turn. Smogon has analysed it in NU.

Where it performs is in a normal playthrough. Its Electric immunity lets it switch in for free against half a Flying-type team, and Self-Destruct, which it learns as early as level 24, quickly deals with any opponent that gives it trouble along the way. As a traded Pokémon, it also arrives with the boosted experience gain and is usually three or four levels ahead of the team.

Mineral Egg Group and no other, with a 50% gender split, so breeding doesn't require looking for a specific female or resorting to Ditto. The fifteen incubation cycles amount to about 4080 steps ((15+1)×255), from the middle range.

The egg produces seven moves, and two of them justify the work: Wide Guard, which blocks priority attacks aimed at the whole team, and Curse, which trades Speed for Attack and Defense on a Pokémon whose Speed is uselessly low anyway. Hammer Arm and Dynamic Punch add some coverage against Steel and Ice. Block, Flail and Mega Punch are filler.

The evolution condition has never changed and offers no shortcuts: Graveler appears when Geodude reaches level 25, and becomes Golem when traded. No minimum level, no item and no time of day. It's amusing that among the items it can hold in the wild is the Everstone, precisely the one that prevents that evolution, alongside the Hard Stone.

In the wild, it lives in the mountains. Its catch rate of 45 puts it in the difficult bracket, far from the trivial 255, so it's best to lower its HP and put it to sleep before throwing anything. It grows at a Medium Slow rate and gives 3 Defense EVs.