Hoppip

It starts a three-stage line from the frailest position the game allows: 40 centimetres tall and half a kilo in weight. That half kilo explains the rest of the design. The leaves on its head have the serrated edge of a dandelion and act as a sail; its round, pink body isn’t heavy enough to anchor them. Hence the scene repeated in Pokédex entries: gripping the ground with its feet so it doesn’t get carried away by the first gust.

When the wind wins, there’s no fight. It floats and lets itself be carried along. The striking part is what it does when it senses the current is about to strengthen — it interlocks its leaves with those of other Hoppip and forms a block that actually offers resistance. It’s one of the few cases where the Pokédex describes group behaviour with a clear mechanical function.

Its presence in a flock also serves as a calendar. They say that when Hoppip gather, spring is just around the corner.

Its official category is Cottonweed Pokémon, and the name fits what comes later better than what’s here: it reaches level 18 to become Skiploom and, at 27, Jumpluff.

250 base stat points, split into 35 HP, 35 Attack, 40 Defense, 35 Special Attack, 55 Special Defense and 50 Speed. None of the numbers goes above 55 and the two offensive stats tie at 35, so anything that tries to deal damage on its own amounts to little more than a scratch. The one place where it has some function is Little Cup, and even there it’s support, never an attacker.

What gives it a role is its ability. Chlorophyll doubles its Speed in sun, taking those 50 to 100, which is enough to outspeed almost everything in the level 5 format. The other option completely changes the approach: Infiltrator, its Hidden Ability, ignores Substitute, Light Screen and Reflect, so Sleep Powder — which it learns at level 10 — gets through the Substitute that would normally stop it. Leaf Guard, the third option, only prevents status conditions in sun, and there it competes with Chlorophyll for the same slot.

Its typing gives it little on offence and quite a lot on defence: immunity to Ground, resistances to Water, Grass and Fighting, and above all four-times weakness to Ice, which kills it without question. Fire, Flying, Poison, Bug and Rock also hit it for double damage. With 35 HP, any one of those five is enough.

Its useful movepool is pure disruption: Sleep Powder, Leech Seed at 19, Cotton Spore at 27 to lower the opponent’s Speed, U-turn at 29 to get out while leaving behind some damage, and Cotton Guard by breeding to drop the opponent’s Speed by two stages. The problem is that Cottonee does the same job with Prankster, which gives priority to all those status moves. Hoppip fires them off at 50 Speed and, without sun, arrives late to almost all of them.

It belongs to the Fairy and Grass Egg Groups, a combination that lets it breed with much of the small Grass-type roster and the entire Fairy Group catalogue. Its gender ratio is straightforward: 50% female, so you don’t need to hunt for hours just to get something to breed with. Its 20 hatch cycles work out at roughly 5355 steps.

Of its eight Egg Moves, two are worth the detour. Cotton Guard lowers the opponent’s Speed by two stages and partly fixes the problem of always moving second. Rage Powder redirects attacks aimed at its partner towards itself in double battles, which is about the only thing it can contribute with those defences. The other six are Encore, Worry Seed, Seed Bomb, Switcheroo, Grassy Terrain and Strength Sap.

It evolves by level and without any unusual conditions: at 18 it becomes Skiploom, and at 27 Jumpluff. It grows at a medium-slow rate, so the first levels take longer than usual and the pace evens out later. Each defeat leaves 1 effort point in Special Defense.

Its habitat is the grassland and its catch rate, 255, is the highest possible. A regular Poké Ball at half health catches it almost every time; it’s one of the species people use to burn through spare balls.