Houndoom

Second and final stage of a two-stage line: Houndour reaches level 24 and turns into this. A 1.4-metre, 35-kilogram black quadruped with horns curving backwards, an arrowhead-tipped tail and a bone collar across its chest. The starting point is a Dobermann; everything else comes from the classic hellhound.

Pokédex entries talk more about the noise than the fire. Long ago, people believed its horrifying howls came from death incarnate, and another entry remembers it as an emissary of the underworld, feared more for what was heard before it did anything. When it attacks, what it exhales is not clean fire either: the flames it breathes when angry contain toxins, and if they cause a burn, it will hurt for life.

The animal's most concrete trait lies in its pack life. Leadership is decided by the shape of the horns — the one with the more strongly curved horns takes charge — and the position is contested in duels between the contenders. Once the prey is brought down, it is divided equally among the rest of the group. A predator with a hierarchy and rules, which the Pokédex sums up as a Dark-type Pokémon.

110 Special Attack and 95 Speed are the whole package; everything else is there to fill out the 500 points. 90 Attack that is almost never worth using, 75 HP, 80 Special Defense and around 50 Defense, which turn any physical hit into an immediate problem.

On the offensive side, the Dark and Fire pairing is one of the cleanest around: in Scarlet and Violet, Smogon's analysis points out that only Houndoom itself, Poliwrath and the uncommon Dachsbun resist it. Flash Fire is the ability that defines it — it nullifies Fire-type attacks and powers up its own, giving it free turns against a Typhlosion locked into a Choice item. Nasty Plot, which it gets from level 1, doubles its Special Attack in one turn; Flamethrower and Dark Pulse come next, while Substitute protects it from Toxic and paralysis while it sets up.

Everything else holds it back. Defensively, that dual typing stacks up weaknesses to Fighting, Ground, Rock and Water, four of the most widely distributed attacking types around, and Stealth Rock hits it for double damage because it is part Fire-type. Smogon places it in ZU, the lowest usage tier, where it works as a wallbreaker with Heavy-Duty Boots: it comes in, blows something up and leaves before a Focus Punch lands. In a normal playthrough, its role is more forgiving: with Nasty Plot set up and two attacks of its own, it runs through almost any opponent that does not bring Water or Rock.

Field Egg Group, the most populous box in the Pokédex, and an even gender split: 50 % female. Breeding your own line does not depend on finding the rarer sex here. Twenty incubation cycles work out at roughly 5355 steps, a slow egg without being one of the worst.

It has no Egg Moves. Everything it learns comes through levelling up or TMs, so breeding is only useful for the nature and IVs.

The evolution hides no unusual conditions: Houndour reaches level 24 and that is it. No items, time windows or friendship. What does matter is its Slow experience growth rate, one of the most expensive, which delays level 24 and especially the final stretch of its move list: Foul Play does not arrive until 45, Flamethrower until 50 and Inferno until 62.

In the wild, it lives in rugged terrain. Its catch rate is 45, the usual figure for final evolutions that put up a fight, a long way from the 255 of anything that goes down to the first ball you throw. And with 35 base friendship, it starts its relationship with its Trainer in a fairly foul mood.