Jumpluff

The third and final stage of a line that starts with Hoppip and passes through Skiploom. The jump to this form replaces the middle stage’s flower with three cotton puffs, and with them comes the one thing that really defines the species: letting go of the ground and allowing itself to be carried away.

The 80 centimetres and 3 kilos explain the rest. It’s a body that weighs less than a cat spread across almost a metre in height, so the air does half the work. Pokédex entries keep stressing the point: seasonal winds carry it all over the world as it releases spores, and it uses warm currents from the south to reach distant lands. When it runs into cold air halfway through the flight, it descends and lands.

It isn’t a passive passenger. No matter how strong the wind is, it controls its puffs and moves wherever it wants, which is the difference between flying and being dragged along. The official category, the Cottonweed Pokémon, describes what it is with reasonable literalness: a dandelion seed that has grown eyes and a smile.

Of the 460 base points, what matters is in two slots: 110 Speed and 95 Special Defense. The rest ranges from weak to poor — 75 HP, 70 Defense and a double 55 in Attack and Special Attack that rules out any attempt to deal damage on its own. What remains is a fast support Pokémon.

Chlorophyll is the Ability that keeps it relevant in serious formats: in sun, its Speed doubles, and those 110 become a figure nobody reaches without help. In VGC 2025, it has been seen alongside Charizard on sun teams, with the roles clearly divided — Charizard hits hard, Jumpluff makes room. Tailwind to speed up the rest of the team, Sleep Powder (level 12) to remove an entire opposing Pokémon from the conversation, Pollen Puff to heal the teammate next to it. None of that involves attacking.

The other two Abilities perform worse. Leaf Guard blocks status problems in sun, which clashes with the team’s own plan; Infiltrator, the Hidden Ability, gets through Light Screen, Reflect and Substitute, and that only goes so far when the strongest attack you have is Energy Ball backed by 55 Special Attack.

The drawback is the typing. Grass and Flying brings a double weakness to Ice along with weaknesses to Fire, Flying, Poison and Rock, and with 75 HP, almost all of them are settled in one turn. In return, the Ground immunity is real and useful. Outside sun, 110 Speed no longer wins the races it needs to win.

It belongs to the Fairy and Grass Egg Groups, and its gender ratio is fifty-fifty, so breeding doesn’t depend on getting lucky with the gender. The 20 Egg Cycles work out at around 5355 steps, in the middle range.

The Egg Move list is empty. Everything it knows comes from levelling up or TMs, reducing breeding to a question of nature and IVs: Sleep Powder at 12, Leech Seed at 20, Cotton Spore at 35, Memento at 55. It also has no Tutor Moves.

The evolution holds no surprises. Hoppip evolves into Skiploom at level 18 and Skiploom into Jumpluff at 27; no stones, no held items, no time windows and no friendship. Nine levels between one evolution and the next, with a medium-slow growth rate, so the second one takes longer than the number suggests.

It lives in grassland. Its catch rate is 45, the figure for a Pokémon that won’t let itself be caught on the first try, and with 75 HP, the margin for weakening it without knocking it out is narrow. Defeating it gives 3 Speed EVs and 207 base experience.