Lombre

The middle stage between Lotad and Ludicolo, and the only one of the three that spends the day hiding. The first drifts around and the third dances; the one in the middle sleeps.

Pokédex entries insist on two things: it’s nocturnal and it’s mean-spirited. During the day, it lies on a bed of aquatic plants by the riverbank, then springs into action at dusk. Its favourite pastime is tugging on anglers’ lines from underwater, then coming out to watch the angry look on their faces. It eats moss from riverbeds.

There’s one detail the translations don’t soften: it’s covered in a slimy, slippery film, and the feel of its hands is deeply unpleasant. Another entry adds that it’s sometimes mistaken for a small child, which fits its 1.2 metres and 32.5 kilograms: it’s one of the few Pokémon with the height and silhouette of a child.

The lily pad on its head comes from the previous stage, but now it has a notch in the edge that turns it into something else. Its official category is the Jolly Pokémon, which clashes with the delinquent portrait painted by the games themselves.

340 points distributed with no real plan: 60 HP, 50 Attack, 50 Defense, 60 Special Attack, 70 Special Defense and 50 Speed. Its highest figure is Special Defense, and 70 won’t withstand anything relevant. Defeating it awards 2 Special Defense EVs.

The interesting part is its abilities. Swift Swim doubles its Speed while it’s raining, so that 50 effectively behaves like twice as much and lets it outspeed much of what moves at a normal pace. Rain Dish gradually restores HP under the same weather. Its hidden ability, Own Tempo, prevents confusion and not much else.

Defensively, the Water/Grass combination is one of the best in the game: only three weaknesses — Flying, Poison and Bug — against resistances to a quarter damage from Water, Grass and Steel, and half damage from Ground. The problem is that it has no way to make that advantage stick. Offensively, it has Hydro Pump, which doesn’t arrive until level 64, Energy Ball at 57 and Giga Drain at 36, all fired from 60 Special Attack.

And then there’s the argument that knocks it flat: Ludicolo has exactly the same two abilities and better figures across the board, and evolving costs a Water Stone that can be obtained without any conditions. Eviolite improves its defenses, but doesn’t fix the fact that it can’t KO anything.

Its real place is in a normal playthrough, between level 14 and the moment the stone becomes available. There, Bubble Beam at 24 and Leech Seed at 30 can carry entire routes. Against any decent Poison type, Toxicroak for example, you switch out and move on.

It belongs to the Water 1 and Grass Egg Groups, two broad lists that open up breeding with almost anything aquatic or plant-based. The gender ratio is 50%, avoiding the usual problem with lines that have few females. Its 15 Egg cycles amount to about 4080 steps, making it a fast hatch.

The Egg produces Lotad, along with six moves it can’t learn by levelling up: Synthesis, Counter, Razor Leaf, Sweet Scent, Tickle and Teeter Dance. Synthesis is the one that justifies the effort, especially if the plan is to end up on a sun team; Counter, backed by 50 Attack, is more of a curiosity than a real option.

The two evolutions work differently. Lotad becomes Lombre when it reaches level 14, with no further requirements. Lombre becomes Ludicolo when you use a Water Stone, with no minimum level, no time-of-day restriction and no friendship involved: the player decides when.

In the wild, it lives along riverbanks, and its catch rate, 120, puts it in the comfortable part of the table — neither a giveaway nor especially elusive. Some specimens hold Mental Herb. It grows at a medium-slow rate and gives 119 base experience.