Lunatone

Caves are its territory, but the first time it was seen was at the bottom of a crater: forty years ago, at the exact spot where a meteorite had fallen. That is where the theory comes from that it is not from this planet, that it arrived inside the rock—and it is also where its official category, Meteorite Pokémon, comes from. No one has managed to prove it, and the Pokédex entries admit as much without beating around the bush.

What can be observed is its schedule. It becomes active during full moons and shuts down for the rest of the month; some maintain that the satellite’s phases move its power up and down over the course of the weeks. It does not walk. It moves by floating, never resting that lower point on the ground. The red eyes sunk into the stone are what everyone remembers from a first encounter, and several entries agree that all it needs to do is stare fixedly at an opponent to put it to sleep.

It is one metre tall and weighs 168 kilos. It is almost entirely compact mineral, so that silent flight moves the equivalent of two adult people made of rock.

It does not evolve from anything or into anything: number 337 begins and ends with itself. Its counterpart is Solrock, number 338, with the same category and the sun where it has the moon.

460 points distributed with a clear idea and a contradiction on top. The idea: 95 Special Attack and 90 HP, backed by 85 Special Defense—in other words, a special attacker that can take hits as well. The contradiction: only 55 Attack and, even so, Rock Slide at level 15, Stone Edge at 35 and Explosion at 50, three physical moves with 75, 100 and 250 power that its Attack cannot afford. Almost all of its Rock-type attacks are physical, while almost all of its real offensive output is special.

Levitate fixes the most serious problem. Rock and Psychic leave seven weaknesses on the table, and Ground—the worst of them all because of how widespread it is—disappears completely: it can switch into an Earthquake and take nothing. That leaves Water, Grass, Bug, Steel, Ghost and Dark, with the last two targeting its Psychic half.

Against that, it keeps an answer no one expects from a stone. At level 1 it already has Moonblast, a Fairy-type move with 95 power that punishes the Dark types coming to take advantage, and Moonlight in the same batch to recover health. Psychic at 30 and Future Sight at 40, with 120 power, cover the rest.

Its 70 Speed is no-man’s-land: too slow to attack first, too fast for a Trick Room team, a move it learns by TM. Where it works without question is in a regular playthrough, as cheap support: Stealth Rock, Light Screen, Reflect and Sandstorm, from which it takes no damage because it is Rock-type. Defeating it awards 2 Special Attack EVs.

It has no gender. The female-percentage field is blank because there are no males or females to count, so the only possible partner is Ditto. It is listed in the Mineral Egg Group, the one for stone and metal creatures, although that label is barely useful while the other side of the breeding pair has to be Ditto anyway.

The Egg Move list is empty. What is inherited here are traits and nature, nothing more, so breeding is purely statistical.

The 25 incubation cycles work out at around 6630 steps ((25+1)×255), putting it among the game’s longer stretches. And there is no evolution to prepare for: no level, stone, held item or time-of-day condition. The level 1 specimen and the level 100 one are the same creature with the same figures scaled up. It grows at the Fast rate, so it levels up sooner than most of its teammates.

In the wild, it is sought in caves, and its catch rate is 45, the number for difficult catches: it is worth lowering its HP and putting it to sleep before throwing the Poké Ball, something it can do itself with Hypnosis at level 5. The reward includes what it is carrying. A wild specimen may hold a Moon Stone, Stardust, Hard Stone or Comet Shard.