Mankey

Twenty-eight kilograms at half a metre tall. Mankey weighs far more than it looks: a bipedal ape with whitish fur, a prehensile tail and a pig-like snout, which the official category sums up without embellishment as the Pig Monkey Pokémon.

What defines the species is not its body, but its temperament. Pokédex entries keep coming back to the same point: it gets angry for no apparent reason and, when that happens, it cannot tell friend from foe. It lives in colonies in the trees, and all it takes is one of them losing its temper for the entire troop to attack without reason. One entry describes the warning signs—trembling and heavier breathing—and then immediately admits that recognising them is useless, because the jump to rage happens too quickly to escape. Another says that leaving it alone so you do not have to deal with its anger only makes it even angrier.

There is also a less hostile reading. By venting its tension on the spot, it does not build up stress, which is why it tends to enjoy a long life. It pays the price in sleep: after its tantrum, it gets drowsy, and nightmares wake it up in an even worse mood than before.

It is the first step in a line that ended with Primeape for twenty-five years and now continues one step further.

The spread leaves no room for debate: 80 Attack and 70 Speed up front, followed by 40 HP, 35 Defense and 35 Special Attack. With a base stat total of 305, everything is built around hitting first and hitting hard. It cannot take a hit.

The interesting Ability is Defiant, its Hidden Ability, which raises its Attack when the opponent lowers its stats. In Little Cup, that turns a problem into an advantage: the opposing Sticky Web cuts its Speed and gives it two Attack stages in return, and the same thing happens when someone tries to use Defog in front of it. Smogon describes it as one of the format's best Choice Scarf users, with enough Speed to outspeed or tie with almost anything unboosted.

Its attacking game is short and direct. Close Combat, learned at level 33 with 120 power, is its main attack and also the move that wears it down, since it lowers both defences after every use. U-turn, learned by TM, lets it hit and switch out before taking the response. Ice Punch covers the Flying- and Ground-types that ignore Fighting. Before all that, Cross Chop at level 22 already dishes out 100 power.

What holds it back is obvious. Being pure Fighting means weaknesses to Psychic, Flying and Fairy with no resistance to offset its fragility, and with 35 Defense, any priority move knocks it out before its turn comes around. Outside low-level formats, a base stat total of 305 gets you nowhere: Machop has the same problems and more raw power.

It belongs to a single Egg Group, Field, the largest in the entire Pokédex, so pairing it is trivial. The gender ratio is an even 50%, so there is no need to hunt for females or rely on Ditto to start a breeding line.

The 20 incubation cycles amount to roughly 5355 steps, an in-between figure. Six Egg Moves come from the egg, and two are worth considering: Counter, which returns twice the physical damage received and fits a Pokémon that is going to take the hit anyway, and Night Slash, a 70-power Dark-type move for things that resist Fighting. Beat Up, Curse, Spite and Encore complete the list.

The evolution has no trick to it: reach level 28 and Primeape appears. The next step does. Annihilape only arrives if Primeape uses Rage Fist twenty times in battle and then levels up, a condition that is not shown on screen and has to be counted by hand.

In the wild, its habitat is the mountains, and with a catch rate of 190 out of 255, a regular Poké Ball works almost every time. It may be holding a Payapa Berry. It gives 1 Attack EV and grows at the Medium Fast rate, with no delays or advances compared with the team's level.