Medicham

The end of a two-stage line. Meditite reaches level 37 and stretches to 1.3 metres and 31.5 kilograms: long legs, a narrow waist, a dancer's posture and a pom-pom on its head that grows larger in males than in females. It is one of the few cases where males and females can be told apart at a glance.

The reference is hardly hidden. It is a yoga practitioner, and the official category—Meditate Pokémon—says it plainly. Its four recorded Pokédex entries all revolve around the same idea: meditation as a method. One says that this increases its inner energy and sharpens its sixth sense. Another says that it learned to use psychokinetic powers this way, and that it can spend an entire month meditating without eating a thing. The third describes how it avoids attacks by moving elegantly, as if dancing, and returns the blow with that same movement: elegance and punch are the same thing.

There is also a note about camouflage that fits the habitat listed in its entry, the mountains: it often goes unnoticed by blending into the countryside and high altitudes. It also has two forms, the standard one and a Mega Evolution.

410 points and not a single figure that stands out: 60 HP, 60 Attack, 75 Defense, 60 Special Attack, 75 Special Defense and 80 Speed. Read coldly, it is the stat spread of a filler Pokémon.

Pure Power rewrites the entire sheet. It doubles Attack, so that 60 hits like 120 without the number changing on any table, and the opponent calculating from the stat screen gets a surprise in the first exchange. It is the line's signature Ability. Its Hidden Ability, Telepathy, only prevents it from being hit by its partner's attacks in Double Battles, which is a small consolation.

The arsenal does its part. High Jump Kick, with 130 power, comes at level 28; Close Combat (120) and Focus Punch (150) are among the TMs. Zen Headbutt, at 25, covers the second type with an 80-power physical hit, which is what it needs when all its strength is in Attack. It has the three elemental punches—Fire, Ice and Thunder, 75 each—from level 1. And Feint, at 15, opens the battle by getting free damage in.

What holds it back are the other numbers. With 60 HP and 75 in both defences, almost any strong neutral hit knocks it out, and its four weaknesses—Flying, Ghost, Bug and Fairy—are spread throughout the game. Its 80 Speed is not enough to get ahead of fast attackers, so it usually moves second, and moving second with 60 HP amounts to not moving at all. There is also a type matchup it cannot cover: Sableye, Ghost and Dark, is immune to the two attacks that give it a type bonus. High Jump Kick, to finish, punishes misses.

The Human-Like Egg Group and no other, leaving it to breed with fighters and psychics with human-like silhouettes. The gender ratio is even: 50% female, so breeding does not depend on getting the rarer half or keeping a Ditto in reserve.

Twenty Egg Cycles, around 5355 steps. The evolution condition has no trick to it: Meditite evolves into Medicham when it reaches level 37, with no item, time of day, trading or friendship involved. Thirty-seven is late. Anyone who picks up a Meditite in the first half of the adventure will spend a good stretch of the game with the smaller form, and that matters more than any other consideration when deciding whether it makes the team.

Its habitat is the mountains. Its catch rate, 90, sits in the middle: neither the 45 of Pokémon that resist half a dozen Ultra Balls nor the 255 of those that stay in the first ball. It grows at a Medium rate, the simplest of the six curves, and yields 2 effort points in Speed when it faints, which is precisely the stat that helps it least.