Mightyena

Thirty-seven kilos and exactly one metre tall. That is the weight and height of a real adult hyena, and the reference is obvious at a glance: grey fur, irregular black stripes along its back and legs, triangular ears and red eyes. Its build blends hyena and wolf, with a sloping back and a short muzzle full of fangs.

Pokédex entries keep returning to the same subject: the pack. They group in tens and surround prey with teamwork the entries themselves call flawless. That is where its reputation for obedience comes with a catch: used to life in a pack, it accepts orders from a Trainer it considers genuinely gifted with skills superior to the rest, and it always obeys good Trainers.

Another entry does it no favours. It says that predicting when it will attack is very easy, because it first starts growling loudly and stretches. A pack hunter that warns you before it bites.

The official category, the Bite Pokémon, sums up the whole repertoire. Poochyena reaches level 18 and the line ends there: no third stage, no Mega Evolution, no regional variants. It has only one recorded form.

420 points spread without surprises: 90 Attack, followed by 70 HP, 70 Defense, 70 Speed and a double 60 in the special stats. The only usable figure is the first one, and 90 Attack on a body that takes hits with 70/70 does not support many trades.

Intimidate is what keeps it afloat. On entry, it lowers the opposing Pokémon’s Attack by one stage, so every switch cuts damage at no cost, and that is just as useful in singles as in doubles. Moxie, its Hidden Ability, raises its Attack every time it knocks out a target, but chaining knockouts with 70 Speed is asking too much of it. Quick Feet requires poisoning or burning it first.

Pure Dark is a comfortable type: immune to Psychic, resistant to Ghost and itself, and only Fighting, Bug and Fairy hit it for super effective damage. On offense it covers Psychic and Ghost and runs into Fairy-types, for which it has Play Rough, unavailable until level 56.

Its best move is Foul Play: 95 power calculated from the opponent’s Attack rather than its own, which suits it precisely because its own is nothing special. Crunch, 80, is its everyday attack. And Sucker Punch, at level 52, is what gives it a real role, priority for finishing off something weakened before it can move. The three elemental fangs, Thunder, Ice and Fire, all at 65, patch coverage holes without changing the underlying picture.

None of this gets it out of the ordinary playthrough. There, it does more than enough: it is obtained early, hits hard from the start and absorbs an awkward switch thanks to its Ability. Nasty Plot appears in its TM list, with 60 Special Attack behind it.

Field Egg Group, the most populated in the Pokédex, so it breeds with almost any terrestrial quadruped and passes moves on without complications. The gender split is clean, 50% female, with none of the scarcity that hinders other lines.

Fifteen Egg cycles work out at around 4080 steps, a low figure that fits a species found on the region’s first route. Three moves come from the Egg that it cannot learn any other way: Poison Fang, Astonish and Covet. None is essential, although Astonish has the peculiarity of being a Ghost-type move on a creature that otherwise only handles Dark.

The evolution has no trick to it. Poochyena reaches level 18 and that is it: no stone, no friendship, no time of day, no trading. It grows at an average rate, on the standard curve, so it levels at the same pace as the rest of the team.

Its habitat is grassland and its catch rate, 127, puts it in the middle of the table: neither the 255 of an early-route bug nor the 45 of an elusive target. A regular Poké Ball on a weakened specimen is usually enough. In the wild, it may be holding a Pecha Berry.