Moltres

It has no evolutionary line. No previous form or later stage: Kanto's three legendary birds are one-piece species, and this one occupies the fire slot alongside Articuno and Zapdos.

It's a six-foot, 60-kilo bird with yellow plumage and wings and a tail wrapped in flames. Its official category is Flame Pokémon. Pokédex entries return to the same image again and again: with every flap it creates brilliant flames, and when it beats its wings, the dark night turns red.

The rest is legend, not field observation. One entry claims that its presence announces the arrival of spring. Another says that, if injured, it plunges into the molten magma of a volcano to burn and heal — a remedy that only makes sense if fire can't hurt it. The last tells how it once lit the way with its fiery wings to rescue someone who had got lost in the mountains.

None of them explains what it eats, where it nests or how many there are. Its habitat is listed as Rare, the label reserved for things that don't appear on any route and exist only at one specific point on the map.

580 total points with just one high figure: 125 Special Attack. After that come 100 Attack, 90 HP, 90 Defense, 90 Speed and 85 Special Defense. It's a solid body with nothing outstanding, and that 100 Attack is almost always left untouched, even though Brave Bird and Flare Blitz are in the TM list.

Pressure, its standard ability, makes the opponent run out of PP sooner: every attack it receives costs double. Against an opponent that depends on one specific move to damage it, dragging the battle out is one way to win it. Flame Body, its hidden ability, burns on the slightest contact.

When attacking, Fire and Flying do almost all the work. Overheat, learned at level 65, hits for 130 but lowers its Special Attack every time; Heat Wave, at 45, stays at 95 and has no such drawback; Hurricane, at 55, provides 110 Flying-type power. Roost comes at level 40 and is what lets it stay on the field for more than two turns.

Defensively, the spread is uneven. Immunity to Ground and resistances to Grass, Bug, Steel, Fairy, Fighting and its own Fire type, against a four-times weakness to Rock. That's the whole problem: Stealth Rock strips away half its HP the moment it enters the field, and with 90 HP and 85 Special Defense there's no room to pay that toll twice. Pokémon Showdown format data places it in OU in Scarlet and Violet, not above it. In doubles, it's barely seen.

Undiscovered Egg Group and no assigned gender: it can't breed, and a Ditto doesn't fix anything. The 80 incubation cycles — about 20 655 steps if you do the maths — are a number that never gets used, because the egg doesn't exist. It also has no Egg Moves or tutor moves.

So everything comes down to catching it, and the number that matters there is the catch rate: 3. Below that figure, there's almost nothing left. Compared with a starter's 45, every Poké Ball thrown while it's at full health is a wasted attempt. The routine is the familiar one: lower its HP, put it to sleep or paralyse it, save before going in and accept that this will take a while. Its own Pressure works against the trainer, because it burns through the PP of the move being used to wear it down.

In Generation I it was in Kanto's Victory Road, one per game with no second chance. FireRed and LeafGreen moved it to Mt. Ember; HeartGold and SoulSilver, to Mt. Silver. It grows at the Slow rate, gives 3 Special Attack EVs when defeated, awards 261 base experience and starts with 35 friendship.