Nincada

Its antennae serve as its eyes. Living underground in absolute darkness for years has left it practically blind, and Pokédex entries keep coming back to that detail: it can't see well, it finds its way with its antennae, and it flees sunlight because it hurts. It digs with its front claws until it reaches tree roots, then absorbs their moisture and nutrients. Some specimens spend more than ten years down there, motionless, waiting to evolve.

It stands half a metre tall, weighs 5.5 kg, and its official category is Trainee Pokémon, which is pretty accurate for a creature that still hasn't started doing the thing it exists to do. The grey colour and armoured body fit too: this is a transitional stage with legs.

And that waiting defines its place in the evolutionary line. It doesn't evolve from anything; it's the beginning, and at level 20 it doesn't evolve so much as split: Ninjask emerges and, if the condition is met, Shedinja appears as well. It's the only case in the Pokédex where one evolution produces two Pokémon instead of one.

266 points spread across its stats, with 90 of them in physical Defense. The rest of the sheet: 31 HP, 45 Attack, 90 Defense, 30 Special Attack, 30 Special Defense, and 40 Speed. That 90 Defense is misleading, because with only 31 HP behind it, its actual durability against physical hits is still poor, and 30 Special Defense makes it fold to any special attack that gets through.

Bug and Ground make good attacking types — Ground punishes Fire, Electric, Poison, Rock, and Steel; Bug hits Grass, Psychic, and Dark — but it has nothing to back them up. Its level-up Ground-type move is Mud-Slap, with 20 power at level 15, while Dig and X-Scissor depend on TMs. With 45 Attack, neither of them worries anything.

Defensively, the combination is an awkward one: immunity to Electric and resistances to Fighting and Poison, in exchange for a quadruple weakness to Flying and double weaknesses to Fire, Water, and Ice. Compound Eyes raises accuracy, and there is barely anything inaccurate in its movepool for it to fix; Run Away, its hidden Ability, is only useful for escaping wild battles.

Where it does pull its weight is in a normal playthrough, and as a tool. False Swipe arrives at level 10 and never knocks the target out; Harden, at level 5, raises that 90 Defense so it can endure as many turns as needed. A capture specialist you get in the opening forest that works until halfway through the adventure.

Bug Egg Group, and that’s it, which limits breeding options quite a bit. The gender ratio is 50%, so getting a female is no trouble. Its 15 hatch cycles amount to roughly 4080 steps, one of the shortest hatching times around.

Five moves can come through breeding: Gust, Flail, Night Slash, Bug Bite, and Final Gambit. Night Slash, with 70 power, is the strongest move it gets without spending a TM. Flail hits harder the less HP it has left, and with 31 base HP, that situation happens on its own and almost always by accident.

Evolution is the part you need to read carefully. When it reaches level 20, it evolves into Ninjask with no further requirements. However, if there is an empty slot in the party at that moment, Shedinja also appears; since Generation IV, you also need to have at least one Poké Ball in your Bag, and the evolution consumes it. In Generation III, the empty slot was enough. With a full party, Shedinja doesn't appear, and there is no notification of any kind.

It lives in forests, and its catch rate is 255, the top of the scale: it goes down to the first Ball you throw. Some carry Soft Sand. Its growth rate is Fluctuating.