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Ninetales in depth
Nine tails, a thousand years
The reference point is the kitsune, the fox from Japanese folklore credited with extra tails, extremely long lives and supernatural powers. More specifically, the kyūbi no kitsune, the nine-tailed fox: tradition says that a fox grows its ninth tail after reaching a thousand years of age, at which point its fur turns white and gold. The design sticks to that description, and the Pokédex entries repeat the thousand-year figure in five different games.
The Japanese name, キュウコン (Kyukon), combines 九 (kyū, “nine”) with kon, the Japanese onomatopoeia for a fox’s howl; it can also be read as a shortened form of kyūbiko, the creature’s own name. Ninetales is a two-sided pun: it sounds like nine tails, but it is written as tales, nine stories, referring to its legendary origin. Some people also see a nod to the cat o’ nine tails, the nine-stranded whip, which fits the vengeful reputation given to it by the games’ texts.
From permanent sun to a timer
In Generation I, Special was a single stat worth 100. When it was split in two in Generation II, the distribution became 81 Special Attack and 100 Special Defense, meaning the offensive half lost out while the defensive half stayed intact. For four generations, it was little more than a fast, competent Fire type.
What changed its life was Drought, a hidden ability distributed through the Pokémon Dream World in Generation V. With sun active indefinitely, Ninetales became the engine of sun teams and a regular presence in that era’s OU, just as Politoed was for rain teams. Generation VI put an end to that: all weather effects summoned by abilities were made to last five turns, and the job of setting up sun went to others with more room to deal damage while it lasted.
What to do with it in a normal playthrough
Outside competitive play, it is a convenient Fire type. It already comes with Flamethrower, so you do not have to wait for any level to get a decent attack, and its 100 Speed lets it move first against almost everything it finds on the route. Will-O-Wisp burns the opponent and leaves it hitting for half; Confuse Ray disorients it; Hypnosis, if it comes from the Egg, sorts out difficult catches.
Compared with Arcanine, the other pure Fire option in Kanto, it loses out in raw power and gains in special bulk. Both evolve with a Fire Stone and both are left with barely any level-up moves after that, so the order of operations is the same: get everything you can out of the basic stage and evolve when there is nothing left to learn.
The practical detail people forget most often is that the sun it brings up also benefits the opponent if it is a Fire type, and weakens your own Water-type moves. In a half-built team, Drought is just as capable of wrecking the strategy as it is of supporting it.