Oddish

What pokes out of the ground looks like a weed nobody planted, and more than one person has tried to pull it out: the Pokédex says it lets out terrifying shrieks when that happens. There is no root beneath the blue bulb—there are two feet.

The rest of its behavior comes from the same misunderstanding. During the day, it buries itself in the cold soil to escape the sun and absorbs nutrients through its whole body, and the entries claim that during that time its feet change shape until they look like a tree’s roots. The more fertile the soil, the brighter its leaves become. At night, it gets up and walks. One of the descriptions credits it with covering distances of up to 300 meters on its two roots, looking for rich soil where it can plant itself and scattering seeds along the way. Moonlight is what activates it, and also makes it grow.

It is 0.5 meters tall and weighs 5.4 kilograms, little enough to carry under one arm. Its official category is Weed Pokémon, and one of the entries even takes the trouble to give it a scientific name: “Oddium Wanderus.”

It occupies the base of a line that splits in two later on. From Gloom onward, you have to choose, and there is no going back.

The spread is 45 HP, 50 Attack, 55 Defense, 75 Special Attack, 65 Special Defense, and 30 Speed, for 320 points in total. The 30 Speed is the figure that decides everything else: without help, it moves last against practically anything.

That help is Chlorophyll, which doubles its Speed while the sun is out. With that multiplier, the 30 becomes 60 before investing anything, and that is when you get a 75 Special Attack user with 55 and 65 defenses that can take a hit. In Little Cup, it has been one of the most-used sun sweepers for exactly that reason: it is the toughest and hardest-hitting of the Chlorophyll users, although also one of the slowest, and it depends on someone setting up the sun for it.

What it has for dealing damage is limited but sufficient. Giga Drain, learned at level 20, has 75 power and restores health; Solar Beam, through TM, goes up to 120 and fires without a charge turn in the sun; Moonblast, at level 28, is 95 points of Fairy-type damage that breaks through anything resistant to Grass and Poison. Sleep Powder arrives at 18 and remains its best tool for making room. Growth, which it has from level 1, raises both attacking stats at once and raises them twice as much in the sun.

There are two drawbacks. Grass and Poison overlap offensively, and its defenses leave it with four weaknesses—Fire, Ice, Flying, and Psychic—right where attacks are most common. It resists Water, Electric, Grass, Fighting, and Fairy, which helps it switch in, not stay in. Its second Ability, Run Away, only lets it flee from wild battles.

It belongs to a single Egg Group, Grass, and its gender ratio is even: 50% female. Its 20 Egg cycles equal about 5355 steps, which is on the fast side.

Nine moves come from the Egg, and three genuinely change how it is played. Leech Seed turns any turn into stolen health; Synthesis restores more than half under the sun and fits Chlorophyll effortlessly; Ingrain pins it in place in exchange for healing each turn, which is exactly what the Pokémon does according to its own Pokédex. It also inherits Strength Sap, Razor Leaf, and Tickle.

The evolution is direct and has no conditions: it reaches level 21 and becomes Gloom. The complicated part comes afterward, because Gloom has two paths depending on which stone is used: Leaf Stone for Vileplume or Sun Stone for Bellossom. It grows at a medium-slow rate, so reaching level 21 takes longer than you expect. Defeating it awards 1 Special Attack EV, and its base experience is 64.

Its habitat is grassland, and its catch rate, 255, is the highest possible: a regular Poké Ball catches it almost every time. Wild specimens sometimes carry an Absorb Bulb.