Persian

It lives where people live: the habitat recorded for it in the Pokédex is urban, and that explains almost everything said about it. People admire it for its fur and suffer because of its temperament. The entries themselves say it plainly—mischievous, difficult to raise as a pet, violent by nature, and capable of attacking anyone who looks it directly in the eyes. Its claws leave deep wounds.

It stands one meter tall and weighs 32 kilos, the measurements of a real medium-sized feline. Its muscles let it move without making a sound and attack in the same instant, without the warning a large animal gives when it moves. The six thick whiskers that give it its fierce appearance are actually sensors: they detect air movement and reveal anything approaching. They are also its weak point. If it is grabbed by the whiskers, it becomes docile.

It is the final form of Meowth and is listed in the Pokédex as the Classy Cat Pokémon. The first thing people notice is the jewel on its forehead, red in the Kanto form; one of the Generation IX entries goes out of its way to clarify that the Alolan Persian’s is a different color but has an almost identical composition.

There is one stat that matters and five that do not. 115 Speed, followed by 70 Attack, 65 HP, 60 Defense, and 65 in both special stats, for 440 total. It moves before almost anything and then does no damage.

Technician is what gives it a reason to exist: it raises the power of anything with 60 or less by 50%, and much of its movepool falls just below that threshold. Fake Out goes from 40 to 60 and has priority on the turn it comes in. Bite and Assurance (60), Thief (60), Feint (30), and above all the trio that lowers stats while dealing damage: Icy Wind and Snarl (55), and Chilling Water (50). With 70 Attack, wearing the opponent down is more productive than trying to knock it out. The downside is well known: Justified and Competitive turn those three moves into a gift for the opposing team.

Limber, its other Ability, only prevents paralysis; Unnerve, its Hidden Ability, stops the opponent from eating its Berry. The Normal type does not help much either: offensively it hits nobody super effectively and cannot touch Ghost types, while defensively it barely gains that immunity in exchange for a weakness to Fighting.

It is not a high-tier Pokémon. Its best documented moment came in Generation II’s NU, where it was one of the format’s most awkward leads thanks to its Speed and Thief. In a normal playthrough, its role is different: False Swipe leaves the opponent at one HP, and with 115 Speed, it gets that job done before almost anything else.

It belongs only to the Field Egg Group, the most populous of them all, so breeding it is easy and finding a partner is not a problem. The gender split is even: 50% female. Its 20 Egg cycles come out to roughly 5355 steps, an average-to-long figure for a species from the first generation.

Breeding here is useful for Nature, characteristics, and IVs, and for nothing else; it learns everything else by leveling up or through TMs.

Its evolution has three versions depending on where the Meowth comes from. Kanto Meowth evolves into Persian at level 28, with no conditions. Alolan Meowth does not care about level but about friendship: it has to level up with the counter at 160 or higher, starting from a base happiness of 70. Galarian Meowth gives Perrserker, also at 28.

Its catch rate is 90, in the middle range: neither the 45 of a Pokémon that keeps its distance nor the 255 of the first thing you run into in the grass. In the wild, it can be holding a Quick Claw. It grows at an average rate and gives 154 base experience and 2 Effort points in Speed.