Pidgey

One kilogram and eight hundred grams spread over thirty centimeters. It is one of the lightest creatures you come across after leaving town, and the Pokédex labels it without embellishment: Tiny Bird Pokémon. A brown bird with a large head, short legs, and a black mask around its eyes.

All four descriptions insist on the same thing, and what they describe is not a predator. It is docile and prefers to avoid trouble. When something makes it uncomfortable, its usual response is to flap at ground level and kick up gravel and sand until the other side gets bored; it only attacks if it is genuinely harassed, and then it does so fiercely. The other recurring habit is its sense of direction. It returns to its nest from anywhere, no matter how far it is from the areas it knows.

Its habitat is the forest, where the Pokédex calls it very common, and that phrase is literal: for twenty years, it filled almost any patch of tall grass in Kanto. It starts a three-stage line that evolves into Pidgeotto at level 18 and ends with Pidgeot at 36, with no conditions of any kind.

251 base stat points, with a spread that is flat to the point of boredom: 40 HP, 45 Attack, 40 Defense, and 35 in both Special stats. The only figure that rises above the rest is 56 Speed, and not by much.

Its three Abilities range from irrelevant to almost irrelevant. Keen Eye prevents its accuracy from being lowered, which in practice only matters against moves such as Sand Attack. Tangled Feet raises its Evasion while it is confused, in other words, while it is losing turns at random. Big Pecks, its Hidden Ability, prevents its Defense from being lowered, and with 40 Defense there is not much to protect.

Normal/Flying is a comfortable typing: immunity to Ghost and Ground, with attacks that hit Fighting, Bug, and Grass well. The problem is the power behind it. Hurricane arrives at level 53 with 110 power and runs into 35 Special Attack, so the worthwhile options are physical: Wing Attack at 33, Aerial Ace at 45, and the TM for U-turn to hit and switch out.

Smogon has analysed it in Little Cup, the level 5 format, where its Speed does reach the top end and a Choice Scarf turns it into a revenge killer with Brave Bird and U-turn. The analysis itself concludes that there are too many Flying-types doing the same thing with better numbers. Outside that format, its niche is the first third of a normal playthrough: Quick Attack at level 13 finishes off weakened opponents, Whirlwind at 17 removes anything getting in the way on a route, and by 18 it is already something else.

Flying Egg Group, just one, which pairs it with almost any bird in the Pokédex. The sex ratio is clean: half and half, with 50% female, without the skewed proportions found in other lines.

Fifteen incubation cycles work out to around 4080 steps, among the shorter distances. It gets four Egg Moves, and only one makes breeding worth setting up: Brave Bird, with 120 physical power, twice that of anything it learns by levelling up. The other three are Uproar, Air Cutter, and Air Slash, the last of which is redundant because it also learns it at level 49.

Evolution hides nothing. Reach level 18 and then 36, with no stones, no friendship, no time windows, and no held items. It grows at a Medium Slow pace, so the early levels cost a little more than its size suggests.

Its catch rate is 255, the maximum possible, putting it at the trivial end of the scale: a regular Poké Ball against a half-health specimen is almost always enough, and using anything better is throwing money away. It yields 1 Speed effort point and gives 50 base experience, one of the lowest figures in the game.