Poochyena

Thirteen kilos and six hundred grams in barely half a metre. That density belongs to a hyena cub, which is what lies behind the design: grey fur, a black mask over its face and throat, red eyes, and two lower fangs sticking out beyond its muzzle. The Pokédex entries themselves point out that those fangs are large compared with the rest of its body, as if the animal had grown outwards from its mouth.

Its behaviour follows the same line. It bites the first thing that moves, before checking what it is. It chases its prey until it collapses from exhaustion and never lets go, guided by a sense of smell the entries describe as infallible. It is an omnivore and eats anything. When it wants to scare someone, it bristles its tail, and if its prey hits back, it runs away. That contradiction—the show-off who backs down—holds the whole character together, and it even shows in its ability spread: two of the three have to do with escaping or getting nervous.

That is where the official category, the Bite Pokémon, comes from. It is the first half of a two-stage line and evolves into Mightyena at level 18, with no extra condition. Its 220 base stat points are spread so that no stat reaches 60, and its habitat is grassland, the terrain of the creature that appears in the first patch of tall grass.

Its 55 Attack is the only figure above 50 on the whole sheet. Next come 35 HP, 35 Defense, 35 Speed, and a double 30 in the special stats. Its 220 total points are among the lowest spread across six stats, and its 56 base experience confirms what it is designed for: being defeated by other Pokémon.

Being pure Dark suits it better defensively than offensively. Psychic-type moves do nothing to it, while Ghost- and Dark-type moves deal half damage; in return, it takes double damage from Fighting and Bug, and from Fairy since Generation VI. When attacking, its type only hits Psychic and Ghost for super effective damage, while Fighting, Fairy, and Dark hold it back.

Of its three abilities, the one with any real mileage is Quick Feet: while it is dealing with a status condition, its Speed rises, and Facade—which can be taught by TM and gains power in that same situation—turns burn or paralysis into a plan rather than a problem. Its hidden ability, Rattled, boosts its Speed when it is hit by certain moves. Run Away is only useful for fleeing wild battles.

None of that saves it. With 35 Speed, it moves last against almost anything, and with 35 HP and 35 Defense, it cannot survive the exchange it would need to make use of a status condition. Bite, at level 10, is the only decent attack it sees before evolving. Where it does deliver is in a normal playthrough of Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald: it is the first pure Dark-type a Hoenn Trainer can carry, giving answers to Ghost and Psychic Pokémon long before the game offers them by any other route.

It belongs to a single Egg Group, Field, the most populated of them all, so it can breed with a large part of the Pokédex's mammals. The gender split is 50% on both sides, so raising a batch does not depend on finding the female or relying on Ditto. Its 15 Egg cycles come to roughly 4080 steps, putting it among the shorter stretches.

It hatches with three moves that do not appear in its level-up list: Poison Fang, Astonish, and Covet. None is essential, although Poison Fang gives it a Poison-type attack it otherwise lacks, while Astonish always goes first.

Its evolution asks for nothing unusual: reach level 18 and it becomes Mightyena. It is worth deciding beforehand, because almost all of its own repertoire comes after that point. Its growth rate is Medium, and its base friendship is 70.

It is found in grassland, and finding one takes no effort at all. Its catch rate is 255, the highest possible value: it goes down to a Poké Ball at half health and with no status condition. In the wild, it may be holding a Pecha Berry, which is the closest thing to a reward the catch offers.