Porygon2

Next to Porygon, it looks like the same program recompiled on a newer machine. The original’s sharp edges are rounded off, the flat faces disappear, and what remains is a curved red-bodied figure with a blue chest, beak, and tail. There’s no animal behind it, no plant, no myth: there’s code. The official category, Virtual Pokémon, doesn’t try to hide that either.

Pokédex entries keep coming back to two ideas. One is space. It has advanced astrophysics software installed, allowing it to work outside the atmosphere, and several versions repeat that it was improved to make the exploration of other planets possible, a goal that remains out of reach. The other idea is more uncomfortable: it was given artificial intelligence with autonomous learning, capable of picking up gestures and sensations on its own. Hence the two lines repeated from game to game: that it sometimes acts in ways it wasn’t programmed to, and that it sometimes learns things it shouldn’t.

It is 0.6 metres tall and weighs 32.5 kilograms, which is a lot for its size. It occupies the middle step of a three-stage line, although for two generations it was the end of the road: until Porygon-Z arrived, this was as far as the experiment could be taken.

Its 515 points are spread without any spikes: 105 Special Attack, 95 Special Defense, 90 Defense, 85 HP, 80 Attack, and 60 Speed. Looked at that way, it’s a flat Pokémon. What keeps it relevant is that it still has an evolution ahead of it, so it can equip Eviolite, the fifth-generation item that raises both defenses by 50%: those 90 and 95 effectively become 135 and 142.

Download is the ability that defines it. On entering battle, it compares the opponent’s Defense and Special Defense and raises the offensive stat that will deal more damage by one stage, so against a physical wall it comes in with an already boosted 105 Special Attack. Trace, the alternative, copies the opponent’s Ability. Its Hidden Ability, Analytic, adds 30% power when it moves last, which happens often with 60 Speed.

Being pure Normal-type gives it just one weakness, Fighting, and an immunity to Ghost. Offensively, it has the worst type in the game: it hits nothing for super-effective damage, and Ghost Pokémon shut it down completely. That’s why what matters isn’t its attacks but Recover, which it learns at level 35, and the TM Ice Beam, which covers Ground, Flying, Dragon, and Grass. Tri Attack, at level 45, is its one decent signature move with 80 power.

What holds it back is predictable. With 60 Speed, it moves second almost every time, its only genuinely strong Normal-type attack is the level 60 Hyper Beam with its recharge turn, and any Fighting-type in a hurry knocks it off the field.

It belongs only to the Mineral Egg Group, and even that doesn’t help much: it is genderless, so its only possible partner is Ditto. Two Porygon2 in the Day Care produce nothing. Its 20 egg cycles amount to around 5355 steps.

Its list of Egg Moves is empty. There aren’t any, not even one: everything it knows comes from levelling up or TMs, so breeding it is useful for its characteristics and nothing else.

Its evolution condition is a two-step process that requires company. Porygon becomes Porygon2 when traded while holding Upgrade, and this one becomes Porygon-Z when traded again while holding Dubious Disc. In Pokémon Legends: Arceus, the item is applied directly from the bag, without trading, which is the only convenient method this line has ever had.

It has an urban habitat, which is curious for a creature that doesn’t appear on any route. Its catch rate is 45, the same benchmark as a starter: if it ever appears in the wild, it’s difficult to catch. Wild specimens can be holding Upgrade. It grows at a medium rate, and defeating it awards 2 Special Attack EVs.