Seadra

A spiky seahorse. That’s what arrived in Pokémon Red and Blue in 1996, when the first generation divided Kanto’s marine life between what you fished up with a rod and what appeared while diving around the Seafoam Islands: tubular snout, narrow black eyes, spiny pectoral fins and that coiled tail no other fish has.

The Pokédex entries insist on two things. The first is the poison: the spines on its body stand up, and merely brushing against them is enough to leave you numb, to the point that coral fishermen get pricked without seeing it coming. The second is the manoeuvre — it spins around until it raises whirlpools capable of swallowing a fishing boat, then uses the current to drain its prey’s strength before gulping it down in one go. When it sleeps, it grips coral with its tail so the tide doesn’t carry it away, or slips between the branches until it finds a gap.

It occupies the middle step between Horsea and Kingdra, and this is where the line gains bulk: 1.2 metres and 25 kilograms compared with the previous one’s 30 centimetres. The official category, Dragon Pokémon, is a rare case of a label that doesn’t match the type: there’s no Dragon here at all, only Water.

The 440 base points are badly distributed, and the problem has a date attached to it. In the first generation, Special was a single figure, 95, which worked for attacking and taking hits; when it was split in two, Seadra was left with 95 Special Attack and 45 Special Defense. That 45 is one of the worst figures you’ll see on an evolved creature. Its physical Defense, 95, holds up well; the 55 HP do nothing to support it, and 85 Speed is enough to outspeed half of everything and nothing that matters.

Sniper is the interesting ability: it raises the critical-hit multiplier from 1.5 to 2.25. It also fits with Focus Energy, which it learns at level 15 and which raises the critical-hit chance by two stages. The plan exists on paper — Focus Energy, then Hydro Pump, which arrives at 51 with 110 power — but it depends on surviving a turn with 55 HP and on Hydro Pump hitting.

Being pure Water gives it little: it hits Fire, Ground and Rock well, matches up badly into Grass, Dragon and other Water types, and suffers against Electric and Grass. What it does have is off-type coverage — Ice Beam and Blizzard by TM, Dragon Pulse at level 44, Dragon Dance at 58, which raises Attack and Speed when its Attack is 65 and its best moves are special.

It isn’t a serious battle Pokémon. Its place is in a normal playthrough, as a mid-game Water answer, and above all as a required stepping stone: it exists to stop being Seadra.

It belongs to the Water 1 and Dragon Egg Groups, so it can breed with both ordinary marine wildlife and the Dratini line, and its gender split is a clean 50/50. Its 20 incubation cycles work out to roughly 5355 steps, in the middle part of the table. It grows at the Medium Slow rate, without the penalty of the slowest starts.

It gets five moves from the egg, and only one deserves attention: Aurora Beam, a special Ice move with 65 power that covers Grass types, against which Water does nothing — although TM Ice Beam makes it redundant. The other four are Disable, Flail, Clear Smog and Splash, the last one exactly as useful as it sounds.

The two evolutions work differently. Horsea evolves into Seadra at level 32, no strings attached. From there, reaching Kingdra requires a trade while holding the Dragon Scale, the condition introduced in the second generation and unchanged ever since. Seadra can also be found holding the scale in the wild at a small percentage: you can steal one instead of looking for it.

Its habitat is the sea, and with a catch rate of 75 it sits in the awkward range — it isn’t a legendary, but it won’t go down to the first Poké Ball either. Defeating it yields 1 Defense EV and 1 Special Attack EV.