Shiftry

Ludicolo is Hoenn’s other bipedal plant, the one that dances. Here, the opposite happens. The acorn line ends in a wooden creature with a white mane, a long nose and tall, two-pronged sandals: a tengu, the Japanese mountain spirit traditionally depicted as a surly guardian of the forest and executioner of anyone who enters without permission.

Pokédex entries repeat two ideas. One is wind. Its hands are shaped like leaves and work as fans, generating currents of 30 m/s capable of lifting houses, and one description adds that the air comes out freezing cold. The other is mind-reading: “it can read its opponent’s thoughts and act accordingly”, a line that appears both when it is described as a feared monster of the forest and when it is called its guardian. It lives in the canopies of ancient trees, moving stealthily, and generally prefers to be left alone.

It is 1.3 m tall and weighs 59.6 kg, more than its stick-like silhouette would suggest. Its official category is Wicked Pokémon, with no qualifications. It caps a line that starts with an acorn, Seedot, evolves into Nuzleaf at level 14 and is completed with a Leaf Stone.

Of the 480 points, the ones that matter are at the top: 100 Attack, 90 Special Attack and 90 HP. Below that are two 60s in Defense and Special Defense that fall apart if you so much as look at them, and a Speed of 80 that is the worst kind of number — too high to build it as a wall, too low to outspeed anything that actually wants to move first.

Chlorophyll is the usual route: under sun, its Speed rises and that 80 stops being the problem, with Solar Blade and its 125 power hitting without a charge turn. Wind Rider, the Ability introduced later, takes a different approach: it raises its Attack when Tailwind is active on its side or when it is hit by a wind move, while also making it immune to those moves. Since Tailwind is in its TM list, it can activate the Ability on its own. Add Swords Dance, Foul Play with 95 physical power and Sucker Punch from breeding, and you have the full package: one setup turn and a strong hit, with priority if needed.

What holds it back is its defensive profile. Grass and Dark together add up to seven weaknesses — double Bug, plus Fire, Ice, Poison, Flying, Fighting and Fairy — and with 60 in both defenses, almost none of them can be taken comfortably. It is not a serious-list Pokémon. Where it works is in a normal playthrough and in home-built sun teams: it comes in, hits once and switches out. If it has to stay in for two turns, things have already gone wrong.

It belongs to the Field and Grass Egg Groups, with an even 50% gender split, so finding a compatible partner is straightforward. Its 15 Egg cycles come out at around 4080 steps, an average figure on the shorter side.

Its Egg Move list is long, and much of it is learned from acorn: Sucker Punch, the priority move that gives its 100 Attack a purpose, plus Leech Seed, Synthesis, Feint Attack, Night Slash, Extrasensory and even Explosion. It is worth deciding on them before touching the stone, because after that its move access closes off.

Its evolution has two steps, and neither depends on friendship or the time of day. Seedot evolves into Nuzleaf upon reaching level 14, and Nuzleaf evolves into Shiftry when exposed to a Leaf Stone, with no minimum level or added condition. It grows at a medium-slow rate and gives 3 Attack EVs when it faints, with 216 base experience.

In the wild, it inhabits forests and sometimes holds a Power Herb. Its catch rate is 45, the sort of Pokémon that takes some work to catch: lower its HP and inflict a status condition before wasting Poké Balls.