Skiploom

The middle step between Hoppip and Jumpluff is the shortest of the three: it starts at level 18 and ends at 27. Nine levels. What changes during that stretch is on its head, where the cotton tuft from the previous stage has turned into a yellow flower, and that flower is practically the whole character.

All three Pokédex entries insist on the same detail. The petals open and close as the temperature rises or falls; they spread out to absorb sunlight; they bloom when the surroundings reach 18 °C. That is where the habit documented by the Pokédex comes from, and it is one of the most concrete field notes in Generation II: some people use it as a thermometer.

Floating comes naturally to it. At 60 centimetres tall and weighing 1 kg, it rises into the air effortlessly to get closer to the sun, which is where it gets its food. That leaves it in an awkward position for a living thing: if the temperature drops, the flower closes, and with the flower closed, there is no photosynthesis to speak of.

None of this is unique to it within the evolutionary line: it is the same animal as before, with the flower open and a little more body. The category assigned to it by the game, the Cottonweed Pokémon, does not even change from its two relatives.

Its 340 base points are spread out with one figure that stands above the rest: 80 Speed. Next come 65 Special Defense, 55 HP, 50 Defense, and a pair of 45s in Attack and Special Attack that explain why this does not win battles. It is fast and it does not hit hard.

Chlorophyll doubles its Speed while the sun is up, so those 80 become 160 effective Speed and let it outrun almost anything. The extra turn is spent on a move with 45 power. Leaf Guard, the other regular Ability, blocks status problems in sunlight as well. Infiltrator, its Hidden Ability, gets through the opponent’s barriers, which is not much use when the hit breaking through them does not hurt.

The typing does not help either. On offense, Grass covers Water, Ground, and Rock, while Flying is limited to Acrobatics (level 28) and Bounce (level 41), both physical moves and therefore tied to that 45 Attack. On defense, it gains an immunity to Ground and resistances to Grass, Water, and Fighting, but pays for them with a quadruple weakness to Ice and double weaknesses to Fire, Flying, Poison, and Rock.

What it really has is disruption. Cotton Spore, at level 31, lowers the opponent’s Speed by two stages. Sleep Powder arrives at 12, Leech Seed at 20, and U-turn at 34 lets it leave after attacking. Memento, at 44, sacrifices it in exchange for leaving both enemy attacks in ruins. With Baton Pass and Encore among its TMs, its realistic role is support in a normal playthrough or in battles between friends, and there it competes with its own evolution, which does the same thing with better numbers.

Its Egg Groups are Fairy and Grass, giving it access to a broad and densely populated list of Grass-type breeding partners. The gender split is 50% female, without the complications of the starters, so any specimen is enough to get breeding started.

The 20 incubation cycles equal roughly 5355 steps, an average figure that does not require route planning. Everything it learns comes from leveling up or TMs, and its TM list is long, with Swords Dance, Solar Beam, Substitute, and Sunny Day among the useful options.

Its evolution has no trick to it. It evolves from Hoppip at level 18 and becomes Jumpluff at 27, with no stones, held items, time windows, or friendship involved. It grows at a medium-slow rate, so the early levels drag on and level 27 arrives later than you expect.

Its habitat is the grassland, and its catch rate of 120 puts it in the comfortable range: neither the triviality of 255 nor the wall of 45. A regular Poké Ball with the opponent somewhat weakened will usually do the job. Defeating it awards 2 Speed EVs and 119 base experience.