Slugma

On the lower slopes of volcanoes, there is a trail no other animal leaves behind: a groove of molten rock moving at a slug’s pace. Slugma lives in those areas and keeps sliding around in search of even hotter places, because stopping comes at a price. Its body is magma. If it cools down, it hardens, cracks and loses pieces, and according to the Pokédex it eventually shrinks in size.

There is no blood inside it. Liquid magma flows through its circulatory system and delivers the oxygen and nutrients its organs need, which is the official explanation for something that, at first glance, looks like a mollusc someone set on fire. The category, Lava Pokémon, does not exactly try to hide it either.

It is 70 centimetres tall and weighs 35 kilograms: the density of molten stone, not an invertebrate. It is the first half of a two-stage evolutionary line. At level 38 it evolves into Magcargo, which solidifies some of that lava into a shell and adds the Rock type to the equation. Until then, it is pure Fire, with no alternative forms or regional variants anywhere in its history.

250 base stat points, 70 of them in Special Attack. Everything else is a repeated 40 — HP, Attack, Defense and Special Defense — plus a Speed stat of 20 that leaves it moving last against almost anything put in front of it. There is no generous reading of that stat sheet, and it is worth saying plainly: this is not a competitive Pokémon, and nobody has ever pretended otherwise.

Of its three abilities, Magma Armor prevents freezing, and that is where its contribution to battle ends. Flame Body is somewhat more useful, since it burns anything that makes minimum-contact contact and punishes anyone who hits it up close. Weak Armor, its Hidden Ability, lowers Defense and raises Speed when it takes a physical attack: with 40 Defense there is barely anything to lose, although a single stage on 20 Speed does not exactly turn the battle around either.

On offense, pure Fire gives it access to Grass, Ice, Bug and Steel. On defense, it resists those same types and Fairy, at the cost of taking double damage from Water, Ground and Rock, three types that show up in half the opposing team’s coverage.

Where it does the job is in a normal playthrough, as a mid-adventure Fire type. Ember at level 6 and Incinerate at 27 give it something to fight with early on; Will-O-Wisp via TM is its best tool against physical attackers that would otherwise flatten it in one hit; Smog arrives at 34 and Flamethrower at 48. Recover at 43 and Amnesia at 36 point towards a defensive plan its 40 HP cannot support. The sensible way to use it is as a stepping stone: raise it to 38 and let it become something else.

It belongs to the Amorphous Egg Group and that group alone, sharing the list with ghosts, gases and other creatures without a fixed shape, which fits a body that drips. Its gender ratio is 50%, so any partner will do and there is no need to resort to Ditto.

Twenty incubation cycles amount to about 5355 steps. The joke is that Slugma is also the shortcut for reducing them: both Magma Armor and Flame Body halve the cycles of every Egg in the party, an effect that has existed since Emerald and does not stack with itself or with the other ability. Some people carry one in their party for hundreds of hours without ever sending it into battle.

Of its eight Egg Moves, the one worth having is Inferno, a Fire-type move with 100 power, well above anything it learns by level before Flamethrower at 48. Memento and Guard Swap are niche curiosities. Acid Armor and Stockpile raise defenses that start at 40, with all that implies.

The evolution has no trick to it: level 38, with no stones, no friendship and no time-of-day requirement. Its habitat is the mountains, and its catch rate of 190 puts it among the Pokémon that will go down to an ordinary Poké Ball on the first or second try.