Snorlax

The design starts not from an animal but from an office colleague. Kabigon was the nickname of Kōji Nishino, a Game Freak planner known for eating mouldy things — 黴 (kabi) means “mould” in Japanese — and that nickname became カビゴン. What was drawn on top of it is a dark, bipedal mammal whose belly takes up more than half its body.

The Pokédex entries all insist on the same thing. It eats 400 kg of food a day and does not feel satisfied until it reaches that figure; if it gets sleepy while feeding, it keeps eating while dozing off. Its stomach digests rotten and mouldy food without any trouble, and one entry claims it could season its meal with Muk’s poison without batting an eyelid. It is so docile that children can be seen using its belly as a playground, although the same text warns that it can unleash overwhelming strength if it has a fit of rage.

It is 2.1 m tall and weighs 460 kg, which makes it the heaviest Normal-type Pokémon according to Bulbapedia. Its official category is the Sleeping Pokémon and its habitat is the mountain. It closes the Munchlax line and does not evolve any further, although a Gigantamax form was added in Generation VIII.

Almost all 540 points go to the same places: 160 HP and 110 Special Defense, a special side that can take almost anything without external support. The other half does not keep up. Defense sits at 65 and only works because 160 HP is behind it, Special Attack is another 65 that can be ignored, and the 30 Speed guarantees that it will move last. Attack, at 110, is what justifies the whole package.

Thick Fat defines the matchup: it softens Fire- and Ice-type attacks, and since the Normal type only fears Fighting, the list of things that deal real damage to it is short. Immunity, its other non-Hidden Ability, prevents poisoning, which is useful on a wall with no built-in recovery, but it rarely makes up for giving up Thick Fat.

The usual plan is built around three of its moves. Curse, obtained by TM and also as an Egg Move, raises Attack and Defense at the cost of Speed, a penalty that barely hurts with a base stat of 30. Rest, learned at level 20, is all of its healing, and Snore and Sleep Talk appear at that same level so it can keep attacking while asleep. Body Slam, at level 28, is its standard attack thanks to the paralysis it can cause; Earthquake, learned by TM, covers the Steel- and Rock-types that resist Normal.

What holds it back is predictable. Ghost-types are immune to its main attack, a powerful Fighting-type hit cuts it in half — Machamp is the textbook example — and without Curse set up, that base 65 Defense shows immediately. In Generation IX, Smogon’s listings place it in PU, and its Gigantamax form is marked as unavailable.

It belongs to a single Egg Group, Monster, which leaves it sharing a basket with the Grass-type starter lines and much of the large reptile and saurian Pokémon. The gender ratio is seven to one: only 12.5% are female, so planned breeding starts by getting the female or using Ditto.

Hatching is slow. Forty cycles come to about 10 455 steps, more than twice as many as any starter, and the Slow growth rate makes levelling up take longer afterwards. Five Egg Moves are available: Double-Edge, Counter, Fissure, Curse and Belch. Fissure is a one-hit knockout move that only works against opponents of an equal or lower level. Counter returns twice the physical damage received, and with 160 HP there is plenty of room to take the first hit.

Evolution does not depend on a specific level: Munchlax evolves into this form when it levels up with a friendship value of 160 or higher. In the wild, it appears in mountainous areas and may be holding a Chesto Berry or Leftovers. Its catch rate is 25, below the 45 already considered difficult, so it needs to be weakened heavily before throwing the Poké Ball. Defeating it awards 2 HP Effort Values.