Teddiursa

It lives in the mountains, and the most reliable way to find one is to follow the trail of honey. It has a pale crescent-shaped mark on its forehead that lights up when it finds a beehive, after which it spends hours licking its sticky paws. Pokédex entries return to that gesture game after game. One of them adds a less obvious detail: it makes its own honey by mixing fruit with the pollen collected by Beedrill, so it does not rely solely on raiding other Pokémon's nests.

Outside the honey business, it behaves like a resourceful animal. Before food becomes scarce in winter, it hides supplies in places known only to it, a real-bear habit carried over without embellishment. At 60 centimetres and 8.8 kilograms, it can fit in your arms, and its official category, the Little Bear Pokémon, is nothing more than that.

It occupies the juvenile rung of its evolutionary line. At level 30 it evolves into Ursaring, which no longer fits in anyone's arms, and the third step, Ursaluna, arrived many years later and depends on using a Peat Block under a full moon. The crescent on its forehead, which for generations was just a decorative mark, ended up foreshadowing something.

330 points spread around reluctantly. The only stat that stands out is its 80 Attack; its 60 HP and the three 50s in Defense, Special Attack and Special Defense fall short across the board, while 40 Speed means moving last against almost anything. Defeating it gives 1 Attack Effort Point, which sums up what it offers rather well.

Of its two regular abilities, Pickup does not affect battle: it makes items appear. Quick Feet does, and it is the only line of play with any real flair. It multiplies Speed while it has a status problem, while also ignoring the Speed reduction from paralysis. With it, Facade (70 power, doubled if it is burned, poisoned or paralyzed) stops being filler. The plan calls for an item that inflicts the status on its own and still relies on an Attack stat of 80.

Normal does little on offence — Rock and Steel resist it, while Ghost ignores it — although it learns Lick at level 1 and Shadow Claw by TM, which plugs the hole. On defence, it only fears Fighting, which happens to be the type most likely to have borrowed punches going around; it can carry Close Combat, Focus Punch or Brick Break itself.

Its best native attacks are Play Rough at level 29 and Thrash at 41, which leaves it confused when the streak ends. Swords Dance by TM fixes the numbers, but it demands a turn that its 50 Defense cannot freely give away. In a normal playthrough it works as a physical attacker for half the adventure and evolves before its movepool runs out of arguments. In serious competitive play, it does not appear.

It belongs to the Field Egg Group, the most crowded in the game, so passing moves to it from another species is rarely a problem. The gender ratio is exactly fifty-fifty, so breeding does not require any lotteries: any compatible partner works and Ditto is unnecessary.

It takes 20 incubation cycles, about 5355 steps, putting it among the shorter stretches.

Its Egg Move list is more interesting than its level-up list. Belly Drum is there, sacrificing health to max out Attack; with 60 HP, it is best used behind a Substitute or simply after evolving. It also inherits Close Combat, Cross Chop, Seismic Toss, Counter, Crunch, Yawn and Night Slash — practically all the coverage its level-up learnset denies it.

Its evolution has no trick to it: level it up to 30, with no items, no friendship and no time-of-day requirement. The trick is in the next step, which is no longer its concern.

Its habitat is the mountains, and its catch rate of 120 puts it in the comfortable zone: neither the 45 of a starter nor the 255 of something encountered on the first route. It usually holds an Oran Berry or a Sitrus Berry. It grows at a medium rate and gives 66 base experience.