Umbreon

The official category, Moonlight Pokémon, places the moon at the origin rather than in habit. Pokédex entries insist that moonlight was what altered the genetic structure of Eevee, and that the rings in its fur light up when bathed in that glow. The rest of the time it acts as a nocturnal hunter: it hides in the darkness, waits silently for its prey to move and leaps for its throat as soon as it gets distracted. Its huge pupils can make out anything stirring in the deepest darkness.

The animal underneath is not any one thing in particular. It shares traits with dogs, cats and foxes, like most of the family, and its designer has said that she did not start from any defined motif. One metre tall, 27 kilos, four legs and black fur with yellow rings.

One entry stands out from all the others: when it gets enraged, it secretes poisonous sweat through its pores and sprays it into the enemy’s eyes. It is not Poison-type, nor has it ever been in a published game. That sentence comes from somewhere else.

Within the evolutionary line, it occupies the nocturnal side of a pair. Espeon comes from the same condition —level up with high friendship— and the only difference between the two is the time of day when it happens.

525 points spread with no attempt to hide it: 130 Special Defense and 110 Defense against 65 Attack, 60 Special Attack and 65 Speed. With 95 HP behind them, the wall that comes out of that can take almost anything that is not a well-placed physical hit. Offensively, it has nothing to offer.

Foul Play fixes half the problem. It is a physical TM with 95 power that calculates damage using the target’s Attack, not its own, so the 65 on the sheet stops mattering and the hit gets stronger the more the opponent has boosted itself. Moonlight, at level 30, restores its health without relying on an item. Toxic turns every turn it survives into damage for the other side, and that is where Synchronize, its regular Ability, comes in: it sends the poison, paralysis or burn back to whoever inflicted it. Inner Focus, the Hidden Ability, only prevents flinching, and even so it is the one used competitively.

Being pure Dark-type gives it immunity to Psychic and resistances to Dark and Ghost, in exchange for three weaknesses: Fighting, Bug and Fairy. Smogon places it in RU in Scarlet and Violet, as a special wall that spreads status and passes healing to the rest of the team with Wish and Protect; it also has analyses in OU and in the Battle Stadium Singles format.

The hole is its 65 Speed. Any fast opponent with Taunt leaves it with nothing to do but attack, and Trick can shut it down completely by forcing an item onto it. Against Fighting-types, its 110 Defense is not enough.

It belongs to a single Egg Group, Field, the most populated in the Pokédex, so it can breed with almost any terrestrial quadruped. The egg always hatches into an Eevee, never the evolved form. The gender ratio is seven males for every female —12.5% female—, so a targeted breeding project starts by obtaining the female or resorting to a Ditto.

The 35 incubation cycles work out at around 9180 steps, putting it among the game’s longer stretches. The Egg Move list is empty: everything it knows comes through level-up or TM, with nothing inherited.

The evolution condition allows no shortcuts. Eevee has to level up at night with friendship at 160 or higher. During the day, with that same friendship value, it becomes Espeon; with a Fairy-type move and the same friendship, Sylveon. No stone works here.

Its recorded habitat is urban, which fits an animal that hunts at night among buildings. Its Catch Rate is 45, that of a species that is difficult to catch, and its base Happiness of 35 is among the lowest: it takes more than usual to win it over a second time after catching it. It grows at a medium rate, without the late growth curves of other Pokémon with 525 points.