Veluza

At 90 kg, Veluza looks heavier than its fish-like silhouette would suggest. Its design is based on the hake: a gray body, red eyes, sharp teeth and magenta fins that stick out beneath the flesh. The blue lines running along its body accentuate its gaze and give it a look ready to charge.

The Pokédex entries in Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet agree on its hunting method. Veluza sheds the flesh it considers unnecessary, regenerates what it lost afterwards and uses its lighter body to move with greater agility. In doing so, it also sharpens its mind and increases its psychic power. The flesh it leaves behind has a mild, pleasant flavor, a strange detail for a creature that uses this process as part of its predatory behavior.

Veluza first appeared in Generation IX and does not evolve or come from another species. It shares its aquatic environment with creatures such as Dondozo, but its Water and Psychic typing sets it apart from purely physical fish.

Veluza is not a common choice in competitive play. It has 90 HP and 102 Attack, but its 73 Defense, 65 Special Defense and 70 Speed leave it exposed when it fails to establish an early advantage. Its Special Attack, at 78, does not allow it to make a convincing special attacker either. Its total of 478 is well distributed for the story, not enough to offset its shortcomings in demanding battles.

Mold Breaker is the ability that offers the most consistent utility: it allows moves to be used without taking the target's abilities into account. This helps against opponents that rely on a defensive ability, although it does not solve Veluza's durability problems. Sharpness, its hidden ability, boosts slicing moves; as a result, Psycho Cut, Slash, Night Slash and Aqua Cutter fit it better than a mixed set without a clear direction.

The Water and Psychic combination provides two useful offensive types and several resistances, including Water, Fire, Ice, Steel, Fighting and Psychic. In return, it leaves clear weaknesses to Grass, Electric, Bug, Ghost and Dark. Fillet Away can turn it into a physical threat by sacrificing some of its HP to increase its offensive capabilities and Speed; afterwards, Aqua Jet lets it finish opponents off before going down. In a normal playthrough, it works better as a story attacker once it gets Aqua Cutter and Psycho Cut than as the centerpiece of a competitive team.

Veluza belongs to the Water 2 Egg Group and has an even gender ratio: 50% female and 50% male. Its Eggs need 20 cycles to hatch, equivalent to approximately 5.355 steps using the usual formula. Its fast growth makes it easy to train, although breeding does not alter its evolutionary line: Veluza does not evolve and has no evolution condition to meet.

Its Egg Moves are Thrash and Recover. Recover is the more useful of the two, as it allows Veluza to restore HP and extend battles against opponents that cannot pressure it heavily. Thrash offers a powerful physical hit, but its secondary effect limits control of the turn.

Its catch rate is 100. That puts it at an intermediate difficulty: it is not an effortless catch, but it does not require the work involved with species that have very low catch rates either. In Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet, it can be found in Paldea's waters, so locating it while exploring is usually easier than breeding one from scratch.