Venusaur

The flower on its back opens fully and no longer fits on the back of a small animal: this species’ two metres and 100 kilos are divided between a quadruped with rough skin and a huge corolla growing on top of it. What was a bulb on Bulbasaur and a closed bud on Ivysaur has finished blooming here, and the body has had to grow wider and lower its stance to support it.

Pokédex entries insist on two things. The first is its dependence on sunlight: the broad petals catch the rays, the plant converts them into energy, and that need forces it to seek out light constantly. The second is its smell. After a rainy day, the aroma becomes stronger and attracts other Pokémon, and that same aroma, according to another entry, calms people’s spirits.

The flower’s colors act as a record: they become vivid when the specimen is well nourished and has taken in plenty of sunlight. It is still classified as the Seed Pokémon, the category it has carried since the beginning of the line, even though there is nothing seed-like left about it. It is the end of a path that begins at number 001 and ends at 003.

525 points with its peak in the special stats: 100 Special Attack and 100 Special Defense, 83 Defense, 82 Attack, 80 HP, and 80 Speed. None of those numbers is bad, and none decides a battle on its own. The 80 Speed is what hurts it most, because at high levels almost anything that attacks moves first.

Chlorophyll, its Hidden Ability, fixes that in exchange for a condition. With sunlight on the field, its Speed doubles, and the same slow Pokémon starts hitting first. Sunny Day is learned by TM, removes Solar Beam’s charging turn, and raises the power of none of its moves, because it doesn’t have a single Fire-type attack; here, the sun is only for its legs. Energy Ball and Sludge Bomb cover what Solar Beam does not, while Giga Drain restores some HP in the meantime. Overgrow, its regular Ability, only activates at low HP and is the worse of the two.

On the attack, Grass and Poison overlap and hit almost the same group of opponents. Defensively, they compensate for each other quite well: it resists Water, Electric, Grass, Fighting, and Fairy, absorbs Toxic Spikes when switching in because it is Poison-type, and, because it is Grass-type, ignores Leech Seed and powder moves. What holds it back are four widely spread weaknesses — Fire, Ice, Flying, and Psychic — and a Speed stat that leaves it taking the first hit without sunlight.

Mega Evolution changes Overgrow for Thick Fat, which turns Fire and Ice into neutral damage. With two fewer weaknesses and those defenses, Mega Venusaur became a reliable piece of Sun and Moon OU, coming in to stop threats and then leaving again. Regular Venusaur, without its Mega Evolution, does not live in that world: its place is on a sun team or in a campaign playthrough.

It belongs to the Monster and Grass Egg Groups, the double membership shared by the entire line and what makes it compatible with almost any Grass-type starter. The gender ratio is seven males for every female: 12.5% females, so planned breeding starts by finding the female or by using a Ditto.

The 20 incubation cycles equal about 5355 steps, counting the 255 steps per cycle and the extra cycle that is always added. Petal Dance, Leech Seed, Curse, and Toxic hatch from the Egg, although the offspring is born as Bulbasaur and the moves have to be preserved through two evolutions. Petal Dance is the only one of the four that Venusaur already knows on its own from level 1.

The evolution has no trick to it: Ivysaur reaches level 32 and transforms. No stones, no time requirements, no friendship. The growth rate is Medium Slow, one of those curves that take a while to get going and then settle down, and its base friendship is 70.

Its recorded habitat is Grassland. The catch rate, 45, is the same as Bulbasaur’s and sits in the awkward range: not impossible, but a long way from the 255 of a route Pokémon. Hardly anyone catches it anyway; it comes from evolving a gifted starter.