Vigoroth

The tear-shaped red tuft falling over its forehead is the only thing that breaks up the white of its fur, along with the brown markings on its face. Beneath it is a 1.4-metre, 46.5-kilogram biped with long arms and claws on all four limbs, built on top of a sloth as if someone had given it a heart running at a different pace.

All four Pokédex entries tell the same story in different words. Its heart beats at a frantic rhythm, its blood boils, and it cannot stay still for even a second. If it is prevented from moving, its stress level shoots up to the point where it becomes ill. When it tries to sleep, its blood flows at breakneck speed and it ends up running from one side of the forest to the other until it calms down.

The official category, Wild Monkey Pokémon, is misleading: it gets the posture of a monkey and little else. The interesting part is its place in the line. Slakoth is laziness made into a creature and Slaking returns to it as soon as it can; between the two there are exactly eighteen levels, from 18 to 36, during which the same species cannot stand sitting still.

440 points spread out fairly evenly: 80 HP, 80 Attack, 80 Defense, 55 Special Attack, 55 Special Defense, and 90 Speed. Nothing stands out. The 90 Speed is the only thing that puts it ahead of much of what it runs into around mid-game, and the 80 Attack is the figure that drags the whole thing down: for a physical attacker without any special resources, 80 is low.

Its ability is Vital Spirit, which prevents it from falling asleep and nothing more. It adds neither damage nor Speed. What makes it valuable is the internal comparison: it is the only member of the line that attacks every turn, because both of its relatives carry Truant and lose one out of every two.

As a Normal type, it gets little out of attacking. It hits nothing super effectively, bounces off Rock and Steel, and cannot touch Ghost. On defense it fares better: a single weakness, Fighting, and complete immunity to Ghost. Its coverage has to come from TMs, and there is a bit of everything there: Earthquake, the three 75-power elemental punches, and Bulk Up to raise Attack and Defense at the same time. The best thing it gets by level is Slash at 23, with 70 power, and a 150-power Focus Punch at 37 that requires making it to the turn without taking damage.

Since it still evolves, it can hold an Eviolite, and with 80 Defense the patch is noticeable. Against that, Slaking is waiting at level 36 with much higher stats. Vigoroth's place is the middle stretch of a normal playthrough: it arrives at 18, hits before almost everything, never falls asleep, and hangs on until its final form takes over.

It belongs to the Field Egg Group, one of the most populated in the Pokédex, so pairing it up is straightforward. The gender ratio is 50% female, which saves you from hunting for the specific female required by other lines.

The 15 Egg Cycles work out to around 4080 steps, a short figure for a species that ends up as a Pokémon with high stats. It has no recorded Egg Moves: everything it learns comes from levelling up or TMs, which simplifies breeding to looking for good IVs and a nature.

Its evolution is as simple as possible. Slakoth becomes Vigoroth upon reaching level 18, and Vigoroth becomes Slaking upon reaching level 36. No items, no time of day, no friendship, and no trades. Growth is slow, so those levels arrive later than in most three-stage lines.

Its habitat is the forest, and its catch rate, 120, puts it in the comfortable range: it will not drop to the first Poké Ball like a 255, but it is far from the 45 that require weakening and putting it to sleep. Defeating it awards 2 Speed EVs and 154 base experience. Its starting friendship is 70, the standard.