Weedle

It is found in dense undergrowth, hidden among the low leaves of forests and grasslands, where it feeds and spends the whole day. Pokédex entries insist on two traits. The first is its stinger: roughly five centimetres of poisonous spike set into the top of its head, the entire defence of an animal measuring 30 centimetres and weighing 3,2 kilograms. The second is its sense of smell, so sharp that it can tell apart the leaves it likes from those it does not after just a couple of sniffs from the enormous nose that takes up half its face.

Its colour does the rest of the work. The Pokédex credits it with a striking body that is enough to make enemies turn around and leave, the same warning used by real stinging caterpillars: if you are dressed like that, biting you is not worth it.

Its official category is the Worm Pokémon, which fits poorly with what it eventually becomes. It starts a three-stage line that passes through Kakuna and ends with Beedrill, and its part of the journey is the shortest there is: by level 7, it is no longer Weedle. Almost everything known about it fits into those four entries and a handful of levels.

195 points spread across six slots, and none reaches 51. Its highest stat is Speed, at 50. Attack comes next at 35; Defense stops at 30, HP at 40, and both special stats share a 20 that is among the lowest in the entire Pokédex. There is no stat worth highlighting, only one that hurts less.

Shield Dust, its regular Ability, cancels the secondary effect of an attack received: no burns, paralysis, stat drops or flinching. It protects against the extra effect, not the damage, which is exactly what kills it. Run Away, its Hidden Ability, guarantees escape from any wild Pokémon and does absolutely nothing against a Trainer.

Its arsenal fits into three lines. Poison Sting, a physical move with 15 power. String Shot, which lowers the opponent’s Speed without taking a single point of HP. And Bug Bite, with 60 power, learned at level 9: two levels after it has evolved, so only someone who deliberately cancels the evolution will use it. No TMs, Move Tutors or Egg Moves.

On offence, Bug hits Psychic, Dark and Grass for super effective damage, while Poison keeps Grass and adds Fairy, with Steel completely immune on that side. On defence, it resists Grass, Fighting, Poison and Bug, while Fire, Flying, Rock and Psychic hit it for double damage, and with 30 Defense the multiplier is hardly a footnote. Its place is in the opening stages of a normal playthrough: it is caught at a low level in the forest and two levels later it is something else.

The Bug Egg Group, and that is the only one, which pairs it with the rest of the Pokédex’s arthropods and not much else. The sex ratio is 50% female, so breeding does not depend on luck or on borrowing a Ditto. Fifteen Egg Cycles amount to about 4080 steps, among the shortest stretches there are: the Egg hatches before you finish walking through the first route.

The Egg Move list is empty. There is nothing to inherit from the father, no combination to put together, and no reason to breed beyond looking for a specific Nature.

Its evolution has no conditions of any kind: reach level 7 and it becomes Kakuna, three levels later it becomes Beedrill. No items, no friendship, no time of day, no trading. With a Medium Slow growth rate and 39 base experience, all of this happens in the first few minutes of the game.

Its habitat is the forest and its catch rate is 255, the highest possible. A regular Poké Ball against a full-health Weedle already has good odds, and there is no need to weaken it or put it to sleep. It does not hold an item.