Zubat

It looks like a bat with its eyes closed. It doesn't have any: there is nothing where they should be, and the Pokédex entries have repeated it since the very first game — it detects obstacles with the ultrasonic waves it emits through its mouth, and the echo tells it where to go in the dark.

The rest of the animal is copied almost without filtering. Eighty centimetres, seven and a half kilos, membranous wings and a posture that only makes sense when hanging from the ceiling. It sleeps during the day in caves or beneath the eaves of old houses, upside down and gripping on with its feet, because sunlight isn't just bad for it figuratively: if it spends too long exposed, it gets burned.

It lives in colonies, and that's where the strangest detail in its entry comes from. The vibration of its ultrasound changes from one group to another. Every colony sounds different, like an accent.

It's the first of three, and its role in the line is to last for a short time. With 245 base stats spread across the six, it's among the weakest things you can catch, and everything interesting about the family comes later: Golbat at level 22, and Crobat only if the Trainer puts in the work. The official category, Bat Pokémon, doesn't even try to hide where it came from.

The numbers are quick to read: 40 HP, 45 Attack, 35 Defense, 30 Special Attack, 40 Special Defense and 55 Speed. None reaches 60. The only thing it does well is move before other creatures that are just as small.

Of its two abilities, Inner Focus only prevents flinching, which is useful on the day someone targets it with a move that causes flinching and nothing else. Infiltrator, its Hidden Ability, attacks by bypassing the opponent's barriers: screens, veils and Substitutes stop counting. That's the one worth looking for: a weak attacker doesn't hit very hard and also gets shut out by the opponent's screens, and at least the latter can be fixed.

Defensively, Poison and Flying give it a clean immunity to Ground and two stacked resistances to Fighting and Bug, which is a lot of staying power for something so small. In return, Electric, Ice, Psychic and Rock hit it for double damage, and Rock is exactly what you find everywhere in the caves where it appears.

On the offensive side, there's an awkward mismatch. Air Slash, with 75 power, is special, and it comes off a Special Attack of 30. The moves that fit its 45 Attack are Leech Life, 80 power and with health recovery, and Poison Fang, 70. Its best real tool doesn't deal damage: Hypnosis, which it gets at level 6 in Pokémon Legends: Arceus, can put something to sleep and let you switch.

Where it does have a place is Little Cup, which allows species that haven't evolved; with Eviolite equipped, those Fighting resistances let it switch in for free against a good part of the tier. In a normal playthrough it's a different story: cave filler that you evolve past level 22 as soon as possible.

It belongs to a single Egg Group, Flying, with half females and half males, so breeding a line is completely straightforward. Its 15 incubation cycles amount to about 4080 steps, among the shortest available.

Its catch rate is 255, the maximum possible. With an ordinary Poké Ball and the opponent already weakened, it goes in. It's both the easiest species to catch and the one you'll turn down most often: its habitat is the cave, and it keeps appearing again and again.

Evolving into Golbat is one of the evolutions that asks for nothing: reach level 22 and that's it. The next one is different. Golbat evolves into Crobat by gaining any level with friendship at 160 or higher, and since Zubat hatches from an Egg with a base friendship of 70, there are 90 points to earn along the way by walking it around, battling with it and not letting it faint. It's the only unusual requirement in the whole family.

Defeating it gives 1 Speed effort point and 49 base experience, figures that explain why nobody trains against it on purpose. It grows at a medium rate.