Category: Uncategorized

The Rattata Line

bills-pokedex:

Rattata
The Mouse Pokémon
Type: Normal
Official Registration #: 19
Entry: As one of the most common pokémon in Kanto and Johto, rattata are typically among the first team members for many beginning trainers. Small, quick, cautious, hardy, and very fond of biting things with its large front teeth, rattata may be known for their survival skills in the wild, but its lack of elemental aptitude and its less-than-ideal defenses mean that rattata are among the most commonly “boxed” pokémon in existence. However, recently, rattata has gained popularity among younger trainers, not because of its cute appearance or its availability but instead because of the inexplicable trend among such trainers to obtain and raise the “top percentage rattata.”

Raticate
The Mouse Pokémon
Type: Normal
Official Registration #: 20
Entry: The evolved form of rattata, by battle experience. Raticate depend on its whiskers to maintain its balance, and while this pokémon may be quick and agile with its whiskers intact, cutting them off is a sure-fire way to slow and disorient a raticate. Incidentally, cutting off a raticate’s whiskers is also a sure-fire way to get mauled by a forty-pound rat with six-inch fangs.

Rattata (Alola form)
The Mouse Pokémon
Type: Dark/Normal
Official Registration #: 19
Entry: The Alolan cousin to the common rattata is an extremely discerning pokémon that will seldom touch any kind of produce that isn’t fresh. Some trainers use this to their advantage by taking an Alolan rattata with them when they shop for groceries so that these rattata can scout out the freshest produce for them. Others trainers do not because they’re sensible people who know exactly what happens when you bring rats into any establishment that sells food.

Raticate (Alola form)
The Mouse Pokémon
Type: Dark/Normal
Official Registration #: 20
Entry: The evolved form of Alolan rattata, by battle experience, at night. These rat-like pokémon are highly sociable but only to an extent. They’re notorious for forming clans of Alolan rattata that serve them by venturing out of the nest and gathering as much food as possible, even if not all of that food gets eaten. Because of the greed exhibited by the Alolan raticate, members of this species do not get along with one another and are known to wage intense and violent territory disputes using their rattata foot soldiers. Incidentally, this also describes the climate of southern Goldenrod, just in case anyone would like recommendations for vacation destinations this summer.

Onix and Steelix

bills-pokedex:

Onix
The Rock Snake Pokémon
Type: Rock/Ground
Official Registration #: 96
Entry: A giant serpentine pokémon native to the cave systems of Kanto and Johto. As it grows, onix’s stone body hardens until its skin resembles diamond, which protects it as it burrows at high speeds in search of sustenance … all of which is not an extended euphemism, contrary to the opinions of the Sinnohan storage system administrator.

Steelix
The Iron Snake Pokémon
Type: Steel/Ground
Official Registration #: 208
Entry: The evolved form of onix, most easily via trading if the subject has had a metal coat applied to it. As this snake-like pokémon ages, it burrows deeper into the ground, where the pressure of the earth itself and the heat from the planet’s core tempers its steel skin. While tamed steelix may have this coat artificially applied to it before trading, it is possible for steelix to evolve from wild onix. Using this process, steelix initially have a rocky hide but form their coats from the minerals it consumes as it burrows. A sheath begins to form on its face first (as this is the first thing that burrows into the ground) but gradually slides backwards until it coats the entire length of the specimen. Friction compacts and hardens this coat until the aforementioned process of tempering (via pressure from the earth and heat from the planetary core) may occur. And no, this is still not an extended euphemism, Bebe.

Mega Steelix
The Iron Snake Pokémon
Type: Steel/Ground
Official Registration #: 208+
Entry: The advanced form of steelix, via steelixite. As the result of mega evolution, this long, snake-like pokémon gains a considerable amount of power and mass. In fact, during its transformation, it not only grows in length, but its sheath hardens considerably, until excess matter is blown off the base of its head, and the author has decided that he is entirely unable to continue this entry because he can hear his Sinnohan counterpart cackling like a thirteen-year-old from all the way over here.

Hey Bill, I’m a bush pilot and want to find a Pokémon to keep me company on my longer flights. I need something that can deal with cold well but is small enough to fit in the cockpit of a prop plane. A flying type has obvious advantages but is by no means a requirement. Can you make any recommendations?

Marill is likely your best bet. They’re small and light, and above all else, many of them have a special ability that allows them to resist the cold. Moreover, even if yours evolves, it won’t get that much bigger, so you won’t even need an everstone. The line is also fairly easy-going (and thus can be trained for heights), and their sensitive hearing is a bonus for detecting mechanical problems. Just be sure to ask specifically for a marill with Thick Fat, and you’ll be fine.

Other than that, there are the standard flying-types, such as (and especially) the partially ice delibird. However, keep in mind that some of these evolve, so you may need an everstone to keep them at the right size. Additionally, be careful and don’t let them take flight while you’re in the air unless you’ve trained it to give you a warning when you do (and to not open the doors or mid-flight). Certain ice-types such as cubchoo or fighting-types such as the machop line may also work so long as you give them an everstone—the former because of their ability to withstand the cold and the latter due to their bravery.

Just about the only types I wouldn’t recommend are psychic-types (whose powers may interfere with your instruments), fire-types (unless you can train them to control their abilities), electric-types (same), rock-types (due to weight), or steel-types (except for mawile and lucario—also due to weight). Some poison-types might not be a great idea unless you can control their fumes, and while ghost-types aren’t actually dangerous, they’re generally seen as bad omens, so keep that in mind if you’re ever hired by someone else to fly.

Rufflet and Braviary

bills-pokedex:

Rufflet
The Eaglet Pokémon
Type: Normal/Flying
Official Registration #: 627
Entry: An eagle-like pokémon known for its particularly fascinating tendency to stand up to any opponent, no matter how large or powerful they may be. This is, in general, an honorable behavior to display. It is important to stand up for your principles, after all, even if those principles result in you rolling down Cycling Road in a trash bin because you decided to stand up to the Celadon University rugby team while conveniently forgetting that you lack any sort of battling skills, hand-to-hand combat training, or, in fact, any semblance of hand-eye coordination.

To your credit, at least it was casserole day, so you had a cushion and free dinner. —LH

Braviary
The Valiant Pokémon
Type: Normal/Flying
Official Registration #: 628
Entry: The evolved form of rufflet, by battle experience. A large, eagle-like pokémon that will fight for its friends, regardless of the risks to itself. Because of this behavior, braviary has been taken to be a symbol of sorts to various regions and nations—including and especially Unova, where braviary represents FREEDOM. Which is, as the writer understands it from his good friends on the internet, a distinctly separate concept from freedom, as FREEDOM apparently involves far more fireworks, guns, ursaring, and acts of throwing perfectly good tea into a questionably good harbor.

Mega Braviary
The Valiant Pokémon
Type: Normal/Flying
Official Registration #: 628+
Entry: The advanced form of braviary, via heightened FREEDOM. It’s just a braviary with more guns, less inhibitions, and a questionable moral compass. Its hobbies include speaking very loudly and dumping perfectly good tea into harbors.

Bill … this pokémon doesn’t even exist. Are you just posting this because you’re still angry about that one time someone dumped tea into your pond? —LH

I didn’t think he’d actually do it! —Bill

Bill, I have a question regarding my Dusk Lycanroc. Lately, it seems she’s gotten rather lazy and she doesn’t seem to want to get up and walk around like she used to. She’s even started to put on weight, and it’s also hurting her performance during battle. How can I entice her to exercise more?

Not to alarm you, but my first piece of advice is to take her to get a thorough checkup at the nearest pokémon center. Sometimes, laziness can be mistaken for lethargy, which is a symptom of quite a few medical conditions. Laziness itself can also stem from medical conditions of either a physical or psychological nature, so either way, if this is a sudden change, it may be a good idea to make sure she’s all right. If Nurse Joy finds something, pay attention to what she advises in terms of care. You may need to make more than a few lifestyle changes before your lycanroc is ready to battle again.

If she’s perfectly healthy, however, there are several ways you can get your lycanroc active again. The easiest may be buying toys, including a food dispenser toy, as motivation for her to get on her feet—or, well, paws. Play with her through simple games such as fetch, tug-of-war, or hide-and-seek. She may also be bored, so this is an effective way of introducing something new, different, and exciting to her schedule.

Additionally, consider adding to your team. New pokémon aren’t just a great addition to your household; they’re also playmates, battle partners, or even rivals for your lycanroc. Once she sees the new addition, your lycanroc may feel enough motivation to get up and start training again in order to keep up and hold your attention.

Finally, take her outside to new places as well. Oftentimes, when laziness isn’t tied to a health issue, it’s simply tied to boredom. Taking your lycanroc to a park, to town, or generally someplace new will break up the monotony of the day and reinvigorate her.

Best of luck, anonymous!

Hey Bill, what advice do you have for if your pokemon don’t like fireworks? Is there a way to help them understand that the sound from them isn’t going to cause them or me any harm. I tried putting my Houndoom into her pokeball last year but she broke out since she was concerned about me being harmed by them. I was perfectly safe in my house. Any advise would be nice.

That depends on how far you’d like to go to avoid them. If you’d prefer to stay at home tonight, then find an isolated room deep in the house. A basement would work best, but in a pinch, try to put her into the furthest bedroom from the fireworks. If you have a fan or white noise machine, place them in the room and turn them on to help dampen the sound. A TV tuned to static will also do. Give her plenty of water and treats, and stay with her for as long as you’re willing. Only sedate her if this doesn’t work.

If, however, you’re able and willing to travel tonight, consider spending the holiday in a remote area or in a town that isn’t hosting fireworks. Sometimes, it’s just as fun to hold a bonfire on a remote beach as it is to be anywhere near a fireworks display.

If all else fails and you have more than one pokémon, you may consider using the PC system as well, but this is (understandably) a last resort.

How are new Eeveelutions first discovered?

By accident, mostly.

You might think that’s a joke, but I’m actually dead serious. Eevee are fascinatingly adaptive, and as such, they respond to stimuli we never would have imagined would trigger evolution. For example, who knew that feeding your eevee poképuffs from a Lumiose bakery and spoiling it to ridiculous degrees via daily grooming would cause it to evolve into sylveon? Or training it in a specific forest or icy cave would help it evolve into leafeon or glaceon? (I mean, granted, yes, it’s adaptive, so one would assume training it in specific locations would trigger those evolutions, but the point is that not every forest triggers an evolution into leafeon, for example.)

The funny truth is that the harder researchers work to discover new evolutions of eevee, the less likely we’ll actually find them. It’s far more likely that one of us will simply accidentally dump a metal coat on an eevee and wind up with a steel-type eeveelution.

Incidentally, no, that doesn’t work. I might have tried. The eevee in question was not amused.

(But then again, maybe it’s dump a metal coat onto your eevee and then do something else with it. Hmm. That … that might need a follow-up there.)

My leafeon recently had a litter of eevees and she’s taking excellent care of most of them. Expect the little runt. I’ve had to resort to hand feeding but do you know anyways to get a mother to accept a baby she’s already rejected? I’m not home all the time and have no one else to feed the little one so I’m worried he won’t get enough nutrition if I can’t get my leafeon to let him nurse. If you could help I’d be very grateful.

One important thing to know is why a mother pokémon would reject her offspring. In the cases of canine pokémon such as the eeveelutions, it’s often because the rejected puppy is seen as the least capable of surviving. It may be sick or too weak to live, so the mother sets it aside to focus on nurturing puppies that have higher chances at survival.

So your first step with this eevee pup is to see if he was rejected just because he’s small. The only way you can do this is by taking him to the nearest pokémon center, explaining the situation to your local Nurse Joy, and getting a thorough examination. If all is well aside from his size, the unfortunate second step involves quite a bit of work. First of all, you may need to continue feeding him through a bottle until he grows stronger and larger, as your leafeon will likely continue to reject him until she sees that he stands a chance.

The other half of the equation is that, after a few days to a week of vigilant care, you’ll need to reintroduce the pup to his mother … by assisting with feeding. It works very much the same way as it would with introducing new pokémon to one another: set up a calm environment, be present for the reintroduction, and place the puppy close to his mother for as long as she can tolerate him. Have her turn on her side and coax the puppy into nursing from her. (Point of clarification: Yes, mammalian pokémon produce milk. They’re not exactly monotremes, as that’s a word reserved for animals, but the concept is the same.) Keep the mother calm through gentle words and petting, but if she looks like she may attack, gently remove the puppy and switch him over to formula as quickly as possible. Continue doing this until the puppy grows and the mother begins to recognize him as her own.

This might be difficult to do, I know, considering what you’ve said about your schedule, but reintroducing a pup takes quite a bit of time and effort. In the end, it’s worth it, but you will need to figure out how best to care for the eevee pup in the meantime. If you have another pokémon, they might be able to assist, or you could discuss things with your local Nurse Joy to see if the puppy can be taken care of at the pokémon center in the interim. Just be sure that you do as many of his feedings as possible and that you set aside time to reintroduce him to his mother every day to minimize trauma and help him grow.

Best of luck!