The daycare in Solaceon town was taking care of my Swablu for a while, but when I came back for her I discovered that she had forgotten Sing in exchange for natural cure. This made me pretty annoyed, but what even is the daycare protocol for a Pokémon learning a new move? Can the daycare let her forget moves without notifying me?

Unfortunately yes. You see, the daycare owners aren’t actually training your pokémon; rather, they’re letting them roam about a field alongside other pokémon. They are, of course, feeding and caring for your pokémon and ensuring that they don’t run away or injure each other, but the point is, no formal training is involved. So consequently, except for Alola’s daycare (which is actually just a breeding facility), pokémon are allowed to spar and interact with one another, which could result in not only added experience but also the learning (and unlearning) of moves. Typically, daycare owners don’t keep track of this unless the new move is particularly destructive and has posed a danger either to the user or the other charges.

In short, the daycare owners aren’t to blame here, I’m afraid. It’s just that your swablu has been particularly precocious.

When I first moved to Alola, I befriended a Mareanie with gigantism. Now, eight years later, he’s leaving with me as my starter. He’s a Toxapex now, and given his size I wondering, are there any health concerns if I use his bunker as a tent while we’re on the road? Also, are there rules against letting him hunt for Corsola whole we’re out? I know it’s a controversial topic, but… I mean, he’s my best friend and it’s his favorite food.

Allow me to answer your second question first. In regions where there are no corsola protection laws (such as in Alola, where the mareanie line is a native species, and Johto, which features a dense population of corsola), it’s fine to let your toxapex hunt, although Johto restricts how many pounds of corsola a day you can fish for this purpose to avoid decimating the native corsola population. On the other hand, despite corsola being abundant there, the entire nation of Australia strictly prohibits corsola hunting. In short there, it depends on the region you’re visiting. Remember to check local regulations at the start of your journey to determine specific policies. You can even simply ask a league representative when you register for that region’s league.

As for your first question, so long as he doesn’t mind and you’re careful, it should be fine. Just be sure to avoid his fragile body and his venomous spikes when you wake up in the morning.

Best of luck, and congratulations on your new journey!

Hey Bill, I have a raichu I raised since she is an egg and I recently took her to nurse joy to find out my raichu is actually intersex. That explains why raichu acts as male and female. I still love my raichu and care about her the same as before I found out. Nurse joy also said that she is likely not able to reproduce. I consider my raichu close to female because her tail seems it has a flat tip. How rare is this in Pokémon?

To be perfectly honest, genetics is a very complicated topic, and as with all things in nature, it can be … rather messy. That is to say, if you have something that’s traditionally thought as being binary—such as biological sex—oftentimes, the actual definitions of those concepts are a bit on the hazy side when put in practice. That is to say, a lot of things determine the way a pokémon’s sexual characteristics develop (depending on the species), and sometimes, some of those factors don’t fall into the clean-cut categories one would think they would. For example, in pokémon that follow the XY sex-determination system (which is to say, most mammalian pokémon, raichu included), we’re commonly taught that males have XY chromosomes, whereas females have XX. However, there are a whole host of other combinations an individual may have, including XO (i.e., only one sex chromosome), XXY, XYY, XXX (right on up to XXXXX), and so forth. Granted, a number of these combinations actually produce genetic disorders that affect an individual’s day-to-day life (if the disorder doesn’t simply kill them early on), but there are combinations that can be virtually undetectable, save for levels of estrogen or testosterone and minor physical differences. An individual could even have a “standard” pair of chromosomes but develop sex characteristics associated with the other “standard” pair. In short, genetics are far from neat.

(As a note, the above merely describes mammalian sex determination. Reptiles, insects, birds, and all the other pokémon in existence have entirely different biological mechanisms for sex determination, varying from environmental factors, whether or not the egg is fertilized in the first place, right on up to whether or not the newly fertilized egg undergoes mitosis properly—the latter of which is very similar to the process of XY determination.)

How often does that happen, though? It’s difficult to say, and it varies by species, but it’s generally thought to be not particularly common or rare across the board. I know that sounds odd, but I mean that there really isn’t hard data concerning how often an intersex pokémon occurs. In mammals, though, it’s estimated that eggs have a 1 in about 1700 chance of being intersex like your raichu, but it’s somewhat more common than that in insects and crustacean pokémon. Genetically intersex bird pokémon, on the other hand, are either nonexistent or extremely rare. (The known cases of intersex bird pokémon on record actually aren’t genetic. These pokémon have suffered damages to their reproductive system sometime in their lives and consequently started to produce sex characteristics of another gender.)

In short, it’s not often that you see a pokémon like your raichu, but rest assured that she isn’t alone!

Are there any commercial uses for various pokemon’s poisons?

Well, ironically, the biggest use for pokémon poison (or venom) is … in medicine.

Hold on. I don’t mean that kind of medicine. I mean pokémon venom can be used to synthesize medications meant to treat a wide variety of diseases. For example, ekans venom has a variety of medicinal uses, including as a cancer treatment (as it can be used to attack cancer cells), a treatment for parasitic conditions (as, again, it can attack parasites found in the blood, most notably the ones that cause malaria), a treatment for high blood pressure, an anticoagulant, and even as a painkiller. Likewise, there are a few experimental medications for neurological disorders (particularly epilepsy) that have been synthesized from ekans venom, purely because, well, ekans venom is a powerful neurotoxin. (Currently, most medications for neurological disorders are synthesized from either gastly gas or Poison Powder, if they’re not wholly chemical in nature, but there’s research out there that suggests ekans venom would be more potent. Arbok venom even more so, but … baby steps, as they say.)

And of course, outside of ekans venom or the above-mentioned medications, venom is often used to create antivenom. Most hospitals will carry stock antivenom for each possible species of poison pokémon; this is because each specific antivenom is custom-created from antibodies harvested from certain lab pokémon and rabbits. (It sounds barbaric, but it’s actually done in a perfectly ethical manner … and also, it’s pretty much the only way this can be done without being inhumane to people.) For those curious, trainer-grade antidote (that is, the stuff sold in pokémarts) is actually synthesized from standard muk venom, as this is the most potent available.

Outside of the medical industry, some poisons—particularly those derived from acid-based attacks (such as, well, Acid)—is sometimes incorporated into potent cleaning supplies, as such substances are capable of eating through rust, calcified build-up, and other forms of age and decay that are extremely difficult to remove with soap and a bit of effort. In its purest form, this acid may also be used in manufacturing as a means of cleaning and sterilizing not only equipment but also products in production as well.

In short, pokémon venom is primarily used for medicinal purposes and secondarily as industrial cleaning solutions. That’s just about it, really.

Legally speaking, anyway.

Hi Bill! I was wondering if there are any benefits to the pokemon by catchaing them different pokeballs for different pokemon. As in using a duskball for pokemon who come out at night, or heavyballs for heavier pokemon, in contrast to a normal pokeball. Are they more comfortable in pokeballs more suited to them?

In some cases, yes, and this is how those poké balls are as effective as they are. For example, net balls are constructed to be more pleasurable to water- and bug-types. Basically, it operates on the same principle as wallpapers for the PC: inside a net ball, pokémon experience an artificial, digitally created wetland environment, which is simply more pleasurable and desirable of a habitat to very specific pokémon. The same can be said for dusk balls (which simulate darker environments), dive balls (which simulate underwater environments), and luxury balls (which simulate high-end, luxury hotel accommodations … which is perhaps why it doesn’t really increase the chances of you catching a pokémon, to be fair).

In other cases, the ball itself is constructed to better contain pokémon. This is true for apricorn poké balls, such as heavy balls (made with an apricorn capable of generating a capture field strong enough to keep massive pokémon in stasis), moon balls (which possess a faint energy signature extremely similar to moon stones, which is why they’re highly desirable to pokémon that evolve by it), and fast balls (which activate faster in order to counter quicker attempts at breaking out).

Otherwise, for the most part, poké balls just have capture nets of varying strengths. That is, an ultra ball is more potent than a poké ball because it literally is more powerful from a mechanical perspective.

Hello! I work at a small store in a mall, and my beloved Nidorino is with me almost every day! There is a popular chain store across from us that sells earrings and does piercings, and my Nidorino is absolutely ENAMORED with the idea of an ear piercing. I would happily get him one, I love it when his spunky personality shows, but I’m worried. Is piercing a Pokémon’s ear considered abuse? Being a poison type, is there a higher risk of infection? The employees are happy to do it, but I wonder!

So long as your pokémon gives you consent in this sort of situation (and most pokémon can), it’s actually not considered abuse, although admittedly, there is a bit of discussion in certain pokémon professional circles over whether or not a pokémon would fully understand what body modification entails. (Strangely, yes, this is a common enough question for there to be a debate. It’s just that I normally hear this question asked regarding fighting-type pokémon and tattoos or, bizarrely enough, pikachu and spiked fur.) Personally, I believe that so long as the pokémon and piercer or artist are fully consenting to working with one another and so long as the methods used are, well, legitimate, it’s perfectly fine to help your pokémon modify its body in whatever way it wishes. The professional body modification community evidently feels the same way, as there are plenty of people willing to modify pokémon if you know where to look. They aren’t nearly as common human-only tattoo parlors or so forth because of the above-mentioned debate, but they’re there.

As for the risk of infection, actually, no. Poison-types are generally immune to their own poisons, and if anything, their poisons can actually be a disinfectant, as, well, it can be toxic to bacteria too. Alternatively, some poison-types are symbiotic with powerful strains of bacteria (such as in the case of trubbish, one of the few such pokémon capable of being modified) and thus wouldn’t actually feel much in the way of an effect there. If anything, piercing a nidorino or any other poison-type may pose more of a danger to the piercer, as there’s a chance that the piercer could be exposed to either toxins or bacteria or both as part of the pokémon’s natural defense mechanisms. This goes doubly if your nidorino’s ability is Poison Point. However, if you take your nidorino to an experienced piercer who’s worked with pokémon before, they should know how to avoid a nidorino’s quills.

Please explain to me why the Pokemon Symposium decided to name it the ‘Grass’ type and not the ‘Plant’ type.

Somebody explain to me why they did this, and perhaps we can start from there.

…

Seriously, this is like calling every mammal pokémon a mouse, which I know was an actual issue with the pokédex classification system, but nonetheless…

Furthermore, while we’re on the subject, why is it called the flying type and not the wind type? Flying isn’t even an element, never mind the fact that some of these pokémon can’t actually achieve the amount of power or lift to fly on their own or for long distances to begin with! The mantyke line and hoppip line in particular, but then you have the doduo line, which, despite the fact that they can be taught to use Fly, can’t actually fly on their own. Granted, fine, the actual moves associated with this element have more to do with the act of flying than the generation of wind, but by that logic, perhaps we should rename the normal type to hitting.

Then, if we’re really going to be discussing this subject, what about the steel-type? Just because it’s metal doesn’t automatically make it steel, for Ho-oh’s sake! Half of these pokémon are made of pure iron ore or iron alloys that have only trace amounts of carbon, if any at all. Magnemite, for example? That’s pure magnetite, not steel! Honestly, this is simple chemistry and/or earth sciences!

And while we’re at it, the dark type, which [THIS MESSAGE IS TRUNCATED.]

Believe it or not, he goes on for a good twenty pages. You’re welcome. —LH

Any advice for someone converting religions from Johtonian to Unovian

Don’t. 🙂

On a serious note (as I can see that my editor is logging into my account to queue up a few episodes of Binaclebob Trapezoidpants as we speak), unlike Johto, Unova doesn’t actually have a regional religion attached to its legendaries. This is largely due to culture: Johtonians view their legends to be highly powerful kami (god-like spirits), whereas Unovans merely see their legendaries as highly powerful pokémon attached to very human bits of folklore. To most Unovans, worshipping the dragons or the Swords of Justice would be like worshipping pikachu.

There is, of course, an exception in the form of the Kami Trio (that is, Landorus, Thundurus, and Tornadus), which are worshipped by certain groups of native Unovans, and thus, it may be harder to convert to such a religion. Some groups absolutely would not allow you to do so. Others may allow it if you married a member of their culture.

Otherwise, Unova is a melting pot of cultures, so despite what their government may have you believe, there really isn’t any one religion. Some Unovans worship pokémon, others humanoid gods, and some a mix of both. I admit, then, that this would be a rather broad subject to cover, and I might not know enough about each religion to adequately answer. Your best bet would be to find a church or a very patient follower who’s willing to share their way of life with you and work from there.

Of course, you could also be referring to Neopaganism, in which one may adopt figures of power as parts of their pantheons, regardless of whether or not those figures were ever worshipped as gods to begin with, but if that’s the case, I quite literally know nothing about that other than the fact that one can do that, which I admit is just a bit cooler than worshipping a rainbow fire bird. (I say this with the utmost affection, being a worshipper of said fire bird.)

At which point … carry on.

How do Eevees evolve with friendship or affection in the wild? And why can’t you normally catch wild Eeveelutions except for Espeon and Umbreon in Alola?

Friendship (or more accurately and commonly known, happiness) evolutions are perhaps the easiest type of evolution for pokémon to achieve in the wild, as these rely less on a pokémon’s environment, age, or experience but instead on their state of mind. All a pokémon needs to do is achieve a state of complete happiness with themselves and their lives—which, yes, is easier to do when in the constant care of a human but is still possible in the wild. This should also explain why espeon and umbreon are so easy to find comparatively. It’s not that the others don’t exist but instead because an eevee will be more likely to evolve into either of those in their native habitats than the others. That and the other evolutions require additional environmental factors that aren’t really present within the Alolan nesting grounds on Akala, so if an eevee wishes to achieve an alternate evolution, they would need to journey far from their home fields. Not all of them go home, either: many wander alone or congregate in territories far too remote for humans to reach.

As for sylveon, though, that’s also possible, but it’s less common than an espeon or umbreon evolution. Instead, an eevee needs to be affectionate … with a mate. This also explains their rarity in the wild. They’re not actually rare; they’re simply in breeding pairs and thus avoid contact with humans as vehemently as possible.

Why do so many Alolan forms of Pokemon gain a secondary Dark typing? I would think a bright and sunny place like Alola would do the opposite of giving Pokemon an affinity for the dark.

Not necessarily, anonymous. In some cases, primarily when it comes to the rattata and grimer lines, these pokémon had to hide beneath buildings until nightfall to avoid extermination by humans or hunting by other pokémon. Thus, they adapted to the darkness of Alolan nights, rather than the brightness of Alolan days.

The meowth line, meanwhile … no one’s quite sure how selective breeding managed to give it an affinity for the dark type, to be honest. But given how adept standard meowth are at conning their owners into giving them more treats or affection, it’s perhaps not surprising…