Tag: porygon

Good day, sir. Do you have any advice on raising a Porygon, as well as its evolutions? It’s my favorite Pokemon, and I’d like to have one as my own.

Excellent choice!

Believe it or not, porygon (and its evolutions) are actually some of the easiest pokémon to care for. A porygon (or its evolutions) doesn’t actually need much in the way of food, and water should be kept to an extreme minimal anyway (as it doesn’t interact well with its electronic-digital nature). It can eat if they choose to, so it wouldn’t hurt to offer the option. Should you choose to do this, porygon and its evolutions will literally eat anything you tell them is food, and they will do so happily. The same sort of kibble you give the rest of your team or small, extra portions of whatever your other teammates will eat should do. Alternatively, you can offer an extra portion of your meals whenever your porygon seems interested. Remember, the main point is feeding porygon only if it seems interested, not because it needs to, as it really gains no nutritional value from what it eats. On the other hand, your porygon will likely engage in mirroring, or the act of mimicking the humans or pokémon around them in order to understand and bond with them.

In truth, what a porygon needs more than anything is a computer. That’s where most of your maintenance will occur. Porygon aren’t tied to any specific computer, so you won’t have to worry about, say, needing to transfer your porygon whenever you buy a new computer. However, it’s always a good idea to start out with something sturdy, quick, and equipped with a considerable amount of RAM and powerful antivirus and anti-malware software. A connection to the internet is also highly recommended to allow your porygon to move from one device to the next without having to exit into the real world. (I would also recommend coupling other devices, such as your pokégear, pokénav, phone, or so forth, with your computer from time to time to allow your porygon to jump from something you own to another piece of personal tech.)

As a note, whether you want a laptop or a desktop is entirely up to you. Desktop computers tend to be sturdier and have more power, but laptops are portable, allowing your porygon to have a refuge no matter where you go. Thus, if you tend to stay at home, consider a desktop, but if you frequently travel, a laptop should do.

That said, once you get this computer, power it on for at least a few hours every day. Encourage your porygon to enter your computer at least once a day to recharge, which is its equivalent to eating. During this time, run your antivirus and/or anti-malware software to “groom” your porygon. If you have a poké ball transporter and a home connection to the storage system, I would also recommend uploading your porygon’s poké ball and running the system’s backup software. This will also pull a backup from your porygon, even if it’s not within the storage system itself.

Also, don’t worry about your porygon wandering around the internet. Porygon and porygon2 are extremely obedient, and it’s unlikely that they’ll wander too far without you. This is also tied into their care regarding play and training. Porygon need very minimal training, not only because they don’t often display behavior that needs to be trained but also because their bodies don’t require much exercise. The only thing you’ll need to be concerned about is really target practice; it’s essential that you hone your porygon’s aim and accuracy especially, as these need to be calibrated over time and are key to their beam attacks. As for play, porygon and porygon2 are fantastically intelligent but also extremely agreeable, and they can get the psychological relief they need from playing any sort of game with you, from fetch to chess. You can even open up a creativity program such as Photoshop and let your porygon play through artistically expressing itself. (You won’t believe how much art on the internet was actually created by porygon. It’s quite fascinating, really.)

Of course, this leads to the metaphorical donphan in the room: porygon-z. Porygon-z, being a pokémon with rather unconventional origins, has a risk of tripping your antivirus software or negatively affecting any computer it touches. For this reason, it’s important for you to be extremely careful when it comes to handling its maintenance and its training. Don’t run your antivirus software on your porygon-z, but if you absolutely must, make sure your porygon-z is whitelisted. You should still run the backup, however; rest assured the system administrators have taken porygon-z’s unusual nature when designing the backup system.

So really, your biggest concern is training, as porygon-z gains more of a personality and thus may pick up several bad habits. Luckily, it’s not as bad as many experts will lead you to believe. In truth, the only reason why porygon-z seems like an insurmountable challenge is because trainers are used to training porygon and porygon2, both of which are among the easiest pokémon to train (in terms of behavior, anyway). With that in mind, porygon-z is really just about as easy to train as any other pokémon; it’s just that you may need to deal with its newfound curiosity. Keep an eye on it and have patience with everything it does. Teach it the difference between exploring its world safely and doing so impulsively or dangerously, and don’t be afraid to use positive reinforcement to help it understand right from wrong.

Best of luck!

Hey Bill! I do have a Porygon-z, and have taken all precautions to make sure it doesn’t wreck all the electronics in my house, such as confining it to an old smartphone. Is there anything else I should be aware of, other than its erratic behavior? Thanks!

Not really, no. As noted in the previous entry concerning care for the porygon line (http://bills-pokedex.tumblr.com/post/174025518056/hi-bill-i-wanted-to-ask-for-some-advice-about), raising a porygon or its evolutions is actually pretty easy so long as you have a working computer and are willing to run maintenance programs.

The only catch is, of course, its behavior, which can make it tricky handle. You may find that confining it to one device doesn’t always work, and getting it to stay still for routine maintenance may be even harder.

However, there are ways to get it to do what you need it to do. Positive reinforcement, for one. (That is, offer something that might appeal to it, such as a treat, a toy, extra minutes added to its training sessions, or some time occupying a video game.) Additionally, some porygon-z actually respond rather well to having a companion which can then herd them or otherwise talk them into behaving. (Pikachu tend to be popular for this, strangely enough, but porygon-z also respond well to most other electric-types short of the magnemite line.) If neither of these options are available to you, you’ll simply have to remember to be patient at all times. Eventually, your porygon-z will listen to you; it simply needs to wear itself out in most cases first.

Best of luck!

Hi Bill! I wanted to ask for some advice about taking care of a Porygon. I’ve been thinking of getting one for some time now but first I want to make sure I can look after it properly. Thank you!

Actually, porygon are some of the easiest pokémon to care for because they don’t need much at all. At the very basic, they need a reliable and well-maintained computer or two, not to serve as housing but instead as a gateway to and from a digital world. They essentially live in the cloud, so as long as you have something that connects to a digital network (even your pokédex will do—just not a rotomdex, as porygon’s passage to and from the digital side of things may be awkward for both parties), your porygon will be perfectly happy. In other words, get a computer, an internet connection, and some decent antivirus software and avoid shady websites, and you should be fine.

Everything else is optional, more or less. Porygon don’t need to eat or sleep, but they can do either. (They have no consistent food preferences, so feel free to experiment until you find something your porygon likes.) They prefer games that involve their trainers (such as chess), and while they don’t need exercise in the same way other pokémon with natural, physical bodies do, it’s a good idea to engage in target practice once a day to hone their beam skills.

Maintenance is likewise very easy. Simply have your porygon enter a computer and run a porygon maintenance app. I personally recommend the one created by Meowthware Bytes, as it’s thorough and highly reliable. Just be sure to download it from the company’s actual website, as there are fake versions out there. This bit of software will not only run a basic health checkup and remove corruptions, but it will also run your porygon’s internal backup system for a complete maintenance session. This should be done at least once a week.

Also, whatever you do, don’t modify your porygon’s code, no matter how well-versed in computers you think you are. In the porygon stage, you could actually kill it this way. (The porygon2 stage may risk evolution, which is only a negative thing if you’re not prepared for porygon-z’s capricious nature … and tendency to corrupt tech it comes in contact with.)

Pokémon like Porygon and Metagross – due to their technological nature (and mind), do they thing differently than other ‘Mon?

Yes, actually, but not in the same way. For the most part, the porygon line thinks very much like people, but they’re by and large highly obedient and a bit inclined to … think highly of their trainers, to put it politely. This is because they were created by humans, so they were, well, programmed to be like that. Porygon-Z is the exception: while it still retains human-like intelligence, it’s far more unpredictable. Researchers aren’t quite sure why, but I personally believe it might have been an experiment in AI sentience gone a bit awry.

Metagross, meanwhile, is indeed essentially a living supercomputer, but its origins aren’t human in nature. Consequently, it’s a bit more alien in mindset, which of course goes into the challenge of training one. It’s impressive how non-universal something like morality can be, especially when comparing the moral compass of the general human population to that of, say, a rampaging mega metagross.

I’m curious, has anyone attempted to organize any sort of “wild” or otherwise non-captive Porygon populations? Have many escaped from captivity?

No and none. While porygon and porygon2 can exist outside their computer mainframes (contrary to popular belief), they’re actually extremely docile and compliant to human commands. They never stray far from the humans who have created or bred them—unless they’re given to another human, of course.

Porygon-Z, on the other hand, is a bit more wild. Luckily, there have been few documented cases of porygon-z, period, and all of those cases seem to be quite content to stick with their human partners (much to their dismay).

How much trouble would I get into if I just so happened to have illegally downloaded a Porygon? Hypothetically of course. *nervous laughter*

teamporygon:

bills-pokedex:

That depends. If you have somehow bypassed the anti-piracy measures on a porygon to download one illegally, you could face hefty fines or jail time (depending on your country and its interpretation of pokémon theft), never mind a lawsuit from Silph Co. itself if you attempted to distribute an illegally downloaded porygon. In short, with the government and Silph Co. itself, I would say a lot of trouble.

However, should it be of any comfort to you, when it comes to the storage system and its involvement with all of this, you would likely receive a high five and a job offer, given my partner’s recruitment history. —LH

So would this piracy have any effect on the Porygon itself?

This depends on the porygon. As with all pokémon involved with thefts, some porygon may experience stress, panic, and all the other psychological damage associated with being forcibly removed from its trainer or home. Other porygon see no difference between one home and another and may not mind as much. And still others actually prefer to be removed from its former trainer for one reason or another.

If this is more of a matter of whether or not illegally downloading a porygon would affect its code, fortunately no unless we’re talking about porygon-z. But to be fair, porygon-z is unstable as it is and has been known to suffer ill effects from entering sleep mode.

How much trouble would I get into if I just so happened to have illegally downloaded a Porygon? Hypothetically of course. *nervous laughter*

That depends. If you have somehow bypassed the anti-piracy measures on a porygon to download one illegally, you could face hefty fines or jail time (depending on your country and its interpretation of pokémon theft), never mind a lawsuit from Silph Co. itself if you attempted to distribute an illegally downloaded porygon. In short, with the government and Silph Co. itself, I would say a lot of trouble.

However, should it be of any comfort to you, when it comes to the storage system and its involvement with all of this, you would likely receive a high five and a job offer, given my partner’s recruitment history. —LH

The Porygon Line

Porygon
The Virtual Pokémon
Type: Normal
Official Registration #: 137
Entry: A bird-like virtual pokémon that exists within a digital environment. It has the capability of entering and exiting said environment using very similar procedures as the digitization of poké balls in that it converts the code that comprises its body into a solid cross between plastic, a carbon-based polymer, and hard light (similar to that used in Reflect and Light Screen). As an extended note, this pokémon has been copyprotected by Silph Co., so no, you wouldn’t steal a pokémon, Motion Picture Association of Unova.

Porygon2
The Virtual Pokémon
Type: Normal
Official Registration #: 233
Entry: The evolved form of porygon, via trading if the subject has had an up-grade applied to it. In order to assist with actual rocket science involved with the Unovan space program, scientists have taken a porygon and reformatted it into a porygon2, thus refining it to work smarter and more efficiently than its previous form. Thus, it is said that porygon2 is a pokémon that was created with the power of science … which, as this writer is currently being told by his editor, is the first and only time he may use “with the power of science” in this blog, especially as a justification for the creation of life.

Porygon-Z
The Virtual Pokémon
Type: Normal
Official Registration #: 474
Entry: The evolved form of porygon2, via trading if the subject has had a dubious disc applied to it. In an attempt to create an even faster and more efficient form of the porygon line, scientists applied brand-new software onto a porygon2, resulting in a bug-filled, highly erratic and unpredictable virtual pokémon that would frequently refuse to operate as intended. And this, readers, is why you give your poor developers enough time to test the software you pay them to create.

It’s okay, Bill. The Pokémon Association can’t hurt you anymore. —LH

The porygon I got from the game corner has been trying to possess my Pokedex. I’ve heard of rotom occasionally trying to do this, but what would happen if porygon managed to? Is there risk to porygon or the data in the ‘dex?

It certainly depends on whether or not you plan on evolving it. A porygon by itself is actually a rather obedient pokémon and will follow your instructions to the letter. It’s simply attempting to integrate with what it perceives to be a more comfortable environment, and once it’s there, any risk to the health of either the porygon or your pokédex is rather minimal, as your porygon will work alongside your pokédex’s software and thrive in its native format. In short, you very likely won’t even notice it, save for possibly a slight increase in your pokédex’s efficiency.

Should you upgrade your pokédex with a porygon inside it, however, this will still satisfy its requirements for evolution, even though you haven’t given it its upgrade software or sent it through a trading machine. Some trainers even find this a more approachable alternative to purchasing a separate upgrade and finding a trainer with whom to trade. Additionally, once evolved, porygon2 gains a more refined AI, which is designed specifically to go out of its way to help its trainer in any way possible. Thus, a pokédex containing a porygon2 will perform better and faster than a pokédex with a porygon or an uninhabited pokédex, all because the porygon2 within it is better at understanding and executing commands than its predecessor or the pokédex alone.

However, once upgraded, be sure to withdraw your porygon2 from your pokédex before attempting any further upgrades, and beware of any downloads you receive on your device. Any upgrades will result in your porygon2 evolving into porygon-z, which…

Let’s just say that porygon-z goes to considerable lengths to do anything but behave in a way that makes remote sense. In the best case scenario, it may manifest a Zap Cannon from within the confines of your device’s hardware, resulting in the destruction of your device (and possibly your bag and its contents). In what’s not quite the worst case scenario but the scenario that’s significantly less appealing, your pokédex will automatically take you to the strange parts of YouTube every time you try to look up an entry. Maybe. There are … there are cases worse than that, actually.