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Birdie's Pokemon Review Thread |Alolan Edition| - 809 And Counting
- Thread starter Birdie
- Start date
Ah Totem Lurantis:
I got a lot to write on this one, but I'll save it for my 4th gyms through the generations thread, which should hopefully be starting soon after the Sword and Shield Direct. In brief though, it's great to see a battle with so many synergies between the teammates to pose an intimidating match, but there is that Firium-Z in the room that can make the match end all too quickly.
I ran Lurantis in Moon and it was quite fun to use, wish it was a tad faster though, Slow-lola is a thing, and Lurantis is one among the most hurt by it. It was nice Ultra Moon actually gave some moves for Contrary Lurantis to use, I'm still waiting on Roserade to get some good moves to work with Technician (Hey look, Roserade get's Technician in Gen 5, whoops, we buffed Giga Drain up to 75 BP so you can't use that anymore. Hey we added Venoshock into Gen 6, whoops, it's Base 65 by default, guess Technician won't work here either. And we gave it nout all in Gen 7!)
I got a lot to write on this one, but I'll save it for my 4th gyms through the generations thread, which should hopefully be starting soon after the Sword and Shield Direct. In brief though, it's great to see a battle with so many synergies between the teammates to pose an intimidating match, but there is that Firium-Z in the room that can make the match end all too quickly.
I ran Lurantis in Moon and it was quite fun to use, wish it was a tad faster though, Slow-lola is a thing, and Lurantis is one among the most hurt by it. It was nice Ultra Moon actually gave some moves for Contrary Lurantis to use, I'm still waiting on Roserade to get some good moves to work with Technician (Hey look, Roserade get's Technician in Gen 5, whoops, we buffed Giga Drain up to 75 BP so you can't use that anymore. Hey we added Venoshock into Gen 6, whoops, it's Base 65 by default, guess Technician won't work here either. And we gave it nout all in Gen 7!)
I was wondering if you would mention it. Admittedly, I don't recall noticing Gorebyss but I had a hard time concentrating on the movie because of the Lurantis. It's just there. The movie is all about Gens 1 and 2 plus Zeraora... and then there is a Lurantis. There, ocassionally in the background, doing f*ck all. I had so many questions.
Not that I mind though, I love this little fella.
With Dewpider and Araquanid, I find myself liking Dewpider a lot more. Its design is more interesting, with it walking on three legs and using the others to hold the bubble. But I'm glad we got a diving bell spider nonetheless, and I like how they reversed it from real life, with it needing the bubble to survive on land instead.
Lurantis is a cool concept and design. Shame it's another slow Pokemon, I expected it to be faster - like its mantis friend Scyther. Anything with Contrary (that can actually use it) is great too, such a fun ability.
Lurantis is a cool concept and design. Shame it's another slow Pokemon, I expected it to be faster - like its mantis friend Scyther. Anything with Contrary (that can actually use it) is great too, such a fun ability.
Lurantis is cool but Tsareena is better in every single way as a Grass type, both in game and competitive. Although the weird part of the fandom ruined Tsareena with all the thicc bullshit
Fomantis is such a drag that I almost didn't use Larantis in Ultra Sun, I got there in the end but it was not a fun journey.
And honestly the end result wasn't much better in game.
And honestly the end result wasn't much better in game.
OP
OP
# 755 - Morelull
Grass/Fairy
Exclusive to the night, opposite its counterpart Paras who is found during the day, Morelull can be obtained in Brooklet Hill and Lush Jungle, though in Sun and Moon it also could be found later on on Route 11. As this was around the point it would have evolved normally, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon placed its evolution there instead. While it isn't necessarily a bad Pokemon, as its Type gives it a lot of resistances and an immunity, and despite its size is fairly sturdy, it might not be the funnest Pokemon to use in-game because it's slow---really slow---and all you'll basically have as an attack is Mega Drain.
However, though Morelull can't do much directly in terms of offense, it can provide a useful support role to your squad with Flash and Sleep Powder, and it can keep itself healthy with both Moonlight and Ingrain. Also if you're the type who likes to catch Pokemon as you travel throughout the game, it can serve that role pretty good with the status effects it can cause. Unfortunately it doesn't have a way to directly poison Pokemon on command until near the end of the game where you can get Toxic and Sludge Bomb, which is a shame as poisoning Totem Pokemon is a good strategy.
Ability wise, go with Effect Spore. This allows Morelull the chance to inflict status effects, poison included, perhaps as revenge if it's taken out, and the other in-game option is Illuminate. Which just makes the game more tedious. Its Hidden Ability is Rain Dish. While this makes it recover HP in the rain, it also nerfs the effectiveness of Moonlight which, despite the name, is powered up when the weather is clear or it's sunny. Yeah, I totally forgot that doesn't take time in account since Generation II. So, it's up to you whether you want Morelull to flourish on a sun team or a rain team, though in-game I'd skip that and go with Effect Spore.
Game Freak love mushroom Pokemon. Paras (well, half-and-half), Shroomish, Foongus, and now Morelull---it seems every odd Generation will grant us a new mushroom Pokemon? Poor Morelull has trouble sticking out, though. Paras has always been a popular Pokemon due to lore, and Breloom and Amoonguss enjoy competitive viability. Morelull and its evolution have yet to capture a niche for themselves, and it's a bit unfortunate because I think they're underrated. However, Morelull surprisingly is featured in Detective Pikachu, the only Generation VII Pokemon bar Comfey, and is even seen on some of the posters. This seems to have been done for cost, though. It's a small, fairly simple Pokemon that was probably easy to create in CG, and I'm guessing Detective Pikachu's development started before Generation VII was totally complete. It's probably why we don't see a more complex Generation VII Pokemon in the film, because I'm sure if the movie came out a bit later we would've seen Incineroar used in the underground fight club.
There's actually quite a bit to work with when it comes to mushroom Pokemon---though when are we going to see a non-Grass mushroom?---as Morelull is based on bioluminscent mushrooms, such as those of the Mycena genus, with glowing spores. It also seems to be basically a living garden lamp, lighting the paths of the woods they inhabit. The spores have a hypnotic effect as they can cause a person to fall asleep, and in the show at the very least Morelull can then absorb their energy. Mainly though it feeds on tree roots, and because it's a Fairy Pokemon, who are shown to typically respect nature, it'll find another tree before it totally kills the one it was feeding on.
There's actually a part of Morelull's lore...more lore...that's, uh, kind of disturbing? It's actually not found on the English version of the Sun and Moon site, but limited to the Japanese site, and according to Bulbagarden's translation a group of Morelull once spread their spores all at once. The light of this was so strong that it apparently blinded or put to sleep the pilot of a plane flying overhead, nearly leading to a disaster. Needless to say, folks in the U.S. are a bit anxious when it comes to things involving planes crashing, so this piece of lore is limited to the Japanese site, and probably won't get brought up anywhere else. It's very bizarre that a mushroom Pokemon's official lore involves a plane crash, right?
As for why Morelull's a Fairy-type Pokemon, it's pretty simple---the light given off by certain mushrooms is known as "fairy fire", and there's also a phenomenon known as "fairy rings", in which a ring of mushrooms grow around in a circle naturally. There's a ton of lore associated with fairy rings around Britain and such, with them being the result of the reverie of fairies, and there's all sorts of curses and dangers involved in stepping within the circle or viewing it on a moonlight night. I'm almost certain Morelull will appear more prominently in Galar because of this, especially due to the fact a town on the map is shown to have giant, glowing mushrooms. Maybe they'll use its appearance in Detective Pikachu to help springboard its popularity and make it more prominent in Galar?
Morelull's actually pretty scary in the show. Ultimately they're shown to be "nice" in that they're taking care of a tree, but to do so one spends the entire episode absorbing everyone's energy after putting them to sleep, leaving them basically skin and bones. You know that .gif of Snorlax being sucked by Buzzswole? Yeah, that happens to the human characters. Ash eventually helps Morelull by pigging out on food, letting Morelull suck his energy repeatedly while still leaving the poor boy with enough nutrients to not actually die.
# 756 - Shiinotic
Grass/Fairy
Another Pokemon that evolves surprisingly fast like Dewpider, Morelull evolves into Shiinotic at merely Level 24. Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon also allows you to now catch one in the wild on Route 11, but only at night. While still slow, its bulk is respectable enough and its Special Attack is certainly workable, but none of its stats surpass 100 so one could call it "average", nor does it have any crazy Abilities to make up for that like Water Bubble. Once again not a Pokemon I'd urge you to go out and get as soon as possible, but not the worst option certainly if you're looking for a Fairy-type candidate.
Shiinotic learns some pretty cool moves now, starting with the ability to confuse foes with Confuse Foe alongside the other status effects it can cause, gets a stronger STAB with Giga Drain and eventually Moonblast for a Fairy-type attack, and has some decent TM compatibility, such as Charge Beam allowing it to deal with Flying-types and buff its Special Attack to more usable levels. It also is the only Pokemon as far as I know that can perform the Spore + Dream Eater combo, so even more ways for it to heal. It also has a pretty interesting signature move in Strength Sap. What it does is it lowers the opponent's Attack, but also heals Shiinotic based on the opponent's current Attack before the debuff, so any buffs would be counted. It's a pretty unique move, and a few other Pokemon can pick it up via Breeding. Swagger + Strength Sap seems like an interesting combo. The issue is that if you're boosting your opponent's Attack in order to heal yourself, that kind of sabotages the point?
Competitively, Shiinotic doesn't get a lot of love. It has a vulnerability to Physical Pokemon, even with Strength Sap, and while it isn't completely fragile its HP leaves much to be desired, so even if you're healing it up it will hit its peak eventually. It can actually do some decent damage with its Special Attack with Moonblast and Giga Drain, but yeah, it's not that popular in the fandom, and its lack of usage in the competitive scene may contribute to this. It doesn't seem folks really make use of Strength Sap, preferring Giga Drain since it heals Shiinotic and does a fair amount of damage. Plus, it's more reliable on more targets where as Strength Sap won't be useful on a Pokemon who doesn't focus on Attack. It's one Pokemon that I'm kind of tempted to raise, though, because it seems fun with some of its combinations.
I noticed people were mentioning in the other thread about forgotten Pokemon that they forgot about Shiinotic, because "no one in Sun and Moon" uses one. That's actually not true, because it's actually used by Mallow and Mina. I don't blame folks for forgetting this, though, because those fights are either optional or version exclusive, and in some of their later fights they dump Shiinotic, such as Mallow not using it in the Battle Tree and Mina dumping it in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, though this seems to be more the result of Mina's post-game fights being gone. Other than them, I do think like one Trainer each uses Morelull and Shiinotic. They really are kind of obscure, so I hope Galar boosts their popularity.
Shiinotic is an underrated design, in my opinion. Maybe it's me, but do people really not see the alien inspiration here? The first thing I thought of was "that's an alien", as it resembles a grey with its cap being the UFO. It's also pretty obvious looking at its lore, how people become confused and lost due to its lights, how it puts people to sleep, its association with the moon like with other possibly alien Pokemon. It actually works very well for a Fairy-type to be basically an alien, since a lot of lore surrounding aliens is more or less just a modern, more "scientific" interpretation of fairy myths. Also in the show, they straight up had Shiinotic and Ash recreating the infamous E.T. scene. That made me love it. Anyway, I'm not going to tell you which E.T. scene it is, but there's two that everyone knows and you should be able to guess it.
The only issue with its design I have to say is its bottom. It was quickly pointed out---on the old site in fact?---is that it looks like a Jigglypuff from behind. And given its position on Shiinotic's body, a Jigglypuff performing a lewd act. I know I said I'd keep these write-ups child friendly, but I'm sorry I cannot forget about this image and every time I look at this Pokemon I chuckle. Now that I've mentioned it, you won't be able to unsee it. Just look at how happy Shiinotic looks as it stares at you. It wants you to watch.
Shiinotic's only major appearance in the show was alongside its pre-evolution. It's revealed that Morelull have been absorbing the energy of folks in order to provide nutrients to a tree, and eventually evolve in the end as they put on an amazing light show as thanks to Ash and friends for the energy. The Morelull that Ash allowed to drain his energy, now a Shiinotic, reaches out to Ash as their fingers meet and presumably it gives back some of the energy to Ash that it had taken, as it's said Shiinotic can restore energy as well as drain it through their fingertips. It then puts everyone asleep as the Shiinotic disappear into the night. Were they aliens all along?
Morelull and Shiinotic are really good solid designs, easily my favourite of the mushroom pokemon and I'm always happy about more fairy types, I'm glad we got a "creepy" fairy type with this line.
That said the "Jigglypuff as seen mid fellatio" is too hard to ignore once you see it
That said the "Jigglypuff as seen mid fellatio" is too hard to ignore once you see it
OP
OP
Shiinotic makes me think of a Grey alien in a diaper with a mushroom on its head.
OP
OP
Probably wait a few days since everyone is focused on Sword and Shield...me included.
I had an idea for an Era-Pokemon thread though we all could participate in though. We all get together and make our own PokeDex. Seems like it'll be fun but not sure if folks would be up to that.
I had an idea for an Era-Pokemon thread though we all could participate in though. We all get together and make our own PokeDex. Seems like it'll be fun but not sure if folks would be up to that.
i was completely expecting Eldegoss to bea nother suspiciously feminine humanoid for the fourth generation in a row during the direct today, ngl
Look I just got nothing for those shrooms, they are straight up pokemon that are just there
AGGRESSIVELY MEDIOCRE
AGGRESSIVELY MEDIOCRE
Go on...
OP
OP
So my idea was that I was going to be the "project lead", by name at least.
So I was going to draw up the skeleton of a 150 PokeDex, divided into a fairly balanced Type arrangement---each line I'd give a general direction for, but very loosely. "A two-stage Fossil Pokemon that must be part-Rock". "The three-stage early bird line, it must be at least part Flying". "A single-stage Pokemon that can switch between four forms". "A branched evolution, one Pokemon evolving into one of two. All three must share at least one Type".
Then each ERA Member can take a single Pokemon family. They'd have to bare minimum come up with a description of the Pokemon, some basic lore, Type, Species, etc. They could expand upon that with a moveset and such. Drawing it if skilled enough, though perhaps we could get someone to draw them all consistently in the end. I'd have a few rules like "put some effort into it and don't troll ", "the Pokemon can't evolve from or into an existing Pokemon", "each individual Pokemon you create can have one created move and Ability, but otherwise you got to stick with what exists", etc.
I could fuck with that. No art skills to speak of, though I have made one fakemon family in the past.
OP
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I'm gonna start the thread here in an hour or so, just gotta finish making the skeleton.
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Pokemon-ERA PokeDex Creation Thread
Okay, it's up!
I called dibs on the Grass Starter, as I actually made one the other day for this.
Okay, it's up!
I called dibs on the Grass Starter, as I actually made one the other day for this.
Morelull and Shiinotic are great, one of my favourites lines in the entire franchise. As soon as I saw Morelull I told my friend it would evolve into an alien and they didn't believe me. Then I saw Shiinotic leaked and got to prove them right! Loved it from the moment I saw it. Shiinotic is this weird mix of cute and creepy, and alien UFO mushroom is super underated.
It and Parasect could have used some higher BST buffs though. Shame they are so weak. Strength Sap is a super cool move in both theme and use at least.
It and Parasect could have used some higher BST buffs though. Shame they are so weak. Strength Sap is a super cool move in both theme and use at least.
Shiinotic straight up looks like a cross between a mushroom and Nanika from Hunter x Hunter.
That's why it looks unsettling to me.
That's why it looks unsettling to me.
OP
OP
It's time for Game Freak to go horny on main with these next two lines
# 757 - Salandit
Poison/Fire
So, let's address the most important thing to know about Salandit. Remember how back in Generation IV, only female Combee could evolve, and if you caught a male Combee, you were pretty much out of luck? Well Salandit works the same way, as only the females of the species can evolve while the males stay as Salandit forever. Like Combee Wild Salandit are overwhelmingly male, 87.5% of the time, though obtaining Salandit is far easier since it can be found in the grass and doesn't require the use of Honey Trees like Combee did when it debuted in Generation IV. So, if you catch a male Salandit on accident, it's not too hard to quickly rectify your mistake.
While Salandit was revealed before the release of Sun and Moon, Salazzle was not officially revealed till after the games launched. This meant that many players who went in blind likely picked Salandit, considering it had a fairly popular design mixed with a unique Type combination, only for a large percentage of those players ending up wondering why their Salandit never evolved. While this could have happened in Generation IV with Combee, in that situation the Pokemon was locked behind the rather obtuse Honey Tree mechanic, thus I doubt many players stumbled upon it without purposefully looking for it, and generally if you went looking up how to find it, you'd know about the female-evolution only gimmick. Salandit on the other hand is an easy to obtain Pokemon, so I feel a lot of fans, especially the younger ones who don't browse the Internet frequently, got frustrated when they realized their male Salandit was effectively neutered.
Salandit is unique as the first ever Poison/Fire Pokemon, two Types that seem like they would have been paired together before---both of them have a similar status effect associated with them---but never were until now. I remember a lot of people pointing out when it was first revealed that it looks more like a Dark/Fire type than a Poison/Fire type, due to the coloration and thief motif, though it does learn a fair amount of Dark-type attacks so if Pokemon could have three Types, Dark would definitely be part of this Pokemon's repertoire as well. It can be caught early on at Route 8, Wela Volcano Park, and in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon within a cave on Lush Jungle, though this area is blocked until Machamp Shove is obtained.
Even before it evolves, Salandit isn't that bad of a Pokemon. While it's fragile, it's quite fast and has strong Special Attack, so even if you end up with a Male Salandit, with an Eviolite thrown onto it can still be somewhat useful. Unlike Combee, who learned basically nothing prior to evolution---or in general if they were male---Salandit has a healthy amount of moves at its disposal. I wouldn't go for a male Salandit on purpose, but if for whatever reason you ended up stuck with one, you can make it work. Early on, the only really good Special move it gets is Flame Burst, giving it a powerful STAB attack, but for its Poison-type STAB all it has at first is the weak Smog. Thankfully you can obtain Venoshock shortly after catching it via TM, although it will learn it later naturally, which can make for a powerful attack when paired with Toxic. Furthermore, it can sharply boost the power of Venoshock even more with Nasty Plot.
Salandit is a great Pokemon to use against Totem Pokemon, because as mentioned before one of the easiest ways to exploit them is to badly poison them and stall out, and due to its above average Speed Salandit can get it there and do this before they can get a word in edge-wise. Alternatively, you could also burn them with Ember to nerf their Attack. And Salandit can poison every Totem Pokemon, the normally immune Salazzle and Togedemaru included, thanks to its unique Ability Corrosion. With this Ability, Salandit can poison basically any Pokemon (other than those with the Immunity Ability ), including the normally immune Poison and Steel-type Pokemon. Note Corrosion does not change the Type resistance of Poison and Steel to Poison-type attacks, so in Steel's case you can't actually poison them with attacks that also cause poison, rather you can only poison them with status moves that inflict poison but don't actually hurt the Pokemon.
It's not actually a reptilian Pokemon, but an amphibian Pokemon---in terms of basis at least, the Pokemon itself isn't shown to be partially aquatic. It's based on a salamander, though unlike Charmander---who draws on the mythical idea of a salamander as a literal creature of fire---it draws inspiration from the real-life Japanese fire-belly newt. Though rather than a red belly, Salandit's red markings are on its tail in the shape of a hand. When I first saw this pattern, the first thing I thought of was those sticky hand toys, and thus this may represent Salandit's nature as a thief. It's worth mentioning while we have a fair amount of Pokemon inspired by salamanders (by my count Wooper and Quagsire, the Mudkip family, and as I argued Lickitung), this is the first one inspired specially by a newt. All newts are salamanders, but not all salamanders are newts.
The Japanese fire-belly newt, and quite a few newts in general, have extremely toxic skin containing tetrodotoxin, the same toxin contained in the body of pufferfish and other extremely poisonous animals. Thankfully the actual animal can't launch poison at you, but if an open wound comes into contact with its body, you'll be in quite a lot of pain. And if you're stupid enough to eat it, as a man in a story I read was drunk enough to do, you'll be dead in a day. One thing that's actually a switch-up with the real animal compared to the Pokemon is that with Salandit, it's the females known to primarily use pheromones to drive Pokemon---and humans?---wild. In reality, male newts are the ones known for their pheromones, and they are so strong that other species of newts are known to be attracted to them. A recent study I found does suggest females utilize a pheromone to alert sexually mature males that they are in the mood, but basically it should be male Salandit getting all the girls, not the other way around.
By the way, what happened with the thief motif here? Judging by its name---salamander bandit, or newt burglar in Japan---you think the thief motif would be more prominent, but it's really not part of its lore, or its moveset. It doesn't even learn Thief naturally. Part of me almost feels like the thief element was going to be a larger part of the Pokemon initially, but then they changed course and went with the pheromone gimmick. They are associated almost exclusively with Team Skull, so that helps push the motif, but I do wonder if a male Salandit evolution was planned that carried out the thief motif to a more logical conclusion. A male Salandit evolution is a cheesy and overdone idea at this point, but I wouldn't mind it. Most male Salandit evolution ideas I see have it hulking out, but I think keeping it a lithe thief would make far more sense.
Salandit are jerks in the show. One of them even tried to eat Lillie's unhatched Alolan Vulpix! Anyway, there's a group of bumbling Team Skull members in the show by the name of Tupp, Zipp, and Rapp---Toriyama would be proud of those names---with Tupp, the leader, owning a Salandit. Initially he had multiple of them, but since his first appearance he only has one. It's a male Salandit and, yes, nobody has yet to break the truth to him yet as he excitedly awaits its evolution any day now.
# 758 - Salazzle
Poison/Fire
At Level 33, female Salandit will evolve into Salazzle. If you have a male Salandit, you're out of luck. I considered using the Salandit line through my Sun playthrough, but decided against it when I picked Litten as my Starter. Truth be told, it seems like Salazzle would be a fun Pokemon to use in-game because it's fast. And not just Alolan fast, fast in general. It also has respectable Special Attack, so it will make a great lead for sure. The only issue is that its fragile, but I'm perfectly okay with that because that's how fast Pokemon typically should be. If it was fragile and slow, then we'd have a problem.
You can't obtain a Salazzle in the wild in Sun and Moon, so if you accidentally caught a male Salandit and realized it too late, you'd have to go back and find a female Salandit and level it up all over. In the sequels however, you can obtain it through an S.O.S. Battle with Salandit, and if you're playing Ultra Moon, you can grab a Totem-sized Salazzle around Ula'Ula for 50 Totem Stickers. If you're playing Ultra Moon, I'd say may as well go for the Totem-sized one as you're still have a lot of the game left to make use of it, and it'll save you the trouble of having to search specifically for a female one.
Upon evolving Salazzle learns Captivate, which I'd avoid keeping. As far as debuff moves go it's pretty situational since it'll only work on opposite gender Pokemon---in this case males---and thus it could easily end up being worthless in many fights. Also as Salazzle is a fast Pokemon, lowering your opponent's Special Attack is likely a worst option that simply attacking it in the first place before it can utilize that stat. It fits Salazzle's lore though. It'll pick up Venoshock naturally soon after if you haven't got the TM yet, followed by Flamethrower which is always a reliable move for a Special Fire Pokemon, and finally end up with Dragon Pulse. Nothing too exciting in terms of coverage, and nothing to help its weaknesses to Ground, Psychic, Rock, or Water. TM-wise though you can get Acrobatics, which is probably a good choice since Salazzle can use it to counter its 4x weakness to Ground Pokemon. Overall while Salazzle may be fast, it has a tough time dealing with its weaknesses.
I thought Corrosion would be a neat Ability competitively, but then I realized the issue---Salazzle is a Fire-type Pokemon. And Corrosion doesn't actually allow Poison-type attacks to do damage to Steel-type Pokemon. Why bother wasting a turn to poison a Steel-type when you can take them down with a powerful Fire Blast? I feel like perhaps this Ability would best be served on a Poison-type Pokemon who actually didn't have a way to deal with Steel-types, but on Salazzle it's almost a bit pointless. As for the ability to poison other Poison Pokemon, that use seems dubious. It seems Oblivious is the popular choice, not because of the ability to ignore attraction but for the ability to ignore Taunt so that it can power up with Nasty Plot, and it can be a powerful sweep. Unfortunately it's a Fire-type Pokemon, meaning it has that Stealth Rock weakness, and a compounding weakness to Ground also hurts it. But it seems it does have a niche as a popular counter to the various Steel and Fairy-type Pokemon that see use in the higher competitive scenes. Due to its Speed, it seems it's a useful partner to have in Doubles with access to annoying disruption tactics such as Taunt, Fake Out, and potentially a Toxic that can infect anyone.
Poor Salazzle is the only Totem Pokemon in Sun and Moon who was reduced to a mere ally in the sequels, appearing alongside Totem Alolan Marowak---though to be quite frank, it's one of the strongest allies in the game and gave me just as much trouble as Marowak did. But anyway back to Sun and Moon, Salazzle was the star of the Wela Volcano Trial. This trial was exceedingly dumb---most of the Trials in my opinion didn't amount to much---though at the very least it was entertaining. Kind of weird how the Trial's joke is that it makes what appears to initially be a serious challenge end up being a painfully simple one, but the joke sort of falls flat when all the other Trials are more or less brain dead though without the humor. But like I said, it gave us Hiker Dave, and Kiawe is an amazing character in my opinion---especially in the show---so I might say it truly is the greatest Trial.
Because Salazzle is known for having a "reverse harem" of loyal Salandit, its unique among Totem Pokemon in that it'll keep calling Salandit in to aid it no matter how many defeat it. Because of this, I probably wouldn't bother attacking them. Totem Salazzle begins with a boosted Special Defense, though this leaves it still extremely vulnerable to the majority of Ground-type moves. You probably won't have Earthquake at this point, though Mudbray has some powerful Ground-type moves by this point. Araquanid is also great here due to the powered up Water-type moves, and I recall that one of those two Pokemon easily swept through Salazzle. It'll probably get a good hit in though, but the only actual offensive move it has is Flame Burst. Watch out though for its Toxic, since with Corrosion even a Steel-type (which I doubt you'll have at this point if I recall as they're rare early on) can become poisoned, and it will follow that up by nerfing them with Venoshock! Finally Torment prevents you from spamming the same move in a row, which could lead to some trouble if say Araquanid's initial Water-type attack doesn't kill it, and all it has other than that are Bug-type moves. I don't remember Torment giving me trouble here, but in the Totem Marowak fight...
The Salandit that it calls upon will attempt to poison you with Poison Gas (I recall the Totem battles have higher A.I., so I think Salandit will avoid wasting this on a Pokemon already poisoned or one that Salazzle is about to poison), get off a powerful Venoshock on you if you've been poisoned, once more I believe the A.I. can coordinate this with Salazzle using Toxic first and following it up, and, if all else fails, Scratch you. They'll also use Taunt to attempt to prevent you from going on the defensive, though in truth the best method for this fight is to hit hard and fast. Salazzle is pretty frail and while it may have the Speed advantage, a strong attack can make quick work of it. I don't recall this being a particularly difficult fight, though maybe that's because the Totem Marowak fight in the sequel was far tougher in my experience.
Salazzle is also the signature Pokemon of Team Skull's Plumeria, the latter even wearing a Salazzle-themed bandanna after the fall of Team Skull. I'll be honest perhaps it's because Guzma steals the show, but I barely remember anything about Plumeria. She's kind of basically Salazzle in that the Skull Grunts basically worship her, though in a big sister way as opposed to being her numerous lovers. She's got a cool design, but nothing about her character does anything for me. You'll fight her Salazzle twice in Sun and Moon, once on Route 15, and later in the Title Defense Match. Its moveset is pretty much what a player would probably go with---Dragon Pulse, Flamethrower, and Sludge Bomb that can be powered up with the Poisonium Z. In the Title Defense Match it also has Protect, to stall as either the poison or burn wears you down. In the sequels, you can also fight her Salazzle---or team up with it---in the Battle Tree. There are two variants you may see, one with Fire Blast, Sludge Bomb, and Nasty Plot, the other with Overheat, Sludge Wave, and Dragon Pulse. They both have Fake Out, however.
I don't like Salazzle. I considered using Salandit originally, though once I saw Salazzle I was out---though I also wanted to use Incineroar, and didn't think I'd need another Fire-type. The face looks off to me. I know it's supposed to look "sexy" and alluring, and I'm fine with that, but it doesn't look that way to me, it looks derpy. I think it's the little juts in the mouth line that ruin it for some reason. And then the fact that it has those markings on its chest highlighting its "breast", and then marking leading down to its nether regions. No thank you. I also can't believe we literally saw the word "reverse harem" in a Pokemon title. I know harem is a biological term as well and isn't necessarily reserved for the harem most folks think of but---with Salazzle's design, I'm not sure what Game Freak was going with. It's a bit odd to be honest, and I feel it crosses a line. What line I'm not sure. Also as far as I know harems aren't a thing among newts, so once again I'm not sure why this was the Pokemon Game Freak used the concept for.
Also another thing that bothers me---it's said to slap Salandit who anger it with its burning palms. Salandit has an orange hand mark on their backsides. So does Salazzle, like, slap them? Anyway, this Pokemon utterly confuses me. I've looked around to see where Game Freak got the idea for this Pokemon, and like I said it seems to be a reverse of how real male newts have strong pheromones that attract all the surrounding females to them, and maybe the fact that female newts tend to grow a bit bigger. As I mentioned way back with Wooper, it's not uncommon for some salamanders to never mature---the case with male Salandit---though gender doesn't appear. It seems that Hawaii has a legend of a shape-shifting lizard creature known as the "mo'o" that disguises itself as a woman in some stories, but I don't know if Game Freak based Salazzle on this. It might be a bit rash to jump to every Alolan Pokemon as specifically drawing from Hawaii---I remember folks thought Rockruff was meant to be the Hawaiian poi dog despite sharing nothing in common with it other than being a dog---and then we get some Pokemon that are named specifically for the mo'o and don't reference the shape-shifting, so once more I think Game Freak just wanted to make a hot newt.
Would it surprise you to learn that the anime hasn't focused on Salazzle's reverse-harem traits other than a brief "guys like how it smells" PokeDex entry? In the battle with Lusamine under the control of Nihilego, Salazzle was sent out under the Aether President. Like Lusamine herself, Salazzle was under Nihilego's control and could not stop itself from battling. Even after taking a combined attack from Kiawe's Turtonator using Inferno Overdrive and his Marowak using a 4X effective Bonemerang, the hypnotized Salazzle would not quit until Nihilego was taken down. In the games, Lusamine doesn't have Salazzle. All her other Pokemon in this fight were hers in the games, bar it and Absol, the latter who was added to serve as a rival to Gladion's Umbreon, also anime exclusive. Salazzle was probably added to place Bewear, left out since Team Rocket's Bewear buddy is a main character and we've yet to see another.
# 757 - Salandit
Poison/Fire
So, let's address the most important thing to know about Salandit. Remember how back in Generation IV, only female Combee could evolve, and if you caught a male Combee, you were pretty much out of luck? Well Salandit works the same way, as only the females of the species can evolve while the males stay as Salandit forever. Like Combee Wild Salandit are overwhelmingly male, 87.5% of the time, though obtaining Salandit is far easier since it can be found in the grass and doesn't require the use of Honey Trees like Combee did when it debuted in Generation IV. So, if you catch a male Salandit on accident, it's not too hard to quickly rectify your mistake.
While Salandit was revealed before the release of Sun and Moon, Salazzle was not officially revealed till after the games launched. This meant that many players who went in blind likely picked Salandit, considering it had a fairly popular design mixed with a unique Type combination, only for a large percentage of those players ending up wondering why their Salandit never evolved. While this could have happened in Generation IV with Combee, in that situation the Pokemon was locked behind the rather obtuse Honey Tree mechanic, thus I doubt many players stumbled upon it without purposefully looking for it, and generally if you went looking up how to find it, you'd know about the female-evolution only gimmick. Salandit on the other hand is an easy to obtain Pokemon, so I feel a lot of fans, especially the younger ones who don't browse the Internet frequently, got frustrated when they realized their male Salandit was effectively neutered.
Salandit is unique as the first ever Poison/Fire Pokemon, two Types that seem like they would have been paired together before---both of them have a similar status effect associated with them---but never were until now. I remember a lot of people pointing out when it was first revealed that it looks more like a Dark/Fire type than a Poison/Fire type, due to the coloration and thief motif, though it does learn a fair amount of Dark-type attacks so if Pokemon could have three Types, Dark would definitely be part of this Pokemon's repertoire as well. It can be caught early on at Route 8, Wela Volcano Park, and in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon within a cave on Lush Jungle, though this area is blocked until Machamp Shove is obtained.
Even before it evolves, Salandit isn't that bad of a Pokemon. While it's fragile, it's quite fast and has strong Special Attack, so even if you end up with a Male Salandit, with an Eviolite thrown onto it can still be somewhat useful. Unlike Combee, who learned basically nothing prior to evolution---or in general if they were male---Salandit has a healthy amount of moves at its disposal. I wouldn't go for a male Salandit on purpose, but if for whatever reason you ended up stuck with one, you can make it work. Early on, the only really good Special move it gets is Flame Burst, giving it a powerful STAB attack, but for its Poison-type STAB all it has at first is the weak Smog. Thankfully you can obtain Venoshock shortly after catching it via TM, although it will learn it later naturally, which can make for a powerful attack when paired with Toxic. Furthermore, it can sharply boost the power of Venoshock even more with Nasty Plot.
Salandit is a great Pokemon to use against Totem Pokemon, because as mentioned before one of the easiest ways to exploit them is to badly poison them and stall out, and due to its above average Speed Salandit can get it there and do this before they can get a word in edge-wise. Alternatively, you could also burn them with Ember to nerf their Attack. And Salandit can poison every Totem Pokemon, the normally immune Salazzle and Togedemaru included, thanks to its unique Ability Corrosion. With this Ability, Salandit can poison basically any Pokemon (other than those with the Immunity Ability ), including the normally immune Poison and Steel-type Pokemon. Note Corrosion does not change the Type resistance of Poison and Steel to Poison-type attacks, so in Steel's case you can't actually poison them with attacks that also cause poison, rather you can only poison them with status moves that inflict poison but don't actually hurt the Pokemon.
It's not actually a reptilian Pokemon, but an amphibian Pokemon---in terms of basis at least, the Pokemon itself isn't shown to be partially aquatic. It's based on a salamander, though unlike Charmander---who draws on the mythical idea of a salamander as a literal creature of fire---it draws inspiration from the real-life Japanese fire-belly newt. Though rather than a red belly, Salandit's red markings are on its tail in the shape of a hand. When I first saw this pattern, the first thing I thought of was those sticky hand toys, and thus this may represent Salandit's nature as a thief. It's worth mentioning while we have a fair amount of Pokemon inspired by salamanders (by my count Wooper and Quagsire, the Mudkip family, and as I argued Lickitung), this is the first one inspired specially by a newt. All newts are salamanders, but not all salamanders are newts.
The Japanese fire-belly newt, and quite a few newts in general, have extremely toxic skin containing tetrodotoxin, the same toxin contained in the body of pufferfish and other extremely poisonous animals. Thankfully the actual animal can't launch poison at you, but if an open wound comes into contact with its body, you'll be in quite a lot of pain. And if you're stupid enough to eat it, as a man in a story I read was drunk enough to do, you'll be dead in a day. One thing that's actually a switch-up with the real animal compared to the Pokemon is that with Salandit, it's the females known to primarily use pheromones to drive Pokemon---and humans?---wild. In reality, male newts are the ones known for their pheromones, and they are so strong that other species of newts are known to be attracted to them. A recent study I found does suggest females utilize a pheromone to alert sexually mature males that they are in the mood, but basically it should be male Salandit getting all the girls, not the other way around.
By the way, what happened with the thief motif here? Judging by its name---salamander bandit, or newt burglar in Japan---you think the thief motif would be more prominent, but it's really not part of its lore, or its moveset. It doesn't even learn Thief naturally. Part of me almost feels like the thief element was going to be a larger part of the Pokemon initially, but then they changed course and went with the pheromone gimmick. They are associated almost exclusively with Team Skull, so that helps push the motif, but I do wonder if a male Salandit evolution was planned that carried out the thief motif to a more logical conclusion. A male Salandit evolution is a cheesy and overdone idea at this point, but I wouldn't mind it. Most male Salandit evolution ideas I see have it hulking out, but I think keeping it a lithe thief would make far more sense.
Salandit are jerks in the show. One of them even tried to eat Lillie's unhatched Alolan Vulpix! Anyway, there's a group of bumbling Team Skull members in the show by the name of Tupp, Zipp, and Rapp---Toriyama would be proud of those names---with Tupp, the leader, owning a Salandit. Initially he had multiple of them, but since his first appearance he only has one. It's a male Salandit and, yes, nobody has yet to break the truth to him yet as he excitedly awaits its evolution any day now.
# 758 - Salazzle
Poison/Fire
At Level 33, female Salandit will evolve into Salazzle. If you have a male Salandit, you're out of luck. I considered using the Salandit line through my Sun playthrough, but decided against it when I picked Litten as my Starter. Truth be told, it seems like Salazzle would be a fun Pokemon to use in-game because it's fast. And not just Alolan fast, fast in general. It also has respectable Special Attack, so it will make a great lead for sure. The only issue is that its fragile, but I'm perfectly okay with that because that's how fast Pokemon typically should be. If it was fragile and slow, then we'd have a problem.
You can't obtain a Salazzle in the wild in Sun and Moon, so if you accidentally caught a male Salandit and realized it too late, you'd have to go back and find a female Salandit and level it up all over. In the sequels however, you can obtain it through an S.O.S. Battle with Salandit, and if you're playing Ultra Moon, you can grab a Totem-sized Salazzle around Ula'Ula for 50 Totem Stickers. If you're playing Ultra Moon, I'd say may as well go for the Totem-sized one as you're still have a lot of the game left to make use of it, and it'll save you the trouble of having to search specifically for a female one.
Upon evolving Salazzle learns Captivate, which I'd avoid keeping. As far as debuff moves go it's pretty situational since it'll only work on opposite gender Pokemon---in this case males---and thus it could easily end up being worthless in many fights. Also as Salazzle is a fast Pokemon, lowering your opponent's Special Attack is likely a worst option that simply attacking it in the first place before it can utilize that stat. It fits Salazzle's lore though. It'll pick up Venoshock naturally soon after if you haven't got the TM yet, followed by Flamethrower which is always a reliable move for a Special Fire Pokemon, and finally end up with Dragon Pulse. Nothing too exciting in terms of coverage, and nothing to help its weaknesses to Ground, Psychic, Rock, or Water. TM-wise though you can get Acrobatics, which is probably a good choice since Salazzle can use it to counter its 4x weakness to Ground Pokemon. Overall while Salazzle may be fast, it has a tough time dealing with its weaknesses.
I thought Corrosion would be a neat Ability competitively, but then I realized the issue---Salazzle is a Fire-type Pokemon. And Corrosion doesn't actually allow Poison-type attacks to do damage to Steel-type Pokemon. Why bother wasting a turn to poison a Steel-type when you can take them down with a powerful Fire Blast? I feel like perhaps this Ability would best be served on a Poison-type Pokemon who actually didn't have a way to deal with Steel-types, but on Salazzle it's almost a bit pointless. As for the ability to poison other Poison Pokemon, that use seems dubious. It seems Oblivious is the popular choice, not because of the ability to ignore attraction but for the ability to ignore Taunt so that it can power up with Nasty Plot, and it can be a powerful sweep. Unfortunately it's a Fire-type Pokemon, meaning it has that Stealth Rock weakness, and a compounding weakness to Ground also hurts it. But it seems it does have a niche as a popular counter to the various Steel and Fairy-type Pokemon that see use in the higher competitive scenes. Due to its Speed, it seems it's a useful partner to have in Doubles with access to annoying disruption tactics such as Taunt, Fake Out, and potentially a Toxic that can infect anyone.
Poor Salazzle is the only Totem Pokemon in Sun and Moon who was reduced to a mere ally in the sequels, appearing alongside Totem Alolan Marowak---though to be quite frank, it's one of the strongest allies in the game and gave me just as much trouble as Marowak did. But anyway back to Sun and Moon, Salazzle was the star of the Wela Volcano Trial. This trial was exceedingly dumb---most of the Trials in my opinion didn't amount to much---though at the very least it was entertaining. Kind of weird how the Trial's joke is that it makes what appears to initially be a serious challenge end up being a painfully simple one, but the joke sort of falls flat when all the other Trials are more or less brain dead though without the humor. But like I said, it gave us Hiker Dave, and Kiawe is an amazing character in my opinion---especially in the show---so I might say it truly is the greatest Trial.
Because Salazzle is known for having a "reverse harem" of loyal Salandit, its unique among Totem Pokemon in that it'll keep calling Salandit in to aid it no matter how many defeat it. Because of this, I probably wouldn't bother attacking them. Totem Salazzle begins with a boosted Special Defense, though this leaves it still extremely vulnerable to the majority of Ground-type moves. You probably won't have Earthquake at this point, though Mudbray has some powerful Ground-type moves by this point. Araquanid is also great here due to the powered up Water-type moves, and I recall that one of those two Pokemon easily swept through Salazzle. It'll probably get a good hit in though, but the only actual offensive move it has is Flame Burst. Watch out though for its Toxic, since with Corrosion even a Steel-type (which I doubt you'll have at this point if I recall as they're rare early on) can become poisoned, and it will follow that up by nerfing them with Venoshock! Finally Torment prevents you from spamming the same move in a row, which could lead to some trouble if say Araquanid's initial Water-type attack doesn't kill it, and all it has other than that are Bug-type moves. I don't remember Torment giving me trouble here, but in the Totem Marowak fight...
The Salandit that it calls upon will attempt to poison you with Poison Gas (I recall the Totem battles have higher A.I., so I think Salandit will avoid wasting this on a Pokemon already poisoned or one that Salazzle is about to poison), get off a powerful Venoshock on you if you've been poisoned, once more I believe the A.I. can coordinate this with Salazzle using Toxic first and following it up, and, if all else fails, Scratch you. They'll also use Taunt to attempt to prevent you from going on the defensive, though in truth the best method for this fight is to hit hard and fast. Salazzle is pretty frail and while it may have the Speed advantage, a strong attack can make quick work of it. I don't recall this being a particularly difficult fight, though maybe that's because the Totem Marowak fight in the sequel was far tougher in my experience.
Salazzle is also the signature Pokemon of Team Skull's Plumeria, the latter even wearing a Salazzle-themed bandanna after the fall of Team Skull. I'll be honest perhaps it's because Guzma steals the show, but I barely remember anything about Plumeria. She's kind of basically Salazzle in that the Skull Grunts basically worship her, though in a big sister way as opposed to being her numerous lovers. She's got a cool design, but nothing about her character does anything for me. You'll fight her Salazzle twice in Sun and Moon, once on Route 15, and later in the Title Defense Match. Its moveset is pretty much what a player would probably go with---Dragon Pulse, Flamethrower, and Sludge Bomb that can be powered up with the Poisonium Z. In the Title Defense Match it also has Protect, to stall as either the poison or burn wears you down. In the sequels, you can also fight her Salazzle---or team up with it---in the Battle Tree. There are two variants you may see, one with Fire Blast, Sludge Bomb, and Nasty Plot, the other with Overheat, Sludge Wave, and Dragon Pulse. They both have Fake Out, however.
I don't like Salazzle. I considered using Salandit originally, though once I saw Salazzle I was out---though I also wanted to use Incineroar, and didn't think I'd need another Fire-type. The face looks off to me. I know it's supposed to look "sexy" and alluring, and I'm fine with that, but it doesn't look that way to me, it looks derpy. I think it's the little juts in the mouth line that ruin it for some reason. And then the fact that it has those markings on its chest highlighting its "breast", and then marking leading down to its nether regions. No thank you. I also can't believe we literally saw the word "reverse harem" in a Pokemon title. I know harem is a biological term as well and isn't necessarily reserved for the harem most folks think of but---with Salazzle's design, I'm not sure what Game Freak was going with. It's a bit odd to be honest, and I feel it crosses a line. What line I'm not sure. Also as far as I know harems aren't a thing among newts, so once again I'm not sure why this was the Pokemon Game Freak used the concept for.
Also another thing that bothers me---it's said to slap Salandit who anger it with its burning palms. Salandit has an orange hand mark on their backsides. So does Salazzle, like, slap them? Anyway, this Pokemon utterly confuses me. I've looked around to see where Game Freak got the idea for this Pokemon, and like I said it seems to be a reverse of how real male newts have strong pheromones that attract all the surrounding females to them, and maybe the fact that female newts tend to grow a bit bigger. As I mentioned way back with Wooper, it's not uncommon for some salamanders to never mature---the case with male Salandit---though gender doesn't appear. It seems that Hawaii has a legend of a shape-shifting lizard creature known as the "mo'o" that disguises itself as a woman in some stories, but I don't know if Game Freak based Salazzle on this. It might be a bit rash to jump to every Alolan Pokemon as specifically drawing from Hawaii---I remember folks thought Rockruff was meant to be the Hawaiian poi dog despite sharing nothing in common with it other than being a dog---and then we get some Pokemon that are named specifically for the mo'o and don't reference the shape-shifting, so once more I think Game Freak just wanted to make a hot newt.
Would it surprise you to learn that the anime hasn't focused on Salazzle's reverse-harem traits other than a brief "guys like how it smells" PokeDex entry? In the battle with Lusamine under the control of Nihilego, Salazzle was sent out under the Aether President. Like Lusamine herself, Salazzle was under Nihilego's control and could not stop itself from battling. Even after taking a combined attack from Kiawe's Turtonator using Inferno Overdrive and his Marowak using a 4X effective Bonemerang, the hypnotized Salazzle would not quit until Nihilego was taken down. In the games, Lusamine doesn't have Salazzle. All her other Pokemon in this fight were hers in the games, bar it and Absol, the latter who was added to serve as a rival to Gladion's Umbreon, also anime exclusive. Salazzle was probably added to place Bewear, left out since Team Rocket's Bewear buddy is a main character and we've yet to see another.
Salazzle owns. She's hilarious as she is to actually use. Very fast fire type, very fun to use in my Moon play through. I like the attack animation has her go on all fours and its like "ah, right! lizard"
When a pokemo ngoes bipedal you don't usually see it go back on all fours so it was novel here.
Like come on she's a sexy lizard making bed room eyes and has a bodice pattern it's so ridiculous.
When a pokemo ngoes bipedal you don't usually see it go back on all fours so it was novel here.
Like come on she's a sexy lizard making bed room eyes and has a bodice pattern it's so ridiculous.
When the Salazzle totem showed up in my Moon play through I remember thinking "Oh shit, this will probably be tough"
Then my Mudbray used Bulldoze and wrecked her and her Salandit pal in one hit. One of those hits where the hp bar drains comically fast
Then my Mudbray used Bulldoze and wrecked her and her Salandit pal in one hit. One of those hits where the hp bar drains comically fast
This is also how I won.
At this point I also had a Thick Club Cubone that I grinded for, and a Wishiwashi, so I was well equipped to handle this totem
So Salazzle was part of my team in Moon and she rocked hard. It was just nice to have a speedy Pokémon for once. Also, Birdie, I think she is supposed to look sexy but not necessarily BE sexy, if you know what I mean. Like yeah, you can see she is trying her best but at the end of the day she's just a big newt, and we are big apes. (I know people will be people, but that's another topic)
Btw, I love her idle animation.
Btw, I love her idle animation.
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Initially I was disappointed in Salazzle after the whole sly bandit angle being dropped, but I used her anyway in Moon and yeah, she was solid.
I like the typing and think that it's a neat feminine design that contrary to how you feel about it Birdie, actually doesn't go overboard with things like Lopunny legs or wearing a dress.
I like the typing and think that it's a neat feminine design that contrary to how you feel about it Birdie, actually doesn't go overboard with things like Lopunny legs or wearing a dress.
