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.