It's Ledian Time

 

 

What is there to say about Ledian? It's awful. It's hard to imagine giving a worse stat spread to a worse typing. Conceivably, Ledian could be a support Pokemon because it has Light Screen and Reflect and some Special Defense to take a hit. But in exchange for its Chansey-level offensive power, it only sports 55 base HP to go along with its 50 Defense and 110 Special Defense. Then you factor in weaknesses to common attacking types like Fire, Electric, Ice, and a 4x weakness to Rock and you realize Ledian is not surviving long enough to support much of anything. We've got our work cut out for us with Ledian. I'm going to take this post a little differently because I don't actually have a solid plan mapped out in advance for this poor Bug. Instead, I'm going to be throwing any ideas I can come up with at the wall and hopefully by the end of it we'll have some kind of design philosophy cobbled together that will make using Ledian a choice instead of a punishment.

1. Ledian's style

Before we jump into moves and abilities and stats, is there anything we can say about Ledian as a Pokemon in-universe? Yes, actually, we have some good prompts from the Pokedex in this case that could be useful. Ledian is nocturnal, and sleeps in forests during the day while curled up in leaves. At night it flies and spreads a glowing powder that supposedly grants good luck to people that touch it. There's a theory that it gets energy from starlight and its dots move around based on the stars in the sky. It doesn't have a lot of power, so it fires off as many punches as it can from all its arms to compensate.

We also have some nice meta-knowledge based on its movepool and appearance. It is one of relatively few Pokemon that gets Baton Pass as a level up move, instead of learning it through breeding or TM. It can set up protective screens and gets access to boosting moves such as Agility and Swords Dance that it can pass on to its teammates. It has a huge special defense stat, could that tie into the theory of it getting energy from star power? It also has a design very reminiscent of one of the rare non-Pokemon Game Freak games: Pulseman. The main character in that game is a superhero who has electric powers and can travel in and out of the digital world and physical world. 

All that established, I really want Ledian to capture that superhero vibe. It heroically fights against danger, but it also cares deeply for its allies and wants to protect them. Its strength is not its raw power, but rather its supernatural abilities that grant it a lot of flexibility. Now that we have at least some kind of idea of what makes Ledian tick, let's look at the main game mechanics and see if we can realize that vision.

2. Abilities

Now that we have some background info on Ledian, quite a few new ability options come to mind that fit thematically in one or more aspects. Before that, let's see if we want to keep any old abilities. We have Swarm (barf, so boring) which is definitely getting trashed. Early Bird, which does not fit at all thematically (since Ledian sleeps all day) but it does fit mechanically with older games that had Ledyba/Ledian only catchable in the morning hours (how does that make sense when Ledian is nocturnal?). I think we can do better, so Early Bird is out. Finally, Iron Fist is a nearly unusable hidden ability currently off a base 35 Attack stat, but we will be revisiting those stats in our rework. It also fits thematically for a superhero using rapid four arm punches, so we'll add it to our list as a maybe. Ok, let's look at the new stuff!

• Iron Fist (See above, fits superhero and punching theme)
• Skill Link (fits the idea of hitting more punches instead of stronger punches)
• Victory Star (fits superhero theme and references power from starts)
• Magic Guard (Based on the idea of getting energy from the stars or space, like Clefable)
• Super Luck (since it apparently has luck powder it just sprays everywhere)
• Justified (very superhero-esque)
• Shield Dust/Overcoat (to indicate its supernatural defenses, per a previous post I'm merging these two abilities)
• Motor Drive/Volt Absorb (a nod to its possible Pulseman origins and its a cool superhero ability)
• Friend Guard (using its star energy and playing off its focus to protect its friends)
• Huge Power (an option to let us easily work around low stats, but we can be more imaginative)
• Costar (a good fit for an action hero)
• Regenerator (can't keep a superhero down for long)
• Power Spot (if it is truly absorbing star energy, no reason it can't be a power spot)

Wow, a lot to work with there. Let's see if we can pare it down to just three. Seeing the wide spread above, I like the idea of giving Ledian one ability for offense, defense, and utility. And with that strategy in mind, I'm thinking the following:

1. Super Luck
2. Lucky Star
3. Motor Drive

I will be making some big buffs to stats, but Ledian is still not going to have a great attacking stat. Super Luck thus not only fits thematically but gives a bigger boost to all its hits than something like Iron Fist or Skill Link that only apply to certain moves. For Skill Link especially, there just aren't that many multi-hit moves that fit well on Ledian. For utility/support, we have Lucky Star to boost accuracy for the whole team. This is a super fun ability that you never get to use much in game because only Victini gets it. This will let us add some inaccurate moves to its movepool in the next section and let you play more risky with your teammates too. For the Hidden Ability, I landed on Motor Drive. I find it a nice easter egg to Pulseman and defensively, its always great to pick up an immunity to a type you don't resist. This will also let Ledian's allies play around with moves like Discharge, damaging all enemies at full power and boosting Ledian at the same time. Great, let's see what we can do with moves!

3. Movepool

Ledian's movepool is actually pretty decent for a support Pokemon. It has access to dual screens, Safeguard and Tailwind to boost stats on its side of the field. It has Encore and Knock Off to disrupt foes. It can even boost up with Agility or Swords Dance and hand it off with Baton Pass. All we really need to do here is swap moves around a bit so its egg moves can be actually utilized in a single player play-through and add some moves for thematic effect. Here's what I have so far:

• Knock Off, Encore, and Tailwind will be either added to the Levelup Learnset or set as tutor/TM moves
• Follow Me, Helping Hand will be added to the Levelup Learnset to reflect its superhero theme
• Cosmic Power, Wish, Healing Wish and Meteor Mash will be added to the Levelup Learnset to reflect how Ledian draws energy from starlight
• Fire Punch, Ice Punch, and Thunder Punch will all be available as tutor or TM moves
• Ledian will get a new signature move, "Star Dusting" which boosts the critical hit ratio by one stage for itself and its ally Pokemon

With these changes, Ledian will be a treat to use. The player has many different strategies they can choose to focus on and they can mix and match strategies through the course of the game. Ledian can be an ally booster with dual screens, Tailwind, Helping Hand, and Star Dusting. It can disrupt with with Encore and Knock Off and try to boost its attack for some damage. It can lean into critical hits with Star Dusting and Super Luck to do some decent damage unaffected by stat changes. It can ramp its defenses with Cosmic Power and then take hits using Follow Me. Ledian will actually be a treat now instead of a huge disappointment. Of course, it doesn't matter what cool moves we give it if it immediately faints when it hits the field, so let's take a look at its Stats and Typing to see what we need to put the finishing touches on our hero.

4. Stats and Typing

Yeah, Ledian is feeling pretty bad with its base stats. Add Bug/Flying typing and Ledian may as well faint as soon as it switches in. While I'm keeping Ledian in the "Low" stat tier along with other early game Bug types, I am upping the stat total for Ledian and Ariados to 445 instead of the normal 434 to reflect how they only get one evolution and evolve later than most of their friends. Every little bit helps. For stat goals, I want to keep Sp. Def as Ledian's highest stat. That has always been its defining feature and there's no reason to take it away. That being said, 110 is excessive and I've dropped quite a few points there to make its other stats at least usable. I've also switched its main attacking stat from Sp. Atk to Attack to reflect its use of punches and its sleek superhero design. With a little fiddling, here is my proposed update:

I hate to take Sp. Atk so low, but Ledian desperately needs those 10 points to boost up its defenses. Here we see a decent HP, slightly below average Defense and solid Sp. Defense. It has decent Speed for a support/utility Pokemon but would definitely need to rely on Agility, Tailwind, or Sticky Web if it wants to go on the offensive. Likewise, 85 attack is way better than the 55 Sp. Atk it had before, but it is not putting much of a dent in anything unless you're running a critical hit setup or boosting with Swords Dance. Ledian's primary focus will be to survive while setting up screens or disrupting, and then seizing on the resulting opportunity to either boost itself or draw attacks for an ally. 

Of course, if we're talking survival then Bug/Flying has to go. As replacement options, all of the below have some justification:

• Bug
• Bug/Fighting (since it loves to punch and gets a lot of fighting moves)
  
• Bug/Psychic (ties into the otherworldly nature of its star energy similar to Solrock/Lunatone or Beeheyem/Reuniclus)
  
• Bug/Fairy (reminiscent of its ties to space like Clefairy/Clefable and how it spreads good luck)
  
• Bug/Electric (as a nod to the Pulseman/superhero design)

Solo Bug would be pretty solid here since we are adding some resistances to the type chart but it is a little boring. Bug/Electric, while cool, I feel misses the mark with our philosophy and makes Motor Drive much less useful as a defensive Ability. Bug/Fighting would give some utility by removing the Rock weakness to help with the first Gym Leader, Roxanne. You do have to consider the 4x weakness to Flying this adds to a more defensively oriented fighter, though. Bug/Psychic and Bug/Fairy both fit well thematically and would allow an easy way to add coverage moves like Play Rough or Zen Headbutt. From a game balance perspective, each of Bug/Fighting, Bug/Psychic, and Bug/Fairy are sitting around 3-4 representatives each so adding Ledian to any of these groups would not over-saturate anything.

With a lot of back and forth, I think I find myself landing on Bug/Fighting as the best option here. It is a great fit both with Ledian's design and its in-game lore as a rapid punching machine. It serves a great niche in the early game to help the player with a pretty difficult boss fight, and the changes we're making to the type matchup chart mean that the types complement each other very well defensively. Plus, the 4x weakness to Flying actually serves as a nice nod to the "kryptonite" that many superheroes have, a key weakness you have to plan around that balances Ledian's exceptional movepool. In the end, Ledian will have a 4x resistance to Dark, resistances to Fighting, Grass and Ground, a potential immunity to Electric if you opt for Motor Drive, and only two weaknesses in Fire and a 4x to Flying.

 Whew, well it took some doing but I'm pretty happy where Ledian is at now. It's a heroic Bug/Fighting ladybug that dishes out rapid punches with all four arms. But unlike other Fighting types, Ledian's strength lies not in its incredible power but with its mystical energy drawn straight from the stars that lets it protect its allies and bless them with luck and accuracy. It may get out-classed in any one niche, but you'll be hard pressed to find a utility Pokemon that can wear as many hats as effectively as Ledian can.

 

Brand "New" Bug Types: What Makes a Bug?

Right away when starting on this project I knew that I wanted to expand the full list of Bug types offered in the games. At first I thought it would just be a handful of mons that I would be adjusting. Foremost on my list was the Trapinch line, since they are very obviously based on ant-lions, and Drapion since its pre-evolution was already a Bug type. While I was reviewing Pokemon for ideas, I happened to stumble across an actual research paper that broke down every mon through Generation 7 that had any inspiration from arthropods (the arthropoda phylum). Essentially anything that could conceivably be called a bug in the real world is an arthropod, which gave me the idea that the same should be true in my hack. And now I have an almost complete list ready to go! 

Arthropods include all your classic bugs: butterflies, bees, flies, spiders, beetles, scorpions, etc. The big category you might not expect, though, is crustaceans! It's time for Krabby and its saltwater friends to join the Bug crew. This will add Bug typing to the following Pokemon:

• Krabby/Kingler
• Corphish/Crawdaunt
• Clauncher/Clawitzer
• Crabrawler/Crabominable
• Binacle/Barbaracle
• Kabuto/Kabutops

I was definitely surprised by Binacle/Barbaracle but it turns out barnacles, unlike animals such as anemones and coral, are arthropods too! Arthropods also include your arachnids, and while many arachnids were already classified as Bug type (think your Ariados and Galvantulas), roping in all arachnids gets us the following:

• Drapion
• Gligar/Gliscor

Now these creepy scorpions can join the Bug quest too. Finally, lets swing back around to my initial category of Pokemon that are clearly bugs or based on bugs but are not Bug type. After some back and forth internally, I've arrived at this list:

• Dunsparce/Dudunsparce
  
• Trapinch/Vibrava/Flygon
• Poipole/Naganadel
• Iron Moth

I feel that some of these may need some explanation, so let me break it down.

Dunsparce

Yes, I know this takes a lot of inspiration from the mythical snake monster, Tsuchinoko. That being said, there are plenty of bug-related influences to justify the Bug typing. Its design with the stripes, wings, tail stinger, and general shape is very reminiscent of bees and according to Bulbapedia could easily be a reference to a nickname of the Tsuchinoko, bee snake. Likewise, its weird eye spots resemble many types of sphinx moth caterpillars that use similar fake eye colorations to confuse or scare away predators. The research paper I cited before thought there were enough bug-like traits on Dunsparce to put it in the order Hymenoptera along with bees, wasps, and ants. Finally, just for the sake of fun it lets me easily use the typing of Bug/Normal which only comes up one other time in the hack.

Trapinch

Honestly, I'm surprised this didn't debut as a Ground/Bug type in Gen 3 and then switch to Ground/Dragon with its evolutions. But quite obviously, Trapinch is based on an ant-lion with its design, typing, and ability in Arena Trap. I'll be going over the Trapinch line in more detail in a future post, but I like the idea of this family starting out incredibly strong to reflect the incredible strength of antlion larvae, then becoming substantially weaker as a Vibrava before bringing it back around again as the much more well-rounded Flygon.

Poipole/Naganadel

Poipole I can see an argument for as being just pure Poison type, but once it evolves...no way. Look at shiny Naganadel and tell me honestly that this is not some horrific inter-dimensional wasp. I'm waiting.

Iron Moth

It's Volcarona. That much is obvious.I'm leaning into either Bug/Poison or Bug/Steel instead of Fire/Poison. This thing looks cool and will be fun to add in some kind of event capture. 

And there you have it, 19 new Bug types to take on your Bug adventure! There are still some Bug-like Pokemon that I may add in the future, but I'm still pretty on the fence about them. Namely, the Tyranitar line, Giratina, and Falinks. Larvitar and Pupitar very clearly play into the bug lifecycle, but Tyranitar is...something else. Giratina is a very grotesque bug/centipede like monster, especially in its origin-forme, but I'm not convinced it is more bug than just general ghostly nightmare type design. And Falinks, I mostly just personally really want Falinks to be a Bug type. No real justification other than it looks like a cute little caterpillar when they march and I love them. We'll see where I end up on those guys, but look forward to playing as the other 19 mons in your Bugmerald adventure!

To close, a quick note on a surprising problem I ran into. Arthropods notably do not include one very bug-ish group of animals. Worms are not bugs but actually have their own phylum of Annelida. This of course means you will not be encountering Orthworm roaming about to be caught in Bugmerald version. But this also forced me to confront one of my favorite Bug types ever, the bizarrely categorized mold Pokemon, Shuckle. What even is Shuckle? I've been digging into this for days and it really is not clear. It's called the "mold" Pokemon, it decomposes berries, it secretes acid to melt rocks, it looks like a worm, what exactly is going on here? Not even Bulbapedia knows, with guesses ranging from an endolithic fungi or mold, tiny scale insects, barnacles, mollusk or even a nematode. It really seems that Shuckle may not be an arthropod, or bug, at all.

I'm gonna give the little guy a pass, though. If it is actually based on a scale-insect or barnacle, that still gives it a home in good old phylum arthropoda. And I certainly don't want to be the one to tell it that its typing has been a lie this whole time. After all, you don't want to fuckle with Shuckle.

Struggling Indie Artist: Kricketune

 

 

 

It was a pretty classic tale for most of the Pokemon games I've played through at this point. I see a Bug type, love it, catch it, and then have to watch it struggle HARD after the first two gyms are wrapped up. Kricketune flipped this experience on its head by being near completely unusable during every single point of the game. It's wild, Kricketot is a nightmare to level up and then when you finally get it to evolve there is nothing that this guy can do competently. I thought maybe I just didn't put much time into figuring out an optimal strategy when Gen 4 first came out, but even a quick look on Bulbapedia gives you the tragic info. Out of all standard fully evolved Pokemon, Kricketune is dead last in stats. Only Shedinja, who doesn't even use three of its stats, has anything lower. Kricketune is slow, frail, and can only hit as hard as a Watchog. Ouch. What possessed Game Freak to trample all over this bug and his weird mustache? Diamond and Pearl remakes have even come and gone and Kricketune got zilch. It's up to us to give it the love it deserves.

Looking at this mon again all these years later, nothing even stands out to me for any kind of vision that the developers had for this bug. Design wise, it has a cool mustache and is very reminiscent of a conductor, but it only gets Sing and Perish Song for out of the box sound based moves. It has sword arms that get brought up in its Pokedex entries a lot, and I guess that's why Attack is its highest, but still very bad, stat.Even with the extra 50 stat points I'm giving it, I cannot for the life of me find a way to make any of them matter. Short of a complete rework with min-maxes stats, this Pokemon is not going to be threatening anything in battle, and I don't want to just give it a bunch of fantastic coverage or status moves that don't make any lore-sense. Of course, and I'm sure you know what's coming if you've read my other posts, this means the only way forward is making some awesome, custom abilities. As Kricketune would say, "SCREE-DENENENE"

In this hack, Kricketune will now have the ability Fermata. In music, this means to hold a note longer than normal, often twice as long but at the discretion of the conductor. That's right, our mustachioed friend is now a conductor extraordinaire. Fermata causes all damaging sound moves from Kricketune and its allies to hit a second time at 25% power. Yes, we're talking a Parental Bond boost that also applies to your teammates. I'm very much not worried about balance, however, because not only is this limited to nothing but sound based moves, but you also have to run Kricketune on your team. And even with these stat buffs, it is not looking pretty.

 

Wow, 50 stat points don't go far when you're starting at Kricketune's floor. I could have very easily swapped Attack and Sp. Attack around, but most of its Pokedex entries specifically talk about its physical prowess with its sharp, stabby arms. Likewise, the player will have options for heavy-hitting sound move users, I don't want Kricketune to fill that same role but worse. No, Kricketune is a maestro, not a virtuoso. Its role in a battle is to survive, disrupt, and boost moves for its much more battle savvy partners. 

Let's look at moveset now in the lens of Fermata and the philosophy of a support mon. Kricketune does not have the offensive capabilities to make use of something like Hyper Voice, but imagine the likes of Snarl, Howl, Metal Sound, and Screech hitting twice. If you've got a Mothim on the field against a special wall and the opponent eats a doubled Metal Sound while Mothim Protects, suddenly that wall is looking at  -4 Sp. Defense against a Hyper Voice at 25% extra power. And what other mon can sharply raise its ally's attack? This gives it a pretty special niche even if your aren't using any mons with sound moves. We'll also throw in Echoed Voice as a scaling offensive option since that synergizes well with the Metronome item that Kricketune carry on the wild. 

I'll be honest, I loved Kricketot as a kid but hoo boy did that love ever NOT apply to ugly old Kricketune. But with these changes, even Kricketune haters like me have a darn solid use case for nabbing one for their team, and that sounds pretty good to me.