Volbeat you're a Fiiiiiiirefly

 

 Some Pokemon have such a strong motif that it immediately becomes apparent what would have been different if they debuted in a later generation. With their design, movepool, and abilities, Volbeat and Illumise are just screaming to be Bug/Fairy types and it honestly shocks me that they did not get included in the Fairy reworks when that type was introduced. Especially shocking considering you could catch them in X and Y. Fireflies have such a strong link to fairies in the European tradition, we're going to let both of these mons be the fairies they always wanted to be.

Stats

Volbeat and Illumise have always been pretty lacking in the stats department, with only 400 for base stat totals when they debuted. A modest boost to 430 certainly didn't do much for them either. We'll be bumping them all the way up to 469 and shuffling their stat distributions around quite a bit so they can actually perform a bit in battle outside of Prankster shenanigans. 

Volbeat will be the offensively focused partner with a big boost to Sp. Attack and Speed. It will still want to boost with Tail Glow but now it will have an attacking stat that can actually utilize the boost. He'll also be getting 10 points to Defense to stay on the field a bit longer.

Illumise will be taking a slight hit to Speed to massively buff its HP.  Who needs Speed anyway when you have Prankster? She'll grab some small boosts to Sp. Attack and Defense too, but survivability will be key to her success as a support-oriented Pokemon.

Abilities

Prankster remains an incredible ability even after being nerfed against Dark types, and Volbeat and Illumise are the only Bug types that get access to it. The other abilities could use some work, of course, so you at least have an option to run something slightly different.

For Volbeat:

• Illuminate
• Tinted Lens
• Prankster

 It always struck me as odd that 1. Volbeat had such a gutter Sp. Attack stat when it always had Tail Glow in its arsenal and 2. that Illumise got Tinted Lens of all things when it is not set up to hit any kind of hard physically or specially. Easy fix here by moving Tinted Lens over to the newly offensive-focused Volbeat. 

I also can't in good faith take away Illuminate from a literal firefly, so we'll buff the ability instead. Scarlet and Violet meagerly tried to give it some kind of in-battle effect to match Keen Eye, but I think the nature of the ability should give it a stronger effect. Volbeat is lighting up the arena with its butt lamp, and everyone should be benefiting. Illuminate now gives a 20% accuracy boost to all Pokemon on the field, ally and enemy alike. Less extreme than No Guard but it affects every battler to set it apart. I like that this gives Volbeat something to offer on the team even if there is no chance for it to boost itself up with Tail Glow.

For Illumise:

• Supersweet Syrup
• Sweet Veil
• Prankster

Honestly, Prankster is going to be Illumise's preferred ability 90% of the time. As a slower, bulkier Pokemon with lots of useful status moves,why would you want anything else? Supersweet Syrup fits with the Pokedex flavor, at least, and can work well as an opening gambit to give a hard-hitting partner the ability to throw out powerful inaccurate moves. 

Sweet Veil rounds out Illumise's options by giving your team immunity to one of the most dangerous status conditions in the game. It might still be a little lackluster, though, so I'm toying with the idea of having it also wake up sleeping Pokemon when Illumise switches in. This would give it some synergy with Rest or with healing allies that got put to sleep when Illumise was off the field, but that might be a little too powerful. Not that Illumise really has the stats to make this a broken strategy. We'll see how testing goes.

Movepool

First off, easy change, Moonblast! They're fairies now, and they dance in the moonlight while also having Moonlight in their movepool already, let's make this happen. I'm also throwing in almost all the Fairy type status moves: Charm, Aromatic Mist (for Illumise only), Crafty Shield, Decorate, Fairy Lock, Floral Healing, Misty Terrain, and Sweet Kiss. 

The above is already a crazy buff, but I'm also adding Follow Me for both Pokemon because it fits so well with both design and their battle plan. You will find Bug types that are a lot mightier and tankier, but these guys are going to mess you up if you give them a chance with their Fairy tricks.

Their movepool is already rounded out with strong options such as Encore, Substitute, Trick, Tailwind, and Helping Hand. They are going to be a menace in the Double Battles format of Bugmerald if you let them get going. Only their mediocre bulk is holding them back.

Summary

I wanted to keep the identities of Volbeat and Illumise as Bug type pranksters that can fire off a multitude of priority status moves to disrupt the field and give opportunities to their allies. I think we've succeeded beautifully in that goal here, with a little extra bulk to help them survive more than a single turn in a fight and expanding their moves and abilities even further. While Fairy is one of the strongest types in the game, you'll be very limited in your Fairy type options in this game. All the more reason to consider giving these fireflies a chance to shine on your team.

Fight! Heracross and...Falinks?

 

 

Remember back in Gen 2 when they finally introduced a power Bug move in Megahorn? Finally, Psychic types could be hit hard for super effective damage! And Heracross was such an excellent user of the move, good defenses, great attack, workable speed. But wait, what's this? It's WEAK to Psychic moves because of its secondary Fighting type? Well so much for THAT. These days it is even harder for Heracross to stand out with Fairy types and power creep running amok. Fortunately, we can fix a few of these problems here.

First off, Heracross and its newly added Bug/Fighting comrade, Falinks, benefit a lot from the type matchup changes getting added to Bugmerald. No longer are they weak to Psychic moves, taking only neutral damage. Plus with Rock gaining resistance to Bug moves, the Fighting type coverage they provide is even more valuable. While neither of these Pokemon are going to be sweeping the enemy team alone, the double battle nature of this game will provide plenty of opportunities they never had in single player before such as Tailwind, Rage Powder, and other utility moves. With this help, I think players will find their boosted Bug/Fighting partners will be hitting dangerously hard and surviving far longer then they should. You'll just need to watch out for birds!

 1. Stats

Heracross is getting some very modest boosts to Defense, Sp. Defense, and a 5 point boost to Speed to bring it up to 525 from 500 base stat total. In the same vein, Falinks is receiving some small boosts to HP, Sp. Attack and Sp. Defense to bring it up to an even 500 base stat total.

 2. Abilities

Heracross is keeping Guts and Moxie as very fitting abilities. Swarm will be replaced by Inner Focus, giving it an option to be immune to both flinching and Intimidate to help its offense.

Falinks will likewise keep access to Battle Armor (buffed to now reduce damage to Steel and Rock moves) and Defiant. For a third Ability, I'm throwing in Stalwart. It fits nicely from a thematic standpoint with No Retreat, and it gives a boosted Falinks the ability to ensure elimination of high-priority targets regardless of things like Follow Me or Rage Powder.

3. Movepool

Heracross gets access to Mat Block and Storm Throw and gains back access to Bullet Seed and Pin Missile. Having some utility options to protect its teammates serves Heracross well in the double battles of the Bugmerald world, especially a rare move like Mat Block. And while it is missing Skill Link, the new Loaded Die item is a great option for players wanting to use multi-hit moves.

Otherwise, Heracross is in a great place. It gets powerful Fighting and Bug moves, all sorts of coverage options like Facade, Rock Slide, Earthquake, and Shadow Claw. It can boost itself with Bulk Up to become unstoppable on the physical front. Its only real weakness is its middling speed, but throw a Tailwind on your side of the field or a Sticky Web on the opponent's side and suddenly Heracross is mowing down opponents left and right.

Falinks gets Smart Strike, Wide Guard, Attack Order and Defend Order. Especially now that it is a Bug type, its crazy how well the Order moves fit. Heal Order, though, will be reserved for Vespiquen alone. For Special moves to use with its buffed Sp. Attack combined with No Retreat, I'm adding Scale Shot and Clanging Scales to go with the modified Attack Order which is now a special move. I love the idea of these tiny guys beating their little shields to cause a ruckus or chucking them at opponents. 

As one final bonus, Falinks will get access to Beat Up, but gets a perk in that Falinks itself will proc Beat Up five times, for a total of up to 10 hits (The Brass will not dirty its hands to get a last hit in here). This takes it from an incredibly niche move that is extremely hampered by party composition to a very powerful Dark type onslaught. Falinks does not get stab on this move or this would never be ok, but as is I think it offers some fun options for the player and makes it use-able even if your team is mostly Sp. Attackers.

Conclusion

I honestly have never used either of these Pokemon in-game very often. Heracross because its always been butts hard to find anywhere, hidden behind headbutted or honey-slathered tree mechanics. Falinks just enters the game too late to provide much in a first play-through. I haven't decided for this game how exactly the player will be encountering them, but it will definitely be easier and earlier for both. With all the changes detailed above, I think you'll find quite a bit of value by trying one out on your team!

I'd Like My Sandwich without the Crustle, Please

 

 

What if you had a Gigalith but underneath was a weird grumpy crab beetle? Meet this sour guy. They fight each other for territory and the one that gets his giant rock broken apart is the loser. Their massive claws can break Rhyperior armor. So this is a top-tier physical attacker, right? Well, it managed to get all the way up to RU in it debut generation I guess? And it hasn't been seen since outside of PU/ZU. For a Bug strong enough to carry this gigantic honking rock, I feel like it should at least have a little more strength to offer than Scyther. Let's see what we can do. 

1. Stats

I don't want to do a whole lot here. All the pieces are present for an effective battler, I'm just tweaking the best parts a little more. HP is increasing from 70 to 95, and Attack is getting a bump from 95 to 105 (lol, even Game Freak realized their mistake here) to 115. Everything else is staying the same, stat-wise, so abilities and moves will have to pick up any other slack.

2. Abilities

Sturdy works pretty well here in conjunction with Crustle's option to Shell Smash so it can always tank at least one hit while boosting or after boosting. Likewise, Shell Armor was previously awful but now will eliminate its Steel and Rock weaknesses, so we're keeping that. Weak Armor, though? I can't think of a single Pokemon that has been able to make Weak Armor work. Shell Smash is already ten times the option that Weak Armor wishes it could be. Instead, let's reference a very explicit fact that the Pokedex makes clear by giving it Tough Claws as a hidden ability. Crustle is famous for these tough claws that break rocks and it doesn't get Tough Claws? They thick, they mighty, and now they putting a 1.3x damage multiplier on contact moves.

3. Movepool

Crustle has some great moves already, I mostly just want to move a lot of egg moves over into level-up and tutor options instead. Curse, Knock Off, Wide Guard, Hone Claws are all fantastic options for Crustle that should be available in the first play-through without worrying about breeding moves onto your team. I think we can do better than Rock-Wrecker in the final spot, though. I want something that is actually going to take a chunk out of Rhyperior's hide.

Introducing: Sledge Claw. A base 95 power, 95 Accuracy Bug type move that is Super Effective against Rock type Pokemon. This takes Crustle from perhaps 5 hit KOing a Rhyperior without leftovers, to ensuring a 2 hit KO in all circumstances. This is a Pokemon that carves out huge slabs of rock and carries them on its back, then fights and breaks the huge rock slabs of other Crustle. It should have a move that is pretty effective at hitting rocks. 

Conclusion

I said it before, all the pieces are there for Crustle to be very effective in battle. It just gets outclassed in any single regard by other stronger, bulkier, faster Pokemon. These changes should help it carve out its own niches in Bugmerald, especially as the only Bug that gets access to (and can actually use it effectively, sorry Shuckle) Shell Smash.

You Best Not Fuckle

 

 

 Full disclosure: Shuckle is my favorite Bug type in any game. I love this little guy so much. I try really hard not to show blatant favoritism in the game I'm building, but today is the day where I break that rule. Shuckle is getting some FUCKLED buffs and I'm not sorry at all. 

1. Stats and Typing

While it seems like there are a lot of Bug/Rock types available, Shuckle was the first and he is keeping his signature typing combo. Stat-wise, Shuckle already boasts the highest standard deviation between stats of any Pokemon with sky high defenses and bottom barrel everything else. As I'm looking at my stat spreadsheet, I'm leaning into this dichotomy even harder. Introducing Shuckle with truly top-tier defenses that no other Pokemon ever made can match. 255/255 and a buff to 50 HP means Shuckle is rocking out harder than ever. We're dropping Attack and Sp. Attack down to 5 to match his speed too. Bask in the glory that is Shuckle.

2. Abilities

Shuckle has some weird abilities. Sturdy on a Pokemon that will never be knocked out in one hit? Gluttony? Contrary? I think it's time to rewrite the book here. Introducing the new ability spread:

• Rough Skin
• Shell Armor
• Supersweet Syrup

Shuckle is nested in a ridiculously hard, craggy rock. It does not feel good to punch. Opponents can start taking damage when they do. Shell Armor is self explanatory and serves to nullify Shuckle's weaknesses to Rock and Steel, meaning it only has a weakness to Water. Supersweet Syrup references the delicious fermenting berry juice that Shuckles work to produce and share with their friends, lowering evasion for stronger allies to benefit.

3. Movepool

Shuckle already has everything it needs to succeed with these new abilities. Infestation does incredible damage over time and can be paired with Toxic to prevent escape. Power Split essentially eliminates a whole opponent by neutering its damage output, and if it has been hit by Infestation it literally can't do anything. Guard Split can massively buff an ally when Shuckle is on the rocks, and Sticky Web helps its allies out-speed any foes that want to switch in because of a Power Split. I may bring back some old moves it had access to like Captivate for fun, and I am on the fence about giving it access to Slack Off. Even for me that may be too much. Regardless, Shuckle has plenty to do to disrupt foes and buff allies.

Conclusion

Shuckle has never been good, I know that. But gosh was it fun to use and bamboozle opponents with the old Infestation, Power Split, Toxic trick. Now you can enjoy all that fun and much more with the newly buffed Shuckle. You know what they say!

 

Ninjas and Knights: The Bug pair from Unova

 

 

 

As someone who had to drive 30 minutes to get to the house of the only friend I had that still played Pokemon when Black and White released, you can imagine I wasn't a huge fan of trade evolutions. You always have to love when Game Freak doubles down on an idea by adding barely differing iterations. Oh, you have to trade to evolve your Haunter. Now you have to trade AND have Electabuzz hold an item to get it to evolve. Now you have to trade your Karrablast specifically for a Shelmet to have them both evolve. Blah, at least there haven't been any weird new trade evolutions since our buggy friends hit the scene.

The above notwithstanding, Escavalier and Accelgor are actually pretty cool. The former Unova champion is even known to have used both at times. They fall directly into the slow but tanky and fast but frail archetype, respectively, and I honestly did not have a good idea of what to do with them when I started this project. Looking at their competitive history, they actually both were able to carve out a niche in the RU tier for a while, but both have since dropped to the bottom tiers as new, stronger threats keep emerging. While I could just double down and make Escavalier tankier and Accelgor hit harder, I'm taking a different route here. I want to lean into their designs and use some Abilities to make them feel more like their namesakes. To that end, I'm going to mix it up and start with a discussion of Abilities first as this will play into how we want to structure their stats and movepools.

1. Abilities

Let me just say woof, these Pokemon did not last so long in RU because of their Abilities. These things are doing nothing. Sticky Hold? Swarm? It will not be hard to think up better options. For Accelgor,  I definitely want to play more into its ninja attributes. It should be able to do something unique that other Pokemon can't with a ninja-esque ability or two. Here are my ideas:

• Master of Disguise: Doubles the HP of created Substitutes
• Master of Traps: Intensifies field effect moves
• Dry Skin

Master of Disguise is pretty straightforward and gives Accelgor fantastic opportunities to survive longer and set up whatever it wants with some of the bulkiest substitutes in the game. Master of Traps I think I need to explain more in depth. By "field effect moves" I am talking about anything that is changing conditions on the field for multiple turns that is not weather or terrain. Moves like Gravity, Trick Room, Wonder Room, Magic Room, Water Sport, Mud Sport, and the secondary effects of Water/Grass/Fire Pledge affect how moves or stats work on both sides of the battle. To also give credit to the trap side, this ability is also affecting moves like Spikes, Toxic Spikes, Sticky Web, and Stealth Rock.

So now we know what moves are affected by Master of Traps, but what does intensify mean? In most cases, this is just an extension of turns that the field effect remains on the field. All the "Room" moves, Water/Mud Sport, Gravity, and the Pledge move effects will have their turns increased to 8 from 5 (or 4 for the Pledge moves). Of course, the hazard moves like Spikes do not have a turn limit, so those moves will instead have their effect boosted in various ways. A Pokemon with this ability will put down two layers of Spikes and Toxic Spikes instead of 1 whenever it uses the move, Sticky Web will sharply decrease speed, and Stealth Rock will have its damage boosted by 25% for each damage stage. Note that Accelgor will not have access to Sticky Web and Stealth Rock, but perhaps you'll run into an enemy with those moves and this ability.

I know it all comes across as pretty messy, and if it is it's because Game Freak has never grouped these moves together in a category before so I'm blazing new trails here. I'm probably even missing some relevant moves here because it's so hard to search for moves that affect the battlefield. Short of Trick Room and the hazard rooms, none of these moves have seen the light of day despite having really cool effects. Accelgor makes an ideal user of these moves, being fast enough to get things set up quickly, and Master of Traps extends the duration enough to make them actually worth considering. 

Finally, Dry Skin. Just flavor to go with its Pokedex entries that I think is more interesting than Hydration. Phew, ok, time for Escavalier!

• Lightning Charge: Doubles speed when using piercing moves
• Stalwart
• Shell Armor

Escavalier gets its own fancy new ability here with Lightning Charge. Once again, I'm introducing a new category of "piercing" moves, and whenever Escavalier presses the attack with one of these moves it gets doubled speed for that turn to dish out big damage fast. Moves like Megahorn, Smart Strike, Poison Jab, Fell Stinger, and Drill Run will all fall into this category. Essentially, if it is a move that entails Escavalier stabbing you head on with its massive lances, it will be a piercing move. This ability not only plays into its design (and its species name is literally the "cavalry Pokemon") but also gives credence to the Pokedex entries talking about how it flies around at high speed. Yeah, it was never doing that with a base 20 Speed stat. In the next section, we'll look at how we'll be padding up Escavalier's Speed slightly so it can actually make good use of this ability.

A quick aside, I did consider having this ability just give +1 priority to piercing moves. It would be easier to code, but I think it would be far too powerful. Having priority on such high base power moves that span multiple types would be too oppressive and the only counter would be an enemy with their own priority moves, most of which would be far weaker than the moves Escavalier gets access to. Having this ability double Speed instead allows natural out-speeding by the opponent and opens up counter-play through things like Paralysis and other forms of speed control.

Stalwart is a fitting ability to any knightly Pokemon and strikes me as an ability Escavalier would have started with if it had existed in Gen 5. It also lets the player ensure that a high priority target is taken out with Escavalier's high Attack regardless of shenanigans by the opponent. Finally, Shell/Battle Armor is a great fit for teams that need that defensive edge. It's buff that reduces damage from Steel and Rock moves make Escavalier one of the only Pokemon in the whole game that can actually resist Rock types and could make this ability worth considering over the offensive power of Lightning Charge.

Ok, that's a wrap! Geeze, what a wall of text. Now that we have some new and/or improved roles defined for Escavalier and Accelgor, let's see how we can support these design goals in their stats and movepools.

2. Stats

Escavalier is getting its bottom of the barrel Speed stat boosted to...33! While this barely seems like an improvement, looking at the math tells a very different story. Assuming a neutral Nature and a player that doesn't EV train at all and only picks up EV points naturally through the game, we'd expect Escavalier to end up somewhere around 46ish speed by level 50. This is enough, when doubled via Lightning Charge, to outspeed Pokemon with 85 base speed such as Nidoking. Not too shabby. Now let's assume that the player actually puts some effort into raising Escavalier's speed. This would let it cap out as high as 85 speed at level 50. Boosting this with Lightning Charge has Escavalier out-speeding Pokemon with base Speed stats of 115, or even 120 if the opponent's speed is not maxed! If you give Escavalier a Speed-boosting nature, it can now always out-speed base Speed 120 Pokemon with neutral natures or base Speed 115 Pokemon with Speed-boosting natures. That's pretty dang fast! If the player knows to invest in Speed, Escavalier is swinging as fast as the speedsters, and even without investment it is far out-speeding any other tanky, defensively oriented opponents.

With the above in mind, I am nerfing Escavalier's base Attack from 135 to 115 so it is not too overpowered. To compensate, I've improved its bulk with base 90 HP from base 70. These changes should allow Escavalier to comfortably tank hits with ease if the player focuses on defense or hit hard and fast while still being decently bulky if the player opts to use Lightning Charge.

For Accelgor, we're dropping its Speed a bit to 129 (which still leaves it only second to Ninjask among non-legendary Bug types) so we can pad out its survivability. I'm only buffing its defenses to 65 from 60 Defense and Sp. Defense, but I'm ratcheting up HP to a whopping 109. Combined with Master of Disguise, we are looking at some absolutely massive Substitutes that Accelgor can set up. This is balanced by Accelgor's mediocre offenses and lack of good boosting moves. 

3. Movepool

Escavalier essentially has everything it already needs in the moves department. To add some defensive utility, I'll throw in Wide Guard so it can provide some additional support to its allies. I don't think it needs anything more for offensive moves unless I later think of another cool move that would work with Lightning Charge. Icicle Spear perhaps?

Accelgor will get a few more changes to let it properly utilize its new abilities. Substitute will now be part of its level-up learnset, and it will either directly learn or get access to via tutor the Pledge moves, Gravity, Trick, Wonder, and Magic Room, and Spikes/Toxic Spikes. I'm also going to throw in Flattery so it can do some shenanigans with Flattery and Power Swap. Everything else we will leave as is with strong options like Encore, Giga Drain, Water Shuriken, Yawn, and Toxic.

Conclusion

I'm finding something interesting as we progress through the list. More and more as the generations go on and the list of Pokemon keeps getting longer, Game Freak is leaning more into Abilities as a way to differentiate Pokemon that would otherwise be surprisingly similar. We did the same here with Accelgor very clearly differentiating itself from Ninjask and Escavalier stepping away from its slow and bulky brethren too. While I don't want to overly rely on spiffy custom abilities, there will definitely be more times in the future where this will be necessary so every Bug type in this game can have a chance to shine.

Scourge of the Ancient Skies: Yanmega

 

 Yanmega, a dragonfly big and strong enough to lift a human and carry them away. A terrifying prehistoric force unlocked by having Yanma tap into primordial energies. Time and power-creep have not been kind to this beast, but we're going to restore its spot in the upper echelon of Bug types. You'll remember that when discussing Spidops, I was on the fence about giving it a move that used the word garrote, a wire or cloth used to strangle someone to death. Meanwhile, the Pokedex doesn't mince any words when it says Yanmega likes to capture its prey, fly away at breakneck speeds and then crush the prey's head into bits with its massive jaws. And the Pokedex makes sure you know that Yanmega can fly away with you too. Geeze, Game Freak. 

1. Stats and Typing

To begin, while Bug/Flying is of course appropriate to describe a dragonfly I think we can do something more interesting. Yanmega would have been absolutely uncontested in its prime, an apex predator. Something this colossal and powerful deserves a typing to match. In Bugmerald, Yanmega will be one of only two families to utilize the Bug/Dragon typing along with Flygon. While there may not have been classic European dragons in the Pokemon caveman days, they still had to worry about this Dragonfly swooping down to bite apart their skulls and carry them away to its lair.

Yanmega is already in a pretty good place stats-wise, so we'll just be buffing up some weak points to keep it competitive with the field. Speed is getting boosted to 101 to give it the jump on the classic base 100 tier without any Speed Boost procs. Sp. Defense is getting a little love to bring it up to 65, hopefully letting it avoiding an immediate one-shot KO by a powerful Special spread move. Defense is actually dropping slightly to 82 to give room to an Attack boost up to 89. All these changes move Yanmega up to a solid 539 base stat total. To compensate, Ancient Power will be moving to a higher level in Yanma's learnset so it evolves a bit later in the game.

2. Abilities

Yanmega already has two incredible abilities with Speed Boost and Tinted Lens. While decently fast, Yanmega is still outsped by a lot of threats and Speed Boost quickly eliminates that problem. Otherwise, Tinted Lens can make it incredibly difficult for any foe to defend itself by doubling the power of resisted moves. I'll definitely be keeping these incredible options, but for the third I'm going to mix it up a bit. Instead of the underwhelming Frisk, Yanmega will now have access to Strong Jaw, which along with the boost we gave to its Attack stat will allow it to live up to those legendary Pokedex entries. Yanmega biting your head off is not just a metaphorical threat anymore.

3. Movepool

Yanmega has traditionally suffered from a limited movepool that forced it to rely on Tinted Lens to do much damage. I don't want to give it the keys to the kingdom here, but I do want to offer some more options for players that are looking to use Yanmega in-game. An easy add is the elemental fang trio, working nicely with the new Strong Jaw ability. Yanmega also has access to several Psychic moves so I feel fine adding Psychic Fangs to the mix. Ancient Power is getting a buff so Yanmega can actually utilize it as an offensive option.

For status moves, Yanmega is pretty lacking and only really gets access to Swords Dance. I'm adding two extra options for players to use: Work Up and Clangorous Soul. Work Up is relatively slow as it only boosts offenses by one stage, but with Yanmega's improved physical Attack options it can now choose to threaten foes on both defensive sides very effectively if it gets the opportunity to boost. Clangorous Soul of course is more of a clanging-scales reference, but as a dragon type that also is known for its incredible noise-producing wings I still think it is appropriate to give Yanmega access to the move. While it requires an HP investment to pull off, it lets Yanmega boost across the board and immediately become much more threatening offensively and defensively. If you can set up your team to provide Yanmega the necessary support, it can pay off spectacularly.

Conclusion

I like the balance that we've arrived at as everything seems to come with a cost. The player can amplify speed or offense with the available abilities, but not both. Yanmega has much more coverage now, but a lot of those moves rely on its weaker Attack stat which may force a player to run Strong Jaw or a physical boosting move. It can boost both stats repeatedly with Work Up, but the process is slow and could leave Yanmega vulnerable. Clangourous Soul provides a huge up-front power boost, but the HP sacrifice could leave Yanmega in danger even with its improved defenses. It will be up to the player to properly utilize Yanmega's strengths and utility to solve the problem at hand.

In any case, Yanmega is now a true offensive threat once more and has even lost its 4x weakness to Rock as a bonus. While the player may need to raise Yanma longer to see this ancient threat come to life, the payoff should now be well worth the wait.

Crustaceans Come Crashing In

 

 

I discussed in a previous post how I'll be expanding the roster of Bug types in this game to bring in every Pokemon inspired by arthropods. The biggest group affected by this change happens to be crustaceans. Specifically, we're looking at the quirky group of Krabby, Corphish, Clauncher, and Crabrawler and their evolutions. How will they be typed? What moves will they get access to? Are they getting any buffs? Let's take a moment to find out!

1. Stats

Kingler, Crawduant, and Clawitzer have never been close to the highest tiers of competition. They've had moments of greatness down in the lower tiers, but power creep continues to leave them further behind the competition. Crawdaunt at least was able to hang on to RU status? They'll definitely need some stat buffs to maintain their edge in the cruel world of Bugmerald.

All three of the aquatic crustaceans fall into a comfortably distinct role. Kingler dishes and receives hits well on the physical side, Clawitzer on the Special side, while Crawdaunt is the slowest but is a juggernaut that can do a little bit of everything. Kingler and Clawitzer are getting their Speed buffed to 85 and 89 respectively, with Clawitzer sacrificing a bit of Defense to hit that higher Speed tier. Crawdaunt is keeping its suspect 55 Speed but is getting boosted defenses and an HP buff up to 101.

As the sole terrestrial crustacean here, Crabominable walks a similar path to Kingler but with a lot more bulk and a lot less speed. Its defenses are being buffed to 107/87/87, while it retains its terrible Speed stat and phenomenal Attack.

Typing-wise, Kingler and Crawdaunt are maintaining their offensive moves with Bug/Water typing, while Crawdaunt is opting for Bug/Dark for a bit of variety. I may still consider Bug/Water for Crawdaunt, but there are already quite a few Bug/Waters at this point and only 3 Bug/Dark, so I think Dark makes the best fit here for game balance. Crabominable will be keeping the Ice type to live up to its namesake.

2. Abilities

Battle/Shell Armor is receiving a buff that not only gives immunity to critical hits, but also halves damage from Rock and Steel type moves. With Rock an omni-present threat in the Bugmerald world, the player actually has a good reason to utilize Shell Armor for once. Hyper Cutter is remaining an option for Kingler and Crawdaunt to check the doubles threat of Intimidate, and Sheer Force or Adaptability remain incredibly potent offensive powerhouses that they can access as Hidden Abilities. Clawitzer of course maintains its Mega Launcher ability to make the most of its offense. We'll throw in some extra options in Berserk and Storm Drain. There are quite a few Bug/Rock and Bug/Ground types that would love protection from water moves, and Clawitzer itself can always make use of a Sp. Attack boost through either ability.

Crabominable keeps Hyper Cutter and Iron Fist, protecting its offense or boosting it at the player's discretion. For the Hidden Ability, however, we're subbing in some more Shell Armor, baby. More than any other crab here, Crabominable's Bug/Ice typing is loving any protection it can get from Rock and Steel moves.

3. Movepool

Not much needs to be said here, honestly. These Pokemon have some great moves already. We'll be grabbing some egg moves such as Dragon Dance and moving them over to TMs or Tutors, and throwing in some Bug moves at appropriate levels. Pounce, and Struggle Bug at the lower levels, graduating into things like Leech Life, X-Scissor and Megahorn at the bottom of the level-up learnset. No need to mess with anything that's not broken!

Conclusion

We've got quite a few new Bug types that we'll be getting to in the future, but I think these buffs and adjustments do our krabby friends quite well as an introduction into Bugmerald. Keep an eye out for them rounding out the wild Pokemon found while fishing, surfing, and diving!

Rise of the Planet of the Cicadas

 

As I am writing this post in 2024, the United States is about to get blasted with the most cicadas they've seen in over two centuries as two main broods on different calendars happen to sync up this year. The time has never been better to address their Pokemon counterparts, Ninjask, Shedinja, and Nincada. While I have loved this family ever since they were introduced, they have never been particularly useful in an actual Pokemon battle. Shedinja is immune to more moves than any other Pokemon, but is taken out in a single hit if you run into any Fire, Flying, Rock, Ghost, or Dark type moves. Or Sandstorm, or Burn and Poison statuses, or Confusion damage, or someone with Mold Breaker, or abilities that do contact damage, or Gastro Acid or Worry Seed or Entrainment or Simple Beam or Leech Seed...you get the idea. Ninjask actually has a normal HP stat, but it might as well have 1 HP too because the only hits it is surviving with its paper thin defenses are the Grass and Fighting moves it takes 1/4 damage from. Poor Nincada doesn't even learn a Ground type move besides Mud Slap until its 40s. Needless to say, some changes are being made in Bugmerald.

1. Stats

There's really just not a need for Ninjask to have all the speed in the world. It's cool and all to be the fastest non-legendary Pokemon ever, but if you can't throw out any useful moves and you get knocked out in one hit, what's the point? I'm dropping the speed to 141, which still barely out speeds all the relevant non-legendary threats such as Electrode (yes, I am nerfing that speed increase Electrode got in later Gens and putting it toward Sp. Attack). Meanwhile, with 71/75/75 defenses, Ninjask can hopefully take at least a single neutral hit without biting the dust. I don't want a Pokemon with this raw speed to be hitting like a truck, so an Attack buff is only going up to 98 to keep things reasonable.

Ah, Shedinja. The biggest meme in all of the wild gimmicks they've thrown out over the years. I'm going to keep the 1HP, but goodness let's at least do something about its other stats. Defenses don't matter, so everything is getting dumped into Attack (118), Sp. Attack (118) and Speed (121). The Speed might throw some people off since Shedinja is specifically noted to never move or breathe. I justify it because I interpret those Pokedex entries to be calling out how creepy it is and how the Bug husk is completely dead, not an indication of how quickly it can float through the air and fire off Shadow Balls. With these buffs it can at least out-speed a lot of foes and throw out some strong hits. When we look at moves, hopefully we can tie together a package that makes Shedinja a big reward that justifies its huge risk.

Now, with these pretty substantial buffs we're giving to Ninjask and Shedinja, it would be pretty over-powered for someone to grab a Nincada before the first gym and potentially level it up all the way to level 20 to grab two powerful attackers for the price of one. Therefore, I'm raising Nincada's evolution level up to 28 to bring it more in line with a 3rd gym evolution time. Not to worry, though, as I'm buffing Nincada's meager stats to bring it up to more of a Krabby level  This will also make it more useful as a potential teammate to challenge the 1st gym, given its typing makes it one of very few Bug types available at that point that is not weak to Rock.

2. Abilities

Shedinja is stuck with Wonder Guard. It can't NOT have Wonder Guard. I'm not going to be cheeky and throw Sturdy on there or something like that so there really is no other option that would make Shedinja useable in any way. If I change anything, I may make Wonder Guard immune to ability suppressing effects such as Mold Breaker or Gastro Acid, but I'm still on the fence about that.

For Ninjask, I think we can do way better than what Game Freak gave us. Speed Boost of course blew our minds when that first released, but Ninjask is perhaps the worst user of that ability because Speed is the only thing it doesn't need more of. Infiltrator is cool and ties into the ninja aesthetic, but again, Ninjask doesn't make very good use of it with its frail defenses and rather poor Attack stat. Let's throw out some options to consider and go from there.

• Gale Wings
• Sap Sipper
• Technician
• Tinted Lens
• Adaptability
• Wind Rider
• Delta Stream
• Hustle
• Protean
• Unnerve
• Disguise
• Mimicry
• Opportunist
• Mind's Eye

 Sap Sipper, Tinted Lens, Hustle, and Unnerve are flavor options; real life cicadas drink sap, Ninjask's Bug eyes can fit with Tinted Lens, its blistering speed is an easy justification for trading accuracy for power, and Ninjask is known to cause headaches with its buzzing, which could easily unnerve a foe. Then we get to the "ninja-esque" abilities. Technician, Adaptability, Disguise, Mimcry, Protean, Opportunist, and Mind's Eye all can be tied into ninja abilities. The first two make use of a ninja's skill to power up moves, while the rest either reference ninja abilities or call to mind powers that various ninja's have had in popular media. Finally, we have some abilities meant to represent Ninjask's incredile aerial agility with Gale Wings, Wind Rider, and Delta Stream. Ninjask is already blazingly fast, so I don't think Gale Wings is really needed. Wind Rider and Delta Stream both are fantastic, offering some protections against weaknesses and even boosting Attack for Wind Rider. After some consideration, I'm leaning toward the following three options:

Delta Speed (modified version of Delta Stream that prevents super-effective damage against the Flying Type, but only applies to the user and does not prevent other weather effects) gives Ninjask some more survivability without being too overpowered.

Wind Rider gives Ninjask some protection against its Flying weakness but also boosts Attack not just from opponent's moves but from any Tail Wind set up from its allies

Shadow Weave is a new ability that operates similarly to Disguise. Instead of tanking a hit, however, it gives Ninjask 100% evasion for the first move it is targeted by per battle. This makes it better in some situations, such as against multi-hit moves that could break Disguise and keep going, but worse in others, such as against low-accuracy moves that could miss Disguise but will always use up Shadow Weave's single dodge. I might consider have Shadow Weave activate once per switch-in, but that seems massively overpowered to me, especially since Game Freak have since nerfed Disguise to cause damage to the user.

As you can tell, I was not super interested in giving Ninjask an ability that just gives a flat buff to its offenses such as Technician or Adaptability. I think these abilities play into its evasive and high-speed nature much better. As for Nincada, I'll let it keep Sap Sipper and Tinted Lens since Ninjask didn't end up needing them. 

3. Movepool

Let's start with our cute boy, Nincada, this time. Since people will be using him longer, we're mixing up the level-up learnset to accommodate that change. Scratch, Harden, and False Swipe will now be its starting moveset at level 5. At 9, we're adding Fury Swipes, at 14, Mud Shot, and 19, Metal Claw. Dig is getting moved down to level 22, and Bug Bite is getting added at level 25. This should give Nincada some better options to fit on the team until it is able to evolve.

For Ninjask, Bug Bite at level 29 is now replaced with Hone Claws for a nice combo with the Fury Cutter it learns upon evolving. Fury Swipes is getting replaced by U-Turn, and Mind Reader with Dual Wingbeat.Slash, Swords Dance, and X-Scissor are getting lowered respectively to levels 47, 52, and 58. For teachable moves, we're adding Lunge, Roost, Swagger, Mimic, Defog, Final Gambit, Mirror Move, and Trick.

Shedinja is getting the works. As a huge potential liability to any team, it needs to be able to offer fantastic utility in return. Mind Reader is getting a buff to affect all opponents, and Inferno and Sheer Cold are being added as learnable moves. In honor of its noisy cicada origins, I'm throwing in Parting Shot, Hyper Voice, Perish Song, Eerie Spell, Psychic Noise, and Snarl. For Ghost flavor, Shedinja gets Destiny Bond, Hex, Ominous Wind, Nightmare, and Dark Void. Yes, you heard me, that Dark Void. We're going by Legends rules too, so it is a 90% accuracy move with lowered priority. Assuming you can keep Shedinja from getting hit by two foes for a whole round, you are netting some fantastic reward. I'm hoping that with these moves, Shedinja is coming in hot and stealing souls left and right until it goes down.

Conclusion

Ninjask and Shedinja have always been awesome, but now they can hopefully be awesome to use in the actual game that you are playing. Fantastic speed, ninja cunning, and ghostly maleficence are the names of the game with these cicada counterparts should you choose to use one or both. Nincada also gets a little bit of love to make it stand out in the early parts of the game where you meet it. Overall, I'm very excited to try these guys out in play-testing.

The Bug that wasn't...until now: Flygon

 

 I always thought that Flygon was one of the coolest Pokemon in Gen 3 hands down. I think a lot of people agreed with that sentiment because there was quite a pout online when Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire came out and poor Flygon had to watch Altaria, Flygon, and Sceptile get awesome Dragon mega evolutions. What's always been weird to me, though, is how Trapinch and Vibrava are very clearly based on the various real life species of antlions yet not even Trapinch managed to walk away with Bug/Ground typing. In Bugmerald, Flygon and family will finally be joining the Bug ranks, and I'll be making some other fun changes as well to truly congratulate what could have been the first Bug/Dragon type in a different timeline.

1. Stats

Flygon has always been a very capable fighter, with a base stat total of 520 and boasting good physical offense, speed, and decent bulk at the same time. It even has enough Sp. Attack to make use of some powerful special moves in its arsenal for coverage as needed. Flygon and Vibrava are both getting some small buffs in this game, mostly to counteract power creep and to cement their status as powerful Dragon Pokemon. Flygon is going up to a 555 base stat total with some buffs to everything but HP. Vibrava is just getting a little boost to Sp. Attack and Speed to bring it up to 355 from 340.

Now here's where things get wild. Antlions are well known for being absolutely savage and powerful predators in their larval stage, before growing up to be pretty innocuous spindly bugs that look a lot like damselflies and only live a few more weeks to mate and lay eggs. You can see a bit of that in Trapinch's stat layout, where it boasts a huge Attack stat that is tied with Flygon's. No other Pokemon that can still evolve twice has an Attack stat that high. We're going to run with this concept and crank it up to 11. 

The new Trapinch boasts a respectable stat total of 455, with 135 Attack, and 105 in both defensive stats.With base 10 Speed and 45 HP, however, it certainly has a lot of exploitable weaknesses. If you'd prefer to take Trapinch all the way to the Pokemon League, however, just slap an Eviolite on this thing and wreck everything in your path. If you manage to get some Trick Room support, not many Bug types will feel more threatening. I love Trapinch feeling like the voracious predator its real-life counterpart is, and this adds some difficulty to raising it, too. Evolving to Vibrava will actually drop its stats by 100 points, before you get the eventual Flygon boost at level 45.

2. Movepool

Flygon has a fantastic movepool. We'll just add Lunge and Bug Bite to round out coverage for its new Bug typing and we are set. For Trapinch, some additional biting moves are in order. Fire Fang, and Hyper Fang will afford Trapinch some slight coverage in an otherwise fairly restrictive movepool.

3. Abilities

Flygon is one of those odd Pokemon that only ever has one ability, even though Trapinch has three different ones to choose from. I want to expand Flygon's options here. Starting off with Trapinch, I'm adjusting the ability spread to:

• Strong Jaw
  
• Arena Trap
• Sheer Force

Hyper Cutter is effective but a little dull, and no other Bug type gets access to Strong Jaw and I don't think it would really fit any Bug type better than it fits Trapinch.If you stumble into its hole, those jaws are going to be clamping down HARD. The other two abilities are both very fitting and useful abilities to have so I'll keep those unchanged. Now for Flygon:

• Competitive
• Levitate
• Sheer Force

I do want to keep Levitate on board as Flygon has long had an identity as an Earthquake user that is itself immune to Earthquake. But we follow up Trapinch's Strong Jaw with the Sp. Attack oriented Competitive, sharply raising Flygon's Sp. Attack whenever any of its stats are lowered by an opponent. Flygon doesn't have a natural way to boost its Sp. Attack, so this will let people really abuse the Special side of Flygon's movepool. Sheer Force is just an excellent ability that boosts so many of Flygon's moves that a player will have no problem finding a use for it. 

Conclusion

There's not a lot that we had to change with Flygon, just some small boosts to let it keep up with the times. I think we did have a lot of fun turning Trapinch into a viable team option for the more adventurous players. I want the excellent qualities of the Flygon family to shine even brighter in Bugmerald than they ever have.

Paldean Problemo: Let's talk about Spidops and Lokix

 

 First off, dang, that is a sick picture. Please go take a look at this artist at the original link: https://twitter.com/ginnaaaaaaan/status/1747287281281753110

Now if only these two were as absolutely cool as this picture, I wouldn't be saying much in this post. Sadly, this is far from the case. I've complained about this before, but it is really a slap in the face of Bug type enjoyers like us to go from the fantastic and strong Bugs from Sword/Shield and then find out Spidops has worse stats than an Ivysaur.COME ON. This crazy design and awesome Pokedex entries, and then the developers decide to go and make this the single weakest fully evolved Pokemon introduced in Scarlet and Violet. Only Squawkabilly even comes close to rivaling poor Spidops in suckage. Who looks at this spider and says "Ok, now make sure this is by far the worst Pokemon you can possibly use in this game???" Spidops has been absolutely shafted and we're going to do our best to help it bring something to the table in this game.

Lokix is the final form of the other Bug type you can get in the early game, Nymble. It's doing better than Spidops at least with 450 total stats to work with, but its far from impressive in a game where power creep has never been stronger. With these incredible Bug types thrown in the metaphorical game balance bin, its no wonder I haven't even been able to bring myself to finish a Gen 9 playthrough. Woof. Fortunately, the designers have left us everything we need to do some really cool things with our early route Gen 9 Bugs, so let's get started on an overhaul.

1. Stats

This is an easy fix, at least. Buffs across the board for both of these Pokemon. We're increasing the stat total for both to a respectable 470. I don't want to go too crazy because these are not end-game powerhouses and I don't want to set them up as such. That being said, I think their designs and moves warrant them being placed a step up from other early game Mons like Butterfree or Ariados. 

Spidops is getting much needed buffs to HP, Attack, Defense, and perhaps surprisingly, Speed. I want to make sure that with its signature speed-reducing moves it has a Speed stat that can actually take advantage of a weakened foe. Lokix, on the other hand, is just getting a nice 10 point boost to both Attack and Sp. Defense. As a bit of a glass cannon, it needs to actually be damaging enough to make the poor defenses worth it, and 55 Sp. Defense was a bit too poor even for an intentionally frail Pokemon.

2. Movepool

Finally, some good news, both of these Pokemon actually bring some pretty neat moves to the game and now they'll finally get the chance to show them off with their buffed stats. I'm looking to expand on their existing themes while adding some appropriate new options and buffing some existing moves.

Spidops is naturally all about stealth, precise attacks, and restraining its opponent. It's signature move, Silk Trap, is a better version of Protect that also lowers the Speed of any direct attackers. It also learns moves like Counter, Circle Throw, and Throat Chop which all blend in exceptionally well to the idea of someone trained in special operations as part of an elite, covert fighting force. To build on that, I'm buffing it's other "signature" move, Skitter Smack, to serve as a slower but stronger Feint. The base power is dropping to 60 and accuracy is increasing 100%, but instead of lowering Sp. Attack it now hits behind Protect and similar moves while also dropping the effect so its allies can also get hits off. You can't hide behind a shield when this special operative is on the offensive.

I'm also adding a move to play off of speed control. You could argue that reducing the opponent's speed is its own reward, but I want Spidops to have specific ways to benefit from a slowed opponent too. Introducing Web Garrote, a 70 base power Bug type move that doubles in strength if the user moves before the opponent. Now there is a very tangible reward for Spidops if you successfully predict a physical move and counter with Silk Trap. (I might change the name because garrotes are pretty dark, but Pokemon is no stranger to messed up lore).

Moving on to Lokix, this Pokemon is quite obviously a kicking machine. It's in the name! I want to keep Axe Kick as its most potent move, so no High Jump Kick to steal that thunder. We are definitely going to add some more kicks, however, with Blaze Kick, Rolling Kick, and Triple Kick added to its level up learn set and Triple Axel being available as either a tutor or TM move. Finally, as a nod to its mechanical design with fold up legs and its "Showdown Mode" that the Pokedex can't stop talking about, I'm replacing Agility with Shift Gear. It will be difficult to find a time to boost with its frail defenses, but if its ally can distract foes, Shift Gear will allow Lokix to jump far ahead of its middling Speed tier and become a huge threat to the enemy team with an attack buff to boot.

3. Abilities

Spidops continues its trend of being horrible with some real bottom tier abilities. At least they're lore appropriate, but preventing sleep and hitting harder on switch ins do not do a whole lot to improve its usability. Instead, we'll add the following:

• Technician
• Infiltrator
• Arena Trap

As a special operative, Spidops trains itself to use moves to their maximum ability and Technician is a great fit thematically and gives a substantial power boost to a lot of its key moves. This hits the newly buffed Skitter Smack, Circle Throw, and Assurance in its level up learn set, along with with coverage moves from TMs like Pounce, Aerial Ace, Rock Tomb, and Trailblaze. Infiltrator and Arena Trap, meanwhile, serve as very lore appropriate abilities that play off Spidops skill at maneuvering around opponents and striking unseen or setting up traps in its environment. Finally the "Trap" Pokemon has access to something with trap in the name. Arena Trap as the hidden ability gives you a more technical option later in the game when the ability patch becomes available and switching out becomes a bigger deal that could hinder a player's strategy.

Lokix is already halfway there with the phenomenal Tinted Lens ability, ensuring its often resisted Bug, Dark, and Fighting moves still hit incredibly hard. I'm going to move that over to Swarm's spot and throw in the new hidden ability, Reckless. If you want to boost Axe Kick and Double Edge to their maximum power, Reckless is for you. Finally, I'm fixing the bizarre issue of Showdown Mode. All of its Pokedex entries mention Lokix entering this extreme fighting stance called Showdown mode that takes a huge toll on its body but allows it to quickly end fights with extreme power. Yet, this is all flavor, none of this translates over to actual gameplay. We already made a nod to Showdown Mode by adding Shift Gear to Lokix's movepool, but we can go farther.

Lokix's second standard ability will now be Showdown Mode. A Pokemon with this ability has its Attack stat boosted by 1.5 times, but it takes damage equal to 1/6th of its max HP after every turn. Essentially, a physical version of the Solar Power ability. Because Showdown Mode doesn't rely on weather effects being in place, I'm increasing the health loss from 1/8th HP drain to 1/6th to balance its power. Lokix is already pretty frail, so in a double battle situation it is rarely going to be lasting the full six turns that Showdown Mode would allow. This really necessitates that Lokix hits hard as quickly as possible, ideally taking out an opponent every single turn until it faints. This also means you rarely want to send out Lokix as your front-runner, instead keeping it on the bench until any defensive opponents that could stop its assault have been cleared and speed control has been set up to stop faster foes that could threaten Lokix's weak defenses. Showdown Mode thus provides incredible power, but truly is an incredible toll on Lokix just as the Pokedex has recorded.

Conclusion

I hope with these changes that we have righted the gameplay wrongs that Game Freak has left with these awesome Pokemon designs.Lokix is hitting harder and faster with multiple ways to threaten foes at the player's discretion. Spidops is sneaking around opponents and using its Silk Trap to weak foes for the kill with a boosted Web Garrote or Technician boosted coverage moves. Now they are primed for an adventure with tougher opponents that Bugmerald offers.

I also think this leaves these two Pokemon with their own unique identity compared to Pokemon that use some of the same tools. Spidops lowering speed to get a crushing blow off contrasts with Galvantula, who is more focused on continual damage over time and Ariados, who is more concerned with boosting with either Focus Energy or Swords Dance and then hitting hard with priority moves. For Lokix, it cements its place as the Bug type that focuses on recklessly powerful kicks to take down as many foes as it can before it goes down. The other kicking Bug, Pheromosa, will still be akin to a glass cannon but it will have more focus on its pheromones and mixed offensive abilities then straight up raw physical offense like Lokix.

Have fun using the coolest Bugs in Paldea!

The Flying Forretress Bomber

 

 

 Some Bug types actually have a very well defined identity that I want to preserve in this hack, and Forretress absolutely fits that bill. The premier physical wall in the Bug pantheon can tank any physical hit head on, spread spikes around, hit back decently hard with Gyro Ball, and even sacrifice itself with an Explosion to take out major threats. The only thing it fears is the searing inferno of fire moves. Of course, with only 60 base Sp. Def it actually is afraid of any strong Special attacker. Forretress did pretty well for itself starting out in the earlier gens, but eventually Ferrothorn came around and did everything Forretress wanted to do but even better. Bother. In this post, I want to give the power back to this literal floating fortress with quad-cannons and explore some options that will let it thrive in a more challenging game.

1. Stats

Forretress doesn't reach the upper echelon of 500+ base stat total Pokemon but it does quite well for itself with 475 distributed where it needs. It has massive defense, passable attack and HP, and only really struggles in Sp. Defense. I don't want to change much here, so we are just going to take a page out of Ferrothorn's book and drop the base Speed from 40 to 20 so we can pad up Sp. Defense to a much more respectable 80 while simultaneously giving it an even more threatening Gyro Ball. This will help Forretress stay on the field for more than a moment against threatening special attackers.

2. Movepool

Again, not much to change here as Forretress gets access to some great moves. Solid attacking options in Gyro Ball, Explosion, and Payback. Through TMs it can get coverage moves like Seed Bomb, Earthquake, Body Press, and Ice Spinner. It has utility moves up the wazoo with things like Spikes, Toxic Spikes, Rapid Spin, Volt Switch, Gravity, and dual screens. It can even do things like boost up with Curse, or heal itself with Pain Split. The only change I'm making for moves will be to swap Pin Missile from its Egg Move list to the Level Up list instead. Depending on what TMs end up making the final cut, I may move some of its current TM moves to its Level Up list too.

3. Abilities

Here is where vanilla Forretress really falls flat. It has Sturdy, to let it take a single fire move and stay at 1 HP, which I guess is ok. In the Double Battle format, however, it is pretty easy to work around this by having one opponent use a fire move and another use a spread move to wack off that last HP, meaning slow-as-molasses Forretress is now gone without getting a single move off. Then it gets Overcoat that gives it...immunity to powder moves. That's right, because Hail is no longer a thing and its typing already gives it protection from Sandstorm, Overcoat becomes just a worse version of Insomnia for poor Forretress. We can definitely improve things on the Ability front.

First up, we're expanding the Ability list to three so Forretress has some additional options. We're already buffing Overcoat by combining it with Shield Dust, so we'll keep that on as the Hidden Ability in case someone really wants that defensive utility to shrug off Spores, Flinches, and many statuses. But now let's make things a little more interesting. As an intimidating fortress with built in cannons, I'm looking for options that let Forretress defend itself, support its allies, or do some damage. Overcoat fills the defensive niche, so the next two abilities will fill the other roles.

For support, we're going to give the excellent ability Battery to a Pokemon that can actually utilize its power. Forretress already has some cool electrical capabilities with moves like Magnet Rise, Zap Cannon, and Volt Switch, so I feel perfectly justified from a lore perspective giving it an electrically themed ability. Battery boosts the special moves of its allies by roughly 30%, which gives it some fantastic utility for any Sp. Attackers on your team. Couple that with Forretress's natural bulk and the opponent will have a hard time shutting down that devastating power boost. And all the while Forretress can chip away with its own attacks or disrupt with its utility moves. This is such a cool ability and I'm still mad that no fully-evolved Pokemon can have it, so I'm glad to finally right this mistake.

For offense, let me introduce Bombs Away. This is the offensively-oriented counterpart to Bulletproof. Instead of granting immunity to ball and bomb moves, it increases their power by 50%. This will give a huge boost to a number of Forretress's moves such as Rock Blast, Seed Bomb, Zap Cannon, and most notably, Gyro Ball. Speedy sweepers beware, as Forretress can smack you with up to a 150 base power move that now is boosted an even further 50%. Sweet genius, that's gonna hurt. Steel is still a pretty flawed offensive typing, however, and its coverage moves aren't that great, but if a player wants Forretress to actually be threatening some damage they now have an option.

Conclusion

This turned out to be a nice, quick, and easy post. Forretress already had all the main tools it needed to succeed with solid stats and moves. We just gave it the leg up with some better abilities and a small buff to Sp. Defense. If you loved using Forretress before, I think you'll be very happy with its performance in this game. And if you were never a Forretress stan, I hope these changes give you a great reason to try it out!