Volcarona and the Days of Future Past

 

 I. love. Volcarona! How cool is it to have a mythical sun-deity flaming moth on your team with Stats nearly as high as a Legendary Pokemon? Even in a Singles metagame defined by Stealth Rock and a Doubles metagame with Rock Slide galore, it has managed to carve out a niche as a hugely powerful Sp. Attacker. So when Scarlet and Violet introduced two more bizarre forms of this exceptional Bug type, I thought "Weird! But I'll take them!" All three forms of Volcarona will be available as Legendary Pokemon in Bugmerald, befitting their mythical descriptions and powerful stats. Let's take a look at how they'll operate in a Bug-only world!

1. Stats

While they certainly don't need a boost, now that they're official Legendary Pokemon I'm upping all their base stat totals to a well round 600. Slither Wing with its prehistoric ferocity has the lowest speed and Sp. Attack but the highest HP and Attack. Iron Moth is the fastest and hits hardest on the Sp. Attack side but has the worst defenses, while Volcarona lands in the middle defensively but remains decently fast and certainly hard hitting.

For typing, you may think Iron Moth would be a Steel type but it wasn't in Scarlet and Violet (you cost me a lot of points on PokeGrid for this, Game Freak >:( ) and we're doing the same by making it Bug/Poison. Volcarona is of course, Bug/Fire and Slither Wing keeps its Bug/Fighting mix. 

2. Abilities

Volcarona never needed a primo ability to perform well in battle, but I would like an ability that is a bit more unique to it, and of course the same goes for Slither Wing and Iron Moth with their bland Paradox abilities. We're going to take a page out of Volcarona's Pokedex and the movie monster Mothra to spice things up.

• Flaming Scales: Halves the power of Fire attacks used by all opponents
• Paralyzing Scales: Any Flying type moves used by Slither Wing reduce the target's Speed by one stage
• Reflective Scales: Status moves used after Iron Moth's turn are reflected back at the user

Volcarona's Dex entry talks about how the danger of its scales are not how they burn, but how they use up the oxygen in the area. I think Flaming Scales is a neat play on that lore. Meanwhile, Paralyzing Scales and Reflective Scales pull on some abilities from Mothra that I think are very fitting for the prehistoric and futuristic backgrounds of these two forms. As signature abilities, we won't include anything else in the secondary or Hidden Ability slots for these Pokemon.

3. Movepool

Iron Moth will get Armor Cannon, Clear Smog, and Corrosive Gas. I love the idea of it shooting off a piece or two of its metallic wings to inflict massive fire damage at the cost of defense. It notably won't get access to a strong, single-target Poison move outside of Venoshock. I like the idea of it relying on Sludge Wave, which will hit your ally unless you're prepared, or having to rely on allies setting up poison via Toxic Spikes or other moves. Venomoth would be a great partner here.

Slither Wing's new ability turns Dual Wingbeat from a lackluster coverage move to a pretty debilitating physical move that sharply lowers the opponents speed. It will also get access to Air Cutter for a weaker attack that compensates by hitting the field and lowering the speed of both foes. For flavor, I want Ancient Power and Dragon Tail to play off its prehistoric nature and Vacuum Wave as one of the few (only?) Fighting types that has huge hurricane-producing wings. 

Volcarona will be getting a buff to Fiery Dance, making it always increase Sp. Attack instead of only having a 50% effect rate. It will also get access to Sacred Fire if you want to fish for burns instead. Otherwise, I think its in a pretty darn good place.

Conclusion

Volcarona has always been powerful, and while its crippling Rock weakness can be troublesome it can no doubt provide some amazing power to your team if you can support it. Slither Wing and Iron Moth will also be incredible additions to any team, assuming you can find them. Will you be able to catch all three or will you need to make a hard choice of who to add? Where will you find them in the Hoenn map? What place do they hold in the Bugmerald lore? All of that, you'll have to find out in game.

 

Trashy Triplets: Do you give a Wormadam?

 

 

 We already spoke briefly about Burmy's male evolution, Mothim, and its new sound-based shenanigans. But anyone who's looked at Burmy's family tree knows that the much more interesting path is on the female side. Having three forms that depend on where Burmy's most recent battle was when it evolved is such a cool concept. Unfortunately, Wormadam's stats have ensured it is practically un-useable in any of the games it's been featured in. It also fails spectacularly in the popularity department, as it hasn't been seen in any mainline game in 7 years after they gutted the National Dex (at least they popped up in Legends Arceus). No more! We're going to rework its terrible stats, abilities, and moves to make something as memorable as its design wants it to be.

1. Stats

Wormadam's three forms have always had a fun balance that is reminiscent of the first three Regis. Grass has a focus on the special side, Ground on the physical side, and Steel a balance of both. Too bad that its paltry 424 base stat total prevents it from doing much of anything across the board. We're starting this rework with a huge stat injection to bring all forms up to a 499 total to work with.

Grass form gets bumped up to 115 Sp. Def and 99 Sp. Att and 90 Defense. Ground form mirrors that on the physical side. Steel gets 100 in both defenses and 89 in both attacking stats, but with a hit to speed making it the slowest form. All forms get a meaty 100 HP to bolster their bulk. 

Now we're getting somewhere. Of course, stats are only half the battle. While Bug/Steel has always been a great typing, Bug/Ground is just ok and Bug/Grass is up among the worst typings imaginable. Let's see what mileage we can get out of the Abilities side of things to shore up the difference.

2. Abilities

I want the cloaks of Wormadam to play more of a role than just what type it ends up getting. Therefore, behold the cloak abilities!

• Grass Cloak: Grass moves used against Wormadam restore HP, Wormadam's Grass moves are 25% stronger, Super-effective damage against Wormadam is reduced by 25%
• Sandy Cloak: Ground moves used against Wormadam restore HP, Wormadam's Ground moves are 25% stronger, Super-effective damage against Wormadam is reduced by 25%
• Trash Cloak: Steel moves used against Wormadam restore HP, Wormadam's Steel moves are 25% stronger, Super-effective damage against Wormadam is reduced by 25%

  Now I feel like the cloaks are actually doing something besides making a fashion statement. These abilities grant an immunity, reduce super-effective damage, and strengthen some of Wormadam's offensive options in one fell swoop. This plays into everything Wormadam would want to do in a battle, except moving faster, I suppose. These abilities are so all-encompassing, that I'm not going to even bother letting them have other abilities. Wormadam has what it needs here.

3. Movepool

To form a nice defensive core of boosting moves, all three forms will get access to Quiver Dance, Stockpile, and Curse. Pick your poison and boost away! Likewise, they pick up Trick Room since they already are very psychically endowed, along with Shore Up to get some HP back. To round out with some status moves, they'll get access to Disable, Captivate, Camouflage, Recycle, and Rage Powder.

Grass Cloak will get access to Cotton Guard and Cotton Spore to boost itself or debuff foes. Aromatherapy for support,  Sleep Powder for status, and Chloroblast, Giga Drain, Leaf Tornado, and Grass Pledge, and Seed Bomb for attacking options.

Sandy Cloak gets Sand Tomb, Earth Power, Mud Shot, Stealth Rock, Smack Down, Tar Shot and Mud Sport.

Trash Cloak picks up Flash Cannon, Make it Rain, Steel Beam, and Mirror Shot for attacking moves along with Gyro Ball and Iron Head for the physical side. Spikes and Toxic Spikes I think fit thematically, since Wormadam is literally wearing trash.

Conclusion

Wow, these guys might have the most buffs of any Pokemon we've yet covered in these posts. By gosh, they sure did need them though. I grant that they're a bit strong for a Level 20 evolution, so we'll be popping up Burmy's requirements to at least 25 if not a little later. To compensate I'll absolutely be giving Burmy some buffs. It was a hellish experience raising it to level 20 already, so it needs to at least be useable if the player is expected to stick it out for a Wormadam. I'm pretty sure in the games Burmy is always encountered in its grass form, but in Bugmerald there will be locations where you can find Burmy already in its Sand and Trash forms as well, to make acquiring your preferred Wormadam a bit easier.

I always thought these gals were pretty cool, so I hope you give them a try in your next play-through!

The Bug That Ate a Mountain

 

 I have gone back and forth on whether I should include these guys in the game so many times at this point it has made my head spin. There really is not a specific kind of insect that the Tyranitar family is based off of, and indeed its name and final evolution are much more dinosaur-esque than insectoid. On the other hand, no other animals on Earth besides insects go through the classic Larva -> Pupa -> Adult lifecycle, so Tryanitar is clearly pulling some inspiration from the Bug world. Its design with segments and armor sections is also pretty reminiscent of the insect exoskeleton. And since Armaldo has shown us that Pokemon is not going to shy away from the Bug/Dinosaur/Monster combo, why should we? Let's look at how everyone's favorite Sand Stream menace will work in the world of Bugmerald.

1. Stats and Typing

Tyranitar famously has some of the best stats and stat spreads for any Pokemon since its debut way back in Gold and Silver. We won't be touching those.

For typing, I've waffled quite a bit around Bug/Dark, Bug/Rock, Bug/Ground or something else. I ended up settling on Bug/Ground for Larvitar and Pupitar and a change to Bug/Rock once it evolves into Tyranitar. Larvitar is born deep underground, so it makes sense that it would be more associated with Ground typing at that point in life. But by the time it gets to the adult Tyranitar stage, it has absorbed enough minerals in the dirt to burst out as a full-fledged Rock type to get that sweet sweet 1.5x Special Def. boost in Sandstorm. Aw yeah.

2. Abilities

Unnerve is pretty boring. I like Bulletproof much better to reference how its "body can't be harmed by any sort of attack." We'll also throw in Own Tempo to give it an option to both resist Intimidate and click on Thrash with impunity. I think Bulletproof is the better ability here so we'll stick that in the Hidden Ability slot.

3. Movepool

Being a Bug type family now, we obviously need to add some new options scattered throughout the level-up learnset. Pounce, Bug Bite, and Silver Wind at lower levels and X-Scissor, and Bug Buzz at higher levels. Otherwise, you can't pack much more into the movepool that Tyranitar doesn't already have.

Conclusion

Tyranitar is ironically in a very bad place in the current games of Scarlet and Violet. The rise of the fairy type, power creep, and its own 7 weaknesses making it very hard to utilize its bulk. Bug/Rock Tyranitar suddenly becomes much more threatening with its typing alone. It adds a Rock weakness but its total weaknesses drop to only 3 types. If running Sand Stream, Water becomes pretty manageable with Tyranitar's staggering Sp. Def. in a sandstorm, leaving only Rock and Steel to worry about. But Steel, at least, is not a terribly common attacking type. Hopefully there aren't any professional trainers that specialize in Steel types in the Hoenn region! 

Either way, if you've been bummed by Tyranitar's performance in recent games, I hope that Bugmerald can be a breath of fresh air for you! If you can figure out how to find it, that is.

The Insect Banes of the Insect World

 

 FluffyBunnyBadass via Tumblr

 Dragonflies and Wasps are the rulers of the skies in the insect world. Their huge wings, jaws, stingers, and flashy colors make them stand out from everything else. But on the ground, the apex predators don't show themselves during the day.  These killers come out at night while the other bugs shiver in their beds. Centipedes are terrifying apex predators and I want that to be just as true in Bugmerald. Fortunately, we don't have to do much work with the two terrifying centipede Pokemon, Scolipede and Centiskorch. Scolipede has gotten some superb buffs over the years and Centiskorch boasts the only immunity to the dreaded Fire type in this whole game. Let's look at how we can keep the best qualities of these Pokemon while making sure they can hold their own in a tougher game.

1. Stats

Starting out, I want to realize the Pokedex entries that talk about the rivalry between Scolipede and Centiskorch. I know what you're thinking: how exactly is Scolipede putting up a threat against a Fire type with much higher stats? So stats are what we are granting to our OG centipede-mon. Some big buffs to HP, Attack, and Defense allow Scolipede to function even better at what it does well with a new base stat total of 532 to compete with the big boys. I also find this a fitting total for one of the rare Bug type three stage evolutions with a final evolution level in the 30s. 

Centiskorch is also going to need some love here. As a mixed attacker, it really struggles to get all the stats it needs in the right spots. I could gut its Sp. Attack to patch up its weaknesses, but I think it would lose some of its identity as an incredibly powerful fiery monster if we did that. Instead, we're bumping it up to the Arcanine tier, stat-wise, and raising Sizzlipede's evolution level substantially to compensate. A 5 point reduction in both Attack and Sp. Attack allow some big buffs in Defense and Speed that should make a big difference in what Centiskorch can offer in battle. It will be a late game reward and its stats will reflect that. 

Of course, Sizzlipede is barely outscoring Grubbin on the stat charts, so we're throwing some big buffs to this little mustache bug so it can hit more like a Charmeleon than a Charmander. Buffs almost across the board will make sure that Sizzlipede can at least be use-able until you hit that big evolution power boost.

2. Abilities

To start, we're going to have a little fun and replace Swarm for Scolipede and White Smoke for Centiskorch with Guts. As fierce rivals I love the idea of a poisoned Centiskorch and burned Scolipede getting even more ferocious in their attacks against each other instead of backing down. These two hate each others'...Guts. Badumcha

Then for Scolipede, Poison Point is pretty redundant when it is already using a bunch of moves that can poison a foe. Instead I'm making a new ability to reference the centipede hunting style: Neurotoxin. This ability will sharply lower an opponent's speed whenever one of Scolipede's moves successfully inflicts the Poison status on a foe. I'm a little worried about how easy this will be to code in the context of double battles, because I don't want the ability to lower speed if the opponent is poisoned by Scolipede's ally or a different effect like Toxic Orb. If it becomes too difficult, I'll change it to all of Scolipede's damaging poison moves also lower speed by one stage. Either way, this is a nice reference to centipedes in real life going for a swift poison jab to paralyze opponents so they don't get away.

Centiskorch can also do better than Flame Body for its hidden ability. Looking through the ability list, I couldn't find anything that really stood out to me for matching the flavor or battle strategy that Centiskorch offers. So instead, here is another new ability! Bracing Legs makes any self buffing moves, such as Coil, have +1 priority. This is a weaker Prankster in that it only affects self-buffing status moves but with the benefit that it can't be blocked by Dark types. Now Centiskorch can get some crucial defensive buffs in before being forced to take a hit, or get some offensive buffs in play before a Taunt or other disrupting move can prevent it. 

Speed Boost and Flash Fire will of course be staying as is. I think even with the cool new options above, these two abilities will remain the preferred options in most scenarios.

3. Moves

Here is where I think we can add even more centipede flavor to these two Pokemon. The classic centipede in real life is a fast hunter that decisively strikes a killing blow in one shot with its poison pincers. Scolipede has horns instead, but I want the idea to remain. Introducing: Ruthless Horns. This Poison type attack works similarly to Wring Out, boasting a fearsome 130 base power when the opponent is at full health, but dropping in power substantially as the opponent loses HP. This move will also have a high chance to poison foes. 

I'm also making some changes to Scolipede's original signature move: Steamroller. Looking at the Pokedex, I didn't realize just how heavy this monstrous centipede is. Not counting legendaries/ultra beasts or weird outliers like Totem-boosted Pokemon in Aloloa, Scolipede is the single heaviest Bug type in the normal games. This thing is massive, in the same ballpark with monsters like Tyranitar and Onix. I think this needs to be reflected in Steamroller with a little more than just flinch chance. Steamroller is getting its base power upped slightly to 70, and in addition to flinch it will now hit Rock and Flying types for super effective damage. If this gargantuan 200+ kg ball of chitin is blasting over foes like a literal steamroller, I think its fair that rocks are crumbling and brittle bird bones are snapping. Keeping the move at only 70 bp prevents this from being overpowered in my mind, while still making this move worth considering after you get access to stronger Bug moves like Megahorn

 Centiskorch likewise is getting a new signature move. Flame Feast appears to be a forgettable Bug type move at only 80 base power, but similar to Freeze Dry, this move is also super effective against Fire types. Centiskorch will truly be the bane to the Fire types that haunt your fully Bug type teams and may be worth adding just for that fact. I'll also be adding a 30% Burn chance to Fire Lash to make that move feel a little more dangerous than it is right now with its relatively low power. It does lower Defense, but it really takes a while to get moving unlike Flare Blitz which is a ton of upfront damage right away.

For the rest of their movepool, not a whole lot comes to mind so I may have to expand on this later. Centiskorch as the longest (if not the tallest because of weird Slither Wing measurements) Bug type absolutely should have Wide Guard. I'll throw Quick Guard at Scolipede since it is a fast attacker that should be able to intercept these kinds of moves. Centiskorch will also get access to Calm Mind, Work Up, and Stockpile as three additional buffing options that it could choose to use with its new hidden ability. I may add Sandsear Storm, but that could possibly be too powerful even though Centiskorch is primarily a physical attacker. 

Conclusion

I love how much more centipede-esque we've made these two. They should definitely be more threatening on the field now, and I think we've thrown in plenty of fun mix and match options to let players craft their ultimate hundred-legged battle partner. There is one more new addition in Bugmerald that is evocative of a centipede, but that will have to wait for another post. Oooooooh, intrigue!

The Other Arachnids

It's pretty funny that out of all the scorpion-esque Pokemon in the game, only one really looks much like a classic scorpion and that one happens to be the only one to have Bug typing. Little Skorupi loses that uupon evolving, but we're bringing it back to its big form, Drapion, along with Gligar, Gliscor, and the vaguely scorpionish Dunsparce line.

Just like in real life, these Pokemon have pretty much everything they already need to be very successful, so we'll be making just a few tweaks to bring them in line with the Bugmerald vision. Thank goodness there aren't any flying scorpions in reality.

1. Stats

Somehow, they nailed Gliscor perfectly the first time. It still performs very well in competitive battles, though perhaps not quite as well in doubles. I'm leaving Gliscor as is and if we end up needing to buff Sp. Def or something, so be it.

Drapion, however, has definitely been feeling the pressure from power creep. First we'll let it ascend to the coveted base 100 speed tier to give it a little bump. Then small buffs to HP and Attack will hopefully give it that edge it's been looking for the past couple of generations.

Dudunsparce looks like it has a great spread on paper but it's so new I'm having trouble determining if it's performing well in actual use. I can't imagine a Pokémon that can hit through Protect with a powerful STAB move could be bad, but I suppose it is probably held back in the Scarlet/Violet meta by the popularity of Ghost and Steel tera types. Terastillization will not be in Bugmerald, but just to be safe I'm giving it a little boost to HP to help patch its  otherwise middling defenses.

2. Abilities

As long as Gliscor has Poison Heal that's going to be it's primary choice. Sand Veil we'll keep for use on weather teams, but Hyper Cutter can be swapped out for Toxic Debris. There are definitely situations where the player can get great benefit from switching in Gliscor to tank a physical hit and spread a layer of toxic spikes in one fell swoop. I love options!

For Drapion, Battle Armor certainly becomes more attractive with the buff it is receiving to give resistance to Rock and Steel moves. Sniper is decent enough and Drapion has plenty of moves that can benefit from it. For the hidden ability, I'm going to swap to Merciless as a different way the player can utilize critical hits and the name certainly fits Drapion's nature.

Dudunsparce

Serene Grace is a rare and phenomenal ability, but Run Away and Rattled are less useful. Run Away will now change to Berserk when it evolves. Dunsparce has strangely powerful options on the Special side and this will give the player potential to run a mixed attacker Coil set to hit hard with normally inaccurate moves on both sides of the damage spectrum. Rattled I'm very tempted to replace with Simple, but this might be a little too overpowered. A Pokémon that can double its Attack, Defense, and Accuracy with one move seems pretty scary, though on the flipside you do have to watch out for Intimidate sharply dropping your Attack stat too. I'll probably need to do some playtesting to see how it handles. Otherwise, Rattled can work a little better now with Dudunsparce's new resistance to Dark moves and better distribution of moves like Beat Up. 

3. Movepool

Not much to be done here for Gliscor, Drapion, or Dudunsparce, honestly, they have tons of good moves already. I might let Drapion have something like Wide Guard, but otherwise no changes. 

Conclusion

This is a weird, motley crew I've assembled for this post, but they all vaguely fit into the scorpion archetype and I wasn't changing much about any of them so it worked well enough. They're pretty tanky, but can hit hard with strikes from their stingers if you foolishly give them the chance to boost. Give them a try in your next play through!

Bugmerald Starters, meet the Trio

 

 Believe it or not, it was actually pretty difficult to pick the starters for this hack and I have gone back and forth quite a few times. I'm feeling pretty comfortable now, though, and it's time to introduce the cast. These three offer a good mix of offense, defense, and utility and should give players some great options for crafting a fun team. For starting Pokemon, you'll get the choice between Sewaddle, Blipbug, and Grubbin.We've already talked about Grubbin and its family, so let's go over how we'll be updating Sewaddle and Blipbug for a more challenging game.

Yes, I know they don't make the pretty super effective type trio, but it was hard enough to find three good Bug evolution families with three stage evolutions that aren't Butterfree equivalents. I think these choices will give the player a lot more fun options for team building.

1. Stats

Vikavolt has a new identity as a speedy, hard hitting Sp. Attacker. Leavanny will not be quite as fast, but still decently quick and decently strong on the physical side with 123 Attack and 102 Speed. While it sounds like a fun idea to be a more defensively oriented support type mon, Leavanny's awful Bug/Grass typing means it needs to focus on speed and offense to be able to offset its weaknesses somewhat. It desperately wanted to be above the 100 speed mark so it can get some moves off before any foes can throw a super-effective hit at it.

Orbeetle has always been focused more on the defensive side and it will receive a 20 point HP buff to help out its worst defensive stat, bringing it to a very respectable 80/110/120 spread. The last couple points are dropping into Sp. Attack to leave it at 89. Orbeetle won't be breaking through any defensive walls, but it can hit hard enough with powerful moves and it makes its boosting moves even more threatening. 

2. Abilities

I'm not touching Leavanny's typing (as a bug that is covered in leaves, what can you do besides Bug/Grass?), so it is instead getting a huge buff in its available abilities. The Sewaddle line will now all have access to the following:

• Friend Guard
• Chlorophyll
• Grassy Surge

With Friend Guard, suddenly Leavanny has a huge defensive presence on the field without having to throw out a move. It can use Protect to stall for time for a powerful teammate and put the foe in a tough spot where they either have to focus down Leavanny and waste turns or have their moves weakened while Leavanny hits back hard with its buffed Attack stat.

Grassy Surge is the other big new addition here, which again allows Leavanny to provide huge defensive or offensive support to its team just by switching in. Even if Leavanny gets knocked out quickly, the opponent still has to deal with the effects of the Grassy Terrain for several more turns.

Chlorophyll stays from its old ability set for players who want to work in a weather strategy, and with this trio of abilities I think there is actually a very strong reason for a player to pick up Sewaddle right away. 

Orbeetle will also be swapping in most of its pretty boring ability pool for the following set:

• Telepathy
• ESP Waves
• Psychic Surge

In the double battles of Bugmerald, Telepathy becomes a very useful ability that allows your other Pokemon to run moves that normally damage the whole field. But we're moving that to a normal ability to allow Psychic Surge to take the hidden ability slot. Orbeetle certainly appreciates the damage boost this provides to its plethora of Psychic moves and especially Expanding Force, and its team can benefit from immunity to priority moves. While you'll only find one other Bug/Psychic type in Bugmerald (and it is quite strong if you decide to pair it up with Orbeetle) plenty of other available Bug types in the game get access to Psychic moves and can take advantage of the power boost.

The new ability ESP Waves rounds out the basic ability slots, and gives Orbeetle the unique ability to target all foes with its single target status moves. This may sound incredibly broken, but I believe it is balanced out by the fact that 1) you won't be able to access it until mid-game when Dottler evolves (it will be Compound Eyes before then), and 2) Orbeetle gets access to scant few status moves anyway. We'll go over moves next, but in the normal games Orbeetle only learns Confuse Ray and Hypnosis from leveling up or TMs. Pretty scant! Of course, I won't lie, a Hypnosis that can hit both foes is incredibly, incredibly powerful. After a little play-testing I may end up changing this ability around a bit.

These abilities should make for some very fun options for the player to craft their team around. I also love how all three starters will have the terrain surge abilities as their hidden abilities to really tie them together as a set. Chef's kiss!

3. Movepool

Leavanny will be getting a number of support/utility moves to enhance its role as a mothering Pokemon and give it something to do besides spamming Protect and Leaf Blade. Floral Healing and Grassy Glide are no-brainers to give some synergy with its newfound access to Grassy Terrain. Growth and Synthesis will let it take advantage of the sun to become a deadly physical or mixed sweeper. Otherwise, Leavanny actually has quite the nice movepool when including TMs. If you can utilize teammates to keep it alive, it can put in some work for you.

Orbeetle will be getting some fun new moves to round its kind of boring level-up learnset. Mystical Power, Expanding Force, and Twin Beams are all great new damaging moves beyond plain old Psychic. Kinesis and Miracle Eye give it a few more status moves to play with its new ability. Cosmic Power and Dream Eater I like as a nod to its extra-terrestrial design. 

Conclusion

There you have it, three new starters to try out for Bugmerald! Vikavolt is certainly the most offensively potent of the three, but as a drawback it offers very little during the early game as Grubbin and Charjabug. It can't provide much support against Roxanne or Flannery, and can only hit for neutral damage against Brawly and Wattson and has a lot of trouble with Magneton, though it at least can resist Wattson's spread Electric moves. You also can't evolve Charjabug until you get access to the Thunderstone, which happens mid-game only after you've defeated Flannery.

On the other side, while Sewaddle/Swadloon and Blipbug/Dottler don't provide any resistances to Roxanne or Flannery, they can provide fantastic support to their team with Friend Guard and Reflect/Light Screen to help your whole team survive better against these very difficult opponents. Once the end-game rolls around and you're up against the likes of the Elite 4 and Wallace, then things will probably be a bit more difficult for Leavanny and Orbeetle though we have given them at least some options for long term success.

 Regardless of which starter is picked, the player will have lots of fun choices to make to bring out the best in their team, and that was the end goal here all along.

The Highs and Lows and Highs and Lows of the Safari Zone Crew

 

 I have been putting off this group for quite some time now because I am really struggling with the question of how I want to fit them into the game. Scyther and Pinsir started off pretty innocently, rare Bug types with the stats of fully evolved Pokemon that didn't learn any Bug moves that would actually make them relevant against Psychic types. Scyther got a cool new evolution in Gen 2 that was...OK at the time, before suddenly popping off beyond all belief when Gen 4 rolled around and gave access to Technician and Bullet Punch. It reigned supreme for years before slowly being pushed out of the spotlight from power creep. Scizor and Pinsir both got Mega Evolutions in X and Y and were both phenomenal until they became inaccessible from Sword and Shield onward. Then Scyther ended up getting yet another evolution in Kleavor that has ended up being pretty mediocre in most regards. These guys have been all over the place. For Bugmerald, I need to figure out the following:

• Are Mega Evolutions coming back?
• If not, do we give Pinsir or Scizor access to weaker versions of their Mega Evolution forms as a type of normal/permanent evolution?
• How strong do we want these bugs to be?

Going into this post, I am still truly undecided on all of these points, so I'm going to be spitting out my thoughts on the virtual paper and we'll have to see what ends up sticking by the time we're done.

1. Stats

Let's start with Stats because I think it will help us determine how we want to start answering the above questions. Are we bringing back Mega Evolutions? For Scyther and Pinsir this would jump them up to 600 base stats total, at the cost of forcing them to only hold their mega stones as items. Honestly, I really am not interested in adding Mega Evolutions to this game. They're hard to balance, they are definitely not balanced out of the box, and scant few Bug types even have access to Mega Evolutions which makes me feel like I'd have to add a bunch of fakemon to the game to bring some parity. I am really not interested in expanding the scope of the game to add in a bunch of brand new Pokemon and designs.

So then, can we work some stat magic without Mega Evolutions to bring a bit more balance between Scyther's line and Pinsir? Immediately, we run into our first problem that is unique to Scyther and its evolutions. Scyther is the only Pokemon in the game that doesn't get a boost to any of its stats when it evolves into either of its two evolved forms. I guess this kind of makes sense with Scizor if you imagine that is it just putting on the Metal Coat that is used to evolve it, but isn't Kleavor supposed to be a mystical guardian of the forest or something? You'd think it would have a little more oomph in the stats department compared to your everyday Scyther. 

Ideally, I'd like to keep Pinsir mirrored with Scyther, so if we give Pinsir an evolution I'd like Scizor to share the same stat total. But, we're walking a thin line here because Scizor is already so, so good. Any buffs to Scizor and there is a very real risk of making it the best Pokemon in this entire game. Luckily, we do have Sp. Attack as a dump stat that can be boosted with no real danger. Here's a first draft of a Scyther/Pinsir pairing with evos:

Pokemon	HP	Att	Def	S.Att	S.Def	Spd	Total
Scyther	70	110	80	50	80	110	500
Pinsir	65	125	100	50	75	85	500
Scizor	80	130	110	70	80	65	535
Pinsir 2	70	140	100	50	70	105	535

 Scizor gets a small boost to HP and Def, which I don't think breaks the game, and Pinsir gets a nice new evo that brings some of the power of its old Mega Evolution instead of overwhelming dominance. On top of that, both Scyther and Pinsir can make great use of Eviolite if the player would prefer to use their classic forms instead. While we can recycle Mega Pinsir's design to use as Pinsir's new evolution, obviously we need a better name than Pinsir 2 or Mega Pinsir so we'll have to come back to that.

What about Kleavor? Instead of just making it worse Scizor, I've opted to cut its Att to straddle the line between Scyther and Scizor and then make its HP the stat of choice. As a rare and more caveman-like version of Scyther, Kleavor is going to be tough and bulky with a middling 85 Speed stat. It's base stat total will be much higher, akin to a non-box Legendary like Moltres or Suicune, but it's evolution item will be gated to the last parts of the game. Kleavor will be a nice bonus for people willing to wait to evolve their Scyther.

2. Abilities

These two are already chock full of powerful abilities, so I won't be changing much here. For Scyther, we're taking out Swarm and replacing it with Super Luck to play with its several high critical ratio moves. We'll also can Steadfast as the Hidden Ability to give Mind's Eye, a useful ability that calls to mind its ninja-like prowess. Realistically, you'll want Technician, though.

Same thing for Scizor. We know you'll actually be using Technician, but we'll replace the absolutely worthless Light Metal and Swarm for Clear Body and Stalwart, respectively. At least those abilities actually have a use.

For Pinsir, no changes, our baby is perfect. Pinsir's evolution will keep the first two abilities, but will swap out Moxie as its Hidden Ability for Aerilate. This will make sure that the player has access to its best ability but doesn't get it too early in the game.

3. Movepool

Again, not much to do here. These Pokemon already have stellar moves that they can call on. I'll move Feint to Pinsir's level-up learnset instead of only accessing it as an Egg move. Likewise, Quick Guard and Night Slash will do the same for Scyther. Stone Axe will get a minor boost to 75 base power for Kleavor, and I'll probably end up throwing a double battle utility move or two in for everyone. 

Conclusion

Wow, that was pretty straightforward in the end. While mega evolutions are not making an appearance in Bugmerald, I think we were able to strike a healthy balance between restoring some of that lost power to our Safari Zone buddies without going overboard. Pinsir, specifically, really needed the help. Scizor has been strong for some time and even though it is now overshadowed by newer, stronger, Pokemon, it is by no means weak even in the current VGC meta. Kleavor got some nice buffs and I think the player will be in for a treat once they work out how to access one in Bugmerald. All in all, a pretty productive post! See you in the next one.