#113+ #242 + #440: Chansey, Blissey and little baby Happiny

Yay! We have a near unholy trinity of a generation one Pokemon with an added evolution in another generation AND a baby added further down the line! Yippee!!

I guess I'd better start with the baby, Happiny, which is arguably most likely obtained by breeding a Chansey which is holding a luck incense. Happiny can be caught in the wild whilst holding an oval stone, which we'll get to in a bit. I hate to admit the fact that I could find Happiny cute based on the egg/oval stone obsession it has if it wasn't so hideous. You know what else is ugly about Happiny? 5 in both physical stats. You read that right, there is no typo, not 15 or 50, but FIVE as base for both physical stats. Throw onto this 15 special attack and you see you won't be doing direct damage at any time, but 100 HP is pretty nifty, and goes well with base 65 special defence, making a potential wall. The speed is a mere 30. Natural cure is a good ability as it heals a status condition when you switch out, serene grace doubles the chance of an additional effect on a move, which would be amazing on something with attacking prowess, though it could be ok-ish here, and the hidden ability of friend guard reduces the damage done to allies in a multi-battle by 25%, which is great if you're into multi-battles. I guess I should tell you that you're normal-type, and you've resisted the fairy changes.

Is this Kirby after inhaling Zero-Suit Samus?

The level up list here is extensive: a whole massive FIVE moves, basically one for each base stat point in physical. Pound is the only directly damaging move with base 40 as a normal physical, so basically you may do 2 damage to the foe if you're lucky. Charm didn't resist the march of the fairies, but it's the same as it was as a normal move, lowering the foe's attack by two stages, but any normal attack will hammer you no matter how high your HP is. Copycat makes the user use the last move used by the opponent unless they didn't use a move or if they switch out that turn. Refresh cures poison, paralysis and burn, but not frozen or sleep. Sweet kiss has also changed from normal to fairy, but the effect is the same: it confuses the foe.

You get the standard TM list, and toxic is a great choice as probably the best way to inflict damage as it is independent of your dreadful stats. Sunny day and rain dance can work if you're running as an assistant in a multi-battle with friend guard, this could actually be brilliant. Protect could be worthwhile to stop physical hits butchering you, or just improve the special walling, and safeguard can protect the team from status inflictions. Light screen makes special walling even easier, as it doubles the team's special defence for 5 turns. Hail and sandstorm could be good since a slight chipping away of your huge HP could be worth it, again with the multi-battles for things like sand veil. Rest could be awesome as it heals you fully, and you can couple it with sleep talk quite well. Thunderwave, swagger and confide are all good options to annoy your foe. Grass knot could do quite well as a damaging move, and substitute can be amazing since you have so much HP to sacrifice to it.

If you really want to go for damaging moves, solar beam can go on with sunny day, frustration and return offer decent STAB options, psychic is a decent power psychic special move (no point in discussing power, more importantly it has a 10% chance of lowering the foe's special defence, which doubles with serene grace), shadow ball is a ghost special move that is a little less powerful than psychic but has twice the chance of the added effect, flamethrower is the same as psychic in power (90) with the same 10% chance but this time of inflicting a burn, whilst fire blast has been nerfed over the years down to 110 power and from 30 to 10% chance of the burn, and has lower PP and 85% accuracy, arguably making it less favourable than flamethrower. Incinerate is also a fire move, but much lower power (60), but the great thing about it is that it burns off the foe's berry or gem. Round, echoed voice, hidden and secret power all offer some damage, but even facade doesn't come recommended this time around with the abysmal stats.

As far as egg moves go, you can get counter, and since you'll take a huge hit to HP from any physical move, hoping the massive HP reserves keep you alive, you can destroy the foe as a one off since you reflect the physical damage back at them twice over. Helping hand can again work on a multi-team raising a team-mate's base power of the move they are using by 50%, and can be coupled with another assistant on a triple-battle. Aromatherapy and heal bell cure all status afflictions on the team, and endure lets you hang on to life if the incoming hit would prove fatal. Gravity pulls the foe down to earth to be hit by ground moves, Metronome picks randomly from an enormous pool of moves (not quite comprehensive), mud bomb has a 30% chance of lowering the foe's accuracy as well as being base 65 with 85% accuracy as a ground special. Natural gift inflicts damage based on the held berry with no secondary effect, and present is a really stupid move. I also don't like last resort, it hits hard, but it's basically like a hyper powered struggle that you've given up a move slot for, as it can only be used when all other PP has gone. Don't take last resort, please!

The tutor has rather a lot of moves on offer, such as covet, a base 60 normal physical move that steals the foe's held item, basically a normal version of thief. Endeavour drags the foe's HP down to what you are on, and drain punch is a base 75 physical fighting move that drains the foe's health and heals you a little. Several of the other moves you can get have been covered before (gravity, heal bell, helping hand, shockwave, last resort), whilst recycle could be a great addition alongside rest and a chesto berry. Snore can also work as well if you feel confident that you can do damage to a degree it matters. Uproar prevents foes from falling asleep and does decent normal special damage at base 90 (though this is neutralised by soundproof as an ability). You can also grab icy wind, water pulse and zen headbutt.

If you level up holding that oval stone we mentioned, you get the original Pokemon, Chansey. Ah, Chansey, seen very early on in the anime as being slave workers in Pokemon centres the world over... The only ability change is the loss of friend guard to make way for healer (30% chance of healing an adjacent ally's status condition at the end of each turn). You keep the 5s in the physical stats, but other than that, things pick up at least a little: 35 special attack, 105 special defence (nice for a special wall), 50 speed brings you past that pesky trickle of treacle running down that one degree slope, but the thing that really makes it is base 250HP.

What's with the fronds, Slave-Nurse?

I hate the fact that Happiny's whole moveset has been thrown away, or at least scattered around other moves.. This is becoming a slog for something not even that good. Yeah, you can carry forward the Happiny moveset through this, but now we have so much more to talk about... So we'll start with double-edge (normal physical base 120) which won't do too much damage, and you probably won't notice the recoil since your HP is enormous and it'll be around 3HP damage anyway. You also get defence curl to add a little bit to that dreadful base 5, pound survives but is still useless, and growl reduces the foe's attack by a stage to make sure they don't utterly destroy you. Tail whip pops up with refresh, and double slap hits a few times at base 15 normal physical for each hit. There's been nothing worthwhile so far, but soft-boiled actually changes things a little by acting as a seriously helpful healing move, transferring 20% of your HP to that of a friend outside of battle, and can also heal yourself by 50% of maximum HP. Bestow gives your held item to the target, which could be used in a sort of squire to a knight kind of role, or offloading something awful onto the foe, like a choice item that doesn't correspond to anything they actually want.

We know two things about minimize: it boosts evasion but makes you more susceptible to certain moves, like stomp. Take down is a less powerful version of double edge, and is thus rather useless. Sing is a 55% chance to induce sleep move, fling varies depending on what held item you have as it throws it away (which may work if you've stolen their item and you don't really want it, or if you want to steal another item later), heal pulse can heal the target (not yourself) by up to 50% of their HP, and egg bomb also comes up (base 100 normal physical with 75% accuracy with no secondary effect to actually make up for the accuracy that is approximate to my darts throwing). Healing wish is the last move by level up that we haven't yet talked about (you can get light screen and double edge again), and healing wish KO's the user, switching in a target which gets healed and cured of status.

Take Happiny's TM list and throw in a dash of ice beam, blizzard, hyper beam, thunder/bolt, earthquake and brick break to disappoint in how little damage you can actually do using powerful moves. Rock tomb, giga impact, bulldoze and rock slide also disappoint, grass knot is still there, and I failed to mention dream eater earlier for Happiny, but it's still here and does heavy special damage (if you have a special attack) and it actually drains the foe's health IF they are asleep. Wild charge comes in as an electric physical recoil move that just isn't worth it, power-up punch boosts your attack but it isn't really worth it, and nor is rock smash. Strength is reasonably powerful at base 80 physical normal, but dazzling gleam is arguably better despite lacking STAB as a fairy move since it's the same power but special, and special attack is far far better than physical on this egg monster. Seismic toss is actually added to the breeding list if you don't breed for a Happiny, and a few more moves are added to the tutor list: iron tail, the elemental punches, stealth rock, shockwave, focus punch (and since substitute is a viable option here then maybe use it for a change), and skill swap.

If you make friends with your Chansey, you can get a Blissey. Blissey has 255 HP, 10 in both physicals (wow, they actually doubled!), 75 special attack, 135 special defence and 55 speed. You do realise that eviolite on Chansey actually gives you better special defence at the cost of the damage output, 5 base in HP, and 2.5 reduction in physical defence. It's arguable that Chansey is a better shout if you want a fully special wall, but it's kinda debatable. You remain normal-type and you keep the abilities Chansey gave you.

YAY! Another pretty much spherical Pokemon!

There aren't really any additions to the movelists for Blissey, so we may as well just wrap this up. Yeah, it's a special wall that can just barely take a physical hit unless you intend on countering for enormous damage. You can work as a cleric or an assistant in double battles, and you can healing wish to really help out an injured sweeper. A lot of people pair it up with Skarmory (a physical wall), and that's all I can really say.

(All artwork presented by Ken Sugimori, taken from the Bulbapedia image archives)