#120+ #121: Staryu and Starmie

After this recent run, IGN just told me that I was a 7.8: too much water...

Staryu... Well, it's a star in shape, at least. It's pretty fast (base 85), but aside from that and the special attack (base 70), then you'll be rather disappointed. 30HP, 45 physical attack and 55 in both defences. You get pure water typing, along with the abilities illuminate (utterly worthless in battle as it does nothing, but as a lead party member in the wild, the encounter rate increases dramatically), natural cure (heals status conditions when switching or when the battle ends) and analytic (hidden, if your target has already moved in the turn, you hit them 30% harder). None of these abilities is that great, since analytic gets shut down a bit by your nice speed. Natural cure is pretty good, I guess.

Yep, it's a star, all right...

Hmm... Tackle is the first move you get along with harden (boosts defence). You then can pick up water gun (water special base 40) and rapid spin (normal physical base 20 that can also be used to remove entry hazards, and so makes the Pokemon a good niche if you can find good things elsewhere). Recover isn't an awful move if you intend on hanging around, as it recovers 50% of your maximum HP, whilst psywave (which would gain STAB later on as a psychic special move except it's a fixed damage move) deals damage based on your level, between 0.5x and 1.5x the users level. Swift is a reliable hit, with base 60 normal physical and it won't miss unless the foe protects, flies up, tunnels down or dives under the ocean waves like a murderous Jacques Cousteau. Next up is bubble beam, which is base 65 water special with the chance to drop the foe's speed. You then get access to camouflage, which changes your type depending upon your environment (so in grass or with grassy terrain you become grass-type, in a volcano, you become fire-type, and in space you obviously become a dragon (duh!)). You get gyro ball, which I guess can be good if you get trick room-ed, but otherwise it's pretty much crap. We know brine: base 65 water special that doubles in power if the foe is below 50% HP.

You can minimize if you want the extra evasiveness that double team from the TM list would do without getting all the major disadvantages that come with minimize (like boosted damage from an incoming stomp). Reflect type does what the name suggests in that it changes your type to that of the foe, even if they have two types, but it won't work on Arceus due to the multitype ability. Power gem is a rock special move with base 80 and no added effects, confuse ray will confuse the foe, and psychic will become a STAB move when you evolve, hitting as a base 90 special move, I think you know what type it is. Light screen doubles special resistance of the team for a few turns, cosmic power boosts both defensive stats by a stage, and hydro pump is a very powerful (base 110) water special move that has only 80 accuracy and 5PP, so surf is a much better move, really.

Looking at TMs, you can grab the standards (including the aforementioned double team), along with ice beam/blizzard, thunder/bolt, hidden power, scald (base 60 water special with a chance to burn the foe), flash cannon (base 80 steel special with a 10% chance of lowering the foe's special defence), dazzling gleam (base 80 fairy special), surf, thunderwave, and then dive and waterfall that are physical water move. You get nothing from breeding, but the tutor offers water pulse (base 60 water special with the chance to confuse the foe), signal beam (base 75 bug special), snore, gravity (drops flying or levitating foes to the ground), recycle (gives you back a berry if you have used it), pain split (averages your HP and that of the foe so you could potentially get some decent healing out of this one but no killing blow), magic coat (reflects things like thunderwave, teeter dance and entry hazards, along with leech seed and attract), and finally icy wind (because everything seems to get this and snore, it's base 55 ice special that can lower the foe's speed).

If you want to use a water stone (not a book shop), then you can evolve into Starmie, which has a few more points and a boost of 30 to every stat, making them as follows: 60HP, 75 attack, 85 defence, 100 special attack, 85 special defence and 115 speed. This 'mysterious Pokemon' keeps the abilities you had before, but is now also psychic-type, which could be a blessing or a curse.

Ok, forget the star shape, the names make me think of a Lionel Richie song, I think...

You'll be wanting to get all the level up moves whilst as a Staryu, since the move list is basically binned and replaced with a very short version that is just hydro pump, water gun, rapid spin, recover, swift and confuse ray. Definitely get everything you want before using that water stone. The TM list gets psyshock as a nice addition (base 80 psychic special that hits the foe's defence, meaning it can go round special walls where psychic would fall flat, meaning you could actually have both on a moveset and not be laughed at), hyper beam and giga impact also both come in, as does dream eater, which would be great if you had a move that induced sleep on a foe, rather than on yourself. You can also grab grass knot, and trick room if you want to use gyro ball and analytic. Trick room is an interesting choice, certainly weird but potentially good, as you can get it up early using your good speed, which basically ensures you'll go last unless it's the rare situation where something could outspeed you. If you get the trick room up (say in a double battle), then analytic ability comes into play if you get hit, and gyro ball could do some real damage, else you could have trick room to undo someone else's trick room.

Skill swap, trick and wonder room now inhabit the tutor list in addition to what we saw before. Skill swap could be used to dump the almost pathetic illuminate ability onto someone else and get something much better in exchange, or transfer analytic onto a team mate if you feel it'll get hit before it can do its damage. Trick can swap your held item with that of the enemy (but exercise caution with this one), and wonder room will swap the defence and special defence of all Pokemon in play (stat modifiers stay the same).

I didn't think I would be saying this, but this family is actually seriously quite good. You get decent stats all round, with a very nice speed and good special attack. Rapid spin could guarantee this Pokemon a place on a team since it could well outshine most rivals for that position, and it could also pull double duty as a special sweeper with powerful moves, interesting typing and dazzling speed. The only let down is the abilities it has, but none of them actually hurt it. Really, you should consider this one.

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