#167-168: Spinarak and Ariados

Yay! More bugs! These being counterparts to the previous Ledyba/Ledian due to version differences, and the day/night cycle.

Stats wise, Spinarak is to power what Forest Gump is to genius. 40HP, 60 attack, 40 defence and both special stats, and a mere 30 speed. At least you have different typing, swapping the flying for poison, so bug/poison now. Swarm is the same as before as it boosts bug moves by 1.5x when below 33% HP, and insomnia stops you from sleeping. The hidden ability of sniper boosts the power of critical hits by 1.5x (so now 2.25x the standard hit).

Two faces but only 6 legs? Not a very good spider...

Poison sting is a base 15 poison physical move that can poison the foe, whilst string shot can lower the foe's speed by two stages and hits all adjacent foes with 95 accuracy, but then you get scary face, which has quarter of the PP, the same effect, mono-targeting but better base accuracy at 100 so why you get both I really cannot understand. Constrict is a base 10 normal physical move that can again lower the foe's speed by a stage, and leech life is a base 20 bug physical move that heals you by up to 50% of the damage sustained by the target. Night shade is a ghost move that deals damage equal to the user's level (so very useful against Shuckle and for terrible Pokemon). Shadow sneak is like a ghost version of quick attack in that it is a base 40 ghost physical move with a one stage increase in priority. Fury swipes pops up at the same level where you can evolve (22), and is a base 18 normal physical move (80 accuracy) that can hit up to 5 times in a turn.

Sucker punch is a nice base 80 dark physical move that will only hit the foe if they are readying a damaging attack, with sucker punch having boosted priority to make it even more useful. Spider web prevents the foe from switching unless it has baton pass or U-turn etc. and doesn't affect ghosts anymore, and agility is a speed booster. Pin missile is very similar to fury swipes, but is bug-type, base 25 and 95 accuracy, so more powerful, more accurate and with STAB. Psychic is a psychic special move with base 90 power, and poison jab is a base 80 poison physical move with a 30% chance to poison the victim. Cross poison is base 70 poison physical with only 10% chance to poison the target but with a good critical chance. Sticky web is the last level move which acts as a speed reducing entry hazard that doesn't affect Pokemon that are not on the ground.

TMs, well, there's the standard set, with the additions of hone claws (boosts attack and accuracy), and venoshock, as well as solar beam, dig, psychic, sludge bomb, thief, round, struggle bug, X-scissor (base 80 bug physical with boosted critical chance), infestation, poison jab and substitute.

Baton pass an be bred on, along with disable, electroweb, megahorn, night slash, psybeam, pursuit, rage powder, signal beam, sonic boom, toxic spikes (so couple this with sticky web for an entry hazard setter), and then twineedle, which boosts power when used to kill the target. Tutoring can give the interesting bounce (basically a lower power fly at base 85 flying physical with 85 accuracy), bug bite (base 60 bug physical and eats held berries), electroweb (base 55 electric special), foul play (base 95 dark physical), giga drain (base 75 grass special that drains health from the foe), signal beam (base 75 bug special), and then snore (base 55 normal special that can only be used when sleeping).

Evolving time! Ariados is a little less pathetic: 70HP, 90 attack, 70 defence, 60 in both special and then 40 speed, which means you need either to be in trick room or using priority moves. No change to type or abilities, but venom drench pops up in the level list now, which only works on poisoned targets, working to lower both attack stats and speed by a stage. This is the only move that changes, no hyper beam or giga impact... Weird...

Not content with not having enough legs, two of them have now migrated to being utterly useless... Pretty telling...

Yeah, these Pokemon are nothing special again, but arguably better than the previous Ledyba and Ledian. Still, not really worth using at any juncture...

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