(#133) #197 + #198: Espeon and Umbreon (Eevee part two)

Yeah, there's still more. If you haven't read part one, go do so now, then I can skip the Eevee stuff and say that you'll see a lot of stuff recycled.

We'll jump straight into Espeon, a psychic-type. You get the 65s in HP and attack, 60 in defence, 95 in special defence, a nice 130 in special attack and 110 in speed, which sits nicely for a special sweeper. The standard ability of synchronise means that if you get a status condition, your foe will also get it, and outside of battle it makes it more likely that you will find a Pokemon with the same nature as the synchronise team leader. The hidden ability you can get is magic bounce, which reflects incoming status affliction moves such as toxic, as well as arena hazards and taunts and torments. Espeon evolves from Eevee when levelled up with high happiness during the day.

Another normal animal with a split tail and a jewel in its face...

Skirting around all the moves Eevee has covered and that reappeared in all the other Eeveelutions, we see confusion come in as the early STAB move (a base 50 psychic special with the chance to confuse the foe), and swift (base 60 special normal that basically doesn't miss unless the target is in the semi-invulnerable or behind protect) slots in after quick attack. Psybeam is added to the list where the fang moves have been, acting as a base 65 psychic special with a slight chance of causing confusion, and future sight hits as a base 120 psychic special after a couple of turns. Psych up copies the stat changes of the opponent, both positive and negative, and morning sun offers healing based on the weather: normal - 50%HP, sunny - 67%HP and rain - 25%HP. Psychic is one of the best moves on offer here a a base 90 psychic special attack, and the last move that tucks in after last resort is power swap (swaps the changes to the attacking stats between the user and the target).

Taking the standard Eevee TM list (which is just a bigger standard list), you can also grab psyshock (base 80 psychic special move that hits the foe's defence), along with psychic itself, dream eater (inflicts damage and drains a sleeping foe's HP at base 100 psychic damage), and dazzling gleam (a fairy special attack base 80 that hits adjacent foes). You can also take grass knot. The tutor can bestow magic coat and magic room, signal beam, zen headbutt, skill swap and trick on top of the routine ones.

Rather than evolving during the day, if you evolve at night you get Umbreon. Yeah, these two were basically made to show off the in game clock introduced in generation two. Umbreon has a significantly weaker offensive presence, with 65 for attack and speed and 60 for special attack, but it makes up for this with some bulk: 95HP, 110 defence and 130 special defence. You're a dark-type, y'know, with the night and such. You again get synchronise, but the hidden ability this time around is inner focus, which prevents flinching.

As another Sonic tribute, we have rings...

The inserted moves into the basic set this time feature pursuit, a base 40 dark physical move that hits a switching target before it can leave the battle and hits double what it normally would. Further to this, there is also confuse ray, which is rapidly followed by feint attack (inflicts a hit of base 60 dark physical without input of evasion or accuracy stats, like swift) and assurance, which is base 60 dark physical that hits twice as hard if the foe has already sustained damage, including recoil. Screech drops the target's defence by two stages, moonlight heals just the way morning sun did, mean look traps the foe in battle, and guard swap, which switches changes in the defensive stats with the foe.

If we move on to the TM list, you get the addition of taunt, psychic, payback, dream eater, dark pulse (which can cause flinching) and snarl (dark special base 55 that hits all adjacent foes and lowers their special attack by a stage). The tutor can grant spite, wonder room, snatch and foul play.

Even though these two were pretty much exclusively put in the game to show off the new timer mechanics, these are arguably the best two of the Eeveelutions, not just so far, but overall. Umbreon fills a nice niche that hasn't really come up as a dark-type tank with some decent attacks, which is pretty interesting. That being said, they aren't anything too amazing once again.

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

#133 - #136: Eevee, Vaporeon, Jolteon and Flareon (Eevee part one)

Oh dear Arceus... Lord Helix let us get through this... Enough with the dumb Poke-religious garbage, this is going to be awful, since there are so many of these Eevee-lutions (as they have been dubbed) that this will go across a few posts, with the intention here of doing the Generation one incarnations followed by the Generation two incarnations next, and then combining Generations four and six into a third and final post.

We're starting here with the basic Eevee. In truth, Eevee has pretty awful stats: 55 each in HP, attack and speed, 45 special attack, 50 defence and 65 special defence. You get run away as an ability, which is pretty dire and we've slammed it enough, but you can also get adaptability (boosts the boost of STAB moves from 1.5x to 2x) and the hidden ability of anticipation, which causes your Pokemon to shudder if they have a super-effective move. In this form you're merely a normal-type.

Yup, a nice bland starting point for something that will diversify

There is an annoyingly large level up list available here on Eevee, which sadly continues on the other evolutions, meaning we'll be here for a while. Helping hand remains a bit worthless, but growl can lower their attack and tail whip can lower their defence, whilst tackle remains a basic base 50 physical normal attack (but you get extra boosted STAB if you have adaptability!). Sand attack lowers the foe's accuracy, baby-doll eyes (which is essential if you want a Sylveon, post 3) has boosted priority in order to lower the foe's attack, swift is a base 60 normal special attack that doesn't miss (unless the foe protects or flies or whatever) and quick attack is a +1 priority normal physical attack with base 40. Bite gets STAB as one of the myriad possible evolutions (coming up in post 2), and is a base 60 dark physical move with the chance to flinch. Refresh cures poison, paralysis and burns, covet is a base 60 physical normal move that will steal held items from the foe, take down remains a base 90 physical normal move with heavy recoil (which basically means it's awful or you just hate your Pokemon and are using it as fodder to only last a turn or two) and charm is now a fairy (not normal) type move that reduces the foe's attack by two stages. Baton pass swaps you out for another team mate, passing on your stat changes and substitute. Double edge is like a more powerful take down, with last resort being similar, but even more powerful (take down is base 90, double edge is base 120, last resort is base 140) and can only be used if all other moves have no PP left. The last move available is trump card, which is a normal special move that is more powerful the less PP the move will have after being used, so on its last use, it will be base 200.

You get the standard array of TMs with a few nice additions, such as dig, shadow ball and retaliate, but not that much more. You get some breeding moves (breeding Eevees is pretty useful, as the different natures can help inform what you want to evolve it into). You get some of the moves we have covered so far from breeding, as well as stored power, which gets more powerful the more buffs you have on you (great for the end of a baton pass chain), endure means you can survive the next hit and then you can use flail to hit harder the less HP you are on. Along with yawn, there are some unremarkable moves here. Heading over to the tutor, you can pick up covet, last resort and helping hand from your level list, as well as hyper voice from the TM list, snore (as always), heal bell and iron tail. I started yawning and snoring because of that list...

Now we tackle the first of the Eeveelutions: Vaporeon. We're starting with a water-type with heavy HP and special attack focus, the former base 130, the latter base 110. Away from these you get a sluggish 65 speed, an indifferent 65 attack (why this reasonable I have no idea, go for an attack hindering, special attack boosting nature as a good shout to evolve into this), 60 defence and 95 special defence. As far as abilities go, you get water absorb (basically if you get hit by water attacks they will heal you) and the hidden ability of hydration (heals status conditions in the rain). This is just like Lapras except with less special attack, slightly more attack and slightly more defence. To get Vaporeon, you use a water stone on Eevee.

It's a mermaid? A merdog? A mer-something? I have no idea...

You retain helping hand, tackle, growl, tail whip and sand attack from before, but then things change a little. You can take water gun (base 40 water special) and quick attack again. You can then grab water pulse (base 60 water special with the chance to confuse the foe) and aurora beam (base 65 ice special with a slight chance of lowering the foe's attack stat by a stage). Aqua ring can be setup to heal you a small amount each turn, whilst acid armour boosts your defence by two stages. Haze prevents your stats from being altered (but this can be cleared), muddy water is a base 90 special water attack with 85 accuracy and the chance to lower the foe's accuracy (the mediocre accuracy here means that surf is a better option), last resort is the same as before and hydro pump is base 110 but a mere 80 accuracy, again making surf a better option.

You can take both rain dance AND sunny day... Hmm... But yeah, standard TMs not withstanding, hail, ice beam and blizzard are there, with dig again and hyper beam, oh and shadow ball again. You can also take surf (of course), retaliate, giga impact, scald, rock smash, dive, strength and waterfall. The move tutor now adds aqua tail, icy wind, signal beam and water pulse to their previous offers for Eevee.

If you would rather use a thunderstone on Eevee then you get Jolteon instead of Vaporeon. Along with being electric-type instead, you swap the bases in HP and speed, but all other stats are the same as Vaporeon. Instead of water absorb you get volt absorb, which is basically the same thing except it's when you get hit with electric attacks, and the hidden ability is quick feet, which adds 50% to your speed when afflicted by a status (paralysis speed reduction is just ignored).

Why are electric things seen as spiky?

We've got the theme of having the same four opening moves, as well as quick attack and last resort. Thunder shock is the weak STAB special du jour with the chance of causing paralysis at base 40 power, double kick is randomly included as a base 30 per hit fighting physical attack that could act as a sash breaker, whilst thunder fang taunts you as a higher power 65 with both chance to paralyse and flinch the foe but is physical and thus worth less than specials. Pin missile also fits into the 'worthless physicals' category as a bug physical with base 25 hitting up to 5 times in a turn. Agility is there to boost your speed a little and thunder wave will paralyse the foe. Discharge affects all adjacent Pokemon (even friendlies) with a base 80 electric special attack, whilst thunder is the powerful STAB attack with base 110 and 70 accuracy (this actually hits flying foes with double power).

You get both sunny day and rain dance again, and rain dance can be useful to boost the accuracy of thunder. Thunder/bolt pop up, as well as hidden power and hyper beam, alongside dig and shadow ball again. Charge beam has 50 power as a STAB special attack with a huge 70% chance of boosting your special attack stat. Retaliate and giga impact both resurface as physical moves, but volt switch is a decent option, especially with your really good speed. I still hate wild charge. The additional tutor moves when compared to Eevee are magnet rise, signal beam and shock wave.

Rather than a thunder stone, you can use a fire stone and get Flareon. Did I say use? I meant waste: spoiler alert, but I think Flareon is pretty much worthless. This time it's attack as the base 130, special defence as the base 110, special attack is base 95, defence base 60 and the others base 65. The hidden ability of guts ups your attack when afflicted by a status, with the regular ability of flash fire making you immune to fire attacks and upping the power of your fire attacks by 50%.

It even looks pretty rubbish! Where's the fire?

The sub in moves are ember (base 40 special with chance to burn), bite (base 60 dark physical with chance to flinch), fire fang (base 65 fire physical that can burn and flinch the foe), fire spin (can trap the foe in a fiery vortex in the wake of its base 35 special fire attack with 85 accuracy), scary face can lower the foe's speed, smog hits as a base 30 poison special move with a medium chance of poisoning the target, lava plume is a base 80 fire special move that hits all adjacent Pokemon, and flare blitz, which is basically just a fire version of double edge.

If we look at the TM list then we get all the standard TMs and the Eevee standards like dig and shadow ball. We also get flamethrower and fire blast, as well as overheat, incinerate and flame charge. You still get rain dance, for some reason, and strength and secret power are actually among the best damaging attacks you can get, awkwardly. Will-o-wisp could be good, along with toxic, since you have decent special defence and you can grind down the foes whilst trying to survive.

We've seen three Eeveelutions as well as the base. The base is rubbish, as is Flareon, with the other two being mediocre. The ranges of attacks are not good enough to be a real threat. Jolteon has a great speed stat which you could make use of, and the special attack is decent, stick on choice and volt switch with the inbounder being a good tank.

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