Pokemon Black and White spotlight: Marakacchi, Ishizumai, Zuruggu and their evolutions
Continuing our journey through the Unova Pokedex
Ishizumai
#064 Unova / #557 National
Type: Bug/Rock
Species classification: Stone Hermit Pokemon
Abilities:
Sturdy – Leaves 1 HP when Pokemon would otherwise be one-hit KOed
Shell Armor – Not affected by critical hits
Dream World abilities: Broken Armor – Decreases defense and increases speed each time user is hit with a damaging attack
Location found (Black/White): Resort Desert, Route 18
Wild hold items: Hard Stone (rare)
Egg groups: Bug, Mineral
Capture rate: 190
Gender ratio: 50/50
Effort values: 1 Defense
Evolution family: Ishizumai > Iwaparesu at level 34
Iwaparesu
#065 Unova / #558 National
Type: Bug/Rock
Species classification: Stone Hermit Pokemon
Abilities:
Sturdy – Leaves 1 HP when Pokemon would otherwise be one-hit KOed
Shell Armor – Not affected by critical hits
Dream World abilities: Broken Armor – Decreases defense and increases speed each time user is hit with a damaging attack
Location found (Black/White): Route 18
Wild hold items: Hard Stone (rare)
Egg groups: Bug, Mineral
Capture rate: 75
Gender ratio: 50/50
Experience at lvl 100: 1,000,000
Base stats: 70 HP / 90 Atk / 125 Def / 65 SAtk / 75 SDef / 45 Spd / 475 Total
Effort values: 2 Defense
Evolution family: Ishizumai > Iwaparesu at level 34
Ishizumai and Iwaparesu bear a strong resemblance to another duo of dual Bug-type crabs from the original 151, Paras and Parasect, but they still manage to set themselves apart with a cool design and a secondary Rock-type as opposed to Grass (and luckily they avoid Dry Skin Parasect's record-breaking 5x weakness to Fire).
Ishizumai and Iwaparesu can only learn physical attacks through level up and breeding, but that's not a problem because that's what they're best at. X-Scissor is always a good STAB choice, and Earthquake too, of course. Iwaparesu's biggest asset though is the status move Shell Break (Ishizumai learns at level 37, and you can find wild Iwaparesus that know it), which raises Attack, Special Attack and Speed all by two stages each, and lowers Defense and Special Defense by one stage each. That extra Speed boost is most welcome too, since Iwaparesu's base Speed actually drops when it evolves.
Next page: "Dat ass" pants lizards Zuruggu and Zuruzukin
Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter
Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more