#138 - #139: Omanyte & Omastar

During 'Twitch Plays Pokémon', the Helix Fossil was often
treated as a deity.

Omanyte and Omastar are the first Pokémon in the National Pokédex that can be revived from fossils. That is the only way to obtain such fossil Pokémon, excluding the method of breeding. Usually, you can choose only one from two different fossils in any pair of games (except Gold and Silver, which introduced no new fossil Pokémon), although the availability of fossils has heavily increased since Diamond and Pearl, because they became regular items in the bag rather than key items. You can obtain the following fossils: Helix Fossil (Omanyte) and Dome Fossil (Kabuto) in Red and Blue, Root Fossil (Lileep) and Claw Fossil (Anorith) in Ruby and Sapphire, Skull Fossil (Cranidos) and Armor Fossil (Shieldon) in Diamond and Pearl, Cover Fossil (Tirtouga) and Plume Fossil (Archen) in Black and White, and Jaw Fossil (Tyrunt) and Sail Fossil (Amaura) in X and Y. Additionally, Aerodactyl can be restored from the Old Amber as of Gen. I. There is no doubt the fossils have become a staple feature in every new generation, and I think Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon won't be an exception.

Lord Helix blessing someone.

But the Helix Fossil rose to fame during 'Twitch Plays Pokémon', in which multiple players (the Hive Mind) could insert certain commands at the same time in attempts to steer player character Red, causing a giant mess. Red was able to choose the Helix Fossil from two possible fossils, though, and after the bag was opened in battles by the Hive Mind multiple times, the Helix Fossil was constantly selected because it was the item in the first slot. The Hive Mind saw this as Red 'consulting' the Helix Fossil and thus the storyline of Lord Helix and the Church of Helix religion was created: the God of Anarchy (Lord Helix) was in a war against the God of Democracy (Lord Dome), and when Red chose to carry along the Helix Fossil, this gave the Helix an advantage over the Dome. Angered by this, the Dome tried to sabotage Red's journey in many possible ways, almost succeeding in it: Eevee evolved into Flareon instead of Vaporeon, which led the Hive Mind to take a forced trip to the PC. This went horribly wrong, however, as Abby the Charmeleon and Jay Leno the Rattata, two of TPP's favorite Pokémon, were released and Bird Jesus and the Helix Fossil were deposited into the PC.

Many people saw this as Lord Dome tricking Red into accepting the use of Democracy, which refers to an event in real life: after 24 hours without progress, the person who streamed the game replaced the Anarchy system with the Democracy system. The Hive Mind, thinking TPP was about having fun with complete randomness, rioted by sending no other inputs than 'start9' and the Anarchy system was brought back. Some time later, Bird Jesus returned to the team, Lord Helix was retrieved from the PC again, and Flareon was released. This is seen as Red overcoming the Dome's influence, as the Helix was guiding him once more. To top it off, the Helix Fossil was revived at Cinnabar Island and Omastar became an important team member, responsible for Red defeating the Elite 4 and the Champion.

A fossil of an ammonite, an extinct group of mollusks that
Omanyte is based on.

Whew, that's a long story for such an insignificant Pokémon, right? Well, I'm not done yet. The facts that Omanyte can't be caught in the wild and can only be obtained by reviving the Helix Fossil mean that it has gone extinct somewhere in the past, right? Well, yes. Omanyte and its evolution Omastar are actually based on an extinct group of mollusks called ammonites. Omanyte's name is even a corruption of this word. Omanyte is believed to have lived tens of thousands of years ago, swimming about using its tentacles and regulating its buoyancy by storing and releasing air using its several gas-filled chambers in its shell. However, it was Omastar's fault the species has gone extinct: whereas Omanyte only ate plankton, Omastar's heavy shell hindered it in praying on larger things such as Shellder. But once it ensnared its prey, it never let go; even the hard shells of prehistoric Shellder stood no match against Omastar's powerful and deadly bite, and they were quickly made a meal of by having their insides sucked out.

Ew, that's actually really gross.

Luckily, no such thing happens in the games. And Omastar has never truly been hindered by its stats either, as they are actually pretty decent. Okay, its HP and special defense could be better, but its special attack and defense are actually really great. It's also not very fast, although not as sluggish as its Pokédex entries suggest, but there's a very handy way to get around that: Shell Smash. This move increases Omastar's attack, special attack and speed stats by two stages each and lowers its defense and special defense by one stage each. Give it a White Herb to hold and it'll restore any negative stat changes from Shell Smash, too (only once, though). This strategy makes Omastar a pretty straightforward Pokémon: it's supposed to be a fast late-game sweeper with moves such as Hydro Pump, Surf, Ice Beam, Ancient Power, Earth Power and Hidden Power, so a Timid nature to boost its speed and the Shell Armor ability to prevent critical hits from occurring are recommended. Swift Swim doubles Omastar's speed stat in rain and can be used on rain teams, but it kinda contradicts Omastar's entire flavor. Alternatively, it can be used as an entry hazard setter with a Focus Sash, but I'd recommend a bulkier Pokémon like Ferrothorn to do that (Iron Barbs/Rocky Helmet combo!).

All in all, there are quite some things that make Omanyte and Omastar stand out to other Pokémon, even though it looks a bit insignificant. It's a bit of a shame that this whole 'gone extinct' thing has been done over and over again by adding new fossil Pokémon every generation from Ruby and Sapphire onwards. But I still like Omastar, you know, just not as much as the two fossil Pokémon I will discuss shortly.

Rating: 4/5