#357: Tropius

Tropius in company of Brendan and May. 

For a region that's considered tropical, Hoenn introduced suprisingly few tropical Pokémon. Tropius is basically the only one, and it's... why, what is it? It's obviously based on a sauropod, which were big-ass herbivorous dinosaurs with long necks and thick, pillar-like legs. But Tropius has big leafy wings growing on its back, as well as banana-like fruits beneath its chin. Apparently, Tropius continuously eats only its favorite fruit; it loves it so much, in fact, that it resulted in its own outgrowth of fruit, which is considered a deliciously sweet tropical snack that is especially popular with children. The large wings are used for flight - despite its bulky appearance, it is suprisingly maneuverable in the air - and for sugar production via photosynthesis. Whether the latter is to be 'blamed' for the sweet flavor of its own fruits is unclear and debatable, but I can't think of any other reason why its fruits are so incredibly sweet.

Pansage (on top of Tropius's head), Panpour (left) and Pansear
(right) enjoying Tropius's delicious fruits.

In short, Tropius's banana tree design is hilarious, although most people tend to forget it's there in the first place. At any rate, I haven't seen anyone using this Pokémon in a playthrough. That's not surprising, as its stats aren't anything to write home about. It has some very good HP and defenses, making it pretty bulky, but its attacking stats are lacking and its speed is just downright terrible. Even Dragon Dance, which is an egg move, won't give it a sufficiently significant speed boost - or attack boost, for that matter, as its base 68 attack is really mediocre. That doesn't make it a reliable counter to all these bulky water and rock types out there. The fact that it has weaknesses to rock and ice - the latter is even a quadruple weakness - doesn't help either, as rock types counter it right back and almost all water types can learn Ice Beam and Blizzard. It's a shame, really, because Tropius's physical movepool allows you to create a pretty neat moveset consisting of Dragon Dance, Leaf Blade, Earthquake and Aerial Ace. It also has Steel Wing, Outrage and Body Slam for type coverage (well, coverage... Body Slam isn't super effective on anything, but it's a moderately strong normal-type move that has a higher chance to paralyze the foe) and a decent ability in Chlorophyll, provided you set up the sunlight first. Thing is, it makes it even more vulnarable to fire-type moves, which it already has a weakness to, and its speed and mediocre attacking stats won't allow it to take a hit first very often or hit very hard in the first place. A Life Orb set with the ability Solar Power - which increases its special attack by 50% in harsh sunlight but makes Tropius lose ⅛ of its maximum HP at the end of each turn - will only wear it down, which only takes away from its moderate bulk.

A more realistic approach of Tropius.

As far as grass-type sauropods go, Meganium beats Tropius by a very large margin. Tropius is more versatile offensively, though only slightly, and competitively and design-wise Meganium kicks Tropius right outta the sky. It sucks Tropius doesn't have a better support movepool, because the only good combo I can find right now is Substitute/Leech Seed - Roost and Air Slash nicely rounding out its moveset - with the Harvest ability and a Sitrus Berry to hold. Neither is Tropius a good Pokémon to use for in-game purposes, for that matter, because its moveset is pretty lacking: Air Slash is amazing to have, but the best grass-type moves it gets are Solar Beam and Leaf Storm. The former requires a turn to charge up and the latter harshly lowers its special attack, which at a base 72 is already less than average. As the Energy Ball TM is only available late- or post-game and Leaf Blade is an egg move, it'll have to make do with the 65-power Leaf Tornado, which is... bad for a relatively weak Pokémon like Tropius. Rather, Tropius is one of the few Pokémon that is terrible to use in any context but should be appreciated for its uniqueness: it's an interesting and pleasantly designed Pokémon and just a nice addition to any collection. Moreover, it's the only Pokémon that really fits Hoenn's tropical theme, so I'll let this one slide.

Rating: 4/5