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Normal-type Reviews: Slakoth, Vigoroth & Slaking

Slakoth, Vigoroth & Slaking

We’re back for the Normal-type reviews, and today we’re going to focus on Slakoth, Vigoroth and Slaking, who starts lazy, then restless, and finally becoming lazy again! If you are ready with this one, please proceed.

 
 

 

“The typing these Pokémon possess is excellent (Normal) because Slakoth are based mainly on the sloth, while Vigoroth and Slaking are more simian. While I tend to think that overall design wise the best of these Pokémon is Vigoroth, because in comparison, Slaking looks non-threatening and judging Vigoroth by [its] Pokédex entry and the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games, it seems more energetic than Slakoth and Slaking. Looks but it is a menace in battles, well at least to me.” ~ Boshi234

 
 

Slakoth, Vigoroth & Slaking
Selected Fan Art (Artist: RoastedStix)

 

The sloth is a fascinating animal because it is very sluggish, and such a habit opens up ideas on a Pokémon based on it. When abilities were first introduced, one way to make use of it is to make one that gives a player a disadvantage. This way, it doesn’t matter how powerful the end result is, because it prevents a dominant strategy from going on.

Sloths are animals that are one-of-a-kind. They are animals that do not move much, appearing as if moving takes too much effort. This is because their diet of leaves does not provide much energy, since leaves produce less energy and don’t digest easily. To make up for the lack of energy, sloths consume little energy in its movements, which is how they achieve their trademark sluggishness. In case a certain leave is out of reach, it could just grab it with its long tongue instead of moving a bit just to reach it or to use its claw to take it. It’s not just the sloth’s movements that are slow, but it digests its food very slowly, and newly-eaten leaves might take a month to go through its digestive system.

In most ways, Slakoth’s behaviour is similar to a real sloth. It moves very little that it’s rare to see one in motion, being content to loaf around. Slakoth is so slow that its heart beats only once per minute, which means its blood travels quite slowly. The way Slakoth slacks off makes one feel compelled in doing the same, possibly because it looks happy in the way it relaxes. Slakoth also eats very little, only eating three leaves a day. Despite being in trees for all its life, sloths are surprisingly good swimmers, which is the case with Slakoth if it wants to cross rivers. Oddly, it doesn’t learn Surf despite this talent.

When one sees that sloths lack movement, it is easy to assume that they are asleep almost all day, such as Slakoth’s sleep schedule occupying almost the entire day, but this is not the case. Despite being still, sloths are awake for most of the day, presumably to pay attention to its surroundings or to go to the ground to defecate. Sloths are quite content living in trees because it is a safe place to be and it has leaves that it will eat, but Slakoth seems content with being on the ground most of the time, with only one instance where it’s found in trees (HeartGold and SoulSilver).

Unlike the near-motionless Slakoth, Vigoroth is known for being a very active Pokémon, as its name suggests. It is contradictory in a sense, because sloths don’t move much, but Vigoroth needs to move a lot even though it is based on a sloth. It’s like Sonic the Hedgehog, who is based on a slow animal, but the character is fast. Vigoroth has a lot of energy that if it doesn’t move, it will be stressed about it, and could even go on a rampage when it couldn’t take it. Even when it tries to sleep, it cannot do so because it has so much energy, so it has to run in the jungle to use up its energy so that it could settle down. This lends itself to its Vital Spirit ability that it doesn’t share with its other relatives. Vigoroth behaves like as if it achieved puberty, since it suddenly manifests so much energy to do a lot of things.

When Vigoroth evolves into Slaking, it becomes lazy again. There is a possibility that Vigoroth needs the energy in order to develop into the much stronger Slaking, because Slaking is one of the strongest Pokémon in existence. The rationale behind having a lot of strength is that this Pokémon is saving the energy to strike back, which explains its action of acting every other turn. Even though Slaking is slothful, it does not resemble a sloth in a normal sense. Instead, it looks like a primate, due to having hands and feet that resemble monkeys. It might be because unlike sloths, primates seem to be able to fight back thanks to their larger size and weight.

This Pokémon is so lazy that it will not move to another area unless it’s eaten everything within reach, including grass, in which it will reluctantly move. When it leaves, it should leave behind a circle patch where grass used to be, because Slaking eats all it could while it’s there. As such, patches like this is common in where Slaking lives. It would preferably move to an optimal place where food is present, such as trees whose fruits came to season, because the fallen fruits are convenient for Slaking to pick and eat them.

Slakoth and Slaking are the only Pokémon in existence with Truant as their only ability. This ability simulates their laziness by making them skip a turn after taking one turn. For Slakoth, it is basically useless because it is already a weak Pokémon, and making it skip a turn on top of that is too much of a handicap. Slaking, on the other hand, needs the ability to hold it back from being a destructive force, because it stats are similar to the most powerful legendaries such as Groudon and Zekrom. If its ability is nullified, it will be able to prove how powerful it is, and this strategy is more easily done in Doubles where a partner could aid in removing the ability.

It would be overwhelming to notice that Norman’s main Pokémon is Slaking, because its stats surpass even your starter, and it is a fully-evolved Pokémon. Taking into account Norman’s position as the fifth Gym Leader, Slaking might not be too hard for the player to handle. This is because Slaking’s ability is detrimental if it allows the opponent a free turn, even if Slaking is very powerful. One could use Protect to stall for turns while Slaking can’t do anything back, and proceed to slowly wear down Slaking. Interestingly, the Protect TM is found later in the quest, so the Protect strategy isn’t always possible. Slaking’s handicap means that even Vigoroth is more useful than Slaking because it doesn’t have such a restriction, in addition to benefitting from Eviolite. It’s too bad that this is the case, mainly because Slaking’s movepool is really great.

This Pokémon is sure to make new fans surprised for their unusual attributes, from the wildly different behaviour between evolutions to the powerful-but-handicapped final evolution. Even though Slaking’s laziness prevents it from becoming viable, the design of this Pokémon is consistent all around, along with its pre-evolutions.

 
 

+ Sloth’s laziness has its charms
+ Very different among evolutions
+ Slaking is quite powerful
+ Vigoroth’s hyperactivity is useful
– Truant prevents Slaking from being viable
– Pokémon is hard to train

 
 
 
 

Slakoth’s TCG Card

Slakoth (EX Deoxys 73)

Slakoth’s look like it’s having a lazy afternoon, and it looks like it’s spending that time with another Slakoth! Of course, for Slakoth, any time of the day is a lazy time, so they might be in that position at basically any time of the day. Still, they certainly enjoy their time lazing around, so much so that someone might want to relax all day long like them.

 
 

Vigoroth’s TCG Card

Vigoroth (Mysterious Treasures 68)

Despite having a curse of having too much energy as to be unable to rest, Vigoroth certainly looks like it’s enjoying the exercise. Normally, something like this might drive it crazy since it is unable to relax when it was a Slakoth, but Vigoroth might have experience the benefits of being energetic. It does speak to those who would love to have the benefits of being energetic, particularly to those who want to be productive and to older people with less energy.

 
 

Slaking’s TCG Card

Slaking (Furious Fists 83)

As much as Slaking prefers to be sedentary, even it needs to project its strength every now and then. This card gives us an idea on how strong Slaking is, due to its ability to break tempered chains with a single punch, so it is not to be trifled with. Even though it might not unleash its strength at all times, you would wish it is inactive when times are rough. As to why Slaking breaks the chain: maybe it’s exercise…?

 
 
 
 

Yawn

This move is usually learned by Pokémon that have a relaxed personality, sleeps for several hours a day or have a tendency to laze around. As it turns out, Slakoth and Slaking are the definition of lazy, making it their type of move. It also ties into Slakoth’s nature in compelling others to laze around as it does.

As far as moves that put opponents to sleep go, Yawn is different because it merely delays the effect instead of doing it immediately. This gives the opponent time to prevent being put to sleep through switching out, but because switching out nullifies boosts and beneficial effects, it works to the user’s advantage because the opponent’s strategy is interrupted. If the opponent is willing to be put to sleep, then more power to them.

Because of the nature of this move, it is ironic that Vigoroth could compel others to be drowsy, but that’s how it is for any middle-staged Pokémon that are different from the family and inherits moves from the base stage.

The lazy Slakoth and Slaking aren’t exactly diligent enough to take advantage of this move, but they do successfully compel their opponents to laze around for a bit, so I guess they did their job.

 
 
 
 

That’s all for today’s article. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I have writing it.

Thanks for reading.

 

Next Article: Smeargle


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