We’re back for the Normal-type reviews, and today we’re going to focus on Happiny, Chansey and Blissey, who are well known as healers! If you are ready with this one, please proceed.
“(Chansey) Nurse Joy first company on early anime and game era. I forget since when it’s changed but too bad.. Chansey is the most mothery nurse pokemon. Look at that small eyes and that mysterious smile, she knows everything but doesn’t talk at all.
“(Blissey) To be honest, Blissey is my least favorite out of all Chansey’s evolution line. Why? It’s a degraded form of Chansey. It looks like you dress up the mature innocent Chansey with witch uniform from manganime universe!” ~ lovandra
Selected Fan Art (Artist: ☆超スーパーかえるACE☆)
In the early days, what made Chansey special was its rarity. It was only found in the Pokémon Safari, and because catching Pokémon is unreliable there, it made getting a Chansey all the sweeter. They don’t call it “Lucky” for nothing, after all. Now, we have Chansey’s evolution Blissey introduced in Generation 2 that is themed around happiness due to it requiring friendship to evolve, and in Generation 4, it has a pre-evolution that has an affinity for round, white things, alluding to its evolution through equipping an Oval Stone and levelling up (during daytime). Very few Pokémon have evolutions that span three Generations, and this family is one of them.
The main theme with Chansey is healing in more ways than one, through the use of Soft-Boiled to produce eggs to use. For one, its egg is a source of nutrition that helps in the healing of an injured Pokémon, or perhaps a malnourished one. Another way to look at it is that the egg brings happiness to due to the positive effect it brings to the receiver. Of course, it could keep producing eggs, because otherwise it won’t be giving them out in the first place!
Chansey also possesses the quality of sharing it with others, which is one way of making others happy, and presumably itself as well. The effective healing power of the eggs is the reason Chansey and its evolution is top choices for Pokémon Centres. Even though it is willing to share the eggs, it won’t let others take advantage of it, for it won’t share those with “evil in their hearts”. The eggs are certainly fragile, which means that it is a somewhat careful Pokémon. Despite this, it somehow could run away fast, which it doesn’t look like it could do, but it certain explains how it’s faster than Wobbuffet, at least.
Perhaps this is why Chansey is a very sought-after Pokémon. This utility is very useful and in a way, profitable, but what makes it a challenge has to be how rare it is. It is also not an easy Pokémon to catch since its catch rate is low. Even rarer is a Chansey with a Lucky Egg. This useful item increases the experience points gained. Fortunately, getting this elusive item is easier from Generation 5 onwards, since it’s a giveaway item that will surely aid a trainer’s quest.
If you are lucky to encounter a Chansey, you have a chance to catch it, but it also awards a lot of experience points (slightly more than Audino, in fact), so there is a sort of dilemma between catching it and earning experience points. Perhaps catching it takes precedence since there’s always a chance you can get a Lucky Egg. However, in a trainer battle with Chansey, there’s no dilemma, since you can just accrue extra experience points from them! If you battle a Blissey, you also get a lot of experience points, but Happiny only provide a lot of experience points in Generation 4 (after that, it gives less than every legendary Pokémon).
An alternative could be to procure Happiny, who is easier to catch. It’s rare in its own way, since in some games, it can only hatch from an Egg. Since the Egg is a giveaway in some games, it’s better than nothing. Happiny is seen as a younger and immature Chansey, due to it being essentially a baby. It couldn’t produce its own eggs (it can’t learn Soft-Boiled), so it imitates its parents by using a substitute, such as a rock that is shaped like an egg. If it is lucky, it could get a hold of an Oval Stone to evolve. Another trait with Happiny is its tendency to wander around the feet of others, causing them to stumble.
The final evolution, Blissey, is centred on the theme of happiness, as its name and evolution method suggests. Blissey is also a step up from Chansey in that it has a better grasp on how to make people happy. It is said that Blissey’s eggs bring out the positivity in anyone. Not only that, Blissey is able to sense sadness and will aim to rectify this. It’s its nature, so this is why Blissey is also the choice of Pokémon in Pokémon Centres. That’s not mentioning Blissey’s innate compassion and kindness, making it a very friendly Pokémon that is sure to be a great companion to have.
The role of a healer is extends to battling. Natural Cure and Healer are abilities that cure status ailments, itself for the former and an active teammate for the latter. Because Chansey and Blissey have a lot of HP and Special Defence, they have a lot of Special durability, making them great teammates to take a Special attack. From there, they could do something to help out a team, such as through Aromatherapy or perhaps cast Toxic. Blissey could afford an attack since it has usable Special Attack, but Chansey’s attack stats are too low, so it needs to resort to Seismic Toss for consistent damage. If you want to use Wish (it complements them since they have high HP), you need to be aware that this is an event move, meaning they can’t learn it normally. Chansey has the benefit of equipping Eviolite to boost its defences, making it bulkier than Blissey, so there’s a reason to use Chansey.
There is one way to describe these Pokémon: resourceful. This is especially true for Chansey and Blissey, whom could use their signature move Soft-Boiled to heal its heal teammates outside battle. On a more realistic level, they are quite helpful emotionally and physically, which makes them worthy companions.
+ Excels in support in battling
+ Cute and innocent
+ Well-designed thematically
– Rare and takes long to hatch
Happiny’s TCG Card
When a rainbow appears, a happy moment appears, or at least someone would be happy. In this case, the rainbow complements the happiness aspect of Happiny, who is obviously quite happy in this card.
Chansey’s TCG Card
Chansey’s always been the healer of the Pokémon world. After all, why would Pokémon Centres have Chansey as their Pokémon of choice? This aspect is presented as a play on the first-aid kit in Pokémon form, due to Chansey’s knowledge of certain moves that heal others in need, namely Soft-Boiled.
Blissey’s TCG Card
Blissey occupies a large portion of this card and its whole body can be seen, so it looks quite imposing when its size is compared to its surroundings. It is not that tall, but the way it stands, it looks like a gentle giant due to Blissey’s tender nature.
Minimize
There are many other moves that suit this family best, such as Soft-Boiled and Heal Bell, but the move for this family ultimately goes to Minimise, since they’re the only Normal-types that learn it after Clefable and family converted to pure Fairy-type. Note that only Chansey and Blissey can learn this move, and not Happiny.
When a user shrinks itself, they are more vulnerable to damage, taking double damage from certain moves such as Stomp, Steamroller and Phantom Force. On the bright side, the user is harder to hit because of their smaller size, unless one of the mentioned attacks are used. It is unknown as to how the user is able to maintain their mass when they become smaller, but it is possible that they become heavier for their size if their mass stayed the same even after transformation, since neither defences are compromised after using it.
Normally, Double Team is better because it can be learned by almost any Pokémon thanks to the power of TMs, which makes Minimise seem less useful by comparison since it has a disadvantage of becoming vulnerable to some attacks after usage. However, Generation 5 enhanced its effect so that it sharply raises evasion, ensuring that more attacks miss after using once. To compare, one stage of evasion lowers accuracy by 25%, while two stages reduces it by 40%. It would be more annoying for the opponent if you manage to deliver such boosts to another ally through Baton Pass, making a tough opponent tougher.
This move is quite useful in reality, since the user could fit in small spaces and become out of sight, allowing for tactics that could only be done by something small. Obviously, being harder to hit is helpful as well. Only thing they need to watch out for is the danger of being squashed.
All in all, this is a move that has a lot of uses, but its drawbacks prevent it from becoming too powerful.
That’s all for today’s article. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I have writing it.
Next Article: Chatot
