Pokemon Black and White spotlight: Basurao, Sandile, Darumakka and their evolutions

We've got a little something for every Pokemon trainer this week, with three very different families of Pokemon, all next to each other in the Unova Pokedex, and each boasting a trait unique to their evolutionary line. Fiery primate Darmanitan is easily the most intriguingly unusual Pokemon we've encountered in Black and White so far, with a bizarre alternate form that adds a secondary type and completely shifts its stats, which only emerges when Darmanitan's healthis at 50% or less. Let's take a closer look.

Basurao
#056 Unova / #550 National
Type: Water
Species classification: Violent Pokemon
Abilities:
Reckless – Increases power of moves with recoil damage
Adaptability – Increases power of same-type attacks (STAB) from 1.5x to 2x
Rock Head (White only – obtained via trade from NPC in Hodomoe City) – Prevents recoil damage
Dream World abilities: Mold Breaker – Disables opponents' abilities
Location found (Black/White): Any water, surfing or fishing (the form with the red stripe is more common in Black, and the blue is more common in White)
Wild hold items: DeepSeaTooth (rare), DeepSeaScale (rare)
Egg groups: Water 2
Capture rate: 25
Gender ratio: 50/50
Experience at lvl 100: 1,000,000
Base stats: 70 HP / 92 Atk / 65 Def / 80 SAtk / 55 SDef / 98 Spd / 460 Total
Effort values: 2 Speed
Evolution family: None

Another fish-inspired Pokemon that seems like it should have an evolution, Basurao's most interesting feature is the superficial difference in his red stripe and blue stripe forms. The two forms aren't version exclusives, but the form with the red stripe is much more common in Black and the blue-striped one is much more common in White. You shouldn't have a problem catching both forms without trading though, since you can find Basurao in just about any body of water in Unova (although they do have a terribly low catch rate).

From a gameplay perspective, Basurao's most appealing feature is its useful abilities, the best of which is probably Adaptability. Basurao's movepool isn't that great, and since neither his attack nor special attack are incredibly high, you'll want to take advantage of at least two STAB attacks in its moveset. Adaptability goes far to make up for Basurao's stats with a huge boost to his STAB – from 1.5x damage to 2x damage.

Next page:Ferocious triple-stage croc Sandile