Pokemon Black and White Pokedex - Basculin
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Basculin
#056 Unova / #550 National
Type: Water
Species classification:Hostile 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-striped 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, Basculin's most interesting feature is the superficial difference in his red-striped and blue-striped 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 Basculins in just about any body of water in Unova, although they do have a terribly low catch rate.
From a gameplay perspective, Basculin's most appealing feature is its useful abilities, the best of which is probably Adaptability.Its 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 Basculin's stats with a huge boost to his STAB – from 1.5x damage to 2x damage.
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