Pokemon Black and White spotlight: the monkey trio and their evolutions

We're blazing on through the IsshuPokedex, and this week we're covering the elemental monkey trio, Yanappu (Grass), Baoppu (Fire), and Hiyappu (Water), and their evolutions, Yanakkii, Baokkii and Hiyakkii. These goofy bastards are somewhat similiar to the Eeveelutions of Red/Blue, except that they don't have a Normal-type base formandthere are only three types, with one evolution each.

It might be easier to think of them ascounterpartsto the starters, since depending on the starter you picked, an NPCeast of Sanyou City (in thearea where you first encounterMunna)will give you the monkey that's weak to your starter.Let's take a closer look at these delightful simians - first off, three things to note about all three monkeys:

1) They all have the same base stats.
2) None of their evolutions learn any moves through level up, so evolve wisely.
3) They can all learn the new Flying-type move Acrobat at level 31 (first stage only), which does light damage but can hit any ofthe three opponents in a triple battle no matter where the user is positioned, and does double damage if the user isn't holding an item.
4) The trio's design is partially based on the three wise monkeys: see no evil (Hiyappu), hear no evil (Baoppu) and speak no evil (Yanappu).

Yanappu
#017 Isshu / #511 National
Type: Grass
Species classification: Grass Monkey Pokemon
Ability: Gluttony – Eats held berry when 50% HP remains instead of 25%
Dream World ability: Overgrow – increases power of Grass-type moves by 1.5 if Pokemon has less than 1/3 HP remaining
Location found (Black/White): From woman in Abandoned Site of Dreams (if you picked Pokabu as your starter), Mayoi no Mori (shaking grass only), Yaguruma no Mori (shaking grass only)
Wild hold items: Oran Berry, Occa Berry
Egg groups: Ground
Capture rate: 190
Gender ratio: 87.5% male, 12.5% female
Effort values: 1 Speed
Evolution family: To Yanakkiivia Leaf Stone

Yanakkii
#018 Isshu / #512 National
Type: Grass
Species classification: Thorn Monkey Pokemon
Ability: Gluttony – Eats held berry when 50% HP remains instead of 25%
Dream World ability: Overgrow – increases power of Grass-type moves by 1.5 if Pokemon has less than 1/3 HP remaining
Location found (Black/White): Evolve Yanappu
Egg groups: Ground
Gender ratio: 87.5% male, 12.5% female
Experience at lvl 100: 1,000,000
Base stats: 75 HP / 98 Atk / 63 Def / 98 SAtk / 63 SDef / 101 Spd / 498 Total
Effort values: 2 Speed
Evolution family: From Yanappu via Leaf Stone

The first of the monkey trio to be revealed pre-release, broccoli-esque Yanappu's final form, Yanakkii, is probably the most appealing of the trio looks-wise. If you've got all your TMs in order, you shouldn't have to worry too much about evolving too early. Leech Seed is always a good option for Grass-types, which Yanappu learns at level 16. Like all the monkeys, Yanakki's Attack and Special Attack base stats are even at 98 each, soteaching physical vs special attacks isn't really an issue, although it also depends on what nature you pick.

Next page: Fire types Baoppu and Baokkii