For this week we have two more Pokemon that have a type combination that doesn’t make a wee bit of sense (again, like Starbursts). The Pokemon are some very old favorites of mine from Generation Two, and I grew to like them even more in Generation Three. Presenting the water/electric hybrid, Chinchou, and its evolved form, Lanturn.
I’ve said in the past that I usually try to find an image of the fully evolved Pokemon to use for these posts, if not an image of all the evolutions. But this image was so hauntingly beautiful that I couldn’t pass it up. Anyway, I first discovered Chinchou while actually playing the game. In fact it might’ve been the very first time that I played my Gold version. I had just beaten the Elite Four and was preparing to head for Vermilion City, that shining seaside gem of the Kanto Region. But before I turned my game on the head there I read an interesting tip in the old strategy guide I had at the time suggesting that if I fished in the waters of Vermilion City I’d find a very interesting Pokemon.
So I decided to bite and cast my rod into the water around the city about as soon as I got off the boat. Right away I snagged something very interesting. It was a rather odd fish Pokemon that I knew right off the bat was based on the real-world anglerfish, called Chinchou. It ended up being a pretty easy catch; in fact I think I used a Lure Ball on it. Anyway, once I caught Chinchou I took a closer look and was very surprised to see that it was both a Water and Electric-type. That was a type combo that I never expected to see. I mean you’d think it’d electrocute itself. Anyway, I of course toyed with Chinchou for a bit and later discovered its evolved form, Lanturn.
In the Games: As I mentioned earlier, Chinchou, and Lanturn (depending on the rod you use), can be found and caught by fishing in the waters near Vermilion City in Generation Two and their remakes. But you can also find them by fishing at Pallet Town, New Bark Town, and at least two routes. Though I can’t recall if those routes are in Johto or Kanto. Anyway, in Generation Three the only way to find Chinchou (at least in Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald) was to use Dive and swim through the seaweed on the ocean floor. In Generation Four and beyond though, you have to go back to fishing in order to find Chinchou and Lanturn.
Chinchou and Lanturn have three possible abilities, one really good, one not so great, and a hidden ability that’s probably even better than the good one. The not so great ability of Chinchou and Lanturn is Illuminate, which increases the frequency of wild Pokemon encounters. Useful I suppose if you’re actually looking for wild Pokemon, but if you’re just trying to get through a cave or surf over a water route it can get kind of annoying. The really good ability that a normal Chinchou/Lanturn can have is Volt Absorb, which is a favorite of mine. Volt Absorb not only negates Electric attacks used on Chinchou/Lanturn, but also uses the energy from those attacks to restore HP.
I suppose Volt Absorb might not be the best ability that Chinchou/Lanturn can have, but at the very least it eliminates a major weakness. Not to mention that it makes Chinchou/Lanturn fun to use against other Electric-types. Now the best way to find out if the wild Chinchou or Lanturn you’ve encountered has Volt Absorb is to just use an Electric attack on it and see if it does any damage. If it doesn’t do any damage than you’ve found a volt absorbing one, but if it does than you might as well just throw it back. Finally, we have Chinchou and Lanturn’s hidden ability, which might be more useful than Volt Absorb, Water Absorb. As the name implies, Water Absorb does the same thing that Volt Absorb does, only with Water attacks. This ability makes Chinchou and Lanturn practically invincible against other Water Pokemon, and since you’re probably going to use Chinchou/Lanturn against other Water Pokemon anyway, it makes Water Absorb a more ideal ability to have.
Evolution: Chinchou evolves into Lanturn at level twenty-seven, so training it to evolve can go fairly quickly. A tradeoff of the evolution is that Chinchou loses those little feet it uses to walk on land with (which is just so darn cute). However, Lanturn looks a little more like a normal fish. For some reason in newer generations, Lanturn learns Stockpile, Swallow, and Spit Up at the level that Chinchou evolves. Useful move I suppose, through they’d take up a lot of space in Lanturn’s move pool. Personally, I’d probably just replace those moves as quickly as I could. Besides, Lanturn starts learning better moves at level thirty anyway.
Generation Three: I think the third generation was really good to Chinchou and Lanturn, what with the addition of Pokemon Abilities. But when I played Ruby and Sapphire I ended up switching from Magneton to Lanturn as soon as I could. The big reason was because there were a lot of powerful Water Pokemon users later in the game. I mean the last gym leader uses Water Pokemon and a member of the Elite Four that uses some powerful Water/Ice hybrids. Then in Emerald the champion uses Water Pokemon too. And since Lanturn can withstand Water attacks better than Magneton, it just seemed like a good switch to make.
So that covers it for this week. For next week’s post, I’ve already decided to go back to Generation One and talk about some Pokemon that were the first of a kind in a way. So until then, stay tuned.
