We now come to the second edition of the On the Dark Side series. For this week’s post I’ve decided to go ahead and cover a Pokemon that doesn’t even start out as a Dark-type. Presenting the pseudo-Legendary Pokemon of Generation Two and its pre-evolved forms, Larvitar, Pupitar, and Tyranitar.
Larvitar was sort of a secret Pokemon as far as the strategy guide I was using at the time was concerned. It just said to look around the caves of Mt. Silver for a Pokemon said to be very rare. So after looking around for a while I eventually ran across Larvitar. I was surprised by how low its level was compared to the other wild Pokemon living in the cave, which made it a lot harder to capture since I had so many high level Pokemon with me. But in the end I caught the little guy and began the training.
As soon as it evolved into Pupitar I had the feeling I was dealing with a powerful Pokemon. Especially since it evolved at the same level Dratini evolves into Dragonair. Eventually my Pupitar evolved into Tyranitar and went through a surprising change. Not only did it become like Godzilla but it went from being a Rock and Ground-type to a Rock and Dark-type. I was actually a little surprised that the Dark-type user of the Gen. Two Elite Four didn’t use a Tyranitar, but whatever.
In the Games: As mentioned above, Larvitar can be found within the caves of Mt. Silver at a very low level. If memory serves they were usually found at about level fifteen in the original Generation Two games. Depending on the version Larvitar can also be found in the Johto Safari Zone and at the Rocket Game Corner. In FireRed and LeafGreen, the only place to find Larvitar is at the Sevault Canyon in the Sevii Islands. Sinnoh locations for Larvitar (depending on the version) are on Routes 206 and 207, and in the Generation Five games the only way to get Larvitar is to breed one of its evolved forms (which is weird to me).
As for Pupitar and Tyranitar, the only way to get those two is to evolve Larvitar. But there are a few places where they can be found in the wild. Depending on the version, Pupitar can be found at Mt. Silver and Unova Route 15. Tyranitar meanwhile can be found in the rustling grass on Unova Route 15. It still seems wrong to me that pseudo-Legendary Pokemon like Tyranitar can be caught out in the wild. For me it’s much more fun and rewarding to raise them from their first stage evolution. Plus I’m sure a Tyranitar raised by a trainer is much more powerful than one found in the wild.
Evolution: The Tyranitar line is actually a little odd for a line of reptilian Pokemon. As Larvitar they’re born deep underground and feed on soil. At level thirty, once they’ve eaten a mountain’s worth of soil, they evolve into Pupitar and go into a pupa stage like insect. Despite being a pupa though, Pupitar are able to move around by expelling compressed gas from their bodies. At level fifty-five, Pupitar reaches its adult stage and becomes Tyranitar. As Tyranitar it has enough power to destroy mountains and cause severe earthquakes.
Ash’s Larvitar: While not an actual capture, Ash did sort of have a Larvitar during the tail end of the Johto Saga. Ash received this Larvitar as an egg rescued from poachers and was asked to take it to Mt. Silver. The egg hatched, but poor little Larvitar would harden up around people and Pokemon other than Ash and his Pikachu due to the trauma it experienced as an egg. But slowly, the little guy opened up. And eventually Ash and his friends returned it to Mt. Silver where they reunited it with its mother. Not to mention they got rid of the poachers that went after Larvitar and its mother Tyranitar originally.
That covers it for this week’s On the Dark Side post. Stay tuned until next week.
