Note: This analysis will focus on the Grovyle from the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon world, and will include media from the games, anime, and manga of said series. Feats from the mainline Pokémon games, as well as other side games, will not be included. The other games may be used for descriptions and footage purposes.
Background
After the fall of Temporal Tower caused by Darkrai, the world was shrouded in darkness. Dialga, the controller of time, became corrupted and wild, losing control over time. He was now known as Primal Dialga. This caused time to stop as well. The wind never blew, the sun never rose. Even rocks, raindrops, and icicles floated in the air.
The events of this horrible time sparked a fire in a certain Pokémon’s heart. Grovyle swore he would save the future with his human partner by traveling to the past with help from his friend Celebi and the Passage of Time. But to change the past, they would need the Time Gears and place them into Temporal Tower. Grovyle’s human partner had a special ability called the Dimensional Scream, which could show events of the past in an area that was connected to the Time Gears. They used this ability to track down the Time Gears in the past before going back.
However, when traveling to the past, there was an accident. Darkrai hunted down and attacked Grovyle and his partner as they traveled to the past. The human protected Grovyle from Darkrai’s attack, and this split up the two, as well as causing the human to lose their memories and change into a Pokémon. Grovyle seeked the Time Gears alone, with Primal Dialga’s agents, Dusknoir and his Sableye henchmen, chasing him down.
Through the many adventures he had, he was captured for stealing the Time Gears, brought back to the past and was forced to team up with Team Poképals, one of the members being his partner that he lost. They returned to the past to once again get all the Time Gears and travel to Temporal Tower. As they ventured through the Hidden Land, Dusknoir attacked and Grovyle sacrificed himself by shoving Dusknoir back into the dimensional hole to the future alongside himself.
In the future, Dusknoir learned of why Grovyle fought for the past, even though he knew that if Grovyle changed it, he would cease to exist. This changed Dusknoir’s heart and he, along with Celebi, fought the future Primal Dialga for one final battle to protect the past. The last view he saw before fading was the sun rising with Celebi… until one above even Dialga thanked them by preventing them from disappearing, as well as reviving the rest of the future Pokémon.
More Info
Height: 2’11” | 88.9 cm
Weight: 47.6 lbs. | 21.6 kg
Type: Grass
Classification: Wood Gecko Pokémon
Born in a future of darkness
Time traveling explorer
Can read the Unown language
Likes tsundere onion fairies
Equipment
Treasure Bag
As an explorer, Grovyle carries a Treasure Bag that he fills with various useful items for his adventures. He has foods that can fill his belly, greatly restore his HP, cure negative status effects, or raise his IQ, as well as many types of seeds that cause other effects when eaten, both beneficial for Grovyle if he eats one or detrimental to his opponent if he makes them eat one. The most notable ones can create explosions, heal status changes and effects, raise movement speed, put one to sleep, petrify one for an indefinite amount of time until they’re interacted with, cause confusion, cross-eyedness, or blindness, warp one somewhere else, maximize Attack and Special Attack or minimize Defense and Special Defense, let one see invisible opponents and traps, turn one invisible themselves, or revive one with full HP if they faint.
Grovyle’s Treasure Bag also has room for throwing items, such as rocks that go in an arc and home in on opponents and spikes that stab them. He also has several types of bands, scarves, ribbons, bows, belts, caps, and glasses that can grant him different abilities depending on which one he’s holding. These can raise most of his stats, prevent status effects from being inflicted, prevent his belly from ever going down and emptying, stop his Attack and Special Attack from ever lowering, make items thrown always miss him or bounce back at opponents, let his own throwing items bounce off walls instead of just dropping to the ground or pierce through multiple opponents, pass off damage and effects to others nearby instead of taking it himself, make him sneakier to the point where he won’t wake others up when walking by and fighting, prevent traps he steps on from activating, warp him away at random, reveal invisible traps and opponents, locate the whereabouts of items and opponents, or allow him to walk through anything like water and walls.
Grovyle can also use a multitude of TMs and HMs to learn many other types of moves he wouldn’t know naturally. Finally, he has access to many, many Wonder Orbs that, unlike seeds and held items, can affect entire rooms of allies or opponents due to their widespread range. Grovyle can use them to escape from almost any situation, raise stats, lower the stats of others, knock opponents back, warp others away, turn invisible, frighten, confuse, pause, or petrify opponents, cause them to be put to sleep, cower, or muzzle them, steal an item from them, draw all items on the floor to him, briefly transform an opponent into a decoy that can’t do anything and is targetted by everyone, set, show, or destroy hidden traps, deal damage back to opponents who attack him like a counter, swap places with someone else, transmutate an opponent into another living being or an item, turn water and magma into normal floor tiles, reveal the locations of all items or opponents, change the weather to sunny, rainy, a sandstorm, or a hailstorm, allow him to walk through anything, or instantly defeat an opponent.
Luminous Orbs
Luminous Orbs are one of the many items Grovyle has in his Treasure Bag, but they definitely are the ones he uses the most. Normally, a Luminous Orb reveals the entire map of the floor he’s on while showing the locations of opponents and items. However, Grovyle uses these for a different purpose. He can activate one and use the bright flash it creates to blind others, usually so he can escape.
Powers & Abilities
Moveset
Grovyle knows a variety of different moves for battle, whether they’re physical, special, or status moves. He’s fast, so he can usually get off quick attacks or status moves. Usually, his special attacks would deal more damage than his physical attacks due to his Special Attack being higher than his Attack. Since Grovyle’s a Grass-type Pokémon, his Grass-type attacks deal 50% more damage. This only covers moves he has been shown to use, or can reasonably learn in time since he can level up in the In the Future of Darkness Special Episode and starts at level 46. A list of his other level up moves not mentioned here can be found here. Finally, while not exactly moves, Grovyle can also attack normally with physical strikes or launch multiple razor-sharp leaves as projectiles. The following is a list of all the moves Grovyle can use:
Absorb: A special Grass-type move where Grovyle launches roots that ensnare his opponent and drain them of their energy. This move restores HP equal to 50% of the damage dealt to Grovyle.
Quick Attack: A physical Normal-type move where Grovyle rushes forward at speeds that make him look invisible before attacking his opponent. This move has higher priority over most other attacks.
Leaf Blade: A physical Grass-type move where Grovyle turns the leaves on his arms into blades that he slashes his opponent with. This move has a higher chance at dealing critical hits than most other attacks, which deal more damage than normal.
Dig: A physical Ground-type move where Grovyle burrows underground before resurfacing beneath his opponent and striking them. He’s able to avoid most attacks with it due to being underground, and Grovyle can also drag others into the ground with him or sneak up on opponents.
Fury Cutter: A physical Bug-type move where Grovyle slashes at his opponent with his claws. This move deals double the damage every time it’s used in a row without using another move, and Grovyle can also perform it two to five times consecutively until he misses.
Pursuit: A physical Dark-type move where Grovyle strikes his opponent quickly. This move deals double the damage if his opponent is trying to escape, and Grovyle can also use it to set up a counter that returns the exact amount of damage he takes from them.
Screech: A status Normal-type move where Grovyle emits an earsplitting screech that harshly lowers his opponent’s Defense.
Agility: A status Psychic-type move where Grovyle relaxes and lightens his body to sharply raise his Speed.
Slam: A physical Normal-type move where Grovyle slams into his opponent.
Detect: A status Fighting-type move where Grovyle automatically evades the upcoming attacks of any of his opponents. However, it only works 75% of the time.
Bullet Seed: A physical Grass-type move where Grovyle spits out a barrage of seeds as projectiles at his opponent. This move hits two to five times.
Energy Ball: A special Grass-type move where Grovyle draws power from nature and forms an orb that he launches at his opponent. This move has a 10% chance of lowering their Special Defense.
False Swipe: A physical Normal-type move where Grovyle swipes at his opponent while holding restraint. This move can never cause opponents to faint, even if they’re at 1 HP.
X-Scissor: A physical Bug-type move where Grovyle slashes at his opponent by crossing his claws like a pair of scissors.
Overgrow
Every Pokémon possesses a natural passive Ability. For Grovyle, his Ability Overgrow raises the power of his physical and special Grass-type moves by 50% if his HP is at a third or less of its maximum.
IQ Skills
IQ is essentially how smart one is. For Pokémon such as Grovyle, IQ can also grant passive skills depending on how high it is. These don’t always have to be on, meaning if one skill in particular wouldn’t be good to have in a certain situation, it is able to be turned off. The following is a list of all the IQ skills Grovyle has:
Item Master: Lets Grovyle use or throw his held items.
Course Checker: Lets Grovyle automatically know if there are obstacles in the way before he performs an action.
Exclusive Move-User: Makes Grovyle only use moves, though he won’t attempt to use them if he is out of energy to use a certain move or if using linked moves would delink them if used again.
Dedicated Traveler: Makes Grovyle focus more on traveling than fighting.
Item Catcher: Lets Grovyle catch and hold an item thrown at him, though he can’t do this if he’s already holding one.
Feats
Strength & Attack Potency
Can jump dozens of feet into the air while holding onto Dusknoir, who weighs 235.0 lbs.
Defeated a group of Sableye on separate occasions with Team Poképals and Dusknoir, who are capable of slicing through a thick pillar when working together
Reflected Dusknoir’s Shadow Ball back at him with Team Poképals using only their regular attacks, which is powerful enough to destroy a large chunk of crystal, and Dusknoir himself is able to survive getting crushed by a giant ice chunk three times his size and take a major beating from Primal Dialga
Defeated Team Blaze, who tanked a blast from Primal Dialga that destroyed multiple pillars
Speed
Escaped Crystal Lake in less than a second, with the only accessible bridge connected to the island of the lake being this long
Faster than Team Blaze, who defeated Zubat while weakened, who can create supersonic and ultrasonic waves
Defeated Dusknoir, who intercepted Manectric’s electric blast, who is also said to be able to run at the same speed as lightning striking, which it does here alongside its pre-evolution Electrike
Durability
Resists Ground, Water, Grass, and Electric-type attacks as a Grass-type Pokémon
Tanked Honō’s Flamethrower, Honō while weakened would have caused a cave-in with just a few Scratch attacks, and Honō is also able to break a decent chunk of crystal with a punch
Withstood two Sableye’s Fury Swipes, who are capable of slicing through a thick pillar when working together with other Sableye
Tougher than Team Blaze, who tanked a blast from Primal Dialga that destroyed multiple pillars
Survived the future Primal Dialga’s Roar of Time while weakened
Training & Experience
Defeated Uxie, Mesprit, Azelf, Team Poképals, Dusknoir, and Primal Dialga
Returned to the past after being captured and brought back to the future, while going through multiple dungeons
Went through a massive variety of different dungeons, fighting a wide variety of enemies, which he did while he was greatly weakened, to reach the Primal Dialga of the future
Weaknesses
As a Grass-type Pokémon, Grovyle is naturally weak against Flying, Poison, Bug, Fire, and Ice-type attacks. Also, if his belly empties, he will continuously take more and more damage due to hunger. When it comes to intelligence, Grovyle is cunning and resourceful, but can fall for devious traps, as well as be caught off guard, sometimes because he’s just too innocent of a guy.
Summary
Advantages
Possesses many types of items in his Treasure Bag that can benefit himself with healing, stat buffs, and etc. or negatively affect opponents with stat debuffs, status effects, etc.
Can blind opponents to get away or get a chance to attack with Luminous Orbs
Can deal damage while healing himself with Absorb
Has many blade-like attacks that he can use like Leaf Blade, Fury Cutter, False Swipe, and X-Scissor
Can avoid attacks, drag others underground, and sneak attack others with Dig
Can counter damage taken back with Pursuit or avoid attacks altogether with Detect
Can lower Defense with Screech and raise his own Speed with Agility
Has useful projectile attacks like Bullet Seed and Energy Ball, as well as being able to launch razor-sharp leaves
Can gain an immense boost in power for his Grass-type attacks if he’s low on HP
Can catch most thrown items with his Item Catcher IQ Skill
Disadvantages
Is weak to Flying, Poison, Bug, Fire, and Ice-type attacks
Will take constant damage if his belly is empty
Can fall for traps and be caught off guard
Is too innocent
