On this special edition of the Interesting Specimen series covers an interesting pair of Bug-type Pokemon that I have labeled the Exchange Pair for the purposes of this post. Though technically this post is about a quartet of Pokemon. Presenting Karrablast and Shelmet, and their respective evolved forms, Escavalier and Accelgor.
In their basic forms, Karrablast and Shelmet aren’t all that impressive. One’s a tiny little beetle and the other’s a snail. But when they evolve, they become a bit more powerful. Escavalier is a rather cool-looking knight-like bug with a pair of lances and awesome attack power, and Accelgor is an incredibly fast ninja-like mollusk with some decent abilities. So what is it that lands these bugs in the Interesting Specimen category you might ask? Well it’s the way these two bugs evolve.
Karrablast and Shelmet evolve by being traded. I know, that kind of Pokemon has been around since Generation One. But the distinction that Karrablast and Shelmet have that make them different is that they need to be traded with one another specifically in order to evolve. So in other words if one were to trade a Shelmet with any Pokemon other than Karrablast, it won’t evolve. I’ll explain the reason why in just a moment, but first let’s find out just where to find these bugs.
In the Games: Needless to say, the only way to get Accelgor and Escavalier is to evolve them from Shelmet and Karrablast. As for said Pokemon, they can both pretty much be found in the same places depending on the version. The two bugs can be found on Unova Routes Six and Eleven all year round. And can also be located on Unova Route Eight along with Icirrus City and the Moor of Icirrus in the spring, summer, and fall. That seasonal cycle the Gen. Five games have sure is interesting.
Evolution: So what is it makes Karrablast and Shelmet evolve when traded with one another? It all comes down to a single shell, specifically Shelmet’s. What happens is that during the trading process, Karrablast steals Shelmet’s shell and it becomes the armor that Escavalier wears. This seems to happen electronically from what I’ve read from the Pokedex entires on these Pokemon. Some sort of teleportation I guess. But both Pokemon benefit greatly from the transfer of the snail shell, as the resulting Accelgor is blessed with much greater speed and Escavalier is given much greater attack power (how could it not with both those lances?). One thing I should mention is that if just one of the Pokemon is holding an Everstone during the trade, the evolution does not occur.
Bianca’s Escavalier: I thought I’d close this post by mentioning one notable Escavalier from the anime, the one used by the character of Bianca. In a particular episode of the anime (which one assumes was done just to showcase this unique form of evolution) Bianca trades her Shelmet for Professor Juniper’s Karrablast just to get them to evolve. The resulting Escavalier did not seem to like Bianca much though. Not unlike Ash’s Charizard in the beginning. Yep, one sure has to watch out for the Pokemon received in trades, I can tell you that. One time playing either Gold or Silver I think, I decided to take the easy way out with the first gym and trade a Bellsprout for that Onix in the one house in Violet City. I beat the first gym pretty easily with that Onix, but then it started to disobey me until I beat the second gym. Since that time I’d usually just go to that one route adjoining the route between New Bark Town and Cherrygrove City and caught a Geodude. Takes a little longer but is less of a pain later on.
Well, that pretty much covers it for this post. Until next time.
