Caterpie Report

Caterpie (the Worm Pokémon) is a common Bug-type Pokémon found among forests and grassy fields within the Kanto, Johto, Unova, Kalos, Alola and Galar regions as well as the Pattern Bush of the Sevii Islands and the Sinnoh region on rare occasions. Though generally ignored in favor of more powerful fighters, Caterpie are interesting insects that can certainly give most trainers a good head-start as trainers in terms of evolutionary potential. Even if you don't want to train one, you still need to be careful about getting too close to these critters in the wild; scare them, and you will probably have a hard time getting the noxious smell that follows out of your nostrils for at least a few hours!

As with traditional caterpillars, Caterpie spend the vast majority of their life simply foraging for food and avoiding predators. Caterpie are literal eating-machines that can easily devour leaves much bigger than themselves within a few short seconds; in some cases, a Caterpie may even end up eating more than its weight in leaves, or up to a hundred leaves, within a single day. As Caterpie grow and develop over time, they will gradually begin to shed their skin and leave it outside in the open; aside from acting as distractions for predatory birds that are otherwise unwise to this skin's actual contents, these discarded exoskeletons also provide the local soil a considerable amount of nutrition once they begin to decompose, in turn fertilizing the ground that grants Caterpie their single source of sustenance. Unfortunately for Caterpie, their weak, soft bodies do not offer much in the way of self-defense, so they must often climb trees with the small suction pads on the tips of their legs in order to find food that is both plentiful and relatively safe to eat out in the open. Once Caterpie grow to a certain size and have energy stored for evolution, they will use their String Shot technique to coat themselves in a thick casing of hardened string, effectively initiating their evolution into Metapod.

Unlike their contemporary Weedle, Caterpie cannot utilize poison to attack opponents and must instead rely on a fairly weak Tackle attack to do any real damage before evolution. If Caterpie are threatened by a predator, however, offense is rarely the first instinct and is instead swapped out for defensive tactics. When threatened, Caterpie will first attempt to hide themselves among leaves that are similar in color to their own skin; oddly enough, this simple camouflage actually works quite a bit of the time, even against experienced predatory birds. If that fails, Caterpie will attempt to frighten off the opposition with the eye-spots on the sides of their body; this only works against fairly young predators, but it nonetheless can work well in the right circumstances. If worst comes to worse and the opposition gets really close to them, however, Caterpie will use a potent secret weapon to drive back predators in hordes: a terrible smell. When threatened in close quarters, Caterpie will release a potent stench from the red antenna on their heads; despite their small size, this smell is quite terrible and can actually remain in the noses of all who smell it for several hours at a time, continuously burning the sensitive insides of the nostrils for the entire duration. With these primary defensive tactics at hand in addition to the ever-popular String Shot technique, it comes as little surprise that Caterpie manage to exist in high numbers in the wild despite a lack of poison for defense, though this does not mean that their best defenses are capable of driving off stronger predators very often.

They might not be anything more than fodder for young trainers, but Caterpie can be made into potent fighters if given the chance and raised properly. They might be relatively weak and unable to do much in the way of direct damage in battle, but if you're diligent in your training and careful about what Pokémon you battle in the wild, you should have no trouble raising these little bugs into beautiful and powerful Butterfree. Just make sure that you help them develop their mobility as much as possible before evolution if you want them to still be capable of battle; otherwise, the only thing that your Metapod will ever be able to do in battle is Harden, and that rarely ever results in many victories!

Professor Wormwood