Shuppet Report

Shuppet (the Puppet Pokémon) is a relatively common Ghost-type Pokémon found among cities, old buildings and cemeteries within the Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, Kalos, Alola and Paldea regions. Though they might appear fairly cute and harmless, Shuppet are wicked little spirits that enjoy nothing more than feeding off of the negative emotions given off by Pokémon and people alike in the dead of night. Going to bed in a bad mood might not be very good for your psychological health, but when these creatures are around, that'll be the least of your worries...especially if you don't particularly like waking up to a Ghost-type Pokémon right in your face!

Although Shuppet do possess a fairly solid physical form, they tend to follow the same principles as Gastly and Haunter in that they prefer to keep their bodies as light and molecularly-weak as possible in order to bring out the best of their spiritual powers early-on. However, they are noticeably different in that their special abilities are only average in comparison to other Ghost-types because their spiritual powers are primarily focused towards amplifying their physical strength and techniques. As such, Shuppet possess greater physical strength than most other young Ghost-types but are nonetheless hampered by relatively low HP, weak defenses and limited mobility. Considering that they don't really begin to learn many offensive attacks until more than mid-way through their life, this can make Shuppet a somewhat difficult choice for trainers to deal with early-on; even so, Shuppet have a lot of potential and do naturally learn moves like Screech that can help make them better combatants in the long-run.

While many Ghost-types have to feed on pure spiritual energy or some sort of neutral emotion like fear to survive, Shuppet are relatively unique in that they can survive off of negative emotions alone by concentrating them within the horn on their heads and processing them internally as a single packet of energy; in particular, Shuppet seem to heavily enjoy emotions such as sadness, hatred, envy, malice and vengefulness because they are apparently the easiest to process in a concentrated form. At night, Shuppet will often leave their natural territory and seek out individuals that are giving off large amounts of these negative emotions; since Shuppet are not territorial or have any trouble sharing, it is not uncommon to see large swarms of the creatures flitting about, especially within large cities where the number of people present is staggering. Once they find a suitable target, Shuppet will wait under the eaves of houses to make sure that there is no chance of being attacked before quickly moving into the house and absorbing the ambient negative emotions present (leading to the creation of the proverb “Shun the house where Shuppet gather in the growing dusk.”); if they are pressed to, Shuppet may even go so far as to float right next to the source of the negative emotions and absorb them directly. Shuppet will usually only stop at a particular place once in a while to let the negative emotions naturally build up over time, but if the occupant of a home produces enough negative emotions in a single day, repeated trips may become common to the point where Shuppet will simply camp out in the shade of the home and wait for night to fall. Thankfully, Shuppet do not physically harm their prey because they only absorb negative energy that has already been released, and in fact the removal of such energy tends to help clear the minds of victims and make life more comfortable for all affected, but their presence can nonetheless be rather unnerving.

While they might not be built to take a lot of punishment, Shuppet are fascinating creatures that can certainly be put to good use when used properly in battle. You might have to wait a little while before they manage to learn some decent offensive moves, but if you can learn to use their techniques in the meantime, you shouldn't have too much trouble adjusting to them. Just try not to be too happy while one is around; it might sound silly, but you would be surprised to see how many people would be willing to send a happy person to jail for starving their own Shuppet!

Professor Wormwood