Name: Ivysaur – Ivysaur is a combination of Ivy and Saur (Greek for Lizard)
Type: Grass/Poison
Biology: An Ivysaur eh? Nice Pokémon you got there! Ivysaur is the evolution of the Kanto starter Bulbasaur, now Bulbasaur's bulb has grown and began to prepare to bloom. The bulb now that is has evolved now contains several types of oils that prevent it from burning, it may not prevent the damage of Fire attacks, but it will prevent Ivysaur life-source from being scorched by lethal fire.
Bulbasaur's body has experienced several changes, caused by the evolution process, the main appreciable change is that the bulb has become pink in color and developed petal that will expand to bloom into a flower. That flower has the same functions as the bulb, absorbing sunrays to transform them to nutrients, however since the bulb has gained weight, Bulbasaur's legs are forced to become sturdy since it won't be able to stand on its hind legs.
That bulb sometimes releases a sweet scent that attracts many Pokémon; however Ivysaur's leafs can release toxic spores that make other Pokémon avoid getting too near. I highly recommend to keep an eye on that bulb, as it is one the main factors that signals Ivysaur's health and growth, it will begin to smell sweeter and grow larger as evolution approaches, Ivysaur will seek to strengthen its soon to be flower with extra sunrays, until it opens and evolution takes place.
Ivysaur 's body is a lot stronger that Bulbasaur's, as it has growth sturdy to support the weight of the bulb which boosts the power of Grass attacks and adds a few Poison attacks to the arsenal. Ivysaur has strong physical defense making it resistant to physical attacks. A good strategy in battles may be to use that resistance to block attacks and then use a closed ranged Poison attack to hit the enemy to paralyze it, then use Vine Whip to hold it, charge an Energy Ball, fire and BOOM!, a critical hit.
Warning! Fire attacks will strike Ivysaur down, it may not be lethal to them anymore but despite this the attacks will severely damage it, so keep it away from Fire-types.
History: Ivysaur was for a long time considered as the defender of the wild Bulbasaur; since it was severely wary of humans in this stage, it often decides to avoid them, deciding to watch its group's territory to prevent its friends from harm. Due to this it scared off any human who came to close, so Ivysaur became the "Party pooper" of the ones who wanted to catch a Bulbasaur.
When Bulbasaur began to investigate human villages, very few Ivysaur shared the desire to explore human villages, less interact with them, so several wild Ivysaur incited their younger brethren to avoid interacting with the awful, funny looking and crappy humans… That kind of hurt, but since this guide will be impartial I do better stay silent, if I can he he. Well let's get back to Ivysaur!, as I was saying Ivysaur wanted young Bulbasaur to avoid humans, and since a lot of Bulbasaur ignored the warning Ivysaur did not take that kindly, so it became feverously protective of the Bulbasaur that stayed with them, repelling all humans who got too near their group.
Domestic Ivysaur were very different, as it preferred to be near humans and seemed to enjoy the company, the flower on its back emanated a delicate aroma which many people liked and so stayed near Ivysaur to enjoy the smell, since most Ivysaur were outside and no contamination was in the air the villages which had a decent number of Ivysaur had a delicate smell that lingered all the day, so many people visited these villages to enjoy the Ivysaur and their smell, especially when evolution was near as the aroma becomes sweeter, also seeing the evolution was a bonus. This made those villages attractive to others, thus raising its economy via the inns where the visitors stayed. As a result Ivysaur was a contributor to Kanto's economy, amazing, isn't it?
Behavior: There won't be any major changes with the personality of your Ivysaur; it will remain calm and collected, even in dire situations. However it will hate cuddles more than before, as Ivysaur will seek to be an adult in all the ways possible, acting like one for example. Besides that, nothing will change, the personality of your Pokémon will remain the same, so you don't need to worry, Ivysaur won't become a rebellious Pokémon. Furthermore Ivysaur, while traveling with you gained a lot of patient, mostly from the quality time it spent with other Pokémon.
Wild Ivysaur are a lot less patient than its domestic counterpart, as such it will be very uncomfortable near problematic or annoying Pokémon and sometimes it may resort to release its spores to make the Pokémon go away. These Ivysaur doesn't tolerate humans near their group, so many of them will try to scare you off when you are too near their territory, if you react violently they will do so, thus initiating a fight.
Life in the wild: Ivysaur is an extremely rare Pokémon to find in the wild, since as a starter Pokémon it is breed in captivity. It travels with groups of 10-20 individuals. While Venasaur acts as a leader, Ivysaur act as a peace-maker, and babysitter of sorts, as in their groups, is their main job to take care of young Bulbasaur, protecting them form dangerous enemies, mainly Fire types, since Bulbasaur can easily die if hit by a Fire attack, Ivysaur also protect young Bulbasaur from human trainers who want to capture them, if they fail and a Bulbasaur is captured, they will seek aid from the others members, if they cannot stop the trainer on their own.
Ivysaur in this phase of their Life Cycle, are divided into Male and Female, being a Male-Oriented species, Females are a very important part of the community, as the future of the group depends on them; Female Ivysaur will be trained to get ready for the exigencies the group will make, both physically and emotionally. Ivysaur can mate in this stage, however they won't be able to produce offspring until they evolve into Venasaur, Females will be instructed in the importance of mating and the benefits it will bring to their group, the pressure of this can be overwhelming to some of them, causing panic attacks that have to be taken care of.
Food: As most Grass-types Ivysaur gets its main source of nutrition from photosynthesis, via the flower on its back, however its stores a small quantity of sap on the base of the flower to use in emergencies, Ivysaur will eat berries as a supplement. It is important to never offer Ivysaur meat of any kind as it will despise it, and feel offended by the offer. It won't eat human food, as most of it contains chemicals and Ivysaur prefers natural and organic food.
Life Cycle: Ivysaur is the second life stage of Bulbasaur, this being the "Middle Phase", has an amazingly long lifespan of 60-120 years that will increase when evolution comes.
Care-Taking: Ivysaur gets most of its food by photosynthesis via their flower, so it's really important to let them out of its Poke ball now and then to let them absorb sunlight. In this stage Ivysaur will be looking forward to evolve, thing it will only achieve with the correct aid of their trainer. When evolution is near Ivysaur's flower will begin to swell and smell sweeter, as this happens Ivysaur will seek more sunlight to accelerate the process, so it is important to be in open areas when that happens.
The flower will be the main indicator of Ivysaur's health and development, so it the flowers began to present dark colors Ivysaur must be treated immediately at a Pokémon center.
Relationship with Humans (Trainers): Ivysaur will rely on you to help it evolve as it sees it as your duty as its trainer, if you feel discouraged or incapable of fulfilling your duty, Ivysaur will notice it and will get distanced of you, thinking you have failed it, in this scenario you need to show that even if you felt discouraged, it won't stop your efforts to help it, Ivysaur will eventually understand and regain its trust in you. If you did felt like you could do it from the beginning you will need to do many battles to help Ivysaur to get the experience needed to evolve.
Ivysaur are very protective of their trainers, and won't doubt attacking anybody who harms its trainer, however it will attack Pokémon with special force, if the attacker is a human Ivysaur will give him/her a few Vine Whips to teach him/her a lesson, but since it understands the fragility of humans it will strike rather lightly, so the attack won't cause severe damage, but it will hurt nonetheless.
If you captured a wild Ivysaur it won't trust you easily, even if you explained the benefits of being with you, it will remain wary about your true motives, that's if the captured Ivysaur is male, If its female it will felt somewhat relieved to get off the pressure of breeding young members, however expect it to felt guilty, as it has left its group along with their chance to get new members, so it most likely try to get back, thing I recommend you do, as you will be increasing the chances of the group survival if you do so.
Relationship with Pokémon: Ivysaur is kind to other Pokémon, but will always watch them all; making sure nobody is making trouble. Ivysaur has a tendency to become the babysitter of baby Pokémon such as Togepi and will specially protect them from harm. Ivysaur dislikes mischievous types as Gastly or Gengar, since it attempts the integrity and the peace of the team, while Gastly and Gengar can be taught to be a little quiet Ivysaur will keep more attention on them should they cause mischief.
Domestic Ivysaur are rather displeased with their wild counterparts, due to the fact that they will scary off a trainer or in grave cases attack them, just for being too near of their group, which most of the time the trainer didn't know about. That feeling is rather reciprocated by the wild Ivysaur, as they think of domestic ones as "Little Softies".
Love: Now it is the time when Ivysaur will meet little Lady Love, Bwa ha ha ha ha! Oops! I sounded creepy, didn't I? Oh well, now Ivysaur will began to search for a mate, and since you are the only suitable option nearby, expect funny and bad romantic attempts, yes I said bad romantic attempts. Since Ivysaur previous evolution, Bulbasaur, often insisted to be treated like an adult that resulted into avoiding love matters, because of that Ivysaur don't really know how to express it, so they will try to get your attention using various tactics, the most popular being "The Love Stare" which consists in Ivysaur staring you for a long period of time trying to communicate its feelings, as expected it doesn't work as planned, instead their "Love Stare" creeps their trainers a lot, so if you see your Ivysaur staring at you intently it's because it has a crush on you. If you have feelings for it too, communicate them to it, expect Ivysaur to bounce onto you and forget its anti-cuddle policy, and become a cuddle lover 100%, the cuddles will be reserved only for you, thought. If you don't return its feelings make that know gently, and expect Ivysaur to be isolated from others for a while, trying to cope with it. A curious fact about Ivysaur is that if rejected, Ivysaur will began to eat a lot of berries, as it delicious flavor cheers them up a bit, this habit can be compared to humans eating ice cream after a break-up.
Summary: A strong and resistant Pokémon, excellent for trainers, it may not be remarkably good at romance but it will be an excellent life time companion, devoted and loyal, so you are in good hands, err, paws.
Trivia: Ivysaur Japanese name, Fushigisou, can be taken to mean "It seems strange" or 不思議 草 Fushigi sou (strange grass).
The bulb on its back now resembles the bud of a species of parasitic flowering plants known as Rafflesia
