Gengar (Gastly, Haunter)
Overview
Throughout history, ghost pokémon have been treated with a mix of fear and reverence, and often both at the same time. Gengar are the most common ghost worldwide, and worldwide they have been treated with far more fear than reverence. They have been historically seen as malevolent tricksters that sometimes form partnerships of convenience with human trainers. Now there is an increasingly popular theory that gengar may have complex emotional lives and a tragic misunderstanding of their circumstances.
This does not mean that they are harmless.
Many trainers mistake "common" with "easy to train." While often true, this is not the case for gengar. Trainers who want to be eased into ghost husbandry are advised to start with another species. However, gengar are one of the most powerful ghosts in Alola and they can form close bonds with their trainer under the right circumstances. This makes them a good pokémon for trainers confident in their ability to handle phantoms and intent on dominating the battlefield.
Physiology
All stages of the evolutionary line are dual ghost- and poison-types.
Gastly are primarily formed from purple-grey spectral fog. Their most common form is a sphere surrounded by a loose halo of gas. Large eyes and a mouth with fangs adorn the face. No part of their body is solid and gastly are perfectly capable of altering their apparent features. Unlike most spectral fog, gastly fog is very toxic. Inhaling just a few grams can kill a human. Beyond inhalation, the fog burns and corrodes any living tissue that it touches. Gastly have relatively little control of their bodies and they can be disrupted by a stiff breeze (see Illness). While they can move at speeds of up to five meters per second if given time to compose themselves beforehand, they seldom move faster than two to three meters per second in the wild.
The species does not need to be visible, or even tangible, on the physical plane. They can move into another realm and move through it, allowing them to get through solid barriers that even their gaseous bodies cannot penetrate. However, they are incapable of affecting the physical world in this state. It takes them several seconds to move between planes.
Haunter are far more condensed than gastly, typically forming a large homogenous body with only a small gaseous tail. Some haunter form two separate hands connected to their body by thin, almost invisible strands of spectral fog. Others incorporate their hands into their body. Haunter typically have a large, toothless mouth. Their tongue actually does not exist when not in use and is only formed as needed. It can be up to two meters long and inflict either the usual chemical burns of the spectral fog or different effects altogether such as paralysis, sleep, and even encasement in a thin layer of ice.
While gengar appear smaller than haunter, they are actually far heavier. Most gengar have a large ovular torso with small, stubby limbs extending from it. There are usually spiky tufts on top as well. Most of the face is comprised of red eyes and a wide mouth with white teeth in it. These teeth are not actually solid, just illusions designed to intimidate their victims. In fact, no part of gengar is solid; they are just very dense orbs of gas. This density makes them very fast, capable of reaching speeds up to thirty meters per second in pure darkness and ten meters per second under natural moonlight. It also grants them a high resistance to wind. Curiously, it also seems to make them weak to light. Gengar move slower and appear less capable of using attacks under lighting more intense than the average streetlight. Under very bright light they fade out of the physical plane entirely, only to fade back in the same place when darkness returns.
Gengar are typically about 1.5 meters tall, but their height can vary considerably. The mass of a healthy, fully developed gengar is exactly 40.5 kilograms.
Behavior
All stages of the line are animivorous. That is, they feed upon emotions in particular and mental health more generally. They have been documented feeding upon other intelligent species, but they have a strong preference towards feeding on humans. For gastly and haunter these feedings usually take the form of repeated and escalating harassment, starting out with objects moved around and soft voices at night and escalating into potentially lethal pranks. Any fear they evoke is physically and psychologically draining, and a particularly severe haunting can potentially render the victim comatose. At that point, the pokémon will move on to a nearby victim. While both stages are capable of living out on the streets, they strongly prefer residing inside of buildings to shut out the wind.
Gengar are more aggressive hunters, albeit less committed ones. They prefer to roam city streets at night, making shadows move and sending chills through the air. When exposed to enough fear they can create elaborate illusions and gain insights into their victim's memories and psyche. They seldom stick with one victim for long, and their hauntings are usually less fatal than their preevolutions with rare but very notable exceptions (see Breeding).
During the day, all stages of the line typically fade out of the physical plane. Only dimension-disrupting attacks or very vulnerable prey will bring them out.
Husbandry
All stages of the line must be handled differently, as they have different behaviors and mindsets. In general, they are best held in dusk balls and are fine staying inside of them during the day. The pokémon will get upset and pull increasingly mean-spirited pranks if confined for most of the night.
Gastly are often confused, violent, and obsessed with hunting. Trainers will either need to battle with them near-constantly or accept that some of the feeding will be at their own expense. There should be a powerful ghost- or dark-type present to keep them in line should they act up. Flying-types and pokémon that can generate strong shockwaves or gusts of wind can also do the trick. Even when well-fed, gastly will habitually pull pranks on their trainer.
Haunter are the calmest stage. If a trainer puts up with them for an extended period of time as a gastly, the pokémon will often gain sympathy for their trainer and obey commands even without deterrents. Wild-caught haunter or those raised by another human tend to be more apathetic towards their trainer. Hunting is done only for food. They will often, but not always, leave their trainer alone so long as they are battled with enough to be well-fed. Haunter are also capable of feeding upon positive emotions and avoiding the need to battle altogether, but this can only be done with trainers they share a close bond with. This is complicated by haunter's incredible jealousy; even if they are fond of their trainer, they will attempt to sabotage all of their close relationships with intelligent pokémon and other humans.
Gengar are the most intelligent and self-aware stage of the evolutionary line. This does not inherently make them easier or harder to train. If raised from a gastly and treated well throughout their more unruly formative years, gengar can be very protective of their trainer and feed almost entirely off of the positive emotions generated by the partnership. They are also capable of scanning memories to quickly learn the human language in full and then use illusions to speak. Gengar have human comparable intelligence and are generally capable of being treated as a close human friend.
If gengar evolves and does not yet have a close bond with their trainer, the situation is more complicated. Gengar inherently yearn for close relationships and purpose, and being deprived of them makes them desperate. They may engage in unhealthy behaviors such as stalking, continuing harassment, and even murder in an attempt to gain their trainer's affections. Deterrent pokémon will be necessary in this case, although violent punishments can cause gengar to escalate instead. It is also far more difficult to overpower a gengar than a gastly. Patient demonstration of healthy relationship skills and the understated punishment of misbehavior are the best way to earn a gengar's trust.
No stage of the evolutionary line can be safely touched without an airtight inorganic suit. Trainers who intend to have a haunter or gengar long-term should invest in such a suit because both stages can be very affectionate. A chronic lack of physical affection will remind them of their condition and send them into rages. Gengar do not sleep in the same way that most pokémon do but they do go inactive during the day. They produce no physical waste.
Illness
Because they usually feed on negative emotions, gastly are at low risk of contracting most ghost illnesses. Their body can be torn apart, but given enough time in their alternate world they will pull themselves together as if nothing had happened.
Haunter and gengar often suffer from illnesses, especially in captivity. Aminivores that feed on positive emotions and relationships can be seriously affected by spectral diseases. These are usually triggered by strong negative memories or neuroses. Gengar are capable of digesting these memories easily enough, but too much negative energy can make the positive feelings around it toxic.
Ghost sicknesses are strange and best treated by a specialist in the field. Any prolonged change in physical structure or behavior that appears to distress the pokémon is an illness. These are typically not subtle changes and can include liquidification, time loops, an inability to control their own movements, prolonged periods of stillness, radical changes in behavior, sudden and apparently unprovoked aggression, and clear facial deformities. These symptoms typically will not go away on their own, and even cured illnesses will almost always resurface if the emotional damage in their partner is not fixed.
Gengar with a meaningful connection to a human partner will usually pass on when their trainer does. The species does not fear their own mortality and most channelers describe gengar as wishing to move on eventually but in no rush to do so.
Evolution
Ghosts are shrouded in superstition and myth. Even most of the Ghost Studies literature is working through old folklore in the closest thing possible to controlled experiments. Several prominent scholars are channelers. The chair of Goldenrod University's ghost studies department is even a ghost-type pokémon herself.
The current consensus is that some, but not all, ghosts are formed when a human or pokémon dies. Whether the new ghost is the old being, some psychic echo of the original, or just a creature that comes out of dormancy after a death is very unclear. Some of the more philosophical researchers believe that there is no difference at all between the three so long as the new ghost believes itself to be the old person.
Gastly are formed from human deaths. Gengar typically believe themselves to be the deceased person in a new form. Most of the evolutionary process is about remembering and accepting who they are and what happened to them.
Newly formed gastly are emotionally chaotic and run entirely on impulse and spite. The rare flashes of memory they do get just make them angrier and more confused. Gastly are best treated as existing in a stage between toddlers and infants. They are still figuring out how their body works and they have very limited self-awareness and higher brain functions. While drawn to humans for food and perhaps some vague glimmer of recognition, even channelers and psychics capable of speaking with them describe their thoughts as rather inhuman.
After a certain amount of feeding, gastly begin to grow heavier and gain better control over their form. They typically switch shape from a cloud of gas to the typical haunter's form almost instantly, but they will take several more months to refine the details and grow steadily larger.
Haunter begin to remember things. At first these memories have almost no impact on their behavior outside of drawing them closer to familiar places and people. As they develop haunter become progressively more distressed by the clash between their current parasitic existence and decidedly inhuman form and their steadily resurfacing human psyche. Haunter become desperate for affection and validation and will seek out humans for more than food.
This ends in one of two ways. If haunter have a stable emotional outlet and a human willing to treat them as a friend, they can become a loyal shadow and life partner and reach some measure of inner peace about their situation.
Alternatively, humans react to them the same way they always have: fear and disgust. After all, haunter still need to feed and their hauntings are decidedly unpleasant. Their possible victims have very good reason to shun haunter away. Even sympathetic people have to deal with haunter being possessive, violent, and unable to fully comprehend their emotions. Combined with their need to feed and toxic body, even the most patient people can leave the haunter or be killed (or both). Now fully convinced they are unlovable and overwhelmed by feelings they cannot control, haunter reach a breaking point and develop a deep loathing for all humans.
Either scenario triggers evolution. The new gengar will grow steadily heavier and more dexterous until they reach their final weight and shape. Gengar set out to either terrorize the world that let them die and kicked them while they're down or to protect the human who saved them from going down a very dark path.
Because they do not pass until they accept their situation, malevolent gengar tend to roam the world until someone finally manages to reach them. It is not impossible to redeem a gengar that has grown to hate humans, but doing so requires steadily negotiating with a powerful and hostile party. It is not recommended for anyone but experts in psychology and ghost pokémon.
Battle
Gengar are glass cannons on the competitive circuits. They are reasonably powerful and very fast. More importantly, they have many disruptive tricks at their disposal and a high enough intelligence to learn several of them. This forces opponents to think quickly on their feet as offensive attacks, debilitating status conditions, or even perish song or destiny bond are thrown at them. However, one good hit will bring all but the strongest of gengar down. They are slower under bright, meaning that most trainers will not use one during outdoor daytime matches.
Three of the Top 100 trainers use one on their main team. Almost all ghost specialists have one. They fit best on hyper offensive teams, but perish trapping and destiny bond allow them to act as revenge killers on stall teams.
Gengar are very good on the island challenge. While trainers will not have enough time to teach their pokémon every trick they can learn, just a few can force an opponent to guess well or face the consequences.
Defensively, all stages of the line benefit from being incorporeal. Most attacks that rely upon precision or power instead of elemental energy will pass harmlessly through incorporeal fog. Almost all contact attacks on gengar, even if technically super effective, are likely to leave the attacker in worse shape than the attacked after chemical burns take their toll.
Powerful elemental projectiles can seriously hurt gengar, but at the amateur level it's usually best to exploit a weakness. All stages of the line hate telepathic damage as it hits their already fragile and confused psyche. Mud or fine sand particulates can get stuck in their bodies and take a moment to filter out. Until cleared, debris inside of the fog substantially slows the pokémon down. This is not a common weakness for ghosts and appears to be related to the toxic nature of gengar's fog. Attacks that manipulate shadows, light, or spectral fog can make it much harder for gengar to remain tangible. Strong wind and shockwave attacks can also take out a gastly in a hit or two, although powerful lights affect them a little less.
Gengar are capable of fading out of the physical plane to avoid all damage. This is allowed in most professional leagues as it gives the opponent a chance to set up without any fear of retaliation. Most amateur leagues, including Alola's, ban fading out as comparatively few amateur pokémon have setup moves.
Good partners for gengar can dim sunlight. They fit well onto rain, hail, and sand teams. Gastly struggle to keep up in any weather but harsh sunlight, which they are often very reluctant to battle in.
Acquisition
Gastly can be captured, adopted, or purchased with a Class IV license. Haunter can be captured, adopted, or purchased with a Class III license. Gengar require a Class V license to possess without the gengar's consent. With consent they only require a Class III license.
Gengar, like most ghosts, are attracted to graveyards and other places that are tied to death. They can often be seen frequenting Hau'oli Graveyard, Memorial Hill, or the ruins of Tapu Village at night. Gastly and haunter will usually take shelter in residences close to their main territory. Gengar prefer to roam the nearby city streets when not visiting the graveyards at the core of their range. No evolutionary stage is visible during the day.
Breeding
Gengar do not breed. Some human deaths, for reasons currently unknown, produce a new gastly. Folklore and recent history suggest that gastly are most common following mass tragedies involving the air such as towns choked by volcanoes or smoke, tornadoes, hypothermia or heatstroke, the rampages of flying-type legendaries, or the use of chemical weapons on soldiers or civilians.
Some haunter and gengar in the throes of deep loneliness and emotional pain come to believe that killing another human will create a new partner who understands their pain.
This is not the case.
Subspecies
None known.