Until its predecessors of Regirock and Regice were better understood, Registeel was called the first automaton. Even today it is called the first true robot, despite its considerable antiquity. This was initially because Registeel is made of a surprisingly flexible metal which brings to mind the robots of today. Registeel's programming, although not using anything recognizable to modern computer enthusiasts, is also far more advanced than that of its predecessors; while certainly no Metagross, it was described by contemporaries as every bit as smart as a man.

Yet according to codices recently discovered in Mount Coronet, while Registeel was undoubtedly a capable warrior – a walking tank in an era when men fought with sticks and stones – unlike Regirock and Regice, when battle came to its mountain home it refused to fight. It did not do so out of cowardice - it walked through a battlefield and had no qualms about knocking out warring pokemon. But when humans came to kill each other, it would attempt valiantly to separate them. Yet both sides continued to try to kill one another – and in time, they succeeded, even if they had to walk around and over a giant moving steel pokemon to do so. Although Registeel would disarm them, it refused to even wound the soldiers; in time, the warring armies resorted to fighting with sticks and stones, but they fought on.

Registeel is today considered the first true robot because it is clear from the codexes of Mount Coronet that it followed what we now know as the first law of robotics: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.