a bonus chapter, for Dreams That You Dreamed by The Blue Engine

Downloading from The Alola Pokedex, Online Appendix . . .

[b]Rhyperior (Rhyhorn, Rhydon, Rhyfernal)[/b]

[u]Overview[/u]

The existence of pokémon on the bottom of the seafloor was confirmed in the 18th Century by the crew of the H.M.S. Challenger. In the 20th Century, NASA confirmed the existence of pokémon life in the exosphere and on the moon. It is looking like the next frontier in pokémon science will be the study of pokémon life in the mantle, or at least deep in the Earth's crust.

There is a somewhat odd grouping of pokémon who mostly live around volcanoes. Camerupt and torkoal are two well known examples. However, both pokémon are quite capable of living outside of volcanic areas and often migrate from mountain to mountain with periods of activity. The more interesting pokémon are those that cannot long survive outside of fires and lava flows.

Slugma is the classic example of such a pokémon. Almost every active volcanic range on the continental crust (and some on the oceanic) has slugma living there. Yet, they are utterly incapable of moving between volcanoes in any form. Until the 21st Century, scientists had no good theory on how they were so widespread despite having no clear means of spreading. And then rhyfernal appeared in Alola.

Rhyperior are found on every continent except Antarctica. It was known for some time that rhydon had two branching evolutions and that the less common one was associated with fire and volcanoes. However, very little was known about that evolution, rhyfernal, and there was debate as to whether or not they were a separate species altogether. Then, despite there being no documented rhydon on alola at the time, a half dozen rhyfernal appeared around lava flows on Ula'Ula. Then the population laid eggs. And rhyhorn hatched from them. Now there is an apparently natural rhyhorn population on Ula'Ula, thousands of kilometers away from their nearest natural range.

The logical explanation, however wild it may seem, is that rhyfernal travel far beneath the Earth's surface from volcano to volcano. It is possible that they spend almost all of their lives in the mantle and only come to the surface to reproduce. Notably, the stones harvested from one of the dead rhyfernal that surfaced on Ula'Ula were very similar in composition to the Earth's mantle.

It is unclear what life in a world of tremendous heat and pressure would look like. Both rhyfernal and slugma are essentially just sentient clumps of lava held together by unknown forces, although the former has rocky organs in the interior and a rocky armor on their exterior. Other pokémon known to live or travel deep in the Earth include carbink and steelix, both very durable Pokémon.

Beyond their relationship to the world below, rhydon are always popular on the competitive battling scene and rhyhorn are one of the most popular pokémon in zoos worldwide. The recent classification of rhyperior as a native Alolan species has dramatically lowered the barriers for the importation and ownership of the pokémon on the islands. While the wild population is still protected, trainers with a high enough license and enough money can get their hands on an imported rhyhorn.

Elsewhere in the world, rhyperior habitat has slowly been shrinking. Rhyhorn and rhyperior in particular often become a nuisance to local communities. And, given their very slow maturation rates, one bad season can keep rhyperior out of an area for centuries even with no further barriers to reentry.

[u]Physiology[/u]

Rhyhorn, rhydon and rhyperior are all classified as dual rock- and ground-types by the Department of Agriculture for their and mineral exteriors and low level terrakinesis. The ground-typing is somewhat controversial as their terrakinesis is not substantially more common or powerful than it is in most rock-types as a whole. However, because at least one member of their evolutionary line lives almost exclusively underground, the typing has become less controversial in recent years.

Rhyfernal is classified as a dual rock- and fire-type. A secondary ghost-typing instead of rock is being actively considered, but the final decision is on hold pending the release of the full study Department of the Interior study on rhyfernal.

Rhyhorn are large quadrupeds with short stubby legs and big, triangular heads with small eyes. Their most interesting feature is the (usually) slate grey plate armor that surrounds their body. It is composed of over three dozen separate plates which interlock at odd angles throughout the body to form a series of spines and ridges. While rhyhorn's joints are not directly covered, at least one protruding ridge usually extends above every major joint. Rhyhorn armor is very similar in composition to granite, although the exact makeup (and color) varies depending upon the most common rocks in the rhyhorn's habitat. Beneath the armor, rhyhorn skin is not substantially more durable than that of a human.

Rhydon, by contrast, have very tough and thick skin that can heal almost all surface-level injuries within a few days. They have much less plate armor coverage than their juvenile form. They use the lessened burden to be much more maneuverable than rhyhorn, even if they aren't as fast in a direct charge. Rhydon are almost always bipedal, although they will drop to all fours against some short but tough opponents.

For whatever reason, rhydon have more variable colors in both their armor and their skin than rhyhorn. However, their armor and most of their skin usually remains slate grey. The exceptions are a patch of skin on their belly and their (now more prominent) horn, both of which are usually some shade of light brown or yellow, although red, dark brown and even pale blue and green shades have been documented.

Their limbs are still relatively short, but their hindlegs are now much thicker and stronger than they were as a rhyhorn. All of their limbs grow three short, sharp and hard claws. Rhydon have a much larger tail than rhyhorn to help them balance. This tail can grow up to two-thirds as long as the rest of their body and is quite bulky and muscular. In addition to balance, tail swings are their primary means of defense in the wild.

Rhyperior remain bipedal, but in many other ways they resemble rhyhorn more than rhydon. They are very bulky, almost round creatures. Almost every square inch of their body, except for one small region right beneath their head, is covered in plate armor. Unlike rhyhorn, almost all of their body is covered in a single skin-like sheet of stone rather than a network of interlocking plates. That armor also has other rock ridges and plates protruding from it to make rhyperior all but invulnerable. Their tail is thinner and shorter than a rhydon's. It also has a large club on the end. A rhyperior's horn is about two to three times longer than it was as a rhydon.

Rhyperior's most significant physical change is in their arms. The organic parts of rhyperior arms are rather long and slender, especially when compared to rhydon. But they have some of the most extensive mineral armor on the entire body surrounding them. They have two large spears sticking back from the elbow, giving them a means of covering the arm joints and defending against attacks from behind. They also have a hole in their palm with powerful muscles lining it. This serves as a cannon, allowing them to launch small stones or even geodude large distances at high speeds.

The number of defensive mechanisms rhyperior have is somewhat puzzling. Rhyhorn have very few predators anywhere in their vast range. In some more mountainous areas, they may deal with vanilluxe, tyranitar and metagross. On the plains the occasional grass-type such as tangrowth might try to pick on a weak rhyhorn, or one that has become separated from their wreck. But these are all risky fights for the assailant. Rhydon have no natural predators. And yet, at some point macroevolution guided rhydon towards regrowing much of their armor as they age. This makes them too slow to protect the weaker members of their wreck from fast predators such as metagross, vanilluxe and tangrowth. And rhydon deal with tyranitar about as well as rhyperior do. The reason for the regrowth of armor as a rhydon ages and evolves is currently unknown.

Rhyhorn, rhydon and rhyperior are primarily herbivorous and graze on grasses and shrubs. They have been observed eating rocks, but it is unclear if this is for the minerals to reinforce their shell or whether they gain actual energy from the consumption.

If rhyfernal did not lay eggs that became rhyhorn, they almost certainly would not be classified as related. The other stages of the evolutionary line are conventional mammals beneath their armor. Rhyfernal appear to be almost entirely inorganic. They have a similar silhouette to rhydon and, shortly after evolution, they might look nearly identical except for glowing eyes and scorch marks across their body. As they grow older and experience battle, rhyfernal gain a brittle outer shell of an obsidian-like mineral. They also have several 'organs' of similar composition inside of them. A rhyfernal that forgoes battle for long enough begins to develop a thicker shell and even several erratically placed horn-like growths on their face. They don't regrow eyes after the first time their head is shattered.

Between their shell and organs, rhyfernal are filled with 'blood.' This fluid is a substance chemically similar to basalt lava. It appears to have small complex mineral structures reminiscent of cells floating inside of it. Their blood is kept viscous at a temperate between 500 and 700 degrees Celsius. When their shell is damaged, rhyfernal sometimes activate an explosion inside of them that blast off portions of the shell and a shower of extremely hot blood at whatever harmed them. This blast material can move at supersonic speeds and reach distances of over 20 meters. After detonation, rhyfernal will seek out minerals to eat.

Until they were observed reproducing, it was not believed that rhyfernal were alive in any real sense. Instead, the leading theory was that they were a strange sort of ghost pokémon that possessed the corpse of a rhydon that had burned to death. Their may still be some truth to this: some channelers and mediums can connect with rhyfernal, and the species strongly dislikes shadow-based and spectral attacks. It is entirely possible that rhyfernal may technically be a different species from rhyperior, albeit one that relies upon the same physical body. The only real precedent for this, shedinja, is treated as part of the same species as ninjask.

Rhyperior can live for over 250 years. They can reach heights of 2.5 meters and weigh over 3500 kilograms.

Estimates of rhyfernal life expectancy in the wild range from two to five years after emergence. In captivity, they have only been kept alive for three years after evolution before succumbing to hypothermia (see Illness). Five of the six rhyfernal that emerged on Ula'Ula roughly a decade ago are dead. It is entirely unclear how long they had been alive before they surfaced. Rhyfernal have been documented reaching heights slightly over two meters. The largest rhyfernal corpse ever weighed had a mass of 2400 kilograms; it is understandably difficult to weigh a live rhyfernal.

[u]Behavior[/u]

Rhyperior social structures vary slightly between subspecies (see Subspecies). Montane rhyperior wrecks tend to contain either one mated pair of rhyperior, a sibling group of rhyhorn, or a small group of rhydon. Sometimes rhydon live alone. In grassland habitats where food is abundant, wrecks can be much larger. The largest one ever observed in the wild was an American rhyhorn wreck containing 41 rhyhorn, 11 rhydon and 3 rhyperior. Wrecks of around 25 individuals are far more common, though.

Despite their large social groups, rhyperior hierarchies are very loose. Young children respect adults. Beyond that, no single member appears to take orders from any other member. Fights between members of a wreck are quite common. If the fight escalates, the other wreck members form a ring around the main two parties. They battle and the loser leaves, sometimes taking pokémon that were close to them along.

Rhyhorn are known for their lack of intelligence. This stereotype is more or less accurate. They have nasty tempers but tend to forget grudges very quickly. Some research suggests they often forget the reason they started charging before they hit their target. As such, most disputes that escalate enough to warrant a wreck-sanctioned fight are between rhydon and rhyperior. Very young rhyhorn are somewhat curious; after a few years of age, they essentially only perform vital life functions and occasional charges at things that upset or intrigue them.

Rhydon are somewhat more intelligent than their juvenile forms. They are also less aggressive and tend to thump their tail against the ground and roar before attacking. Some wild rhydon have been observed making crude pyramids out of boulders. Captive rhydon given rectangular blocks have also been documented stacking them, unstacking them, and then stacking them again for days on end before they lose interest. When they were subsequently given blocks of differing shapes, they regained interest and played with them until no new blocks had been introduced within five to eight days. This may be a way to explore the capabilities of their arms after decades of being quadrupedal rhyhorn.

Rhyhorn generally only charge at predators, attackers or creatures they are unfamiliar with (and thus suspect could be predators). Rhyperior are far more aggressive. In fact, rhyperior have been known to load stones into their cannons and fire directly into flocks of birds. This apparently serves as target practice. Older rhyperior sometimes attack and kill other herbivores sharing the same range or destroy man-made structures in their habitat. Or natural structures in their habitat: rhyperior have been observed snapping trees and repeatedly charging into cliffs in the wild with no apparent provocation.

Rhyfernal spend almost all of their available time sleeping inside of fires or lava. Their ranges are restricted to the areas immediately around active volcanoes because of this. They seldom rise up to the surface, preferring to live a little deeper down in warmer areas with higher pressure. When they do surface, they seldom interact with organic life. Instead they briefly survey the area and go back down within the hour. Their body temperatures are simply unsustainable on the surface for long (see Illness). The Ula'Ula colony have sometimes killed potential predators for their rhyhorn offspring while on the surface or engaged in some very brief cuddling with their young once they had grown enough armor to withstand their parents' heat.

[u]Husbandry[/u]

Rhyhorn and rhydon captivity has a centuries long history on multiple continents. They have been used for war, sport, companionship and transportation. Most of these rhyhorn were captive bred by noble houses that passed down the same rhyhorn for generations. For a variety of reasons, they make very poor pets for individual trainers.

To start with, a newly born rhyhorn can live for centuries. Rhyhorn, rhydon and rhyperior are neither terribly social nor intelligent. They are not fun to cuddle with. They require large open spaces and either near-constant human affection or other members of their species to socialize with. They can eat up to 15% of their considerable body weight a week. Your heirs will probably not want your rhyhorn. They will probably not want to deal with the hassle of finding a trainer, zoo or safari park willing to take the pokémon. Rhyhorn husbandry is really best left to the professionals. But, if you are an experienced pokémon trainer who wants to take the risk (or are a trainer who has inherited one and has no desire to give it away), a single trainer can make it work.

A rhyhorn more than a decade or two old will require either several acres of or must be let out of their pokéball during frequent, long distance walks. Once a rhyhorn reaches a height of roughly one meter at the withers they can carry a human and barely notice the added weight. But their hard, ridge-riddled body means that even the best saddles will not make the riding experience comfortable.

Rhyhorn, rhydon and rhyperior should be allowed to graze on their own if adequate land is available. If not, they should be fed a mix of grasses, hay and roots with occasional leaves mixed in. They should be fed roughly 2.5% of their body weight a day until they reach the age of ten, at which point they can be fed 2%. If the pokémon is frequently used in battle, add roughly 0.3% per day to their food.

All three stages drink water, but most subspecies can go up to two weeks without drinking if they need to. Do not push their limits. Instead, fill their water trough every three to five days.

Rhyhorn, rhydon and rhyperior also require stones to eat to replenish their armor. Their favorites are slate, shale and granite. They will also eat sandstone, limestone and basalt. Large quartz crystals and geodes fascinate them and a rhyhorn will often spend a few days protecting and examining their new toy before they get bored and wander off.

As mentioned in behavior, rhydon can use some large bulky objects of varying shapes as toys. They should be given enrichment once a month. Enrichment can either be toys added to their habitat, rotation to a new paddock or supervised exploration of a new area. Rhyhorn do not want toys and will often just destroy any that they are given. Rhyperior enrichment should be handled on a case by case basis; some can be quite clever and playful, most will just smash anything in their enclosure at the first opportunity.

It is easiest to contain rhyhorn by digging water-filled moats over two meters deep around almost the entirety of their enclosure (although this does not work for the Japanese cave rhyhorn, see Subspecies). Barring that, rhyhorn can typically be contained by bland solid metal, stone or wood walls at least two meters high. Walls with slats are a bad choice as rhyhorn can see things that upset them on the other side, charge through the fence and then wander off. Electric fences are useless at deterring them.

Rhydon are best held in place by the promise of food and trust in their trainer. Frequent enrichment and a lifelong bond with humans help. If that cannot be arranged, moats around the entire enclosure will usually do the trick.

Rhyperior containment is so difficult that currently only the San Diego Safari Park, the Lumiose Zoological Park and the National Zoo of Chile exhibit them. The former relies upon providing them with so much space that they seldom run against the boundaries (which are moats over four meters deep). The latter two have very old and calm rhyperior that have continuously been held in zoos since they were rhyhorn.

A handful of professional trainers, often from old families with long histories of rhydon training, keep one on their team. They say that the channeled violence of frequent battle keeps them docile outside of fights and training. Many countries refuse to allow trainers to release rhyperior to the wild given the public safety risk they propose. Others only allow it in very remote or protected areas. The difficulty of caring for a rhyperior, lack of trainers or zoos willing to take a rhyperior in, and the inability to easily release them leads to most rhyperior being euthanized shortly after evolution.

Rhyfernal captivity is a new field and should not be attempted by anyone but zoos and scientists looking for a massive challenge. The obstacles to caring for them include a very poor understanding of their diet, a need to constantly maintain a pool of liquid rock without melting the rest of the enclosure, and the difficulty of building heatproof the barriers that can also take an explosion or direct charge. It is impossible for humans to enter the rhyfernal's exhibit under any circumstances, and they tend to break the drones some zoos have used to care for them remotely.

If a trainer's rhydon evolves into rhyfernal (see Evolution) and the pokémon returns, they will require a very expensive magma ball that the pokémon will only be able to leave for less than an hour at a time. They will likely be under constant stress from their environment and will be entirely unable to get physically close to their trainer due to the heat radiating off of them. Additionally, scientists have very little idea what rhyfernal need to survive. At best, the creature will be kept alive but in emotional and physical pain for several years. If a rhyfernal returns after evolution, it is best for everyone involved to tell them to go back to their volcano.

Rhyhorn don't tend to mind pokéballs as long as their exercise, food, water, and socialization needs are met. Rhydon are a little more skeptical but occasional use, especially when they are hurt, is almost always tolerated. Rhyperior tend to hate pokéballs, but rhyperior that have been raised with them (or at least apricorn balls) since birth tend to at least tolerate them when used sparingly by a human they trust.

[u]Illness[/u]

Rhyhorn often struggle with health issues between their skin and their armor. Sometimes their armor cuts or pinches their body and it is difficult for them to do anything about it. Occasionally their skin will get infected. These problems are generally accompanied by symptoms such as lethargy, pained groans (especially while moving), and trying to ram one part of their body against other objects to get the armor off.

Most issues of this nature require surgery to temporarily remove a portion of the rhyhorn's armor. Outside of Alola, this can generally only be performed by large mammal specialists in major cities. The popularity of rockruff in Alola means that far more veterinarians are willing to perform the surgery. This makes it much cheaper and easier to schedule than in almost any other part of the United States.

Rhyfernal blood is mostly composed of molten stone. If the blood ever cools too much, the rhyfernal literally starts to turn into a statue. When a rhyfernal makes pained noises or tries to bury into the ground, it should be immediately withdrawn into a magma ball. The same goes for a rhyfernal that has just partially exploded and exposed their bloodstream to air. These 'blood clots' are usually incurable and fatal.

[u]Evolution[/u]

Rhyhorn development is slow and mostly consists of gradual transformations. In the wild rhyhorn typically reach their full size between 70 and 100 years old and are considered evolved between 90 and 120 years old. The formal demarcation line between rhyhorn and rhydon is their first time standing on their hind legs for more than one hour. Rhyperior have a more abrupt evolution, usually around 180 years old. They dig deep into the Earth and evolve beneath the surface under high pressure (however, they get nowhere close to leaving the crust). Roughly five weeks later they emerge in the exact same spot, evolved. They will not evolve in even simulated high heat and pressure environments in captivity and must dig to evolve.

Like many pokémon, both of these evolutions can occur much sooner than they naturally would in captivity than in the wild with few adverse effects. If a pokémon battles a lot or is under constant environmental stress, they undergo metamorphoses faster. The exact mechanism that triggers this in hundreds of different pokémon species across the world is unknown at this time.

Rhydon that live near volcanoes will often break away from their wreck and move towards the volcano when it is time for them to evolve. They will climb most of the way up the peak and then begin to dig down into it until they hit magma (if there is lava on the surface they will wade through it and then dig into the source). At some point most of their flesh burns away and they are left with armor, magma and a handful of pseudo-cells and organs that are silicon-based rather than organic. They will emerge two to three months later. Sometimes they will seek out their wreck like newly emerged rhyperior do. Captive rhyfernal may seek out their old trainer. They usually will not do either and will simply live alone near the volcano they evolved under until they die or are captured and taken away.

[u]Battle[/u]

Rhydon is one of the dominant forces on the global competitive battling scene. They are durable enough to take all but the heaviest of hits and keep going. While rhydon are not fast, they can summon relatively powerful earthquake attacks with training and their tail swipes can hit with forces well over 100,000 Newtons. This makes them one of the quintessential physical tanks in competitive battling.

They compete for their role most directly against aggron, golem, steelix and tyranitar, all but the last of which also have a large global range in the modern area. The former three are all more durable but less powerful than rhydon. Aggron have a better temperament but they can be more expensive to care for. Steelix post-evolution can also be very moody and might reject their trainer. Golem are relatively cheap to feed and don't require as much space as rhydon do, but they are very mean and known to reject commands altogether in battle. Tyranitar are usually regarded as better than rhydon in almost every way (better movepool, better speed, better durability, better temperament, just a little less power). However, they are difficult to obtain and, like steelix, sometimes reject their old trainer after evolution.

Rhydon struggle against powerful water-types, grass-types or anything strong enough to shatter their armor. While their skin is hard to burst and their internal organs are well protected, sufficiently sharp claws can still draw blood and cause distracting pain.

Unlike most slow, grounded pokémon, rhydon win most of their matchups against birds. Their stone edges have decent range and rank among some of the strongest of any pokémon. And simple physics means that any bird generating the kind of projectile force needed to hurt a rhydon is probably knocking itself out of the air from the recoil. Fliers with great physical bulk, powerful melee attacks and enough speed to dodge tail swipes, or birds with powerful ranged grass- or water-type attacks can still break a rhydon.

Zoning tactics, that is, staying far away from rhydon and lobbing projectiles at them, are also not usually effective. Rhydon earthquakes will usually do more damage to their opponent than their opponent will do to them with projectiles. Extreme type advantage somewhat offsets this, but it's usually still a risky endeavor.

The best way to deal with a rhydon is either to run a rain team or to pack a check such as gliscor, skarmory, venusaur, tangrowth, swampert, machamp, conkeldurr, metagross or kabutops. Rhydon has no true counters and can steamroll unprepared teams, but their potential usefulness is limited from game-breaking to merely top-tier by the sheer number of popular checks they have.

Rhyperior is arguably better than rhydon on the competitive scene. Their loss of speed is offset by devastating projectile attacks from their cannon, even greater bulk, and a sight boost in power over their adolescent form. There are simply very few trainers with a rhyperior. They join metagross and abysscull on the list of pokémon that would define the global metagame if more than handful of high-level trainers had one. They battle in much the same way as rhydon, although they prefer full body tackles to tail swings. Their cannon also gives them some additional anti-bird options and a way to take out pokémon that insist on playing a zoning game against them.

If you have a rhydon or rhyperior that's fully trained and obeys your orders, you're probably halfway to the big leagues already. But if you do come into the possession of one as an amateur, their competitive battling tactics work wonders on the island challenge. Rhyhorn are best used with a mix of devastating charges, seismic attacks and the occasional rock slide or stone edge. They can remain viable throughout the entire league challenge without evolving.

A few academic and trade journal articles have been written on rhyfernal battle strategy. Two professional battlers have temporarily wielded one. For now, they are essentially a novelty pick on the battling scene due to the difficulty of capturing, caring for and training one. They are also quite fragile and can easily die in battle if their shell is worn down or they blast away too much of their body. Golem and electrode are far more practical as explosion users, which seems to be the main use of rhyfernal in the metagame at present.

[u]Acquisition[/u]

All subspecies of rhyhorn and rhydon can be purchased or adopted with a Class IV license. At present, capture from the wild population is illegal. Rhyperior and rhyfernal require a Class V license to purchase, adopt or possess. Trainers without a Class V license whose rhydon evolve will be unable to keep their pokémon.

At present the rhyfernal and rhyhorn population on Ula'Ula live in the sparsely populated eastern mountains and interior desert. Trainers are strongly encouraged to observe them from a distance, if they must observe them at all.

[u]Breeding[/u]

When two rhyperior living in different wrecks encounter each other, they engage in battle. These fights can sometimes take up to thirty hours to complete due to the sheer bulk of both combatants. If the pokémon are of different sexes, the winner of the battle may choose to reproduce with the loser. Curiously, both sexes of rhyperior have the ability to carry eggs to development after mating. The loser of the fight almost always carries the eggs.

After a roughly two-year pregnancy, the pregnant rhyperior delivers about ten bowling-ball-sized eggs. The rhyperior will abandon their wreck and stay with the eggs until they hatch roughly one month later, almost never eating or drinking during the duration. They may then seek out their old wreck with their young in tow or try to find a different one.

Rhyperior eggs are very tough and require the parent to break them open when they hear the young begin to move inside. Because of their durability, rhyperior make almost no attempt to bury or conceal the eggs. The presence of a very protective rhyperior nearby also deters other pokémon from attempting to break into and eat them.

In captivity, rhyperior breeding requires introducing two rhyperior with very little prior contact with each other and being able to weather the property damage that tends to come with an all-out rhyperior fight. The young tend to survive to birth and adulthood far more frequently in captivity than in the wild, if only because the rhyperior can be fed while they guard the eggs and the entire wreck will probably be staying in the same general area to also keep an eye on them.

Do not attempt to incubate rhyperior eggs away from the parent or take very young rhyhorn out of eyesight. Rhyperior always care more about their babies than their trainer.

It is entirely unclear how rhyfernal reproduce since they don't appear to be organic life and yet they lay eggs that produce carbon-based young. They do reproduce, and that's all that can be said about the matter for now.

[u]Subspecies[/u]

Generally speaking, the default rhyperior mentioned in this entry is a montane rhyperior. There are over a dozen recognized rhyperior subspecies and this guide has simply attempted to cover the things that are generally true for all of them.

There are a variety of plains species that have evolved away from the mountains. They can broadly be grouped into desert and grassland rhyperior subspecies. The plains subspecies, such as the American, Tanzanian and Pampas rhyperior tend to be larger, more docile and more social than their montane and desert cousins.

Desert rhyperior such as the Arabian, Gobi, Uluru and Mojave subspecies, tend to be the smallest. Their wrecks almost never contain more than six individuals. They have the thinnest armor of all subspecies and shy away from fights whenever possible. Some Arabian rhyperior have been observed killing and eating other pokémon in times of prolonged drought.

All subspecies are otherwise quite similar in anatomy and behavior, and they have similar care requirements and battle strategies. Grassland rhyhorn are the most common in captivity. The American rhyhorn in particular is the cheapest and most available in Alola. They are mid-sized rhyhorn, just a little larger than the montane rhyhorn covered in the rest of this entry. Their armor is a little thicker than average and is relatively smooth. Sometimes they will partially burrow into the ground and become rather inactive during the winter. Captive born American rhyhorn are among the friendliest and are probably the best subspecies to start with.

The next most common subspecies in captivity is the European rhyhorn. They are quite fast and agile compared to the other subspecies and are a little more intelligent than the average. This makes them well suited for battle and able to obey commands and recognize people more easily than montane or American rhyperior. However, European rhyhorn also require far more socialization than most subspecies. They are the most common rhyhorn and rhydon adopted by trainers who have already started their professional pokémon journey.

The Tanzanian rhyhorn is the largest subspecies in the world, which makes them popular with collectors. They have experienced considerable decline in the wild because of this. Tanzanian rhyhorn are generally apathetic towards humans and require a very large amount of food. As such, they are not recommended.

The Japanese cave rhyhorn has also experienced a boost in demand after the Malie Safari Park began exhibiting them. They are some of the least intelligent and strongest rhyhorn of them all, which makes them a very bad fit for all but the most experienced of trainers. They also require burrowing spaces, ponds and rivers, and large, natural-looking shelters. Cave rhyhorn are quite water resistant and have even been known to ford rivers by holding their breath and walking along the bottom. This gives them a measure of popularity on the competitive battling scene, but also means that moats are not an effective containment device. Even moats with very steep walls will fail as the rhyhorn will simply use seismic attacks until the barriers collapse enough to be walked up or dug through.