Gigalith (Roggenrola, Boldore)
Overview
Gigalith are a popular choice in competitive battling due to their durability and sheer firepower. Boldore have found more use on the concert stage. The line has the peculiar ability to attune and amplify energy waves around them. While gigalith use this to unleash powerful solar beams, roggenrola and boldore generally stick to sound waves or electrical currents. Upscale concert venues typically keep a few sound-tolerant roggenrola around as part of their acoustics system.
Fans of all types of "rock" can usually find a place for the line on their team.
Physiology
All three stages are currently classified as pure-rock types. There is some dispute. Competitive battlers and the leagues that support them often push for gigalith to have am additional fire-typing as they naturally attack with weaponized heat and light. The proposed typing is what trainers facing the line should prepare to deal with. While this view has fallen out of favor in most of the world, it might find success in reclassifying the vulcan gigalith (see Behavior, Subspecies).
Roggenrola have a small, roughly spherical body with three layers. The outside layer is primarily composed of obsidian. It has no curves. It is instead made of flat plates connected by a network of sharp edges. This layer is typically black, but other colors such as brown are not uncommon. A middle layer of basalt comprises most of the pokémon's weight. The three legs protruding from the body are also made of basalt. These help the roggenrola move, either underground or on the surface. The connective tissue between the main body and the legs is made of Pele's hair.
The interior is rather different. A hexagonal "ear" connects the interior and exterior. Roggenrola's core contains a powerful energy crystal that powers them through two evolutions. Quartz structures hold the crystal in place and help it amplify or cancel out energy wavelengths around it. Gigalith can simply nullify any sounds they do not wish to hear; roggenrola, however, are irritated by loud noises or powerful vibrations. Boldore are generally fine with noise as long as they are actively amplifying or otherwise controlling it. Unfortunately for trainers, this means that they are prone to magnifying the sounds of crying babies or loud arguments without being asked to do so. It is only through prolonged exposure to loud sounds and experience controlling them that boldore can learn what sounds humans want amplified and learn to simply ignore or suppress others.
Boldore's legs have expanded and developed an obsidian coating. Each is also tipped in a colorful crystal tip that helps the pokémon sense the world. The ability to walk on three legs at once makes boldore much better adapted for relatively fast surface movements. Many other crystal spikes protrude from the body. In addition to sensory functions, these help the pokémon control the vibrations around it. Finally, a protective guard develops in the middle of the ear to make direct attacks to the weak point harder.
Gigalith are far larger than a newly-evolved boldore. They also have a much more upright body shape. More connective tissue is visible between the legs and main body. This is necessary as, unlike with boldore, the body typically rests on the ground. It must be raised up above the legs for movement. The legs do not move down with the gigalith when at rest; instead the pokémon simply extends the pele's hairs down and lowers itself. When it wants to move, the pele's hair is withdrawn and the body rises up to rest directly on the legs. Gigalith also have four legs, compared to boldore's three.
The protruding crystals have developed into massive spikes, ridges, and other formations that allow for light absorption and more sophisticated vibration manipulation. The ear-guard has grown and the original ear has separated into two separate ones that do not connect before reaching the core.
A fully grown giglaith can reach a height of 2.4 meters while sitting down, including the crystalline "crest" on top of its head, and weigh over 4000 kilograms. Vulcan gigalith have much shorter lifespans than their continental counterparts. The oldest vulcan gigalith are only about 120,000 years old.
Behavior
Relatively little is known of roggenrola behavior. Most of their life is spent deep underground, and only small glimpses of it are on display when mines cut into their home. By and large, roggenrola seem to do nothing. They will occasionally eat rock by digging into it and letting some slip into their core. This slowly leads to growth. Humans seem to move too quickly to catch the pokémon's attention. The only way a wild roggenrola will react to people is if they stay almost entirely still for several hours. Even then it can take the pokémon several days to decide to approach.
Boldore spend more of their life on the surface and are thus better understood. They live in flows of fifty to three hundred boldore. The flows slowly migrate over the island they live on, entering different caves and eating minerals found within. If a boldore dies, its body is cannibalized by other members of the flow and the area is left immediately. Boldore are relatively curious about the world and prone to spending years at a time studying interesting things, living or otherwise.
Gigalith tend to stay put for centuries or even millennia. They subsist off of the energy from sunlight, which they absorb with their crystal formations. When damage is sustained from attack or erosion, kinetic vibrations are used to lift the broken obsidian shards and move them back into position. An abrupt burst of heat then seals them in place. While gigalith can use their vibrations to create sandstorms or seismic attacks, or their sunlight absorption to unleash powerful bursts of light or fire, they seldom feel the need to do so. Very little attacks gigalith. Even the invasive larvitar on Akala tend to stick to easier targets, such as geodude, rockruff or boldore.
Small pokémon often use gigalith as a warm perch to rest on, confident that the gigalith will retaliate against anything that tries to start a fight on its body. Small felines are particularly prone to doing this. Psychics have discovered that the gigalith are seldom able to differentiate the cats currently living on them from their distant ancestors.
In general, gigalith seem to have an odd cognitive structure. While recently evolved gigalith and those whose trainers constantly move them around have some ability to identify individuals around them and remember their history and relevance, older wild gigalith are almost unthinking. They react to threats, absorb sunlight, and repair damage. Otherwise they seem to have very little cognition at all. Gigalith simply have no need for thought or memory unless their environment drastically changes. Then and only then will gigalith start accessing memories and slow their relative sense of time down for a long enough period of time to find another sunny perch to sit in.
Husbandry
Roggenrola require a lot of patience. Socializing with them will require a minimum of several hours. Unfortunately, most similarly patient pokémon are other mineral pokémon that roggenrola may try to eat. Even recording devices playing soft music or recorded pokémon sounds are often made of metal and, therefore, are potential food. Roggenrola are also prone to trying to eat tile floors, jewelry, and anything else made of stone. This is much less common if there is a pile of basalt, quartz, obsidian, and miscellaneous igneous rocks in their enclosure. The pile will almost always be more appetizing than other available food sources, especially if the food can outrun the roggenrola. Some particularly curious roggenrola may not be satisfied with the pile and will still attempt to eat other minerals.
Boldore are far more social and curious than roggenrola. Thankfully, this allows them to bond with even somewhat fast-paced pokémon. However, they do require far more socialization than roggnrola do. Frequent attention from either a human or at least one another pokémon (preferably a boldore or roggenrola) is required. Ideally over a dozen boldore would be housed together. The environment should be altered every few months, with new toys added and old ones occasionally removed. Boldore can tolerate, and even enjoy, louder music.
Gigalith are traditionally housed outside, at least during the dry season. They are very comfortable living alone and will seldom interact with humans or other pokémon. For the most part they will sit still and absorb sunlight unless disturbed. Trainers who do wish to bond with their gigalith must battle with it or move it around rather frequently. This has the unfortunate side effect of irritating the pokémon, sometimes to the point of attacking the nuisance trainer.
Rock-type specialists have recently discovered that gigalith enjoy being placed in enclosed structures with retractable glass roofs. The roof can be opened up on sunny days to allow for maximum solar energy absorption and closed on rainy ones to minimize erosion. The setup tends to interest gigalith enough to partially bring them out of hibernation to study their environment. Trainers, especially those with other rock-types, can bond with their pokémon in relative safety. Gigalith enjoy having their obsidian polished but exposed crystal and connective tissue should seldom be touched, much less polished. Even the most social of gigalith will seldom play with toys. However, at least one has become fond of games in which they move around obsidian marbles. Marble games are a good way to train the pokémon in more subtle uses of their vibrations.
Illness
The only way to truly kill a member of the line is by causing irreparable damage to the core. This is usually only possible by specifically targeting the weak point with a powerful attack. Once the core has broken to the point where further functioning is impossible, the pokémon will stop moving and partially collapse. In the wild, it will then be cannibalized by other members of the species. Core damage is borderline impossible to treat in captivity and should be avoided at all costs.
Normal wear-and-tear damage is far easier to fix. A gigalith can simply move the severed portions of its body back into place and seal them there. Roggenrola and boldore prefer to simply eat enough rock to grow larger and replace the damaged area (see Evolution). Medical attention is not typically required and may actively slow the pace of evolution.
Evolution
Roggenrola eat infrequently when they do not need to heal damage. When injured they will immediately eat enough food to not only repair the wound but to actively grow larger when the rocks are repurposed. They evolve into boldore once they reach about 100 kilograms in weight. Battling with roggenrola can make them evolve on a human-friendly timescale rather than on that of a rock. Evolution is marked by a series of abrupt physical and behavioral changes.
Boldore do not go from their first to second evolution quickly, even when near-constant battle. Trainers who wish to one day have a gigalith are advised to start by catching a rather large boldore. After a long period of battle, boldore will start to seek out and eat an unusual amount of crystal. Ideally they will cannibalize parts of an existing gigalith. Memories are stored at the base of crystals, allowing newly evolving boldore to gain some of the memories of a gigalith that came before. As they grow larger, other members of the flow will help move the last pile of obsidian, pele's hair, quarz, and basalt to a high location with direct sunlight. They will then leave their flowmate behind to complete the final few growths and become the island's newest gigalith.
Battle
Vulcan gigalith are powerhouses of sun teams or solid physical tanks on weatherless ones. Defensively, gigalith can rely on their obsidian armor to deflect very weak attacks. Stronger, physical ones are prone to shattering the armor into sharp glass that punishes follow up attacks. Beneath the armor is still sturdy basalt protecting the core. The adage goes that the best defense is a good offense, and gigalith also embrace this. Getting a chance to land a hit at all is not common.
Gigalith's offensive capabilities include extremely powerful solar beams and fire blasts unleashed from the stored energy in the core. Alternatively, gigalith can use vibrations to weaken or create seismic attacks, launch volleys of small rocks, or blunt or slightly redirect beam-based attacks. Powerful sonic attacks are the go-to for gigalith that were trained as boldore to amplify sounds.
The pokémon's biggest weakness comes from their limited energy supply. Gigalith tend to unleash all their stored power within a few spectacular attacks. Then they must rely on sunlight to recharge themselves. On sun teams this allows them to keep going for quite some time. On weatherless ones, especially if the battle is fought at night, gigalith must spend a substantial amount of time recharging between attacks. While they are still bulky enough to stall out this period, it is not ideal. Gigalith trainers, if they can train their pokémon at all, are encouraged to work on moderating the initial attacks.
On the island challenge, six-on-six battles are rare. This means that gigalith only having a few attacks in them barely matters as most battles can be finished quickly enough. Totem battles in particular can be short with a gigalith's firepower.
Boldore really prefer not to fight. When placed into battle they will usually attempt to leave the battlefield. They will only attack as a last resort. Boldore used as amps are more likely to defend themselves from the start, using sonic attacks to deter potential attackers. Unfortunately, very loud music is seldom enough to outright knock out a pokémon. Even well-trained boldore that can use rock attacks do not hit particularly hard.
Roggenrola seldom attack anything but other mineral pokémon. The most use they serve is being a very dangerous targe to hurt with melee attacks and potentially stalling out the timer on a pokémon afflicted with toxic poisoning, perish song, or other residual damage.
Acquisition
Roggenrola and boldore are now uncommon on Akala due to predation by introduced larvitar. They were never particularly common on Ula'Ula as it lacks the extensive cave systems of Melemele, Akala, and Poni.
Roggenrola are only found in abandoned mines, cooled lava tunnels, and other caves deep underground. They seldom make an effort to flee from trainers and can usually be caught with a few pokéballs or one great ball without a battle.
Boldore are normally found on the surface, moving between caves and mines as part of their flow. On Melemele they are most common in the stretch of land along Routes 1 and 3 connecting Ten Carat Hill to the Verdant Cavern system. Flows will seldom collectively defend themselves, although individual boldore might fire off a few attacks to prevent capture. Gaining loyalty or imposing meaningful training regimens can be difficult, especially if the flow was about to migrate or was in the process of doing so when the pokémon was captured.
Gigalith can be found at high elevations with direct sunlight. Alola's largest lives on the steps of the Altar of the Moone. Other notable gigalith live in Wela National Park and at the summit of Ten Carat Hill. Capture of gigalith is illegal due to their very long lifespans and the probability of collateral damage to a protected site during a capture battle.
Roggenrola and boldore can be captured with a Class II license. All stages can be adopted or purchased, often from music or mineral stores, with a Class II license.
Breeding
No one knows how roggenrola are formed. Psychic questioning of gigalith has yet to yield any meaningful results.
Subspecies
Gigalith are separated by the most common minerals they are made from. Vulcan gigalith are scattered throughout the volcanic islands of the Pacific Ocean and are made primarily of basalt and obsidian because of it. Sunlight is seldom an issue during the dry season and rainy seasons can be waited out by entering an even deeper hibernation than normal.
Sandstone gigalith live in the Sahara Desert and Arabian Peninsula. These gigalith are particularly adept at manipulating sand to ensure that they do not get buried by it. Ancient civilizations in the area exploited this by building massive pyramids, pedestals, or temples in their cities. The gigalith would be placed on top, away from nuisances and closer to the sun. In exchange the gigalith would ward off the worst sandstorms and keep the site from being reclaimed by the desert. Most of these ancient gigalith were captured and relocated to European or American museums during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Many archeological sites have been covered in sand during the intervening years, and the Egyptian government has formally called on Galar, Kalos, and the United States (among others) to return the rock-types. These pleas have yet to be answered, and at least five of these Egyptian gigalith have been killed on the competitive battling scene.
Continental gigalith are by far the most common subspecies. These gigalith live on every continent but Antarctica and most non-volcanic islands. Japan is a rare exception, as the native aggron and tyranitar have driven the population to extinction. Introduced aggron are steadily reducing the population of gigalith in mainland Europe as well.
This subspecies is almost entirely composed of granite and quartz. While they possess neither the obsidian armor of vulcan gigalith nor the fine sand manipulation of their sandstone counterparts, continental gigalith can grow to be up to five meters tall. They can also live for hundreds of thousands of years, unencumbered by sinking islands, lava flows, or the need to constantly move the sand around them.