Blastoise (Squirtle, Wartortle)
Vulcanaquae japonicus
Overview
Blastoise are one of the most popular water starters in Eastern Asia, particularly in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and southeast China. This is because the final stage is powerful but docile and the younger stages are energetic and relatively easy to care for. They are also readily available as wartortle are often farmed for their meat and tails.
Even outside of Asia, blastoise are a popular alternative starter. Between the temperate and tropical species, blastoise can thrive in most parts of the world. Feral clans have established themselves on six continents. Alola's population is the domesticated, temperate, or Japanese species, V. japonicus. These blastoise prefer cooler breeding grounds and can live in saline environments. This makes the area of Route 3 around Seaward Cave their preferred habitat in Alola. A smaller clan lives around Route 15 with non-breeding populations found around Malie City and Brooklet Hill.
Blastoise are popular for a reason. Trainers interested in raising reptiles can find squirtle to be an excellent starter.
Physiology
All stages of the line are currently classified as pure water-types. The ruling is not disputed.
Squirtle are turtles with cerulean skin and a domed circular shell. They are notable for their long prehensile tail and relatively large head. Both can still be fully withdrawn into the shell, which is unusual for big-headed turtles like Matatrap. Squirtle have large red, purple, or blue eyes that allow them to see in minimal lighting. Portions of the shell are hollow to allow for the head to be fully withdrawn and to help the pokémon float. Unusually for a turtle, squirtle have small external ears.
Wartortle's tail and ears are far more prominent than those of squirtle. The tail is coated in blue bristly hairs that can trap air during dives. Wartortle can breathe through their cloaca, allowing them to inhale this air and breathe for up to thirty minutes while staying submerged. They can hold their breath for an additional ten minutes before they must surface to breathe. The tail can also be used to help propel the pokémon forward at high speeds while swimming. Wartortle are one of the fastest turtles and can reach swimming speeds eight miles per hour for up to two minutes. The ears can also serve as rudders when swimming.
Blastoise are substantially larger and stockier than wartortle and squirtle. Their shell is less deep. Instead the shell contains a series of chambers and valves for water and air. Blastoise can compress the air by constricting the chamber it is within. The air can then be released into a chamber of water to shoot it out through a set of two bone tunnels. This creates a powerful, pressurized blast of water that can pierce steel at short ranges and pulverize concrete at range. Blastoise are also accurate at ranges of up to two hundred feet. The ears and tail are smaller as blastoise have less need to move quickly or nimbly than their preevolutions.
Blastoise can reach lengths of six feet and weigh up to twenty-six hundred pounds. Blastoise can live up to forty years post-evolution in the wild or eighty years post-evolution in captivity. Wartortle have a lifespan measured in centuries, often predating reliable records. Japanese breeders allege they can live for up to one thousand years, but this is widely believed to be mere legend. Most scholars estimate a lifespan of four to six centuries.
Behavior
Squirtle live in clans of ten to fifty members. Their preferred habitats are cool bodies of water with small to medium-sized islands and abundant bird and insect life. These are often estuaries and they have built up a tolerance for brackish and saline water as a result.
Squirtle are energetic pokémon capable of using their sturdy hind legs, prehensile tail, and strong claws and beak to climb. They are prone to exploring every aspect of their environment. This behavior persists even when full.
Squirtle are more adept at creating bubbles than jets of water. When hunting one squirtle will rush into a thicket of vegetation to flush out the insects. Others will create bubbles to trap them and kill them when they try to escape. Squirtle can also use small jets of water to shoot down mid-size bugs flying over water, including small insect pokémon such as yanma and ledyba. When threatened Squirtle can withdraw into their shell and spit out blasts of water until the threat leaves or help arrives. During the day and the darkest hours of the night they prefer to sleep on islands, safe from purely aquatic and terrestrial predators. They will then resume activity around dusk and dawn.
Wartortle are more aquatic than squirtle and can spend up to 80% of their waking hours in the water, even sleeping in it when there is grass to anchor their tail to. Wartortle use their swimming speed to chase down slower fish and kill them with repeated slashes or a single bite to the throat. They then take their kill to the surface to eat it. Wartortle can also function as ambush predators, hiding in foliage and using their tail and hind legs to leap out at anything that gets too close. In either case, wartortle prefer to hunt alone.
Blastoise prefer to hunt with their cannons, using a single shot to break a bird's wing and send them careening into the water. The blastoise will wait for the prey to drown and then bring them onto land to eat. Anything leftover after two days goes to the wartortle and squirtle of the clan. Blastoise can hunt prey as large as pidgeot and even noivern. On occasion they will hunt down mollusc pokémon, hauling them onto land before keeping a long watch. Shellder and clamperl can be killed with cannon shots through their shells. Cloyster must be hauled onto land by multiple blastoise and left to dehydrate or open up, at which point it can be killed.
Very few things will dare attack a blastoise given their thick shells and overwhelming power. Larger water-types such as sharpedo and feraligatr may still try to steal their kills underwater. Sharpedo and feraligatr can also use their powerful bites and piercing teeth to kill any squirtle or wartortle they manage to catch. These stages are usually careful to avoid deep, oceanic waters to avoid sharpedo. Unfortunately, feraligatr share their favored habitats and can end any squirtle that stumbles too close. Swampert can also threaten squirtle in their native range and areas where both have been introduced. Most predators without a massively powerful bite will eventually give up on attacking a squirtle before a blastoise arrives and kills them.
Husbandry
The blastoise line are carnivorous reptiles with fairly standard care requirements. Squirtle prefer an insect-based diet and will happily eat commercial insect mixes. Wartortle prefer fish, shellfish, and other kinds of seafood. Blastoise prefer a poultry- and shellfish-based diet. However, any stage will eat almost any kind of meat. There is even some evidence that diets varying from their natural food sources don't impact overall health or development. Meat should still make up the vast majority of their diet, with grasses and fruit comprising five to fifteen percent. Food should be provided daily to squirtle and wartortle and two to three times a week to blastoise. Squirtle and wartortle will need to eat about five to ten percent of their body weight a day. Blastoise will eat up to fifteen percent of their body weight per meal, but should be limited to at most five hundred pounds of food per weak. Fully grown blastoise that do not regularly battle can get by on one to two hundred pounds of food per week.
All three stages should regularly have access to drinking water. Blastoise are particularly thirsty after prolonged battles and can drink up to one quarter of their body weight at once. This is needed to replace the water lost from cannon fire.
Blastoise are temperate reptiles. In their home environments they need to bask and brumate to survive the cold. Most of Alola is warm enough that they can get by with minimal basking. Some blastoise will still become inactive in the winter or even seek to dig in place for several weeks. Pokémon Centers will usually be understanding of brumation and will allow trainers to stay near their pokémon until they emerge.
Each stage has their own behavioral concerns. Squirtle and energetic pokémon that enjoy climbing and exploring, particularly in the late evening and early morning. Toys and inclined climbing structures can distract them. They should still be allowed to explore several times a week while supervised by their trainer or a teammate. Toys should be durable enough to withstand bites. Squirtle are also far more social than the other stages and will expect their trainer to spend time each day playing with them.
Wartortle are far more aquatic than squirtle and blastoise. They grow distressed if they cannot swim for more than two or three days. Thankfully, Alolan trainers are rarely far from large bodies of water. Many Pokémon Centers do not allow wartortle in their general pools. They are even banned from many carnivore or isolation pools because of their ability to leave the water and climb into nearby pools. Wartortle prefer to play with toys underwater. Long ropes they can latch onto are some of their favorite toys. They also enjoy being fed via long tongs, allowing them to lash out and 'catch' their food. Wartortle have been known to wrestle with floating balls, bringing themselves in and out of the water as it spins.
Blastoise are relatively inactive pokémon. They enjoy being around their trainer but do not require a great deal of play or socialization. The occasional cleaning or training session will do. Blastoise can also be quite protective of their trainer and can become standoffish with anyone who gets too close while their trainer is near. Blastoise are still predators that weigh a literal ton. They may not be dragons or large crocodilians, but they have many of the same drawbacks. Stationary trainers will need land and food to house their blastoise and they can become aggressive in unfamiliar situations.
In the wild all three stages, but particularly wartortle and blastoise, are prone to growing algae on their shells. This does not harm the pokémon. In fact, it helps them blend in. Wild-caught wartortle will become upset if the algae is removed. Captive-born specimens will generally tolerate cleanings and can even enjoy the touch and feelings of pressure on their shell. There is no medical reason to clean the pokémon, but many trainers dislike seeing their pokémon being dirty.
Wartortle and blastoise are long-lived pokémon. Wartortle that are not evolved are almost certain to outlive their trainer. Blastoise still might. It is important to have at least one other human willing and able to assume caregiving duties that the pokémon is already familiar with. The death of a trainer can be a stressful event, and the pokémon may not tolerate strangers during this time. This can make blastoise particularly difficult to rehome.
Squirtle are generally tolerant of all pokémon but large predators and very small insects. Even totodile or mudkip can be bonded with if they are introduced while young. This is the best time to handle any potentially fraught introductions as squirtle are social and outgoing.
Blastoise will almost never kill a pokémon they have known for over six weeks. If they must be kept on the same team as a bird, it is best to handle the introduction before they evolve. This will keep both parties calm around the other. Introductions can still happen after evolution, but they should be closely monitored and only occur after the blastoise has just eaten a large meal. Blastoise do not have an aversion to other large predators and do not claim literal and metaphorical territory in the same way dragons do. This leaves them outside of many predator social dynamics, for better and for worse. It can sometimes cause problems when they intrude on things a large dragon considers to be theirs. On the upside, blastoise will not test hierarchies or threaten to disrupt existing social dynamics. This makes them easier to introduce to an existing team of predators than other large reptiles, but their interactions with the dominant predator should still be closely monitored. This is especially true during and around brumation and mating season.
Illness
Blastoise are hardy creatures with natural lifespans sometimes measured in centuries. As a result they are incredibly hardy. There have been no documented cases of cancer in the line and other illnesses are rare. They can even regrow most body parts over the course of a year.
The main health problems to be aware of are those that aren't serious concerns for blastoise but could be for their trainer and teammates. Salmonella is the main problem, a fairly harmless disease in blastoise that can be fatal for young children as well as the elderly and immunocompromised. The best way to avoid infections is to keep the pokémon's environment clean and to wash any body part that came into contact with the line, their bedding, or other items they frequently interact with. People at risk should avoid direct contact with blastoise.
Shell injuries, while rare, are a major concern for blastoise. Squirtle and wartortle can heal damage to their shell in time. So can blastoise. However, the complexity of their shell means that serious damage to it can heal incorrectly, potentially to disastrous ends. Some veterinarians have proposed surgeries to install vents from the pressurized air chambers in injured blastoise to avoid the worst consequences. This does leave them unable to use their cannons, however, and may not be safely reversible.
Evolution
Squirtle evolve into wartortle after about one year. The formal demarcation line is the growth of hair on the ears and tail.
The exact trigger for wartortle evolution is still debated. The leading theory at present is that wartortle evolve if the aquatic environment they inhabit becomes volatile. This can mean a decline in fish and shellfish, sudden changes in salinity, depth, or temperature, or the appearance of large aquatic predators in a previously safe environment. Whatever the trigger is, wartortle begin to steadily grow into blastoise over the course of six months. The formal demarcation is the emergence of the cannons. Almost all battling wartortle begin the process within six months after their tail and ear fur fully develops.
Blastoise have known mega evolution and gigantamax forms. Mega blastoise's shell anatomy shifts so that one large cannon protrudes above the head and the previously existing cannons are rerouted to exit near the wrists. Serious damage while mega evolved is the leading cause of fatal shell injuries. It is still authorized on most circuits as it is safer for the pokémon than most other mega evolutions.
Gigantamax blastoise gains many, many more cannons and trades overwhelming power for accuracy. A direct hit can seriously injure almost any pokémon, but the blastoise cannot aim. This makes it possible for particularly daring opponents to try and scout out a safe place to stand and use the blastoise's lack of precision or mobility to stall out the transformation. Generally, however, it is far safer to just dynamax alongside the blastoise in order to survive any blasts that do hit.
Battle
Blastoise are top-tier pokémon that can go toe-to-toe with some of the strongest species. To start with, blastoise's she'll is durable enough to take everything short of a tyrantrum bite. Even their head and limbs are covered in thick scales. In a true bind they can fully retreat into their shell and spit out attacks, although these lack the force of cannon fire.
Speaking of their cannons, blastoise can take down most walls at range. The physical power behind the water also means they can punch through purely elemental walls such as clefable and blissey. Only a select few pokémon such as muk and castform can tank a blastoise shot unscathed. Even pokémon that can power through the injury can be worn down by repeated shots or coverage options like aura sphere, dark pulse, and ice beam.
Blastoise still have a few drawbacks. To start with, their cannon shots are limited. Blastoise have six shots. Even training cannot increase this number as their pressurized air chambers are biological and take up to an hour to fully reload. Mega blastoise have ten shots and a somewhat faster recharge time, but even they can easily run out. This is a problem as blastoise are built for wearing their opponents down over time. Instead, they must play aggressively and pursue quick knockouts. Clever opponents can stall out the shots with strategic sacrifices, double team, substitute, teleport, and protect. Blastoise are not helpless once their shots are exhausted, but they are far less powerful.
Blastoise's shots are also powerful enough that the recoil can be a problem. If the pokémon is unexpectedly thrown off balance during a shot they can fall on their back. It takes blastoise a few seconds to get back up from that position. In the water blastoise's shots inevitably propel them backwards, which means they cannot fire two accurate shots in a row. After the first one they will need a moment to get their bearings and fire again. Mega blastoise's most powerful cannon shots require the pokémon to brace themselves in place by digging into the ground or freezing themselves in place with ice beams from the side cannons.
Blastoise can learn shell smash, but the risk of permanent shell damage means that almost no one will risk using it in battle.
On the island challenge blastoise can finish most totems in one or two shots. However, they can be thrown off balance, intercepted, or overwhelmed by the supporting pokémon. It is a good idea to have the rest of the team take care of them before allowing blastoise to go one on one with the totem. Blastoise currently has an excellent matchup against Hapu, the kahuna most trainers fight fourth, although her gastrodon and flygon have both defeated blastoise in the past.
Wartortle and squirtle are still durable but lack the overwhelming power of blastoise. They are best used defensively, waiting for the opponents to give them an opening to punish. It is safer for them to use shell smash as injuries cannot result in an unwanted explosion of compressed air.
Acquisition
Squirtle can be found in Route 3, Route 15, Malie Gardens, and Brooklet Hill. Capture of squirtle is allowed with a Class I license. Blastoise and wartortle capture is temporarily suspended to see what impact they have on the ecosystem.
Squirtle can be obtained from a variety of breeders on three of the four islands. They are a popular alternative starter and any specialty store for reptiles or water-types is likely to either stock them or have a breeder contact if a customer requests one. They can be adopted or purchased with a Class I license.
Wartortle and blastoise are more difficult to rehome. Wartortle can be purchased or adopted with a Class III license. They will require patience and a good deal of space as they acclimate to their new home and trainer. Blastoise rehoming is handled on a case-by-case basis. They can be purchased with a Class IV license, but this requirement is often waived during adoptions of individuals whose trainer has passed on.
Breeding
Blastoise and wartortle mate shortly after leaving brumation. In Alola the mating season is late February to early April. Prospective partners first engage in a wrestling match. If the male is able to overpower the female he mates with her. These pairings are actually consensual: a female can and will decline a challenge from a male she does not want to mate with and will often simply allow herself to lose once the male has proved his power. Females may mate with multiple males over the course of the breeding season, resulting in a clutch with multiple fathers. Towards the end of the breeding season she will dig a hole on an island, lay a clutch of two dozen eggs, and bury them. The squirtle will be born about one hundred days later.
Newborn squirtle have a soft shell that hardens over the next three weeks. Mortality is extremely high during this period. Most years none of the clutch will survive. Populations only grow or remain stable due to the longevity of the adults and the number of chances they have to reproduce.
The mother will defend her nest if she happens to see it distributed right in front of her but will otherwise pay it no heed. This approach extends to squirtle as well. Blastoise will defend any attacks on them they personally witness and will come if they hear a cry for help. They do not hover over squirtle or even try particularly hard to avenge their deaths. In captivity they can be taken from their parents as soon as they hatch without any complications.
Head start conservation programs for squirtle have had a great deal of success. A clutch taken into captivity and allowed to grow into wartortle can result in nearly 100% survival, at which point they can be reintroduced.
Blastoise will crossbreed with most turtles and tortoises. They may even choose to crossbreed with conspecifics available. Drednaw is the most common cross as the offspring usually have functional cannons. Any other cross is unlikely to have them, and improperly developed cannons can lead to fatal complications.
Because females are not monogamous, mixed sex clans can be kept together year round and even during the breeding season without issue. This makes them relatively easy to breed in captivity.
Relatives
The original, wild blastoise species, V. megacephalus, was found over a range spanning from Sumatra to southeastern China and west to Bangladesh. The adult's head is larger and cannot fully be withdrawn. Squirtle and wartortle flesh is considered a delicacy in the region and wartortle tails are an important ingredient in folk medicine. As a result their wild numbers have been decimated by poaching and only a few remnant populations remain in Southeast Asia. However, there are still several farms of dubious legality that raise them.
Squirtle were originally domesticated for their meat. The shogun of Japan sought to bypass Chinese merchants and had his spies capture a few dozen squirtle and smuggle them into Japan. Over the period of isolation this population drifted apart from the wild species, forming a temperate species with larger cannons, greater salinity tolerance, and even fewer parental instincts. Blastoise could pierce through the armor of samurai and were often available to peasant farmers and commoners due to their popularity as livestock. This made the government wary. At various times the intentional evolution of blastoise was a crime. Only trainers of noble birth were allowed to use one as a starter. This was discontinued in the Meiji Era so that more of the population could be armed with a powerful pokémon. The temperate blastoise has since become invasive in several parts of the world due to their popularity as a starter and long lifespan. Many families release blastoise or wartortle into the local waterways after the original trainer dies, quickly creating an invasive species.