#250 Ho-Oh

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And because it’s the Rainbow Pokemon, I made it more Rainbow (double rainbow!)

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——

There is no data. There still are Pokémon yet to be identified.
– Ash’s Pokedex

Legends claim this Pokémon flies the world’s skies continuously on its magnificent seven-colored wings.
– Pokemon Gold Pokedex

It’s my birthday today, so I’m putting up one of my favourite Pokemon, Ho-Oh. I don’t care what people say about how Lugia is cooler, Ho-Oh is better in my books, ’cause it’s a Rainbow Phoenix!

Ho-Oh is the mascot Pokemon for Gold and HeartGold, appearing on the boxart. Its species is the Rainbow Pokemon, and its Pokedex entries refer to its seven-coloured body and/or wings, yet the sprites always only have 3 colours on its wings (4 if you count the tail feathers), I guess the seven-colours are implied. It also has a lot of gold, which corresponds to the game it’s a mascot for.

Despite being the “guardian of the skies”, it’s not the master of the legendary bird trio of Kanto, but the master of the legendary dog trio of Johto, probably due to their connections to the Bell Tower.

The Ho-Oh caught in Gold and HeartGold holds Sacred Ash, which revives all fainted Pokemon and restores them to full health, which is like using at most 5 Max Revives at once.

In the anime, Ho-Oh’s only appearance was in episode 1, when Ash saw it flying overhead when he was just starting his (long long long) journey to become a Pokemon master. His Pokedex had no information on it, probably because it was the Kanto dex. Other than that though, Ho-Oh doesn’t appear in any other episodes or movies like all the other legendaries, which makes me sad, because I want to see a movie where we see more of Ho-Oh.

Stat-wise, since it’s a legendary, it has very high base stats, 680 total with humongous Sp Def and excellent Attack, Sp Attack, and HP. Its signature move, Sacred Fire, takes good advantage of the Attack stat. Its typing is the same as Charizard and Moltres, whcih means it’s doubly weak to Rock, and would have half of its HP taken out by Stealth Rock. It gets the Dreamworld ability Regenerator, which heals 1/3 of its HP when switched out, which would make Ho-Oh more Uber than it already is, haha.