Base Stats

This is a sub-page of Development:Pokémon Gold and Silver/Pokémon Data.

The information in this article is pulled from the following files in the JP and KR sources:

Base Stats (001-151)#

Special Split Changes#

• Most of the Pokémon changed between July 17th and July 30th had points taken out of either Special Attack or Special Defense, or, in the unfortunate case of the Sandslash line, points taken out of both.

There are a few exceptions: The Venonat line had its Special Attack and Special Defense stats swapped, Mankey and Golem received a 10 point bonus to Special Defense, and the Staryu line got a 15 point boost.

• There are a few Pokémon here (Ekans line, Clefairy, Victreebel, the Generation I Eeveelutions) where neither their Special Attack nor their Special Defense match their Generation I special stat. These were all corrected by July 30th; this was a 40 point buff for the Eeveelutions and a 5 point buff for Clefairy, but both the Ekans line and Victreebel had their overall stats lowered.

Flareon then had its Special Attack and Special Defense stats swapped to better differentiate itself from Vaporeon and Jolteon.

• Between August 14th and August 22nd, Onix lost 15 points in Special Defense. The exact same stat deduction happened to its evolved form Steelix.

• By August 30th, the Meowth line, Abra, and Kadabra had their Special Defense stat reduced, while Tauros lost 10 points in Special Attack.

• One of the last two Pokémon to receive stat changes of any kind was Lapras, who lost 10 points in Special Attack.

Gender Ratios#

• The Generation I starters and Eevee family originally had a 50/50 chance of being male or female. These were all changed by July 30th to be 75% male.
• There are three Pokémon with odd gender values: Slowpoke and Slowbro have a gender value of 35, while Chansey has a gender value of 245. While Slowpoke and Slowbro might have been intentional, Chansey's was almost certainly a typo: the correct value, and the one used from July 30th on, is 254, which makes her 100% female.
• Tauros was changed to be 100% male to match his 100% female counterpart, Miltank.

• Between August 14th and August 22nd, five sets of Pokémon, including all fossil Pokémon, changed from even gender splits to being 75% male.

• At this point, every Pokémon family but one that was 75% male was skewed even further to 87.5% male. The one exception was the Clefairy line, which had its gender ratio reversed.
• Five more groups were brought into the 75% male ratio: the Growlithe, Abra, and Machop lines, Magmar, and Electabuzz.

On the flip side, the Jigglypuff and Vulpix lines were changed to be 75% female.

Staryu and Starmie had a 50♂/50♀ gender ratio as late as September 3rd; it seems like making it genderless was a last-minute change. In fact, it was made so late that it still has egg moves even in the final game.

Miscellaneous#

• Magnemite and Magneton originally kept their pure Electric typing from Red and Blue. In the 1999/07/18 file they were, strangely, Electric/Normal, and by 1999/07/30 they finally got their secondary Steel typing.

Base Stats (152-251)#

Unchanged Pokémon#

The following 28 Pokémon have no differences in their typing, stats, gender ratio, or experience group:

• Ledyba line
• Chinchou line
• Pichu
• Natu line
• Mareep line
• Bellossom
• Politoed
• Hoppip line
• Wooper
• Wobbuffet
• Forretress
• Slugma
• Mantine
• Kingdra
• Porygon2
• Smeargle
• Hitmontop
• Smoochum
• Larvitar and Pupitar

Chikorita Line#

The Chikorita line has the exact same stat distribution as the Bulbasaur line in the April group. Later groups differentiate them by swapping the Defense and Special Attack stats. Like the Generation I starters, the gender ratio went from being equal, to being 75% male, to being 87.5% male.

Cyndaquil Line#

Like the Chikorita line, the Cyndaquil line's stats are identical to their Generation I counterpart, the Charmander line. Unlike the Chikorita line, this was kept in the final game. The only change here is in the gender distribution.

Totodile Line#

They were really going all-out on the identical stat distributions early on, with the Totodile line directly mirroring the Squirtle line. Somewhere in July the stats were shuffled around, emphasizing HP and Attack over Special Attack and Special Defense. The same starter gender distribution changes apply here.

Sentret Line#

Sentret and Furret are two of seven Pokémon that started with placeholder stats: Normal typing, 10 in every stat, a 50/50 gender ratio, and put in the Medium Fast experience group. Unlike the other five Pokémon, their stats were finalized fairly early on, April 23rd at the very latest.

Sentret's first real set of stats actually had it more inclined towards the special side rather than physical, though all of the stats were fairly balanced. Ten days later, it had lost a grand total of 70 base stat points: Speed was hit the hardest, followed by Special Attack and HP. The only stat it gained points in was Attack.

Furret was also more special-oriented, though the difference between the physical and special stats wasn't as pronounced as it was in Sentret's case. It lost 20 points in base Special Attack and 10 in Special Defense in exchange for 15 more base HP, 12 more base Attack, 6 more base Defense, and 15 more base Speed, coming out ahead of its previous distribution by 18 points.

Hoothoot Line#

The Hoothoot line originally had equal base Special Attack and Special Defense. Later, 10 points from Special Attack were put into Special Defense, and then they added 1 point to each. 1 point. One.

Spinarak Line#

Both Spinarak and Ariados had 5 points added to both Special Attack and Special Defense. This brings Ariados's BST up to par with Ledian, but Spinarak is still lagging behind Ledyba.

Crobat#

Initially, the only difference between Golbat and Crobat was a 35-point bonus to base Speed. It was later revised to add 10 more base stat to each of the physical attributes, 5 more to the special attributes, and another 5 to Speed for good measure.

Cleffa and Igglybuff#

Cleffa and Igglybuff got the same gender ratio changes that their parents did.

Togepi Line#

Togepi's stats were already set by the start of April, with its gender ratio being the only thing that changed since then. Togetic, on the other hand, started out as a straight copy of Togepi before finally getting its Flying subtype by July 18th and its final stats by July 30th.

Marill Line#

Marill eventually had its HP and Defense stats switched, and lost 30 points in base Special Defense. Meanwhile, Azumarill was using a copy of Marill's stats until through late July before it finally received its final stats.

Sudowoodo#

The presence of Kyonpan in Gold's scratchpads of Sudowoodo combined with the Ghost typing seen here strongly hint that it was originally in Sudowoodo's slot, though there's nothing in the source code to definitively prove this. It was changed to Rock type by July 18th, while its (Kyonpan's?) stats changed sometime between the 18th and 30th. It lost 15 base points in HP, 20 base in Special Attack, and 30 base in Speed in exchange for 15 more points in base HP and Attack and 45 points in base Defense.

Aipom#

5 points were taken out of both Attack and Special Attack, then put back into Special Defense. That's it.

Sunkern Line#

Sunflora was a single stage Pokémon in the Spaceworld 1997 demo, with the concept of a pre-evolved form originating in the 1999 revamp. Sunkern's stats are pretty standard fare -- 20 less points in everything but Special Attack, which is 40 points lower -- but sometime after July 18th, an interesting set of changes can be observed: its stats, evolution method, and typing were all dummied out. Evidently they were planning to scrap Sunkern entirely before they changed their minds: by the Spaceworld 1999 demo an early design of Sunkern was placed in its slot, and by August 22nd it had received a new set of stats and experience group.

As Sunkern's specs were being dummied out, Sunflora lost 10 points in each of its base stats, bringing it more in line with single-stage Pokémon like Lickitung and Yanma. After Sunkern received its stats, typing, and evolution method back, the changes to Sunflora's HP and Special stats were reverted, while it received 10 more base Attack and 10 less Speed than it previously had.

Yanma#

Yanma was another of the seven Pokémon that started out with placeholder stats. By July 18th the only thing that had changed was its typing, but by the end of July its stats were finalized.

Quagsire#

After the creation of Wooper, Quagsire got a 10-point boost to its base HP, Attack, and Defense.

Espeon & Umbreon#

Espeon and Umbreon received the same 40-point stat injection and gender ratio changes as the Generation I Eeveelutions, then had their stats shuffled. For Espeon, its Special Attack and Special Defense stats switched and the 40 points went into Speed, setting it up as a great special sweeper. Umbreon underwent a more radical change, going from a slow, physically frail, and special-inclined Pokémon to a build more suited for tanking hits than giving them out.

Murkrow#

Murkrow was pure Dark type in April despite being a Dark/Flying type in the 1997 demo; this might be a result of copy/pasting Umbreon's entry. After Spaceworld 1999, Murkrow was put in a slightly faster-leveling experience group.

Slowking#

Slowking was originally a 100% male Pokémon, which one supposes is appropriate given the name, but doesn't match up with the gender ratios of Slowpoke or Slowbro. It was later changed to a standard 50/50 split; at the same time, 5 points were taken out of its base Speed. While it's not necessarily a king anymore, it certainly is slow.

Misdreavus#

Misdreavus originally kept the Ghost/Dark typing of its predecessor Norowara before turning into a pure Ghost Pokémon. Its experience group was also upgraded from Medium Fast to Fast.

Unown#

Imagine, if you will, a world where Unown had the same stats as Ditto, only without the ability to transform into anything. At least you could still use 'em to spell out BUTTS.

Girafarig#

Girafarig was originally the evolved form of a cut Pokémon named Tsuinzu. While Tsuinzu was originally a Dark/Normal type in Spaceworld 1997, it was turned into a pure Ghost type in the 1999 revamp. This explains Girafarig's initial Ghost/Normal typing: one of the twins would be the dark half, a Ghost type, while the other twin would turn into the light half, a Normal type. After Tsuinzu was redesigned from a pair of ghosts to a less developed version of Girafarig, the Ghost/Normal typing no longer made sense conceptually, explaining the change to Normal/Psychic.

Sometime in August, after Girafarig's evolution had been cut from the game, Girafarig received boosts to everything except Special Defense, which lost 40 points.

Pineco#

Pineco was initially designed as a single-stage Pokémon. When it got an evolution in the form of Forretress, 20 points were subtracted from each of its base stats, and its type changed from Grass to Bug.

Dunsparce#

Dunsparce was originally genderless with a medium slow experience curve, both of which were remnants of the scrapped Shuckle evolution that once occupied this slot.

Gligar#

20 points in Attack put into Defense, and 5 points of Special Defense put into Speed, then 10 more points put into Speed to give it another boost. Odd set of changes here.

Steelix#

Steelix originated as one of those "just add 20 to every stat and call it a day" evolutions. Between July 18th and July 30th, 60 points were taken out of base Speed, and 20 points were put into Attack and Defense. It was revised further after Spaceworld 1999 by subtracting 15 points from Special Defense (just like what happened to its pre-evolved form, Onix) and adding 20 points to HP and 5 to Special Attack.

Snubbull Line#

Snubbull was originally a 100% female species, just as it was in Spaceworld 1997. Both it and Granbull were first changed to an even 50/50 M/F split, then changed again about a month later to 25/75, favoring female.

Qwilfish#

30 points were taken out of Special Attack and put into Defense, and 10 points each were put into HP, Special Defense, and Speed.

Scizor#

The first instance of Scizor's stats isn't that much of an improvement over Scyther's: 20 more base Attack, 5 more Special Defense, and another 15 points in Speed. It didn't even get its Steel typing until late July! This new steel-laden form has the same base stat total as Scyther, but with 40 of its points in base Speed evenly distributed to Attack and Defense.

Shuckle#

Shuckle started out as a genderless Rock/Ground Pokémon, the first stage of a two-stage evolutionary line with stats to match. Through an appropriately slow series of changes, almost all of its original specs were changed:

• Between July 18th and July 30th, it switched to a 50/50 gender ratio.
• After its evolution was cut, Shuckle's stats were revised: its already low Attack, Special Attack, and Speed stats were reduced further, its HP was increased by 10 base, and both of its defensive stats were buffed threefold.
• Sometime after Spaceworld 1999 and before August 22nd, its typing was changed from Rock/Ground to Bug/Rock.
• One month later, Shuckle underwent its final set of changes. Its HP dropped down to 20 base, and its defense stats were boosted even further, 50 base points each. These changes are explicitly noted in the JP source file Document\ダケモン金銀\p20922E.txt as balance adjustments for link battles.

The only detail that didn't change was its experience group.

Heracross#

Heracross was originally conceived as a pure Bug-type Pokémon, with the Fighting subtype only added in late July. Originally a Pokémon with a considerable amount of physical bulk, Heracross slowly had points in base HP and Defense distributed to other stats. First, 40 points were taken out of its BST to match the stat reductions done to Scizor and Purakkusu: 30 points out of HP, 10 out of Special Attack. Then, 20 points were shifted from Attack and Defense to Special Defense and Speed. By mid-August, 30 more points were removed from base HP and Defense and put into Special Attack and Special Defense.

Sneasel#

Sneasel was given a bit more bulk, with 10 more points in Defense and 30 in Special Defense.

Teddiursa Line#

There's a good amount of evidence that Kotora and Raitora were replaced by Teddiursa and Ursaring at some point before April 1st: The initial Electric typing, the fact that Kotora and Raitora appear in the scratchpads for Teddiursa and Ursaring respectively, and the Teddiursa line's initial learnsets being revised versions of the Kotora line's learnsets from Spaceworld 1997. Teddiursa's footprint (pictured above) appears to have been intended for Honoguma or Kotora, and was simply not updated, not unlike what happened with Wooper's footprint after it overwrote Madaamu. Both Teddiursa and Ursaring kept the Electric typing until August, when they were both changed to Normal type.

Ursaring had 10 points taken from base Special Defense and put into base Attack, then lost 15 points in base Speed. After Spaceworld 1999, both Teddiursa and Ursaring had points taken out of their base Special Attack and put into HP, Attack, and Defense. Ursaring got a 25-point base stat boost, raising Attack even more and reverting the Special Defense nerf.

Magcargo#

Poor Magcargo. It had 15 points taken out of base HP and Attack, and 10 points taken out of base Special Attack and Special Defense. 30 of those points went into Defense, 10 into Speed, and the other 10 got lost behind the couch or something. The stat redistribution didn't do it any favors: being 2x weak to Fighting and Rock and 4x weak to Ground (Not to mention the 4x Water weakness) combined with that HP stat means it's not going to be tanking much of anything, and the boost only made its Speed stat go from awful to slightly less awful. Someone must have felt pity for it, because the HP and Special Attack reductions were partially undone in Generation VII.

Swinub Line#

The Swinub line had three stages at first, with Piloswine's evolution eventually getting the boot. However, judging by the dummied out stats in the July 30th entry, it looks like Swinub was originally the one on the chopping block! Unlike Sunkern, Swinub's typing and evolution conditions were never dummied out, and its stats were quickly reverted back two weeks later.

Swinub had points withdrawn from Defense and Special Defense and put into Attack and Speed, with 10 base stats disappearing entirely. Piloswine got a 70 point base-stat boost after its evolution was cut; that boost, along with 10 base Defense and 30 base Special Defense, was put into HP, Attack, Special Attack, and Speed.

Corsola#

Cute + Pink = 25/75 gender split.

Remoraid Line#

Both Remoraid and Octillery had 10 points taken out of base Defense and 20 points added to Special Attack, then were placed in a faster experience group.

Delibird#

Delibird was originally Water/Ice and then was a pure Ice type for a good few months. With its new secondary Flying type came a slight improvement in its stats, and "slight" can't be emphasized strongly enough here.

Skarmory#

Strangely, it took until late July for Skarmory to get its Steel typing back.

Houndour Line#

A fable: One day, Houndour dropped 5 base HP in the river. The Lugia of the lake returned with 35 base stats and asked if it was his, and he replied "Houn". Impressed by his honesty, Lugia gave Houndour 40 base stats, man you should have seen it. And the base stats didst made him faster as it didst also make him more durable, and all was good.

Houndoom had no need for fables, receiving bonuses to HP and Speed in exchange for Attack and Defense right out of the gate, followed by small boosts in each stat.

Phanpy Line#