Credit to giygas on Spacebattles for the forest’s curse idea.

Sudowoodo (Bonsly)

Arboraemula perri

Overview

Sudowoodo are very easy to care for. They are also more mobile and personable than most other mineral pokémon, making them a good first step into caring for more dangerous and less friendly species. Bonsly are quite powerful for their size and age and sudowoodo are able to keep pace with most of the competition. They are also one of the few pokémon whose ownership is more common in older populations than younger ones. Still, they have their fans among the younger generations.

Physiology

Both bonsly and sudowoodo are classified as pure rock types by the Department of Agriculture. Neither ruling is disputed.

Most pokémon are physiologically similar to some non-pokémon form of life. So far this guide has discussed mammals, birds, insects, and cephalopods. Even some extraterrestrial lifeforms resemble these basic archetypes.

Some pokémon, especially the ones strongly linked to humans or human society, don’t resemble any known non-pokémon organism. Many of these are inanimate objects brought to life by some supernatural force. Others are truly manmade pokémon. A final group have completely unknown physiologies and origins. Sudowoodo is one such pokémon.

While it superficially resembles a tree and is capable of something akin to photosynthesis, sudowoodo is emphatically not a plant. It is part of a group known as ‘mineral pokémon.’ Pokémon in this class tend to be chemosynthetic and inorganic, that is, they are not based on carbon like all non-pokémon life on Earth. Sudowoodo in particular is a silicon-based creature.

It isn’t presently known how mineral pokémon evolved, or even if they undergo macroevolution at all. The most widely accepted theory is based on physiologically similar automaton pokémon such as porygon-z and golurk: at some point, every mineral pokémon may have had a creator and they have simply been self-replicating ever since. Alternatively, they may have been formed from chemical reactions deep in the Earth akin to the ones that created muk on the surface. The latter theory has yet to gain traction for the simple reason that all known chemically formed Pokémon have liquid cores while almost all mineral pokémon have very dry interiors.

Bonsly are dark brown in color across their body unless otherwise noted. They have two short legs supporting a roughly conical body. There is a rim roughly a quarter of the way up their body. Bonsly have three yellow spots forming a triangular face. The bottom two spots contain the bonsly’s eyes. They have a mouth placed right below their eyes. The mouth is thin and horizontal. It also does not connect to their digestive or respiratory tracts and is entirely used for vocalization. The pokémon produces sounds by vibrating small crystals inside of their mouth that superficially resemble growing teeth.

At the top of their body bonsly have three stems that branch off from each other. Each stem has a green sphere at the end. While these resemble leaves at first glance, they are actually hollow crystalline lattices. They do appear to serve some function akin to photosynthesis, using the heat of the sun to break up the compounds they use for the chemosynthetic reactions that actually power their body.

Sudowoodo are taller and leaner than their juvenile form. The core of the body is a trunk-like rectangle that’s surprisingly flexible for being similar to stone in composition. The bottom two-thirds of their trunk is littered in seemingly random patterns of yellow dots. At about the two-thirds mark two arms branch out on opposite sides of the trunk. These arms each have a trio of green orbs at the end. Above their arms, sudowoodo have two eyes and a mouth that are quite similar to those of bonsly. They have another stem that branches out into two orbless stems on top of their body.

All forms of sudowoodo are chemosynthetic. They absorb minerals from the ground and break them down through a complex series of chemical reactions to produce energy and new material for their body. Sudowoodo and bonsly store long, coiled tendrils within their main body. These tendrils are covered in small crystals structures that allow them to sense and pull minerals out of the ground. They release their tendrils from a small hole on the bottom of their body.

Sudowoodo tendrils can reach lengths of up to twenty feet long and they can deploy nearly a dozen at a time. The tendrils absorb any silica they can find in the soil, along with trace metals and some salts. The pokémon excretes water with unneeded chemicals. Sudowoodo hate water and only need very small quantities of it. Adults can drain it through their root cavity. Bonsly cannot and must release it through their eyes in the form of tears. Too much water can be fatal for all stages, although it tends to only kill bonsly in captivity.

In Alola, the typical sudowoodo grow to be about four feet tall. They can weigh a little over seventy pounds. They can live for forty to sixty years in captivity and ten to thirty years in the wild.

Behavior

Both stages prefer to find a shaded grove of low trees and stand motionless. They deploy their roots and simply soak in sunlight and minerals until they are disturbed. Sudowoodo have almost no predators because their body is mostly rock. The few pokémon that do eat rocks tend to hunt the ones that won’t run away from them. Because of this sudowoodo tend to only move to avoid rain.

Sudowoodo breathe through pores on their skin. Those pores can let rain in. An adult can usually drain water faster than they take it in provided that they find some shelter like a cliff or a dense forest. Rain is quite often fatal for bonsly. Sudowoodo parents are constantly vigilant for rain and will usually move their babies to shelter if there are clouds outside. In Alola most sudowoodo stay very close to caves or abandoned buildings during the rainy season.

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On Akala and in the interior of Melemele sudowoodo often join trevenant forests. The trevenant can use Forest’s Curse to temporarily make sudowoodo more resistant to rain and water-type attacks. In turn, sudowoodo deal with the insects, fire-types, and birds that might pick on the slow-moving trevenant. The introduction of sudowoodo to Alola led to a partial reversal of the post-annexation decline in trevenant numbers.

Husbandry

Sudowoodo are very simple to care for. They require only soil and sunshine. Both are usually quite easy to find. If a sudowoodo is raised entirely indoors or is confined to a small space of earth for a long period of time they will require supplements. Sun lamps can be purchased in virtually all Pokémon Centers. Traveling trainers stuck in prolonged rainstorms can usually talk the presiding nurse into letting their pokémon use the dartrix photosynthesis room. The owls usually enjoy having an interesting new perch; the sudowoodo tend to stay motionless. It is unknown if this is out of fear or instinct.

Fertilizer designed specifically for sudowoodo and bonsly can be purchased at most specialty pokémon or botany supply stores. A sudowoodo raised permanently indoors should be given a circular pool at least two feet deep and six feet wide filled with fertilized soil. Sudowoodo raised outside should always have a place to retreat to in the event of a sudden rainstorm.

Sudowoodo and bonsly are perfectly fine being stored in stasis or habitat pokéballs so long as they are allowed to filter soil at least six hours a day and receive at least twenty hours of sunlight a week.

Bonsly become very stressed if they are separated from their parent or trainer for more than an hour, especially if they are outside. Until it evolves the trainer should make every effort to stay nearby while the bonsly is outside of its pokéball. Bonsly are not good at filtering water out of the soil they consume, so a traveling trainer should generally carry around roughly three pounds of dry fertilized soil and a small pool in case a rainstorm permeates the soil.

Illness

If a bonsly cries for more than a few minutes a day try giving them a new pan of soil and spending more time with them for the next week. If they do not stop crying for more than ten minutes a day when given dry soil and socialization, consult a veterinarian.

Trainers should also consult a veterinarian if a sudowoodo’s behavior abruptly changes without a clear cause. It is difficult to cure most mineral pokémon diseases but seeking medical care in a timely fashion can often cure or help manage minor problems.

Evolution

Bonsly slowly grow in size. Once they have a rim about half an inch thick, they will flash evolve during severe rainstorms. The new sudowoodo will be better able to handle the weather than it could as a bonsly. In Alola these storms will naturally pop up in due time. Trainers desperate to accelerate evolution can try locking bonsly in a bathroom with thunder sound effects and a running shower. This will provoke evolution more often than not.

Battle

Sudowoodo currently have no presence in competitive battling. They are outclassed in their role as fast rock-types by several fossil pokémon. Even before fossil pokémon became common on the competitive scene they still only had a very small niche in some regional circuits.

Sudowoodo are surprisingly agile and powerful combatants. Conversely, they are quite frail for a mineral pokémon. They function mainly as a melee fighter with enough bulk to take a hit or two. This puts them in the role of the typical fighting-type in battle.

For their size and age bonsly are quite strong and durable. Their main use in battle is to trade powerful physical moves, mixed in with tears to throw opponents off guard if the tide turns against the bonsly.

Both sudowoodo and bonsly are quite good for the first two islands, mediocre on the third and are somewhat outclassed by the fourth island’s trials. However, a clever trainer commanding a sudowoodo with enough training can still make the pokémon pull its weight through the end.

Acquisition

Bonsly can be purchased, captured or adopted with a Class II license. As a note of caution, a wild bonsly will usually have a parent sudowoodo nearby ready to defend their young if you get to close. They can be adopted from several shelters on Melemele and Akala. The shelters in eastern Hau’oli often have them on hand. Additionally, botany supply stores will often have bonsly for sale.

Sudowoodo can be purchased, captured or adopted with a Class I license. They can be caught in most of the same places bonsly can be found. They are less common in shelters and very few stores sell adult sudowoodo. Because they are considerably less difficult to care for than bonsly, trainers on an island challenge are advised to simply seek out and capture a wild sudowoodo.

The sudowoodo’s ease of care makes them popular among older trainers who want companionship and purpose but are unable to keep up with an active pokémon. The reason there are wild sudowoodo in Alola is the multitude of children who released their deceased parent’s sudowoodo rather than continuing to care for it. At present their population is quite small on Melemele and mostly focused around a cluster retirement homes on Route 1. Their population has grown larger and more rapidly on Akala. They can now be found in most of Northwest and Southern Akala.

The Department of Natural Resources has not prioritized the removal of sudowoodo. They barely impact the environment don’t prey on local species. They actually provide an ecological benefit by stirring up and enriching the soil and protecting endangered trevenant . There have even been talks about deliberately introducing them to Ula’Ula to help protect the forests on the northern half of the island.

Breeding

During the late rainy season sudowoodo may seek each other out. Sudowoodo do not have distinct sexes until they mate. Then, seemingly at random, one will begin to adopt male anatomy and the other will adopt female reproductive organs. This transformation usually takes two to three weeks. When the process is complete, the sudowoodo mate. The female lays four to six eggs about the size of a golf ball a week later. The male will bury the eggs and the parents will guard them in shifts until they hatch roughly three weeks later. Parents will stay with their children until they evolve. Then all members of the family will go their separate ways.

Relatives

While sudowoodo living in ranges with different soil composition sometimes have different compositions, they are not classified as distinct species as these traits are not hereditary. A bonsly descended from two parents in Kalos will develop a near-identical composition to Alolan sudowoodo if raised in Alola. Like many of the mineral pokémon in the archipelago, Alolan sudowoodo are tougher but slower than their continental counterparts.