Games - Sunkern

	Games - Sunkern

Sunkern (ヒマナッツ Himanatsu in Japanese, Sonnkern in German and Tournegrin in French) is a fictional character of the Pokémon franchise.

The English form of the name is based on the word sunflower (which is what inspired the look of the pokémon) and kernel (which suggests that it is only the basic level of the pokémon's evolution track) or corn (refering to its seed-like appearance).

Appearance

Sunkern is a large, yellow-and-brown striped seed with a pair of bright black eyes and a small stem with two green leaves on top.

Biology

Sunkern's entire life seems to be centered around its evolution into Sunflora. It moves as little as possible, trying to preserve the energy and nutrients it will need for the evolution process. This would make it hard for it to find food, but Sunkern survives only on morning dew collected under the leaves of plants beneath which it lies.

Sunkern's natural enemy is the birdlike Spearow. Sunkern is very weak and virtually defenceless against its predator; if attacked, all it can do is shake its leaves desperately at its assaulter. It is unclear whether this actually has any deterring effect on the Spearow.

In the video games

In Pokémon Gold, Silver and Crystal, Sunkern can be found in Route 24 and in the National Park (though not during the Bug Catching Contest). In Pokémon Emerald, it is available in the Safari Zone.

Sunkern's stats are abysmally low. All its attributes are in the bottom 10% of all Pokémon, with an identical score of 30. Since Sunkern is slow, defenseless and offensively challenged, it is extremely hard to use it effectively in battle, or even to keep it alive long enough to use a single attack, for that matter.

Attempts to make Sunkern useful have included moves like Endeavor, which makes the opponent's remaining Hit Points the same amount as Sunkern's, Safeguard and Light Screen to leave lingering protection to the other teammates, and the Brightpowder item which lowers the opponent's accuracy. All in all, however, Sunkern is generally considered at best an equal to Magikarp when it comes to battling. Sunkern is also given two new moves from Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald, and they are Ingrain and Bullet Seed

In the animé

Sunkern was featured in episode #189 (Moving picture). Because of Articuno visiting a mountain that was usually teeming with Sunflora, it was found frozen on the slopes and nursed back to health by an old couple.

In return, it evolved into Sunflora via the Sun Stone Ash had won in the Bug Catching Contest so that the old couple could have their picture taken with a Sunflora as they did when they first married. It ended up calling hundreds of other Sunflora to it, giving its saviors a fine gold anniversary gift.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Sunkern ]

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