Vulpix
Fox Pokémon (#37)
Basics
Names
- Japanese: Rokon
- English, German: Vulpix
- French: Goupix
Appearance
- Red: None (trade only)
- Gold: None (trade only)
- Ruby: ?
- Yellow: Exchange Corner at Celadon City
- Blue: Route 7, Route 8, Pokemon Mansion at Cinnabar Island
- Silver: Routes 7, 8, 36, 37
- Sapphire: ?
- Crystal: ?
Description
Vulpix is an adorably cute and cuddly, beautiful small fox Pokémon. It has reddish fur and brown paws, and tails and the curls on the headfur are darker red. The eyes are brown.
At birth, Vulpix has only one tail, but the tail splits from the tip as it grows older - when it's fully grown, it has six tails. When it grows older, it gets even more tails (thus Ninetales has nine tails.) Vulpix will only get more beautiful and gets far nicer fur as it grows older.
Vulpix is, superficially speaking, best at being cute. It is thus favored by those people who raise Pokémon only for good looks. It is not particularly known for its ability to defend itself, and will usually feign injury to escape dangerous foes.
However, as every fire Pokémon fan knows, Vulpix is a very deadly Pokémon when handled by a competent trainer, and the fire attacks it learns on high level are very deadly - and once it evolves to Ninetales, it easily becomes something to watch out for.
Learned moves
The most lethal attack Vulpix can learn is Fire Spin (level 42 in Red/Blue/Yellow, 37 in Gold/Silver/Crystal). Since Ninetales will not learn any new moves, it is advisable to not use the Fire Stone on Vulpix until this point. Some say Fire Spin isn't worth the trouble, but I'd definitely wait at least until Flamethrower (level 35 in R&B&Y, level 31 in G&S&C), because that is a very neat movement and easily one of the most lethal Fire-type moves. I remember the day when my Flamethrowering recently evolved Ninetales grilled a lot of grass-type Pokémon in the Celadon city gym =)
Vulpix also learns Confuse Ray (level 28/13), Roar (21/25), Safeguard (-/19) and Quick Attack (16/7).
Origins of the name
Vulpix gets its name from Latin vulpes, meaning "fox". Japanese name rokon comes from (as I have been informed) "six fox cries".
Famous Vulpixes
The most famous Vulpix is obviously the one Brock had for a long time. He got this Vulpix from Suzie, (Episode 128, "Pokémon Fashion Flash"), a famous Pokémon trainer, and it stayed with him for quite a long time (Until Johto Journeys in TV series and for at least the first three movies). Brock rarely used this Vulpix in battles out of his respect toward Suzie, which is kind of shame considering the devastating attacks Vulpix knew (in Fashion Flash, the vulpix did a Fire Spin, so we're talking of a quite high-level specimen here...) Brock did use Vulpix in one very spectacular fight in the 3rd movie, and used fire blasts a few times for various reasons, such as melting ice (again in the movie) and making a hot air balloon rise.
(Note: I can't find the exact episode where Brock gave Vulpix back to Suzie, mostly due to the hostility of Nintendo's site. =( During Johto Journeys series, anyway.)
Sources:
Martin Kitts, Alex Bickham, Daniel Glenfield et al. Pokémon-mestarin opas, Pelimestari Erikoisjulkaisu, 2000. Euromedia Publishing Company, 2000.
The PokéMasters. "Vulpix". The Pokémaster's Online Pokédex. Online. <URL:http://www.pokemasters.com/pokedex/037.html>. Accessed 2003-04-30.