Feebas are somewhat shabby, old-looking basses with tattered blue fins and a tall, arch-shaped fin that juts from its back. Its rough-textured body is dotted in several old spots resembling rocks. It has large, gloomy eyes and big lips frozen into a frown.
As their Beauty increases, their rocky scales begin to gleam like diamonds. This shows that evolution is very near.
Feebas tend to be quite scarce in their natural range, but wherever they are found, they group together in tightly-packed schools. They're also easy to catch once encountered.
Feebas is an aquatic Pokémon which can survive in both fresh and salt water thanks to its hardy nature. It prefers best ponds that are filled with weeds.
Feebas is known for its extreme rarity and it generally takes a long time to find one in the main series games where they are only found in a set number of randomly chosen fishing "tiles" on large bodies of water. For example, Route 119 in Hoenn has hundreds of squares that the fishing rod can be used on in the river that runs down it but Feebas is only found in six of them. In Sinnoh, Feebas is only found in four of the hundreds of squares which comprise the lake in Mt. Coronet's basement which change daily. However, Feebas are actually very common where they are found making it easy to catch multiple members of the species once one has been located. Feebas can also be found on any tile in Route 1 from Unova.
Feebas's fins are ragged and tattered from the start of its life. Because of its shoddy appearance, this Pokémon is largely ignored. It is capable of living in both the sea and in rivers.
While Feebas's body is in tatters, it has a hardy and tenacious life force that enables it to live anywhere. However, this Pokémon is also slow and dimwitted, making it an easy catch.
The fishing spots Feebas is found in are randomly generated for each game. In Hoenn, they randomly changed whenever the trendy phrase in Dewford Town changes. In Sinnoh, they change every day.
Feebas will not appear in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team until a rescue mission involving it has been completed, using the following Wonder Mail code:
Though its level-up moves are exactly the same as those of Magikarp, Feebas can learn moves from TMs and HMs, hatch from an Egg with Egg moves, and learn new moves via Move Tutors, making it slightly more useful in battle.
Feebas shares the same species name with Magikarp. They are both known as the Fish Pokémon.
Feebas and Magikarp have almost identical stats. However, Feebas has a higher Attack and Special Defense, while Magikarp has a higher Special Attack and Defense. Both Attack and Defense stats for Feebas and Magikarp are reversed.
They are also the only Pokémon with a base stat total of 200.
Both change appearance drastically after evolution, evolving into serpentine, dragon-like Pokémon.
Feebas is the only Pokémon that needs a modification of its Contest stats for it to evolve.
Although Contest conditions are a hidden stat in Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, and Pokémon Black and White, a Feebas that has maximum Beauty will still evolve in these games. The Prism Scale, introduced in Generation V, was created due to the fact that there is no legitimate way to raise the Beauty of a Feebas created in the Generation V games, whereas with FireRed and LeafGreen, a trade to Ruby, Sapphire, or Emerald was all that was required, and a haircut or grooming by Daisy Oak is all that is required in HeartGold and SoulSilver.
The probability of finding a water tile with Feebas in Mt. Coronet is 1/132, with four possible fishing spots on 528 water tiles.
The probability of finding a water tile with Feebas on Route 119 is 1/72.66666..., with six possible fishing spots on 436 water tiles.
Feebas has the lowest maximum Performance of any Pokémon, only capable of reaching 11 stars.
Feebas is the only Pokémon that can evolve into a single stage through multiple methods in the main series. Feebas can evolve into Milotic when leveled up with maximum Beauty or when traded while holding the Prism Scale.
Origin
As its name suggests, Feebas is probably based on a bass, possibly the largemouth bass. Its ugly appearance makes it appear to be also based from the concept of ugliness, appearing to don a wash of ugly makeup. It also seems to be based on the classic fairy tale, The Ugly Duckling, where a small and feeble "ugly duckling", treated as an outcast by other animals, blossoms into a beautiful swan.
Name origin
Feebas is a combination of feeble (weak) and bass. Feebas is also phonetically similar to phoebus (Latin for shining one), possibly alluding to Milotic, its evolved form.
Hinbass is a combination of 貧 hin (poor) and bass. Hin may also come from the words hind (located at the rear) or hinder.