In commemoration of Nintendo’s 135ᵗʰ anniversary, September 20 to 30 is NIWA Cross-Wiki Week. Click here for event details and the possibility to win a $20/€20 Nintendo eShop gift card. Please remember to follow the manual of style and code of conduct at all times. Check the Bulbagarden home page for up-to-date Pokémon news and discuss it on the forums or in the Bulbagarden Discord server.
Raticate (Pokémon)
Revision as of 12:40, 28 October 2020 by Spriteit(talk | contribs)(Masters -> Masters EX)
Raticate is a large, rodent-like Pokémon. Although it is often depicted on its hind legs, it is a quadruped. It is primarily tawny-colored with a cream underside. It has narrow black eyes, ears with ragged edges and dark insides, and large incisors that grow constantly. There are three whiskers on each side of its face, which it uses to maintain balance. It has short arms with three-fingered hands and webbed feet with three toes. The webbing on its feet allows it to swim. Its tail is long and scaly. A female will have shorter whiskers and lighter fur.
If attacked, Raticate stands up on its hind legs, bares its fangs and shrieks in an intimidating manner at its enemy. It is willing to take on larger foes if provoked enough. Its teeth are strong enough to gnaw through steel and their constant growth means it often needs to gnaw on something, like rocks and logs. It may even chew on the walls of houses, and is capable of chewing through cinderblocks and toppling concrete buildings. Its large incisors are also used for its former signature movesHyper Fang and Super Fang. This Pokémon typically lives in plains and savannas.
In Alola, Raticate has become heavier and darker due to its urban environment and higher calorie diet.[1] Its fur is mostly black with a brown, leaf-shaped patch on its belly and brown inside its ears. Its hands, feet, cheeks, and tail are a whitish-cream color, and its hands are much smaller. It has large, puffy cheeks with four whiskers under its chin and two sprouting sideways from the top of each cheek. Its large incisors are still visible, but its eyes are now red. This variant uses its nest as a food stockpile, and generally prefers to have the Alolan Rattata it commands to go out and forage for food while it remains in its nest and eats. It is selective in what it eats, however, only eating fresh, high-quality foods, such as fruits. Rumor has it that a certain high-class restaurant even exploits this selectivity, bringing Raticate along to buy ingredients and letting it taste test new dishes.
Rattata and its evolved form, Raticate. The Mouse Pokémon. A Dark and Normal type. When they band together, they steal food from people's homes. Long ago, they came here to the Alolan islands aboard cargo ships, and eventually grew into the Pokémon we see today. The numbers of Rattata and Raticate eventually grew so large that Yungoos and Gumshoos were brought in from a different region to chase them off.
They all also have at least one family member with a regional form in Alola.
Of all the Totem Pokémon that can be battled in Alola, Totem Raticate is one of the only two Totem Pokémon that is battled in only one game out of the two versions; in this case, Moon and Ultra Moon. The other is Totem Gumshoos.
Origin
Raticate appears to be based on a brown rat as well as a semi-aquatic rodent such as a muskrat or a coypu due to its large body and webbed feet. Its scruffy ears are similar to a guinea pig.
Alolan Raticate appears to be based on the black rat and the Polynesian rat, an invasive species in Hawaii. Their regular attacks on sugar cane fields caused the locals to import the Javan mongoose into Hawaii as a form of pest control, explaining the relationship between Yungoos/Gumshoos and Rattata/Raticate. It is also reminiscent of a stereotypical crime boss due to its gluttonous behavior, ability to command groups of Rattata to steal, and hostile relationship with the detective-inspired Gumshoos.
Name origin
Raticate may be a combination of rat and eradicate (to destroy or exterminate) or masticate (to chew).
This Pokémon article is part of Project Pokédex, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on each Pokémon species, as well as Pokémon groups and forms.