Terapagos (game)
Terapagos (Japanese: テラパゴス Terapagos), also referred to as the Hidden Treasure of Area Zero (Japanese: ゼロの秘宝 The Hidden Treasure of Zero) and the Indigo Disk (Japanese: 藍の円盤 The Indigo Disk), is a Legendary Pokémon and a major character in The Indigo Disk expansion of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. He is the last known member of his species, having fallen into a deep slumber in the Area Zero Underdepths, becoming the hidden treasure that the Paldean empire sought before its decline.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Art from The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In the core series games
History
Background
Over 2,000,000 years ago, Terapagos inhabited the Paldea region in a bygone era along with others of his kind. One of its Pokédex entries claims seismic shifts started to occur, which was said to have doomed the species to near extinction. Initially, this species was believed to have disappeared due to being caught up in these seismic shifts. However, it seems that this one Terapagos protected itself by changing the energy in his body into hard crystals and going into hibernation deep underground. Terapagos would lay dormant in the deep caverns in Area Zero that'd be known as the Area Zero Underdepths.
Thousands of years passed while Terapagos slumbered, during which he unintentionally caused crystals to start growing all across the Area Zero Underdepths and Area Zero itself. Because of these crystals, Terapagos created the Terastal phenomenon, which crystallizes Pokémon and can even change their types. Additionally, a new Tera Type was also created from the mix of all Tera Types. The new Tera Type would later be named the Stellar Tera type. It is also implied that these crystals gave birth to some crystal Pokémon such as Carbink, Glimmet, and Glimmora. Terapagos's power also supposedly caused Pokémon from the ancient pastS/distant futureV or parallel timelines to be temporarily brought into Area Zero. They'd be known as the Paradox Pokémon.
200 years ago, during an expedition in Area Zero, a member of the survey team named Heath somehow found himself in the Area Zero Underdepths, where he encountered Terapagos in his Stellar Form. Fascinated by the sight, Heath included Terapagos in his Scarlet BookS/Violet BookV, describing him on the page, "A Disk Pokémon?", although he was unsure if he was a Pokémon or even alive. He named him Terapagos and rightfully suspected he was the origin of the Terastal phenomenon. When the team returned to the surface, most people who read the Scarlet BookS/Violet BookV believed everything in it was fake, including the existence of Terapagos.
Around ten years ago, Professor SadaS/Professor TuroV went on another expedition to Area Zero, wishing to find a way to bring Pokémon from another time to their own due to witnessing these creatures in Heath's Scarlet BookS/Violet BookV. During their research, they found Terapagos in his crystal form and studied him and his power, managing to use him to create Tera Orbs, an AI copy of themselves, and even a time machine capable of bringing the Paradox Pokémon to the present day.
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet
During the events of main game, copies of the Scarlet BookS/Violet BookV can be found in the library of the Naranja AcademyS/Uva AcademyV and in them, there's a page dubbed "A Disk Pokémon?", which includes a sketch of Terapagos in his Stellar Form; however, most of the page's text is censored or obscured.
The Way Home
As Nemona, Penny, Arven, and the player make their way down Area Zero, they must visit Research Station No. 1, and the player has the option to read a journal written by Professor SadaS/Professor TuroV before their death, describing their research and theories on Terapagos, which has his name censored or obscured.
The Teal Mask
At some point, a descendant of Heath, Briar, started to study and prepare herself for another expedition to Area Zero, specifically to find Terapagos and prove to the world that Heath's writings were true. She is also revealed to possess the original manuscript of Heath, where the information about Terapagos is completely readable. She takes part in a joint school trip to Kitakami between Naranja AcademyS/Uva AcademyV and Blueberry Academy, while also attempting to get permission from the Paldea Pokémon League to go do her expedition to Area Zero.
The Indigo Disk
Later on, Briar is finally allowed to travel into Area Zero with a small team of students from Blueberry Academy: Carmine, Kieran, and the player. They together venture into the Area Zero Underdepths thanks to the Zero Lab's elevator. As they go deeper, they are forced to defeat many Pokémon Terastallized into the Stellar Tera Type in order to remove crystal barriers in their path. Finally, they arrive at the chamber where Terapagos is slumbering; however, determined to defeat the player, Kieran awakens and catches Terapagos with his Master Ball. He is then encouraged by Briar to battle the player in order to witness the Tera Pokémon's power, but Terapagos is easily defeated.
Briar believes Terapagos's power should be much greater and, after looking into her book, tells Kieran to Terastallize Terapagos, convinced that filling it with Terastal energy will reveal its identity as the true hidden treasure of Area Zero. This causes Terapagos to transform into his Stellar Form, but he lost control due to the energy overload. As the cavern began to crack and collapse due to his power, Kieran tried to recall Terapagos, but he destroys the Master Ball. The player and Carmine challenge Terapagos, but Carmine is quickly defeated due to her team being weakened by the wild Pokémon earlier outside of the cavern. Terapagos allows the player to Terastallize four times, but he absorbs the energy back, forming a Tera Raid Shield for the first three times. The player soon manages to encourage Kieran into joining the battle, and both together succeed in weakening Terapagos enough for him to return to its Normal Form, which allows the player to catch him, saving everyone from his uncontrolled power.
After the four return to the Blueberry Academy, Briar apologizes for putting them in danger and reveals that she wrote a book about their expedition, finally confirming Terapagos's existence to the public.
If the player travels to Kitakami's Crystal Pool after catching Terapagos and having Briar's Book in their bag, Terapagos will use his powers to temporarily bring SadaS/TuroV from the past or possibly another timeline to the game's timeline. After a brief conversation, the player will trade their copy of Briar's Book for the Professor's copy of the Scarlet BookS/Violet BookV, before the professor returns to where they came from.
|
Spoilers end here. |
|
|---|
Personality and characteristics
- Main article: Terapagos (Pokémon)
Terapagos is a docile and friendly Pokémon. Once he awakened after hundreds of years slumbering in the depths of the planet, he yawned and looked happy to see the group of humans looking down at him. It is believed that seismic shifts brought his kind to near extinction, making him potentially the only Terapagos left in existence. He appears to have a young and friendly mindset, as shown when he gladly walks towards the player upon seeing them.
He also appears to enjoy granting desires to others, as seen when he brought a Professor SadaS/Professor TuroV from the past or a parallel timeline for its Trainer and KoraidonS/MiraidonV. Even though he is a good Pokémon by nature, when Kieran Terastallized him as instructed by Briar, Terapagos was abnormally overloaded with Terastal energy, causing him to lose control of himself and become enraged, so furious that he not only destroyed the Master Ball used to catch him, but also nearly killed everyone around him, particularly Kieran, with a huge blast of Terastal energy.
Appearance
- See also: Terapagos → Form data
Terapagos has three forms, his Normal Form, his Terastal Form, and a unique Terastallized state called Stellar Form. Additionally, Terapagos has a dormant state. Normal Form Terapagos transforms into his Terastal Form through his Tera Shift Ability. Terastal Form Terapagos transforms into his Stellar Form by Terastallizing through a Tera Orb. Normal Form Terapagos transforms into his dormant state in order to hibernate.
| Dormant state | Normal Form | Terastal Form | Stellar Form |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
In battle
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero: Part 2: The Indigo Disk
When Kieran is controlling Terapagos, he possesses twice the usual amount of HP and has a large HP bar at the top of the screen that identifies him as Terapagos, the Indigo Disk. Terapagos is coded to never be Shiny.
After Kieran has been defeated, he will attempt to Terastallize Terapagos, causing him to become uncontrollable. The player must battle him with no opportunity to change teams or heal from the end of the previous battle; losing this battle will revert the game back to before the player's battle against Kieran. He must be caught by the player upon his defeat, and is coded to never be Shiny.
In the battle against Stellar Form Terapagos, he has four times the usual amount of health, a large HP bar at the top of the screen that identifies him as Terapagos, the Hidden Treasure of Area Zero, and unlimited PP for all of his moves, but his Teraform Zero Ability does not function. Similar to a Tera Raid Battle, he can put up a shield to become immune to many status moves and reduce the damage he takes from attacking moves, and the player will be unable to Terastallize their Pokémon until they charge the Tera Orb by hitting with a certain number of damaging moves, but only two attacks are required to charge it, instead of the three from standard Tera Raid Battles. Unlike Tera Raid Battles, there is no time limit and no cheering, and the player can switch Pokémon and use items from the Bag.
Terapagos will put up three shields over the course of the battle: one at the beginning, and the others immediately after the previous shield is broken. Each shield covers 27% of Terapagos's health bar, and if any attack deals enough damage to break the shield, all further damage from that attack (including from multistrike moves) is prevented, similar to Pokémon Sword and Shield's Max Raid Battles. When a new shield is put up, Terapagos is cured of any status condition, all stat modifiers to any Pokémon are erased (but other field effects such as weather and Light Screen remain in place), and if any of the player's Pokémon have been Terastallized, they lose that status. The Tera Orb must be recharged before the player can Terastallize a Pokémon again.
- In the first phase of the battle, Terapagos is Normal type, and Carmine participates as a partner using her Sinistcha. If Sinistcha faints, the player must continue the remainder of the phase alone. If Sinistcha has not yet fainted when the shield breaks, Terapagos uses Zen Headbutt on Sinistcha at that time, even if an effect such as Imprison would normally prevent the move from being used. This extra move ignores the usual accuracy and damage formulas and is configured to deal 9999 damage; then, if Sinistcha somehow has any HP remaining afterwards, its HP will be forcefully set to 0 anyway, ensuring that Sinistcha faints and does not participate in later phases.[1][2]
- In the second phase, Terapagos changes to a Psychic type, and the player must face it alone.
- In the third phase, Terapagos changes to a Water type, and Kieran joins as a partner using his remaining five Pokémon. Terapagos will remain Water type after the final shield is broken.
In animation
Pokémon Horizons: The Series
In Encounters at the Crystal Pool, Briar mentions to the Rising Volt Tacklers that she's already seen an awakened Terapagos prior to the one who's travelling alongside them. This references the events of The Indigo Disk DLC for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.
Gallery
Artwork
| In promotional artwork for The Indigo Disk |
Trivia
- Terapagos may be inspired by Lonesome George, the last Pinta Island Tortoise (a subspecies of Galápagos tortoise), as Terapagos is said to be extinct aside from a lone male survivor.
- While never mentioned, it's possible that the appearance of Paradox Pokémon in Area Zero 200 years ago and prior to the creation of the time machine was due to Terapagos, since his Terastal energy was used in the creation of the time machine to bring the Paradox Pokémon there in the present time.
References
Related articles
- For more information on this Pokémon's species, see Terapagos.
|
This game character article is part of Project CharacterDex, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on each character found in the Pokémon games. |