Pokemon Field Guide: Cryogonal Report

#615: Cryogonal
The Crystallizing Pokemon
Ice

Height: 3-8 ft (This factor varies a LOT so I’m putting out the measurements I’ve usually seen.)

Weight: 326-569 lbs

Sound: They don’t make much sound, aside from their icy bodies crackling and chilling the air around them. That is if you don’t hear their ice chains dragging on the ground.

Gender: They don’t have any.

Cryogonal is only composed of ice and supercolonies of bacteria, so all it has to do to reproduce is melt its own body, drift to the higher atmosphere, multiply asexually with each one of its bacteria, freeze itself again and drift back down as two separate entities. Its capacity to know  Attract may be to act as a beacon to other supercolonies of bacteria to join their colony. However, this isn’t necessary at all in the wild, so they never learn it naturally.

HP: 70
Attack: 50
Defense: 30
Sp. Attack: 95
Sp. Defense: 135
Speed: 105
Total: 485

Effective Moves Against It:
Ground (0x)
Ice (1/2x)
Fire (2x), Rock (2x), Steel (2x), Fighting (2x)

Location: Often found in Unova on Twist Mountain, because the metal ores in it make it gravitate toward it. This is because they bacteria inside them are magnetic.

However, Cryogonal can be nearby any mountain with some metals in it, or simply floating high in the sky during their first stage. (Read Section B if you have no clue what I’m talking about)

( A ) General: I am happy to recognize Cryogonal as one of the single strangest Pokemon I have ever had the pleasure of studying.

These incredibly complex creatures have a variety of perks, flaws, similarities from how they are “born” and how they live. But most of all, they are known to be one of the most variable of all Pokemon species, owing to the fact that they are formed as snowflakes. Literally thousands of possibilities exist to define what a Cryogonal is, and that makes them somewhat hard to actually study. Still, I am very satisfied with the results I have gotten from studying this bizarre Pokemon species.

( B ) Birth of a Cryogonal: How Cryogonal actually come into being was a somewhat of a mystery among scientists until it was directly observed with its interior structure fully analyzed.

All Wild Cryogonal start out as an enormous colony of magnetotactic bacteria; bacteria that contain small organelles known as magnetosomes, containing small magnetic crystals that align them towards the North or South poles. This species of bacteria tend to gather at places where Oxygen is scarce, because while they’re aerotolerant/able to tolerate the presence of Oxygen, their growth rate slows exponentially. They are also able to live in freezing temperatures, making them psychrophiles.

However, unlike other species of magnetotactic bacteria which dwell in water, they are airborne,  found thousands of feet above sea level, where there is less air, and at certain altitudes these bacteria thrive. This is a phenomenon in itself, but taken to a bigger extreme as they all bunch together, forming a whole chain or clump of bacteria which are able to act as a superorganism.

This superorganism drifts in the sky, occasionally separating into another entire colony if it gets too large, and as their magnetosomes guide them, they are most likely to end up above snowy mountains, where there are large concentrations of iron within them. But there is a chance that they might drift lower, nearby clouds. Since they are above a very cold area, their contact with the clouds causes them to become crystallized within ice. A giant snowflake freezes them in place.

When they are fully encased, they join together in such a way that resembles a nervous system, as signals can transfer from one group of individuals to the ones at the center. They gain a degree of intelligence, as they are able to control where they move, while having the ability to levitate thanks to their magnetic nature. So, they fall quickly to the ground being so heavy and stay at their location now that their colony can’t actually grow anymore within the ice. They are now a Cryogonal.

( C ) Cryogonal’s Diet and Combat Ability: Cryogonal don’t need to eat actual food, but what they do need to do is maintain their icy exterior so it can be constantly kept frozen and fully solid. So, to fix this problem, it multiple multiple things to address the same problem.

It may rub itself against snow, so it can crystallize later into new exterior ice. However, this takes longer than it usually prefers so either it can go into a body of water to create more ice outside it, or use another method if there is no body of water.

It hunts living creatures as food. It uses special ice chains hanging on their sides, and it uses these to first spear through their prey. Next, once its down, they retract their ice chains and repeatedly rotate their chains to create a frigid air around them of about -148 degrees fahrenheit. This freezes their prey in place and allows them to absorb their body moisture, thus freshly replenishing their icy bodies, and leaving behind a frozen husk.

Combat: Their ability for combat varies greatly on their shape. However, they are most often best at special attack and defense.

Their bodies are fragile towards blows that strike them physically; for example a punch will be able to shatter most Cryogonal to pieces, inconveniencing them by scattering their nervous system. The only way for it to be whole again is if what’s left of the Cryogonal melts, rejoins all of its scattered bacteria, and freezes again. However, their ice is extremely resilient towards impacts that come from far away. For example, a Flamethrower attack will gloss over them for about 4 seconds before actually starting to melt the Cryogonal.

Offensively, their first option is to use their icy chains to either bind the foe directly and freeze it, or spin them around to generate a lot of cold air. They can also use Solarbeam via using their bodies like giant magnifying glasses, burning the foe with solar energy. This method is seen with bigger, heavier Cryogonal of any shape.

Their other option is to use their bodies as projectiles, spinning them at dizzying speeds and launching into their opponents as quickly as possible to slice them. This method is seen with smaller, lighter Cryogonal with sharp edges.  

( D ) Cryogonal Death and Rebirth: Contary to the title, Cryogonal don’t quite die. Instead, this happens:

When a Cryogonal’s body temperature increases, it eventually melts and releases the bacteria inside them. These bacteria disperse to avoid further damage, and form multiple, smaller supercolonies to ride the wind and be carried back up into the atmosphere. Once they reach a high enough altitude, they start to reproduce themselves asexually at the first chance they get, thus almost always keeping a large population.

They oftentimes stay like this for the rest of the time, and simply produce even more if the bacteria happen to die off. But eventually, the cycle happens again: they get trapped in a snow cloud, encased within a snowflake, and fall back to Earth to begin life as a Cryogonal again.

Thus, in some cases the same Cryogonal can get continuously frozen and re-frozen multiple times. Other times, the Cryogonal’s interior supercolony split into fragments, causing multiple Cryogonal to form from one supercolony. But either way, Cryogonal never truly die unless you wipe out the whole supercolony.

( E ) Forms of Cryogonal: Like real snowflakes, no two Cryogonal look exactly like each other. (Except in very rare cases) Several factors and combinations play into changing what a Cryogonal would look like, and how it lives. Also, you can see some special cases at the bottom, ones that I witnessed personally before recording them.

Crystal Bodies - The ice that forms around a Cryogonal’s bacterial stage tend to form complex shapes, while also being affected by falling through fluctuating temperatures, and the changing arrangement of water molecules in the clouds. The atmospheric conditions play a part in determining its shape, along with how it engages in combat. A large Cryogonal with rounded sides will live a considerably different lifestyle from a small one whose sides are sharp and jagged. It’s also worth noting that some Cryogonal tend to be asymmetrical, but these aren’t often very different from regular Cryogonal.

Inner “Nervous” System - Inside, the superorganism is frozen into clumps where “neural” signals are transmitted and carried out, like a nervous system. This system appears as a fluorescent blue/orange series of spots and uneven lines. This also depends on the state of the superorganism while its floating in the air. Its shape is not kept constant before it crystallizes, so this also changes its appearance as a Cryogonal well. Sometimes it can form a shape that resembles two eyes and a mouth, but more often, it appears as an asymmetrical bunch of blue/orange, randomly placed blotches.

Ice Chains - These ice chains that hang off the side of them are small crystallized strings of frozen bacteria that they use as weapons to subdue their prey. The ice covering these chains is extremely solid and takes more effort to break than the actual body of the Cryogonal. It’s also subject to changing appearance based on its shape as a superorganism. The shapes of each segment of its chains can include: small blue orbs, large spiked segments, sharp needled tendrils, or a series of icy spades linking to each other. Sometimes, after being formed into a Cryogonal, they can end up with more than two chains,

Miniature Cryogonal - Sometimes Cryogonal melt and reform back together when encased in ice again. This almost always results in the creation of a smaller colony that gets frozen into smaller snowflakes. These Mini-Cryogonal are as variable as the regular sized ones, but they take non-complex shapes as well.

Some shapes Mini-Cryogonal take include needles, capped columns, double plates, bullet rosettes, or even simple prisms and shapes and columns.

While they too have the ability to levitate, they don’t often have ice chains at their disposal and are too small to fully attack. So, instead they act as parasites, numbing a specific spot and continuously sucking out body fluids, so they appear dark red to those that find them.

Conjoined Cryogonal - There are rare occasions where if two Cryogonal are forming in the same cloud, and they both happen to get close and join each other while still forming into a snowflake, they’ll form one Cryogonal made from two conjoined snowflakes. The only thing that would make their lives any different, however, is if their nervous systems are separate. This isn’t that big of a problem to either of them since they don’t have many differences in opinion faced with a safety-threatening situation.

As said, this is a rare sight because for the most part, the supercolonies tend to be together before going into the cloud, and thus simply make a bigger Cryogonal.

( F ) Natural History of Cryogonal: What I find particularly fascinating is that the Cryogonal species could be much older than we predict them to be. Once, while I went digging underground with my Krookodile, in a warm region, I picked up several microscopic traces of iron as well as some permafrost that contained this iron. Putting it and the soil around it through the carbon dating process, I’ve discovered that this iron and permafrost is over 305 million years old--just about as old as some prehistoric Pokemon! Maybe it precedes even that!

This could owe to the fact that being single-celled organisms, they could have came into being far earlier than even Anorith, because they are but single cells that multiply and join into one group. This goes in contrast to Anorith which is one of the first multi-cellular Pokemon to exist.

I imagine that Cryogonal’s bacteria had undergone several evolutionary changes to make it what it is today, but never actually being a Pokemon that evolves.

Trainer Tips:
- When encountering a Cryogonal in the wild, THREATEN IT WITH A PHYSICAL BLOW. Either threaten to use your fists or feet to defend yourself and never use ranged objects to drive it away. This is because Cryogonal encounters can be deadly to those unprepared to face them.
- TEND TO YOUR CRYOGONAL ICY CASING. You can do this by regularly giving it a bath, and letting it freeze fluids inside of berries. (FUN FACT: Depending on what they “eat”, Cryogonal change color! Feeding it an assortment of berries could make for quite a colorful mix!)
- HAVE A SPECIAL KIND OF FIRE EXTINGUISHER AT HAND WHILE BATTLING WITH IT. These are special brands found in stores, more to quickly reduce your Cryogonal’s body temperature and return it to ice if it melts or breaks in battle.
- ROUND THEIR EDGES OUTSIDE OF BATTLE. That is if they have a lot of sharp edges on their bodies or chains. Otherwise, you’ve not much to worry about.

Personal Experiences:
Like I’ve said before, my most enlightening experience with them was discovering the remains of what may be an ancient Cryogonal underground. Alongside directly seeing some of the different forms a Cryogonal takes before solidifying.

In battle, I saw just how formidable their chain-like tendrils could be. One such individual was jagged on all edges, after using the Sharpen technique to make it dangerous to touch. Next, while facing an opposing Seismitoad, it span its tendrils at an incredible speed, like a fan. It kept doing this until the air around it was starting to freeze and become a mist. Then, all at once, it blasted this icy chill towards its opponent, as it shot towards the opposition. It used Sheer Cold.

The Seismitoad got out of the way...but just barely. As ice glazed over the ground, suddenly it forcefully waved its tendrils forward once more, as a myriad of sharp, icy spikes rose from the frozen ground. This tipped the battle in its favor, as it was much harder to attack it. The Cryogonal was able to defeat the Seismitoad by using Confuse Ray on it, and letting the reflective ice around it distract it as it charged up a Solar Beam attack.

I couldn’t imagine the pain the Seismitoad went through as the sunlight it gathered burned it like an ant. There, the match was over as the poor Seismitoad’s body was emitting smoke, and it got taken to the Pokemon Center.

There, I verified just how apt they were at combat, as I also saw several more instances of them battling in the wild...these cases I’d rather leave someone to experience on their own, as I feel it would spoil the experience if I told you now.