Poliwrath is a blue, bipedalamphibianPokémon with a round body and muscular arms. It has bulbous eyes that protrude from the top of its head and its belly is covered by a white and black swirl. There appear to be white gloves on its hands, and it has rounded, digit-less feet.
Poliwrath's body is almost entirely muscle, and the muscles in its arms and legs never tire. It also has zero percent body-fat. When it swims, it uses all of the muscles in its body and is able to swim vast distances with minimal breathing. It is even capable of briefly running on the water's surface. It can also smash through ice and plow forward using its strong arms. Poliwrath is capable of out-swimming even world-class swimmers. Poliwrath is also skilled at martial arts. It can launch powerful square punches capable of crushing boulders into dust. Many children learn how to swim by replicating Poliwrath's movement. It is one of the most gifted swimmers of allWater-type Pokémon.
Being the result of an Evolution viaEvolution stone, Poliwrath is rarely found in the wild. When found, it is usually seen living on dry landnear the water's edge, despite it being an excellent swimmer. InAlola, Poliwrath are strong enough to use the breaststroke while swimming.
Evolution
Poliwrath evolves fromPoliwhirl and is one of the final forms ofPoliwag, the other beingPolitoed.
This strong and skilled swimmer is even capable of crossing the Pacific Ocean just by kicking.(Pokémon Red, Silver, or Crystal inserted) Although an energetic, skilled swimmer that uses all of its muscles, it lives on dry land.(Pokémon Blue, Gold, or Yellow inserted)
Poliwrath's highly developed, brawny muscles never grow fatigued, however much it exercises. It is so tirelessly strong, thisPokémon can swim back and forth across the Pacific Ocean without effort.
Its highly developed muscles never grow fatigued, however much it exercises. ThisPokémon can swim back and forth across the Pacific Ocean without effort.
Poliwrath's highly developed, brawny muscles never grow fatigued, however much it exercises. It is so tirelessly strong, this Pokémon can swim back and forth across the ocean without effort.
Poliwrath debuted inBuzz Off, Electabuzz! whenRed's Poliwhirl Poli evolved into it to save hisTrainer from drowning. His Evolution wasn't explained until theYellow arc, where it was revealed there were four Evolution stones that could be used without any limit.
A Poliwrath appeared inGold's fantasy after seeingPolibo evolved into Politoed inAmpharos Amore.
Chuck, Blue's own master, owns a Poliwrath, as seen inScrappy Skarmory. It was first seentraining with him and hisPrimeape. Together with Primeape, it usedDynamic Punch to revealSuicune's presence in the ocean off theCianwood coast, but the Gym Leader was defeated in the end, even after being joined by afriend.
A Poliwrath appeared alongside aVenusaur inPSs1, kidnappingPibu.
Poliwrath shares itscategory withPoliwag, Poliwhirl, andTympole. They are all known as the Tadpole Pokémon.
Prior toGeneration VI, Poliwrath and itsevolutionary counterpartPolitoed shared the same base stat total. This changed in Generation VI when Poliwrath received a ten-point increase to its Attack, but Politoed did not receive a stat increase. It shares this counterpart difference withBeautifly.
Furthermore, Poliwrath's skin has been depicted as both blue and dark blue. The lighter blue is used in most media, with the darker blue appearing primarily in thePokémon animated series prior toPokémon Journeys: The Series.
Poliwrath may be based on atadpole and afrog. The spiral pattern on its belly is supposed to represent how the organs of tadpoles and of mostglass frog genera can sometimes be seen through their transparent abdominal skin. It also resembles a hypnotic spiral which is the likely reason why it learns the moveHypnosis. It may also be based on amphibianneoteny, as it stays in tadpole form and does notmetamorphose into afrog.
Its brawny body and newfoundFighting-type could be an interpretation of mature frogs' bulky bodies and vastly heightened muscle mass and strength in comparison to the tadpole. It might also be a reference to the physical prowess ofswimming athletes.
Name origin
Poliwrath may be a combination ofpolliwog (outdated term for tadpole) andwrath.
Nyorobon may be a combination of ニョロニョロnyoronyoro (onomatopoeia for wriggling) and 坊bon (boy).
This Pokémon article is part ofProject Pokédex, aBulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on each Pokémon species, as well as Pokémon groups and forms.