When Gyarados focuses on developing physical offense, it must also raise its physical defense—otherwise, a glass cannon charging straight into close-quarters grappling and brutal melee would just be asking to be taken down.
After all, once Magikarp evolves into Gyarados, that massive body turns it into nothing short of a living target.
If its physical defense isn't trained properly, how many solid hits could it really take before going down?
Fortunately, whether it's Magikarp in its current form or Gyarados after evolution, its base physical defense is already respectable. And for Pokémon with such enormous physiques, the development space and growth ceiling for defensive stats are extremely high.
That naturally led to another question:
If physical defense is trained, should special defense be trained as well?
After Magikarp evolves into Gyarados, its base physical defense is only 79, while its special defense reaches a full 100. Even after Mega Evolution—where physical defense rises to 109—its special defense still climbs in tandem, reaching 130.
From beginning to end, Gyarados's special defense far outclasses its physical defense. Because of that, its special defense doesn't require any overly targeted reinforcement training. As long as it receives steady, routine training, that stat will naturally be sufficient.
Beyond physical attack and physical defense, there was another stat Magikarp—and future Gyarados—needed to prioritize heavily:
Stamina.
Whether it was compensating for weaknesses or avoiding shortcomings, the most important principle had always been the same—
"Amplify your strengths."
Patching weaknesses merely prevents you from falling behind.
Only by fully leveraging your strengths can you truly become powerful.
And stamina was undeniably Gyarados's greatest strength—or rather, the strength of most Water-type Pokémon.
Among all Pokémon types, Water and Grass might not match Fire or Electric when it comes to raw offensive explosiveness.
But deep stamina pools and powerful recovery abilities have always been the defining advantages of Water- and Grass-types.
That was why, throughout Magikarp's training process, stamina had always been an ability Ash placed enormous emphasis on.
However, when it came to Magikarp's overall development and training, the thing that truly troubled and worried Ash wasn't physical attack, defense, or stamina—
It was Magikarp's current Ability set.
Once Magikarp evolved into Gyarados, its existing Abilities—Swift Swim and Rattled—would transform into → Intimidate and Moxie.
In truth, Ash loved both.
Whether it was Intimidate, which weakened the opponent's Attack the moment Gyarados entered battle, or Moxie, which boosted its own Attack after defeating an opponent—both were top-tier Abilities in Ash's eyes.
What he couldn't bear to lose, however, was Magikarp's current Swift Swim Ability—
the one that doubled its Speed in rainy weather.
Everyone has Pokémon they like and dislike, strengths and weaknesses.
Ash wasn't a Trainer who specialized in a single type—he genuinely loved Pokémon of all attributes and species.
But when it came to personal aptitude and preference, Ash undeniably leaned toward fast, agile, and highly mobile Pokémon.
As for Pokémon that were massive, bulky, slow-moving, and lumbering…
Ash felt he wasn't particularly good at handling them.
Although Magikarp's base Speed of 80, Gyarados's 81, and Mega Gyarados's 81 weren't exactly slow, they were far from fast.
But if you added Swift Swim, doubling Speed in the rain?
That would push its effective Speed to around 160—
blindingly fast. Practically airborne.
"Unfortunately, once Magikarp evolves into Gyarados, Swift Swim disappears…"
Ash shook his head, sighing as he regretfully crossed out "Speed" from Magikarp's training plan.
Unlike evolutionary lines such as Bulbasaur → Ivysaur → Venusaur or Turtwig → Grotle → Torterra, which start small and light before gradually becoming heavier and slower, Magikarp's situation was different.
For those Grass-types, early Speed training still made sense—even though Speed would inevitably decline as their bodies grew larger, and the marginal returns of Speed training would rapidly diminish over time.
From a long-term perspective, Speed training for them wasn't ideal—but since they needed to battle early on, most Trainers still had no choice but to train it.
Magikarp, however, didn't need that.
Ash had completely abandoned Speed training for Magikarp.
The logic was simple:
Even though Speed training would also suffer diminishing returns later, Bulbasaur and Turtwig had to fight early—Magikarp didn't.
Before evolving into Gyarados, Ash planned to let Magikarp grind levels in the wild at most. He had no intention of bringing it into city battle arenas.
Everything was being planned around mid- to long-term goals.
So in the short term, there was no need to waste precious time and energy on a Speed-focused training path that was high effort, low reward.
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Feebas (Special Attack, Stamina, Special Defense)
Feebas's training and development plan was largely similar to Magikarp's, with no major differences.
The key distinction lay in their roles:
Magikarp was positioned as a physical attacker, while Feebas was clearly a special attacker.
Accordingly, Magikarp's defensive focus was on physical defense, while Feebas prioritized special defense.
Just like Magikarp, Feebas would still be a pure Water-type Pokémon even after evolving. Because of that, Ash placed even greater emphasis on stamina for Feebas.
In fact, when ranking Feebas's priority stats, stamina ranked second only to special attack, and was placed above special defense.
As a pure Water-type, Milotic had even greater stamina advantages than Gyarados.
It already possessed tremendous endurance—and when paired with Aqua Ring's continuous recovery,
Life Dew, which restored HP based on maximum HP,
and Recover, which also restored a large portion of its maximum stamina—
Even without considering damage output or control moves,
just its sheer bulk and absurd recovery power alone could mentally break opponents.
Of course, in Ash's long-term training plan, once Feebas evolved into Milotic, although it wouldn't be able to Mega Evolve like Gyarados, its overall capabilities would still be terrifyingly strong.
Still, even with all that brilliance, there remained one regret that Ash simply couldn't let go of.
"Sigh… why is it that after Feebas evolves into Milotic, its Abilities—Swift Swim and Adaptability—also change into Marvel Scale / Competitive, or Cute Charm?"
"Those are great Abilities too… but I really, really prefer Swift Swim, the one that doubles Speed in the rain."
Ash couldn't help but complain.
"Seriously… Valor, Lumina—you two are shiny Pokémon, aren't you?
Aside from better talent than your peers, couldn't you have a few extra perks?"
"Like keeping Swift Swim after evolution or something…"
"I'm not even asking for both Abilities to be perfectly inherited.
Just let Swift Swim stay—that alone would make me completely satisfied."
Spinning his pen between his fingers, Ash leaned over the desk, revising and refining the training plans for his Pokémon.
He cast a resentful, melancholy glance toward the nearby water basin—
where Magikarp and Feebas were happily swimming back and forth, carefree and energetic.
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