Pokémon Of The Day

The Pokémon of April 28th, 2025 is…

#194 Wooper

“Wooper (Japanese: ウパー Upah) is a dual-type Water/Ground Pokémon introduced in Generation II.

It evolves into Quagsire starting at level 20.

In Paldea, Wooper has a dual-type Poison/Ground regional form. Paldean Wooper evolves into Clodsire starting at level 20.

Wooper is a mostly blue, amphibious Pokémon that resembles an upright, armless axolotl. Wooper’s head is large compared to its body, and it has small, round, black eyes. It has purple, branching gills on either side of its head; the males have more branches in its gills than the females. Wooper stands on two small, round feet, and it has a large, thick tail. On its belly are dark blue curved markings.

It is implied in the Pokémon Journeys: The Series episode The Sinnoh Iceberg Race! that Wooper is a dull-witted Pokémon oblivious to its surroundings. Wooper lives in cold water most of the time. When sleeping, it partially buries itself in the mud at the bottom. It will occasionally leave the water when the air cools in the evening to search for food along the shore. While walking on land, it coats its body with a slimy, toxic film that keeps its skin from dehydrating and insulates against the cold. The film causes a shooting pain if touched barehanded. It is a timid Pokémon and tends to stay close to Quagsire. Arbok is a natural predator of Wooper. As shown in Pokémon Sleep, Wooper tends to bury half its body in the mud at the bottom of the water to sleep. When Wooper also does this while sleeping on land. By sleeping in the mud on land, Wooper can keep its skin wet and prevent dehydration.

Wooper appears to be based on a larval salamander, which has a flat tail and feathery, external gills. Many species of salamanders are known for their poisonous skin, which may be referenced in Wooper’s Pokédex entries and Paldean Wooper’s design. Wooper’s Shiny sprite gives it a similar coloration to that of albino, leucistic, and flavistic color mutants, or an axolotl, a species of salamander that keeps its gills and remains in the water for all of its life because it never develops lungs.

Paldean Wooper’s gills make the shape of a skull and crossbones, a hazard symbol used as a warning for poisonous substances. These bone-shaped gills, combined with Paldean Wooper’s brown coloration, rib-like pattern on its chest, and the fact that it is found in a region inspired by the Iberian peninsula, together may be a direct reference to the Iberian ribbed newt. This salamander species is known for puncturing its poison-coated ribs through its skin as a defense mechanism, much like how Paldean Wooper is able to secrete poison out of its bone-shaped gills. Paldean Wooper may also be inspired by mudskippers, which are fish that are capable of living outside of water.

Alternatively, the fact that Paldean Wooper was forced out of its ancient water habitat may be a reference to the ecological issues facing the axolotl in the wild, following the destruction of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan and the draining of Lake Texcoco.”-Bulbapedia.