Traversing the Zubat-infested caverns of Mt. Moon is a bit rubbish in practice, but the premise behind their existence is fascinating. Strange Moon Stones are scattered across its rock-laden floors, chunks of coagulated space dust imbued with properties that react with certain kinds of the mysterious and magical creatures we know as Pokemon. Whether it’s Jigglypuff, Clefairy, Nidorina, or Nidorino, Moon Stones are a necessary item for helping your favourite ‘mons achieve their full potential.
The issue is that this item - this rare, mystical, and deeply intriguing rock - only works with a grand total of six Pokemon out of what, 898? That’s a bit silly, isn’t it? A curious magic item from space that can’t be purchased in the majority of mainline games and is worthless in most of them, difficult to acquire and usually found in fascinating places like Meteor Falls and Mt. Coronet… let’s make it next to useless. Brilliant.
The full list of Moon Stone Pokemon and their respective evolutions in the mainline series at the time of writing is as follows:
- Nidorina evolves into Nidoqueen
- Nidorino evolves into Nidoking
- Jigglypuff evolves into Wigglytuff
- Clefairy evolves into Clefable
- Skitty evolves into Delcatty
- Munna evolves into Musharna
I’m sorry, but what? Clefairy 100 percent makes sense here, and Clefable is my favourite Pokemon out of all of the above. The rest, however, make barely any sense. Skitty and Delcatty are just normal cats - why on earth have they got a Moon Stone connection when Eevee doesn’t? Nidorina and Nidorino are Poison types that evolve into Poison and Ground types - how unbelievably cosmic. At least Munna and Musharna are Psychic, which adds at least some kind of mysticality to the evolutionary chain, while Jigglypuff and Wigglytuff’s assumption of the Fairy type post-Gen 6 makes the Moon Stone association somewhat believable. Skitty and Delcatty, though? And the Nidoran family? No way.
You’d think the Moon Stone would have far more to do with Dark-types - you know, dogs and dinos who quite literally howl at the moon. I’d have liked to see a Moon and Sun Stone disparity among more mysterious types like Fairy, Psychic, and Ghost, too, perhaps being assigned based on benevolence vs malevolence or tranquility vs noise. I mean, speaking of tranquility, how cool would it be for Moon Stones to acknowledge the literal Sea of Tranquility on the Moon? For those unacquainted with this sea, it’s actually a lunar mare, meaning it has no water - surely that could be put to excellent use given the unique types, habitats, and physiologies of Pokemon?
It’s worth noting that the Sun Stone can only be used on six ‘mons as well - Gloom evolves into Bellossom, Sunkern evolves into Sunflora, Cottonee evolves into Whimsicott, Petilil evolves into Lilligant, and Helioptile evolves into Heliolisk. It’s much less intriguing to me, though - less mysterious. Also plant-based ‘mons and a reptile who turns into an electric basilisk are a bit more sunny than a housecat is moonlike - yeah, they might be nocturnal, but you don’t see the tabby cat down the road basking in lunar solace the same way a bearded dragon will go literally 12 hours without moving beneath a decent heat lamp.
If there’s one thing I’d like retconned into Pokemon lore, it would be to make more ‘mons affiliated with stones. The core ones like Water, Fire, Electric, and Leaf have enough already, but Ice could use a few more. I never much cared for Shiny or Dusk stones, but hey - Moon, and potentially Sun? Come on Game Freak. Lycanroc Midnight Form only evolves from Rockruff if it’s in Pokemon Moon or Ultra Moon? Give me a break. You’ve got a perfect item for that already, which doesn’t further incentivize people to buy what’s essentially the same game twice.