Shelgon, national pokedex number 372, is a Pokemon introduced during the third generation of main series Pokemon video games (Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald) and the associated anime series, where its first onscreen appearance was the episode Let Bagons Be Bagons.
Shelgon is a Dragon type pokemon, meaning it has elemental weakness to Ice, Fairy, and other Dragon types, and it has natural resistance to Fire, Grass, Electric, and Water types. Shelgon is a first stage evolution, having evolved from Bagon, and evolving into Salamence.
Shelgon's stats are defensively oriented overall, with a strong bias toward physical defense (that which works best against melee attacks) rather than special defense (that which works best against ranged attacks). It has very low speed, but once it evolves into Salamence, it gains a significant speed boost.
Shelgon resembles a boulder or an insect pupa in some regards, having a nearly spherical body, with only its four legs sticking out, and its eyes glowing visibly from inside its shell.
Shelgon (and its pre-evolution Bagon) is a moderately difficult pokemon to train, due to it having a limited pool of moves it can use in combat, prior to reaching level 25, when it learns Crunch, a powerful Dark type move which makes good use of its high attack stat. It then learns Dragon Claw at level 29, a strong Dragon type move which benefits from "Same Type Attack Bonus," or STAB, which enhances the power of an attack that matches the user's elemental type. Bagon evolves into Shelgon at level 30, and Shelgon doesn't evolve to Salamence until level 50, so a great deal of time is spent with these two moves being the most powerful options in Shelgon's arsenal; players new to the games are likely to find this frustrating, although the raw power of Salamence is worth the wait. Due to the ability to mega evolve, introduced in generation six, Salamence is a brutal powerhouse who only becomes more powerful when it transforms into Mega Salamence mid-battle.
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