Snorlax Pokémon

One of the more famous Pokemon of the original 151 in generation one, Snorlax is famously known for blocking your path in the original games. With its debut in the original games, you could only catch one, making Snorlax a desirable and rare catch for Pokemon trainers. This large Pokemon enjoys sleeping, eating, and generally does not wish to be disturbed making it a popular pick among fans of the series. There is a lot to love about Snorlax, and this guide will show you the reasons why.

About Snorlax

While Snorlax was introduced in the original main series, its pre-evolution Munchlax was introduced much later in generation 4. Many of Snorlax’s depictions show him lazing about and sleeping in the player’s path. It is a huge Pokemon, capable of standing on its two feet, and is mostly composed of its huge belly. While its huge size can be intimidating, Snorlax is incredibly docile and the anime shows children bouncing on its belly without it seeming disturbed. A lot of players are drawn to Snorlax’s relaxed attitude. Despite its docile nature, Snorlax is capable of packing quite the punch and its statline can provide some interesting strategies to use in-game.

Snorlax Base Stats

Appearance of Snorlax

Snorlax is a large bipedal Pokemon with 5 claws on its hands and 3 larger claws on its feet. It has a teal hide and a cream-colored face, belly, and feet. The most distinctive characteristic of Snorlax is certainly its huge size and belly. It has two pointed ears and its eyes hardly open. Snorlax’s mouth is capable of eating trees, rocks, and other unbelievable amounts of food, it typically shows only two pointed teeth. For the most part, it always appears to be sleeping or eating, so much so that it is hard to imagine Snorlax in any other state. In fact, one of its most iconic appearances is when it is blocking the path on route 12 in Pokemon Red/Blue.

Behavior of Snorlax

As mentioned already, Snorlax spends most of its time lazing about, sleeping or eating. It is rarely shown to be fighting unless otherwise provoked. When it does wake up, it will eat an enormous amount of food before falling back asleep. In fact, Snorlax can even eat while sleeping. The Pokedex entry for Snorlax even labels it as the “Sleeping Pokemon” as it is well known for its consistent hibernating behavior. In the game, you can use Snorlax as a tank or a heavy hitter. Its flexibility makes it difficult to read in competitive play.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Snorlax has one of the best health pools in the game. On top of this, it has access to moves like rest and sleep talk making it even more difficult to get through Snorlax’s thick health pool. It is one of the few Pokemon that can take advantage of being put to sleep rather than being encumbered by it. You can design a strategy that keeps Snorlax at high health while still being able to deal damage. On top of this, if you know the enemy player is trying to abuse sleep effects, you can bring Snorlax to counteract this strategy. While Snorlax is a solid, versatile pick for your teams, remember that he is very slow and will struggle to keep up with high-speed physical attackers. Also since Snorlax is one of the heaviest Pokemon in the game, certain moves will deal more damage and Snorlax will take more damage. Moves like heavy slam can help Snorlax deal damage, while moves like low kick will deal staggering amounts of damage to Snorlax.

Snorlax Evolutions

Mega Snorlax

Mega Snorlax unfortunately does not exist in the game. There is a gigantimax Snorlax which is not the same as Mega Snorlax. The key difference between a gigantimax and mega evolutions is that gigantimax only lasts for 3 turns and mega Snorlax would require an item. In this case, it is beneficial that Snorlax comes with a gigantimax form instead of a mega evolution as you would have to sacrifice the held item for a Snorlaxium item or something of the sort. Luckily, the game keeps it simple and the Pokemon famous for holding leftovers has a gigantimax form rather than a mega evolution. You can expect a Pokemon like Snorlax to benefit from being a gigantimax Pokemon rather than a mega Snorlax.

Shiny Snorlax

Like all shiny Pokemon, you can expect to get a shiny Snorlax 1/8192 in generations 2-5, and generations 6-8 have a 1/4096 chance. Shiny Snorlax is a darker shade of blue for his hide and his belly stays a similar color. Of course, you get the star sparkles of regular shiny Pokemon to go along with shiny Snorlax. If you want to catch a shiny Snorlax in the main games, ensure that you save before waking up your Snorlax and then resetting if the Snorlax is not shiny. You can repeat this as many times as you can stomach to try and get shiny Snorlax for yourself.

Best Moveset

In competitive Pokemon battles, you will most certainly use Snorlax as a special wall Pokemon. You will want to max out special defense, nearly maxed defense, and the rest of the EVs into health. To make the best use out of this stat line, you can expect most players running Snorlax to have moves like a curse, body slam, rest, and earthquake. Although it is not uncommon to run into Snorlax strategies using sleep talk, frustration, rest, and counter. The agreed-upon moveset is a Snorlax curse set.

Curse on a normal type Pokemon raises their attack and defense while lowering their speed. Sacrificing Snorlax’s worst stat for better attack and defense stats is a good setup move to consider.

How to Catch Snorlax in Pokemon Go

You can expect to catch Snorlax in the wild for Pokemon Go. You have the best odds during a partly cloudy day, and once you find a Snorlax in an area, you can expect more to spawn in that location as well. There may also be Snorlax raids available as Pokemon Go is constantly swapping out the Pokemon available in raids. Currently, there are no Snorlaxes in rotation, however, it is not far from the realm of possibility. Consider checking online forums for Pokemon Go players in your area for sightings of Snorlaxes near you. You may be able to crowdsource a common spawn location of Snorlax in your area.

Trivia

1. Snorlax is over 1,000 pounds and can eat up to 900 pounds of food before it goes back to sleep again.
2. The design of Snorlax can be interpreted to be based loosely on sleeping bears.
3. The name Snorlax is a combination of the words snore and lax/relax.

FAQs

Q. What is Snorlax’s hidden ability?

Snorlax’s hidden ability is glutton. This ability makes it so a held berry that would normally be triggered below 25% is triggered below 50% instead. You can get some surprise value out of giving Snorlax an aguav berry that can help you heal more in an instant than leftovers can provide.

Q. Why does Snorlax sleep so much?

Snorlax seems to be loosely based on bears, and bears are known to hibernate throughout the winter. Also since Snorlax eats and sleeps so much, it can be inferred that Snorlax is showing signs of hibernating. The Pokedex states that Snorlax needs to eat upwards of 900 pounds of food before it will sleep again, anything that eats 9/10ths of its body weight would probably be sleepy afterward.

Q. Is Snorlax a Cat or a Bear?

While Snorlax has cat-like ears, it makes more sense for Snorlax to be modeled after a bear. Its behavior is more akin to bears, but cats are also known to sleep for long periods of time. Regardless, if we take size into account, it is difficult to consider that Snorlax is more closely resembling cats than bears. Since its sleeping patterns are more akin to hibernating rather than sleeping 18 hours a day, Snorlax is more likely a bear.

Conclusion

Congratulations, you now know what to expect out of a crowd favorite in Pokemon. Snorlax is a relaxed and docile Pokemon that can be utilized in a variety of ways. You can expect a lot out of this massive Pokemon. Its popularity comes from its rarity and also its desirable lifestyle. A lot of players find themselves drawn to Snorlax’s calm and relaxed nature. There is a lot to love about this Pokemon and kudos to Nintendo for finding a way to design a Pokemon that is lazy, eats all day, and sleeps for most of its life looks so adorable.