Machamp is a bipedal Pokémon and is notable for being extremely muscled and having four arms. Its skin color is bluish-gray and it has red colored eyes. On its head, there are three ridges right above its eyes, which are also right above its frog-like mouth. It has two arms on each side of its body, a pair located where its arms were in its pre-evolved form, and another pair directly above that attaches on the top of the shoulder. It wears a leg-less black girdle along with the power-save belt that it wore as a Machoke. Its legs are also quite muscled and its feet only have two toes.
Gender differences
None.
Special abilities
It punches extremely fast and is known to have mastered every form of martial arts. The maximum amount of punches they can throw in a few seconds is approximately one thousand. Its attacks send foes flying over the horizon. With only one hand, it can move a mountain. It can hit from a multitude of angles, due to its four arms. However, it has bad dexterity, and cannot handle delicate work without its arms getting tangled. They can also learn Template:Type2 moves such as Flamethrower and Fire Blast, despite being mainly physical attackers.
Behavior
Trying to do any work requiring care and dexterity causes Machamp's arms to get tangled. Machamp tends to leap into action before it thinks.
Morrison battled against a Machamp belonging to a very muscular Trainer named Gavin during the Hoenn League in From Brags to Riches. Morrison's Gligar managed to defeat Gavin's Machamp.
Blue has a Machamp that evolved when it was under Red's ownership, reflecting Machoke's evolution being triggered by trade. It was later seen in Volume 3, fighting Red's Snorlax at Indigo Plateau, blocking its attacks and even managing to lift its huge bulk, then proceeding to hurl it straight into the arena floor and then nearly knocking it out of bounds. Ultimately, Machamp was beaten after Snorlax came back with an aerial Double-Edge, its health level reduced to a third. Blue states he doesn't even need to look at his Pokédex to see its health level (as included was also a Toxic attack, and calls it back to his ball.
Two years later, Bruno has a Machamp that, unlike all other Machoke who evolve from trade in this manga, kept on its power-absorbing belt to be used later, and with this power it defeats Red's Poli before Vee defeats it as a Jolteon using Pin Missile. It briefly returns in the HeartGold & SoulSilver arc to participate in a Pokéathlon match against Gold.
Machamp was also one of the Pokémon used by Chuck against Blue's Rhydon in Volume 13.
Blue later brings Machamp to the Sevii Islands in Volume 23, in which Machamp makes extremely short work of Red's Snorlax during the training session on Two Island with a combination of Seismic Toss and Low Kick, the latter targeting Snorlax's extremely heavy weight, as Blue always deemed the attack perfect for the megaton beast.
In Challenge at Tamamushi University!, Shū battles a Machamp at Celadon University's campus hospital to prevent it from destroying the entire building.
Machamp has the power to hurl anything aside. However, trying to do any work requiring care and dexterity causes its arms to get tangled. This Pokémon tends to leap into action before it thinks.
Machamp is known as the Pokémon that has mastered every kind of martial arts. If it grabs hold of the foe with its four arms, the battle is all but over. The hapless foe is thrown far over the horizon.
Machamp is one of the four Pokémon having a total of four arms. The others are Graveler, Ledian, and Cofagrigus.
In Pokémon Yellow, a NPC will trade a Machoke for Cubone, which will then evolve to Machamp. This is one of four times an NPC trade will result in an evolution in a game released outside of Japan.
If the player uses breeding in a Generation II game to acquire a Level 5 Cubone and trades it to Pokémon Yellow, the player can then trade it to the NPC and acquire a legal level 5 Machamp.
Despite being the Superpower Pokémon, Machamp could not learn the move itself until Pokémon Platinum. It should also be noted that Superpower is not the same name of the attack in the Japanese releases.
It has, however, always been able to learn the move Strength, which shares its Japanese name with Machamp's species name.
Machamp could be seen as a counterpart to Alakazam. They are both the last stage of a three-part evolutionary family, both were introduced in Generation I, they reach their final stage by trading, and they both have a 75% male gender ratio. Also, Alakazam excels at the Special Attack stat, while Machamp excels at Attack.
Machamp also can be seen as a counterpart to Conkeldurr evolutionary line. Both of them are Template:Type2 Pokémon whose Attack is their highest stat. They both have below average speed. They share the same base stat total. They both have same gender ratio, they both have three-evolutionary stages, and they both reach their respective final-evolutionary stage through trading.
From Generation II onwards, Machamp cannot learn Light Screen via TM, though it can be learned as an egg move.
All of Machamp's sprites in Generation III are erroneously missing its power-save belt.
Origin
Machamp appears to be based on a bodybuilder or wrestler. Seeing as it has more than two arms and blue skin, Machamp might also be based on a Hindu god, perhaps Shiva or Vishnu.
Name origin
Machamp's name may be a combination of champion and macho, which is Spanish for overly masculine or chauvinist. Macho has come to mean tough or masculine in English. Unlike Mr. Mime, this is reflected in the gender distribution, as 75% of all Machamp are male. Kairiky is a corruption of 怪力 kairiki, superhuman strength. It is worth noting that kairiki is the Japanese name of Strength. It could also be a pun on "I'm a champ."
This Pokémon article is part of Project Pokédex, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on each Pokémon species, as well as Pokémon groups and forms.
For other sprites and images, please see Machamp images on Bulbagarden Archives.
