Piplup bears semblance to a penguin chick. It has yellow feet and a light-blue body. There are two white spots on its chest that seem to resemble buttons on a suit. It also appears to have a blue cape. It has a circular, blue head with white circles around its eyes and a small, yellow beak. The light blue mark between its eyes above the beak resembles a small crown.
Gender differences
None.
Special abilities
Piplup mainly know how to use Water attacks such as Bubble, but they can also learn pecking moves.
Behavior
Piplup have a large sense of self-pride. Because of this, a Piplup has a hard time accepting food from humans, and don't like it when someone tries to help them. Piplup is a poor walker, and often falls down. Its pride, however, makes it puff up its chest without a care. It is a skilled swimmer, diving for over ten minutes to hunt. In the anime, it can sometimes fly short distances, despite penguins not being able to fly.
Habitat
Piplup live along the sea shore in colder climates. However, Piplup are quite rare and they're usually given out by Professor Rowan to new Pokémon Trainers in the Sinnoh region.
Dawn began her journey in Sinnoh with a Piplup. In Following A Maiden's Voyage!, Piplup and the starter Chimchar got into a fight over their food, with Piplup causing chaos by using BubbleBeam on the interior of Professor Rowan's lab in pursuit of Chimchar. The two escape, and Dawn is given the task of finding them. She finds Piplup, and the two narrowly escape an Ariados attack. Back at Rowan's lab, Chimchar having been found by Rowan's Staraptor, Dawn chooses Piplup.
Hareta randomly selects Piplup to battle the enraged Onix in the first chapter. After their first encounter with Onix, Hareta chooses Piplup as his first Pokémon. Piplup is originally disobedient to Hareta, but listens to him in order to defeat the Onix in their second battle.
On being released from a Poké Ball, Piplup slides along the stage using Surf. Anyone caught in it will be pushed until Piplup disappears, or pushes the character off the stage. Piplup will keep using Surf even when off the stage.
Game data
Pokédex entries
This Pokémon was unavailable prior to Generation IV.
Piplup is the only Water-type starter Pokémon that cannot learn Water Gun.
Piplup is the second starter Pokémon based on a bird, the first being Torchic. Coincidentally, neither evolve into a Template:Type2, as both are based on flightless birds.
Piplup is the most selected Sinnoh starter in the anime. It has been the starter of Dawn, Kenny, and Tyler.
Piplup and its evolution family are the only Pokémon that learn Drill Peck that are not part Template:Type2.
They are also the only ones that were not introduced in Generation I to learn Drill Peck by level up.
Origin
Piplup is based on a baby penguin or a Blue penguin.
Name origin
Piplup may be derived from "Pip", a stage of growth in baby birds immediately before they hatch from the eggshell, and possibly "plop" or "plup", the sound of hitting the water.
Most likely a play on 'plip plop', the sound of falling rain in puddles.
Pochama may be derived from 坊っちゃま botchama, meaning child, with the P perhaps coming from penguin. It may also be based on ぽちゃぽちゃ pochapocha, which means either splashing in water or having a plump appearance. Alternatively, it may be derived from おぼっちゃま obotchama, a term that refers to children with wealthy parents.
In other languages
German: Plinfa - From plip (the sound of something small hitting a water surface) and infant.
French: Tiplouf - From petit (little) and plouf (the sound of something falling into the water).
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 Piplup images on Bulbagarden Archives.
