Slowbro is a bipedal, pink Pokémon with a tan, striped belly and a rounded, tan muzzle. It has large, vacant eyes, curled ears, and two small pointed teeth protruding from its upper jaw. It has three clawed fingers on its hands and two clawed toes on its feet. There is a Shellder attached to its tail. This Shellder has a gray, spiral shell with darker gray spots and small, triangular eyes near the base. There are several spikes across the surface of the Shellder, and it holds onto Slowbro with many sharp teeth. Shellder developed its spiral form in an effort to suck more sweetness out of Slowbro's tail. If its tail or the Shellder attached to it is broken off, Slowbro will revert to its unevolved form, Slowpoke.
Slowbro has lost the capability to feel pain due to the Shellder's poison. While typically lazy and unintelligent, Slowbro apparently becomes inspired when the Shellder bites down on its tail. While it is capable of unleashing powerful psychic attacks, Slowbro is typically rather peaceful and usually prefers not to fight. Because it can no longer fish using its tail, it instead swims to catch its prey and allows the Shellder to feed on its leftover scraps. Slowbro tends to live near ponds, lakes, and seashores.
When Slowbro Mega Evolves, it becomes engulfed by the Shellder so that only its head, arms, and white-tipped tail are visible. Its head pokes out of the mouth of the Shellder and is surrounded by Shellder's now larger teeth. The spiral Shellder now has an opening at its tip, allowing the tail of Slowbro to stick out. Mega Slowbro balances on its tail due to its legs being engulfed. It can move by bouncing, using its tail as a spring. The spikes on the Shellder are now reduced to four on the bottom section of its body and the dark spots only visible on its middle section. Mega Slowbro's energy has gathered into Shellder, which has increased its hardness. This allows it to act as armor so hard that nothing can scratch it. Slowpoke is virtually unchanged, but it gains some power and motivation from Shellder's digestive fluids.
In Galar, Galarian Slowbro's appearance is due to Shellder biting its arm instead of its tail, causing a chemical reaction with the consumed Galarica spices within its body. The Shellder attached to its arm resembles the Shellder tail from its Kantonian counterpart but smaller with a purple tip shaped like a stinger and even lacks pupils. It has a slight color difference with purple spots on its forehead. Its mouth and paws are also purple, while its belly remains gray.
Galarian Slowbro are considered highly dangerous due to it indiscriminately attacking its surroundings; the reason for which is due to Shellder sometimes unconsciously biting down hard on its arm. While normally zoned out, its expression will quickly change when facing a strong opponent due to the stimulus jolt from its nervous system. Galarian Slowbro can move with speed that puts the quickest of known reflexes to shame in order to fire a liquid poison shot from Shellder's tip.[1]Slowbro releases the poison liquid by grabbing Shellder's tongue who launches it.
In Enlighten Up!, a Slowbro evolved from a Slowpoke. Afterwards, it defeated Team Rocket with Confusion and then used the same attack to return a giant, gold Slowpoke statue that Team Rocket had attempted to steal.
In Ash vs. Gary, Ashcaught a giant Slowpoke. He later traded it to Gary Oak for a photo of his sister May. After this, they found out that Slowpoke had evolved into a Slowbro.
In Playing Horsea, Lorelei owns multiple Slowbro for her Ice-type army. With the Shellder clamped onto its tail, Lorelei explains that her Slowbro has sharpened senses and is capable of looking in all directions, thanks to the extra pair of eyes, allowing it to discover Green's ploy using Horsea.
Slowbro's tail has a Shellder firmly attached with a bite. As a result, the tail can't be used for fishing anymore. This causes Slowbro to grudgingly swim and catch prey instead.
Its tail has a Shellder firmly attached with a bite. As a result, the tail can't be used for fishing anymore. This forces it to reluctantly swim and catch prey.
Slowbro's tail has a Shellder firmly attached with a bite. As a result, the tail can't be used for fishing anymore. This causes Slowbro to grudgingly swim and catch prey instead.
Despite it being a commonly known and accepted fact that Shellder triggers its evolution, mentioned in most of its Pokédex entries, Slowbro's evolution from Slowpoke has nothing to do with Shellder in the core series, unlike how the evolution of Mantyke requires a Remoraid.
Slowbro's tail has an attached Shellder - the pre-evolved form of Cloyster - which grows to engulf it during Mega Evolution. This may have been an intended parallel.
Mega Slowbro also has the highest base Defense stat of all Psychic-type Pokémon.
Slowbro's Pokédex entries state that if the Shellder is removed, it will revert to its Slowpoke form.
Many Pokémon are noted to evolve by two or more Pokémon combining, such as Metang being formed by two Beldum. However, the anime does not show this and simply spawns the second Pokémon out of nowhere: an example is Morrison's Beldum, which simply evolved into Metang without the need of joining to another Beldum. The evolution of Slowpoke into Slowbro or Slowking is the only time that evolution by two Pokémon physically merging is shown.
Slowbro is the only Pokémon to have both a Mega Evolution and a regional form. however, his galarian form can't mega Evolve due to the lack of key stones and Slowbronite in pokemon sword and shield.
Slowbro's shell and lifestyle are somewhat similar to hermit crabs, though it is physically similar to giant otters, giant salamanders, and hippopotamuses. Slowbro's appearance may also be a reference to the mythical sazae-oni, a magical sea demon of Japanese folklore distinguished by its spiny "sazae" or "turban shaped" snail shell.
Its parasitic relationship with Shellder may be inspired by leeches. Interestingly enough, Slowbro is known as the Hermit Crab Pokémon and many real-world parasites, including leeches, often target crabs.
Galarian Slowbro's Poison-type might draw inspiration from cone snails, which have cone-shaped shells and are highly venomous. The shell's position on Slowbro's arm and squirting liquid from the tip could be an imitation of arm cannons in fictional media.
Name origin
Slowbro is a combination of slow and bro (short for brother). It may just be used in a general sense, or it could refer to the brotherly/symbiotic relationship shared by the combined form of Slowpoke and Shellder.
Yadoran may be taken to mean 宿らん (to not lodge/dwell). It may also reference 宿借り yadokari (hermit crab) or 宿主 yadonushi ([parasitic] host).
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.
Gold Leaf (100%)
King's Rock (2%)
Slowbronite (100%)
For other sprites and images, please see Slowbro images on the Bulbagarden Archives.
