Sneasel is a bipedal Pokémon which vaguely resembles a weasel. Its body is predominantly black, but it possesses bright red feather-like growths on its left ear and lower back. Its most striking features are the two retractable claws on its front and back paws. It also has distinctive yellow markings on its face and chest. Its unusual facial markings, which resemble eyelashes, are found on both males and females; these markings strongly resemble the makeup worn by the primary character in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange.
Gender differences
A female has a shorter red feather on its head than a male.
Special abilities
Sneasel normally attack by using claw-based moves; such as Slash or Metal Claw. Sneasel are also capable of learning punching moves; like Ice Punch or Focus Punch. Since Sneasel bears traits of a Dark-type Pokémon, it can learn certain attacks that come with very disruptive effects; such as stealing an opponent's hold item (Thief), or preventing foes from using the same attack twice in a row (Torment). Sneasel is a very agile Pokémon, making it a tough target to hit.
Sneasel's signature move is Beat Up, an attack that summons its team-mates to pummel a foe.
Behavior
Sneasel are notoriously vicious Pokémon, whom is perfectly capable of using its impressive claws to do substantial amounts of damage. Its nasty temperament can be seen in Hail to the Chef when it sabotaged Meowth's food, nearly leading to a clash of claws. Sneasel are cunning, and have developed many strategies to capture its prey. In addition to being formidable weapons, their claws are also useful tools and enable them to climb trees.
Sneasel also made an appearance in Hail to the Chef under the ownership of Rhoda, a girl that lives outside of Saffron City who was competing with her sister, who owned a Mr. Mime, for the ownership of her father's restaurant.
Sneasel's most predominant role is as one of Silver's Pokémon, presumably his first Pokémon as it was the Pokémon he used during his training under Pryce.
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In Sneasel's Gold and Silver sprite artwork, its fur is brown and its "feathers" are colored blue instead of pink. This mistake was corrected in Crystal's sprite. The shiny sprites, however, are properly colored.
In Gold and Silver, Sneasel's front sprites are the same in both versions. There are very few other Pokémon like this, with some including Spinarak and Ariados. Strangely, these Pokémon all have a relation to the fact that they can only be found in the wild at night.
Sneasel was known in Generations II and III for having no useful STAB move, as both Dark and Ice were special-based types at the time, and Sneasel has a very low Special Attack stat. This problem no longer exists in Generation IV, as now Sneasel and Weavile have useful physical STAB moves such as Ice Punch, Ice Shard, and Pursuit.
Origin
It may be based on weasels, but it also seems to draw inspiration from 鎌鼬 kamaitachi, weasel demons with sickles on their front legs.
Name origin
Sneasel's name is a combination of sneaky and weasel. The name is pronounced as "sneezele", which possibly refers to "sniffle", "the sniffles", "sneeze", or "sneezing", resulting from a bad cold, hence this Pokémon is a Dark/Ice type. Some colds/sicknesses can be brought on by unprotected exposure to very cold weather. Sneasel's Japanese name may come from 潜入 sennyū, sneaking in, and 鼬 yū, an alternate reading of itachi, or weasel.
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 Sneasel images on Bulbagarden Archives.
