Rayquaza
is a mythical creature from the
Pokémon franchise. It is the third of a trio of
legendary Pokémon known by fans as the Trinity, alongside
Kyogre and
Groudon, and it represents the
Pokémon Emerald game, for it is featured on the game's cover art. As Kyogre's role in the Trinity is to be the Pokémon of the sea, and Groudon's role is the Pokémon of the land, it is safe to assume that Rayquaza is the Pokémon of the sky. And since Groudon can also represent fire, then it could be said that the three Pokémon represent the four
classical elements of fire, earth, wind and water.
Rayquaza's name is a derivation of the words
ray and
quasar, the former of which make sense as Rayquaza lives under the influence of solar phenomena such as the
rays of the
Sun. The derivation from the word
quasar is likely either a misunderstanding of what a quasar really is, or giving the idea of a cosmic origin. It would appear if Groudon and Kyogre were ever to start fighting, and to break up the feud.
Rayquaza is based on the Chinese
Dragon and the
Ziz. Rayquaza looks like a giant green snake with shiny arms, no legs, black eyes, four horns on its head, black markings on its body, a pair of rudder-like wings and spines on its tail which ends in a fishlike point.
Rayquaza resides within the ozone layer of the earth and has lived up there for hundreds of millions of years without ever coming down. To those who have glimpsed and observed it from the surface of the planet, it has always appeared to be a zooming meteor. Rayquaza feeds on water and particles in the earth's atmosphere. Due to its extreme age and living conditions under the rays of the Sun, Rayquaza has been tempered to wield incredible power. Some people even think that Rayquaza is the strongest Pokémon that has ever lived, much stronger than the almighty
Mewtwo and
Mew. (Indeed, Rayquaza is Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald's equivalent to Mewtwo.) But that is not possible since Mew is the ancestor of all Pokémon.
Rayquaza is only available in
Pokémon Ruby,
Pokémon Sapphire, and
Pokémon Emerald, at the top, sixth floor of the Sky Pillar.
In Pokémon Emerald, Rayquaza is seen in a series of cutscenes. Once the player progresses past the Magma and Aqua Hideout, Kyogre and Groudon wake up and start fighting because of the Blue and Red Orbs controlling them. The player must journey up the Sky Pillar, where encountering Rayquaza causes it to fly off, and another series of cutscenes appear. Then Rayquaza returns to the Sky Pillar, available for capture without beating the Elite Four, but Groudon and Kyogre are not available for capture until the Elite Four are beaten.
Rayquaza is an extremely fearsome offensive force among legendary Pokémon. Its base attack and special attack stats are extremely high, and it also has good defenses, at the cost of a lower speed rating. Rayquaza can learn many strong moves, including Dragon Claw, Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, Rest, Flamethrower, Fire Blast, Earthquake, Solarbeam, Extremespeed, Blizzard, and Hyper Beam. Rayquaza also has the unique Air Lock ability, which means that even in rain, Water moves used against it do not receive a damage boost, and Thunder does not gain accuracy. In areas like the
Pokémon Colosseum's LV 100 cups and other battles, it is a common choice in a player's team because of its offensive talent. However, due to Rayquaza's low speed, it could end up being severely damaged or even knocked out by an Ice-type attack before its turn arrives. As a Dragon and Flying type, it is as vulnerable to an Ice Beam attack as
Dragonite and
Salamence. This lack of speed could be countered by using Dragon Dance if the player is not up against a Pokémon capable of learning attacks super-effective against Rayquaza, subsequently making Rayquaza an extremely powerful "sweeper": that is, a Pokémon so powerful, it can defeat several others before finally being knocked out itself, possibly even single-handedly defeating an entire 6-member party.
Rayquaza is featured in the seventh
Pokémon movie,
Destiny Deoxys. Four years prior to the events of the movie, Rayquaza is nearly injured in the ozone layer by the passage of the meteor containing the essence of
Deoxys. Once the alien Pokémon awakens on ground, Rayquaza defeats it by seemingly blasting it out of existence. The legendary Pokémon returns four years later to
LaRousse City, sensing that Deoxys has revived itself there, and it wages a fierce battle with Deoxys and its clone in the airspace of the city to minimize damage, but still causing massive destruction.
After Deoxys ends up finding what it had been searching for, it attempts to beat Rayquaza into submission, but the security system of the city goes haywire, and suddenly every human and Pokémon in the area is in jeopardy of being swarmed to death by security cubes. Rayquaza is shielded from the ensuing flood of cubes by the good Deoxys until the end, when
Ash manages to shut down the system. Rayquaza realizes that Deoxys isn't its enemy, so it returns to the ozone layer in the sky while Deoxys returns to outer space.
Rayquaza has appeared eight times in the Pokémon card game, all as Basic, Colorless Pokémon except when otherwise stated:
EX Dragon (as Rayquaza EX)
EX DeoxysEX Deoxys (as Rayquaza EX)
EX Deoxys (as Rayquaza "star")
EX EmeraldEX Delta Species(as a Steel/Lightning dual type)
EX Holon Phantoms (as a Steel/Water dual type)
EX Holon Phantoms (as a Fire type)
Like most Dragon-type Pokémon, Rayquaza's TCG attacks require mixed elements of Energy, in this case Fire and Lightning.
*The following games and their instruction manuals:
Pokémon Red,
Green, and
Blue;
Pokémon Yellow;
Pokémon Stadium and
Pokémon Stadium 2;
Pokémon Gold,
Silver, and
Crystal;
Pokémon Ruby,
Sapphire, and
Emerald;
Pokémon FireRed and
LeafGreen;
Pokémon Colosseum and
Pokémon XD: Gale of DarknessPublications
*Barbo, Maria. The Official Pokémon Handbook. Scholastic Publishing, 1999. ISBN 0439154049.
*Loe, Casey, ed. Pokémon Special Pikachu Edition Official Perfect Guide. Sunnydale, CA: Empire 21 Publishing, 1999. ISBN 130206151.
*Nintendo Power. Official Nintendo Pokémon FireRed Version & Pokémon LeafGreen Version Player's Guide. Nintendo of America Inc., August 2004. ISBN 193020650X
*Mylonas, Eric. Pokémon Pokédex Collector's Edition: Prima's Official Pokémon Guide. Prima Games, September 21 2004. ISBN 0761547614
*Nintendo Power. Official Nintendo Pokémon Emerald Version Player's Guide. Nintendo of America Inc., April 2005. ISBN 1930206585*Official Pokémon website
*Bulbapedia (a Pokémon-centric Wiki)'s article about Rayquaza as a species
*Serebii.net's 3rd Gen Pokédex entry for Rayquaza
*Pokémon Dungeon Pokédex entry, full of statistics analysis
*PsyPoke Pokédex entry
*Smogon Pokédex entry
