Salatad

**Salatad** is a Water-type Pokémon.

It evolves into Salanip starting at level 16, which evolves into Salaslam starting at level 36.

Along with Herovor and Purrlit, Salatad is one of the Starter Pokémon of the Rikoto region, able to be chosen at the beginning of Pokémon Solar Light and Lunar Dark.

## Biology

### Physiology

Salatad are pastel cyan, amphibious Pokémon. Their eyes are large, and a highlighter green color. They have white fins on the back of their backs, which help them move a lot faster in the water. They have numerous small pink spots on the back, which are poisonous to the touch. Their mouths and underbellies are white in color, and their feet possess two pink toes at the bottom of each of their four feet, which allow them to easily walk on the land appropriately.

### Special Abilities

Salatad are born on small bodies of water, and live there until they Evolve. Their powerful tails allow them to swim very fast despite its size, getting away from much larger predators than itself. Their skin can become poisonous when they coat themselves in a slimy acid, which will make predators physically not be able to make contact with them. They can shoot a powerful shot of water at opponents when threatened.

### Behavior

Salatad are born in small bodies of water, and live there until they Evolve. They appear to be quite dull witted, but are very tactical in how they fight, using different Water and Poison techniques. Salatad spend most of their time in the water, but will move out of the water during nighttime, or when the water's temperature becomes slightly cold. They coat themselves in a slimy, poisonous acid that allows them to stay hydrated outside of the water while walking around on land. They hate when other Pokémon are in their small body of water. Their powerful tails make them excellent swimmers for escaping predators.

### Habitat

Salatad live in marshy and wet areas where they can thrive on the water and land. It is one of the Starters of Rikoto. If you didn't choose it at the beginning of the game, you can receive one egg from two of your Rivals after completing the main story. One of the eggs will hatch into a Salatad, while the other will hatch into either Herovor, or Purrlit, whichever one you didn't choose at the beginning.

### Shiny Coloration Differences

For Shiny Salatad, the cyan turns a light purple, the green eyes turn a light blue, and the pink turns a light yellowish-orange.

## Trivia

* Salatad originally wasn't even planned to be a Starter Pokémon for this game. The Water-type starter originally was a Pokémon named Tidetsu, which was a sea fairy Pokémon, and then a Pokémon named Hermik, which was based on a hermit crab.
	+ Tidetsu does appear in the current game, however, after recently being remade as Merkid.
	+ Hermik was cut from this game because there were too many Water types.
* Its Shiny Coloration has a similar color scheme to Purpole.
* Prior to 1.0.1, Salatad used Squirtle's cry.

### Origin

* Salatad is based on a salamander. It's tail, which looks a bit similar to Mudkip's, indicates that it is based off the larval stage of a salamander.

### Name Origin

"Salatad" comes from the words "salamander" and "tadpole".

## In other languages

 Spanish
 Italian