Gender

Gender is an attribute that determines whether a Pokémon is male or female. It was introduced in the Generation II games, Pokémon Gold and Silver Versions. Prior to it, Nidoran♀ and Nidoran♂ were the only two Pokémon to have a gender. Most Pokémon are either male or female, although some of them are gender unknown. Each Pokémon has a gender ratio to determine the likelihood of them being either male or female. Some Pokémon are exclusive to a certain gender, such as Nidoran♀ and Nidoran♂, who are always female and male respectively.

Some Pokémon have gender differences depending on whether they are male or female, which can affect their physical appearance and moveset. Similarly, there are a few instances in which two different species of gender-exclusive Pokémon are counterparts to one another, such as Volbeat and Illumise, who both have the same base stats and fall under the Firefly Pokémon category. Some Pokémon can only evolve if they are a certain gender, such as female Combee, who can evolve into Vespiquen starting with level 20, but male Combee does not have any evolution.